On how people in the future will see our own time

People tend to use the question of "what will people think when they look back on this moment?" for one of two reasons: (a) to reflect upon how this might seem to distanced, alien eyes or (b) to gain some kind of leverage for their own viewpoint, with the idea that, in the future, people …

More thoughts on the nature of politics and accurate interpretation

I've been thinking recently about the difference between how historians tend to interpret events and how those who haven't studied historically-focused fields (history, classics, etc.) tend to approach an estimation of the same scenario. To be clear, this isn't to over-generalise one side or the other - more to consider some of the assumptions built …

The People Factor, or a Proper Estimation of Workplace Functionality

One of the things I was really looking forward to about entering the workplace was the opportunity to study it from the inside. We have a terrible habit, as human beings, of being awful at estimating scale, realistic speeds of completion and the real complexities at work in achieving a task. I suspect that this …

Thoughts on the UK’s future

It is difficult to know what connections to make about the trajectory of the UK at the moment. I still think it's fundamentally a path with a lot of risk - there is potential either for greatness or for ruin depending on who's in charge of it. The problem with correct interpretation and prediction is …

What will it mean to vote Conservative this December?

One surprisingly interesting question to come out of the last two years - particularly with the December election now approaching - is what the Conservative and Unionist Party now represents for voters. By this point in 2019, do its core values remain the same? Can those voting for it still trust its MPs to be …

On history and political commentary

Listening to an episode of The Economist Asks today, Charles Moore (Conservative journalist and now Margaret Thatcher's personal biographer) briefly brought up a point which has been on my mind for a while now. In response to a request to speculate on what her position might be today, he first wanted to make clear that the …

Liberal-Conservative Déjà Vu

There's a dark sense of déjà vu about this turn of events, as Boris Johnson joins Jo Swinson as a new party leader in the Commons. Some may remember one sunny day, in a certain rose garden nine years ago, when two fresh-faced political leaders, one Liberal and one Conservative, smiled and laughed and pledged …

On the Consequences of an Unrepresentative Prime Minister

Is the Tory leadership race still on? You wouldn't know it from the political atmosphere in the UK at the moment. Though the technicality of a month-long Hunt v. Boris battle trundles on, you'd be forgiven for no longer thinking that there's a genuine contest on at this point. For the most part, public interest …

The British Ambassador, Huawei, Trade Deals and the BRI: Britain’s Declining Influence in 2019

The political drama this week is that Britain seems to have got itself in a bit of a bind. The American President is directly and continually insulting one of the highest ranking British ambassadors and the government seems to be responding rather limply to it. Nor is that the end of the matter. President Trump …

The Social Weight of Brexit

A recent discussion I saw, comparing Brexit to Thatcher, concluded that whilst Thatcher had an undeniably massive impact, it was clear, even to those who disliked her, that she had a plan. In contrast, the participants saw Brexit as being fundamentally without any plan, singular authority or guiding light, whilst threatening to fundamentally change British …