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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A New Look for high street retail? Here’s what matters in the Covid-19 world

September 16, 2020

It has been what Sir Alex Ferguson used to call “squeaky bum time” for fashion retailer New Look these past few days. On Monday it was being reported that British Land and Landsec, two of the chain’s biggest landlords, were preparing to vote against the proposed company voluntary arrangement (CVA) which would have switched the [...]
London transport freedom passes for all – but at what cost?

September 11, 2020

Earlier this week it was reported that senior London business figures were pressing the mayor and Transport for London (TfL) to offer free travel on public transport to encourage the public, in their guise as potential consumers, to venture into the city and make free with their hard-earned pounds. Ewan Venters, CEO of Fortnum and [...]
HSBC’s looming pensions crisis: will the bank win the battle but lose the war?

September 4, 2020

A business of any reasonable size should have members of its team scanning the horizon for potential problems, like Frederick Fleet in the crow’s nest of RMS Titanic. The most dangerous crises, though, are those which fall on a company from an apparently cloudless sky: those which hit unprepared, and leave a business scrabbling for [...]
From the modern Babylon to the city of canals: Eurostar goes to Amsterdam

August 26, 2020

From October this year, passengers will be able to take the Eurostar from St Pancras right into the heart of Amsterdam, the great Gothic Revival Station Centraal on Stationsplein. It’s an eye-catching headline, and one which conjures up images of connectivity, of grand continental train journeys, comfort, ease and relaxation. It’s true that the London-Amsterdam [...]
So what if Sajid Javid has a new job? Outside interests can make for better MPs

August 19, 2020

A former Deutsche Bank board member has joined JP Morgan as part of the US bank’s EMEA advisory council. Hardly front-page news, you would imagine — notices in brief in a financial publication, at best. Except that the DB alumnus is Sajid Javid, former chancellor of the exchequer and currently MP for Bromsgrove. The reaction [...]
The cold blast of popular opinion: ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s takes on the home secretary

August 13, 2020

It was a young political journalist who summed up one of the oddest political storms of the summer so far when she tweeted on Wednesday: “Who had ‘MP argues with ice cream company’ on their 2020 bingo card?” In case you missed it, the story in brief: Priti Patel, the home secretary, has been making [...]
Wanted: A plan to save London

August 7, 2020

The motto of the City of London is “Domine dirige nos”: Lord, direct us. But who is directing the capital as we struggle to comprehend the future in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic? In the UK, we are notoriously poor at strategic planning (except, perhaps, in times of war). Partly, this is an ideological [...]
Corruption in politics? It’s just business as usual

July 28, 2020

Robert Wood Johnson IV is not a name which necessarily springs even to the more well-informed lips. “Woody”, as he is far better known, is the American ambassador to London — a post he assumed almost three years ago at the request of Donald Trump. His background is not in diplomacy: he is part of [...]
Retail restraint: John Lewis and Primark decline government help to play the long game

July 16, 2020

For retail, the story of Covid-19 has been one of survival. Inevitably, the sector has looked to the government for assistance. Even the most hardened devotee of the free market has seen the Treasury’s coffers as a life belt to help companies get through the worst of the pandemic. Change and adaptation can come later. [...]
Commuting in the post-Covid world

July 3, 2020

It’s a cliche to say that the Covid-19 pandemic has changed everything — we need to get over this and embrace “the new normal”. But change needs more than an embrace: it needs to be understood and thought-through, not rushed into headlong because everyone else is doing it. And nowhere is such consideration more necessary [...]

London cannot afford to sleepwalk through the next decade

EuroLeague CEO interview: ‘NBA Europe? We have never been stronger and will never disappear’

Two centuries of Old Pulteney

By: Eliot Wilson

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