It’s proving rather complicated, this Union thing, isn’t it? It was complicated enough when us Scots voted on independence to a mixed southern chorus of “please don’t go!” and “good riddance!” It’s only got more tangled since, with Brexit bringing the future of Northern Ireland into doubt. If the English can find a way to […]
There is a certain stripe of Briton who, when the phrase “ID cards” is mentioned, sits bolt upright in his armchair, moustache bristling, eyes aflame, and lets you have it. “I,” he proclaims, “am a free-born Englishman, warmed by the flame of liberty. My father didn’t defeat Hitler only for his son to be asked […]
Over the Christmas week, CapX is republishing its favourite pieces from the past year. This was first published on April 4. Two years ago, almost to the day, I wrote an article for CapX that got me into a spot of bother. I wasn’t responsible for the rather provocative headline boldly declaring that “Scotland has gone […]
There is a Ukippish take on the world in which one looks after one’s own and to hell with the rest – an insular, morally stunted and frankly nauseating mindset that demands we put ultra-tight limits on immigration, at all costs avoid becoming entangled in global problems, and slash or even scrap our overseas aid […]
I expected, by now, to be coming round to the idea of Brexit. A lot of my friends were Outers – clever folk with whom I agree on much else. Prior to June 23, 2016, I would have described myself as a Eurosceptic Remainer, my position perhaps best summed up as: the only thing worse […]
For the past seven years, and until this March, Preet Bharara served as the phenomenally successful US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Due to its jurisdiction, the post is one of the most important prosecutorial roles in America. Bharara earned a reputation as a fearless, non-partisan pursuer of financial malfeasance, public corruption, […]
Today’s most entertaining article is by Douglas Carswell for the ConservativeHome website. In it, Mr Carswell, until recently the MP for Clacton, takes aim at what is sometimes called the punditocracy – that is, those, like me, who make their living from opining on politicians and politics and policy. We are, I accept, an easy […]
However I tried, I couldn’t find a way to raise my spirits on Tuesday. I spent the day, like so many others, in a state of profound sadness. Also: hollow, angry, unsettled, damp-eyed. After waking up to the big shock, there were the aftershocks: that some of my 12-year-old daughter’s classmates had travelled down from […]
There are many things that have become clear in this geekily fascinating manifesto week. But the single most significant fact to emerge from the parties’ policy platforms – and, indeed, from the election as a whole – is that the state is back. Inevitably, both of the main parties are coming at this idea from […]
Will he or won’t he? In any other situation it would be unthinkable for someone about to lead their political party off an electoral cliff to even consider clinging to office afterwards. Yet the question is nervously being asked of Jeremy Corbyn. Such is the fanaticism of the hard-Left movement he has unwittingly found himself […]
There is only one acceptable response to Theresa May’s announcement that she wants a general election: good. For its own democratic hygiene, Britain desperately needs one. Since the Brexit referendum the country has been sloping miserably around the place like a football hooligan with an unshiftable hangover and morning-after breath. This is the bracing restorative […]
Two years ago, almost to the day, I wrote an article for CapX that got me into a spot of bother. I wasn’t responsible for the rather provocative headline boldly declaring that “Scotland has gone mad”, but the opening sentence – “It’s a strange thing, starting to think that your homeland may be a bit dim” […]
There’s nothing quite as tedious as a left-wing politician on manoeuvres. At least you know where you are with the Right: treachery, faithlessness and an almost pornographically explicit self-interest. Just think back to the last Tory leadership contest – knives in the front, blood on the walls and hemlock in the coffee, and that was […]
Let’s be clear about something that, for some reason, has become lost in the fog of war: a second referendum on Scottish independence should not be about whether the nation rejoins the EU. As things stand, though, that is exactly what it risks being about, to everyone’s diminishment. Brexit may be the trigger for another […]
Oh Lord, not again. The reality of a second independence referendum – of the prolonged, furious and divisive punch-up that inevitably lies ahead – sends my heart plummeting to my boots. The muscle memory remains from last time: shouting matches with friends and family, being called a traitorous **** by anonymous strangers with pseudonyms such as […]
When Theresa May triggers Article 50 next month, Nicola Sturgeon will use the occasion to demand a second referendum on Scottish independence. And so, as the UK leaves one union, a consequence may be that Scots decide to leave another, much older one. That, at least, is the concern in Number 10, according to yesterday’s […]
Over the Christmas week, CapX is republishing its favourite pieces from the past year. You can find the full list here. Liberal progressives have lost. The stark truth is that the model that has more or less dominated Western politics for the past three decades is defunct. It could not be more dead. Corbyn kicked […]
Liberal progressives have lost. The stark truth is that the model that has more or less dominated Western politics for the past three decades is defunct. It could not be more dead. Corbyn kicked us in the ass. Brexit knocked us off our feet. Now President Trump – so weird to write those two words […]
I’ll start with a confession. When it comes to The Great Acceleration, I’ve been something of a decelerant. This book would likely have hit the shelves years earlier had its author not had the misfortune to find himself labouring under my whip at the Telegraph for a decent chunk of the past decade. In my […]
The thing, weirdly, that I remember best – can’t unremember – is the rustle. Thomas Hamilton was a regular visitor to the Stirling Observer offices and he always wore the same grimy anorak, which would rustle as he waddled towards you, his fat arms rubbing against his blimpish torso – shik shik shik. At the […]
