Here comes Govtech: It’s time to digitise government and the public sector Boris Johnson’s first telephone call with Joe Biden in the White House reportedly included some joshing over which of them had first used the phrase ‘Build Back Better’. Whether it was the Prime Minister or the President, it is set to be the leitmotif of the global post-Covid recovery. Economies have been devastated, individuals have [...]
This marks the start of a brave new post-Brexit future Tonight at 11 o’clock, as the Brexit countdown clock ticks to zero, I will be toasting the moment with a bottle of Brexit Beer, produced by my friend and fellow Leave campaigner Jon Moynihan. My toast won’t be to winning the Referendum or Getting Brexit Done. Rather, it will be a toast to the future, [...]
DEBATE: Has the EU overstepped the mark by rejecting Italy’s budget? Has the EU overstepped the mark by rejecting Italy’s budget? Matthew Elliott, senior political adviser to Shore Capital, says YES. From the moment Britain’s Brexit referendum was announced in 2013, the EU started to moderate its most overt interventionist instincts, minimising Eurozone problems through quantitative easing, and restricting its tendency to meddle in the affairs [...]
Heed the history and beware Saudis floating oil companies October 10, 2018 Will they? Won’t they? I’m thinking about whether or not the Saudis will go ahead and float a sliver of their gigantic state oil company, Aramco, on the stock market. Reuters said in August that King Salman had vetoed the idea. But in an interview with Bloomberg published last Friday, his son, Crown Prince Mohammed, [...]
Woo the EU? Theresa May should take tips from the dating game September 26, 2018 Winning votes in an election is a lot like dating. I was explaining the principles of campaigning during a Westminster Foundation seminar in Ghana when one of the young candidates hit on this perfect analogy for electoral success. When you start dating someone, you are keen to establish common interests. “You like Love Island? [...]
John McCain was a champion against pork barrel spending August 28, 2018 Millions of words have been written about US senator John McCain since his death last weekend. He has rightly been lauded as a statesman, a hero, a maverick (his own term) – but one accolade that has been missing is his role as a champion for taxpayers. Given his military background and heroism during the [...]
Don’t overplay the similarities between Brexit voters and Geert Wilders’ Dutch populists March 14, 2017 In 2016, both Brexit and Trump took the markets by surprise. Will the so-called “rise of populism” continue into 2017? Its first significant electoral test is the Dutch general election tomorrow, with all eyes on Geert Wilders. A “win” for his populist Freedom Party is securing the most votes and occupying the most seats in the [...]
Rochester killed the politics of triangulation – and that’s bad news for Ukip November 23, 2014 Labour and the Conservatives have just gone another 12 rounds with Ukip, and lost. The inexorable rise of Ukip and the Rochester by-election result last week have their origins in strategic calculations made by parties in the 1990s. The rise of the Third Way and the politics of triangulation, pioneered by Bill Clinton, brought to [...]
Both Miliband and Cameron must bet the house on Rochester to save themselves now October 12, 2014 UKIP’s victory in the Clacton by-election was historic, if not unpredictable. From the moment Douglas Carswell entered the room of shocked journalists and activists in August and declared his defection, to when the polls opened early on Thursday morning, it was inevitable that Ukip would be celebrating the election of its first MP – a [...]
Both Miliband and Cameron must bet the house on Rochester to save themselves now October 10, 2014 Ukip's victory in the Clacton by-election was historic, if not unpredictable. From the moment Douglas Carswell entered the room of shocked journalists and activists in August and declared his defection, to when the polls opened early on Thursday morning, it was inevitable that Ukip would be celebrating the election of its first MP – a [...]
