By JP Floru Residents in my ward (Hyde Park, City of Westminster) are fleeing abroad to escape from the 50p tax rate. I have heard similar stories from fellow councillors for areas such as Kensington, Knightsbridge, Pimlico and Mayfair. The people who are fleeing tend to be British citizens, therefore, people who pay their UK […]
By JP Floru. In the last two days, I twice heard anecdotal evidence of how the 50p tax rate reduces the number of jobs at the bottom scale of the ladder, and increases welfare payments. A person I met last night, a trendy West Londoner who at one time supported New Labour, explained how she […]
JP Floru is Head of Programmes at the Adam Smith Institute. State action is usually less efficient than private action. To libertarians the police’s ineptitude in dealing with the riots did not come as a surprise. We saw how freely organised individuals – notwithstanding their limited brain power – got the better of the multibillion […]
By JP Floru When the state starts doling out money on a vast scale, you have to limit the number of recipients. A welfare state is therefore inherently tribal – its survival depends upon a ‘to us, but not to them’ – attitude. People are herded into groups to exclude others – and merit is […]
By JP Floru There is great political capital to be had from defeating Bob Crow’s RMT union. Crow’s sudden, pointless, and highly ineffective strike yesterday was aimed at complying with the requirement that a strike be commenced within 28 days of announcing it. If Crow had not announced a strike, Transport for London would have […]
By JP Floru Self-reliance must rank in the top three Conservative values; perhaps together with producing growth and taking care of our nearest and dearest (I’m open to suggestions for even better Conservative values, and am looking forward to the Comments below!). Key to self-reliance is saving. Call it frittering away. Beavering away. Saving for […]
By JP Floru It's high noon for those who want biometric data of innocents removed from police databases. This morning the Protection of Freedom Bill Committee will meet for the line by line discussion of the Freedom Bill. The Freedom Bill is to undo the abolition of a raft of civil liberties by the last Labour […]
By JP Floru Britain may have been declared open for business, but according to today’s FT hedge funds are leaving as fast as they can (£). And it’s not just financial companies. Back in December Cadbury announced that it is moving its headquarters to Switzerland. In February Pfizer announced it was closing its research factory in […]
By JP Floru “More of the same”, was Ed Miliband’s remedy to tackle the growing income inequality which has befallen the “squeezed middle”. In his keynote speech to the Resolution Foundation this morning he robustly defended tax credits, benefits, the minimum wage, and continentally-inspired business models. Some people never learn. According to the Resolution Foundation […]
By JP Floru Hearing Trevor Phillips live is always a bit of a treat. He did not disappoint at Policy Exchange on Tuesday. The man oozes integrity. He is not an extremist, clearly well-intentioned, trying to better the world. Yet I disagreed with him – as it seems that the method used to fight discrimination […]
By JP Floru This morning the BBC was at it again. Always on the lookout for Tory/Coalition Splits, today’s closure of three prisons was used by BBC journalists to rake up perceived squabbles between Tory Modernisers and Tory Traditionalists. It's time to put something right here. A fair number of those of us who feel […]
By JP Floru At a dinner in London two weeks ago, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Donald Tsang unwittingly rubbed the Coalition Government’s inadequate tax policies in fellow attendant Vince Cable’s face (or, more precisely, he would have done so, if Vince hadn’t been late). Tsang happily elaborated on the HK $6,000 cheque the Hong Kong government […]