How not to fix prisons
Plus: Ceuta shows the flaw at the EU's heart, and what the AI doomers get wrong
We’re safe from extra spending announcements for a couple of weeks – Andy Burnham’s on holiday.
Lots more flights will soon be taking off as well. In a rare piece of good infrastructure news, Gatwick’s second runway is going ahead, after a legal challenge was defeated in court – see our Stat of the Day below.
Before he left, the Prime Minister penned an op-ed announcing that Labour’s early release scheme for prisoners will continue. He promised that rapists will no longer be eligible, but domestic abusers will still face less time inside. William Tittensor wrote for CapX on a better way to tackle the prisons capacity crisis.
Below you’ll find all the latest pieces from CapX, plus what we’re reading from around the web.
Marc Sidwell
Editor, CapX
Today’s Takes
Fresh thinking from CapX
Ceuta reveals the flaw at the EU's heart
Mani Basharzad
‘One country’s weak border control becomes every member state’s problem because of free movement.’
The Spanish border crisis in Ceuta reveals how the weakness of one member state can impose huge costs on the rest of the bloc. From fiscal policy to free movement, the EU is rife with moral hazard. To rein in bad actors, it needs to restrict the benefits of membership to those who follow the rules. Read More
More cells won't fix the prisons crisis
William Tittensor
‘Once we begin providing the building blocks for change, the relentless demand for more space might finally start to subside.’
The prison estate in England and Wales currently operates at over 96% capacity. Andy Burnham today confirmed early release will continue, with rapists and grooming offenders excluded. Building more prisons will be slow and expensive. But there is a way to ease the capacity crunch without burning a hole in taxpayers’ pockets. Read More
The AI doomers are wrong about maths
Valentin Boboc
‘There is something very lazy about thinking that a machine is magic and will replace us all.’
OpenAI has announced one of its new models cracked 10 unsolved problems in mathematics. Some academics are in despair, but a more reasonable response is to see these AI models for what they are: tools. Breakthroughs like this still only happen when frontier models are used by researchers at the top of their field. Read More
Stat of the day
Best of the Web
Our universities are feeding their own destruction
Sean Thomas, The Spectator
‘Even as our universities are gleefully trashing their reputations, they stand perilously close to an economic and intellectual abyss.’
From the Oxford Union’s descent into panto to the myth-making of Jason Arday, Britain’s universities seem to be intent on extraordinary acts of self-harm, just as every economic force in the universe threatens their survival. Universities being woke, weak or hypocritical is nothing new. The difference on this occasion is the timing. Read More
Supermarkets are heroes, not villains
Luke Johnson, The Telegraph 🔒
‘Britain’s supermarket sector is ferociously competitive, and in general the prices of groceries are lower in Britain than many comparable countries.’
The Chancellor seems to be looking for a fight with business. He has warned that he will tackle any supermarkets guilty of ‘price-gouging’. The inadvertent impression is that he has little understanding of industry or indeed economics. Far from being cartoon baddies, our supermarkets currently serve us well – unlike much of the public sector. Read More
Vocational education at 14 is not the answer
Daisy Christodoulou
The Capitalist: Who owns the Moon?
And if you want more...
– Arthur Brooks: will socialism make you happy? (The Free Press 🔒)
– Don’t be scared of data centres (X)
– How to escape the productivity slump (Human Progress)
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