Jonathan Portes

Right to reply – Jonathan Portes on Niall Ferguson

Two weeks ago I was too ‘obscure to bother with‘ for Professor Niall Ferguson. He’s changed his mind, dedicating an entire article in The Spectator to me. In particular, he is very upset that, after I complained, the FT was obliged to correct his recent article about the UK economy. Professor Ferguson’s article contained one undisputed

Why Fraser Nelson is wrong about a jobs ‘miracle’

In his blog earlier today, Fraser Nelson argues: ‘The UK jobs miracle is happening mainly due to radical welfare reform – the type Labour ducked in office..Under Labour, record numbers of people in work were celebrate as an end in itself – but most of the increase was accounted for by immigration. So more jobs

Analysis: what is meant by 13,000 ‘excess’ NHS deaths?

When the dust settles on the Keogh report published last week  one figure is likely to linger: the “13,000 excess deaths” in the 14 NHS hospitals. It deserves careful scrutiny – and some has been applied by Isabel Hardman here with more details about this curious notion of “Hospital Standardised Mortality Rates” in the Health Service

Another voice: Against austerity

Here’s the latest in our Another Voice series of posts, which give prominence to viewpoints outside the normal Coffee House fold: You can’t help but notice that the UK economy isn’t doing too well. Part of this is down to international developments, sure. But part – as Mervyn King said in “http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetarypolicy/pdf/govletter111006.pdf”>his letterto George Osborne last

Right to reply: The impact of immigration on the labour market

Yesterday, we introduced our new “Right to reply” series, where outside writers take on some of the ideas and arguments raised on Coffee House. In that case, it was the IPPR’s Matt Cavanagh replying to Fraser’s recent post on immigration and the labour market. Here’s another reply to the same post, this time by Jonathan Portes of