It’s become something of a cliché to say that the 2020s are starting to feel like the 1930s – with international crises building upon international crises and reliable allies proving to be anything but. There is, however, one big difference to the decade which saw a tsunami of extremist threats. Our predecessors back then weren’t also facing climate disaster. Wise […]
The renewal we urgently need
Planning a journey on the West Coast Main Line today proved near impossible yet again, thanks to widespread delays and cancellations. I was reminded for the umpteenth time that our rail network’s drainage system, designed for the Victorians’ chilly but stable climate, is no longer fit for 21st century weather that’s getting ever more extreme. While populist politicians try to […]
Batting for Tufton Street
It’s funny, I searched in vain through Labour’s 2024 manifesto Change for any firm commitment to exterminate the country’s bat population, or at least any of the scarce, tiny, flying mammals that had the temerity to hinder Sir Keir Starmer’s passion to build “infrastructure” – but at least we knew what he regards as infrastructure. In his 2023 conference speech […]
Milestones or millstones?
Who said history never repeats itself? In Whitehall, Gordon Brown was known as “the Great Clunking Fist”. Now, in his “Plan for Change” speech last Thursday, Sir Keir Starmer promised that his plan would “land on desks across Whitehall with the heavy thud of a gauntlet being thrown down”. He promised his “mission-led government” would be dynamic, more decisive, more […]