The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has decided to resign after an independent report into the Church of England’s handling of abuse allegations against John Smyth found that Welby “could and should” have referred the matter to the police back in 2013. This post looks at the complex process for choosing Welby’s successor. Declaring the […]
How an Archbishop of Canterbury is appointed
How an Archbishop of Canterbury is appointed
13 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of religion Tags: British politics
Environmental Levies To Cost £108 Billion By 2029/30
08 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economic growth, fiscal policy, macroeconomics, public economics Tags: British politics

By Paul Homewood The OBR is very explicit about the new budget!! Spending up by £70 billion (so much for “black holes”!), tax up by £36 billion and borrowing by £32 billion. https://obr.uk/ But the bit we are concerned with is their updated projections for Environmental Levies, aka subsidies for renewable energy.
Environmental Levies To Cost £108 Billion By 2029/30
Politics of identity politics proved
05 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in liberalism, Marxist economics, politics Tags: British politics, free speech, Gaza Strip, Israel, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror
The UK Conservative Party has a new leader : . . . On Saturday the Conservatives elected Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch as their leader to propel them to victory at the next general election. . . Born in Wimbledon, southwest London in 1980, after her parents decided she should be born in Britain with the best […]
Politics of identity politics proved
Reeves to make Bank of England put climate change and growth on equal footing
31 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, macroeconomics, monetary economics, Public Choice Tags: British politics, climate activists, climate alarmism, monetary policy

By Paul Homewood So much for the Bank’s much vaunted independence! Rachel Reeves is planning to make the Bank of England take climate change as seriously as growth, as the Chancellor seeks to use her maiden Budget to overhaul the economy. In a letter to Governor Andrew Bailey on Wednesday, Ms Reeves is […]
Reeves to make Bank of England put climate change and growth on equal footing
Net Zero is Losing the Battle of Ideas
23 Oct 2024 1 Comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: British politics, solar power, wind power
It is encouraging that my intervention drew an enthusiastic round of applause which is testament to the growing scepticism about Net Zero among the general public. It appears to me that cracks are appearing in the cosy green consensus in Westminster and if we get our arguments right, we can win this debate.
Net Zero is Losing the Battle of Ideas
UK Labour in real trouble
16 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in politics, Public Choice Tags: British politics
It was only a few months ago UK Labour won in a landslide (helped by FPP). The next election is many years away, but they have a problem that their brand has turned negative so quickly, that it could be hard to change in future. The latest More in Common poll has the following:
UK Labour in real trouble
UK PM ratings
14 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, politics Tags: British politics
Here are the net approval ratings for UK Prime Ministers three months after each election: Starmer has become incredibly unpopular so quickly.
UK PM ratings
A tactical blunder
10 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in politics Tags: British politics
A big upset in voting for the UK Conservative leadership. James Cleverly who won the second to last round of MP voting, got knocked out in the final round, and won’t proceed to the members vote. Here’s how each round has gone: Round 1 Round 2 This is as expected. Patel’s votes go to three […]
A tactical blunder
Labour’s Climate Sleaze
09 Oct 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of bureaucracy, economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, Public Choice Tags: British politics, climate activists

By Paul Homewood LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) -Britain on Thursday named Oxford University professor Rachel Kyte as its new climate envoy and announced a new investment facility, the latest steps in the new government’s efforts to bolster Britain’s role in international climate politics. The appointment of Kyte, a climate policy professor, as the UK’s […]
Labour’s Climate Sleaze
Phoebe Plummer of Just Stop Oil Sentenced to Two Years–JSO Sad
29 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, economics of crime, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics Tags: British politics, climate activists, regressive left, useful idiots
hoebe and Anna have just been sentenced to 2 years and 20 months in prison respectively after throwing soup over the glass frame of Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’.
Phoebe Plummer of Just Stop Oil Sentenced to Two Years–JSO Sad
The BBC once again won’t use the word “terrorists” for Hamas
28 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, economics of information, law and economics, laws of war, war and peace Tags: British politics, Gaza Strip, media bias, Middle-East politics, political correctness, regressive left, war against terror

This article just appeared in Spiked (click headline below to read), but you can see a similar piece in the Times of Israel. The upshot is that the BBC, which has long bridled at using the word “terrorists” for Hamas, is now bridling again when the Beeb itself shows a documentary about the Nova Music […]
The BBC once again won’t use the word “terrorists” for Hamas
Facts about Britain
22 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, economic growth, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, energy economics, environmental economics, industrial organisation, labour economics, law and economics, macroeconomics, Public Choice, resource economics, transport economics, urban economics Tags: British politics
Between 2004 and 2021, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the industrial price of energy tripled in nominal terms, or doubled relative to consumer prices. With almost identical population sizes, the UK has under 30 million homes, while France has around 37 million. 800,000 British families have second homes compared to 3.4 million French families. Per capita electricity generation in the UK […]
Facts about Britain
The Problem Of Too Much Wind
19 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: British politics, wind power

By Paul Homewood FES 2024 As well as the problem of not having enough wind power at times, there is also the issue of having too much at other times. Consequently we have to pay generators to switch off. The National Grid’s Future Energy Scenarios this year estimated that 42.5 TWh would have […]
The Problem Of Too Much Wind
Equality Act 2010
18 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, history of economic thought, human capital, job search and matching, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, occupational choice, poverty and inequality Tags: British politics, compensating differences, pay equity

The UK’s Orwellian sounding Equality Act 2010 is strikingly Marxist. It demands equal pay for work of equal value where these are defined as follows: A’s work is equal to that of B if it is like B’s work, rated as equivalent to B’s work, or of equal value to B’s work. A’s work is […]
Equality Act 2010
The bus-sized battery farms threatening to blight Britain’s countryside
17 Sep 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: British politics, wind power

By Paul Homewood h/t Philip Bratby Wind mills, solar farms and giant batteries. How to wreck the English countryside for no good reason! Mega projects designed to store renewable energy are drawing the ire of rural communities The bucolic Buckinghamshire village of Granborough, while picturesque, is not much of a landmark. […]
The bus-sized battery farms threatening to blight Britain’s countryside
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