The cost of Covid-19 — £1Trillion and counting | Chris Davies
However well intentioned and accepting the extraordinary circumstances, this is why “the state is not great” when it comes to large scale procurement (this is far from the first state backed IT project that has cost billions and failed to perform) and should never provide a blank cheque to industry as a loan guarantor.
Exploring the conservatism of Benjamin Disraeli | Edward Kendall
Populist conservatism has received a lot of bad press in recent years and populist is often used as a slur in politics, but it has been shown to be popular with many voters and not without good reason. There has been a trend in recent decades for the metropolitan elite of both the left and right to be rather condescending towards much of the traditional working-class vote.
Their concerns about mass migration and rapid social change are dismissed as being the product of irrational prejudice, as opposed to rooted in valid concerns about jobs, wages, and social cohesion.
The paralysis of public inquiries | Chris Davies
Instinctively, I am sceptical about public inquiries and the like. Having lived long enough to see successive governments use inquiries as a means to avoid difficult questions “in the moment” and then avoid the same difficult questions when the findings of the inquiry are reported as “it is all in the report and we will learn the lessons from it”, nothing I have seen this week has reduced my scepticism, perhaps even augmented it.
Social care reform and the west’s fiscal future | OC Comment
The Prime Minister’s new social care reform is an attempt to reform the outdated and dysfunctional care system. Unfortunately, it has stumbled on the issue that perennially flagellates all economic activity: scarcity. Even with increased taxes that are projected to raise £12 billion over the next three years, the fact remains that there is not enough money to go around.
Vaccine Passports: an attack on SMEs | Lukhani Rogol
The purpose of this is to allow those vaccinated to return to ‘normal’ lives whilst those who have decided not to have the vaccine will be barred from societal activities. The introduction of vaccine passports would, therefore, inevitably lead to a loss of individual liberty and the creation of an unnecessary discriminatory class system within British society, between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.
Boris’ tax hikes are wrong - but not for the reasons you might think | Sam Hall
Before the UK can fix its social and healthcare problems, it needs to fix its personnel problem in the long-term. We don’t need more tax that will be swallowed by the bureaucratic machine of ‘Diversity Managers’ and overpaid NHS managers, long before it reaches the hard-working front-line staff- nor can we consider nationalising social care without the people to fund it- the long-term investment to make the system fair and sustainable now we're all living longer, healthier lives.
Levelling up our communities with post-Brexit investment | Ethan Thoburn
Post-Brexit investment and trading opportunities keep coming for Britain, although the government must be aware they cannot rely on putting all of their eggs in one basket and that they must ensure meaningful leveling up for the parts of the country that voted Conservative for the first time in December 2019, rather than ‘levelling up’ rhetoric.
It’s time to wage war on Woke | Ethan Thoburn
However, we cannot simply just stand by and watch so-called activists destroy our heritage. We conservatives must stand up to defend British history and culture from the pernicious and insipid individuals who wish to destroy our institutions. The government, especially the relevant Secretary of State, Oliver Dowden, must set out a plan to protect our values; our heritage; and our British culture. These are the things we cherish. These are things we will defend.
Hockney and the new philistines | Lola Salem
Articles defending the piece of ‘art’ by David Hockney are a bit more dangerous than mere lazy gestures. That is because the scale of this ‘art’ is actually much wider than people think it is. It does something- quite a pernicious thing, really- as it quietly attempts to remodel the human mind in accordance with the nihilistic precepts that it discloses.