By: Eliot Wilson

Eliot Wilson is a writer, commentator and contributing editor at Defence On The Brink. He was formerly a clerk in the House of Commons and writes regularly on politics, defence and international security, and Parliament and the constitution, including for The Spectator, The Hill, The i Paper and CapX

All 393 Articles

Farage wants to reawaken the Brexit mob with a ragbag of populist policies

November 28, 2022

The veteran political journalist Michael Crick recently described Nigel Farage as “the most significant politician of the century so far”. This might seem like a blatant piece of liberal-baiting clickbait, given that Farage has stood for election to the House of Commons no fewer than seven times without success, but Crick is neither a fool [...]
Ten years on, the Sunak government is still beholden to the austerity narrative

November 21, 2022

Jeremy Hunt couched his fiscal plans very deliberately as part of a Tory continuum.
A call to arms: where will we find tomorrow’s bright Whitehall leaders?

November 14, 2022

It is one of the most common, and pointed, criticisms of government in this country now that we are not finding leaders properly equipped to take the United Kingdom into the middle of the 21st century. For all his sociopathic behaviour and sheer oddness, it was the mission of Dominic Cummings to solve that problem, [...]
The ship of the state is the only vessel that leaks right from the very top

November 7, 2022

In 1947, the Labour chancellor, Hugh Dalton, let slip some details of the Budget to a reporter as he walked into the chamber to deliver his speech and he was forced to resign.
Is Elon Musk a free speech champion or a bombastic fool? Perhaps, he’s both

October 31, 2022

Finally, it has happened. In a story with more drama and grandstanding than Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Elon Musk has bought Twitter for $44bn. The man himself announced the success of his deal in a tweet – of course. He has also dubbed himself “Chief Twit”, with which some may agree for the wrong reasons. There [...]
Rishi Sunak’s ‘City chic’ style is bringing back the suit

October 27, 2022

Rishi Sunak represents many firsts: he is the first prime minister of South Asian origin, the first to hold an MBA, and the first, perhaps, to be wealthier than the sovereign who invited him to form a government. But he is also unusual for a male prime minister in being acutely conscious of style and [...]
Boris Johnson can win elections, but he never knew what to do once he did

October 24, 2022

It also reduces politics to its bones as a mere transaction, with retaining office the only objective.
Peter O’Toole is the style icon, not Harry Styles

October 20, 2022

As a society obsessed with novelty and hyperbole, we seem to anoint a new “style icon” on a weekly basis, more often even than we change chancellors of the exchequer. Recently we have bowed down before Harry Styles, who seems to have slept in his grandmother’s laundry basket; Tom Holland, awkward out of his Spider-Man [...]
All the world’s a circus and Donald Trump front and centre again won’t help us

October 17, 2022

To haul him in to answer questions is to play into Trump’s game.
Truss has just about survived the rhetoric melodrama, now for the work

October 10, 2022

Harold Wilson’s maxim that a week is a long time in politics is in danger of becoming a rule for 2022 too. In the last eight days, we have seen the Conservative Party conference take place in Birmingham, the MPs and activists churn themselves into a maelstrom of high drama, and the government abandon its [...]

FCA probe and bonus clawbacks: WH Smith acts against former directors as North America profit plunges

AJ vs Paul: Netflix hosting amid WBD takeover a signal for sport

Eating Dave’s Hot Chicken Reaper Tenders – the best of 2025

By: Eliot Wilson

All 393 Articles

Subscribe