The British are coming! The British are coming! As the United States celebrates 250 years of independence from the British, millions of Californians wish to put themselves under British rule. The primary is taking place tomorrow, and Steve Hilton, a British-born former adviser to David Cameron, is not only expected to make it through to […]
Americans like their eggs. While for Britons it is but one part of a fry up or mere fodder for toasted soldiers, for Yanks there is a deep romance, whether eaten at an old-school diner or as part of a trendy brunch. It was therefore bemusing for outsiders when the price of eggs caused a […]
If you’re under the age of 53, no human being has ever left low Earth orbit in your lifetime. Just nine spaceflights, all under the Apollo Program, took human beings beyond Earth orbit at all. And they all took place in a four-year burst between December 1968 and December 1972. Tonight, NASA attempts to change […]
If you want to feel really gloomy, think back to the beginning of the 1990s. The West had won the Cold War. The Gorbachev era seemed to suggest that Russia was embarking on a path of stability and democracy. There were indications that the Chinese leadership was interested in cautious moves towards international legality. Other […]
Donald Trump is very nearly a year into his second term as President, with the anniversary of his inauguration on January 20. He began with a blizzard of executive orders – 26 signed that first day back in the White House – and left his opponents breathless and wrong-footed. But it is in 2026 that […]
Zohran Mamdani and Zack Polanski have brought back the politics of ‘hope’. Many of their voters do not even know the policies involved or their unintended consequences; they vote based on vibe. The vibe of something new, something different, something that promises change. But this politics of hope is not new – and it is […]
Donald Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs, which have caused havoc and uncertainty in global markets, are now finally having their day in court. On November 5, the US Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments in two consolidated cases, Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump and Trump v. V.O.S. Selections. The Trump Administration will defend its reciprocal tariff […]
With Donald Trump having once again visited Britain, it is worth asking if we might be able to learn something from America’s devotion to liberty. Say what you will about the 45th President, he has never been shy of wading into the ‘culture wars’, at the heart of which lies our right to freedom of […]
I’ve just returned from the US, where can-do spirit and positivity were on abundant display – a welcome contrast to the self-doubt and anaemic growth Labour are presiding over. Instead, talk in Washington, as well as in an Alabama congressional district, was of cutting taxes, increasing investment and building everything from power plants to manufacturing […]
For America’s anxious European allies, few questions matter as much as whether Donald Trump’s re-election in 2024 marks a permanent shift in the role played by the United States in the world, or whether it is just a passing phase. On trade, the answer is reasonably clearcut. As US average tariffs congeal somewhere in the […]
I first heard the names Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes when I was a high-school sophomore. My teacher announced, as if it were a fact as firm as any law of thermodynamics, that the Great Depression was caused by laissez-faire policies advocated by Smith, and that salvation came from the more scientifically sound ideas […]
The decision by US Court of International Trade to block Donald Trump’s tariffs, declared by the President under International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), comes as a relief after the weeks of uncertainty and policy reversals that followed the ‘Liberation Day’ on April 2. It also shows that, while businesses had good reasons to be rattled […]
The King and Queen of Canada have made it home to open the 45th Session of Parliament. While King Charles III is the Canadian head of state through the development of unique constitutional doctrines, he, of course, remains the British monarch. Their Majesties’ presence in Canada raises the question of where the long-standing relationship between […]
David Cameron was regarded as a rather establishment figure as prime minister. This is partly due to having been educated at Eton College – through no fault of his own. For most of his time in Downing Street, he was also constrained from operating in a true coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Yet in terms […]
Under one particularly charitable reading, Donald Trump’s discontent with the global financial status quo, reflected in his administration’s drastic trade policies, is a response to the pressure that a chronically overvalued dollar puts on the competitiveness of US industry. As the prospect of a likely trade war-induced recession shows, tariffs carry large economic costs, including […]
Shortly after becoming president, Vladimir Putin held a now-historic meeting in the Kremlin with Russia’s oligarchs. The deal he put on the table in the summer of 2000 was simple: the country’s economic elite could keep and further cumulate their enormous wealth, more often than not acquired through legally and ethically dubious means, but they […]
The blunt reality is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the US Congress – and in the American body politic writ large – to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources or make the necessary changes to be serious and capable partners […]
Last summer’s production of Richard III at Shakespeare’s Globe decided to be ‘brave’. Trump quotes were added to the script. The Duke of Buckingham was sporting a red baseball cap. The cultural resistance was back. Putting aside the cringe, it didn’t even work. Richard III tells the tale of a physically deformed but intellectually cunning […]
So, what happens now? There is general agreement that last Friday’s White House meeting was a disaster. Nothing like that has ever occurred in the Oval Office. It was the sort of way in which Stalin might have treated one of his colleagues, before ordering him to be taken off and shot. The Western Alliance: […]
Since the ‘peace process’ of the 1990s, the St Patrick’s Day event at the White House has become a much-anticipated junket for politicians north and south of the Irish border. This annual celebration of paddywhackery brings traditional enemies together in pursuit of US patronage and cash, while the backdrop of shamrocks and Guinness appeals to […]
In the latest episode of our weekly podcast, The Capitalist: Microsoft’s Satya Nadella says it’s time to separate AI’s real impact from the noise: true success isn’t measured in viral demos but in global GDP growth. So, is AI delivering – or are we buying into a bubble? Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s approval ratings are slipping as […]
Next year will be 20 years since we first published the ‘Bumper Book of Government Waste’. It put public spending under the spotlight, challenged Whitehall and local government to up their ante and encouraged people to hold ministers and budgetholders to better account. It won an Atlas Award in Washington DC in the process, for […]
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