Putting Britain back together after the Brexit crisis will not be easy
- 22 Jan 2019
As each day passes a new snippet of detail, via an interview with a former aide or a passing comment by an old colleague, sheds more light on how David Cameron came to call and subsequently lose the Brexit Referendum. What is emerging is not a picture of political confidence a...
We need to sort out the UK’s productivity problem once and for all
- 10 Jan 2019
The latest set of productivity figures show once again the UK lagging lethargically behind comparable countries. Latest figures show the weakest results for two years – and we did not start from a high point. Productivity – how much we produce a thing for a certain cost com...
From the Gracchi to Nero – H.H. Scullard’s enduring classic
- 9 Jan 2019
2019 is a significant year for events and anniversaries. It is 80 years since the Battle of the Atlantic (the longest continuous battle of World War Two) began, 75 years since D Day, 50 years of CASD (continuous at sea nuclear deterrent), Brexit - to name a few. Alongside thes...
It’s time for the House of Commons to do its duty
- 13 Dec 2018
As the dust settles around number 10 and the rubble is cleared away from the corridors of the House of Commons the combatants come blinking and coughing into the daylight to find they are still here, nothing has changed – and yet everything is different. Nothing at Westminster...
Remembering George Bush
- 1 Dec 2018
In his very good biography of George Bush, Destiny and Power, Jon Meacham tells how on winning the nomination of the Republican Party for President of the United States he received a telephone call from the New York businessman Donald Trump asking if he could join the ticket a...
Book Review: Thomas Cromwell - A Life by Diarmaid MacCulloch
- 23 Nov 2018
Allen Lane £30 The Reverend Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, Kt., Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University, is that increasingly rare thing in Britain of the early Twenty First Century, a public intellectual. As comfortable in front of a television ...
MPs of all parties should come together and support the Prime Minister in passing the Brexit Agreement vote
- 23 Nov 2018
The final say on the terms of Britain’s departure from the European Union will soon end up where this whole complex process began, in Parliament. This is as it should be. Parliament approved the calling of a referendum and it approved the terms. It voted to support the trigger...
Remembering Jeremy Heywood
- 4 Nov 2018
Lord Heywood of Whitehall - more familiarly known to us as Sir Jeremy Heywood - served four Prime Ministers in No 10 with great distinction. His early death at the age of 56 robs the country of a very able public servant at a defining moment in its modern history. I met Sir...
Book review: Neville Chamberlain – Redressing The Balance
- 2 Nov 2018
Neville Chamberlain – Redressing The Balance Alistair Lexden A Conservative History Group Publication £5 Neville Chamberlain – appeaser, wearer of ludicrous (even by the standards of the day) wing collars, the co-architect with Adolf Hitler of “peace in our ti...
Book Review: Erebus – The Story Of A Ship by Michael Palin
- 12 Oct 2018
Michael Palin may have come to prominence as a comedian. He has certainly had a good go at being a reasonably serious actor. It is however as a traveller and explorer that perhaps we have come to know him best in more recent times. He has travelled the world for us, bringing t...