Published by The Independent (14th April, 2014) Almost four years ago a senior Liberal Democrat outlined his vision of the party’s future to me and pointed to the […]
Immigration / Policy
Families that need £18,600 to spend Christmas together
Published in The Independent (December 19th, 2013) Like any father, Ethan James Feltham was looking forward to Christmas with his wife and their new son. But instead he […]
Politics
Heed this warning or risk terminal decline
Published in The Independent (November 20th, 2013) The tragedy of the Conservative Party is that when things get tough it has a suicidal tendency to retreat into its […]
Politics
Think how good the House of Lords could be
Published in The Independent (August 3rd, 2013) There are few things British leaders love to do more than lecture the rest of the world on democracy, emboldened by […]
Policy / Politics / Whitehall
The civil service: a monster in Whitehall
Published in The Guardian (July 16th, 2013) Britain has a bad habit of deluding itself over its institutions. We proclaim the National Health Service to be the envy […]
Immigration / Policy / Politics
A Queen’s speech ruined by absurd anti-immigration measures
Published in The Guardian (May 8th, 2013) There is something reassuringly Ruritanian about the rituals associated with the Queen’s speech, from those flunkies in gold-trimmed finery to the […]
Aid / Politics
Corrupt, ineffective and hypocritical: Britain should give less aid, not more
Published in The Independent (May 2nd, 2013) When Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa, decided to give his family house in Nkandla a makeover, he did so […]
Policy / Politics / Welfare
The mutinous anger of Labour voters over welfare
Published in The Mail on Sunday (April 7th, 2013) Let me introduce you to two women I met on Friday. The first is Kathy Barratt, 33, a jobless […]
Disability / Policy / Politics / Welfare
All we can agree on is that welfare’s in a state
Published in The Independent (April 2nd, 2013) What a strange world we live in. A clutch of Church leaders spent their holiest weekend of the year queuing up to […]
Health / Policy / Politics
The man they couldn’t hang
Published in The Independent on Sunday (31st March, 2013) When the National Health Service rose like a merciful phoenix from the wreckage of a war-torn nation, its founder […]
Politics
Is this the dawn of a new coalition?
Published in The Mail on Sunday (March 17th, 2013) Picture the scene as Nick Clegg strides purposefully to the podium in the Downing Street rose garden. With the […]
Politics
Churches’ hostility to gay marriage only underlines their impotence
Published in The Independent (December 28th, 2012) Like millions of other Roman Catholics, Ruth Hunt attended mass on Christmas Day. She was joined by about 150 other devotees at […]