A series of policy initiatives since 2000 have rendered energy supply in the UK unstable and expensive. This has been driven by a desire to reduce carbon emissions in response to concerns about global warming. The effect, however, has been to drive energy intensive industries overseas, to countries with less carbon efficient means of production,… [Read More]
The UK is taking back its independence at a time when some of the unspoken assumptions of recent times are shifting. To speak of the political left or the political right no longer has a clear meaning. Some say that the real divide is between globalisation and nationalism, but this distinction fails to capture what… [Read More]
Post-Brexit, in the event of there being no trade treaty, UK exports to the EU-27 could expect to suffer tariff costs in the region of £5.2 billion, but the corresponding exports from the EU-27 to the UK would face costs in the region of £12.9 billion. These figures were advanced in previous Civitas research as… [Read More]
For centuries Britain has been a beacon of liberty of thought, belief and speech in the world, but now its intellectual and political life is in chains. Members of the public, academics, journalists and politicians are afraid of thinking certain thoughts. People are vilified if they publicly diverge from accepted beliefs, sacked or even investigated… [Read More]
The fall in the value of sterling since the vote for Brexit has had commentators wringing their hands with concern. But why are so many so quick to assume that a cheaper pound is a bad thing? The truth, as leading economists Roger Bootle and John Mills explain here, is that the British economy has… [Read More]
The issues of freedom of speech on campuses and academic freedom have become major talking points. Student politics, once something people left behind upon graduation, is now the daily fare of national, and even international, news coverage. Terms like ‘microaggression’, ‘trigger warning’, and ‘safe space’, virtually unheard of a decade ago, have entered mainstream vocabulary.… [Read More]
After almost a century of continuous expansion, the rate of home ownership in Britain has fallen from 70 per cent of households in 2000 to fewer than 65 per cent today. Among the under-forties it has dipped alarmingly. This book asks what has caused this decline in home ownership, why it matters, and what might… [Read More]
The NHS is under strain like never before and its woes are rarely out of the headlines for long. Alongside the host of other issues that the service must confront, like a funding blackhole, it also faces severe recruitment problems. Vacancy levels for permanent positions are high, especially in unfavourable specialties such as A&E and… [Read More]
The Chancellor has claimed that every household would be £4,300 worse off outside the EU – but the Treasury’s calculations are based on a false premise the value of the Single Market to British trade. In this report, Michael Burrage interrogates the assumptions underpinning HM Treasury analysis: the long-term economic impact of EU membership and the… [Read More]
The Brexit debate that has taken hold of the country is one of the defining issues of our time. The outcome of the EU referendum in June will have ramifications that will be felt for generations to come. But the discussion is curiously one-sided. The polls show that the British people are fairly evenly split… [Read More]