Jonathan Saxty

Britain’s military problem needs an economic solution

Britain’s decline is relative, and is influenced by the fact that within living memory the UK was the world’s hyperpower. Decline though did not relegate the UK to the ranks of some ex-colonial powers like Turkey, but into the league of France, Germany and Japan (hardly disrespectable company). For almost all the post-war period –

The danger of the work from home revolution

The work-from-home (WFH) revolution has clearly won hearts and minds. According to KPMG and the Financial Services Skills Commission, half of UK finance workers want to WFH after Covid-19, with around one-quarter wishing to make the switch full-time. Unilever CEO Alan Jope said his workers will not return to their desks five days a week.

What Brexit Britain can really expect from Biden

Joe Biden is both an exceptionally lucky and unlucky politician. It would have been easy to write off the former vice president a few years ago. Yet here he is, the oldest person to assume the office, albeit becoming president at perhaps the country’s (and entire planet’s) darkest hour since World War II. So what can

Was the EU ever going to offer Britain a good deal?

The announcement that Brexit negotiations are set to continue will no doubt alarm Brexiteers who fear compromise, sell-out and fudge. In fairness to Brussels however, they set out their stall early on and stuck to the script. The EU is unwilling – as they see it – to let Britain have its cake and eat

Germany holds the key to a Brexit deal

Boris Johnson failed to break the Brexit negotiations deadlock over dinner with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen last night. But while the continuation of talks suggest that neither side favours no deal, something needs to give if a deal is to be reached. It’s here that Germany holds the key. France appears to be

The EU’s east-west divide spells trouble for Brussels

As Brexit negotiations enter a critical stage, the EU’s eyes may again have been diverted after Hungary and Poland plunged the bloc into yet another crisis. The Visegrád Group allies have vetoed the EU’s €1.8 trillion (£1.6 trillion) budget and recovery package, responding to plans to make cash conditional on adherence to the ‘rule of

The limits of a ‘free-market Brexit’

The UK must not be frightened of harnessing the power of the state as the country negotiates life after Brexit. Many people who remember the 1970s – a time when the British state seemed incapable of doing anything productive while the country suffered the indignity of going cap-in-hand to the IMF – often balk at