Forget the Red Wall: it is Scotland that Labour and the Conservatives must win back
- 28 Nov 2022
In a very short time Rishi Sunak has stabilised the government, launched a new economic strategy and restored national credibility on the world stage. He has achieved much, but there is much more to do. A General Election may well be two years away, but the General Election ca...
Advent – the season the Church of England has forgotten
- 28 Nov 2022
Christmas decorations started appearing back in November and I noticed on the weekly shopping order that seasonal delicacies started to pop up in the ‘would you like’ column too around the same time. Outside the temperature was still hitting the 20s, inside it was yule logs an...
Mrs Thatcher can teach us how to govern effectively
- 23 Nov 2022
It is said that when President Kennedy met Chairman Khrushchev for the first time he found it a very gruelling ordeal. The young President was inexperienced, physically weak and had had a pampered progress to the Presidency. Khrushchev on the other hand was tough, experienced,...
Brexit right or wrong will be a big issue at the next election
- 17 Nov 2022
Amidst the intense interest in the Autumn Statement much other news, political and otherwise, has been squeezed out of the headlines. Fatigue too plays a large part in how close an eye we keep on things. We know catching covid can be serious and unpleasant but we are all fed u...
The City of London – Britain’s beating heart – is in a state of flux
- 7 Nov 2022
I have worked in the City of London for nearly a quarter of a century and if you walk round the Square Mile on any day of the working week you will find it teeming with life and bustling with activity. Office workers and traders, builders and merchants, stall holders and shop ...
Review: The Yeoman of the Guard at The Coliseum
- 7 Nov 2022
The Yeoman of the Guard, Gilbert & Sullivan, English National Opera, The Coliseum There is nothing better on a cold west winter’s weekend afternoon than going to a matinee. Whether it’s the cinema, theatre or in this case the English National Opera’s new production of G...
Sunak: Seventeen days to save Britain
- 31 Oct 2022
Rishi Sunak has been Prime Minister for six days, not even one full week, and already it seems an eternity. He inherited a political shambles and an economic disaster. Under both his immediate predecessors the government had been careering around like a dodgem car with no-one ...
Will Rishi Sunak want to appoint the Bishops?
- 26 Oct 2022
Rishi Sunak’s arrival in Downing Street as the new Prime Minister brings new hope as well as fresh opportunity. His thinking on who should form his Cabinet and serve in his government has been tightly held information. Indeed the absence of informed speculation is remarkable a...
And the winner is Jeremy Hunt …..
- 24 Oct 2022
“Businesses calls for political stability as outlook worsens” ran a headline in the Financial Times on 21 October, the day after Liz Truss resigned as Prime Minister. Two days later, former Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King said when asked about the Conservative P...
Business is taking a closer look at Labour and this should worry Conservatives
- 17 Oct 2022
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, has one chance and one chance only to reset government policy and re-establish confidence in the governments economic policy. It is a an enormous responsibility. The Prime Minister and the rest of the Cabinet are merely bystanders ...