National security ‘can't come at the expense of social security’, Andy Burnham told Kemi Badenoch at today’s PMQs. It may have sounded like a great line to his backbenchers, but it won't reassure anyone else that Labour has priorities it is willing to put above ever-higher welfare spending.
Meanwhile, you may think London’s housing crisis is bad now – but just wait. The boss of developer Ballymore says it is building half of what it did a decade ago, and that the real crisis will hit from next year, as new-build completions start to fall off a cliff. We told you so…
And with oil back above $100, UK gas prices have reached a 4-year high, putting households at risk of higher energy bills next year. Food prices are also on the way back up – see our Stat of the Day. Burnham is going to need more than upbeat TikTok videos to deal with all of this.
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
Was Thatcher really a neoliberal?
James Vitali
‘Thatcher believed deeply in communities, and in the personal obligations that extend beyond the pursuit of one’s own desires.’
Margaret Thatcher is often accused by Andy Burnham of taking Britain down the wrong path 40 years ago with neoliberalism. In reality she favoured wide ownership of property, especially homes and shares, as well as individual responsibility. Conservatives are returning to these ideas in order to counter the Left's top-down vision of society. Read More
The Right can care about the climate without Net Zero
Ted Newson
‘Previously, some on the Right have been too quick to dismiss any talk of climate change, while others have been sucked into using terms such as ‘apocalypse’ to describe what is happening. Both are as bad as each other.’
Public concern for the climate is still high but support for Net Zero is in decline. The Right has an opportunity to present a policy platform for the environment that is pragmatic and respects individual freedom. Critics say the Right is blasé about climate change but it is possible to take the threat seriously while avoiding statist policies. Read More
The Capitalist: our debt is a security threat
Is Britain’s own debt now as dangerous as any foreign rival? This week on The Capitalist, I spoke to Daniel Hannan, the writer, peer and former MEP who has just taken over as Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs – Britain’s original free-market think tank – at a moment when state spending sits at 46% of GDP.
He made the case that in an increasingly dangerous world, Britain’s economic weakness is a vulnerability we can no longer afford. With debt at £3 trillion and history suggesting our power abroad has always rested as much on deeper, cheaper capital markets as fighting spirit, he argues our stretched public finances risk emboldening our geopolitical foes.
We also discussed how lockdown broke the public’s understanding of what ‘the economy’ even means, why the electorate’s demand for spending deserves as much blame as any politician and how he plans to bring the free-market case to a new generation.
Best of the Web
Britain needs more billionaires
Luke Johnson, The Telegraph 🔒
‘I would argue that almost all the resentment expressed against billionaires is fuelled by envy.’
The British public don’t object to highly-paid actors and footballers, but billionaires appear to be fair game. Such criticism – and the punitive tax policies that follow – is a mistake, as seen with the departure this week of hedge fund founder Chris Rokos to Greece. Countries with more billionaires are better off – demonising them is self-defeating. Read More
Don't join the Army
Robert Lyman, The Critic
‘Veterans who served under one set of rules are now being told that those rules may no longer be sufficient protection against further legal action.’
The Government is set to repeal legislation dealing with the legacy of the Troubles. This will expose servicemen and women to renewed legal jeopardy. No soldier has a licence to act outside the law, but this breaks the bond of trust between those who serve and the politicians who send them into harm’s way. Read More
How to raise money for defence
Jeremy Hunt
Stat of the Day
And if you want more...
– Can the Right learn to love modernism? (Engelsberg Ideas)
– How the private sector rebuilt Ground Zero (City Journal)
– The rise and fall of Beefeater (The Spectator)
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