‘The party of fiscal responsibility’ – that was Robert Jenrick’s boast of Reform UK this afternoon, on the first day of its party conference, as he promised to cut state spending by £80bn a year by the end of its first term in power. With the Chancellor being warned that higher borrowing costs have wiped billions off his fiscal headroom, even as Andy Burnham racks up fresh spending promises, Labour certainly aren’t competing for the title.
Nor was the Mayor of London flying the flag for growth today when he posted on X attacking Heathrow expansion.
Though with the leader of the increasingly anti-capitalist Greens now running for Keir Starmer’s old seat in Holborn and St Pancras, perhaps Sadiq Khan just sees which way the wind is blowing.
On the bright side, the Department for Business and Trade has confirmed it won’t be imposing an exit tax on British entrepreneurs, despite strong rumours to the contrary. It says something about where we are that not imposing an obviously destructive tax counts as good news. Just wait for the announcements from Labour’s conference in Liverpool.
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
Britain is selling its debt to the wrong market
Damian Pudner
‘The old captive buyer is fading; the new buyer will simply demand a higher price, shorten duration or walk away.’
Britain sells more long-term debt than most comparable economies. This has protected us against refinancing risk, but we can’t afford to buy that protection at any price. With buyers now much more price-sensitive and mobile, and the cost of long-term debt rising accordingly, we need a new strategy. Read More
Will the Sturgeon drama ask the right questions?
Philip Patrick
‘While Sturgeon herself may be a banal, grotesquely overexposed figure, her and her party’s baleful impact on Scotland and, to an extent, the UK, and why the public and the media enabled the process, is genuinely fascinating and urgently needs to be better understood.’
Channel 5 is making a TV drama about Peter Murrell's embezzlement conviction. The gushing blurb suggests it will present a Sturgeon-centric myth, forgoing the more interesting tale of the SNP’s endless scandals and how politicians with integrity were marginalised. This is a golden opportunity to show what really went on in Scotland’s corridors of power. Read More
Stat of the Day
Best of the Web
INEOS boss: save the North Sea
Brian Gilvary, City AM
‘This is not managed decline; it is ideological destruction of a national resource owned by the country in the name of Net Zero.’
The Government is close to a decision on the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields in the North Sea, but approval won’t undo years of damage. Investors have got the message that the UK North Sea is not a reliable place to deploy capital. Unless policy changes, our energy security – and tax receipts – will pay the price. Read More
Labour has no answer to Britain’s prisons crisis
Ian Acheson, UnHerd
‘The Justice Secretary has argued that prison construction takes time. But that is time he doesn’t have.’
Andy Burnham’s Justice Secretary Alex Norris has said that fixing prison overcrowding will take a decade. We don’t have that long, and converting prison laundries into cells is no answer. Labour’s decisions have only bought a few months before the next crunch. An answer to the looming crisis is as far off as ever. Read More
Will AI turn us all into aristocrats?
Clara Collier
The Capitalist
Julian Jessop – Burnham’s growth plan won’t work
And if you want more...
– Germany’s political firewall is crumbling (Project Syndicate)
– Secrets of the Bayeux tapestry (BBC)
– The end of human driving (Human Progress)
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