The Capitalist

Just last week Boris Johnson was bestriding the world stage, joking about showing his pecs to Putin at the G7 and Nato summit. Today he is Prime Minister in name only, having reluctantly agreed to leave office after more than 50 of his ministers resigned. It's an ignominious ending to a dramatic premiership, In just over 1000 days, Boris Johnson secured a historic election victory, persuading many...

Too often neglected and misunderstood by both politicians and commentators on this side of the Irish Sea, Northern Ireland has in recent years been thrust into the spotlight by the intense wrangling over post-Brexit trade arrangements,. Just this week, the Government's bill to change that arrangement passed its second reading in the House of Commons - much to the chagrin of those who accuse Boris...

As if the British economy didn't have enough problems with soaring inflation, swathes of the country literally ground to a half this week thanks to massive industrial action from 40,000 rail workers. Like most of us, RMT members are feeling the pinch as prices outstrip their wages and passenger numbers have still yet to recover from their pre-Covid levels. But does that really justify a strike? An...

You never have too long to wait before the SNP and its leader Nicola Sturgeon are beating the drum for another independence referendum. The dream of separation is the glue that holds an otherwise fractious coalition together, and this week Sturgeon has once again upped the ante by promising a fresh vote next year, come what may.  Our guest this week, Tom Harris, is well placed to judge whether tho...

It's been a truly tumultuous week, even by the elevated standards of farce we've come to expect in British politics. Monday saw a vote of confidence called in and ultimately defeated by Boris Johnson, but it was - to use the kind of classical allusion he's so fond of - a Pyrrhic victory. Over 40% of the PM's own MPs voted against him in what can only be described as a huge blow to his authority. T...

So it’s finally here, the long awaited Sue Gray report was published this week and it was great stuff for journalists – with lurid details of excessive drinking, wine splattered up walls and Downing Street staff partying until the early hours during lockdown. But the question Westminster insiders will be asking is what the public make of all this, and how will it effect their party’s prospects in...

There’s only one story in town this week when it comes to British politics and that’s the soaring cost of…well, just about everything. Consumer price inflation jumped to 9% in the 12 months to April, up from 7% in March and the highest level it has reached since 1982. After spending two years stepping in to save whole sectors of the economy, support millions of people’s wages and borrow hundreds o...

As well as visiting untold horrors on the Ukrainian people, Vladimir Putin’s regime has launched a new wave of unprecedented repression in Russia itself, instantly jailing anyone who dares raise their voice in opposition to his despotic rule. One man who knows all too well the reality of standing up to Putin is our guest this week, Vladimir Ashurkov. Vladimir is a former financier, political activ...

It's been a bumper few weeks for political news. We've had endless 'Beergate' stories rattling the Labour leadership, soaring prices in the shops, dreadful economic forecasts from the Bank of England, Elon Musk's mooted takeover of Twitter and thehugely controversial leaked Supreme Court ruling on Roe vs Wade. To discuss those pressing issues, our editors John Ashmore and Alys Denby welcomed two o...

Should poverty be defined by how much you earn, how much less money you have than the average household, or something altogether more holistic - the myriad of interlocking factors, from health to social capital to transport links, that define someone's quality of life? That's the question that Conservative MP John Penrose grappled with in his landmark report, Poverty Trapped, released at the end o...

It's been quite a few weeks in British politics. After a brief Easter respite, the PartyGate saga reared its head again for Boris Johnson, who now faces a parliamentary probe on whether he misled the House of Commons. Equally controversial was his government's announcement last week of a deal to ship asylum seekers 5,000 miles away to Rwanda. Just what Brexit means for Britain's immigration system...

Few countries on earth are as politically and economically repressed as Cuba. For all its brutality and illiberalism of six decades of one-party rule, the communist regime has somehow managed to sell an image of itself as a brave holdout against Western imperialists, rather than a despotic economic basket case, allied to the world's very worst regimes, including Putin's Russia. Our guest this week...

It's another topical podcast this week as our editors sat down with freelance journalist, CapX regular and 'Queen of the Internet' Nicole Lampert. In a very wide-ranging chat, we discuss the horrendous attacks on Ukrainian civilians, the latest trans rights row, the novel concept of 'Beardsplaining' and what it's like for a Jewish woman to be called a 'Holocaust denier'. Stay informed with CapX's...

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It's a very topical podcast this week as we run the rule over Rishi Sunak's much-anticipated Spring Statement. With war in Ukraine and a Covid crisis in China, combined with already soaring inflation here in the UK, the Chancellor had a hugely unenviable task on Wednesday afternoon - so how did he do? Was the statement up to the mark of dealing with a generational cost of living crisis, and is Sun...

Although many of us might not know it, thanks to pensions auto-enrollment the average Brit is more invested in the stock market than at any point in our history. But how many of us are taking advantage of our ownership of stocks and shares to influence the way our corporations behave? And how can we get the seemingly all-powerful fund managers to invest our money in a way that aligns with our valu...

We had plenty to get stuck into for this week's topical episode of the CapX Podcast: from the halting progress of Russia's offensive in Ukraine, to the equally halting processing of Ukrainain visas to come to the UK and just what a Russian oil embargo will mean for the world economy.  We were very pleased to be joined this week by Karl Williams, a senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Studies...

From the lowest prison cell to the grandest palaces, human beings are engaged in age-old battles for status and recognition.   In his latest book The Status Game , acclaimed science writer WIll Storr brilliantly unpacks just how human societies are steeped in the search for status, how it leads to conformity, hysteria and violence – but also to enormous, life-enhancing achievements.   I always enj...

This week's topical podcast is understandably dominated by Vladimir Putin's all-out assault on Ukraine, which has shocked and appalled most of us in equal measure, not only for the brutality of Russia's aggression, but the impotence of the Western response.    To discuss what the UK and its allies should do next, we were very glad to welcome Conservative Home's Deputy Editor Henry Hill. Henry is a...

Our guest this week, John McWhorter, is a man of many talents: a Columbia University professor, prolific author, music historian, New York Times columnist and one of America’s leading authorities on linguistics. Beyond his academic career, McWhorter has also found a following as a prominent critic of the language-policing, statue-toppling, academic-cancelling brand of anti-racism that has taken ho...

From the soaring cost of living to ever-lengthening NHS waiting lists, the Government certainly has its hands full at the moment – even without the rumbling discontent about PartyGate in the background. And on top of the day-to-day issues, Boris Johnson has set himself the daunting task of reconfiguring Britain's political economy with the recently released Levelling Up White Paper. To talk us thr...

Martin Wander Weyer has had a front row seat for some of the biggest economic developments of the last 50 years - both as a banker and as business correspondent for the Spectator- including under the editorship of Boris Johnson. His book the Good the Bad and the Greedy argues that scandals like the misselling of PPI and the fixing of Libor have eroded trust in enterprise, and that only a return to...

As part of our new year revamp of the CapX Podcast we're bringing you another topical, multi-topic episode this week.  To kick off we head east and speak to former Ukrainian MP Alyona Hlivco about the perilous situation on her country's borders. Is this just more brinkmanship from Vladimir Putin, or is there a real risk of conflict? Her answer is an interesting rejoinder to some of the more impass...

Why is a rainy island in north-west Europe trying to join a trade bloc centred on the Pacific?  At first sight, the UK's application to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership seems highly counter-intuitive – but it actually makes a lot of sense, as a report this week from our parent organisation, the Centre for Policy Studies, makes clear. To help us explain why t...

The CapX Podcast returns with a rundown of the big stories of 2022 so far - and the only place to start is Downing Street itself, where stories of lockdown gatherings have caused massive political ructions and left the Prime Minister fending off critics on all sides. So what's next for Boris - and can he hang on in the face of the most sustained criticism of his leadership so far? As well as the r...