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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Up in smoke: A beginner’s guide to cigar-smoking

March 31, 2021

I started smoking cigars as an undergraduate. I know that sounds unbearable, but it was a small town and thanks to a regular influx of American tourists we had three decent cigar shops. I saw myself as an in utero sybarite, a trainee on the green slopes of decadence. After a dinner, a cigar can [...]
Angela Merkel apology: Is Entschuldigung still the hardest word?

March 29, 2021

“Never apologise, never explain.” The originator of that pithy advice is disputed, but it has become something of a credo for politicians. To say sorry in anything but the blandest terms is deemed to be fatal to the career, because it admits error, and there is a widespread belief, often borne out by fact, that [...]
Is Sadiq Khan’s re-election as London Mayor inevitable?

March 22, 2021

On Thursday 6 May, Londoners will go to the polls. Or, more likely, many won’t; turnout last time was 45 per cent to elect a new mayor, or else confirm the incumbent in office. This is the largest single exercise in democracy the UK has, excepting referendums, with an electorate of around five and a [...]
Cressida Dick and the Metropolitan Police lost the communications war after Sarah Everard disappearance

March 15, 2021

The disappearance and alleged murder of Sarah Everard touched already frayed nerves. Many have spoken or written of their powerful feeling of “It could have been me”, because Ms Everard was doing what thousands of women do all the time, walking back to her house through streets she knew with, presumably, every expectation of reaching [...]
The office must now sing for its supper: making the workplace about the individual, not the collective

March 8, 2021

One striking feature of the pandemic has been the volume of ink spilled debating the future of the office. The huge and rapid shift to working from home for large sectors of the economy made not only individual employees but companies as well look around themselves and say, “This seems to work: should we have [...]
Joe Biden’s new Energy Secretary gives us a taste for his plans for a Green New World

March 1, 2021

Most people don’t spend their weekdays glued to C-SPAN and coverage of the United States Senate and its committees. Last week, however, the energy and natural resources committee conducted a confirmation hearing for President Biden’s nominee for secretary of energy, Jennifer Granholm. The committee approved Granholm’s nomination, which was then confirmed 65-34 by the whole [...]
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 [...]

Why KKR-Arctos is not just about private equity getting bigger

Sport’s overreachers like Sussex and Leicester are guilty of hope not greed

The unlikely City florist that once served the royals

By: Eliot Wilson

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