Kate Andrews is deputy editor of The Spectator’s World edition.
The economic lesson of the week is that headlines are often deceiving. Yesterday’s GDP update for the month of April showed a 0.3 percent contraction – but that was largely due to the rollback of state-funded programmes designed to tackle Covid-19. Now today’s employment updates show the headline employment rate up – to 75.6 per
Today’s economic growth figures serve as a reminder that it’s important to be specific about what’s actually being measured. Headline GDP numbers show a contraction of 0.3 per cent in April: worse than what was expected (the forecast consensus was a fall of roughly 0.1 per cent), suggesting a fall in economic activity and output,
As part of his revival (and survival) strategy, Boris Johnson is trying his hardest to convince the public and fellow MPs that he can get the cost of living crisis under control. But did today’s speech help him make that case? His wide-ranging speech in Lancashire covered a vast array of economic, policy and trade
After an uncomfortably close confidence vote for the Prime Minister on Monday, Boris Johnson’s premiership still hobbles along. But for how much longer? It seems the PM’s latest strategy is to find favour with his party again by promising bread-and-butter Tory policies: mainly tax cuts. Speaking to Tory MPs just hours before this week’s confidence
Alexander Rodnyansky has a desk waiting for him back at Cambridge, where he’s currently on sabbatical from his role as a junior economics professor. But he won’t be returning for some time. He’s working from Kyiv, prioritising his other job: as economic adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky. Rodnyansky was in Ukraine when the war broke out
19 min listen
Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth, and Kate Andrews about Rishi Sunak’s latest support package to aid with the cost of living, including the windfall tax on energy companies.
13 min listen
There have been mixed opinions following Rishi Sunak’s announcements in the House of Commons yesterday. The £15 billion budget is targeted to help the whole country with a particular emphasis on those most in need – but has it gone far enough? Or will we pay the price for the Chancellor’s handouts in the future?
11 min listen
Rishi Sunak has announced a new tranche of economic measures designed to help ease the cost of living crisis in the UK. The new payments will be funded by a windfall tax on energy companies, which comes as the government U-turns on its previous opposition to the policy. On the episode, Katy Balls talks to
It was only three months ago that Chancellor Rishi Sunak was announcing a £9 billion support package to help people with their energy bills – which totalled £350 worth of support for most households. At the time there were calls for the Chancellor to go further, but he explained that he could not shield the
Britain’s ‘party elite’ – perhaps better-termed ‘Covid elite’ – were hiding in plain sight throughout the pandemic. Even before the parties, trysts and suitcases of wine were exposed, we knew politicians and government officials were leading radically different lives to everyone else during last year’s extended lockdown. Trips abroad for ministers when it was illegal
13 min listen
With the cost of living crisis looming large, pressure is on the government to come up with effective solutions. With Labour snapping at their heels for an emergency budget and a windfall tax on oil and gas companies, will the Conservatives eventually bend to this pressure? And if they do, will these solutions even work?
Some £500 billion was printed by the Bank of England during the pandemic – a staggering sum that caused very little public debate. Those sceptical about so-called ‘quantitative easing’ argue that it causes inflation – and with today’s news that inflation rose 9 per cent on the year in April, is anyone linking the two?
For the first time ever, the number of UK job vacancies – now almost 1.3 million – has overtaken the unemployment count. Normally, this would lead to people in work feeling much better off, and lead to pay hikes and bonuses as employers compete to recruit and retain employees. But in fact, regular pay in
This afternoon the Bank of England’s governor Andrew Bailey appeared, as he has done many times before, in front of the Treasury Select Committee to answer questions about its recent decision-making. Yet the tone of the Committee was radically different to other sessions. Its chair Mel Stride opened by asking Bailey if he and the
In principle, the UK’s energy price cap is supposed to provide a buffer for consumers who might otherwise see their energy bills go through the roof. But governments can’t control international energy prices: a lesson that has been learned the hard way over the past six months, as dozens of energy companies have gone bust,
12 min listen
Jacob Rees-Mogg has said that the government plans to axe 91,000 posts within three years from the civil service. The argument for it is that the reduced tax burden will help the public deal with the ever-growing cost of living crisis. But will this have the desired effect and will it be anywhere near enough?
14 min listen
Though inflation has recently gone down a little in the States, it is still at a 40-year high. Inflation is an issue affecting most of the world due to several external factors, but many critics of Biden say that his policies are worsening this crisis rather than fixing it. Is that the case? Freddy Gray
Fears that Britain could soon be in recession are growing, as the economy appears to have even less power behind it than previously thought. Today’s update from the Office for National Statistics shows Britain’s economy grew by 0.8 per cent in the first quarter of the year (consensus was 1 per cent) – and actually fell
Has inflation peaked in the United States? Today’s update from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the annual rate of inflation has fallen slightly, from 8.5 per cent in March down to 8.3 per cent in April. There are signs of slowdown in the monthly figures, too: prices rose 0.3 per cent between March and
10 min listen
The Monetary Policy Committee has just raised interest rates again. This is the fourth consecutive rise, the first time this has happened within a quarter of a century. Economically the future is looking pretty bleak and not just in the UK, this looks like it may be a global problem caused by several factors. China’s
