The UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF) took place in Leeds last month. Reform were out in force, making policy announcements with the confidence of a party already in government. Although they hold no national power, many of their newly elected councillors are clearly behaving as though they do. Among the familiar themes … Read more
On 4 July 1776 the United States declared its independence from the greatest empire on earth. For 250 years Americans have celebrated that act of rebellion. The United States likes to think of itself as the country that threw off colonial rule, rejected empire and built something entirely new. The latest anniversary falls during the … Read more
When SpaceX’s share price fell last week, Elon Musk lost another vast slice of his fortune. That hardly qualifies as a national tragedy. But it is a reminder that one of the richest men in history owes much of his wealth to a company routinely presented as the ultimate triumph of private enterprise. The reality … Read more
Inside the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship I attended another far-right meeting this week. This one didn’t feature skinheads, St George’s flags or chants outside a hotel. Instead there were smart suits, venture capitalists, cabinet ministers, think tank directors and some of the most influential figures on the international conservative right. It was the Alliance for … Read more
We woke up 10 years ago to discover Britain had voted to leave the EU. For many a day of national humiliation. I started writing Industrial Estate of Mind shortly after the Brexit vote. At the time I was working just outside Durham in an area that had been solidly Labour for generations but had … Read more
I was in the Cambridge pub in Liverpool when the news showed Margaret Thatcher leaving Downing Street. She was being replaced by another Conservative, but we drank anyway. Not because the government had changed, but because an era had ended. If I’d gone out drinking every time a prime minister left Downing Street over the … Read more
British politics is trapped between two comforting fantasies. We have a fiscal problem. We can’t afford the levels of Government spending that we want within the taxes that we pay. Each side of the political divide has an easy answer to the problem. The first belongs to the right. We are told that Britain’s fiscal … Read more
I am not a big fan of Andy Burnham. That might seem a strange thing to say given that I am a member of Mainstream, the pro-Burnham group within Labour. Burnham is an astute politician. His municipal socialism is not far from my own instincts and, unlike many politicians, he has experience of life outside … Read more
