Regardless of your individual stance on immigration, there is no avoiding the fact of public demand for lower numbers and stricter border control. The key is finding ways to do this sensibly, with as few downsides as possible for our economy, society, or the migrants themselves. Cracking down on overseas students is not such a […]
Does the Liberal Democrats’ victory over Zac Goldsmith in Richmond Park indicate the start of a genuine realignment of British politics around the Brexit vote? I’m sceptical. Overturning a 23,000 majority is a remarkable accomplishment, but we ought to remember that the candidate had no access to a campaigning machine or his old association’s canvassing […]
As the result of the US election continues to sink in, one of the least surprising developments is a renewed round of demands for the abolition of the Electoral College system and its replacement with true one-person, one-vote democracy for presidential elections. Our Events Coordinator, Maria Murphy, makes the case at length here. But I’ve had […]
Uber ruling: Drivers and consumers alike stand to lose out That the courts have ruled that Uber must treat its drivers as employees is lamentable for all sorts of reasons, but there are far more losers than a narrow assessment of the case suggests. If we give the courts the benefit of the doubt and […]
One of the challenges with being in a political party is that it will inevitably restrict your intellectual freedom of movement to some degree. There’s nothing wrong with this: the trade-off between absolute individual autonomy and effective collective action is one we make all the time, and contrary to the caricature not something libertarians have […]
Henry Hill urges the libertarian right of the Tory Party to be constructive in its criticism and avoid becoming a Momentum-esque movement on the fringes, unable to influence policy and win people over In her Conference speech, Theresa May explicitly rejected the “libertarian right”. It stung, and it has produced a perfectly understandable response. But […]
Capitalism and business are different things. Few stories illustrate that fact quite so sharply as the news that big retailers are demanding that the Government impose mandatory controls on what they can sell. Apparently the British Retail Consortium is ‘disappointed’ that Theresa May’s new health drive is voluntary. Mike Coupe, the Chief Executive of Sainsbury’s, […]
In a recent piece I wrote for Conservative Home about pensions, I made the following observation about the challenges involved in defusing the time bomb that projected entitlements for older citizens have set ticking under the public finances: “This problem is very difficult to tackle because older people are not only much more likely to […]
Writing in The Times, Tim Montgomerie has penned a staunch defence of the sugar tax – or at least, the principle behind it – from what he calls “small-state fundamentalists”. These are people who, by his own description, believe that “the state to be small and humble about intervening in the boardroom, bedroom and kitchen”. […]
Before I start, a question: do we really need an article explaining why it’s OK to take out members of a powerful, clerical fascist militia that’s terrorising several countries? It seems we do. In my first piece for Conservative for Liberty (which you can read right here) I set out why I was a Conservative, […]
At the 2005 general election, I cheered for the Liberal Democrats because my dad did. In 2008, I joined Conservative Future and threw the University of Manchester’s only pro-McCain US election party. So at some point between those two dates, I became a Conservative. But when? At around 15-16 I first became politically conscious – […]
