The Week

Leading article

Trump vs Trump

It’s easy to see why Donald Trump gets angry. He is presiding over a robust economy, growing at the fastest rate of any major economy. His recent tax cut has encouraged jobs and investment to come back to the United States. Apple alone is redirecting an extra $38 billion in tax towards the Treasury’s coffers.

Portrait of the week

Portrait of the week | 1 February 2018

Home The EU published its negotiating position on Britain’s period of transition, from 30 March 2019 until 31 December 2020. Britain would have to abide by the rules of the single market, customs union, free movement and decisions of the European Court of Justice, as well as new EU laws. Britain would have no representatives

Diary

Diary – 1 February 2018

It never occurred to me, when I was interviewed for Desert Island Discs back in November, that I’d actually be on one when it aired last week. The plan had been to laze in a hammock under a palm tree in Ko Yao Noi in the Andaman Sea, with waves lapping against the white coral

Ancient and modern

Outsourcing, a long history

The outsourcing business Carillion has gone bust because its bids for government work have been far too low. The problems raised by such contracts are not new. The Romans outsourced a great deal of state business. The Bible’s ‘publicans’ were wealthy publicani (lit. ‘men engaged on public business’). No doubt aided by the occasional sinner,

Barometer

Barometer | 1 February 2018

Tight money Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea, was worth an estimated £40 billion. Yet the eighth richest man in the world drove an old Volvo, flew economy class, bought his clothes in flea markets and had his wife cut his hair to avoid the cost of a barber. Some other wealthy tight-fists: — The

Letters

Letters | 1 February 2018

Creeping repression Sir: John O’Sullivan is correct to argue that Europe’s centrist establishment often ‘does not really accept the right of its challengers to come to power. And when they do, it casts them as being illegitimate as extremists’ (‘A new Europe’, 27 January). We fear, however, that like a number of our fellow conservatives,