Nation-wide metro mayors: A plan for regions to pull their own bootstraps up December 13, 2021 When the prime minister appointed Michael Gove to head up a rebranded Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in September’s reshuffle, it was a significant statement of intent. Gove is one of Whitehall’s biggest hitters, having run three major government departments, and is brain cell for brain cell one of the cleverest and most [...]
By-elections might be political candy, but tell the seers of Westminster little December 6, 2021 By-elections are strange events. They can defy political gravity. Sometimes they launch sparkling but short-lived careers, sometimes they are obvious protests against incumbent governments, and sometimes they are signs of genuine shifts in the political landscape, harbingers of greater changes to come. In any event, they stir the pot of political commentary. Hypotheses are built, [...]
Another Labour reshuffle to forget December 1, 2021 Opposition reshuffles are difficult to manage: no one really cares, they make little impact and can distract your party with days of infighting. It is all the more unfortunate, therefore, that Sir Keir Starmer is so bad at them. His attempt at a shakeup in May was designed to clip the wings of his fiery [...]
The Coward’s way out: Loungewear to keep it classy November 30, 2021 The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the switch to home working by large swathes of the employed population had a distinct knock-on effect on clothing. Suits and smart jackets were out—some of us are fighting a rearguard action to revive them—and suddenly everyone cast aside any remaining shame and championed their loungewear. The pressure [...]
The law’s delay: Priti Patel must fix the asylum process to stop Channel boats November 29, 2021 Being Home Secretary is hard. It has long been known as the “graveyard of careers”, with headstones marked Smith, Clarke and Blunkett. One of the longstanding problems is that the Home Office is essentially reactive. Even after losing responsibility for courts in 2003 and prisons and probation in 2007, it oversees law and order, borders [...]
London needs to have the powers to control its own destiny – and transport November 22, 2021 It is no longer headline news that Transport for London is facing a financial crisis. Last week the mayor of London revealed the network needed £1.7bn over the next 18 months simply to balance its books, and at least £1.3bn every year to make essential upgrades on the Tubes, trains and buses. This summer, Tfl [...]
Coffee and me: For the best black stuff, go back to basics November 18, 2021 Recently I mused to a friend that if pubs didn’t expand their non-alcoholic offerings, they ran the risk of losing a generation of potential consumers who don’t drink much and for whom the more natural social setting is the coffee shop. It’s not hard to see how this could happen: the bean temples of Starbucks, [...]
Uber’s model was rife with flaws but the gig economy deserves saving November 15, 2021 It has been less than ten years since Uber started operating in London. In that short time, the ride-hailing service has transformed the way many urban dwellers think about their transportation needs and their expectations of connectivity. By the beginning of 2020, just before the pandemic, Londoners took it for granted that Uber—or Bolt Kapten [...]
The magic of Cinema: Why there’s no better place to be this winter November 10, 2021 One of my great joys is the cinema. I don’t mean that I rush to see every new release; what I mean is that I love the experience of watching a film as it was intended to be seen. A hushed, darkened room, a ripple of anticipation, the trailers for features to come, the escape [...]
Your choice of fabrics is key to beating the winter blues October 28, 2021 Last week I wrote with anticipation about overcoats. The promise of an Indian summer is now long gone and the air grows colder and harder by the day. As the clocks go back this weekend, we will soon be plunged into dark evenings, but this shouldn’t be cause for despair: as with many things, it [...]