Faced with a choice of a sensible but uninspiring technocratic government, an even duller left winger and a clown (on the right this time), a quarter of Italian voters went for a joker.

We shouldn't be too smug about this in the UK. Our...

Reactions to Budgets and Autumn Statements tend to be short termist, whilst their implications are long-term. George Osborne was playing the long game in his Autumn Statement, and we should try and see beyond the short term headlines to the 2015 election.

Having seemingly avoided some of the short term...

George Osborne must be prepared to gamble and choose the needs of the many over the interests of the few in his Autumn Statement.

Planning minister Nick Boles invoked the ire of the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph for daring to suggest we could solve a...

You might very well be forgiven for thinking that today's rail announcements were mainly about trains. But they're really about two other issues: (1) getting the coalition back on track and (2) the coalition's intended final destination, the 2015 general election.

The media get the point (no doubt...

A group of influential MPs might have provided David Cameron with a way to deal with three big problems all at once. The third runway at Heathrow, Jeremy Hunt and how to get pension funds to pay for infrastructure have all vexed the Prime Minister in recent months. By creating...

We've had another bout of high speed rail bashing today. Margaret Hodge's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) implies that the case for HS2 - the proposed new 225mph line from London to Birmingham and beyond - is flawed. They think that the line could end up costing taxpayers like...

History, we are told, is always repeating itself - and it feels to me like we're currently in an early '80s-lite period, at least in politics. David Cameron will certainly hope so as he seeks a Conservative majority in 2015; for Ed Miliband there are big risks lurking, which could...

The news that Michael Gove wants kids to learn a foreign language from the age of seven, and that the CBI has found that German is the most sought after language amongst UK employers, got me thinking about how speaking someone else's language can be vital...

The changing face of football (and cricket) can tell us a lot about the emergence of the BRICS, and the challenges the UK economy faces if it wants to keep up.

What have the top division of English football and the UK economy got in common? World-leaders in the...

Back into recession, austerity yet to fully bite, pressure from backbenchers, the Opposition and world leaders - the Government needs to take bold action to show that austerity and growth can go together. It should do more to make infrastructure attractive to investors around the world and to voters here...