Britain is ready for change, but politics hasn’t quite caught up May 17, 2019 Walk past the Palace of Westminster, and the crowds of protesters blocking the pavement send a clear message: the British are finally becoming politicised. At the same time, the esteem of the UK public for our major political parties is at an all-time low. This is not a peculiarly British phenomenon. In Europe, previously dominant [...]
Margaret Thatcher voted top Prime Minister on 40th anniversary of her first election win May 3, 2019 Margaret Thatcher has been ranked as the UK’s greatest post-war Prime Minister in a survey marking the 40th anniversary of her first election victory. Read more: CBI expresses 'deep concern' at prospect of Prime Minister Boris Johnson A Yougov poll placed Thatcher top of the pile, with 21 per cent of respondents saying she was [...]
The Porn Laws are misguided, repressive, and totally ineffective at protecting children April 24, 2019 Last week, the government announced a new law – one which would expose children to more harmful online material, compromise privacy, and hit the most vulnerable adults in society. As of 15 July, to access online pornography you will have to either purchase a porn pass online or venture to off-licence to acquire an age-verification [...]
DEBATE: Should individuals be held accountable for the failure of the Garden Bridge project? April 12, 2019 Should individuals be held accountable for the failure of the Garden Bridge project? Caroline Pidgeon, chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, says YES. When £53.5m is spent on a project, including £43m from the public’s pocket, and there is literally nothing to show for it, some very fundamental questions have to be answered. I fundamentally [...]
Could Jacob Rees-Mogg soon be off to 11 Downing Street? April 12, 2019 The Conservative party has a shortage of the political equivalent of rock stars. These are the politicians that the public would not merely recognise (already a rather an elite cohort), but actually might cross the road to ask for an autograph – or, more usually these days, a selfie. Boris Johnson has this star quality, of course. [...]
Emojis are a better metric for national wellbeing than traditional data methods March 20, 2019 HMRC’s programme to make tax digital continues to roll out. Anyone with a small business will know about the imminent deadline of 1 April, when VAT returns become digital. Quick to seize an opportunity, several companies have developed software to ease the task. The digitisation of tax raises the wider issue of whether technology will [...]
Want to break the Brexit deadlock? Change the negotiating terms March 18, 2019 Who knows, Theresa May’s deal may yet get through parliament at the third attempt. It seems unlikely given the scale of previous defeats. But making predictions about what will happen next in the Brexit saga is a mug’s game. If the deal fails again, the UK will request a long extension to the Article 50 [...]
No more ties in the office? Suit yourself in a world beyond workplace dress codes March 12, 2019 “A man cannot dress, but his ideas get clothed at the same time,” wrote Lawrence Stern in Tristram Shandy in 1759. More recently, Caitlin Moran pointed out that when a woman says she has nothing to wear, what she means is “there’s nothing here for who I’m supposed to be today”. Clothes are text. From [...]
The Conservative party needs to rediscover its economic way March 12, 2019 For most people, the Conservative’s 2015 “long-term economic plan” is now a distant memory. But as someone who was deeply immersed in that election campaign, I still sometimes wake up at night reciting its contents. Though much mocked for its repetition, the plan was more than just a catchphrase. From deficit reduction and tax cuts [...]
DEBATE: MPs are about to get a pay rise – but do they deserve it? March 4, 2019 MPs are about to get a pay rise – but do they deserve it? John Oxley, a Conservative commentator, says YES. MPs will soon earn £79,468. It’s far more than most people, but still not enough to lure the most talented individuals into our legislature. An ambitious and highly capable graduate in the City or [...]