Section: CapX (The United Kingdom)
Gene therapy must keep pace with public trust
It’s perhaps not the catchiest name, but it is one worth remembering: CRISPR-Cas9. Only discovered in 2012, this powerful genome editing technique has rapidly become a widespread and indispensable tool for research, and today is used in labs across the world to study human development, fertility and disease. The technology is progressing at...
Has Trump been tamed?
Remember the end of the West? That was what many commentators (including me) foretold when Donald Trump won the American presidency in November. Causes for alarm abounded. The candidate’s own heedless and contemptuous remarks about allies and alliances; the exotic and eccentric characters at the top of his campaign; the stench of Russian...
How brands make the economic world go round
Market economies depend very heavily upon trust. As I sit here in this café, I am drinking tea someone made me. I trust that the person that made the tea has not sought to poison me, has not made the water so scalding I will be injured, has used cow’s milk instead of soya. I trust the Bank of England not to have suddenly withdrawn most of...
The Philippines and the economics of murder
After slow-drip revelations last month that several members of the Philippine National Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Group had kidnapped and killed a South Korean businessman in October 2016, a reluctant Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called off his “war on drugs” at the end of January. It was particularly embarrassing for the government that...
Is it time for an NHS tax?
Major historical moments are rarely caused by a single event. No single explanation for the result of the Brexit referendum tells the whole truth. Like the Scottish independence referendum of 2014, Brexit was a very personal epiphany. Your reasons for voting Leave – or, indeed, Remain – were not necessarily the same as your neighbour’s....
We must not disguise the truth about honour violence
Honour violence often entails cruel and horrifying brutality. Last week, in Afghanistan, a 23-year old woman had her ears cut off by her husband in the northern province of Balkh. She’d been married to him since the age of 13. He was suspicious of her meeting other men when she visited her parents. It’s not an isolated case. This time...
The Co-Op didn’t just need capital – it needed capitalists
Neither crystal meth nor rent boys are entirely unknown pleasures among churchmen or bankers. But we do have to thank the Co-Op Bank for bringing all four together in the one person. Paul Flowers, the so-called “Crystal Methodist”, was kicked out of first the bank and then the Church after lurid accusations emerged about expenses abuse, drug...
Why Britain really is biased against the young
The biggest lie about democracy is that it means rule by the people. Yes, that might be the literal meaning (the kratos of the demos). But what it actually means is rule by the people who can be bothered. That’s why, for example, the latest YouGov polls here in the UK are even more devastating for the Labour Party than they outwardly appear...
Why the Government is right to tax the high street
There was shock, horror and outrage today as it was revealed that business rates for Amazon will fall as those for high street retailers rise. CVS, a company which specialises in estimating rents and rates, tells us that Amazon will pay £148,000 a year less in rates under the pending revaluation – even as high street independents see rises...
Introducing ‘Explaining Capitalism’, our new competition
Only 32 per cent of Americans under 30 have a positive view of capitalism, compared to 43 per cent who approve of socialism. Barely 30 per cent of Americans born in the 1980s – and about the same proportion of Britons – think it is “essential” to live in a democracy. The British public, meanwhile, overwhelmingly support renationalising the...
