Articles by Alistair Miller

As expected, more bluster from Boris this evening. Viewed rationally, the Cummings affair is a storm in teacup, a concocted media frenzy cum vendetta. No doubt Cummings himself was acting rationally. But after eight weeks in lock down following government rules, which for many have involved great personal sacrifice, these are not normal times. People are angry, not because they … [Read on]

The economic and financial problems we will face in a few months from now are as nothing to those we faced in 1945. After enduring six years of war, millions of servicemen needed to be demobilised, millions more workers redeployed, the nation’s bomb-damaged housing and worn-out capital stock replaced, exports massively increased to compensate for the loss of foreign income … [Read on]

Judging from the debate raging in the conservative media, it is conservative political principles that are being tested unlike any other in the current crisis. Socialists and modern ‘social justice’ liberals have little problem with big government and totalitarian society. But framing the current emergency measures in terms of loss of individual liberty is, I think, not how conservatives ought … [Read on]

Anger is growing at the number of people openly flouting government advice to socially distance, travel only when necessary, and stay at home if possible. Parks, beaches and streets are packed with people out enjoying the sunshine, as if it were a normal bank holiday weekend. Crowds of youngsters were having a great time at my local skateboard park. Until … [Read on]

Professor Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical advisor, has just assured us that the latest deaths from the coronavirus are all among over-60s with underlying medical conditions. But how many over-60s, over-70s, and over-80s do not have some underlying medical condition? Whitty is really reassuring us that the casualties are old. And for our cost-benefit accounting policy makers, the old … [Read on]

The Telegraph is getting worked up about the vetoing of Heathrow expansion by the Court of Appeal. Why, they wonder, should a small number of climate activists get in the way of our national economic needs – in other words, the needs of globetrotting business executives and tourists? But it’s not only climate activists, along with anyone who attributes global … [Read on]

At last we are to have an immigration system which will force employers to train-up the indigenous population, instead of allowing them to employ imported cheap labour, which the state must then subsidise with in-work benefits. This is clearly an improvement. Yet even among the most ardent proponents of a ‘points-based’ immigration system, we hear the same hoary old platitudes: … [Read on]

We have been at ‘cyber war’ for years with China, the world’s foremost mass-surveillance state, world-leader in industrial espionage equipped with armies of hackers mounting cyber-attacks on Western corporate and governmental infrastructure systems – and now we plan to hand over them control of our digital communications systems, and further enhance their technological lead. So much for ‘taking back control’. … [Read on]