The benefits of innovation are unpredictable and hard to quantify. Fear of adverse consequences can lead to excessive emphasis on risk avoidance, leading to regulation that holds back beneficial innovation. The experience in tobacco harm reduction illustrates this.Innovative reduced-risk...

The UK and Sweden have the lowest smoking rates in the European Union as a result of consumers switching from cigarettes to low risk nicotine products. Public Health England and other health organisations have concluded that the health risks of vaping are unlikely to exceed 5% of the risks of...

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...

In March 2016, George Osborne announced a ‘sugar levy’ on soft drink companies to start in April 2018. Under this policy, companies will be taxed on sales of medium and high sugar drinks (excluding fruit juice and milk-based drinks). As an anti-obesity policy, the sugar levy seems arbitrary....

It's time for a radical overhaul of state-funded charitiesNew research, released today, reveals the true extent of government funded lobbying by charities and pressure groups.This report argues that, when government funds the lobbying of itself, it is subverting democracy and debasing the...

European Commission spending millions on pro-EU lobby groupsExecutive summary:With public confidence in the European project waning, the idea of initiating a ‘civil dialogue’ with the public emerged in the mid-1990s as a way of bolstering the EU’s democratic legitimacy.Citizens have not...

The benefits of innovation are unpredictable and hard to quantify. Fear of adverse consequences can lead to excessive emphasis on risk avoidance, leading to regulation that holds back beneficial innovation. The experience in tobacco harm reduction illustrates this.Innovative reduced-risk...