Why is This Happening to Us?
For many years, in the UK as well as other countries, progress across a wide range of issues seemed to be the natural order of things. Almost every year, the […]
Reflections on 2022
As we rapidly approach Christmas, instead of the normal letter, I thought I would share some personal reflections on the past year. For most people, and for the UK economy, […]
How the Light Gets In
After 12 years of Conservative government, the UK faces serious and rapidly growing problems on multiple fronts: 1) economically, 2) in terms of the financial, physical and mental health […]
The Debate We Need to Have
Our social contract – the ‘deal’ that makes us a civilised country – is under grave threat both practically and philosophically. And we are not talking about it. Practically, the […]
A Renewed Assault on Our Human Rights
One good thing Truss did in her brief tenure as Prime Minister was to shelve plans to ‘reform’ the UK’s system of human rights. Under Sunak and Raab, the government […]
Beyond Extreme
Since 2012, Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss have all been at the helm of the Conservative Party. By the standards of the UK’s other major parties, of course, they are all […]
Human Rights? No, Thanks, We’re British
The UK Government has a Bill of Rights Bill which (at the time of writing) is in the Commons for its second reading. Many civil liberties commentators have […]
An Unwelcome Certainty in an Uncertain World
As Niels Bohr remarked, “Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” And that general remark is particularly true about politics where decisions are taken on the basis of complex […]
They’re All the Same – Really!?
There is great scope for improvement and, unfortunately, plenty of scope for being worse than Johnson. It has now become obvious even to his own ministers that Johnson is […]
Democracy at the Cliff Edge
Sometimes a moment can be pivotal in a way which is not obvious at the time. This article explores whether the UK is at such a critical moment now, without […]