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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Thinking around corners on UK rental market could transform life for the better

June 1, 2021

With pubs and restaurants open across London once again, the capital’s young professionals can return to one of their favourite pastimes: gathering together over a drink to complain about the rental market. We all know the stereotypical ladder: you begin in a slightly shabby, probably shared flat, you move on to somewhere on your own [...]
In defence of the long lunch: Business needs the human touch

May 24, 2021

No-one quite knows when the long lunch suffered a mortal blow. Perhaps it was the financial crisis of 2007-08, when money lost its lustre. Perhaps it was before that, in the 1980s, when US working cultures flooded the City of London after the Big Bang. The grim phrase “al desko” was first recorded in the [...]
After the Martin Bashir scandal, the BBC must claw back its status as a cultural embassy for Britain

May 24, 2021

It has been a bad weekend for the BBC. The fall-out from Lord Dyson’s report on Martin Bashir and his infamous interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, has exposed not just individual wrongdoing by a rogue journalist but an institutional desire—and ability—to look the other way and excuse appalling behaviour because it delivered a scoop [...]
Like a virgin? The expanding world of alcohol-free cocktails

May 17, 2021

I gave up drinking three years ago, after twenty-odd enthusiastic years, and so I’ve spent the time since then searching out replacements. Some people say that’s a bad idea, that you maintain the habit and tread a dangerous line: all I can say is that the habit, the ritual, the variety was one of the [...]
An unholy alliance between the Tories, Greens and Lib Dems could hold Sadiq Khan’s feet to the fire

May 17, 2021

The London Assembly rarely cuts through in the news landscape. It’s committee structure does not quicken the pulse or stiffen the sinew. This is in some ways a pity, as the assembly has wide powers to scrutinise the activities of the elected mayor and can, in some circumstances, even amend his budget or reject strategic [...]
Members’ clubs in the age of Covid, from Groucho to Boisdale

May 12, 2021

Are you clubbable? Some people are, fiercely, while others disdain the whole idea. It is thought men are more clubbable than women, though that may not be supported by facts. In any event, if you are what PG Wodehouse would have called a clubman, you will be eagerly awaiting Monday 17 May and the reopening [...]
Vaccine patents: When does free for all become a free-for-all?

May 10, 2021

As the UK begins to see the light at the end of the Covid tunnel, at least in terms of mass vaccination and the lifting of most personal restrictions, the virus has hit the headlines anew elsewhere in the world. Its virulent spread in India has been the most eye-catching and heart-rending, with deaths topping [...]
Capital exports: London should have its own diplomats in every UK embassy to make Britain truly global

May 4, 2021

British embassies around the world run the whole gamut. From No. 35, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré to Level 19 of the Shangri-La Offices in Ulaanbataar, they look different but all have the same purpose: to maintain and develop relations between the UK and the host country. That can mean a multitude of different things in [...]
Red faces full of port wine: how to drink England’s favourite wine

May 4, 2021

What’s the first thing you think of when you read the word “port”? I suspect for many of you it will evoke a very distinct stereotype, and not all of that will be positive. Some of you, I’ll wager, thought “gout”. Most of the images that came to mind will have been of well-off, well-upholstered [...]
Tailoring after Covid: Bespoke womenswear

April 26, 2021

London is famous for its gentlemen’s tailoring: Savile Row and Jermyn Street belong to a city of tailors, not couturiers. It is built in tradition that extends back more than two centuries, and the great cutters and robemakers will show you officers’ uniforms from the high Victorian period and the garments of orders of knighthood. [...]

Wetherspoon boss attacks Labour for ‘high street dereliction’ as profit falls

For Manchester City 2026, see Saracens 2019

The last supper: Hit Point star Nick Blood tells us what he’d eat for his last meal on earth

By: Eliot Wilson

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