Ok, I admit it – when I first heard the Eat Out to Help Out policy, I scoffed. Turns out I was not alone. For in the first 3 weeks of the scheme, 64 million discounted meals have been demolished by the Great British public – and the Covid rate has not rocketed as many […]
This is the CapX Weekly Briefing Once upon a time there was a company that rented videos to over fifty million members, from nine-thousand stores worldwide. This week, that company joined forces with Airbnb – to rent out a sofa in their only shop left. But the story of Blockbuster is not that of a […]
This is the CapX weekly briefing For the past fortnight I’ve been working from the picturesque market town of Ross-on-Wye, which sits on the cusp of the Anglo-Welsh border. And while friends suggest London has been basking in a semi-sociable ‘new normal’ for some time, in Ross-on-Wye recent days have felt significant. Two weeks ago, […]
This is the CapX weekly briefing As resignations go, it was blistering. The New York Times (NYT) has suffered some unfortunate mishaps in recent years, as us apparently boiled mutton-eating, swamp-‘cavorting’ Brits know only too well. But for outgoing Op-Ed staff editor and columnist Bari Weiss, the problems run deeper than some bafflingly blind articles. In her resignation […]
CapX Weekly Briefing It’s been a week of two wars – one metaphorical, the other almost literal. At home, the culture ‘war’ continues apace, with statues falling and absurd debates about the Prime Ministerial plane being painted red, white and blue. Abroad, the most serious conflict on the Indo-China border since 1962 led to dozens […]
It is easy to dislike Edward Colston, the 17th-century Bristol MP and wealthy slave trader. As an official of the Royal African Company, Colston was involved in the forced transportation of over 80,000 men, women and children from Africa to the Americas, making a large fortune from investments in the trade of human beings. His […]
It’s the dream that fires revolutions and hot-takes alike: tomorrow everything will be different. Sometimes it is; more often the dawn breaks while everything else remains largely intact. In the midst of a global pandemic moving at bewildering speed, it can feel as though there’s little to hold on to. Easy therefore to give up […]
As we enter a nationwide quarantine, CapX brings you the definitive guide to thriving in self-isolation. Our writers and editors share their tips on how to cope when cooped up, and recommend what to read, watch or do in order to stay sane and enjoy yourself. From Boccaccio to Mantel, Paw Patrol to virtual pubs, […]
‘I have, myself, full confidence that if all do their duty, if nothing is neglected, and if the best arrangements are made, as they are being made, we shall prove ourselves once again able to defend our Island home, to ride out the storm of war, and to outlive the menace of tyranny, if necessary […]
Sadiq Khan has a record that would embarrass even Justin Bieber. The ‘greatest’ hits London has suffered since his election in 2016 include: Robbery up 73% Street muggings up 56% Homicides up 34% Not everything is up of course. Transport reliability is down, TFL’s budget has tanked after some very effective self-sabotage, while rates of […]
With the support of the Atlas Network, CapX is publishing a new series of essays, podcasts and interviews on the theme of Illiberalism in Europe, looking at the different threats to liberal economies and societies across the continent, from populism to protectionism and corruption. Brendan Simms is one of Britain’s leading historians. Professor of the History of […]
Judging from our dealings with China, it can be hard to work out if Britain actually has a foreign policy. The way our stance on Beijing has spun so dramatically over the last couple of decades would have made a revolving door dizzy, as I’ve outlined before. There is, however, a charitable case to be […]
Is the great trade war coming to an end? America and China have been making a show this week of having settled at least some of their differences as they inch towards signing ‘phase one’ of a new trade deal. Whether this proves to be a long-term armistice or simply a truce designed for domestic audiences remains to be seen. One […]
Lord David Willetts has been an intellectual titan on the centre right for the past 30 years. Having worked in Margaret Thatcher’s policy unit, Willetts was an MP between 1992 and 2015, and served as a Cabinet Minister in the coalition government. He is President of the independent think-tank the Resolution Foundation, and the author […]
In confusing times, Tim Bale is a rare voice of clarity. Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London, Tim is a regular presence on radio and TV, providing incisive commentary on the latest political crises. He is also an historian of the Conservative Party, and the author of many insightful books including The Conservative Party: […]
One day I suspect we will see the campaign for a second referendum in the same light as Communism, the Reliant Robin and that tattoo of your Ex’s face: an obviously bad idea in hindsight, but one that exercised a baffling appeal at the time. When, in many years, Brexit is actually ‘done’ and we […]
One has a dream of sunlit uplands, the other a nightmare of burning plains. But Brexit evangelists and Extinction Rebellion have more in common than they might like to admit. Both are technically complex issues that raise fundamentally emotive questions about our identities, challenging us to think about what it means to be British, European […]
Gisela Stuart is a rare figure in British politics – a Labour politician who campaigned wholeheartedly for Brexit. As an MP from 1997-2017, Gisela is perhaps best known for her role in the 2016 referendum, where she chaired the Vote Leave campaign and appeared in the TV debates. But her deep interest in constitutional and foreign […]
What do we want from our politicians? Often it can be hard to tell. We ask for honesty but rarely reward politicians who campaign on uncomfortable truths. Instead we vote for the most attractive offer in a manifesto arms race, which encourages a cycle of over-promising and under-achieving. And as the gap between promise and […]
Today the Supreme Court will retire to consider whether the Prime Minister misled the Queen and unlawfully prorogued Parliament. Whether you think this will be the climax of ‘the trial of the century’ or a full stop to an interminably long legal sentence, the ruling will reveal much about the usually hidden mechanisms of our […]
