In recent years we have witnessed the Damascene conversion of the Tory Party from the party of big oil to the party of all things green and wonderful.  Boris Johnson now sees the proposed green energy revolution as the means of both leading the world on climate and in “levelling …

Labour spokespeople have spent the weekend proclaiming to anyone who can be bothered to listen, that a seven percent decline in vote share and a loss of some 3,200 voters since the calamitous 2019 general election is an unqualified triumph.  Yes, Labour hung on by its finger tips to the …

A little over a year ago, there was a meme circulating on social media that went something like this: Replace ‘The Economy,’ with ‘rich people’s yacht money:’  How can we respond to Covid without damaging rich people’s yacht money?  How can we respond to climate change without damaging rich people’s …

In the current political climate, fossil fuels are deemed to have no redeeming features.  The fact that everything we take for granted, from abundant food to high life expectancy and from clean drinking water to an absence of slavery, is based on fossil fuels is entirely overlooked.  The transition to …

Inflation is back in the establishment media headlines, as prices are rising across the economy.  But rather like generals fighting the last war, business and economic journalists are dusting off models of inflation last used in the early 1980s.  The idea, for example, that “inflation is always a monetary phenomenon” …

We don’t like to talk about it; but “peak death” is looming in the UK.  More children were born in 1947 than any year before or since.  And so, with a life expectancy of 87 – at least prior to the pandemic – we can expect more people to curl …

Yesterday I wrote about the way a lack of short-term stability was impacting the economy.  Because of the lack of a defined end state for the pandemic and as a result of the ongoing threat of further government lockdowns and restrictions, businesses cannot make investment decisions and households cannot decide …

Fifteen months ago, those of us who cautioned against a blind rush to lockdown the economy were accused of “putting profits ahead of people’s lives” (I am in the at-risk, “shielding group” by the way). Today, the early manifestation of the economic crisis we warned about is appearing in the …

A year ago, with the jet stream firmly to the north of us, the future looked bright.  Lockdowns had an “off school early” feel to them, as millions of non-essential workers were sent home either to work via the internet or to spend their days binge-watching Netflix.  Just the fact …

Back at the beginning of the pandemic, anyone who cautioned against a widespread lockdown was accused of putting corporate profits ahead of human lives.  And in the UK at least, public support for lockdowns as a means of safeguarding the vulnerable has remained solid to this day.  Nevertheless, and despite …