By: John Oxley

John Oxley is a corporate strategist and political commentator. He publishes a weekly Substack, Joxley Writes, and frequently appears in other print and broadcast media. He is an associate fellow of the Bright Blue think-tank and an adviser to the Conservative YIMBY campaign.

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Whoever wins this election, our politics will remain in flux

December 10, 2019

Nothing except an election lost can be half so melancholy as an election won. That’s what the Duke of Wellington might have said after he swapped the battlefield for politics. Come Friday morning, each of the major parties will be reckoning with the result — and may find pain in victory as well as defeat. [...]
Ban MPs from second jobs? We should be encouraging them

November 28, 2019

New governments seldom seek to discourage employment. Ministries live and die by their ability to get people into work. Yet in one sector, the Labour party has made a manifesto promise of reducing jobs — by banning members of parliament from taking paid work outside the House. Really, this is the wrong way around. Parliamentarians [...]
The secret to how people really become MPs

November 19, 2019

The election is 23 days away, and the close of nominations last week has confirmed the runners and riders: 3,322 people seeking a place on the green benches. Yet despite the enthusiasm of the thousands, from Advance Together (five candidates) to the Young People’s Party UK (three candidates), most seats remain a foregone conclusion. Unless [...]
This parliament has taught us the strength of our democracy

November 5, 2019

The 57th parliament of the United Kingdom officially comes to an end tomorrow. It has seen off a Prime Minister, survived a prorogation that wasn’t, and failed to deliver Brexit. Decried by the attorney general as a “zombie parliament”, it has gone to the country in search of new brains. It will have a curious [...]
Order, order: The race is on to replace John Bercow

October 10, 2019

The departure of John Bercow from the speakership of the House of Commons will create a vacancy of huge importance. Yesterday, nine hopefuls vied with each other for the honour of replacing him, answering journalists’ questions on everything from the impartiality of the role, to Westminster’s alleged drug problem, to the rules on breast-feeding in [...]
Trying to impeach Boris would be an unmitigated catastrophe

October 2, 2019

Rumours are swirling in Westminster of a plot to impeach Boris Johnson. The news broke over the weekend that, inspired perhaps by the US Democrats’ move against Donald Trump, opposition parties are considering moving to strip the Prime Minister of his position. This is foolish and dangerous. For a start, it is entirely unclear if [...]
We should celebrate the glory of Britain’s unwritten constitution

September 25, 2019

For most of the Cold War, there sat in a safe in Whitehall a 16-chapter document. It was a game plan for when the bombs started falling. In four minutes, as the warning sirens wailed, the United Kingdom would be turned from a constitutional monarchy to 12 regional mini-kingdoms. Each would be overseen by a [...]
Real lives will be ruined by the delay to the laws dropped with the prorogation of parliament

September 17, 2019

The prorogation of parliament has been variously cast as an attempted coup or a smart move in delivering the referendum mandate. Either way, many among both the fans and the critics have overlooked the impact that the end of a parliamentary term can have on real people. For when parliament is prorogued, dissolved or dismissed, [...]
Stuffing the House of Lords with your friends is practically a parliamentary tradition

August 29, 2019

To consolidate his Brexit position, Boris Johnson is rumoured to be lining up a selection of “Brexit heroes” for elevation to the Lords – a line of eurosceptics in ermine, ready to take to the red benches to shore up his support in the upper house. It is a politically expedient plan, with the Conservatives [...]
A brief lesson in governments of national unity, and why they won’t solve Brexit

August 19, 2019

A struggling pound, a Labour leader at odds with his backbenches, and a government trying to pursue multiple contradictory aims. It may sound like last week, but it was in fact the state of things in 1931. The answer, echoed by some today, was a government of national unity – elements of the three main [...]

Serco hits back after Zia Yusuf accuses FTSE 250 firm of being ‘hostile to Reform’

Royal Ascot worth £140m to UK economy

Old Pulteney releases 50-year-old whisky for 200th anniversary

By: John Oxley

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