Henry Hill
CapX
United Kingdom
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Recent articles by Henry:
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
The Tories should be grateful for their rightwing challengers
To Conservative MPs looking at the current polls and wondering how bad things could possibly get, the 1993 Canadian general election must haunt their dreams. Just five years after winning a second term and a workable majority, the Progressive Conservatives received perhaps the most crushing blow ever dealt to a party of government in a […] → Read More
The Truss debacle is a symptom of a broader problem – the Tories' inability to make hard choices
And just like that, she’s gone. Liz Truss has set the record for the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. I would say it is unlikely ever to be challenged, but you never know what a hard winter will bring. Plenty of Conservatives will be breathing a sigh of relief. There was no prospect of […] → Read More
Hunt has bought some breathing room – but he faces huge battles with his own colleagues
If there were any doubt that losing her hand-picked chancellor would spell the end of Liz Truss’ political project, in spirit if not yet in body, Jeremy Hunt swiftly put paid to it. His gutting of the Growth Plan was merciless and near-total; the effect of the act on the Prime Minister’s authority no less […] → Read More
Coffey break: finally a Health Secretary who isn't in thrall to the tobacco puritans
You can’t help but feel for the libertarians. They wait decades for a government for whom freedom is a political priority, and calamity ensues almost instantly. Granted, not everything that has gone wrong in the past few weeks has been the Government’s fault. Nor will much of what goes wrong on and after October 31, […] → Read More
Interview with a (well-meaning) vampire: one Tory activist distils the Boomer creed
It was a truly remarkable performance – an end-of-conference communications effort for the ages. At last, the animating spirit of today’s Conservative Party was distilled to its essence and recorded for a grateful nation. Unfortunately, the author of this feat was not Liz Truss, although she did manage to navigate her own historically short leader’s […] → Read More