IEA Podcast

In this Institute of Economic Affairs podcast, host Callum Price is joined by Managing Editor Daniel Freeman and Energy Analyst Andy Mayer to discuss the latest UK unemployment data, the impact of artificial intelligence on the labour market, and the Government’s recent energy market reforms.
The episode opens with the latest jobs figures, which showed unemployment falling to 4.9% — but with the bulk of that drop driven by people leaving the workforce altogether rather than finding work. The panel examine the role of the Employment Rights Act, rising employer National Insurance contributions, and the equalisation of the minimum wage for younger workers, arguing these policies have made hiring significantly more expensive and are contributing to rising economic inactivity, particularly among 18 to 24 year olds. The panel also touch on the Unite Union staff strike against their own union and the broader implications of expanded trade union access rights. A new Centre for American Progress report on AI and the UK labour market is then assessed, finding little disruption to employment so far, with the counterintuitive example of programming jobs actually rising since the rollout of tools like ChatGPT.
Andy Mayer then walks through Ed Miliband’s proposal to reform the renewables obligation system, which would shift older wind farm contracts from market-linked pricing to the contracts for difference model. Mayer argues that while the reform may produce more price stability, it is unlikely to deliver lower bills and risks undermining the price mechanism in the electricity market, leaving Britain with a consistently expensive energy system. The panel close by discussing what a sensible alternative energy mix might look like, with nuclear identified as the only viable firm, low-carbon power source.
The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.
The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.


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In this episode of the IEA Podcast, Callum Price is joined by Editorial Director Dr Kristian Niemietz to launch a new series on the IEA Insider Substack: Millennial Liberalism. The series, inspired by the IEA’s 1985 anthology The New Right Enlightenment, brings together young classical liberals to share how they came to their ideas in a generation overwhelmingly hostile to free markets. Kristian explains why liberals of any era have interesting origin stories worth telling, while their left-wing peers rarely do, because being left-wing at a young age has become the default rather than a deliberate choice.
The conversation digs into the polling that defines the moment. More than one in three young Britons hold a positive view of communism, two-thirds back BLM, and around half favour reparations for the transatlantic slave trade. Kristian argues this is not boomer slop from the right wing press but the sincere answers of millions of young people, and he dispels the comforting myth that this generation will grow out of it. The data shows older millennials in their early 40s already think indistinguishably from teenagers, meaning the traditional rightward drift with age has effectively stalled.
Callum and Kristian also explore why the old left-right map no longer fits, with progressives driving cancel culture and the British right increasingly defined by NIMBYism and a refusal to build anything. They discuss what unites today’s young classical liberals with the boomer-era thinkers who came before them, the intellectual sources they still draw on from the Chicago and Austrian schools to Robert Nozick, and what gives Kristian hope that liberalism can survive as one credible option among many, even if it never becomes the majority view.
The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.
The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insider.iea.org.uk/subscribe

In this Institute of Economic Affairs podcast, Callum Price is joined by Director General Lord Frost and Editorial Director Kristian Niemietz to discuss the week in economics. The episode covers findings from the IEA’s landmark public opinion report on British attitudes to economic growth, a new poll from the New Statesman on the gender gap in political attitudes among young people, an IPR report on NHS reform, and the SNP’s proposal to cap prices on essential food items.
The panel examines the IEA polling which found that most Britons believe the UK is wealthier than comparable economies such as the United States, Australia and Singapore, when in fact it lags behind most of them significantly. The discussion moves to the generational and gender divides in political opinion, with Kristian noting that Britain is something of an outlier internationally, where young people across the board have moved left rather than following patterns seen in France or Germany. On the NHS, the panel critiques the IPR’s report arguing against a move to an insurance-based funding model, questioning whether it engages seriously with why some health systems outperform others and what role market mechanisms and incentives play.
The final segment takes on the SNP’s pre-election pledge to introduce price caps on staple foods including bread, milk and eggs. Kristian sets out why price controls distort the signals that coordinate supply and demand, and Lord Frost and Callum explore the practical consequences, including reduced supply, gaming of the system by producers, and the likelihood of follow-up interventionist legislation to paper over the failures of the original policy.
The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.
The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insider.iea.org.uk/subscribe

In this episode of Free the Power, the IEA’s occasional series looking at free market solutions to problems in climate and energy policy, IEA energy analyst and COO Andy Mayer speaks with Catherine McBride, CEO of the Great British Business Council and lead author of the report Premeditated Industrial Destruction. They discuss how three quarters of UK energy is not electricity but oil, gas and coal, and why decades of green regulation have quietly hollowed out Britain’s industrial base. The conversation takes in the collapse of the chemicals sector, the carbon border adjustment mechanism, flawed emissions accounting, and why the UK’s claimed 50% emissions cuts shrink to 19% once imports are factored in.
Catherine and Andy examine the specific industries that have been lost or are disappearing, from aluminium smelting and titanium dioxide production to ceramics and cement, and why highly productive industries are being replaced by low-productivity service jobs. They debate the role of the emissions trading scheme, the windfall tax on North Sea producers, and how the Government’s planning and licensing regime has made the UK uniquely hostile to domestic energy extraction compared to Norway and the US.
The episode closes with Catherine’s three priorities for any future government: lifting the windfall tax and other levies on North Sea producers, scrapping the licensing restrictions that prevent new wells, and reversing the net zero framework that she argues has made no measurable difference to global emissions while destroying competitive industries. She also highlights the critical minerals sitting in old coal mine tailings across the UK and the safety risks of the proposed carbon capture pipeline through the Peak District.
The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems. The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insider.iea.org.uk/subscribe

Britain wants growth. 87% of the public support it, cutting across age, income, and political affiliation. But there is a catch: most people do not believe they will ever actually see the benefits. While nine in ten expect big corporations and the wealthy to gain from a growing economy, barely half think it will improve their own lives. That gap between wanting growth and trusting it explains almost everything about British politics right now.
Matthew Lesch, public policy fellow and country manager at Freshwater Strategy, joins the IEA podcast to walk through a major new polling project of 3,000 people and a series of focus groups. The findings are striking. Two thirds of Britons think the country is heading in the wrong direction. Most believe their living standards are lower than their parents’. And when asked where the UK would rank if it were a US state by income per capita, the average guess was seventh. The real answer is 51st.
What does the public actually want? Lower energy bills, tax cuts for workers, more housing, and public services that work. Not ideology, not abstract GDP targets, just tangible improvements to daily life. Lesch breaks down the six political tribes driving opinion, explains why Reform and Green Party voters have more in common than anyone expects, and sets out what it would actually take to build a public mandate for pro-growth reform in Britain today.
The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.
The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit insider.iea.org.uk/subscribe