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How did an NHS clinic end up prescribing young people potential dangerous medical treatment with next to no data on the long-term effects? And why did that same clinic fail to respond to the concerns not just of outsiders, but its own staff?   These are just some of the many questions posed by BBC journalist Hannah Barnes in her new book 'Time To Think', which details the rise and fall of the Tavistock and Portman Trust's Gender Identity Development Service, commonly known as GIDS.   The clinic will shut its doors later this year after a series of damning reports and reviews, and an 'inadequate' rating from the Care Quality Commissions. The story of how what was once considered a ground-breaking medical service became mired in infamy is a fascinating tale of managerial failure, groupthink and a failure to observe basic clinical practice - a story Hannah sets out in painstaking and at times very moving detail in her book. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's that special time of year again when the Chancellor delivers a Budget, before commentators, policy wonks and political opponents rush to tear it apart in the ensuing days. In that noblest of British traditions, we invited our editor-in-chief, Robert Colvile and the Centre for Policy Studies tax and policy guru, Tom Clougherty, for a special Budget edition podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How bad was the British Empire? That's the question Nigel Biggar, Emeritus Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford, has attempted to answer in his book Colonialism a Moral Reckoning. But in doing so, he has confronted those who don’t just want to tell a one-sided story of an imperial project motivated solely by racism and exploitation, but who want to silence alternative narratives – and who almost succeeded in preventing his book being published. I was delighted to have the chance to talk to him, not just about his own personal battle with the culture warriors, but about the deeper philosophical issues at play. How do you make a moral assessment of a vast sweep of history, with multiple actors each with their own motivations – one which includes both enthusiastic participation in the slave trade and being instrumental in its abolition? And what happens if we allow shame about the past dictate how we do things today? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Government's Net Zero target is nothing if not ambitious - to decarbonise the British economy - energy, manufacturing, transport and agriculture included - all in the space of just a few decades. But while there is a glut of potentially exciting new low-carbon technologies, and some encouraging signs that renewables are getting a lot cheaper, there's still a huge question mark over how feasible the 2050 target is.   In his new book 'Not Zero', journalist Ross Clark suggests the Government has bitten off far more than it can chew, with a policy agenda that threatens to make Brits a lot worse off, with almost no benefit to the environment. I sat down with Ross to talk about just what Net Zero entails, how far the Government is from its target and if we aren't going to make it to Net Zero, what we should do instead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're talking about moola, lolly, dough or dosh - the thing that makes the world go round...Money.  In his recent book Money in One Lesson the economic journalist Gavin Jackson tries to answer a seemingly basic but very tricky question: what is money and how does it work? It's a grand tour of the monetary world, from pigs in Papua New Guina to sea shells in West Africa, the foundation of the world's first central bank and the links between currency and nationhood – all of which gave us plenty to talk about on this week's episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nicola Sturgeon's resignation on Wednesday morning was a slightly puzzling political event – 'shocking', in the sense that it heralds the departure of a politician who has occupied the highest perch in Scottish politics for so long, but also not all that surprising, given both the First Minister's recent political travails and the fact she had started to openly discuss how long she'd be in the top job. So what comes next? Who will succeed Sturgeon and how will her exit affect the cause of independence? To run the rule over Sturgeon's record and the shape of the succession, we were delighted to welcome one of Scottish journalism's leading lights to this week's CapX Podcast. Alex Massie is the Scotland Editor of The Spectator, a Times and Sunday Times columnist and, of course, has been a regular contributor to CapX down the years. He joined our editors John Ashmore and Alys Denby down the line from his home in Scotland to discuss the 'surface finery' of Sturgeon's politics, the SNP's dire domestic record and who the runners and riders are to success her as First Minister. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Britain isn’t working well for many of us right now. The cost of energy, housing, and food are too high, while decent jobs with real prospects are hard to come by.   That is the clarion call of a new campaign group that aims to get Britain building again - Britain Remade starts from the conviction that Britain has been a great hub of industry and science in the past, and there's no reason we shouldn't be in the future, provided we have the right policies in place .   Their agenda is very much the same one that animates both CapX and our parent organisation the Centre for Policy Studies, so we were very happy to have one of Britain Remade's founders, Sam Richards, on the podcast this week. Sam is a former director of the Conservative Environment Network and before launching Britain Remade worked as a special advisor in 10 Downing St, focusing on energy and environment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Few political questions are as basic, or as pressing, as how a government raises the money it spends – and the last year in British politics has provided ample examples of the political pitfalls of tax reform. In principle a good tax system should be a winning combination of fairness, efficiency, smooth revenue raising and growth-enhancing incentives. The UK does reasonably well on some of these fronts, but overall our system is a burdensome, convoluted mess that is ripe for reform. So if Jeremy Hunt really wants us to have the 'most competitive tax system of any major country', what does he need to do? And what, in the short time between now and the next election, are the most politically feasible reforms he could come up with? To run a critical eye over the iniquities of the British tax system, we called on the expertise of the Centre for Policy Studies' Head of Tax, Tom Clougherty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From sin taxes to plain packaging, smoking bans to warnings about the perils of office cake, the reach of Britain's nanny state has never felt more pervasive or pedantic.   Only this week the public health panjandrums came up with a new wheeze - proposing reducing the calorie content of certain naughty foods by 10% in a bid to shrink the nation's waistlines.   Few know the intricacies of the public health bureaucracy – and the redundancy of many of their arguments – like our guest this week, the scourge of the scolds, Christopher Snowdon.   As Head of Lifestyle Economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs, Chris is one of the most passionate and articulate defenders of individual liberty against misguided, over-zealous paternalism. He joined our editors John Ashmore and Alys Denby for a fun-filled chat about booze, fags and how to deal with the Covid 'Smileys'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our guest this week. John Longworth, is a real titan of UK PLC. As a scientist, business, entrepreneur and advocate for the interests of British business, there aren't many who have John's breadth or depth of experience - something he's bringing to bear now as chairman of the Independent Business Network, which represents our often ignored small and family businesses.  We sat down for a fascinating chat about how the Government can make a success of Brexit, the longstanding problems with the British economy and what British healthcare will look like in the decades to come. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CapX regulars know all too well the parlous state of British housing. We don't build enough, what we do build is often shoddy and angrily opposed by local people, and both rents and mortgages are increasingly out of the reach of even those on middling income. There is no single silver bullet, no snapping of the fingers that will suddenly deliver a properly functioning, prosperity-enhancing British housing sector. But that doesn't mean we can't do anything - far from it. To get into the weeds of just where we can improve housing policy, what can be done in the short and long term and, crucially, how to make beautiful design central to development, we were delighted to welcome to the CapX Podcast the Centre for Policy Studies' own Head of Housing, Samuel Hughes. Samuel is one of the leading lights of British housing policy, who combines his work at the CPS with a role as a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford's Faculty of Theology and Religion. There's a great deal for experts and laymen, Nimbys and Yimbys alike to get stuck into here, and there's no doubt you'll come away from the conversation better informed about the state of one of the UK economy's most important sectors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trying to boil down this eventful, hectic and often tragic year into a single podcast was always going to be a hell of a challenge - but here on the CapX Podcast we like to shoot for the moon and cram in as much content for our loyal listeners as possible. To that end, our editors John and Alys brought together some of Westminster's sharpest commentators to run the rule over their heroes and villains of 2022. We also found room for separate Politician and Policy of the Year awards and, to lighten the mood of a gloomy 2022, a Reasons to be Cheerful heading into the New Year. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wherever you look workers are going on strike and our schools are no exception - even though Jeremy Hunt managed to find an extra few billion behind the Treasury couch for education at his recent Autumn Statement. So what's going on here, why are union leaders still balloting, and what's the state of English schools after 12 years of Tory-led governments? To get the lowdown on all things educational I caught up with my Centre for Policy Studies colleague Mark Lehain, our Head of Education. Mark's no ordinary policy wonk. he's worked as a teacher, including as a headteacher and set up his own free school, as wel as working in the heart of government as a special adviser - what he doesn't know about English education over the last few years really isn't worth knowing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What kind of country is Britain today? That might be a rather broad question, but thanks to the recently published census, we can have a stab at answering it – at least for England and Wales. For this week's topical podcast we kick off with deep dive into those findings, what they say about Britain's demography and, in particular, the rapidly declining status of Christianity. And if it's British institutions you're worried about, you might be interested in hearing about this week's hoo-ha at the Wellcome Trust, where the museum's own board appear uncomfortable with the very concept of a museum. We'll also trawl through the iniquities of the Online Safety Bill with our colleague Matthew Feeney, the Head of Tech and Innovation at the Centre for Policy Studies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Baroness Dambisa Moyo is a seriously impressive woman. She’s worked at the World Bank and Goldman Sachs analysing global economic trends, and sat on the boards of numerous FTSE100 companies including Barclays and Chevron. She’s also the author of five books including best-sellers Dead Aid – a critique of development policy in Africa – and How the West was Lost, about a series of mistakes and failures of postwar economic policy that have seen the balance of power tip towards China. On top of all that she’s a sought-after speaker and writer, and advises the Government on racial and ethnic disparities. I caught up with her backstage at the Centre for Policy Studies’ Margaret Thatcher Conference to discuss the macro-economic challenges facing the world, what Britain can do about them, and why international finance is no longer a man’s world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our guest this week is one of a kind. A truly polymathic personality, there's not much Tyler Cowen doesn't have a well informed view on, from the merits of Bradford curry houses to the future of cryptocurrencies and the fate of Trussonomics.   That breadth of interest is evident from his prolific writing on his Marginal Revolution blog, in the pages of various newspapers and in the 20-odd books he's written in the last three decades or so. Tyler is also an avowed friend of the free market ,as Professor of Economics at George Mason University where he is chair and faculty director of the Mercatus Center.   His latest book, co-authored with Daniel Gross, is Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World.  As Tyler explains on the podcast, it's essentially a one-stop shop for companies and organisations looking to zero in on the best possible employees.   As you would imagine with Tyler, our discussion was as wide-ranging and entertaining as the man himself. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're turning our gaze Stateside this week where the mid-term elections promised a red wave and delivered ,well, something more like a ripple. A bad night for Donald Trump, a pretty good one for Joe Biden and a fascinating tee-up for the presidential race in a couple of years' time.  To chew over the results we welcomed back to the podcast my predecessor as editor, Oliver Wiseman, who since leaving CapX has written for a number of outlets with breadth and eloquence about the US political scene.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Law and order has shot up the political agenda in the last year or so, with the chaos in the Channel, damning reports into the culture of the Met Police and chaos in the prison system. Just this week we've seen the firebombing of a migrant centre in Dover and uproar over the treatment of asylum seekers at an asylum centre in the Kent village of Manston. Few commentators are better equipped to address this range of security issues than CapX regular Ian Acheson - a former prison governor, home office civil servant and community police officer, and now a senior adviser to the counter-extremism project. Ian brings a huge wealth of experience to bare in his regular pieces for CapX. In a media landscape where 'essential reading' has become a cliche, Ian's pieces genuinely fit the description – and his contribution to the CapX Podcast didn't disappoint either. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Typical isn’t it – you wait ages for a new Prime Minister and then three come along in six months. Rishi Sunak has taken command of a party that’s been through a bruising ideological battle and taken a battering in the polls as a result. He inherits an economy that’s in even worse shape than it was when Liz Truss took charge, which, to be clear, was already very bad. So where does he go from here? Will we see a return to the economic orthodoxy Liz Truss was reacting against, or will the third PM this parliament find a third way to get us out of the crisis and on a path to growth. To discuss this, the CapX Podcast is joined by two of our Centre for Policy Studies colleagues: our Research Director and Head of Tax, Tom Clougherty, and our Senior Researcher, Karl Williams. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Volodymyr Zelensky became a a global icon almost overnight following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of this year. The force of his leadership and defiance in the face of overwhelming Russian force offered hope in his country's darkest hour. For our guest this week, Zelensky's heroic defiance came as no great surprise. Iuliia Mendel worked as the president's press secretary from his election in 2019 until 2021, and her new book 'The Fight of Our Lives' is both a close personal account of working for Zelensky, and a moving tribute to a country whose very existence has been imperilled by the Putin regime. Iuliia joined us down the line from Kyiv, a city still living under the daily threat of Russian bombardment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.