George Osborne’s plan to let boomtowns boom and failing towns fail
The chancellor's conference speech contained a theory about how Britain is changing—and what the state should do about itGEORGE OSBORNE...
Economy
What Geoffrey Howe’s career revealed about power—and Thatcherism
NOTHING in Geoffrey Howe’s ministerial career became him like leaving it. Browbeaten and humiliated one too many times by Margaret...
The Scottish National Party’s triumphant hesitancy
By BAGEHOTI MISSED Nicola Sturgeon’s final speech to the Scottish National Party (SNP) conference in Aberdeen today (I was mingling...
English-only votes set Britain on the path to federalisation—or break-up
By BAGEHOTTHE House of Commons has just voted in favour (by 312 MPs to 270) of English votes for English...
The case for ditching the NHS
If the taxpayer-funded model is not politically workable, Britain should adopt a social insurance systemTHE NHS is in a mess....
The Conservatives deserve little sympathy for their defeat on tax credits
THE House of Lords, Britain’s upper house, has just voted to stall the government’s planned cuts to tax credits. According...
The bile spewed at Tony Blair is not just unfair—it is counter-productive
FOUR years after its last hearing concluded, six years after it was commissioned and twelve years after the war began,...
David Cameron is playing a self-inflicted bad hand well
AFTER months of vague talk about “renegotiating” Britain’s EU membership and a flurry of visits to European capitals by the...
Labour’s sensibles are starting to push back—but they should push harder
THE political implications of the attacks in Paris are only just starting to unfurl. But there are early indications that...
Everything you need to know about Labour’s rolling crisis
SOMETHING remarkable is happening in British politics. In September the Labour Party elected Jeremy Corbyn, one of its most far-left...