Provocateur
Julian Jessop

Julian Jessop

Julian Jessop's entire career has been a triumphant refutation of the notion that economics is the dismal science. He took a first-class degree in that subject from the finest university in the world, and has post-graduate qualifications in both economics and law. But even patriotic Cantabridgensians may occasionally have a bad conscience about their economics faculty. Over the years, it has produced too many vulgar Keynesians and compulsive statists, many of whom gave disastrous advice to third world governments - and to our own one, in the days when Britain was in danger of becoming a third world economy.

Julian has spent many years correcting the balance. He has thirty years of experience as a professional economist in the public and private sectors, including senior positions at HM Treasury, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank, and is now Chief Economist and Head of the Brexit Unit at the Institute of Economic Affairs. Before joining the IEA in March this year, he was a Director and Chief Global Economist at the leading independent consultancy, Capital Economics.

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Politics

No need to fear the Turnip Bogle. Putting some flesh on a ‘Bare Bones’ Brexit.

David Davis is due to brief the Cabinet soon on the implications of a ‘no deal’ Brexit – perhaps on Halloween itself. But we should not be too scared.

Discussions about the prospect of ‘no deal’ frequently generate more heat than light. Often, this is because the participants are not talking about the same thing.

At one extreme, some people interpret ‘no deal’ to mean an outcome where the UK leaves the EU in 2019 without any agreement on the future relationship. In addition to dropping out of the Single Market and Customs Union, this implies the end of cooperation in a wide range of other areas, including aviation, trade in medical isotopes, and security. Planes wouldn’t fly, cancer patients would be denied drugs, and terrorists would find their ghastly work even easier.

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Politics

Why this economist is also a Brexiteer

My name is Julian and I voted ‘Leave’. There, I’ve said it. For a professional economist in today’s Britain, this is close to heresy. Those of us who think that the UK is likely to be better off outside the EU have been compared (and not in a good way) to climate change deniers. It’s even been suggested that it is impossible to be both a proper economist and a Brexiteer.

Admittedly, the main reasons why I voted to leave the EU might be described as ‘political’ rather than ‘economic’. I saw the 2016 referendum as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to escape the slide towards a European super-state. The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, has at least been refreshingly honest about his desire to create an ever-closer union. Indeed, he would like a Banking Union, a Capital Markets Union, a Defence Union, an Energy Union, a Security Union… extending the reach of the EU into every aspect of our lives. No thank you. I am happy to think of myself as European, but Europe and the EU are not the same thing.

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