“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” That was rather good question that John Lydon – Johnny Rotten asked – at the culmination of the last gig by the Sex Pistols at the Winterland Theater in San Francisco in 1978. Rotten felt that he and the band had been pawns in a media game designed for the benefit […]
Honestly, Donald Trump is such a loser. If this wasn’t a respectable, serious website I would get a chant going – US-style – of loser, loser, loser. But no, that would be extremely childish. Still, how wonderful it is seeing that for all that dangerous rabble-rousing, and the whipping up of hatred, and his stupid […]
In Tim Montgomerie’s fascinating round-up of UK politics for CapX on his way back to the US for Iowa tonight, he observed that an early UK general election is likely if David Cameron stands down in 2018 or 2019. This provoked some reader feedback: ah, you’ve forgotten the Fixed-Term Parliament Act. The next UK general […]
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. Tom Scholar’s memoirs promise to be an interesting read if he ever gets round to writing them several decades from now. The senior […]
I’m getting on a bit. And as you get older, things that happened in what you like to think of as the recent past, you realise with a jolt, actually took place quite a long time ago. The process is remorseless. Life speeds up and your personal past gets further away, until it is a […]
George Osborne is a remarkable politician. For all his privilege, he is not a show pony or a natural in the limelight. In that sense he is self-made, which makes his considerable success in the Commons all the more noteworthy and admirable. Through patient work, practice, calculation and clever use of patronage he has turned […]
If you want a guaranteed round of applause on television and radio shows in which the voting public participates, then one of the safest fallbacks in the UK is the declaration that MPs should be full-time and not have any outside interests or second jobs. One can easily see how we got here, after the […]
It is a pretty good rule of thumb that if you are seeking to become a leader of a country you should like it quite a bit. Of course, in the case of the UK you may be motivated to correct great unfairness, as in the case of Attlee, or reverse decline, in the case […]
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. Ever since the first worried investor sprinted around the corner of Exchange Alley in the City of London in 1720 and said something […]
Of the many cretinous things that Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn has done since he became Labour leader, possibly the most cretinous of all was the decision to appoint John McDonnell as shadow chancellor. McDonnell is from the far left. He has never seen a strike he didn’t like and don’t get me started on his views on the […]
Oh no, Sarah Palin is back. I know that in one sense she never went away. She was always there, burbling on about Alaska and making sane people shake their heads in wonder that a good person such as John McCain could ever have thought that she was a suitable running mate. But now she […]
Chris Deerin and Alex Massie have both had a right royal go today at explaining the situation in Scotland to their fellow Britons. They say that if the UK votes to leave the EU – or rather if English votes take the UK out of the EU – then there is a big risk that […]
It’s not always easy defending capitalism. While I’m a believer in the benefits of open markets and competition, and a fully signed-up Burkean ideologically attuned to avoiding a violent Marxist revolution, sometimes there are moments when one’s beliefs are tested almost to breaking point. I had just such a moment when someone alerted me at […]
One possible explanation for the ongoing meltdown of Labour’s defence policy is that the Tory Chancellor George Osborne won the right to run in it the Westminster Christmas raffle. It certainly looks as though the opposition’s defence review is being conducted with a Conservative landslide at the next general election in mind. Labour leader Jeremy […]
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. The way in which the Tory high command continually confuses its own interests and the progress of the UK’s EU referendum campaign is […]
I always read Owen Jones, even if I disagree with most of what the Guardian columnist writes. Not only does he provide an insight into what the radical Left is thinking, he is usually entertaining and interesting on politics. His latest column, on the rise of Bernie Sanders in the US, is essential reading, even […]
What was LBC thinking giving Alex Salmond his own radio show? The London-based talk-radio station is allowing the former SNP leader the run of the airwaves every Wednesday, shepherded by presenter Iain Dale. The answer to that question (what was LBC thinking?) is, of course, clever old LBC, which is trying to expand its reach […]
Among government loyalists in the UK, pragmatic business people and pro-EU commentators, there seems to be a fairly settled view that for all the potential for aggro and excitement, the referendum on British membership of the EU expected this year will probably be ok in the end. By ok, it is meant that the UK […]
Don’t mess with Louise Richardson, Oxford’s new Vice-Chancellor, as Alex Salmond discovered when he tried to pressurise her during Scotland’s bitter referendum campaign in 2014. She was then the Principal of St Andrew’s University. Angry Salmond phoned her and they reportedly had a “heated” discussion, during which she refused to be bullied by Salmond’s bluster. […]
In the days around the release of David Bowie’s final album, several leading writers on music republished earlier interviews with the great man. We know now why there were no fresh interviews to accompany his new work. Bowie the showman had even orchestrated his departure from the stage, and the new album with its fixation […]
