At Civitas’ lunchtime seminar yesterday, Sir David Nicholson, the previous chief executive of NHS England, offered a thoughtful response to those who claim that the NHS is in a state of constant financial crisis. Part of the reason, he believes, that the government is not addressing the current funding problems of our health system is… [Read More]
One of the characteristic themes of the Eurozone crisis has been the astronomical unemployment rates in the EU. While the financial crisis brought this issue to the fore, a new Civitas report by Michael Burrage shows that high unemployment levels existed in the EU well before the crisis hit, and that the implementation of the… [Read More]
Today I heard Jeremy Hunt give a 40 minute speech at The King’s Fund concerning his vision for the NHS, the direction it should take and the reforms it should introduce over the next 25 years. It was certainly encouraging to hear a current politician talk in terms of a long term strategy, and indeed,… [Read More]
If you want to know one of the reasons the number of companies going public is falling then look at the hoax bid to buy Twitter. The social media company’s shares spiked by 8.5 per cent this week after a bogus news story was disseminated, ironically through Twitter, about a possible takeover. The hoaxer mimicked… [Read More]
In the weeks before the Scottish independence referendum, multinationals like RBS said they worried about an independent Scotland and what currency it would use. The pound weakened and the FTSE fell. In the weeks before the 2015 General Election, when business leaders criticised Ed Miliband’s economic competence and perceived attacks on wealth-creators, the FTSE stagnated.… [Read More]
Last night, Greece delivered new proposals to their creditors that appear to cut even deeper than those rejected by the Greek people last Sunday. In exchange for another three-year bailout loan, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras has proposed savings of €13bn in reforms. Tspiras has tried to stand firm in his rejection of austerity at… [Read More]
Yesterday, Professor Will Stewart’s team from the Institution of Engineering and Technology recommended a surprising update to the 999 emergency service. In the age of the smartphone, with the majority of young and middle aged people using texts or their equivalents such as Snapchat or Facebook messenger, Professor Stewart argues that the young, increasingly being… [Read More]
David Cameron and George Osborne kicked off the pre-Budget weekend with an article last Saturday promising to support home ownership. “Having your own place is an important stake in our economy,” they wrote in The Times. “It’s also one of the best expressions of the aspirational country we want to build, where hard work is… [Read More]
British productivity has flat-lined since 2010 in a manner unprecedented in the post-war era. A worker in France will complete in four days what it takes a British worker to complete in five. We are 40% less productive than US workers and 20% less than the G7 average. British output per man hour improved under… [Read More]
Alternative for Germany (AfD), the party that was founded on the basis of middle-class intellectual criticism of the single currency, has ousted its academic leader Bernd Lucke in favour of Frauke Petry. Previously Petry, Lucke and Konrad Adam shared power in an uncertain triumvirate, but co-founder Petry was voted to sole leadership by 68% of… [Read More]