Martin Vander Weyer

Martin Vander Weyer is business editor of The Spectator. He writes the weekly Any Other Business column.

What shares would a post-Brexit ‘Optimist Fund’ include?

16 March 2019 9:00 am

The nation certainly needs optimism this week, so what better moment to start building our ‘UK Optimist Fund’ of shares…

Don’t hate housebuilders who profited from Help to Buy. It wasn’t their fault

9 March 2019 9:00 am

Was Help to Buy a timely market intervention with a valid social purpose or a political gimmick that unintentionally showered…

What’s the worst line of business you could be in, if we’re heading for no deal?

2 March 2019 9:00 am

What’s the very worst line of business you could be in, if we’re heading for a no-deal Brexit? Not finance,…

The UK car industry is reversing back to the 1970s

23 February 2019 9:00 am

When I wrote a fortnight ago, in the context of Nissan’s decision not to build its new X-Trail model at…

John Maynard Keynes [GETTY IMAGES]

What would Keynes make of a looming no-deal Brexit?

16 February 2019 9:00 am

‘It is seldom wise to sacrifice a present evil for a doubtful advantage in the future,’ wrote John Maynard Keynes…

The Nissan move shows Britain is losing its competitive edge

9 February 2019 9:00 am

Has ‘Jay’ Powell gone wobbly, or does he know something we don’t? That was the question being asked after the…

The super rich aren’t all bad – some even pay their taxes

2 February 2019 9:00 am

Paying tax — which many of us have been doing this week before HMRC’s 31 January deadline — is a…

Nobody who’s anybody was at Davos this year. Here’s why

26 January 2019 9:00 am

Nobody who’s anybody is in Davos this week and, as usual, neither am I. World leaders from Donald Trump to…

An energy crisis is looming – but ministers are distracted by Brexit

19 January 2019 9:00 am

Transfixed as you were by Westminster chaos, did you also spot the news that Hitachi is about to cancel or…

Why Macron is happy to leave Renault’s chief shivering in his Tokyo cell

12 January 2019 9:00 am

In France after New Year, the only gilets jaunes I spotted were a rather dejected bunch near an autoroute exit.…

A seven-year winter or a pleasant 2019? Your guess is as good as mine

5 January 2019 9:00 am

A friend reminds me that she sold her house last summer because I warned her 18 months ago that Brexit…

All I want for Christmas is a City time machine

15 December 2018 9:00 am

Are smartphones fuelling a pandemic of youthful anxiety and depression? That’s the question parents will wrestle with this Christmas as…

Who’s really to blame for the Crossrail fiasco?

8 December 2018 9:00 am

There’s been a strong sense of pre-Christmas turkeys coming home to roost in this week’s news, as stories I’ve written…

How a betting business saved Stoke-on-Trent

1 December 2018 9:00 am

I wrote last week of my fear that we’ll never ‘take back control of our fish’, as Brexiteers ardently wish,…

Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn was a tall nail. But was he really a bent one?

24 November 2018 9:00 am

The arrest of Carlos Ghosn and the move to oust him as chairman of Nissan in Japan has stunned the…

Anyone seen Jeff Bezos? I’m here to talk to him about tax

17 November 2018 9:00 am

 Los Angeles/Seattle US stocks briefly rallied after the midterm results as markets looked favourably on a divided Congress and the…

History will judge UK ministers harshly for the Irish backstop

10 November 2018 9:00 am

We may or may not hear news soon of a settlement of the Irish border issue that will allow Brexit…

Has Philip Hammond saved the high street? No – but every little helps

3 November 2018 9:00 am

How much did Philip Hammond’s giveaway Budget help dying town centres? Not enough, say campaigners, but let’s give the Chancellor…

Can Hammond’s Budget make business feel better about Brexit?

27 October 2018 9:00 am

‘Uncertainty is draining investment from the UK, with Brexit having a negative impact on eight in ten businesses,’ says Carolyn…

Going for gold

Why I’m boycotting ‘Davos in the Desert’

20 October 2018 9:00 am

The current stock-market correction has been steaming down the track since August and I claim no wisdom for having predicted…

Unilever’s botched plan to quit London leaves it open to hostile bids

13 October 2018 9:00 am

Unilever’s abandonment of plans to scrap its Anglo-Dutch corporate structure and leave London is a huge embarrassment for chief executive…

If the Tories are ‘the party of business’, the PM should listen – before it’s too late

6 October 2018 9:00 am

‘Let me say it, loud and clear: the Conservative party is, and always will be, the party of business,’ declared…

McDonnell’s one-term mission to turn Britain into the new Venezuela

29 September 2018 9:00 am

The least convincing thing said by Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell at the Labour party conference in Liverpool was ‘I…

The production line at the Jaguar Land Rover factory in Solihull, England. Photo: Getty

Jaguar’s boss isn’t scaremongering. The UK car industry is in big trouble

22 September 2018 9:00 am

‘I’m afraid I think he’s making it up,’ was the retort of Tory MP Sir Bernard Jenkin on Monday’s Today…

Ten years after Lehman’s fall, how close is the next crash?

15 September 2018 9:00 am

Our cinema is showing Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and I’m reminded of a remark attributed to Mark Twain,…