Kate Andrews is economics editor of The Spectator
16 min listen
On this week’s episode: Kate Andrews on why Rishi quit (0:26). Sean Thomas on Russian émigrés who hate the war but will fight for Russia (08:32) and Toby Young on his appreciation for the other Toby Young (13.13). Presented and produced by Natasha Feroze.
On Tuesday, the last cabinet meeting with Sajid Javid as health secretary and Rishi Sunak as chancellor passed without any hint that either was about to resign. The ministers did not co-ordinate their resignations, but they had both been tipped over the edge by growing evidence that No. 10 had misled MPs by declaring Boris
We will never know the counterfactuals of the past few years. What if another MP had been made Chancellor when Sajid Javid resigned (the first time)? What if a green chancellor Rishi Sunak hadn’t had a pandemic to manage? While we can’t answer these questions, it’s hard to imagine any MP – certainly on the
Birthday celebrations for the NHS this year are relatively quiet. In recent years the health service has received multi-billion pound top-ups from the taxpayer, not to mention high praise from politicians across the political spectrum. This may be in part because the government has already seen to the big NHS pledges, including the 2.5 per
64 min listen
Will the government’s plans for revitalising the north be hampered by its plans for decarbonisation? There’s increasing concern in Whitehall that these agendas contradict each other, but there’s no reason that green jobs and projects can’t benefit Britain’s ‘forgotten communities’ too. How do we ensure the north benefits from a greener, more prosperous future? How
The US Supreme Court has not banned abortion. The point made by its ruling – a pretty reasonable one – was that such issues should be decided by elected politicians, not by appointed judges. ‘It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives,’ wrote Justice Samuel
The UK’s economy grew by 0.8 per cent between January and March this year, according to this morning’s update from the Office for National Statistics. This means real GDP is now just 0.7 per cent above its pre-pandemic levels. On the face of it, it’s fairly grim news. The spectacular growth originally forecast for this year, making up
When Boris Johnson was campaigning for Brexit, he placed much importance on World Trade Organisation rules. The WTO, he’d argue, had an internationally-recognised free trade rule book – which was ready and waiting to be used as a substitute to the European Union system. This is why he could face some very difficult questions next
When Vladimir Putin sent his tanks into Ukraine on 24 February, he did so under the assumption that the West was too ruptured and disjointed to pull together a unified response. It was the first of many miscalculations. That same day, Boris Johnson promised ‘massive’ economic sanctions that would ‘hobble’ Russia’s economy to the point
9 min listen
The latest figures suggest that inflation has risen at the highest rate in 40 years. Now at 9.1 per cent, it’s not all bad because the rate at which inflation is increasing has in fact slowed down. However, on the podcast, our economics editor, Kate Andrews suggests we are nowhere near the peak yet. How worried
Inflation rose to 9.1 per cent on the year in May, taking the UK’s consumer price index to a 40-year-high. Optimists are noting the slowdown in pace, rising by 0.1 per cent between April and May. But I suspect we are in the eye of the storm. This price spiral is nowhere close to over,
The economic lesson of the week is that headlines are often deceiving. Yesterday’s GDP update for the month of April showed a 0.3 percent contraction – but that was largely due to the rollback of state-funded programmes designed to tackle Covid-19. Now today’s employment updates show the headline employment rate up – to 75.6 per
Today’s economic growth figures serve as a reminder that it’s important to be specific about what’s actually being measured. Headline GDP numbers show a contraction of 0.3 per cent in April: worse than what was expected (the forecast consensus was a fall of roughly 0.1 per cent), suggesting a fall in economic activity and output,
As part of his revival (and survival) strategy, Boris Johnson is trying his hardest to convince the public and fellow MPs that he can get the cost of living crisis under control. But did today’s speech help him make that case? His wide-ranging speech in Lancashire covered a vast array of economic, policy and trade
After an uncomfortably close confidence vote for the Prime Minister on Monday, Boris Johnson’s premiership still hobbles along. But for how much longer? It seems the PM’s latest strategy is to find favour with his party again by promising bread-and-butter Tory policies: mainly tax cuts. Speaking to Tory MPs just hours before this week’s confidence
Alexander Rodnyansky has a desk waiting for him back at Cambridge, where he’s currently on sabbatical from his role as a junior economics professor. But he won’t be returning for some time. He’s working from Kyiv, prioritising his other job: as economic adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky. Rodnyansky was in Ukraine when the war broke out
19 min listen
Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth, and Kate Andrews about Rishi Sunak’s latest support package to aid with the cost of living, including the windfall tax on energy companies.
13 min listen
There have been mixed opinions following Rishi Sunak’s announcements in the House of Commons yesterday. The £15 billion budget is targeted to help the whole country with a particular emphasis on those most in need – but has it gone far enough? Or will we pay the price for the Chancellor’s handouts in the future?
11 min listen
Rishi Sunak has announced a new tranche of economic measures designed to help ease the cost of living crisis in the UK. The new payments will be funded by a windfall tax on energy companies, which comes as the government U-turns on its previous opposition to the policy. On the episode, Katy Balls talks to
It was only three months ago that Chancellor Rishi Sunak was announcing a £9 billion support package to help people with their energy bills – which totalled £350 worth of support for most households. At the time there were calls for the Chancellor to go further, but he explained that he could not shield the