When Iain Duncan Smith was running for the Tory leadership in 2001, a newly elected Conservative MP popped his head around the door that led into the outer office, where an MP’s parliamentary staff sit, and asked if IDS was in. The MP – let’s call him David Cameron, because that’s his name – was […]
Iain Duncan Smith has resigned from the government over welfare cuts. There is no need to add the word “sensationally” to that sentence. It is quite evidently a sensational resignation, that will create a lot of noise, by the man who once dubbed himself the “quiet man” of British politics during his spell as Tory leader. Below is […]
Perhaps in future, rather than the UK Chancellor presenting an annual Budget to Parliament, he could simply publish an “options paper” instead. Rather than a formal text, worked over by teams of hundreds of officials in the Treasury, George Osborne might just “put a few ideas out there,” with “absolutely no pressure” to get some […]
There will be those who regard the latest events at The Guardian as a cause for celebration. Here are the anti-market lefties of Kings Cross getting a long overdue lesson in how the world works, you might say. How funny. The cash pile that The Guardian built from the sale of assets including its stake […]
One of the most amusing aspects of the aftermath of George Osborne’s latest Budget has been listening to the SNP’s deputy leader Stewart Hosie offer a punchy account of how the Chancellor got his forecasts all wrong. From the party that would have landed Scotland with a £15bn black hole and the worst deficit in […]
Is tonic water included in George Osborne’s new sugar tax? I’m asking for a friend, obviously, although the thought of an increase in the price of a gin and tonic – middle Britain’s staple pick me up at the end of a long day – does not fill me with joy. Yet the new tax […]
I’ll let you into a secret. The Unionists were really, really worried in the run up to the Scottish referendum. Common sense and the polling suggested that enough Scots had quietly decided to vote No to independence that it would probably be alright on the night. But it was difficult in the tense final months […]
Nicola Sturgeon agreed to be interviewed by my friend and former boss Andrew Neil on the BBC’s Sunday Politics at the weekend. Based on the results, I doubt she’ll be doing that again in a hurry. To be fair, it was good of her to agree to appear a few days after it had been revealed that […]
A couple of my best friends and some of my favourite people are Scottish Nationalists. There are decent and intelligent SNP MPs and MSPs who will in their quieter moments share a joke or an insight, even with a rotten old Unionist like wot I am. Although they are patriots and believers in their cause, they […]
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. Sixty nine years ago this weekend, President Harry Truman made a speech to a joint session of Congress in which he mapped out […]
Is that it then? Is that what all the revolutionary talk and taking over the Labour party from the far left was for? In order that the Socialist John McDonnell could stand at a podium and declare his supposed “iron” commitment to fiscal responsibility and balancing the books? It is impossible at moments like this […]
Is there anything the SNP won’t do to cause trouble and create tension between England and Scotland? It seems not. Yet even by the party leadership’s usual standards, the intervention at Westminster in English Sunday trading laws is a belter. The law concerns England. Scotland has its own laws. Changing the law on this in […]
There is much excitement in the British media about someone called John Longworth being removed for saying something and now Boris Johnson getting into trouble for doing the opposite of what he accused others of doing to Mr Longworth. I simply cannot – despite the efforts of my friends on both sides of the Brexit […]
Okay, this is well beyond the usual remit of CapX. This is not about politics or economics or technology or books or wine or capitalism. It’s about Piers Morgan, and in that case I’ll be brief. But sometimes one reads a piece of such mind-bending imbecility that it deserves a response. The journalist Piers Morgan has delivered just […]
Journalists are not supposed to admit that they missed out on a story or the chance to meet one of the giants of history. Fearless seekers of truth are not caught napping, literally, when the former President of the United States and First Lady are visiting the Scottish church their parents then attended. But that […]
This is the second post of mine rescued from the closure of Telegraph blogs. It was first published in February 2014. What were Glasgow’s students thinking when earlier this week they elected Edward Snowden as Rector of that ancient and great institution? In Scottish universities the office of Rector is an important role. Not only is it […]
This time I mean it. I really am going on leave for a few days, but I keep getting drawn back into the EU referendum. It is, as the youngsters say, “so not boring”. It is very exciting, and already turning nasty with silly claims galore. Friendships are being tested. The governing party is badly […]
I’m supposed to be on leave this week, so this is the last thing I’ll say for now about the EU referendum. With the world collapsing, the future of the EU up for grabs, a migrant emergency and Donald Trump in the lead for the Republican nomination, it must be hard getting attention right now outside […]
There was some mockery on social media today when Iain Duncan Smith cited Altiero Spinelli in his interview with Andrew Marr this morning. Funny old IDS, bringing up ancient history and calling Spinelli an ex-Communist. “Beware the reds of Brussels!!!!” tweeted one Unison activist, sarcastically one assumes. There is already enough stupidity in this EU campaign, with both sides trading some […]
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. What took Marco Rubio so long? The young Florida Senator and contender for the Republican nomination has finally got stuck into Donald Trump, […]
