Amid war in the Middle East and a country faltering thanks to years of failed policies, a deeply unpopular Prime Minister insisted that Britain had strong energy security, despite warnings from experts that blackouts were a very real possibility. In October 1973, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced an oil embargo that […]
Students and parents deserve the truth about Britain’s education system. Successive governments have pushed generations along a single, well-worn track; through primary and secondary school, into college or sixth form and finally to university. The underlying promise appeared straightforward: if students followed this route and graduated with a degree, higher pay would follow. Politicians of […]
The average graduate in their 20s goes £1,600 deeper into student debt every year, or just about over £30 per week. This isn’t what they were promised. They were told that university was the surest route to better pay and lifelong security. Many working-class children were sold a powerful dream: that they could build a […]
‘It’s nice, isn’t it. The quiet.’ ‘This is what serious government looks like. This is how it makes appointments.’ This was the sentiment of the chattering classes upon Labour’s election victory in 2024. Britain, according to them, was about to become a safe heaven of peace and stability. Yet it’s now 2026, and the Government […]
The rules of growing up in modern Britain appeared to be simple for decades: if you work hard at school, go to university and graduate with a degree, you will come out with a well-paid job that sets you up for life. The argument seemed straightforward: since graduates earned considerably more than non-graduates, the way […]
Society and politics are forged by movements. The evolution of our country, and its state today, is a consequence of these movements, and their influence on our institutions. When people think of politics today, they think of parties, but parties have constraints that movements do not. Britain’s history has made this clear time and time […]
Providing clean running water for everyone is one of the most basic duties of the British state. But for six days last week, 24,000 people in Britain went without it. Pregnant women fell sick, children washed with bottled water, toilets were left unflushed and clothes couldn’t be cleaned. Schools, restaurants, pubs and hotels were all […]
When the Budget is announced on Wednesday, the Chancellor will have a golden opportunity to take radical action to reduce every UK household’s energy bills. If she accepts all the recommendations suggested in the Nuclear Regulatory Review, published today, British energy can become cheap again. The report, which calls for the most radical reforms of […]
Politics is changing – because it must. We are living through a turning point in British political history. The two main parties that have dominated the 20th century are now in a state of crisis so deep that there are good reasons to suspect that they might collapse into oblivion. They are seen to have […]
It is a strange thing to see a second planning bill emerge from the Government in such a short time – but it seems as if it is really happening. This is, as I’ve written before, a good thing. The first bill has been watered down repeatedly and Keir Starmer, correctly, realises it is not […]
It is incredible how similar Labour’s year in power has been to recent Conservative governments. It seems more and more likely, week by week, that Morgan McSweeney might be cast out, with Starmer following after. The question now on everyone’s mind: what can Labour do to avoid the electoral fate of the Tories? I think […]
Keir Starmer is reportedly becoming more and more frustrated at the sluggish reality of government within the current system. Who can blame him? Government is beset by a sclerotic Civil Service and continuous legal battles, while the minds of ministers are full of the same Westminster-bubble preoccupations that have now led to a cratering in […]
We are in the midst of a crime wave: shoplifting and snatch theft are the highest on record. There were over 500,000 shoplifting offences last year and over 116,000 phones stolen last year in London alone. Headline crime has also increased by 7% since last year. This is driven, chiefly, by large increases in fraud. […]
When the Government’s flagship Planning and Infrastructure Bill was first proposed, it offered a glimmer of hope that Britain might, finally, streamline its broken planning system and get our country growing again. For once, a government looked like it might do something on an issue that has dragged generations of Britons into decline. Then the […]
Labour need to act radically to change path – if they don’t, they’ll find themselves repeating recent history. It is difficult to compare Labour’s first year with any other government I can think of. The similarities between Labour’s failure to deliver and the failure of the Conservatives are so clear that an outsider would be […]
Two weeks ago, the campaign group I co-run, Looking For Growth (LFG), made multiple headlines through the use of anti-graffiti spray and a couple of mornings on the Bakerloo line. Since then, Transport for London has finally made an effort to clean the lines, and has had these efforts reported uncritically by the BBC (with […]
Britain is in decline. Stagnant wages, high cost of living, increasing national debt, historic high taxes, worse services, a flatlining GDP and a frequently decreasing GDP per capita. These are the numbers, but the feeling of decline is all around us. It’s in our streets: we now suffer theft and shoplifting at the highest rates […]
