On New Year’s Day, I wrote a piece for CapX entitled “Sixteen Reasons to be cheerful about 2016”. Some of those reasons were general (poverty would fall, average IQ would rise) and some were tied to specific forecasts (driverless cars would move from the labs to the roads, Britain would vote to leave the EU). […]
The London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has responded to the latest wave of Southern Rail strikes by generously offering to take control of the line himself, through Transport for London. Today I’ve offered to put a senior @TfL team in immediate control of #southernrail as an emergency measure to end the chaos for commuters. — Mayor […]
Donald Trump met the leaders of some of America’s biggest tech companies on Wednesday and right from the outset, it was all about scale. Around the big table in Trump’s big boardroom were gathered the big names of our technological past, present and future: Bezos, Musk, Nadella, Brin and Page. Even the lesser known names were […]
It would be an understatement to say that this has been a year of surprises. Neither Brexit nor Trump were, according to the experts and the pollsters, supposed to happen. Even the prediction markets, which tend to out-perform other sources, were taken by surprise. The night before the referendum, Britain was 75 per cent likely to stay in […]
Rex Tillerson’s official nomination by Donald Trump to be the next secretary of state has led to predictable outcry about having the former Exxon CEO in the White House. But most of this commentary is as malodorously confused as smoke emitted by a Texan oil refinery. Just about the only person who hasn’t expressed an […]
The news that Hong Kong’s pro-democracy bloc has won an influential share of seats on the Election Committee that picks the city’s next leader signifies that Hong Kong’s political crisis is far from over. This follows last week’s surprise announcement from the city’s top official, the pro-Beijing CY Leung, that he would not seek a […]
Earlier this year, I borrowed from Dante’s Inferno and created the Five Circles of Statist Hell. At the time, I suggested that Venezuela was on the cusp of moving from the third circle (“widespread poverty and economic misery”) to the fourth circle (“systematic and grinding poverty and deprivation”). Since we now know that children in […]
On a bright spring day in 2010, I sat on the summit of the Citadel in Aleppo, watching the crowds. It was a national holiday, and the ruined fortress that dominates the City was thronged with families. At the time, my biggest worry was health and safety. Someone could get hurt, I thought, as I […]
What should Britain’s trade policy be after Brexit? Recent coverage has focused – inevitably – on the nature of our ultimate deal with the European Union, or our prospects of signing individual agreements with this country or that one. But there is a bigger opportunity here – one that has the prospect of enriching not […]
Back in May, I wrote about the heart-breaking descent of Venezuela from relative prosperity into socialist destitution. The humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the Latin American nation should serve as a warning to everyone – don’t try this at home! Yet socialism is very much alive in the least likely place – Chile. Chile, the poster […]
Out in the waves on Carcavelos Beach near Lisbon, Hélder Ferreira stood out from the other surfers. Among a crowd of tall teenage boys who had skipped class to head into the freezing waters that morning, and strikingly beautiful blond girls carving the waves and breaking hearts, it was easy to notice a short, bald man in his fifties. “I started down here, you […]
Twenty five years ago, on 8 December 1991, the leaders of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine signed the Belavezha Accords, an agreement that dissolved the Soviet Union. Fewer than two weeks afterwards, leaders from all but one of the other Soviet states joined the Accords. Thus, the Cold War ended without so much as a shot […]
Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, tells us that we’re experiencing a lost decade. This is the first time since the 1860s that real incomes haven’t risen over a 10 year period. Last time around, it was caused by the collapse of Overend Gurney – a “too big to fail” bank as we would […]
It is an article of faith among politicians, and among teachers, that every child in Britain has the potential to succeed. But the thing is, we don’t really believe it. Otherwise we would be scandalised by the latest PISA test results, rather than just resigned. These results showed – as they do year after year […]
With its classic cars and colourful buildings, Cuba is a paradise for the casual visitor; an island where the rum seems to flow endlessly and the salsa beats fill the air. But the truth could not be further from the image it projects; look closer at the buildings and you see the chipped façade is […]
Across European capitals, there was a sigh of relief when Norbert Hofer conceded his defeat to Alexander Van der Bellen in Austria’s presidential election on Sunday. No wonder. This was not an ordinary election. If he had been successful – as some polls suggested and betting markets predicted – Mr Hofer would have been the […]
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