Business, economics and policy for the promotion of excellence and better well-being in the EU, the UK and Malta
I write about the decisions that shape enterprise, the economy and public life across three systems I know well: the European Union, the United Kingdom and Malta. Business and competitiveness, growth and investment, the single market, and the rules now being written for technology. No party lines on the open pages. The case is always made on the evidence.
Purpose
Excellence in how we are governed. Policy judged on whether it works, not how it sounds. The best ideas in the world, brought home.
I built this site around one belief: that business, economics and policy are at their best when they are judged on outcomes rather than slogans, and treated as one connected whole. My focus is excellence and better well-being, real, practical, measurable, across enterprise and competitiveness, the economy and investment, institutions and accountability, and the rules now being written for technology.
I read three systems against each other, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Malta, and I look outward as much as inward, drawing on the best policy I can find anywhere in the world, then asking what it would take to make it work here. The aim is simple: better decisions, stronger institutions, and a willingness to keep learning from whoever is governing best.
The single market, competitiveness and regulation, from the AI Act to the case for a bigger, smarter Union.
UKGovernance, the economy, and the gap between the country on paper and the one people feel.
MTHousing, education and growth on an island that keeps leaving its own advantages unused.
Meta is on trial in California over a design its own research examined behind closed doors. The case for legislating a new model: child protection, private identity and age assurance, and a split between business and personal accounts, with what the UK, the EU, Australia and Malta are already doing.
In 2024 the Planning Authority received 2,411 complaints alleging illegal development and issued 191 notices, 162 of them from complaints. Across 43 policy domains, the powers exist and the state rarely finds the breach itself.
The EU is cutting €37.5 billion of administrative cost against a €750 to €800 billion annual investment gap. Simplification is about five per cent of the diagnosis. The other ninety-five per cent is capital.
47 per cent of trips stay inside their own region and the average trip is 5.5 km, yet 84 per cent are made by car. What Paris, Ghent, Barcelona and Scotland changed, and what the local plan review should copy.
John Healey has floated war bonds to fund UK defence. On the accounts the label changes nothing, so where does a purpose bond do real work? Who lends, what the money is tied to, and the £450 billion sitting in cash ISAs.
UK public wealth went from a quarter of national income in 1970 to minus £695.7 billion. Where it went, why taxes no longer buy services, and how to rebuild the state as a shock absorber.
UK industry pays the most for electricity in the developed world, four times the American price. What ten EU countries pay instead, and why cheap energy is now a security question.
Britain is not short of money. It holds trillions in long-term pension and insurance capital. The growth problem is where that money goes, not whether it exists.
Sponsor
Some arguments land harder as a picture. A running series on politics and policy, in Malta and the UK.
A landslide built on lent votes, and the bill that always comes due
Labour debates how to save the government
The first projection of 2026: a Reform majority bigger than every other party put together
Why this site
Headlines move fast and explain little. I write slower pieces that take one decision at a time, set out the trade-offs honestly, and show the working. You will not always agree with me. You will always see how I got there.
More about my approachGrowth, productivity, jobs, the cost of living, and what actually moves them.
02Schools, training, lifelong learning, and skills as national infrastructure.
03The EU single market, regulation, and Malta’s place inside both.
04Rule of law, public administration, accountability, and trust.
05Civil society, work and wellbeing, technology, and the social fabric.
06The centre-right case, made openly, for Malta and the UK.
Occasional, considered pieces on EU, UK and Malta policy. No spam. Reply to any email to unsubscribe.
