This week CapX is republishing some of our favourite articles of the year. This piece first appeared on September 3. The response of Wes Streeting, Labour MP for Ilford North, to the row surrounding Frank Field’s resignation of the Labour whip was typical of Labour moderates: “The character assassinations of Frank Field have already begun, […]
“Glaciers are key icons of climate change and global environmental change. However, the relationships among gender, science, and glaciers […] remain understudied. This paper thus proposes a feminist glaciology framework.” Thus reads the abstract for “Glaciers, gender, and science. A feminist glaciology framework for global environmental change research” by Carey, Jackson et al., published in Progress […]
The response of Wes Streeting, Labour MP for Ilford North, to the row surrounding Frank Field’s resignation of the Labour whip was typical of Labour moderates: “The character assassinations of Frank Field have already begun, but the two issues he raises – antisemitism and the toxic political culture of our Party – must be addressed […]
Let’s examine what the Minister actually said. It will be important when we come to examine the reaction to her words. Victoria Atkins, Minister for Women (whose name and title suggests a character in a late 19th century novel about northern Methodists and the temptations of urban Britain, but who is in fact a sensible […]
In recent weeks, Labour’s anti-Semitic virus has moved from the periphery to front-stage prima donnery. At the same time that ex-Labour councillor (and hero) Adam Langleben is tweeting evidence of overt, filthy antisemitism by Labour’s elected councillors, celebrity folk-artist and all-round “good guy” Billy Bragg claims that Jews “have work to do” to rebuild trust […]
The Conservative victory in Barnet (which includes Mrs Thatcher’s Finchley crib) was more than a relief for a leafy, beautiful, rus-in-urbe borough’s doughty citizenry (among which my husband Keith and I count ourselves). The London borough was Corbyn’s number one target council – apparently so easy to take that they didn’t even pretend it was going […]
In one of those “careful what you wish for” unintended consequences, anti-Brexit agitators may have unleashed constitutional reforms with a wider reach than dreary negotiations about the product labels and border control (how anyone gets worked up about leaving the EU is one of life’s big mysteries, for me). So angry were (at least) 123,821 […]
Believing oneself to be a good person — more good than you, at least — has always been an overdeveloped component of the Labour psyche. As Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, puts it: “Being right is far less important than being kind.” What she’s really saying — on social media, everyone can hear […]
I’ve lost count of the number of stories about fat people which feature Mr Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum lecturing us that it’s all the fault of Conservative governments. He was at it again this morning, as Cancer Research UK released figures about the diet of millennials. Tam Fry, spokesman for the National […]
What does a statistician do on a day off? He goes to Rightmove, and makes himself ill by looking up the prices of his first London flat, in dear old Bow E3. Because statisticians never take the day off, not really, I plotted the sales price for the property against time, which I’ve measured as the number of […]
Roy Wilkes is a schoolteacher, recently the subject of disciplinary action by his own trade union, the NUT, which accused him, according to the Times, of “grossly discriminatory (transphobic) statements… that were damaging to the mental health of members” and which “brought the union into disrepute”. Mr Wilkes’s actual statements (he seems to have pointed out […]
During the campaign which gave Blair his first landslide, a campaign whose inevitable outcome made me sick, there was one certainty from which I, and the 12 other Britons who didn’t vote for To-nee, could take comfort. Every claim made in the 1997 election by the Labour Party was scrupulously checked, pre-release, by a committee […]
Over the Christmas week, CapX is republishing its favourite pieces from the past year. This was first published on September 11. “The screens, nurse! Quick, the screens!” is a catchphrase deployed by Major Bloodnok, a cross-dressing womaniser who was prone to virulent wind (and a recurrent character in The Goon Show). I’m grateful to Messrs […]
“I was sent a memo [writes Gordon Brown] from Tony [Blair]’s private office that contained an astonishing proposal: to abolish all income-tax reliefs and allowances, other than a small personal tax credit, and use the proceeds to reduce the basic rate of tax to 20p and the top rate to 35p.” I’m indebted to John Rentoul for tweeting […]
Emma Dent Coad is the Labour MP who called (the black Conservative) Shaun Bailey a “token ghetto boy” and “ghetto man”. She also submitted a new logo for the party, of a Tory hanging from a tree. Emma Dent Coad, in other words, is a perfect representative for that vortex of hatred, the “Labour Party”. […]
I stopped driving recently. Because we live in the suburbs, where choosing not to drive is seen as bizarre, I’ve developed plausible explanations for the decision: that I prefer to read on the train, for example. That’s true, but not the whole truth. The reason I’ve stopped driving is that I no longer trust other […]
About 10 years ago, when the Conservatives were still in opposition, I went to party conference. Finding myself at a loose end — I think this was Blackpool, and I hate conference, being entirely unclubbable — I crept into the ballroom which would host the major speeches of the week. Like a dress rehearsal in […]
“The screens, nurse! Quick, the screens!” is a catchphrase deployed by Major Bloodnok, a cross-dressing womaniser who was prone to virulent wind (and a recurrent character in The Goon Show). I’m grateful to Messrs Milligan et al. for creating the Major; neurotic hysteria coupled with galloping flatulism being not a bad hook at all for […]
Why would Conservatives want to ape Momentum? The “grassroots” Labour movement responds to any political question with “more power for Corbyn, and more of your money”, which it couples with social gatherings (real and virtual) that remind me of the Planet People in 1970s Quatermass. The Planet People threw over the old social order to […]
There are two precise forms of horror arising from the situation in Venezuela. First the horror of life for its citizens, starved of basic foodstuffs and healthcare — and democracy — thanks to the interesting social experiments of the government there. But there’s another horror on show as well, albeit a quieter one, that’s not so […]
