Introduction Welfare costs too much. That cost is rising. And the money we spend isn’t working: it isn’t getting people into work, especially young people. Not helped by an economic/growth policy that isn’t delivering a…
A strategy for getting the UK economy moving Introduction Last weekend the Treasury’s entrepreneurship adviser walked out. Alex Depledge, who built Hassle.com and Resi, was appointed to the role by Rachel Reeves in June…
Introduction Andy Burnham announced a National Commission on Electoral Reform in his conference speech on 29 September 2026, ten weeks after becoming Prime Minister, and said he would fight the next election on a…
The Shadow of Brexit and the new re-entry debate The prospect of a future referendum on the United Kingdom rejoining the European Union inevitably brings back the ghosts of 2016. A decade after that fateful vote,…
A new National Health & Wellness Levy will raise the money that’s needed for the new National Care Service and make a significant contribution to funding the NHS, in turn releasing money for other things like Defence.…
The most hated tax in Britain, and the least effective. Scrap it, and replace it with a progressive tax that exempts family homes and businesses, and prevents avoidance. Simpler, fairer and everyone pays. Inheritance…
But not as you know it Last time I argued that school teaches children to know things rather than to do things, and that the clearest evidence is the competency interview every serious employer now uses. Ask a school…
Education isn’t equipping children with the life skills or the work skills they really need. It isn’t helping employers select the right people for their open positions. It is focused on teaching knowledge, not how to…
Hand back the Falklands, the Chagos Islands and Gibraltar. And the rest of the Overseas Territories, but learn the lessons of Hong Kong. My Union of the Isles argument rests on one idea: what is physically together…
That's the confederal replacement for the UK I've been setting out this week, with Ireland entering as a founding equal. People treat flags as the decoration on a constitutional proposal. They're not. They're the thing …
A Union of the Isles. England, Scotland, Wales and (the whole island of) Ireland, entering as four founding equals. The UK dissolves on day 1, because nobody is joining anybody else's country. Now bring me your objectio…
I'd rather we admitted that calmly and built something better, than discovered it in the wreckage of an acrimonious break-up. Look at the last 72 hours. Saturday, Dublin. Donald Trump, beside the Taoiseach: "I'd love to …