The BBC’s leadership debate was a miserable affair. Tory candidates for Prime Minister kept talking over each other in their desperation to deliver a killer attack on one of their colleagues. Emily Maitlis — who has one of the worst records amongst her BBC peers for interrupting guests — performed to type. The set looked […]
In the league table of Tory critics of Mrs May I’d only concede top place to George “I want to chop May up and store the bits in my freezer” Osborne. Before the general election debacle I worried that Mrs May was “much more ‘continuity Cameron’ than a prime minister who [was] delivering the reset that many […]
Theresa May has got so much right since she became Prime Minister. She made it immediately clear that she would respect the referendum result – understanding that any attempt to ignore, frustrate or dilute the largest ever tally of votes in British history, risked undermining public faith in democracy for good. She understood that the […]
One of the most insightful pieces of journalism from last year was Neal Gabler’s cover story for The Atlantic: “The Secret Shame of Middle Class Americans”. “Nearly half of Americans would have trouble finding $400 to pay for an emergency,” said the strapline. “I’m one of them.” I should have absorbed, rather than simply read, Gabler’s […]
We live in a world where politicians and campaigners define themselves as pro-market or pro-state. Academics, meanwhile, are increasingly specialists in narrow and very specific corners of their subject area. And nearly all of public debate is materialist – with huge attention given to our status as employees, entrepreneurs, taxpayers, welfare recipients, public sector workers […]
Let’s take one step back from last night’s Tory by-election triumph. It wasn’t just the win in Copeland – the most impressive of its kind by a sitting government for 51 years – that will have lifted Team May’s spirits. The failure of “Babies will die if the Tories win” – one of Labour’s most […]
I’m glad Theresa May jetted across the Atlantic so quickly after Donald Trump officially and legally became the world’s most powerful man. Any grown-up spying a White House door that was even slightly ajar had a responsibility to seize the opportunity to try to temper this most extraordinary 45th American president. It must have been […]
Tim Montgomerie spent much of the past year in the United States covering one of the most extraordinary presidential elections in history. In a three-part series, he is summing up the key lessons from that campaign, and from Donald Trump’s early days in office. (The first part can be found here and the second part here.) […]
Tim Montgomerie spent much of the past year in the United States covering one of the most extraordinary presidential elections in history. This is the second in a three-part series, summarising what he learned. (The first part can be found here and the third part here.) The weaknesses of the mainstream American media have reached a critical, […]
The first in a series of three pieces from Tim Montgomerie on what he learnt from spending much of the last year in the United States covering one of the most extraordinary of presidential elections. In each piece he’ll offer five thoughts. (The second and third pieces can be found here and here.) 1 We shouldn’t […]
Over the Christmas week, CapX is republishing its favourite pieces from the past year. You can find the full list here. Last week the Labour MP Alison McGovern explained that being likened to a Conservative was the worst insult she could think of. She had been willing to work with Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell […]
Over the Christmas week, CapX is republishing its favourite pieces from the past year. You can find the full list here. The “political centre ground could be further to the left than thought”. So declared a recent press release from the University of Sussex – highlighting research published on the LSE’s politics and policy blog. The […]
The Portrait of America polling will shortly move to another platform but as I wrap things up, here on CapX, I thought I’d reflect on the findings published here and choose ten that have most interested me – beginning with the most natural CapX topic: economics and US attitudes to government intervention, free trade and Wall […]
Ruth Davidson is obviously the big Tory winner from yesterday’s elections. Conservatives in London had more or less given up on any hope of ever making progress in Scotland but Ms Davidson – with a little help from Labour’s implosion – has delivered the best result for Scottish Tories since 1992. The Tories won seven […]
Yesterday I reported on how 44% of American voters were “terrified” at the prospect of Donald Trump becoming their 45th president. Today we asked similar questions about the prospect of a President Hillary Rodham Clinton. At the time of posting, 2,922 members of YouGov’s First Verdict panel had answered. Fewer panellists were terrified at the thought of Mrs Clinton winning […]
Both Bernie Sanders on the left and Donald Trump from the populist right have attacked free trade agreements during the contests for their parties’ nominations. Opposition to free current free trade deals was a key part of Mr Trump’s message to the voters of Indiana. Earlier this week he talked of China “raping” America through trade […]
At midnight last night Iain Martin, CapX’s esteemed editor was not sitting on the fence: “The Republican party is lumbered with a candidate who has made the most appalling remarks about women, the disabled, Muslims and Mexicans. He is a trainee demagogue who burbles on like a pillock at the bar about his pet hates. And he […]
It’s become a consistent theme of Donald Trump’s campaign; NATO members need to stop free-riding on US defence spending and, in a previous Portrait of America finding, we learnt that 42% of Americans agreed with him. 45% did not. The subject was a key part of the Republican frontrunner’s foreign policy speech, delivered last week (and which […]
Slightly more Americans – by 29% to 25% – think Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency “whistleblower”, who currently lives in Moscow, is a “traitor” than think he is a “hero”. We tested the issue with YouGov’s First Verdict panel after the trailer for Oliver Stone’s movie about Mr Snowden was released. The trailer can be viewed here […]
Although 50% of Americans find Donald Trump’s success in the Republican primary process “worrying” – because of the way he has offended so many social groups – 39% prefer to see good rather than bad from his rise. This large minority believe it is good for American democracy that a maverick outsider can break open the […]
