The report signifies No. 10’s recognition of the clout wielded by Conservative backbench rebels, but its substance has little to placate them. Following sustained pressure from the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) of backbench Conservative MPs under the leadership of Mark Harper and Steve Baker, the government has published an economic, health and social impact Read more…
The Prime Minister recently travelled down to Torridge and West Devon, the constituency of my parliamentary colleague Geoffrey Cox QC MP, to celebrate the re-opening of the historic Appledore shipyard. The last survivor of a centuries-old tradition of shipbuilding on the North Devon estuary, sailors from the village are rumoured Read more…
BY JAMES YUCEL As we approach the final stage of the Brexit negotiations, this country, and our negotiators, increasingly face a once-in-a-lifetime choice. We can accept Michel Barnier’s terms as they are and see ourselves restrained by EU regulation for decades to come – or we can choose freedom in Read more…
BY DR NEIL SHASTRI-HURST As autumn approaches across Ankara, dark clouds gather over the Eastern Mediterranean. This is the latest storm brewing involving President Erdoğan. The escalation in tensions between Greece and Turkey, following the recent discoveries of potentially rich subsea oil and natural gas deposits, is merely the latest Read more…
One might have been forgiven, before Covid-19 entered our national consciousness, for thinking our government would be well prepared to handle whatever new illness nature could throw our way. The UK government prides itself on the extraordinary resources it has available and our world-leading healthcare services and research capabilities. Yet Read more…
BY SERENA LIT The Hammersmith Bridge has stood for almost two centuries, providing the people of West London a vital crossing point on the Thames. Having been closed to cars since April last year, its closure to all pedestrian, cyclists and river traffic last month was a devastating blow. What Read more…
BY JOEL RODRIGUES There are many figures in British political life who have had an immense impact on the Brexit process, from the politicians who pushed for a referendum, to the activists and campaigners who saw through the win for Vote Leave. But there is an unlikely figure who, in Read more…
BY JAKE SCOTT President Reagan famously remarked that the most chilling words in the English language were, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”. I was broadly in favour of the lockdown measures at the beginning of this year, but now that they have turned us into a Read more…
Few ideologies have inspired such frequent premature eulogies as free-market capitalism. The economic system which has succeeded across cultures and geographies and millennia is berated by its critics as harsh, immoral and exploitative. With each major technological development, the naysayers prophesise its collapse and replacement with some utopian economic system. Read more…
BY HENRY HILL After a month and a bit of sweet freedom, the nation is gearing up for what looks increasingly like a return to lockdown in the months ahead. Whilst it’s unlikely to be the full-fat, don’t-leave-your-home version we saw in the first few weeks, the grim messaging from Read more…
BY SERENA LIT It is a quintessential British bonding experience to enjoy a joke at the expense of our quasi-sometimes-maybe allies stationed across the English Channel. It has become a somewhat entrenched part of our national identity. Nevertheless, even the truly gallophobic among us couldn’t possibly sustain the argument that Read more…
BY SIR JOHN REDWOOD The BBC are their own worst opponents. Their recent cancellation of a couple of much loved old songs that are famous worldwide and have not before caused protests led many of their former BBC news/Radio 4 audience to anger or despair. They are so dominated by Read more…
BY MOLLY GILES The BBC has capitulated to the argument that the words of Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Brittania are laden with colonial overtones and should be abandoned. Instead, orchestral-only versions will be played. The BBC’s continued politicisation of the Proms is deeply ignorant – something which Read more…
BY HARRY WILKINSON The furore over the downgrading of predicted A Level grades has disguised a far more important issue. That is, what exactly are our students learning? The answer, according to the latest figures is increasingly Psychology, Sociology and Media Studies. On Monday, I posted what I had thought, Read more…
BY ETHAN THOBURN As the furlough scheme comes to an end this autumn, it is paramount that we get the economy back up and running, especially after it was announced that the British economy had shrunk, in terms of GDP, more than any other developed nation in the West. Boris Read more…
BY EMILY BARLEY While politicians and security specialists scramble to mitigate the dangers posed by Russia and China, a threat closer to home and with the political and legal links more appropriate for a like-minded ally slips under the radar. EU member state Romania has gone rogue, with its renamed Read more…
BY SERENA LIT In this time of mass confusion, three things have become painfully clear: the algorithm Ofqual used to calculate this year’s GCSE and A-level results contained class bias, the so-called ‘triple lock’ actually secures nothing and over the course of lockdown the gap between state and independent schools Read more…
BY MO METCALF-FISHER From the title of this piece, you might be wondering what I mean by churches having an anti- social behaviour problem. It might be hard to imagine anyone wanting to carry out criminal damage at your local church; a place where many gather in prayer, reflect, exchange Read more…
BY DR ROB SUTTON An ageing population with an increasing disease burden, combined with ever more expensive treatments, continues to stretch funding for the NHS, where costs which have far outpaced income growth. For decades, governments have taken the same approach: throw more money at the problem and hope whoever wins the Read more…
BY EMMA WEBB Over the last few days Twitter has been awash with those wanting to point out what they see as hypocrisy of the ‘all lives matter’ crowd. #AllLivesMatter except for those crossing the channel in rubber dinghies, right? Unfortunately, with this kind of shallow point scoring rhetoric, what Read more…