At a news conference regarding agricultural policy on the 12th of August 1986, Ronald Reagan delivered one of his most recognisable quips satirising the organisation he had been elected to lead two years prior: “I think you all know that I've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help”. Given the enduring appeal of this line for so-called libertarians and free-marketeers, the words that followed Reagan

The UK awoke this week to news stories of demonstrations and agitation in the capital alongside a review of the overrunning and overspending on the HS2 rail project. These seemingly disparate stories tell another story, however, when linked together. In part, the reason we have creaking sclerotic bureaucracy capable of blowing £100bn on – well, it is hard to say what exactly is being delivered in return – is the same reason extremist groups are able to galvanise large number

This month’s reset speech from the “boring” “managerial” “supine” “genocidaire” who hates irregular migrants and refugees while “bending over backwards for them” should have been cathartic. Here was our chance to make the maniacally boring Starmer beg for mercy. I just felt uncomfortable. Starmer looked like a man at his wit’s end. He seems ordinary, likeable, and emotionally stable. He says kind things like we should be nicer to Jewish folk, or that we needed to watch Adoles

19 th Century Methods for 21 st Century Problems Following the abduction of Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, combined with the National Security Strategy (NSS) release in December of 2025, the Trump Era of “Gunboat Diplomacy” consolidated as the world watched on with morose horror. The Trump “Corollary,” as it were, is to represent an abandonment of international good faith and an embracing of the world's brutal dictators, Vladimir Putin and many more across th

Student loans are in the news again. Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ decision to freeze the repayment threshold of Plan 2 student loans for 3 years after April 2027 has caused an uproar among students who will now face higher repayment costs. This only adds insult to injury for those who borrowed from the government’s Student Loans Company between 2012 and 2023. As it stands, the vast majority of students will already be unable to pay back their Plan 2 student loan before the 40-y

In 2025, British actor Simon Pegg was interviewed in the Criterion Closet , a renowned series where notable people from the filmmaking industry are invited to browse and discuss their favourite movies. One of Pegg’s ‘closet picks’ was David Lynch’s seminal thriller Blue Velvet , a dark and unnerving mystery set in the heart of middle America. Pegg says that his daughter hated the movie when he showed it to her, but then spoke about how he was delighted that she didn’t like it

If we were to ask whether the UK Wealth Tax Movement was successful last year, an instructive litmus test might be the frequency with which the topic appeared in BBC headlines. This is undoubtedly a major feat, but only half the battle. Commentators everywhere, like coiled springs , raised their concerns about how effective and feasible the tax would be, rattling off the list of unintended consequences. The media asserted – the Wealth Tax cannot be introduced until all conce

With Peter Mandelson once again slinking away from British government with his (apparently forked) tail between his legs, it gives pause for reflection on the dangers inherent in the fact that, at some level, politics comes down to the personal. Just like all news is local news somewhere in the world, the people at the heart of power behind the headlines, campaigns, and scandals of national or global significance, are people, driven by personal agency and motivations. For d

Donald Trump’s unprecedented attack on the chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, has been met with an equally unprecedented defence composed of Ex-Fed chairs, central bank governors, and titans of global finance. Central to this alliance’s criticism of Trump is an ominous warning of disaster to come should the Fed’s independence be violated. For example, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde emphasised the role central bank independence played as a “corner

Economic woes, largely originating in our productivity problem , underscore much British political discourse today. The productivity problem boils down to the notion that the amount of additional value generated per average UK work hour underwhelms compared to our economic peers and superiors, like France, Germany, the USA , and perhaps soon Poland . The UK has recently seen record work absence due to sickness , is consistently low on comparative worker engagement scores

In his Debt: The First 5000 Years , anthropologist David Graeber provides a series of insights that, when properly understood, challenge the central tenets of conventional economic thought. Most significantly, Graeber’s claim that all money is debt, and by extension a social relation, fundamentally undermines decades of economic orthodoxy which claims that the government must balance its books and, more generally, that ‘one must pay one’s debts’ . Indeed, if all money is debt

On the 19th of October this year the first round of the local elections in North Macedonia were held. This country is home to one of the fastest growing left-wing parties in Europe: Levica (the Left). Since its founding ten years ago it has experienced a gradual rise in its number of elected officials. In the 2020 parliamentary elections two MPs from its ranks, including the party leader Dimitar Apasiev, took office, and in the 2024 parliamentary elections they expanded the p

In his seminal 1962 work ‘Capitalism and Freedom’ , Milton Friedman proclaimed that free-market competitive capitalism was the only way...

Since the deluge of national security regulations, Beijing and its loyal agents in Hong Kong have tirelessly reiterated that the city is...

Illustration by Will Allen/Europinion Argentina’s President, Javier Milei, was elected in December 2023 amid a period of severe economic...

Given China’s 76-year rule under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the USA’s historic crusade against Communist ideology, and the...

50 years ago, Friedrich Hayek won the Nobel Prize for his work on the nature of knowledge and why fully controlling societal and economic...