Innovation
Of blue suits and smelly trainers
THE most visible difference between the Conservative Party Conference and the Labour Party Conference is age-adjusted dress sense. The Conservative Party Conference is full of young people dressed like...
The Tory Party is split down the middle
THE first thing that you notice in Birmingham is that the Conservative Party is hopelessly split on Brexit. The government is united (for now) over Chequers. Most of the...
What Birmingham means to today’s Conservatives
BIRMINGHAM was an obvious place for the Tories to hold their conference. The mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, is a Conservative. Central Birmingham is a far better...
John McDonnell offers an ambitious alternative economic policy
SO FAR the Labour Party’s annual conference has very much been John McDonnell’s. The shadow chancellor not only delivered today’s keynote address in the main hall. He’s been ubiquitous...
Americans are doing a good job of misunderstanding Britain
A RESTAURANT critic for the New York Times informs us that, on returning to London after a ten-year absence, he was astonished to discover that the local restaurants have...
Labour is no longer the party of the traditional working class
ON JULY 3RD Jeremy Corbyn told Unite, Britain’s biggest trade union, that “Labour is back as the political voice of the working class”. This would be nice if it...
Some thoughts on the crisis of liberalism—and how to fix it
BREXIT is such an all-consuming process for the British—at once a drama, a muddle and a mess—that it is easy to forget that it is part of something bigger:...
Sounding the death knell for Corbynmania
THIS was a bad night for Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s hard-left leader. It would be too much to say that the wheels have come off the Jeremy bus or that...
