Author Archives: Jonathan Portes

Jonathan Portes

Jonathan Portes writes: If you want to get serious about growth, you need to be positive about migration

By Jonathan Portes | Tue 26th March 2013 - 1:45 pm

On Monday, I did seven interviews on David Cameron’s immigration speech. Each time I’ve tried to get across one simple fact: that all the available evidence suggests that immigrants – and immigrants from the new EU member states, in particular – more than pay their way. That is, that they pay more in taxes than they cost in benefits and services; overall, from being a burden, they make it easier to finance our welfare state not harder.

It is that basic fact that all three party leaders should be explaining to their constituents. Instead, they seem to be engaged …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , and | 23 Comments
Jonathan Portes

The Independent View: Low borrowing rates signal economic weakness, not strength

By Jonathan Portes | Thu 20th September 2012 - 2:00 pm

As the head of an independent economic research institute, it’s not my job to attend the Liberal Democrat conference (or indeed that of any other party). But, following up this FT article, I’d like to share some thoughts on this line from a motion you will be debating at conference:

Conference recognises that the difficult decisions taken by the Coalition Government have ensured the credibility of the UK government’s position in the financial markets allowing the UK to borrow at record low rates.

and on an amendment to the motion which you’ll also debate:

Conference also notes that it would be a mistake

…

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Posted in The Independent View | Tagged , and | 25 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Mark ValladaresMark Valladares
    Jana, A fair point, and I perhaps didn’t express that precisely enough, although the financial incentive to move from, say Nigeria, to the UK is rather gre...
  • Chloe
    Mark; If a Nigerian care worker in her early twenties can travel 4000 miles to work for just above the minimum wage, & reside in an HMO locally near the hos...
  • Jana
    @Mark Valladares “ The hospitality industry in the South East struggles to find staff, yet housing is so expensive that nobody could credibly be expected to ...
  • Pawel Urbanski
    @Nonconformistradical - I think that's a big part of it. Everything in schools points at university, and those not heading that way get remarkably little attent...
  • Nonconformistradical
    @Pawel Urbanski "That is the disconnect nobody talks about: the jobs are there, the young people are there, and the pipeline between them barely functions. Bef...