Henry Hill
CapX
United Kingdom
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Past articles by Henry:
If the Government won't build houses, it could at least make them easier to buy
Ask a random Brit to come up with a list of professions populated by more than their fair share of dodgy characters, and odds are that journalists and estate agents would feature. Now, I’m a journalist and several members of my extended family are in the estate agency business, so for one reason or another […] → Read More
The myth of civil service impartiality matters – and Sue Gray risks badly undermining it
Jill Rutter, a former mandarin now installed at their Valhalla, the Institute for Government, has this to say of Sue Gray’s decision to accept the job of Chief of Staff to Sir Keir Starmer: ‘I think the Gray move is a mistake, but perhaps it was seeing the massive failure of leadership laid bare during […] → Read More
Our childish 'goodies vs baddies' housing debate doesn't help anyone
After 13 years in office, the Conservatives have delivered a truly abject record on housing. Time and again, the Government has chased the short-term electoral high of another demand stimulus rather than tackling the structural causes of this country’s housing shortage. Planning reform offered one of the only substantive planks of Boris Johnson’s policy agenda. […] → Read More
Don't fall for the myth of Nicola Sturgeon, the great progressive leader
Nicola Sturgeon, who today announced her intention to resign after more than eight years as First Minister of Scotland, has undoubtedly been an outsize political figure. In Scotland, of course, the Scottish National Party have secured an iron grip on public life. First the party secured a supposedly impossible overall majority in Holyrood in 2011, […] → Read More
Clarkson's Farm is a rallying cry to rural Yimbys
The latest series of Clarkson’s Farm really highlights what a dangerous absurdity this country’s discretionary planning system really is. But might our eponymous hero be the man to do something about it? For readers who missed the show (and the drama in the papers), the central plot of this season is Clarkson’s attempt to set […] → Read More
It's absurd to claim leaving the ECHR would make Britain a 'rogue state'
It’s an open question whether or not there are ever good days for the KCs of Twitter; few of us are at our best on the platform at the best of times, and it has done more to expose the clay feet of those professions, such as law or academia, who were not previously in […] → Read More
Britain will pay the price for putting diversity above delivery
Two stories this week have put the development of equalities legislation, and its impact on public services, in the spotlight. First, reports that the RAF may soon be found to have operated illegal positive discrimination policies in order to try and hit “ambitious” diversity targets; second, the story that Labour is planning a fresh tranche […] → Read More
Nothing sums up British decay quite like the period property premium
The British housing market is so broken that it is perfectly easy to be angry about it even on abstract terms, totting up the cost to the economy or looking ahead to how the social trends it sustains will destroy the traditional basis of the centre-right vote over the next couple of decades. But it’s […] → Read More
Tedious tokenism is the bane of British politics – the Sunak jet 'story' is just another example
The Prime Minister using a government aeroplane to get to engagements in different parts of the country is fine. It’s fine! He’s a busy man, and whilst this country may not be vast, it is nonetheless not exactly a small island. How have we spent more than two weeks, as a nation, whinging about this? […] → Read More
Removing the whip from Andrew Bridgen is not an attack on free speech
The Conservative Party’s decision to withdraw the whip from Andrew Bridgen, following the MP’s decision to air views comparing Covid-19 vaccines to the Holocaust, was the right one. It ought to go without saying, but as this site’s Deputy Editor found out on Twitter, apparently not. We need not trouble ourselves with the lunatic fringe […] → Read More
Schroedinger's state: Britain's expensive government still manages to be far too cheap
If there is one thing worse than a big, expansive, expensive state, it must surely be a big, expansive, expensive, and badly run state. Perhaps the two simply go hand-in-hand; certainly, the proposition ought to make intuitive sense to small-state conservatives, if any remain. But whatever your view on the high theory, the recent damning […] → Read More
Monarchy doesn't have to be modern
Strikes. The cost-of-living. The NHS crisis (if it still makes sense to distinguish the crisis from the institution at this point). It’s fair to say that few people looking ahead to 2023 see very much for Britain to look forward to. But there is one bright spot on the national calendar: the King’s coronation. Especially […] → Read More
In defence of the boozy Christmas party (by a reformed teetotaller)
As someone who used to be teetotal, I can think of very few things that would have been more likely to alienate me from my employer and my colleagues than if the office Christmas party was made drink-free in a bid to make me feel included. (My demands were much more reasonable: that the organisers […] → Read More
If it's Brown, flush it down: the former PM is doubling down on constitutional failure
Gordon Brown is a man on a mission, and that mission is to file a second draft of his obituary. Out will be the under-appreciated hero of the financial crisis who sulked his way through Tony Blair’s premiership, bottled his chance to win his own majority, and who’s own time in Number 10 ended up […] → Read More
Not Wellcome here: our museums need defending from censorious activists
One of the stranger features of the ‘culture war’ is that it appears only ever to be being waged by one side. The backlash against this or that progressive initiative is the culture war, but the initiative itself – despite being explicitly aimed at changing the culture – is not. The Wellcome Collection’s decision to […] → Read More
The ghosts of New Labour are back to wreck the constitution
One of the worst things to happen to Parliament was the series of reforms overseen by Robin Cook after New Labour took office in 1997. Under the rubric of modernisation, he oversaw sweeping changes to how the House of Commons conducted its business. Some of these are perfectly defensible; even so staunch a reactionary as […] → Read More
However social care is funded, Millennials and Zoomers lose out
Given the shamelessness with which the Government pandered to older voters in the Budget, the fact that Steve Barclay has delayed the introduction of the social care cap by two years is telling. Campaign groups are concerned that it may now never come into effect, and are surely wise to be so. Given that successive […] → Read More
Bribing homeowners is a typically shameless Lib Dem idea
It’s a long-standing joke that Labour and Conservative activists dislike the Liberal Democrats more than each other. But as so often, there is more than a kernel of truth to the humour – and the enmity is entirely merited. This week’s announcement from Ed Davey that his party now supports a ‘Mortgage Protection Fund’, which […] → Read More
What's the row over the Home Secretary's emails really about?
When it comes to the row over Suella Braverman, which has dominated the first week of Rishi Sunak’s premiership, all is not what it seems. It was originally about leaking, and the Home Secretary’s transmission of restricted documents using her personal email address. Yet the officials gunning for her over that are themselves leaking an […] → Read More
Sunak should honour his pledge to explore 'fundamental reform' of the Home Office
One secretary of state and a small team of ministers cannot provide effective political leadership to this oversized department. → Read More