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

All 451 Articles

Ballooning infrastructure costs could be quelled if Whitehall embraced clear data

October 4, 2021

Infrastructure is one of the government’s latest passions. It could be, in ministers’ eyes, a foundation for Global Britain and a way out of the economic decline that Covid-19 has brought in its wake. We have a National Infrastructure Strategy, and the prime minister, announcing it last summer, admitted it sounded “positively Rooseveltian” and pledged [...]
Keir Starmer’s 14,000 word memo sums up the Labour party’s existential challenge

September 27, 2021

We are in the throes of the Labour Party annual conference in Brighton, the opposition’s seaside shindig where members mix with party grandees, policy is debated and the would-be government parades its show ponies for the media and the electorate. It provides an opportune platform for individual shadow ministers to catch the attention of the [...]
Tunnel vision: the private sector has the ability to transform British infrastructure

September 20, 2021

Last week came an unsurprising denouement: the proposed link between Scotland and Northern Ireland, via a bridge or a tunnel, was being shelved. The Treasury could not countenance the estimated £15 billion cost. This was a project with Boris Johnson’s name all over it: big, bold, innovative and eye-catching. It would be a solid piece [...]
Going grey gracefully: How to make silver hair work for you

September 16, 2021

Last week, I wrote about the trauma I endure when going to the hairdresser. However, there was an upside. As the barber’s scissors danced around my head, he remarked that I had thick hair. I agreed, without wanting to seem boastful of something utterly outwith my control. But I ventured the opinion that, while I [...]
Cressida Dick should go and her successor needs to jump-start the police force

September 13, 2021

Even a palate jaded by the madness of modern Britain will have found piquancy in Dame Cressida Dick’s two year extension to her term as Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis. Dame Cressida will stay in his position until 2024. She has been the UK’s senior police officer since 2017, is the first woman to [...]
Shearing in the right direction: The haircut in a post-Covid world

September 10, 2021

We need to start with a disclaimer, or maybe it’s a caveat; perhaps even an apologia. This column is entirely dedicated to men’s hair. That’s partly because I am, well, a man, and partly (in connection with that) I know little to nothing of the murky and rebarbative world of women’s hairdressing. I know it’s [...]
How much is that window with the doggie? An end to no-pets leases

September 6, 2021

We are a nation of animal-lovers. 45 per cent of UK homes have a pet, of which the most popular is man’s best friend, the dog (7.3 million), followed by man’s most inscrutable observer, the cat (7.2 million). But we also keep rabbits and rats, hamsters and horses, snakes and salamanders. These numbers have swollen [...]
Gentlemen do wear plaid: How to sport the tartan

September 2, 2021

I spent the bank holiday weekend in Glasgow. I hadn’t visited the former second city of the Empire for a couple of years, but from its suburbs spring my roots and I always feel a degree of comfort—admixed with wonder and bewilderment, it is true—when I step into the throngs on Buchanan Street or Argyle [...]
What does Extinction Rebellion actually want?

August 31, 2021

Last week was a busy one for climate activists Extinction Rebellion. A series of non-violent but obstructionist protests saw them block first Seven Dials then Oxford Circus with a giant table representing an offer to “come to the table” to discuss fossil fuels. They also had chairs, as if the symbology were not heavy-handed enough, [...]
City Pages Review: Twitter fame, the meaning of life and abortion rights

August 26, 2021

Since the curtains came down on 2019, many of us have spent more time inside our homes than we had ever imagined. The pandemic has thrown up political and social change rarely seen in peacetime, but living through and talking about Covid has consumed incredible amounts of oxygen, often to the exclusion of other worthy [...]

FTSE 100 Live: Inflation to reveal economic consequences of US-Iran war

England’s secret weapon against World Cup heat? British company’s £26 product

Old Pulteney releases 50-year-old whisky for 200th anniversary

By: Eliot Wilson

All 451 Articles