If you need to hold a summit, Paris comes highly recommended: since the peace conference which produced the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, there have been at least four similar major meetings in the French capital. It was natural enough, then, that European leaders responded to President Emmanuel Macron’s invitation and converged on Paris on […]
In a lecture titled ‘Politics as Vocation’, the philosopher Max Weber noted that: ‘To an outstanding degree, politics today is in fact conducted in public by means of the spoken or written word.’ It was true when he said it, in 1918; it is even more true now. Much of Weber’s speech, given to Munich […]
Who is in charge of the Civil Service? A simple question, with a supposedly simple answer: it is the Head of the Home Civil Service, who is also the Cabinet Secretary. The Permanent Secretaries of all government departments and the Scottish and Welsh governments are responsible to him for the day-to-day management of their organisations. […]
Yesterday our Prime Minister wrote in the newspaper of record that he will ‘kick down the barriers to building, clear out the regulatory weeds and allow a new era of British growth to bloom’. The Chancellor of the Exchequer later stood in front of a TV camera and promised ‘to grow the supply-side of our […]
There has been a blizzard of important announcements for the future of the digital economy from the Competition and Markets authority in recent weeks. New investigations into search engines and mobile ecosystems, provisional findings from its long-running cloud market investigation, investigations into reviews. However, the regulator’s relationship with the Government has also become evidently strained, […]
The Chancellor’s big growth speech on Wednesday morning was so widely trailed that it contained few surprises. But it was still the clearest and most coherent statement of her economic philosophy and plans so far. Before diving into the detail, it is only fair to welcome the change of tone. It has been refreshing to […]
With all the fuss about Labour’s ‘heat or eat’ decision to means-test pensioners for their winter fuel allowance, and the ‘did-she-or-didn’t-she’ media hyperventilation about Kemi Badenoch questioning the future of the pension triple lock, it’s easy to forget that Britain’s state pension is basically broke. It was set up when most people only lived a […]
The Government’s response to the AI Opportunities Action Plan is an ambitious declaration of intent, laying out the foundations for the UK’s leadership in AI. It is a rare instance of bold policymaking and, for the Labour Government, it represents a much-needed triumph. But its success will depend on execution, bold thinking and a willingness […]
I sometimes wonder if the Prime Minister genuinely sees himself as a radical, decisive, high-minded leader with the ‘laser-like’ focus of which he speaks so often. Certainly he talks the talk: when he appointed Chris Wormald as the new Cabinet Secretary and head of the Civil Service earlier this month, Keir Starmer described his task […]
It took Margaret Thatcher nine years. It took Tony Blair seven years. But Keir Starmer has only taken five months to recognise that the machinery of UK government is bust. He now has the opportunity, time and parliamentary majority to drive through lasting reforms to the way in which Whitehall works. We should all welcome […]
This is a young Government. Labour have only been in power for five months. Yet already it has a tired, worn out feel about it. There is a sense of drift and pessimism. Every couple of days, a new sleaze scandal appears in the media. This should be the phase when ministers are swanking and […]
Whitehall sources have been briefing that a major reorganisation of local government in England is planned, with ministers expressing frustration at the inefficiency and inertia of many councils. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is due to publish a White Paper with proposals to streamline administration in 10 identified pilot areas. English local […]
A confession: I am not a football fan. I have never even been to a game. This does not mean that I am ignorant of the size of football’s fanbase, or the financial scale of the game. On the contrary. Association football is an English creation, emerging from English public schools, and the Football Association, […]
If you want to understand Keir Starmer’s approach to government – and why his new administration already seems to be struggling – there was an important clue in his conference speech this week. In what must have struck his speechwriter as a dazzling rhetorical trick, the Prime Minister attempted to hijack the Brexit slogan ‘Take […]
Over the coming weeks, CapX will be running a number of perspectives on the future of the Conservative Party. If you have an idea you would like to contribute, get in touch at editors@capxstaging.wpengine.com. When it comes to considering the politics of our capital city, Conservatives tend to fall into one of two camps: perpetual pessimists […]
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