Let us consider today matters that have received much press coverage recently, coverage manifesting a dearth of virtue among senior figures in media and government. While politicians are universally acknowledged to be only human, those with positions of great influence should be expected to act virtuously and to set an example to ordinary individuals.   […]

One measure announced in the recent budget has provoked much discussion, namely that proposing to remove unlimited tax relief on donations to charity. Tax relief on charitable donations was introduced by the Thatcher government as a means of encouraging philanthropy among high-earners. If an individual donates a suitably large amount to charity, the relief means […]

From a guest blogger: During an exchange with a friend earlier this week about the Government’s plans to allow same-sex couples to marry, I objected to his suggestion that support for gay marriage was the province of the political left.  After all, the measure has been introduced by a Conservative-led government, enthusiastically supported by the […]

Last week Kent County Council approved plans for a grammar school to establish a satellite school in Sevenoaks. The satellite would share the name of the founding school and come under the same executive oversight. It will be, as it were, a new branch of the existing school with the same educational ethos. Note that […]

George Galloway, the socialist politician and member of the RESPECT party has won the Bradford by-election by more than 10,000 votes. This has been reported widely as a vote against Labour, but, given the similarities between the three main parties, it might just as well be viewed as a vote against the status quo and […]

Harold Macmillan was Minister of Housing and Local Government 1951-54 in Winston Churchill’s Conservative Government. He had been given the target of building three hundred thousand new homes every year. The UK was still suffering from the social and economic effects of the Second World War and the demand for clean and safe modern housing […]

From a guest blogger: On 20 February the website of the Coalition 4 Marriage was set up. Since then its petition has obtained, online and on paper, well over quarter of a million signatures (275,928 on 22 March). About four days after that petition was set up another website was set up in opposition: the […]

All who read British newspapers will have noted fevered speculation over potential measures that may appear in today’s Budget. The suggestion that Britain’s road network of Britain be opened to private investment has attracted much interest. The idea that the Government might lease key routes, such as the M1, to private corporations. These would be […]