It is apparently a rule of British constitutional debate that no bad idea stays down forever. So it was perhaps inevitable that “allies of Ruth Davidson” are apparently touting the idea of splitting the Scottish Conservatives off from the Tories in response to Boris Johnson’s ascension to Number Ten. There are good reasons to be […]
There is a big difference between being pro-freedom and being pro-business, and the public health debate illustrates this point very well. Whilst advocates of authoritarian ‘nanny-state’ programmes often like to paint a picture of a battle between a virtuous state and avaricious businesses – and accuse their opponents of cosying up to ‘Big Sugar’ and […]
There is something at once heartening and bone-achingly wearisome about hearing a Conservative politician talking about how they’re going to take the fight to the nanny state. If you’re liberally-minded it is of course nice to hear someone, anyone, talking that way. But there’s no escaping the fact that Conservatives have said the same things […]
A common feature in British politics is pride in our ‘social safety net’. But the tectonic plates beneath the welfare state are shifting, and the public risk finding themselves bound tightly in the illiberal modern alternative: the social straightjacket. The depth of the difference between the two is well-disguised. Very often the shift from one […]
Back in 2007, the Observer ran a remarkably self-aware article asking a very pertinent question: where are all the right-wing playwrights? It’s an eye-opening read, especially the interviews with people actually involved in the theatre. Their views range from the candid – that state funding begets a certain ideological bent, and they’re more likely to […]
Back in power with a new majority, the Conservatives are squaring up for another face-off with the unions. By “the unions”, of course, I mean the big public sector unions such as Unite, Len McCluskey’s fiefdom, which recently voted to rescind its commitment to obeying the law during strikes. So does nearly everybody who uses […]
