UK voters face an historic choice between remaining within the EU or leaving and seeking a different type of involvement in the world economy. Such an alternative is clearly possible: the UK has many advantages in an international context as a result of its historical alliances and involvement...

Instead of allowing diversity and competition between member states, underpinned with the use of courts to prevent trade barriers, the EU has at its core a centralising, harmonising agenda. This risks raising the overall level of regulation higher than is necessary and embedding systemic risks....

Taxation and government spending as a proportion of GDP have increased dramatically since World War I. Spending has increased from one-eighth of national income to somewhere between 40% and 45% of GDP today, the actual figure depending on how GDP is measured. Despite widespread hysteria, there...

In the past, the use of a compulsory levy on television sets (a licence fee) to finance the BBC could be justified given the problem of spectrum scarcity and the fact that television signals were a public good (i.e. there was effectively a zero marginal cost of an additional user receiving the...

This paper discusses how ‘wars of ideas’ can be waged, using the author’s extensive experience, both as Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and at other classical liberal think tanks.John Blundell begins his stimulating collection of published essays, reviews and...

New report debunks the idea that Thatcher deregulated financial services.Summary:It is commonly believed that, during the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher presided over a substantial reduction in government regulation of financial services. Indeed, some have blamed this deregulation for the financial...

“English votes for English laws” no solution to problems caused by devolutionhe UK’s current devolution settlement leads to unrepresentative government and has an inbuilt bias towards “big government”. This situation is exacerbated because nations with devolved government are...

Government spending:The government’s Spending Review will be far from comprehensive. With the triple-lock for state pension increases and NHS, per-pupil funding for schools, international aid and the defence budget all protected, the overwhelming majority of government spending has been...

Calls to overhaul pension tax relief by scrapping higher rates of relief and setting a so-called "flat rate" "tax relief" are misguided. Such proposals would also face huge practical problems and lead the tax system to become even more complex. Pension tax relief has been criticized as being...

Statutory Regulation, Private Regulation and Financial MarketsOnly a generation ago, UK investment markets were regulated by self-governing exchanges. Though independent exchanges still exist, investment markets have become regulated in ever more detailed ways by statutory bodies such as the...