Business is the wealth generator of the UK, and small and family businesses are the often neglected heart of the UK economy, with family businesses alone employing nearly four in ten of the UK’s workforce. We propose ways to make the UK an economy all businesses can thrive in.
The Constitutional Mania
A permanent feature of British political life is some conviction about the global cause of all our woes. Capitalism, the class system and inability to market our brilliant ideas are such familiar convictions. Since the 1980’s, however, opinion has settled on the British constitution, or, as some would say, the lack of one, as the primal fault.
The Blue Horizon
There is no point in pretending that our government and our party are riding high. My boss, Ken Clark, says that we are in a dreadful hole. If we are in a hole, we are certainly not alone. According to the opinion polls there is a general public disillusion with British politics and British politicians.
Britain and the Community: The Right Way Forward
Twenty years have passed since Britain committed itself to the Treaty of Rome and thereby became a member of what at the time was still formally designated the European Economic Community and known more familiarly as the Common Market.
Privatisation Everywhere: the world’s adoption of the British experience
The worldwide collapse of state socialism has focused new attention on the workings of a free economy. Interest centres above all on how the huge range of industries presently languishing in state control around the globe can be successfully transferred to private ownership.
Monetary Policy after Maastricht: how much independence will Britain Possess?
Recent discussion about the implications of the Maastricht Treaty on European Union has been far ranging and sometimes intense, but little attention has been paid to the nature and extent of the legal obligations assumed by the United Kingdom under the Treaty in relation to monetary union.
The Unhelping Hand: Governments’ intervention in industry
The Labour Party must see itself as omniscient, if it really believes that its industrial policy will set Britain on the road to international success. Industrial policy is the refuge of politicians who realise that nationalisation is no longer fashionable but who still maintain that they know better than market which products will prosper.
The Role of Religion: In the fall of Soviet Communism
The Hugh Seton-Watson memorial lecture of 1988 was the occasion of a devastating analysis of the failure of communism. Dr Zbigniew Brzezinski forecast its coming collapse in heroic style, a prophecy which was to be dramatically fulfilled.
What’s good for woods
In the past woodlands were a source of wood – and that, for most people, was that.
What’s wrong with Capital Gains Tax
In the political world the general view of capital gains tax is one of indifference; it is a subject little discussed.
Sense of Sovereignty
Any Martian who spend the year 1991 observing events on Earth would have concluded that something called ‘sovereignty’ was one of the most important elements of human affairs.
Happy Families
The conservative respects popular attitudes and the institutions which they sustain. They do not survive by chance; they survive because they rest on shared wisdom and experience, because they work.
Competitive Coal
In July 1987 the authors’ Privatise Coal, achieving international competitiveness’ argued that the British coal industry should be liberalised and privatised.
A Cautionary Tale of the EMU: Some mistakes, Some Remedies
The Renewed interest in monetary union can be explained largely in terms of the politics of the Franco-German alliance.
Uses of Centre
The counter-revolutions and recent cataclysms in Eastern Europe must not be thought to have banished, once and for all, the optimistic creed of socialism.
Giving: How to encourage charities more
The annual turnover of the charitable sector has been estimated at some £13billion. Charities are being registered by the Charity Commission at the rate of one every 30 minutes for the working day.
‘Exploding’ Wealth for All
Britain’s tax regime favours the creators of wealth who can invest for tomorrow’s expansion out of today’s income before it is taxed. Employees without equity in their workplace enjoy no such benefit in creating wealth for themselves.
