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Leadership Without a Mandate?
For a country facing fiscal pressure, slow growth, strained public services, and growing geopolitical uncertainty, personality may not be enough to be a good PM.
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When the Tax Well Runs Dry
Can Britain can recover the discipline to match promises with means? When there is no more money left to extract, politics must rediscover something harder than taxation: choice.
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Daisy Petals
Daisy wants to be a star on social media, like that famous American family. What’re they called? K-k-kardash—summat. But I’ve never done ‘owt interesting or courageous in me life, until now. Daisy walks towards me, her expression serious and, as she hands me the bouquet of wildflowers, she trembles.
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We’re all in this Welfare Doom Loop together
The welfare doom loop is not evidence of a deliberate plan to create dependency. It is more troubling than that. It is evidence of a political system that understands enough to worry, but not enough—or is not brave enough—to act.
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Give My Love to Susan
The renters rights bill will make life a little more secure for renters, while making it more difficult for an owner to get his property back. Life wasn't always like this for a decent landlord...was it?
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Accountability at the Top: What the Romans did for Us.
The sacking of the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office raises a familiar but important question: where should accountability properly sit when political choices intersect with administrative advice?
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Give Me Strength
I can lift almost anything—cast iron baths, sofas—the occasional RSJ. My husband being a builder, I frequently get asked to ‘grab the other end.’ So, you’d think I’d be able to erect our aluminium rotary line whose arms are not outstretched to welcome a week’s washing but hanging motionless like a belligerent teenager’s. All the same, I can’t waste this perfect drying day. The boisterous breeze and kindly sun are crying out for the family’s clothes to be animated in a flapping symphony. Besides, I will not be thwarted by a washing line. Thing is though, since we first erected our state-of-the-art rotary drier, purchased at such enormous expense that…
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Borders, Labels, and the Cost of Synthetic Outrage
As political theorists have long argued, liberal societies are sustained not by unanimity, but by norms that allow disagreement without exclusion.
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Swapping British Soft Power for Labour’s Small Change
A confident country does not need to overstate small successes or conflate access with influence. It understands that reputation is cumulative and easily damaged.
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The House of Lords: Overreach or Democratic Safeguard?
When the House of Lords performs its role effectively, it is not obstructing democracy. It is preserving it.
