Nicholas Barrett

Whilst living in America, Christopher Hitchens derived great pleasure by reminding the American conservatives, who had become his allies following his support for the war in Iraq, that if they really were the enemies of big government then they ought to be avid supporters of secularism.

He had spent...

In the wake of the post-budget "omnishambles" and a "disappointing" slide back into recession, the Conservative Party has not only plummeted in the polls but has also been divided by accusations of arrogance and elitism directed towards David Cameron and George Osborne. In response to this it appears the prime...

While a handful of multi-millionaires drove their logo emblazoned cars over the tarmac inside a tightly secured perimeter evoking memories of the Green Zone in Baghdad, peaceful and not so peaceful protests erupted outside. The Bahrain Grand Prix was supposed to showcase an island that had returned to safely, stability...

It's another week of good news, if you happen to be a member of the 1% (that figure being the percentage of the population who find David Cameron likeable enough to sit down to dinner with) because it turns out that in return for a small six-figure annual donation you'll...

David Cameron is "extraordinary", he is "the best thing we have left on this planet" according to Nassim Nicholas Taleb. The celebrated Lebanese philosopher even boasts about his informal visits to Downing Street to meet Dave in his t-shirt and jeans. Taleb is the acclaimed author of The Black Swan;...

Last week 537 business leaders signed a letter urging that the 50p tax rate on very high earners be immediately scrapped in George Osborne's upcoming budget. On Question Time the conservative dinosaur John Redwood and the random bigotry generator David Starkey took it in terns to lament the two-year-old tax...

This week in an article in the Evening Standard David Cameron claimed his government was "waging war against the excessive health and safety culture that has become an albatross around the neck of British businesses." The figurative Albatross he is referring to is from 'The Rime of the...

On the 31 October 1958, a celebrated intellectual delivered a speech in Oxford called "The Two Concepts of Liberty" and it has defined our view of freedom ever since.

Isaiah Berlin characterised two separate definitions of liberty; negative and positive. Berlin argued that negative liberty was the freedom to...

This week Sir Alan Sugar attacked what he called "expectancy culture". In a bid to plug his new series of 'Young Apprentice' he said, "There's too much of what I call an expectancy culture of things being provided. And I'm afraid to say the goody-goody benefits system we have in...

This week, George Osborne bowed to public (and Lib Dem) pressure to put off any definitive decision on the 50p tax rate on high earners. However, The Sunday Times still devoted its front page, a two-page spread and an editorial to trying to convince us that it would be in...