


Oxford and Cambridge are too small
Linking up the cities, and letting them grow, could power Britain’s economy
Two weeks ago few people had heard of Tempsford, a sleepy village of 600 people in rural Bedfordshire. But it is located handily at the intersection of the east-coast mainline, which runs between London and Edinburgh, and a proposed Oxford-to-Cambridge railway. That made it an ideal spot for a new town and railway station, suggested a blog by Kane Emerson and Samuel Hughes, a pair of researchers, in July. On January 29th the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced that—hey presto!—Tempsford would be built.
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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Build the Arc”

British “equal value” lawsuits have become an absurd denial of markets
The gavel takes on the invisible hand

Britain’s plan to shake up school inspections pleases no one
Labour replaces a simple but controversial system with a complex, clunky one

Worries about Britain’s construction crunch are overdone
Stop worrying and learn to love the labour market
Milton Keynes shows the rest of Britain how to grow
NIMBYs don’t have the upper hand everywhere
Wanted: a Britain economics writer
An opportunity to join the staff of The Economist
Must Leeds always lose?
Too prosperous to pity. Too poor to thrive