Is this Westminster’s coolest MP?
Parliamentary oath-taking rarely causes excitement. MPs swearing the oath of allegiance to the Crown after an election is an archaic…
David Cameron has quit. Is anyone surprised?
The Conservative party is in disarray. What the party does next matters for the whole of Britain and maybe even for…
Starmer’s ruthless efficiency has risks
A couple of years ago, an anecdote about Keir Starmer did the rounds at Westminster. The story was that when…
J.K. Rowling’s glorious refusal to be kind
‘Spread happiness, peace and calm.’ That’s the slogan on a T-shirt you can buy at M&S. It’s pink, has frilly…
A Danish lesson for Labour in how to revive Britain’s economy
The coincidence of the 2024 general election and the Euro 2024 football tournament is a great lesson in the myopia…
Labour MPs need to grow up
Westminster is full of clever people who spend a lot of time stupidly making simple things complicated. The story of…
What Rishi Sunak can learn from Gordon Brown’s golden mistake
Gordon Brown is a historian by education, so he might just appreciate the fickleness of posterity. Over a decade at…
Why are police officers slow to respond to domestic abuse call-outs?
Popping out to buy milk the other night, I saw how women die. My nearest local shop in south-west London, the…
How to defuse the pension timebomb
Another day, another smart report arguing for higher payments into our pensions. Standard Life and WPI Economics have published a…
A pension crisis is brewing
Ten years ago, George Osborne blew up the British private pension system. Because pensions are boring and complicated and move…
Britain is too sick
Britain is running out of workers. The UK population may be growing, but the share of that population that is…
Does Labour want an anti-CV revolution?
Alison McGovern, Labour’s shadow employment minister is one of those politicians who are always worth watching. She combines the ability…
The pension bomb facing Generation X
Happy birthday to me. Today I turn 48. I’m celebrating in an age-appropriate way: a trip to the physio for…
The surprising truth about ‘Nanny State’ Britain
This week, a Conservative Prime Minister announced he was banning something – disposable vapes. The reaction to that ban –…
I voted Remain, but there should be more pro-Brexit lords
Liz Truss has sent Matthew Elliott to the House of Lords in her resignation honours list. There are some obvious…
Alistair Darling was a great man
The death of Alistair Darling is a grievous loss. British politics has lost a man of decency, character, integrity and…
In defence of David Cameron’s comeback
David Cameron is back. This will make some people unhappy, because they dislike the man. Common reasons for disliking Dave include…
Are we diluting the meaning of ‘mental health’?
What does ‘mental health’ mean? Is the answer to that question undergoing a generational change, as younger people become more…
How Brits turned soft on crime
It is almost exactly 30 years since a young Labour politician told his party’s annual conference in Brighton that as…
I dislike David Cameron, but he was right on gay marriage
The other day, I found myself at a large event in a posh garden where David Cameron was present. Being…
Rowing back on his climate plan, Starmer is in it to win it
Over almost 30 years in and around Westminster, I’ve noted some persistent and essential differences in the culture and mindset…
What the campaign to abolish inheritance tax tells us about British politics
The Daily Telegraph, where I worked for a decade, has launched a campaign for the abolition of inheritance tax (IHT).…
The trouble with Britain’s net migration figure
Where to start with the net migration figures? As someone who has generally defended liberal immigration policies, I could just shout,…
The Tories would be lost in opposition
It is widely observed that many Conservatives are preparing to lose power at the next general election. The Conservative Democratic…
We need to talk about the Liberal Democrats
Since 2015, it has been common and rational for people in Westminster to ignore the Liberal Democrats. After the end…
