Liam Halligan | The Spectator columnists & writers

The house mafia: the scandal of new builds

‘We don’t just have snags with this house — “snags” suggests issues that are minor,’ says Kelsey Aldritt of her new-build Persimmon house just outside Pembroke, Wales. ‘This house has had major problems from the moment we moved in.’ Kelsey is six months pregnant and the doctor has told her not to get stressed, but with a house like this, stress is unavoidable. ‘It really angers me that Persimmon gave us such a defective house,’ says Kelsey’s partner, Theo. ‘Nothing is built right — and I don’t want Kelsey upset, worrying about chasing Persimmon to do repairs, not at a time like this.’ The case of Kelsey and Theo is far from exceptional. I’ve reported on countless ‘new-build nightmares’ over recent years. Social media is full of support groups of young homeowners suffering at the hands of large housebuilders.

British broadcast news has gone badly wrong

I’ve worked for some media thoroughbreds — including the Financial Times, ITN and CNN — so I know the sense of assurance that comes from wearing the badge of a long-established journalistic brand. But nothing — nothing — beats the buzz I now feel as a presenter on GB News. It’s the thrill of being part of a start-up, especially one so many want to fail. We GB News types are disruptive and entrepreneurial. We think that British broadcast news has gone badly wrong. It has become smug, stale and monocultural. We want to do something about that. Amid the advertising boycotts, inevitable technical glitches and even more inevitable catty reviews, we know we are on to something — and that’s what scares the incumbents. One particularly snidey review of our launch show, which managed entirely to misquote me, concluded that we’d last ‘a year, tops’.

Covid has left Britain printing money like never before

Lockdown is convulsing the British economy on multiple fronts. ‘Going to work’ has been upended, hitting transport and commercial property sectors. The demise of the high street accelerates as online retail surges. Yet the definitive Covid-related economic trend is happening within the national accounts, as the government spends vast sums on furloughing and other business support, while our locked-down economy struggles to generate tax. This has big implications for investors. The UK borrowed an astonishing £215 billion between April and October, almost twice the annual NHS budget. Our national debt now exceeds £2,000 billion — and just outstripped annual GDP, a first in our peacetime history. Amid renewed lockdown, with furlough extended until spring, voters blink at the mind-boggling numbers.

Coffee House Shots

Is this the next cladding scandal?

18 min listen

Coffee House Shots

Is this the next cladding scandal?

18 min listen

After the Grenfell Tower fire, new fire safety legislation was introduced in an attempt to ensure the tragic incident was never repeated. But the new rules have left some tower block tenants unable to sell their properties, and they could be forced to pay tens of thousands to replace dangerous classing. Why? Fraser Nelson speaks to Emma Byrne, assistant editor of the Spectator, alongside the Telegraph's Liam Halligan.

The Edition

The Trump Show: he could just win again

35 min listen

The Edition

The Trump Show: he could just win again

35 min listen

With protests in American cities continuing and the Democrat and Republican conventions drawing to a close - are there signs that Donald Trump could win again? (00:45) Plus, could planning reforms be the next Tory battle? (13:05) And finally, can daily commutes really be enjoyable? (25:45)With editor of the Spectator's US edition Freddy Gray; the Spectator's economics correspondent Kate Andrews; the Spectator's political editor James Forsyth; economist and author Liam Halligan; the Spectator's features editor; and author Sara Yirrell.Presented by Cindy Yu. Produced by Cindy Yu and Max Jeffery.

Spectator Out Loud

Liam Halligan, Lionel Shriver, Ysenda Maxtone Graham

19 min listen

Spectator Out Loud

Liam Halligan, Lionel Shriver, Ysenda Maxtone Graham

19 min listen

Liam Halligan on the inflationary dangers of the Bank of England's quantitative easing; Lionel Shriver on the vanity of white guilt; and Ysenda Maxtone Graham on the existential danger that choirs are facing.

Quantitative easing is a dangerous addiction

The FTSE-100 index of leading stocks is over 20 per cent up since Britain went into lockdown — ‘bull market’ territory. The government borrowed £55 billion in May, nine times more than the same month last year — yet borrowing costs are down, with some investors now paying to lend to an increasingly indebted nation. Who cares if the UK economy will shrink some 10 per cent this year, as our national debt rockets above 100 per cent of GDP? Stocks are up, bond prices are up and the laws of economics have been suspended. It’s different this time — and all because of quantitative easing. Back in 2009, with the global banking system on the brink of collapse, QE was a justifiable emergency measure. But this one-off post-crisis necessity has now morphed into a lifestyle choice.

The coronavirus is China’s biggest test since Tiananmen Square

Over 1,500 Chinese have died from the coronavirus, with tens of millions quarantined in their own homes. President Xi is keeping a low profile, mindful of the political dangers should China’s authorities fail to contain this killer bug. In the UK, nine people have been diagnosed with the virus, including two GPs. Several public buildings have been closed – including schools, medical centre and an old-age care home – with Health Secretary Matt Hancock warning of a 'serious and imminent threat'. Amid fears of the human fall out from what the World Health Organisation has classified as Covid-19, concerns are growing, also, about the economic and financial impact of this virus – in China and beyond. When severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) broke out in southern China in 2003, the People’s Republic accounted for just 5 per cent of the world economy.

Can Leo Varadkar defy the odds to win another term as Taoiseach?

Back in October, Boris Johnson and the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar met for ‘last-ditch’ Brexit talks at a hotel on the Wirral. After nine years in power and having lost control of parliament, the Tories were in disarray. Few thought Johnson could win concessions on the Irish backstop — that perennial stumbling block, the key to securing a new withdrawal agreement with Brussels. ‘It will be very difficult,’ said Varadkar, as the Merseyside ‘wedding venue’ summit began. Yet Johnson wooed the Irish delegation, got his concessions, struck a fresh EU exit deal — and went on to clinch a dramatic general election victory. Three months on, the tables have turned. For Varadkar’s Fine Gael party has also been in power for nine years and, having lost control of the Dáil, or Irish parliament, must now face the electoral music too.

Nightmare on Downing Street: what could happen on Friday 13th?

Radicalism does not usually work out well for the Labour party. Michael Foot fought the 1983 general election on a hard-left manifesto famously dubbed ‘the longest suicide note in history’ and saw his party’s worst result since the first world war. But as next week’s general election approaches, despite running on an even more sweepingly statist programme, Labour is rising in the polls. The most left-wing government in British history is now a real possibility. On the face of it, this makes no sense. Why, after the chaos of the last hung parliament, would voters choose another one? The prospect of Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister, propped up by the Liberal Democrats, the SNP or both — plotting second referendums on Brexit and Scottish independence — is too traumatic to contemplate.

The Brexit deal gives Northern Ireland an extraordinary opportunity

Ulster says No. So went the Unionist slogan against the Anglo-Irish Agreement which paved the way to ending the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Signed by London and Dublin, the 1985 treaty gave the Republic of Ireland a role in Northern Ireland’s governance for the first time, while confirming the six counties’ constitutional position within the UK — a vital step towards the Good Friday Agreement 13 years later. ‘Mrs Thatcher tells us the Republic must have some say in our Province,’ boomed the Revd Ian Paisley outside Belfast City Hall, railing against this original power-sharing breakthrough. ‘We say never, never, never.’ Yet Paisley’s implacable opposition proved futile. He eventually played a leading role in securing the peace which followed.

Germany’s ailing economy can’t afford a no-deal Brexit

The UK was the ‘sick man’ when we ‘joined Europe’ in 1973. Now, with Britain on the cusp of leaving, the European Union’s largest economy is decidedly out of sorts. After failing to recover over the summer, Germany is now almost certainly in recession. The state of the fourth biggest economy on earth always matters — but with Germany dragging down the broader eurozone, its declining health could decisively impact Brexit negotiations too. Politically, Brussels and Dublin are bullish. They have dismissed Boris Johnson’s proposals, gambling on an extension and perhaps Brexit being cancelled entirely. But such intransigence could yet cause a disorderly no-deal Brexit — which would have a pretty big impact on all major economies on the continent.

Varadkar’s gamble

‘The government has relished wearing the green jersey on Brexit and standing up to the British with the help of the European Union — and been aware of the political benefits of doing so,’ thundered Pat Leahy in the Irish Times last week. ‘But now the pitfalls begin to emerge from the fog.’ Leo Varadkar gambled on the British government either cancelling Brexit or getting roped in by the backstop to accept Brexit in name only. The Taoiseach lost that gamble — and his strategy now lies in tatters. Since mid-2017, when Varadkar took office, teaming up with Brussels to take a maximalist, ultra-legalistic approach to the Irish border, his domestic commentariat has overwhelmingly backed him. The opportunity to exploit Theresa May’s reliance on the DUP, with tiny Ireland making life difficult for the mighty Brits, was just too tempting to miss.

Good Friday disagreement

The relationship between the UK and the Republic of Ireland has ‘reached a hunger-strike low’, says a new study by an academic from Trinity College, Dublin. ‘Relations have not been as tense since the early 1980s and political rhetoric that had vanished by the 1990s has re-emerged,’ the paper grimly concludes. The fragility of relations between Britain and Ireland is hard-wired into me. Having grown up ‘London-Irish’ in the 1970s and 1980s, all I ever wanted was for the two countries that define my ethnicity to get on. The Maze Prison hunger strikes of 1981 and subsequent Republican bombings in London and Brighton — where, lest we forget, the British prime minister was almost assassinated — were intensely distressing for this bookish, news-obsessed Catholic boy.

The wrong track | 7 February 2019

No one is in any doubt about the problem facing Britain’s railways. Over the past decade, rail fares have risen twice as fast as salaries. Yet across the national network, overcrowding is at record levels, cancellations are spiralling and passenger dissatisfaction is at a ten-year high. Yet ministers are about to start pouring £4.5 billion a year, every year for a decade, into building a single new railway route: HS2. To put this into perspective, the amount annually maintaining and upgrading the rest of the rail network is £6 billion. It’s a trap that we can, even now, avoid. Much has changed since the scheme was launched in 2010. Official cost estimates have almost doubled — from £33 billion to £56 billion. And even this might be modest: independent industry experts put the eventual bill above £100 billion.

Irish troubles

How did we get into this Brexit mess? Why is it proving so difficult to leave the EU? Was it Theresa May’s botched 2017 election, which vaporised her Commons majority? Or perhaps her general incompetence and lack of vision? How about the fierce determination of Europhile civil servants to save stupid Leave voters from themselves, cooking up a half-in-half-out withdrawal guaranteed to split the Tories? Maybe it was the cynical ambivalence of HM’s Opposition, with Labour simultaneously backing both Brexit and a second referendum, having always intended to cause chaos and spark a general election by voting down the UK’s exit, contradicting its own manifesto? Then there’s the relentless big business lobbying, with corporate vested interests determined to keep Britain behind the EU’s protectionist wall and smaller rivals ensnared in Brussels’s red tape.

Review: The book that reveals John McDonnell’s economic world view

In 1995, the Labour party voted to amend Clause IV of its constitution, ditching its historic commitment to mass public ownership. A significant victory for Tony Blair, it sparked a modernisation process that saw New Labour win three successive elections. On Monday John McDonnell drew wild cheers from Labour delegates in Liverpool when he directly rebuked Blair, insisting Clause IV is 'as relevant today' as a century ago. The Shadow Chancellor certainly rolled back the years during his conference speech, unveiling the most radical Labour prospectus of modern times – an unashamedly socialist pitch, calling for aggressive re-nationalisation and sweeping trade union powers. Listed UK companies will be forced to transfer 10pc of their equity to 'Inclusive Ownership Funds', said McDonnell, from which their workers, but mostly the government, would take dividends.

Why do banks and governments seem to have learned nothing from the financial crash?

With September marking a decade since the Lehman Brothers implosion, stand by for a slew of economic retrospectives. Any meaningful analysis, though, needs to get beyond historic balance sheets and plunging share price graphs — however dramatic the data. For the most significant impact of the biggest financial and economic upheaval since the Great Depression has been the growing loss of faith in western liberal capitalism. Politics has been upended by the 2008 crisis — doing much to explain Trump, Corbyn and the broader shift away from centrist parties towards extremes. The demise of Lehmans, a once-impregnable investment bank, exposed a US financial sector riddled with chronic debts and fraud. That sparked a peak-to-trough plunge of more than 40 per cent across western stock markets — the deepest since the 1929 Wall Street crash.

The world the crash made

The true cost of the Carillion wreckage

“We’re not doing a very good job of selling the private sector, are we?” So said an old friend of mine, among the Conservative party’s most senior advisors, as we discussed my upcoming Channel 4 Dispatches documentary on Carillion. Back in January, Jeremy Corbyn declared the implosion of the UK’s second-largest construction firm “a watershed moment” – and, in some ways, he was right. I don’t accept Carillion’s demise seven months ago means private companies should be kept away from providing public services, as the Labour leader has argued, or that Britain now needs wide-ranging nationalisation. The state already employs a fifth of the workforce, accounting for over two-fifths of GDP – which is quite enough. But when Corbyn seized on Carillion’s collapse in a bid to reflect and even galvanise public anger towards seemingly unaccountable big businesses, he was onto something.

‘We need to get creative’

‘It was Plato who said storytellers rule the world,’ observes Mariana Mazzucato, her powerful voice tempered with a beaming smile, ‘But the stories we’re constantly told about how value is created are largely myths. We must rethink where wealth really comes from.’ An economics professor at University College London, Mazzucato is fast emerging as one of the world’s leading public intellectuals. From her high-ceilinged office in Bloomsbury, a host of grant-making bodies on speed dial, this 49-year-old Italian-American is determined to ‘replace our current parasitic system with a more sustainable, symbiotic type of capitalism’. Mazzucato emerged from the academic shadows five years ago, when she wrote The Entrepreneurial State.

The end of the party

Since the crash ten years ago, stock markets the world over have been steadily recovering. The Dow Jones, a bellwether index, has enjoyed double-digit growth in five of the past ten years and soared by 25 per cent last year — credit for which, inevitably, has been claimed by Donald Trump. ‘The reason our stock market is so successful is because of me,’ he said on board Air Force One a few weeks ago. ‘I’ve always been great with money.’ We should not expect him to repeat this point any time soon. Earlier this week, the Dow suffered its worst fall in six years, losing 4.6 per cent in a single day and triggering a sell-off around the world. It went on to recover, but the loss — it was down by 1,175 points at one point, the largest drop in its history — was a lesson for everyone.

Boris Johnson’s proposal for a bridge across the Channel isn’t crazy – but the backlash is

Building a physical bridge between the UK and France is, apparently, ridiculous. I know that because, ever since Boris Johnson raised the prospect at the Anglo-French summit, my Twitter feed has been full of comments from various bien pensants ridiculing the idea. ‘If you like the Boris bridge idea, wait ‘til you hear about Liam’s plans for a zip wire from Washington DC to Washington, Tyne & Wear,’ quipped one commentator, referring not to me (on this occasion) but to Trade Secretary Liam Fox. ‘David Davis wants a pedalo from Boston, Massachusetts to Boston, Lincolnshire!’ parlayed another keyboard wag. As it happens, the construction of a bridge across the English Channel bridge is entirely feasible. Detailed plans, drawn up by an engineering consortium, with finance in place, were considered by the Department of Transport as long ago as 1981.

The Brexit divorce bill is ghastly but we can still make it work to our advantage

There is much outrage, among both Leave and Remain voters, at the size of the ‘divorce bill’ ministers have reportedly agreed to pay the EU. Figures of €60-65bn (£53-58bn) – more than one and a half times’ the UK’s annual defence budget – are being presented as fact. I share much of this outrage. The sheer range of numbers floated – not least the notorious €100bn figure reportedly demanded by Brussels – show that the cash-strapped EU is simply chancing its arm. The amount the UK will pay clearly has little to do with our provable liabilities. It is all about how much Brussels thinks it can extract. The strict legal position is that the UK owes zilch. Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty contains says nothing about any leaving bill.

No deal is a good deal

So Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker enjoyed a ‘broad and constructive exchange’ during their working dinner in Brussels. Last time the Prime Minister broke bread with the President of the European Commission — at Downing Street six months ago — Juncker dubbed her ‘deluded’ and complained about the food. Despite better mood music, this latest supper summit was hardly positive. European Union negotiators still refuse to discuss trade or end the divisive impasse over citizens’ rights until Britain agrees to pay a stonking ‘divorce bill’ — upwards of £40-£50 billion. All the while, the Article 50 clock is ticking. The prospect of a ‘no deal’ Brexit has lately loomed into view, and not a moment too soon. That’s because rather than focusing on issues that matter to real people, like commerce and residency, Brussels remains fixated on process.

This is what Theresa May should say in her Florence speech

Tomorrow in Florence, Theresa May needs to make the speech of her life. Britain has a strong hand to play in these EU talks and it’s time the Prime Minister showed it. May must assert once again that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’, shoring up the UK’s bargaining position. She should also insist Britain won’t confirm any ‘divorce bill’ until these Article 50 talks end in March 2019, with the final amount dependent on the goodwill the EU has shown. Above all, taking her cue from Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister needs to present an inspiring vision of the UK outside the EU. The heyday of Florence was as a free-trading, outward-looking, independent city-state, long before it was absorbed into a unified Italy.

A Parliament veto on Brexit would guarantee a stinker of a deal

Theresa May is warning Tory rebels that if Parliament gets a meaningful vote on Brexit, the European Union will be 'incentivised' to offer the UK a 'bad deal'. She is right. But that doesn’t mean the Prime Minister should dismiss the prospect of the House of Lords inflicting a second defeat on the government, with peers today set to back an amendment requiring Parliament to endorse the UK’s final Brexit deal. May should, in contrast, turn what looks like an inconvenience to her political and diplomatic advantage. Theresa May responded to the first Parliamentary defeat to the government's Article 50 bill, on an amendment designed to guarantee residency rights for all EU citizens currently living in the UK, by insisting her plan to trigger Article 50 before the end of March 'remains unchanged'.

Keynes’s grandchild

‘Did you really deserve the Nobel prize?’ I ask Amartya Sen. ‘Why do you think you won?’ When you’re sitting opposite the world’s most respected living economist, at a time when the dismal science is under intense scrutiny, an opening question should be punchy. Thankfully, Sen, an 83-year-old Harvard professor, has a sense of humour. ‘You can’t ask me that,’ he says with a grin. ‘I have absolutely no idea why I won.’ He then composes himself. ‘Like any researcher, I’m happy if my work interests others,’ he says carefully. ‘But it would be a pretty bad way to conduct one’s life, thinking about how to win prizes, rather than being listened to.’ Sen has achieved both. Born in British India in the early 1930s — in Mankiganj, now part of Bangladesh — he witnessed famine and religious conflict as a boy, before coming to Cambridge to study economics.

Ireland will have the hardest Brexit of all

Irish eyes aren’t smiling - when it comes to Brexit. As one who hails from the Emerald Isle, I’ve taken plenty of 'schtick' from Irish diplomats, relatives and pundits after publicly voting to leave. For the Republic of Ireland, European Union membership carries deep political significance. Joining in 1973, along with the UK but on equal terms, was hugely symbolic. A country then less than 30 years old was finally able to represent itself on the world stage. It is this escape from British dominance, more than Brussels-funded motorways, that makes EU membership central to modern Ireland’s identity. Liam Halligan and James Forsyth discuss Theresa May's Brexit plans: That’s why Brexit causes such unease - the gnawing sense that, yet again, Ireland will suffer from the seemingly thoughtless actions of its much bigger neighbour.

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