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 …