Recent News

Rachel Reeves tried yesterday to shift the agenda back to the prospects for getting growth going. That is indeed the most important challenge for this Government, just as it was for the last one.

The portrait of Margaret Thatcher may no longer hang over one of the rooms in No 10 she used for meetings (and long, fraught speech-writing sessions). But her presence still looms large over the Conservative leadership contest.

One of the first Parliamentary tests that Keir Starmer’s Government could face is a possible Parliamentary vote on the abolition of the Winter Fuel Payment. That would be a test of the loyalty of his backbenchers suddenly facing the reality of the tough decisions which governments have to take.

Henry Hill’s editorial of last Friday reflected a widespread Conservative hostility to universities. The evidence does not bear out his criticisms. For a start the graduate premium is not disappearing. Non-graduates aged 21-30 earn on average £26,000, whereas graduates earn £31,500 and post-graduates earn £35,000.

Reform of the House of Lords is back on the agenda with measures due in the King’s Speech. Labour’s manifesto proposed “an immediate modernisation, by introducing legislation to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords”.

One of the advantages of a large majority is that there is more generous political cover for experts brought into

Both Labour and Conservatives share the objective of raising the growth rate – and it looks very likely that, on Friday, this challenge will fall to a Labour chancellor.

No One Left: Why the World Needs More Children. An important part of any country’s journey to modernity is the demographic transition captured in the neat epithet ‘first we stop dying like flies and then we stop breeding like rabbits’.

The British economy has performed poorly since the Financial Crash of 2008/9. Many of the issues at the forefront of this election campaign would look very different if we were enjoying economic growth of the thirty years before the crash.

We are now into our second week of campaigning. Conservatives have been particularly active with policy announcements, and behind them a clear theme is emerging: appealing to the core pensioner vote.

The Prime Minister’s speech to Policy Exchange last week took security as its theme: “The next few years will be some of the most dangerous yet the most transformational our country has ever known. So the question we face today is this: Who has the clear plan and bold ideas to deliver a secure future for you and your family? The dangers that threaten our country are real.”

Cutting the surge in legal and illegal migration is one of the Government’s priorities. An urgent report on overseas students from the Migration Advisory Committee is due to be published shortly before the next set of migration statistics. The plan appears to be to announce another toughening up of the overseas student regime to offset another big migration figure.

The British Model of Innovation and the International Background

Jeremy Hunt’s decision in his last two financial statements to go for cuts in national insurance contributions was the right thing to do. It focussed tax cuts on people in work. Just for once, it shifted Conservative priorities towards people of working age rather than providing yet more help for pensioners who have done very well since 2010. Their benefits are up by far more than inflation whilst families have had cuts.

This week’s tax and benefit changes are a significant moment for the Government. Benefit changes for working-age families are based on historic inflation in the year to last September 6.7 per cent. That means they sound large compared with current inflation, now falling fast, even if they are only a catch-up to restore the real losses from inflation.

A short history of English universities. First there was Oxford. Then Cambridge (And nothing else for 600 years)

A year ago, the Prime Minister set up the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) with a mission to make the UK the most innovative economy in the world and cement our place as a science and technology superpower.

From America’s post War GI Bill to the transformation of Korea, more people getting more education is one of the most powerful tools which a government has to transform its economy.