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How Many Homes Does the UK Need?
Decades of lacklustre housebuilding and recent record migration have left the UK with a shortfall of more than 6.5 million homes. The debut research by Head of Housing Ben Hopkinson shows how the UK has fallen dramatically behind comparable European countries, with British families paying the price through unaffordable homes.
The Key to Higher Living Standards
In May 1979 when Margaret Thatcher won her first general election the print unions were in dispute with the management of The Times and The Sunday Times. The printers’ would was transformed a few years later; but in 1979 printers still had the power to prevent the publication of any newspaper for up to a year.
Standards of Arithmetic: How to correct the decline
Concern about standards of arithmetic in British schools is not new. As long ago as 1977 a survey of 8,000 sixteen year-olds by the institute of Mathematics showed significant weakness in basic computational skills with, for example, 25% of London’s sixteen year-old school children unable to multiply 6 by 79 even with a pencil and paper.
The inaugural Keith Joseph Memorial Lecture – Lady Thatcher
Keith Joseph, in whose honour this Lecture is delivered, had the charm of a hundred paradoxes. He was a modest man; but, unlike so many modest men, he had really nothing to be modest about.
Reading Fever: Why Phonics must come first
Once upon a time I wished to write a book called Reading Fever. The title alluded to the little earthquake of excitement that seizes children along with the insight that print consists of speech written down in a coded sequence of letters – and who then begin to read any and all print that swims into their ken: household packaging, street signs, newsprint.
Pensions in the 21st Century: Why we must change the regulatory regime
Culture change cannot be encouraged unless and until the pensions industry is significantly deregulated. The regulatory regime imposed after the mis-selling scandal is too restrictive.
Labour’s Federal Agenda for Europe
European unity has always had a certain appeal for the Left. To the ideals of international solidarity and co-operation among workers is added the attraction of a “social Europe”. This has removed one of the greatest difficulties faced by socialist planners: that of competition from more efficient economies.
Culture in the Classroom: A Personal View
Here is something of an educational scandal. At first sight, readers who have no first-hand experience of the culture in our classrooms may well find that Irina Tyk’s recommendations are so full of clear, simple sense that they should not need to be said.
A Conservative Agenda: Proposals for a fifth term
The nations of the European Union are some of the richest in the world. They are also the most highly taxed, the most highly regulated and the most indebted. During the next century, governments must contain ever-expanding welfare demands – which could only be financed by a declining population of taxpayers – so that industry can maintain its competitiveness.
Conservative Britain in the 21st Century
There is a temptation to believe that with the passing of a Labour Party publically and unequivocally committed to socialism, to anti-nuclear policies and to proposals for the wholesale nationalisation of the main elements of the British economy, that this election is somehow less important to the future of Britain than the four that have preceded it.
The Performance of Privatisation Vol. II: Privatisation and its Effect on the Exchequer
In the accompanying report, National Economic Research Associates (NERA) has presented the findings of the first independent analysis of the effect of privatisation on the exchequer. The performance of 33 companies has been analysed.
The Performance of Privatisation Vol. I: The Question of Safety
In its analysis of employee safety, NERA concludes that the post-privatisation record has been impressive.
Blair’s Gurus: An examination of Labour’s rhetoric
David Willetts MP investigates the rhetoric of New Labour and finds that, while it may be conventional, it is certainly not wise.
The Mystery of Japanese Growth
Japan is different, say some scholars. While it practices capitalism, it is a kind quite unlike the free-market capitalism prevalent in the West. Japan’s success stems instead from its unique brand of interceptive capitalism – what Chalmers Johnson has labelled the “capitalist development state”.
Social work or Crime Prevention? A better future for probation
In the last decade the Probation Service has had a rough ride. It has been changing fast and is now being called upon to change even faster, and to cast itself off from its current base of training and values derived from the social work.
Public Spending: A twenty-year plan for reform
Public spending must be reduced if the economy is to prosper; and the economy must prosper greatly so that taxes can also be cut.
Local Limits: Cutting the costs of good councils
Local government today appears no longer to be the great political and ideological battlefield it was in the 1980s. To those who run it – elected members and officials 0 to political commentators, and even to ministers, discussion is couched in terms of ‘consolidation; on the basis of where we now are and of the managerial direction for the future.
