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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Are politicians tech-savvy enough to tackle social media giants?

February 22, 2021

The news has been full of tech stories in what little we’ve seen of 2021: Facebook’s decision to ban news content on its site in Australia, Google’s threat to withdraw its service altogether from Australian users in light of legislation which would oblige tech platforms to pay for news, and Twitter’s intervention by suspending former [...]
The art of the apology: What KPMG’s Bill Michael got wrong

February 15, 2021

Last week saw the defenestration of KPMG UK’s chairman, Bill Michael. Days after making some controversial remarks at a ‘town hall’ meeting of employees, the abrasive Australian, having initially stepped aside pending investigation, caught the scent of the prevailing wind and resigned. In some City circles, there has almost been a sense of relief, having [...]
Lawyers, guns and money: How to futureproof the defence industry

February 12, 2021

They say that everything is bigger in America. That is certainly true when it comes to defence spending. The prime minister recently announced an increase in UK military expenditure of £16.5 billion over four years, which seems like a lot of money: but then remember that the Pentagon’s annual budget for this year is a [...]
Feast in the East: UK’s Pacific tie-up could be world’s first digital alliance

February 5, 2021

Last week the government announced that it was applying to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership or CPTPP. The trading group circles the Pacific with 11 members, including major economies like Japan, Mexico and Australia, and the UK’s trade with it already stands at over £100 billion. The cabinet’s current rising star, international trade [...]
Red Light: Why Streetscape decision is a speed bump to Mayor’s ambition

January 28, 2021

As any local politician will tell you, how citizens get around is a fiercely important issue which can rumble for years without bursting into a crisis. For the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, however, that crisis has come, and low-level rumblings must now be addressed as a strategic problem. Last year, as lockdown and other [...]
Insurers need to capture the Covid-19 zeitgeist and go beyond expectations

January 21, 2021

As a communications professional, you rarely want your client and the words “the Supreme Court” to appear in the same sentence. However, last week, the justices issued a 112-page judgement on the Financial Conduct Authority’s appeal asking for “clarification” on whether insurance companies were required to pay business interruption claims for companies which had been [...]
Smart politicians will be looking to cities as a springboard for greatness

January 12, 2021

For much of the second half of the 20th century, powerful city politics was dying. As the great industrial centres went into decline, so too did their once-proud corporations and mayors. County boroughs like Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds were gathered together in 1972 and melded into metropolitan counties like “Merseyside” or “West Midlands”, and [...]
The Imitation Game: Turing Scheme could be even better than Erasmus

January 8, 2021

The UK’s final and definitive secession from the European Union has caused the gnashing of Remainer teeth for a hundred reasons, but one of the most prominent in the past week or so has been the end of British participation in the Erasmus+ student exchange programme. This pan-EU project allows students from member states to [...]
Boris must find the bandwidth to take on Sturgeon – and keep the UK united

December 30, 2020

Being prime minister is not an easy job. Whether you adopt the approach of Thatcher’s four-hours-a-night, or Macmillan’s retreating to Trollope novels at moments of extreme stress, it is a position which occupies your every waking (and probably many a sleeping) moment; the situation is not helped by the fact that the vast majority of [...]
Whitbread – at the end of the day, someone has to pay

December 24, 2020

Whitbread, the owner of popular hospitality chains Premier Inn, Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, has written to the landlords of its properties asking for a rent reduction of 50% for the next three months, to “share some of the pain” of the ongoing pandemic and the restrictions on hospitality. It seems, prima facie, a reasonable request. [...]

Private sector slump to drag on to Spring 2026, businesses say

How sport and athletes can show the realities of neurodiversity

Limited edition 911 GT3 90 pays tribute to Ferdinand Porsche

By: Eliot Wilson

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