By: Eliot Wilson

Eliot Wilson is a writer, commentator and contributing editor at Defence On The Brink. He was formerly a clerk in the House of Commons and writes regularly on politics, defence and international security, and Parliament and the constitution, including for The Spectator, The Hill, The i Paper and CapX

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You’ve got a like: standing up for social media

January 3, 2022

Last year was not a good one for social media in the reputational stakes. As legislators began to move in on the tribal warlords of Silicon Valley—above all the king of kings Mark Zuckerberg—veteran comedian David Baddiel toured the UK with a comedy show called “Trolls: Not the Dolls” and presented a BBC documentary entitled [...]
As we enter the third year of the pandemic, we need to grit our teeth and learn to live with it

December 28, 2021

It seemed, for a while, as if this year might be better than the last, with the pandemic on the wane, retail and hospitality beginning to reopen and a hint of normality being felt in the public square. The onset of the omicron variant over the past few weeks has been a blow: although it [...]
California dreamin’ of post-Brexit trade deal, with a local twist

December 20, 2021

The political agenda over the last week or two has been rather full, so you could be forgiven for not having noticed that the minister for trade policy, Penny Mordaunt, has been on an epic tour of the United States, one of the longest ministerial visits in recent history. The Portsmouth North MP, who was [...]
Christmas Special: Books of 2021 from Mayhem to Madness

December 17, 2021

Back into the mayhem: Chief of Staff by Gavin Barwell Gavin Barwell was a middle-ranking minister when he lost his Croydon Central seat at the cack-handed 2017 general election. He was 45, bright, personable and loyal, and he had sensed that defeat might come, promising in his concession speech to spend more time with his [...]
Nation-wide metro mayors: A plan for regions to pull their own bootstraps up

December 13, 2021

When the prime minister appointed Michael Gove to head up a rebranded Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in September’s reshuffle, it was a significant statement of intent. Gove is one of Whitehall’s biggest hitters, having run three major government departments, and is brain cell for brain cell one of the cleverest and most [...]
By-elections might be political candy, but tell the seers of Westminster little

December 6, 2021

By-elections are strange events. They can defy political gravity. Sometimes they launch sparkling but short-lived careers, sometimes they are obvious protests against incumbent governments, and sometimes they are signs of genuine shifts in the political landscape, harbingers of greater changes to come. In any event, they stir the pot of political commentary. Hypotheses are built, [...]
Another Labour reshuffle to forget

December 1, 2021

Opposition reshuffles are difficult to manage: no one really cares, they make little impact and can distract your party with days of infighting. It is all the more unfortunate, therefore, that Sir Keir Starmer is so bad at them. His attempt at a shakeup in May was designed to clip the wings of his fiery [...]
The Coward’s way out: Loungewear to keep it classy

November 30, 2021

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and the switch to home working by large swathes of the employed population had a distinct knock-on effect on clothing. Suits and smart jackets were out—some of us are fighting a rearguard action to revive them—and suddenly everyone cast aside any remaining shame and championed their loungewear. The pressure [...]
The law’s delay: Priti Patel must fix the asylum process to stop Channel boats

November 29, 2021

Being Home Secretary is hard. It has long been known as the “graveyard of careers”, with headstones marked Smith, Clarke and Blunkett. One of the longstanding problems is that the Home Office is essentially reactive. Even after losing responsibility for courts in 2003 and prisons and probation in 2007, it oversees law and order, borders [...]
London needs to have the powers to control its own destiny – and transport

November 22, 2021

It is no longer headline news that Transport for London is facing a financial crisis. Last week the mayor of London revealed the network needed £1.7bn over the next 18 months simply to balance its books, and at least £1.3bn every year to make essential upgrades on the Tubes, trains and buses. This summer, Tfl [...]

City investors raise alarm on Burnham’s Chancellor pick

Exclusive: London in talks to host return of sumo at Royal Albert Hall

Bowls Club is the City’s most eccentric (and brilliant) pop-up

By: Eliot Wilson

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