As we await the denouement of the Greek crisis, hopes rise and fade by the hour. Someone reports that there are signs of hope. No, there aren’t, reports someone else. Meanwhile, questions abound. Where is the Greek finance minister chap with the shaven head and the motorbike? Answer, it seems he was in London last […]
The ousted Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych was interviewed by BBC Newsnight and it is worth watching. What is most tremendous about the interview is that initially the autocratic Yanukovych does a convincing job of winning over the viewer. He makes thoughtful remarks about the horror of war and it is possible to see his side […]
There are certain arguments that are not worth having, or at least not if one wants to carry on having friends. For my generation, the question of whether or not one parent in a two person relationship should stay at home and look after young children is one of those lose-lose subjects on which you […]
Years ago, back when Gordon Brown was Prime Minister, and David Cameron was leader of the Opposition, and “doing something big in banking” was still a compliment, the BBC got itself entangled in some mess or other. I cannot remember now exactly the details of the row, but critics of the Beeb were furious, and […]
This is the weekly newsletter from Iain Martin, editor of CapX. To receive it by email every Friday, along with a short daily email of our top five stories, please subscribe here. A week spent in the US talking to Americans can usually be guaranteed to restore the spirits. The residual dynamism, energy and optimism […]
The collective nervous breakdown that the UK’s Labour party is having, as it struggles to come to terms with defeat at the recent general election, is no laughing matter. Really, it’s not. The existence of a weak opposition can help breed arrogance in the governing party, which usually results eventually in policy missteps. Governments need […]
This is the weekly newsletter from Iain Martin, editor of CapX. To receive it by email every Friday, along with a short daily email of our top five stories, please subscribe here. Would Americans mind us Brits sending back Paul Krugman? This week the King of the Keynesians’ latest epistle in the New York Times, […]
To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war, as Winston Churchill is reputed to have said at a lunch at the White House in 1954. And by his definition, because it is preferable to armed combat, it is never a complete waste of time to hold a talking shop for leaders. These events have become […]
New governments must be allowed their period of strutting about, although in the case of the David Cameron and the British Conservative leadership following their recent win over Labour one wonders whether the strutting isn’t already getting out of hand. The newly emboldened Prime Minister has made it clear at the G7 (what does the […]
The leader of UKIP was given the prime slot this morning on the BBC’s leading current affairs programme, Today, to witter on about the looming referendum on the UK’s relationship with the EU. Was I alone in thinking: do we still have to listen to Nigel Farage? What became clear is that Farage struggles, like […]
This is the weekly newsletter from Iain Martin, editor of CapX. To receive it by email every Friday, along with a short daily email of our top five stories, please subscribe here. In Medea, a play by the tragedian Euripides first performed in 431 BC, things quickly get messy and even more convoluted than the […]
Forty years ago today, Britain voted to stay in what was then the European Economic Community. Margaret Thatcher, the newly elected pro-European Conservative leader was pleased with the result, but she had opposed there being a referendum in the first place. When Harold Wilson announced in January 1975 that there would be a vote she […]
We are at that amusing point in the political cycle in Britain, after a government has won a surprise victory, when the next decade or so is talked about as though it is already mapped out. The widely held assumption is that the Tories have the next election wrapped up, Labour is finished, Britain will […]
The fall of a dictator tends to be a joyous affair. At that moment, when the presidential guard disappears, and the old booby is left standing alone on the balcony of his palace, looking in vain for a rescue helicopter and wondering where he left the keys to his safety deposit boxes stuffed with ill-gotten […]
After an election win, when the champagne has been quaffed and the naysayers pilloried (although the Tories didn’t think they were going to win outright either), there is always that awkward moment when ministers realise that they will actually have to implement what was promised in their manifesto. A scheme that might have seemed like […]
This is the weekly newsletter from Iain Martin, editor of CapX. To receive it by email every Friday, along with a short daily email of our top five stories, please subscribe here. And it’s four more years at FIFA for Sepp “I’m not perfect” Blatter, the man who could teach Vladimir Putin a thing or […]
Visit the Scottish Parliament, as I did yesterday to watch Nicola Sturgeon face questions, and it becomes more obvious than ever that the Labour party north of the border is not heading for a revival any time soon. The Nationalists have a majority in the devolved parliament and those on the Labour benches did not […]
The assessment of the “legendary” Liverpool football manager, Bill Shankly, was famously that football is not a matter of life and death. It is more important than that, he said. Incidentally, it is imperative in football journalism to call successful football managers legendary, and there is no-one more legendary than Shankly, whose mantra has become […]
There will come a time for a full “judge-led inquiry” into the undignified end of the Don’t Underestimate Ed Miliband Association, of which I was a co-founder almost five years ago. I have been accused several times since Miliband suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the British electorate of running a classic “false […]
The Financial Times Lex column says, quite rightly, that bank shareholders should be furious at the latest fines imposed by regulators. Barclays, RBS, J.P. Morgan, Citi and UBS are paying a combined £3.6bn for nefarious activities. While it is true that – incredible as this may seem to baffled taxpayers – the fines for foreign […]
