Geoff Raby, Policy Exchange’s Head of Trade Policy, welcomes the latest pronouncement of Philip Hammond’s in favour of the UK still leaving the Customs Union — but notes that the Chancellor hinted that there might be a transitional arrangement to remain inside it. Raby points out the potential perils in this stance, not least of which is that transitional arrangements could solidify into permanent ones.

Policy Exchange is delighted to announce that our next Chairman of Trustees will be Alexander Downer, High Commissioner of Australia – who was previously the country’s longest serving Foreign Minister between 1995 and 2007. He will take over later this year when he retires as High Commissioner. Downer will succeed David Frum, who stands down after completing his term as Chairman; General Sir Peter Wall is acting Chairman until then.

Policy Exchange is delighted to congratulate Professor John Bew, Head of our Britain in the World project, after his outstanding biography of Clement Attlee last night won the prestigious Orwell Prize.

In the first of a series of longer articles for Policy Exchange following the Manchester and London attacks, Sir John Jenkins — former British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and co-author of the UK Government’s review of the Muslim Brotherhood published in 2015 — examines why many Western Governments find it so hard to deal with transnational ideological challenges. After the end of the Cold War, Western officialdom may not have believed in the “end of history”, but many of them did believe in the “end of ideology”. Events are once again proving them tragically wrong.

Jeffrey Dudgeon – co-founder of the gay rights movement in Northern Ireland and author of ‘Roger Casement:The Black Diaries’ — sits on Belfast City Council with the DUP. As a long time political and cultural opponent of their approach, he finds them to be surprisingly flexible in practice on gay rights and other social issues. Policy Exchange Director Dean Godson, author of Himself Alone: David Trimble and the Ordeal of Unionism, writes for the Sunday Times on the wider issues round the Conservative Party’s relations with the DUP.

Policy Exchange is delighted to announce that Dr Tony Sewell will be joining its Immigration, Integration and Demography Unit as a Senior Fellow. He will be working with David Goodhart and Richard Norrie