The UK Treasury has been consulting on the concept of an ‘online sales tax’, or OST, which could raise £1-2 billion annually to help pay for a reduction in business rates for physical retailers. This is a bad idea, for many reasons.First, there is little hard evidence that online retail is...

The Whitehall Briefing (leaked in January but only officially released this month) is not the last word on the potential long-term economic impact of Brexit, despite claims from others that it ‘proves’ GDP will be lower in ‘all’ scenarios. As the report itself says, it is only ‘draft...

The EU has confirmed that phase 2 of the Brexit talks, covering the future relationship, can now begin. However, there are still no clear answers to the challenges posed by the unique position of Ireland. The UK has committed, subject to specific conditions, to maintain ‘full alignment’ with...

The rise of the ‘tech giants’ is, of course, a significant commercial threat to more traditional media, but it also raises some potentially important issues of public policy. These companies have variously been accused of facilitating the spread of ‘fake news’ and extremist material,...

John Mills is one of Britain’s most stimulating economic thinkers. Unusually, he has many decades of practical business experience and is also more commonly associated with the political left than the right. It is therefore an immense pleasure to engage with him on some of the most important...

The Brexit ‘divorce bill’ is supposed to settle existing obligations, rather than cover the cost of any future agreements. Some therefore argue that it is simply a matter of honouring past debts and the UK should just pay up. The problem with this approach is that there is no legal certainty...