Sam Dumitriu
CapX
United Kingdom
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Past articles by Sam:
How a simple visa fix can open up Britain to some of the world's smartest graduates
Rankings are enormously powerful. They help us decide where we eat, who we work for and, in the case of university league tables, where we study. But their influence goes further, and rankings can be a fine example of Goodhart’s Law often applies – when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a […] → Read More
Rishi Sunak has shown his true colours by hiding stealth tax rises in the detail
Don’t be fooled, Rishi Sunak is a fiscal conservative first, and a low-tax conservative second. This was a tax-cutting spring statement, but as the Office → Read More
If the Government wants British tech to thrive, it must kill this bill
This week, it was reported that at a meeting with Microsoft, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries asked: ‘When are you getting rid of algorithms?’ Some questions are better left unanswered. She has now unveiled the Online Safety Bill, a mammoth piece of legislation. To be honest, I didn’t hold out much hope that this would be […] → Read More
The EU's link tax is bad enough, but the UK's version would be even worse
It is ironic that on the day the Government published a report entitled ‘The Benefits of Brexit’ intended to highlight post-Brexit deregulation wins, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) briefed a plan to implement a more extreme version of the EU’s link tax. The proposals, modelled on Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code, […] → Read More
Rachel Reeves must ground Labour’s policy in compelling plans for economic growth
It is easy to get frustrated following politics. I’m not talking about the in-fighting, the hypocrisy, or the subsequent tendency for allegations of → Read More
The Government should capitalise on the sharing economy, not tax it to death
I recently came across a start-up based on a premise that’s hard to argue with: babies don’t stay the same size for long. In fact, the average baby outgrows seven clothing sizes in two years. No wonder founder Eve Kekeh describes it as ‘the ultimate fast-fashion’. Her baby clothing rental business, Bundlee, appeals to eco-conscious […] → Read More
Crackdowns on tech mergers will only serve to deter British entrepreneurs
What if Facebook had never bought Instagram? This question keeps competition regulators like the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) up → Read More
What we get wrong about going green
Allegra Stratton, Boris Johnson’s climate spokesperson, is encouraging us to go ‘One Step Greener’. The new campaign highlights micro-changes we can all make to cut our environmental impact. She points out that Reckitt, who make Finish, want us to stop rinsing our plates before putting them in the dishwasher. Freezing bread, walking to the shops and […] → Read More
Britain is running out of new ideas and it's killing productivity
It is no secret that Britain is in a productivity slump. The statistics should be familiar. In the decade before → Read More
A revamped New Enterprise Allowance would do wonders for business creation
It is not often you find a Thatcherite policy that is just as likely to be celebrated in The Guardian or the RSA, as it is by The Daily Telegraph. The Enterprise Allowance Scheme (EAS) was a rare exception. The idea is simple: pay the unemployed to start a business. The results were impressive. Success […] → Read More
New tech regulation mustn't be allowed to stifle innovation
There is scarcely any market that could not be described as digital in 2021. In ten years time, the phrase → Read More
A simple way to help businesses – without adding to the long-term debt pile
Should we expect tax hikes in tomorrow’s Budget? ‘ In the last few weeks ‘sources close to the Treasury’ have floated raising almost every tax under the sun, aside from VAT, National Insurance and Income Tax, which are protected by a seemingly unbreakable Tory manifesto pledge. But you shouldn’t believe everything you read during the […] → Read More
The gig economy is too important to leave to the courts
The world was a very different place in 1996. Back then, fewer than one in five households owned a mobile phone, Google would not exist for two more years, and John Major was still Prime Minister. Today’s Supreme Court’s ruling that Uber drivers are workers, and not self-employed, was based upon legislation from that year. … → Read More
Is this the worst policy idea of the pandemic?
Should remote workers be hit with a 5% tax increase when the pandemic passes? Deutsche Bank thinks so. “For years we have needed a tax on remote workers – Covid has just made it obvious” confidently asserts Luke Templeman, a strategist in the bank’s Thematic Research division. Yet his policy brief proves neither that a … → Read More
Uber have won - but their battles with TfL are far from over
Uber can stay in London, for now. The ride-sharing app is once again ‘fit and proper’ to operate, after winning an appeal against TfL’s decision to revoke their license. We’ve been here before. In 2017 when TfL banned Uber for the first time, they were overruled by the courts. Back then, Uber was granted a … → Read More
Entrepreneurship can be taught – so why don't we teach it more?
Sam Dumitriu argues that entrepreneurship is a valuable lesson that should be taught more widely as schools return this September. → Read More
Schools should start early on training the next generation of entrepreneurs
“When will I use this in real life?” As schoolchildren return to the classroom, teachers will have to respond to a familiar question. They often have a good answer, but in a world where ways of working have changed dramatically over the past decade, and over the past several months, it’s a question policymakers should … → Read More
A digital tax is no way to reward our innovative online retailers
Throughout lockdown, the advantages — indeed, the essentiality — of online retail became clear. Now, Rishi Sunak is rumoured to → Read More
Don't scrap the tax break that gives Britain its edge
If you were to ask most policy wonks what the Chancellor, Sajid Javid, should do to fix the UK’s tax system in the next budget, you’ll probably get the same answer. After conceding that merging NI and Income Tax or abolishing VAT zero-ratings is just too politically difficult, they’ll probably recommend scrapping Entrepreneurs’ Relief. Entrepreneurs’ … → Read More
Why we need a startup manifesto
Entrepreneurship policy might not grab the headlines when each party sets out its stall in an election, but if you get it right, it’s a heck of a lot easier to do everything else. Entrepreneurial endeavours have taken humanity from subsistence to relative affluence and it is entrepreneurs who will raise the living standards of … → Read More