Ross Clark is a leader writer and columnist who has written for The Spectator for three decades. His books include Not Zero, The Road to Southend Pier, and Far From EUtopia: Why Europe is failing and Britain could do better
For the past 18 months, the UK economy has been stuck in the purgatory of an eternally predicted but non-arriving recession. The Office of Budgetary Responsibility (OBR), Bank of England, and the IMF have been among those to have predicted recessions that have not – yet – happened. But now, for what it is worth
Is Bill Gates a sage figure who can help save the world from climate change? Or is he a dreadful old hypocrite who likes to lecture us on climate while flying around the world by private jet, and who pushes certain technologies because he has personally invested in them? There are plenty of people who
So, the doomsters have been proved wrong again – not least the Bank of England, which a year ago forecast recession throughout 2023. GDP figures released by the Office of National Statistics this morning show that the economy grew by 0.2 per cent in August, partially reversing a sharp contraction of 0.6 per cent in
Great news. Living in a damp home can help you live longer. Admittedly, I am not all that convinced, but it is no less valid a conclusion to draw from a paper in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health than the line that has been reported in the Guardian and elsewhere today: that living
The biggest hinderance for the Conservatives is that they have nothing to offer young voters. The Labour party, however, just might. It seems that Keir Starmer will announce in his conference speech a plan to return to the idea of post-war new town corporations, which were able to compulsory-purchase land at agricultural value. It could – just
To no-one’s surprise, house prices fell again last month. Average prices were down by 0.4 per cent in September, according to Halifax, with the typical property now worth £278,600 compared with the peak of £293,500 in June 2022. Much of this, inevitably, has to do with high interest rates. For three decades until last year the
At last, the Pope is being taken seriously when he warns of moral degeneracy – well, sort of. When Popes have tried to preach to us about abortion, promiscuity, materialism, drugs and selfish lifestyles, they have widely been treated as old fools or bigoted moralists who want to stop us having fun and being who we
Jeremy Hunt wants to make work pay. Few Conservatives will argue with that, nor with the idea of introducing sanctions for benefit claimants who refuse to look for work. Truth is he could and should go far further than threatening to cut the benefits of hardcore work-avoiders who refuse even to attend job interviews. A
For much of the past few years, car production has been compromised by a global shortage of microchips. Why no manufacturer has seized the opportunity to market a microchip-free car (i.e. like all cars manufactured before the 1980s) I don’t know. I would certainly swap my too-clever-for-its-own-good Volvo V60 for such a model. I haven’t met anyone
In the year 2007 Gordon Brown became prime minister, Northern Rock went bust and the iPhone was introduced. But something silently and invisibly calamitous must also have happened in Britain, because it was the year that productivity growth in Britain all but ceased. Tempting though it may be to blame some or all of the
You can almost sense the agonising among hardcore remainers, the howls of anguish. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revised the UK’s economic growth figures since Covid upwards. Instead of still struggling to reach its pre-pandemic high it seems that the UK economy in fact surpassed 2019 levels two years ago. Previously, the ONS
When the Commons nodded through Britain’s legally-binding net zero target in 2019 all MPs had to go on was the Climate Change Committee’s estimate that the whole process would cost £1 trillion. MPs failed to probe this figure and the government didn’t even try to calculate one. Indeed, when the Treasury attempted to come up with
So, Rosebank is to go ahead, or so we think. The North Sea Transition Authority has granted a licence for the extraction of oil and gas from the field, which lies to the west of the Shetlands. For its part, Labour has said that while it opposes the project, it will not withdraw the licences
Sadiq Khan showed little sign of being discomfited by the result of the Uxbridge by-election in July. In spite of Keir Starmer imploring him to reflect on his Ulez expansion he went ahead anyway, with a token offer in the form of slightly enhanced grants for motorists replacing elderly vehicles. But perhaps Khan should have
Most discussion of net zero in Britain seems strangely parochial. We only really talk about UK emissions, even though they account for only one percent of the global total. But how is the rest of the world getting on at reducing carbon emissions? This morning the International Energy Agency (IEA) published the latest edition of its
Bankrupt councils have gotten into trouble through profligate spending on loony projects like month-long Pride events and training staff in critical race theory. That might be true, but it is only partially true. Another big factor, it is becoming painfully clear, is equal pay claims – which have cost Birmingham City Council up to £760
Predictions of the demise of the fossil fuel industry are based almost wholly on energy. In future, goes the argument, we are going to use clean energy and so we will be able to leave fossil fuels in the ground as ‘stranded assets’, as Mark Carney would call them. It is proving hard enough to decarbonise
Last week, Rishi Sunak struck a blow for ordinary people against the elitist project that is net zero, assuring them that a government led by him will not be loading them with tens of thousands of pounds in costs for fitting heat pumps, forcing them to buy an impractical electric car or stinging them in
HS2 has become like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail: the one who carries on fighting, reassuring himself ‘tis but a scratch’ as, one by one, he is relieved of his limbs. First it was the Birmingham to Leeds limb, then the link between Manchester and the North West Coast mainline. The bit
It looks like a case of recession postponed – again. Figures from the Office for National Statistics this morning show that retail sales volumes were up 0.4 per cent in August. These figures followed a shock fall of 1.2 per cent in July reported last month (and even this has been revised downwards to a
