By: Alys Denby

Alys Denby is opinion and features editor of City AM. She writes the weekly Free Thinking newsletter and presents the video series of the same name. She regularly appears in broadcast media including BBC, Channel 5 Sky News, Times Radio, LBC and GB News. She has previously worked for a think tank and as a parliamentary researcher

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Lionesses make us proud to be English – perhaps for the last time

July 28, 2025

The Lionesses’ inspiring Euros victory will be a moment of joy in a summer threatening to descend into civil unrest, tensions over immigration, public sector strikes and political fragmentation that will damage social cohesion, says Alys Denby I watched the Euros final in a converted industrial estate in south east London – and the biggest [...]
Doctors’ strikes prove militant BMA is prepared to put patients’ lives at risk

July 16, 2025

Resident doctors are endangering their patients’ lives with immoral strikes based on distorted calculations. The British public must finally see their militant union for what it really is, says Alys Denby “Resident doctors” as we must now call them (‘junior’ being a term fit for barristers but far too demeaning for these life savers) will [...]
I’ve experienced Gregg Wallace’s grim behaviour, but I blame his bosses too

July 15, 2025

It shouldn’t have taken powerful “middle class women of a certain age” like Kirsty Wark and Aasmah Mir speaking up for BBC bosses to do something about Gregg Wallace, says Alys Denby I have met Gregg Wallace and, since he has retained lawyers, I’d probably better leave it there. Let’s just say his approaches had [...]
Lanza-grotty? Hardly! Why Lanzarote is actually rather fabulous

May 24, 2025

“David Cameron tucks into five-star hotel buffet in Lanzarote,” read a headline in The Mirror in 2016. Lingering over details like the then Prime Minister’s “all inclusive wrist band” and the resort’s “£230 a night price tag”, the newspaper’s clear implication was that Cameron was luxuriating in a paradise no ordinary Brit could aspire to. [...]
Free breakfast clubs are an admission the system has failed working parents

April 23, 2025

Breakfast clubs are now essential for many working parents, but they don't come free, writes Alys Denby in today's Notebook.
Spring Statement 2025 should be Reeves’ last

March 26, 2025

If there’s one lesson Keir Starmer should learn from Liz Truss, it’s that he should sack his Chancellor Rachel Reeves, says Alys Denby With living standards clobbered by an emergency Budget hastily cobbled together as market forces react against government policy, the spectre of Liz Truss haunted the Spring Statement in more ways than one. [...]
This International Women’s Day, spare a thought for men

March 7, 2025

International Women’s Day is a great opportunity to celebrate the success of elite women, but a proper discussion of gender inequality should also take account of where real disadvantage lies: with young men, says Alys Denby This Saturday is International Women’s Day and every comms professional in London has duly pitched these pages inspirational examples [...]
It’s not just Waspi women, the government has taken everyone for fools

December 18, 2024

You don’t have to agree with the principle of the Waspi women’s campaign to sympathise with their feelings of betrayal. Cynicism is one thing in politics, but saying absolutely anything to get in power will ultimately harm democracy, says Alys Denby Waspi stands for: Women Against State Pension Inequality. It’s a confusing name, because the [...]
The best books of 2024: From Sally Rooney to Boris Johnson

December 12, 2024

Okay, that headline is ever-so-slightly misleading – while many of the entries on this list are indeed among the best books of 2024, others earn their place by virtue of being emblematic of their time (Boris Unleashed), zeitgeist-capturing (Bad Girls of Ancient Greece) or simply so utterly bonkers we felt they earned a spot (The [...]
Square Mile and me: Octopus Money CEO Ruth Handcock

December 12, 2024

Octopus Money CEO Ruth Handock tells us about cocktails, 10-hour job interviews and why we need more women in the City What was your first job? Washing neighbours cars inside and out for a pound at the age of 12. Followed by two years at Sainsbury’s on the checkout during sixth form. But both have [...]

Fury promoters Queensberry see profits rise after Dubois vs Joshua bout

Fury promoters Queensberry see profits rise after Dubois vs Joshua bout

What’s on in London January 2026

By: Alys Denby

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