At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, one of the hottest topics was virtual reality. After years of trial and error, it is finally tipped for take-off with technology now available that produces exciting results (motion sickness aside). An Oculus Rift headset will cost you $599. The idea is that you put […]
After the usual slovenly Christmas excess, I haven’t had a drink in five days. I don’t want an award; it most certainly isn’t an achievement. I understand that for many people not having a drink in five days counts as a standard week. But for me, it just feels that after assorted festive parties followed […]
Thrawn is a terrific Scottish word. It means perverse or stubborn, only more so. If someone annoys you, suggesting you do something, you do the precise opposite even if you don’t want to do it. That’s thrawn. The word springs to mind in relation to Donald Trump and his difficult dealings with Scotland, his mother’s homeland. […]
Labour’s new Shadow Defence Secretary Emily Thornberry took a large donation from the controversial law firm Leigh Day that is under investigation over its pursuit of claims against British soldiers who fought in Iraq. Thornberry, who was promoted by Jeremy Corbyn in his reshuffle last night, registered a £14,500 donation from Leigh Day in 2013 […]
While the members of Westminster press pack wait for the outcome of Jeremy Corbyn’s never-ending reshuffle, they can be reassured that it’s nice and warm here at home. Radio 4 is on, there’s a fire going, and, like many people, I’m not far away from having dinner. In the outside world, the Corbyn shuffle is not getting much […]
Donald Trump’s new TV advert includes a reiteration of his call for a ban on Muslims entering the US, and also features footage of migrants streaming across the border to show that Trump will supposedly build a giant wall and make Mexico pay for it. Put to one side the demagogic claims and 1930s-style propagandising […]
Reshuffles are difficult. David Cameron hates the grief involved and avoids hiring and firing people whenever he can. Tony Blair struggled with them too, partly because his next door neighbour took such an interest. Changing a team is a difficult business in corporate life too. Large companies that attract much less attention than Prime Ministers […]
The downside of not being in my native Scotland for New Year’s Eve, or Hogmanay as we Scots like to call it, is missing out on being with wider family and old friends. There are some upsides to being in England, however. Scots are trained to feel such an exceptional weight of expectation about Hogmanay […]
It has been a great year for CapX, with our readership quadrupling and the launch of a US edition. There was no shortage of subjects to tackle in 2015, and next year with a pivotal US presidential election taking place, and in all likelihood a British referendum on the European Union, will be just as […]
Not much astonishes Boris Johnson. But when the Mayor of London had a falling out with Oliver Letwin in 2011 over airport capacity, he was genuinely astonished to be told by Cameron and Osborne’s “key fixer” that “we” do not want more families in Sheffield flying abroad on holiday. An appalled Boris wrote the so […]
On the night of 29th December 1940, seventy five years ago today, the newspaper photographer Herbert Mason was working in Fleet Street on what was to prove the heaviest night of the Blitz. In a few hours the Luftwaffe poured more than 24,000 high explosive bombs and 100,000 incendiaries onto the City of London and surrounding […]
It has become a catechism of the anti-war movement that bombing should always be opposed as it only creates more victims and makes any situation worse. The curious logic – which I first recall having explained to me by an activist leafleting ahead of Desert Storm, the liberation of Kuwait a quarter of a century ago […]
Looking at the rise of ISIS, the resurgence of the Taliban and the spread of angry populism in western democracies, you could be forgiven for thinking that humanity is going backwards. But do not despair. Below are 15 pieces of unreservedly good news from 2015 that demonstrate the strength of human ingenuity, the wonders of […]
When a Beatles obsessive hears that the band is to allow its music to be streamed by the digital music services on which the youth of today listen to music there are several possible reactions. If you own everything they ever released – as I do, like many other fans – you might feel a […]
Ten years ago it was fashionable to say in media circles that you had better start being nice about Gordon Brown. Don’t you know he is going to inherit the earth? Get with the programme, or prepare to get excluded. Once Blair is gone it will be Brown for a decade. Cameron? Don’t be ridiculous. […]
Philip Hammond, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, has been very loyal to David Cameron and George Osborne. In opposition pre-2010 he was happy to deployed on their behalf when someone was needed to tour the studios defending them because the Tory leadership was in a tight spot. Hammond may or may not be your cup of tea, but he’s […]
Perhaps it is not surprising that so little proper attention has been paid to David Cameron’s victory over Ed Miliband in May. It happened it; it was reported; and then it was banked by observers as though it had been expected all along. Perhaps us commentators and pollsters, who generally judged that he could not […]
Donald Trump’s love affair with Scotland has not been without its ups and downs. Since wrapping himself in tartan – on account of his mother’s Gaelic heritage – he has opened a controversial golf course and fallen out spectacularly with the Nationalist government in Edinburgh over a wind farm development that he says is a […]
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas… even in Westminster, where the inmates are obviously in need of a rest. It’s been quite a year. Twelve months ago, Ed Miliband was leader of the opposition and hopeful of becoming Prime Minister if the Tories failed to win an overall majority. Nick Clegg was deputy […]
I’ve spent more time than most interviewing bankers in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 and take a fairly robust view of those who ran the mega-banks into the ground. I never like to mention it… but I wrote a book on the subject, about RBS, which is still available this Christmas in […]
