Economist, Visiting Professor, Lecturer, Writer, Public Speaker.
The spending review is a forward-looking process by which the government sets departmental budgets for future years, including for key sectors such as the NHS, Education, Defence and Transport. It also determines the government’s day-to-day running administration costs and capital spending for investments in public services and military equipment. This process sets day-to-day expenditures for …
Continue reading “UK Spending Review 2025 – up against the limits”
Let’s begin with a few quotes from Adam Smith to set the context for the following discussion about why free trade matters: “After the division of labour has once thoroughly taken place, it is but a very small part of these [necessaries, conveniencies, and amusements] with which a man’s own labour can supply him. The …
Continue reading “The philosophical underpinnings of free trade and free markets”
There’s so much wrong with the recent trade agreement between the US and the UK that it’s difficult to know where to start. First, it’s not a trade deal as it does not reduce tariffs or set the terms for trade between the two countries; instead, it is an agreement about a potential deal. But …