Energy
The boundless enthusiasm of Asa Briggs
A prodigy from the start, the tireless historian left his fellow academics panting behind him in a long and distinguished career
What hope is there for today’s unlucky graduates?
I’m fresh out of advice for those now leaving university and wondering how on earth they’re going to make a…
The hidden costs of Angela Rayner’s Employment Rights Bill
One peril of a sudden adverse turn of global events is that it provides cover for bad domestic government. If…
The Sizewell delusion
The Chancellor’s promise of £14 billion for the Sizewell C nuclear power station in Suffolk is hardly news. The project…
How many countries have banned the burqa?
Behind the veil How many countries have banned the burqa? At least 24 have placed some restrictions around the wearing…
How to bring down Britain’s power grid
At the end of last month, a fire at an electrical substation in Maida Vale caused chaos in west London.…
If the numbers add up, Shell should bid for BP
A hangar full of analysts and investment bankers must have spent the long weekend formulating advice for Shell chief executive…
The Boden Belt: the Lib Dems are the new party of the posh
The English social season has begun, kicking off with Gold Cup day. But this year, there is a new common…
Brace for an outbreak of Trumpist investor activism
If the new Trump era has a theme, it’s one of quixotic disruption with random consequences. In that spirit, stand…
China is not the West’s environmental ally
In the fight against climate change, China loves to present itself as the world’s White Knight. Armed with wind turbines…
Energy prices are shattering Britain’s remaining potteries
The ceramics industry of Stoke-on-Trent is one of the great survivors of the Victorian era. At its height, some 70,000…
Unmade in Britain: we’re becoming a zero-industrial society
The French sociologist Alain Touraine coined the term ‘post-industrial society’ in 1969. By the 1980s it had become shorthand for…
Labour’s confidence tricks
There is nothing new, nor necessarily fatal, about making a poor start in government. Margaret Thatcher had a torrid first…
Three great minds explore the enigmas of the universe
It sounds like a Tom Stoppard play. A big-shot philosopher meets a big-shot boffin by way of a big-shot writer…
How Ed Miliband plans to conjure electricity out of nothing
Electricity is magical stuff. From a couple of tiny holes in a wall comes an apparently endless supply of invisible,…
Goodbye to Old King Coal
So farewell, Ratcliffe-on-Soar: the UK’s last coal-fired power station shut down on Monday, having burned five million tonnes of coal…
Don’t look back in anger… it’s just how ticket sales work
We expect Ryanair tickets to cost more on holiday Saturdays than term-time Tuesdays and Uber fares to surge in the…
Portrait of the week: UK cancels Israel exports, Grenfell fire report released and AfD victory in Germany
Home The government cancelled 30 out of 350 export licences for arms to Israel on items that it said could…
A thriving City will test Labour’s tolerance
The City is having a busier year than pessimistic observers – including me – might have expected. The biggest deal…
Labour’s energy plan doesn’t add up
So, we have a little more flesh on the bones of Labour’s energy policy, with the party giving more details…
The need for greed
I suspect I’ve had a lot more fun writing about the annual Sunday Times Rich List over the years than…
How net zero will divide Labour and the Tories
This morning, Ofgem announced another reduction in the energy price cap from July. The new cap on the unit price…
Labour and Unite go to war over oil
There is nothing new about battles between the unions and a Labour government. But could a Starmer government be upset…
How Pret ate itself
How bad would it be if Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distributions Services (IDS), were to be taken over by…
