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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Suits you, sir: can bespoke tailoring survive the pandemic?

April 20, 2021

One of the dominant themes to emerge as we fight our way out of the Covid pandemic is what the future of the workplace might look like. Will employees still feel safe congregating together to share that quicksilver creative spark? Will businesses reduce their footprint and have teams at home two or three days a [...]
No, minister, really: the David Cameron lobbying scandal and the death of advice in Whitehall

April 20, 2021

The revelations of potentially undue influence on ministers over the past couple of weeks have been a happy hunting ground for purveyors of hyperbole and clutchers of pearls. A story which began with David Cameron texting the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, on behalf of a company which employed him has blossomed ferociously into a soup-to-nuts scandal [...]
Shaken, stirred or dirty: the lore and lure of the martini

April 15, 2021

The martini was not the first cocktail—we don’t know what was, but likely some unappetising collision of spirit, sugar, water and bitters, more than two hundred years ago—but it has become iconic, almost metonymic. When we think of a cocktail glass, it is the v-shaped modernist twist on the coupe which we imagine. And we [...]
Credit Suisse, Greensill and Archegos: how did it all go so wrong?

April 12, 2021

Spare a thought as the week begins for Christine Graeff, the group head of corporate communications for Credit Suisse. The Swiss finance giant has lost billions of dollars in recent weeks in what has been branded a “disaster pile-up”. The basic cause is easy enough to diagnose: Credit Suisse provided financial backing for the the [...]
HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh: ‘I try to put matters right’

April 9, 2021

A few hours ago, the prime minister will have received a telephone call from a senior official in the Royal Household, probably the Lord Chamberlain, Earl Peel. That official will have said to him words he will have half-expected to hear for some time: “Forth Bridge is down.” This afternoon Buckingham Palace announced that Her [...]
Joe Biden’s $2.3tn spending spree will stifle competition and make business the bogeyman

April 6, 2021

Last month, the White House began to lay out the President’s new economic investment programme, the American Jobs Plan. It is the partner of the American Rescue Plan, the ambitious plan to vaccine the entire population, rebuild the economy and the country after the damage wrecked by the pandemic. The plan pledges to spend $2.3 [...]
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 [...]

Fifa boss Infantino: World Cup critics are ‘consumed with hate’

Fifa boss Infantino: World Cup critics are ‘consumed with hate’

Volkswagen California 2026 review: plenty of room at the Hotel California

By: Eliot Wilson

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