The Conservatives need to rediscover their confidence in the market
- 16 Oct 2017
Just over five weeks to the Chancellor’s autumn Budget and already speculation and rumour about its contents, its importance, even who will deliver it, is running high. A kind of late summer madness has descended on the parliamentary Conservative party, exacerbated by the unse...
David Cameron should replace Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary
- 9 Oct 2017
In politics memory is short and ambition great. The old cling on, reluctant to let go of hard won position. The young are impatient to make their mark. With the call for renewal of policy comes pressure to promote the next generation. Underneath the Victorian splendour and t...
Theresa May showed grit and determination in her speech – now we need action
- 4 Oct 2017
Theresa May’s 2017 Conservative Party speech will not be one she is likely to look back on with fondness. More or less everything that could go wrong did – coughing, protest, the stage falling apart, aides walking onto the stage with glasses of water, the Chancellor popping up...
The three things Theresa May can do to get back out in front
- 3 Oct 2017
Party conference speeches are always gruelling for leaders. Drafts of the speech will have been circulating for weeks, with the final version not being completed until the last minute. They matter, whether a party is in government or opposition. The speech defines the mood of ...
Book Review: What Happened – by Hillary Rodham Clinton
- 20 Sep 2017
“What makes me such a lightening rod for people’s fury? I’m really asking. I’m at a loss.” So asks Hillary Clinton in What Happened, her new book that tries to analyse and explain the result of the Presidential Election that saw the campaign of the favourite for the White Hous...
Charles and Boris share similar frustrations and both are going about achieving their goal in the wrong way
- 17 Sep 2017
The story is as old as time itself. This weekend we have been treated to two versions of it. The heir apparent to a big job grows increasingly impatient for the top job. Instead of keeping their head down and being a good team player the next in line succumbs to the beguiling ...
Brace yourself for the 2019 Brexit Deal General Election – and yes Theresa May will lead the Conservatives into it
- 1 Sep 2017
Asked if she would lead the Conservative Party into the next General Election Theresa May said yes. Of course she did. What else could she say? It is one of those non-story stories. Ben Wright, the sharp and experienced BBC journalist, asked the Prime Minister a question to wh...
New generation of politicians will run Britain after Brexit
- 31 Aug 2017
Brexit, Brexit, Brexit. British politics is dominated by Brexit. Coverage, in whatever medium, of British politics is dominated by the subjects. Comments and views are coloured at every turn by whether they are a Brexiteer or a Remainer. The worst insult on one side that can b...
Britain is entering a new era as a major sea power
- 16 Aug 2017
As the sun rose over the Solent Britain’s biggest ever warship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, made her first entrance into her home port at Portsmouth. Towering over the historic port she slid gracefully alongside the specially built jetty, close to Nelson’s flagship, HMS Victory. It a...
Farewell and thank you
- 2 Aug 2017
Today, after 70 years of official Royal duties, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, retires from public life. Fittingly his last engagement is a military review, with the Royal Marines. For him and for us it is a moment for pause and reflection. It is the end of an era, a moment...