The Capitalist

Conservatives can't agree on much at the moment. But one view that the vast majority of them would struggle to disagree with is that there are fundamental problems with the party's pitch to the electorate. The fault lines have been there for some time, but the issue became impossible to ignore after last year's general election. That is why there has been a flurry of activity on the centre-right o...

We recently welcomed Jamie Bartlett to the CapX offices to talk about what happens where politics and technology intersect. Jamie is the author of  The People Vs Tech: How the Internet is Killing Democracy , a book that touches on a number of the most pressing concerns surrounding the rapid pace of technological change and, as the title suggests, what that means for democracy. He spoke to CapX's E...

In this week’s Spring Statement, Philip Hammond described himself as positively tiggerish about the economic news he was bringing to the House of Commons. His upbeat mood was, in large part, thanks to a minuscule uptick in the Office for Budget Responsibility’s growth forecasts for the next five years. It’s a reminder of just how central GDP is to the decisions politicians and policymakers make, a...

From an intricate knowledge of regulatory alignment versus regulatory equivalence to the difference between the customs union and a customs union, everyone interested in British politics suddenly has very strong views on the technical details of trade policy.  But while most of us have been hurriedly scrubbing up on all things trade, for others this is their bread and butter. Allie Renison is head...

Is education a waste of time? Surely no one, let alone a professor of economics, would defend such an outlandish claim. Well that is the exact argument made by Professor Bryan Caplan in his new book, The Case Against Education: Why the Education System is a Waste of Time and Money . On this week's episode of Free Exchange, CapX Editor Oliver Wiseman spoke to Bryan about how he reached his provocat...

Universal Basic Income may just be the trendiest idea in politics. It's also one of the most radical. Its advocates include Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson and John McDonnell. From the joblessness that could arise from automation and machine learning to growing concern over income inequality, UBI's cheerleaders claim the policy could solve some of the biggest political challenges we face. Put sim...

This week’s guest on Free Exchange is Sir Christopher Mallaby, a retired British diplomat whose career was defined by the Cold War. Sir Christopher recently published his memoirs, Living the Cold War . As well as an account of some of the most important events in the 20th Century, the book is collection of fascinating details of everyday life for someone involved in that all-consuming clash betwee...

This year may not have been a year of political earthquakes on the scale of 2016, but the last 12 months have contained more than their fair share of tumult. In Westminster, the idea of Prime Minister Corbyn started the year as a joke and ended as a very real possibility. In the United States, Donald Trump - the most volatile President in living memory - barely escaped the headlines, generating pl...

Oliver Letwin has been at the heart of Conservative politics for most of his adult life. From working in Margaret Thatcher’s downing street policy unit to serving as one of David Cameron’s most trusted ministers, he has played an important part in shaping the modern Conservative party. Sir Oliver has just published Hearts and Minds , a memoir in which he does more than just rattle off a series of...

This government has two big interconnected challenges. The first is, to quote the Prime Minister, to make a success of Brexit. The second is to see off the threat posed by Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell and a Labour Party now dominated by the far-left. In both cases the government is in a bind. On the one hand, Corbyn and Brexit bring with them significant amounts of political and economic uncertai...

John Kay was born a year before Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. In the latest episode of Free Exchange, the CapX podcast, he tells Robert Colvile that "sometimes I look at Corbyn and I think, he thinks what I thought when I was 17. It's just that I've learnt a bit since then and he hasn't." Whereas the Labour leader has spent his life ploughing the furrow of far-left activism, John Kay has had a dive...

Michael Heseltine finds himself in an unusual position. He is one of the most distinguished Conservatives in the country, but is completely at odds with the party’s stance on the biggest issue of the day. While most Remain-supporting Tories – not least the Prime Minister – have taken the referendum result and run with it, Lord Heseltine has remained steadfast to his view that Brexit is an unmitiga...

Daniel Hannan MEP is known to most people as a leading Eurosceptic, or, in the Guardian 's words, "the man who brought you Brexit". With Britain on its way out of the EU, Hannan has established the Institute for Free Trade, which makes the intellectual and moral case for free trade, and sees Brexit unique opportunity to revitalise global trade.  A few weeks ago, at the Conservative Party Conferenc...

Jeremy Corbyn has built a potent political movement on the back of his explicit anti-capitalism. But it is not just the crowds of Corbynistas who don’t think much of the market. New research by Matthew Elliott of the Legatum Institute and James Kanagasooriam of Populus finds that on the economy the attitudes of the public as a whole are much closer to the Labour leader than the Conservative Party’...

Deepak Lal is one of the world's foremost development economists, who helped billions of people to prosper by arguing that prosperity is better delivered by markets rather than central planners. He talks to Robert Colvile about why the enemies of progress once again have the upper hand. Stay informed with CapX's unmissable daily briefings from the heart of Westminster. Go to capx.co to subscribe....

At the Margaret Thatcher Conference on Security, Robert Colvile talks to the Pulitzer Prize winner about Russia, Trump and the state of the West. Stay informed with CapX's unmissable daily briefings from the heart of Westminster. Go to capx.co to subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe

In a special edition of the CapX podcast, recorded live in Parliament, Nicky Morgan, Sunder Katwala, Garvan Walshe and Eric Kaufmann debate whether immigration is a good or bad thing - with Robert Colvile in the chair. Stay informed with CapX's unmissable daily briefings from the heart of Westminster. Go to capx.co to subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Get full...

Robert Colvile talks to Baroness Stroud, the new head of the Legatum Institute about fighting poverty on an individual, national and international level. From working with drug addicts in Hong Kong to working with IDS on welfare reform, Philippa Stroud has spent her life trying to help others. She talks us through her extraordinary personal story. Stay informed with CapX's unmissable daily briefin...

Jonathan Sacks, the former chief rabbi, talks to Robert Colvile at the Margaret Thatcher Conference on Security about whether the West has lost its moral compass. Stay informed with CapX's unmissable daily briefings from the heart of Westminster. Go to capx.co to subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscri...

Now executive chairman of the Resolution Foundation, Lord Willetts has long been one of the Tory party's intellectual heavyweights - the man so smart they nicknamed him "Two Brains". He talks to Robert Colvile - in a conversation recorded before the election - about what Britain's getting right. Stay informed with CapX's unmissable daily briefings from the heart of Westminster. Go to capx.co to su...

CapX's deputy editor Oliver Wiseman spent the weeks before the election criss-crossing the country. He talks to Robert Colvile about the extraordinary results, and what happens next Stay informed with CapX's unmissable daily briefings from the heart of Westminster. Go to capx.co to subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Get full access to The CapX Briefing at brief...

Professor John Curtice, the pollster's pollster, talks to Robert Colvile about election night and taking the pulse of the nation, in a special election edition of the CapX podcast. Stay informed with CapX's unmissable daily briefings from the heart of Westminster. Go to capx.co to subscribe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefi...

As strategy director to David Cameron and pollster for the Remain and Better Together campaigns, Lord Cooper of Windrush has been at the heart of some of the biggest moments in British politics. Ahead of the UK election, he talks to Robert Colvile about what he's learned, why pollsters get it wrong, and why Margate holds the key to Britain's future. Stay informed with CapX's unmissable daily brief...

Lord Owen was Britain's youngest ever Foreign Secretary - before jumping ship to start his own party. The former leader of the SDP talks to Robert Colvile, CapX's Editor, about making Brexit a cross-party cause and why today's Labour MPs shouldn't follow in his footsteps. (This interview was recorded before the election was called.) Stay informed with CapX's unmissable daily briefings from the hea...

Sue Cameron has made it her life's work to understand the people who run Britain - not the politicians, but the civil servants who sit behind them. She talks to Robert Colvile, CapX's Editor, about how well Britain is governed, which Prime Ministers have got the best grip on the Whitehall machine, and how the Civil Service is going to cope with Brexit. Stay informed with CapX's unmissable daily br...