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Cameron and Osborne race to the bottom in economic literacy
Philip Booth
3 July 2013
1 comment

Google Cameron global race and you get a depressing 33,000,000 responses. Google Osborne global race and you get a depressing 2,650,000 responses. Apparently, the ‘global race’ is going...
The Conservatives should have stood firm on Inheritance Tax
Richard Wellings
12 May 2010
14 comments

The Conservatives have abandoned their manifesto commitment to raise the Inheritance Tax threshold as part of the coalition deal with the Liberal Democrats. This his highly regrettable....
Big society or big state?
Philip Booth
14 April 2010
4 comments

One obvious place to look for big society initiatives in the Conservative manifesto was the section on sport. This does not bode well. We seem to have a simple playing to the gallery with “big...
Raising the personal allowance: a Mephistophelean idea
Kristian Niemietz
13 April 2010
11 comments

The Economist has repeatedly criticised the Conservative Party’s proposal to permit married couples to pool their income tax allowances. The plan would benefit single-breadwinner families...
Cutting public spending by £167bn: a modest but necessary aim
Philip Booth
12 April 2010
1 comment

All three major parties are entering the election campaign with similar plans for cutting the deficit. The timing and magnitude of proposed deficit cuts are slightly different but all the plans...
A time to be negative
Peter King
7 April 2010
comments

Most of us are interested in politics because we believe in something, whether this is liberty, free markets or personal responsibility. We see our involvement in politics as putting forward...
Cameron’s “Big Society” smacks of bureaucracy not empowerment
Mark Littlewood
1 April 2010
7 comments

Tory leader David Cameron scored well on rhetoric yesterday – but fell down badly on detail. His vision is of “a society where the leading force for progress is social...
Going for “Sweden Plus” in education
Kristian Niemietz
22 March 2010
2 comments

Proposals to adopt Swedish-style education reforms, put forward by the Conservative Party and others, have recently come under fire from research by the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP)....
Why I have reservations about the “Nudge” philosophy
Philip Booth
9 March 2010
5 comments

I have various reservations about the Nudge philosophy that has been embraced by David Cameron. It is clearly attractive to the Conservatives because it seems novel without appearing to smack of...
“Two plus two equals five”, argue Tories. “Two plus two equals three”, respond Lib Dems
Philip Booth
22 February 2010
2 comments

Further worrying evidence of the decline in adult and further education was revealed in the debate about selling off the banks yesterday. The Conservatives have proposed selling bank shares cheaply...
Means testing means more welfare dependency
Patricia Morgan
5 February 2010
1 comment

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne leads the chorus of tut-tutting at means-tested child tax credits going to “better-off” families and seems to believe that we would save enough to bail...
The Conservatives must give Swedish-style “free schools” a lot more freedom
Philip Booth
25 January 2010
2 comments

The Conservatives’ plans for “free schools” are, arguably, their flagship policy. It is vital that there is no compromise when they are implemented. Schools are a good place to...
Profiting from capitalism
Peter King
12 January 2010
3 comments

I recently had a discussion with a commissioning editor of an academic publishing house who informed me that any new book proposal to do with New Labour stood little chance of getting published, but...
Can Cameron roll back the state?
Terry Arthur
30 October 2009
16 comments

In his four years as leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron has often seemed to embrace socialist ideas.  “Sharing the proceeds of growth” was only one of his efforts to be...
The Tories need a rethink on the minimum wage
Mark Littlewood
28 October 2009
6 comments

With youth unemployment rising to 1 million, the government – or more realistically the Tories – need a radical rethink of the how the British labour market works. Or more to the point,...
The budget deficit: close your eyes and it goes away
Peter King
27 October 2009
6 comments

Working in a university social science environment I find myself surrounded by those who take a leftist view of the world. One interesting trend amongst my colleagues of late has been to start to...
What this year’s Nobel Prize winners can teach the Conservatives
Philip Booth
19 October 2009
2 comments

Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson, the winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economics, have much to contribute to contemporary economic debate. But their ideas should have particular resonance in...
Conservative economic policy is timid and unimaginative
Oliver Marc Hartwich
15 October 2009
comments

The International Monetary Fund has just presented perhaps the gloomiest forecast for Britain’s public finances so far. It predicts that by next year, Britain’s debt will stand at...
Incapacity Benefit: minor tinkering will not end a sick system
Philip Booth
6 October 2009
comments

The Conservatives are proposing to clamp down on incapacity benefit claimants in order to deal with the large numbers they say should be in work. This is a laudable aim, of course, but it is highly...
Public spending: does it matter what politicians say?
Peter King
16 September 2009
4 comments

The debate on the future of public spending is a developing one, with Gordon Brown finally being forced to use the “c” word. However, there is still no real attempt to state what and how...

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