House prices are falling. But it’s still terrible for first-time buyers
Hurrah. Housing is now more ‘affordable’ for first-time buyers than it was a year ago. Or so says Halifax, which…
We are facing an epidemic of online fraud
At what point are we going to drop the fiction that acquisitive crime is on the wane and admit that…
Degrees of failure: the great university rip-off
Is university still worth it?
It’s no surprise that retail sales are down
Following last week’s news of unexpectedly strong economic growth in June of 0.5 per cent, today’s retail sales figures for…
Why is the WHO promoting homeopathy?
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is meant to implore us to ignore hearsay and folklore, and to follow the scientific…
I’m afraid of higher wages
So, Britain has finally awarded itself the real-terms pay rise that the unions would say workers ‘deserve’. This morning’s inflation…
Should we be looking at geo-engineering the climate?
Has a well-meaning international effort to cut pollution from ships contributed to a sudden warming of the waters in the…
UK economy grows by 0.5% in June – defying expectations
So the economy has defied the predictions of doom once more. The latest figures released by the Office for National…
Britain has a productivity problem
First the good news – the fall in living standards may be coming to an end, with wages starting to…
First-time buyers fleeing London do so at their own risk
Have high house prices succeeded where decades of government efforts at regional development have failed? That is, have they managed…
Is the ‘era of cheap food’ over?
Not so long ago, some were arguing that cheap food was a problem in Britain. We’re unlikely to hear such complaints now…
Britain might be in a wage-price spiral
The Bank of England has raised the base rate yet again, this time to 5.25 per cent, a high not…
Will regressive alcohol duties destroy Britain’s drinks industry?
What is duty on alcoholic drinks for: to raise revenue or to make us better, more sober people? A close…
The collateral damage of lockdowns on children is still emerging
There has been plenty of evidence published over the past three years of the severe effects on children’s education and…
How we could reach net zero without dumping oil
Rishi Sunak has shown no indication that he is considering dumping the government’s legal commitment to achieve net zero by…
Backing motorists won’t save Rishi Sunak
The lesson from the Uxbridge by-election was clear to both parties: the public will not accept green policies at any…
The triumph of oil
If you want a laugh, I recommend an article which appeared in the March 1998 issue of Scientific American, ‘The…
Tories should never have taken their Ulez challenge to court
Expanding London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) may be a bad policy, a regressive tax which will impact on people…
The UN’s climate alarmism has gone too far
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has declared that ‘the era of global warming has ended, the era of global boiling has…
The damage of Covid lockdowns is only now becoming apparent
There are still those, like Matt Hancock, who think that lockdowns were an unalloyed good – who, indeed, believe that…
Sunak will have to water down net zero sooner or later
The Uxbridge by-election has thrown Labour into a civil war, or at least a civil skirmish. Keir Starmer has told…
Is global warming behind Greece’s wildfires?
Summer wouldn’t be complete without hordes of disgruntled British tourists being evacuated from their hotels, flown home early or spending…
Road rage: the great motorist rebellion has begun
The backlash against Ulez is only the beginning
The Ulez rebellion has started
It was, to adapt the famous Sun headline from the 1992 general election, Ulez wot won it. The Conservatives’ narrow…
Has Britain avoided falling into recession?
Earlier in the week, the stock market responded very positively to news that inflation had come out a little lower…
