By Ewen Stewart – 4 minute read THIS WEEK the ONS published its monthly employment data to a fanfare of approval. Unemployment is close to a 50-year low – employment participation rates are rising – and so are wages. Lockdown can be forgotten. Apparently it's business as usual. Well at face value it’s hard to [...]
By Brian Monteith – 3 minute read LATER THIS YEAR the UK Government will have the opportunity on the world stage to stand up for our sovereignty and show the world the progress it has made towards reaching its smokefree 2030 target. In November, a UK delegation will attend the 10th meeting of the World [...]
By Brian Monteith – 4 minute read I HAVE PREVIOUSLY written on the wide range of mad and bad practicalities of the NI Protocol. Possibly the most absurd is that boats leaving Northern Irish harbours such as the Kilkeel fleet are, under the Protocol, not allowed to land their legitimate catches in their own ports [...]
By Brian Monteith – 6 minute read HAVING HEARD the Prime Minister’s sales pitch of the Windsor Framework when he launched it I immediately smelled a rat. It sounded too good to be true. Sadly, my initial fears have been proven right. It is not any good at all, indeed it is actually worse than [...]
By Ewen Stewart – 6 minute read JEREMY HUNT’S latest Budget misses the point and does not address the underlying declining competitiveness of the UK economy. It fails to address the root of the problem; substantial excess public spending, extraordinarily weak public sector productivity and a subsequent loss of tax competitiveness with more micro-management and [...]
