Despite the headline, I actually don’t want to talk about Shamima Begum in the specific very much in this article. I don’t want to get lost in discussing what it is she did that led the Home Office to strip her of her British citizenship; I want instead to focus on why I think that […]

OPINION
Westminster’s hidden gender problem – and how it’s getting worse
There is a hidden gender problem deep in the heart of Westminster. We often talk about the number of female MPs in parties and on the frontbenches, and how male, pale and stale those can look.It is obviously worth discussing, but we should look at what goes on behind the scene as well. By the […]
America, former leader of the free world
In his speech on 16 February 2019 at the Munich Security Conference – which is to international strategic issues what the Davos forum is to international economic issues – the Vice President of the United States said that his country was stronger than ever, and was still the leader of the free world. In a […]
How the Gang of Seven needs to be different
As a young man, G. K. Chesterton turned away from socialism to be a Liberal because, he claimed at the time, of the “tone of bitterness [and] atmosphere of hopelessness” encouraged among socialists. I wondered at this a little yesterday, now that seven Labour MPs have resigned the whip to sit as a group of […]
If you want a green new deal, you have to win first
I have been part of various online forums that have been discussing the “Green New Deal” being championed by some in the US Democratic Party. These forums are made up mainly of academics who have an interest in climate and environmental policy. What was striking about the various discussions is that they were all technical/ideological. […]
Why the parliamentary recess being cancelled is bad for us all
After months of threatening to do it, the government finally took away one bit of recess from the Commons; MPs were meant to pack their bags and head to their constituencies until February 25th, but are now required to come back to the Palace on Monday. There won’t be any important votes next week, and MPs […]
Airbus attacked on two fronts
Based in Toulouse, the fruit of half a century of industrial cooperation between France, Germany, the UK and Spain, the Airbus group is the flagship of European aviation. At the beginning of the new millennium, it had achieved parity with Boeing in sales of civilian aircraft. Today, one wonders whether it is falling behind its […]
It is now vital that we rethink how we fund drugs and drug research
How and what to fund in healthcare has been a recalcitrant issue. And there is no solution in sight. In Davos this year, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock raised the issue of the lack of research by pharmaceutical companies focused on developing new antibiotics for the ever-growing problem of multi-resistant hospital infections – an issue […]
Dunkirk spirit? If so, Boris had better watch out…
I was fascinated by Peter Fischer Brown’s suggestion that there are people in the Brexit camp who believe that a no-deal Brexit the hard way is likely to be as successful and unifying as our national escape from the Dunkirk beaches. This was, as I said in my book about Dunkirk, during the last Brexit […]
Welcome to May 1940 (again)
British patriots all agree (well almost all, except certain members of the ERG). “No deal” Brexit really is an undesirable end-game, it has tragic consequences, but given the issues with the backstop and the intransigence of the EU, MPs wish in their majority to renegotiate the already negotiated Withdrawal Agreement and, assuming that fails, the […]
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