The following is a guest post by the Rev Dr Peter Mullen, Hon. Chaplain of The Freedom Association. 

Theresa May is very angry with Prince Harry. There was the great lady – Theresa, I mean, not Harry’s intended – with more press releases than she has pairs of shoes. For yesterday was to mark the launch of the government’s Grand Industrial Strategy: to give it its full title, The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. Acres of newsprint had been set aside for the publication of details of this great national plan. I nearly wrote Five Year Plan, after the manner of the former Soviet Union. But Theresa is far more ambitious than Joseph Stalin and her strategy looks forward as far as 2040. Television and radio schedules were cleared in advance for exciting ministerial appearances. Then, wouldn’t you just know it: the Prince and his Yankee girlfriend – “I’m just wild about Harry” – are the only news in town. Surely Theresa must be our unluckiest prime minister: first she loses a general election which even a pussycat would have won; then she cocks up the Tory conference with a coughing fit; and now her big strategic launch lies smothered under a pile of royal fluff.

Andrew Allison, Head of Campaigns, discussed Theresa May's future and Brexit in a four way discussion on TRT World. 

The following is a guest post by the Rev Dr Peter Mullen, Hon. Chaplain of The Freedom Association. 

Theresa May’s brand of conservatism has been called “socialism lite.” This is unfair to her. Perhaps it used to be socialism lite, but it now shows every sign of turning into socialism ‘evvy.

The latest wheeze takes the form of a bribe as the Tories hope to grab the young voters by offering cheaper rail travel. But this is only a gimmick, a sideshow. Across the whole range of economic policies, the government looks increasingly left wing: not far off Miliband’s 2015 election manifesto and certainly well to the left of anything produced by Harold Wilson or Jim Callaghan in the 1960s and 1970s.

The main news story this morning is the decision of the US authorities to impose a 220 per cent tariff on the imports of C-Series jets made by Bombardier in Northern Ireland. Bombardier is a major employer in Northern Ireland and 1,000 jobs are linked to the C-Series jet. This tariff has been imposed because Boeing complained that Bombardier gets unfair state subsidies from the UK and Canada. This tariff could triple the cost of the C-Series jet in the US, and you don't need a Ph.D to work out what that means: Bombardier will no longer be able to complete in the US market. This is protectionism, and protectionism always comes back to bite you when you least expect it.