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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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. [...]
From John le Carré to Chinese communists: Are there still reds under the bed?

December 16, 2020

Perhaps it was appropriate that the news of a mass infiltration by insiders of Beijing’s ruling party should break in the same week that John le Carré died. The passing of the master of spy stories reminded us all of times past, when the world was dominated by superpowers who employed tens of thousands to [...]
Could Goldman Sachs teach the UK how to level up organically?

December 8, 2020

Almost exactly one year ago, a freshly elected Conservative government made “levelling up” one of its core priorities. Facing a new parliament with a healthy majority and a dynamic Prime Minister (remember that?), the government promised to bring individual prosperity to regions of the UK which had been “left behind”: not just the big cities [...]
Wanted: Someone to take charge and save hospitality this Christmas

December 1, 2020

The excitement is building, and it’s so close now: lockdown is about to be lifted, and at midnight tomorrow we will all slot into our allotted tiers. London will be in a freshly toughened Tier 2, with shops reopening and pubs and restaurants allowed to admit customers — but under complicated limitations. A few lucky [...]
Charity begins at home — which makes foreign aid more important than ever

November 26, 2020

No one can have envied Rishi Sunak yesterday, for it was the chancellor’s task to unveil the Spending Review to the House of Commons, facing (we were told by the Treasury) the worst economic landscape since the Great Frost of 1709. Sunak strove for sombre and minatory, but he has not yet gained enough political [...]

Buy now, pay later providers set for £3bn hit in ‘regulatory reset’

Jonathan Barnett: Gareth Bale’s former agent denies ‘sex slave’ claims in full

Bar of the week: Why Three Sheets is a little slice of old Soho

By: Eliot Wilson

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