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

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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 [...]
Opinion-in-brief: Budget traditions are traditions for a reason

October 27, 2021

Budgets are supposed to be secret. Apart from launch codes and special forces, they’re the most confidential part of government. In 1947, the Labour chancellor, Hugh Dalton, had to resign because he let slip a detail of his budget on his way into the chamber. They’re not just secret from the public. By tradition, the [...]
Rishi Sunak is risking his Conservative credentials if he ignores business rates

October 25, 2021

For anyone who watches economic policy, reforming business rates seems rather like changing the House of Lords: everyone agrees it’s absolutely vital, the system needs to be modernised to enhance our productivity, but no one away from the think-tank fringes actually wants to get involved. The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, promised in March 2020 to review [...]
As winter approaches, an ode to the overcoat

October 21, 2021

Although at the start of October we were having an Indian summer, a glance outside the window proves a bitter reminder that we are marching into the cold season. The days of striding out without anything but a raincoat are dwindling fast, and the wardrobe must be flung open, the moths beaten back. It will [...]
We could make Glasgow great again if London and Edinburgh can get along

October 19, 2021

Glasgow is the fifth largest city in the UK, easily the biggest in Scotland, though still smaller than it was 50 years ago. The Dear Green Place, more aptly tagged “No Mean City” in the 1930s, was once the second city of the empire, a global hub of shipbuilding and coal-mining, beautified by trade barons [...]
No, the traditional suit won’t ‘die’- and here’s why

October 13, 2021

We are told that formal dress is dying, its mortal wound inflicted by the pandemic and the lockdown embrace of more casual attire. Certainly there are worrying signs: Marks & Spencer has stopped selling suits in many of its stores, and in the market as a whole sales are down dramatically. I have written in [...]
Aye, aye Captain! The new defence chief of staff needs to tackle the China question

October 11, 2021

The appointment of a new chief of the defence staff—the professional head of the British armed forces— easily slips into the important but not newsworthy category. Last week’s announcement that Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, currently first sea lord, will take up the post in November should, however, give even passing observers pause for thought. For [...]
Why do young Tories dress so badly?

October 6, 2021

It is a perpetual truth that stereotypes are a distorting mirror of reality, but that they also take time to develop and therefore are often a reflection of what was, not what is. So it is sartorially with Conservatives. The cliché is probably of a pinstriped, red-faced financier, Rik Mayall’s sneering Alan B’Stard in a [...]
Ballooning infrastructure costs could be quelled if Whitehall embraced clear data

October 4, 2021

Infrastructure is one of the government’s latest passions. It could be, in ministers’ eyes, a foundation for Global Britain and a way out of the economic decline that Covid-19 has brought in its wake. We have a National Infrastructure Strategy, and the prime minister, announcing it last summer, admitted it sounded “positively Rooseveltian” and pledged [...]

Pay for Natwest’s top boss balloons to £6.6m as bonuses soar

Two-job Townsend is on the brink but deserves break from Scotland fans

The unlikely City florist that once served the royals

By: Eliot Wilson

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