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Recent Blogs
Commonwealth Summit – A new opportunity for an old institution?
Does the presence of an Indian Prime Minister after several years of absence, Brexit and a return to great power politics offer a new role for the Commonwealth?
Fixing roofs in the sunshine – why central banks must reconsider loose monetary policy
Central banks should use the relatively benign economic conditions to reorientate money policy argues Warwick Lightfoot – himself former special adviser to three chancellors. As the world economy has recovered, central banks need to re-examine their lax approach to tools such as interest rates so that they can respond to any future crisis. Not doing so will leave their arsenals worryingly empty.
Network problems: The peculiar case of home heating in Northern Ireland
The recent cold snap – and the ensuing spike in home heating oil prices – underscores the decarbonisation challenge in Northern Ireland, argues Policy Exchange’s Matt Rooney.
The Good Friday Agreement is in relatively good health
20 years on from the Good Friday Agreement, Lord Bew – Emeritus Professor of Irish Politics, Queen’s University Belfast – finds the accord in relatively good health. Despite concerns generated by the UK’s decision to leave the EU, cross-party support for the Agreement has increased and there are signs that the DUP & Sinn Fein are gearing up to try to restore power sharing.
Why new tests will help teachers give extra support to those pupils that need it
Policy Exchange’s John Blake – himself a former teacher – appeared on the Today programme to argue that new tests for young children will help teachers identify which children need extra support. In this blog, he says that, done properly, children will not know they are being tested and so union-led scaremongering should be ignored.
More Police and Crime Commissioners take over fire and rescue services – good news for frontline services
Policy Exchange’s Director of Research & Strategy Rupert Oldham-Reid welcomes the announcement that 3 more PCCs are taking over local fire & rescue services. He argues that this policy – which came from Policy Exchange – is good for taxpayers, local people and strengthens democracy.
Why isn’t the FinTech market a fin4all?
Policy Exchange’s latest recruit, Jos Henson-Gric, who previously worked in FinTech in the UK and Europe, looks at the Chancellor’s speech on FinTech and the Government’s new strategy and asks if it’s missing a trick when it comes to banking for those on low incomes.
The collective action to Russia was in part a result of the UK’s firm unilateral response
Policy Exchange’s Professor John Bew, whose essay on the Skripal affair was discussed on the Today programme, argues that the UK’s initial response to Russian aggression paved the way to wider, collective action.
Commentary on Sir Noel Malcolm’s “Human Rights and Political Wrongs”
Following the publication of Sir Noel Malcolm’s Human Rights and Political Wrongs, Policy Exchange’s Judicial Power Project has published five responses to his book by eminent legal and philosophical scholars. The short commentaries by Baroness O’Neill, Lord Phillips, John Finnis, John Tasioulas and Guglielmo Verdirame interrogate and complement Sir Noel’s work.
Time for political game-playing over the Irish border to stop
Policy Exchange’s Senior Fellow on EU Affairs Ray Bassett – himself a former senior Irish diplomat – argues that ‘any hard border in the Irish Sea and North/South would hurt Ireland a lot more than it would Britain’ and that Ireland’s interests are more aligned with the UK than EU. Consequently, he says Dublin should drop its efforts to keep Northern Ireland in the Customs Union.
