Tag Archives: david rennie

The boom years were the dream. This is reality

Pieces of writing can do lots of things: challenge, comfort, exasperate, inform, entertain. Occasionally, though, one reads a piece that, in prose far more clear, lucid and fluent than one’s jumbled thoughts, nonetheless perfectly describes those thoughts.

I’ve long been a fan of The Economist’s David Rennie, and have praised him here on the Voice before. Last summer he took over the paper’s Lexington column (in tragic circumstances), but before that he was for two years British political editor and author of the weekly Bagehot column.

In May last year he wrote one of those columns I describe …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 65 Comments

The state of Britain: cause for some optimistic pessimism

David Rennie has been the pen behind the pseudonymous Bagehot column, which appears weekly in The Economist, since 2010. During that time he has been deservedly recognised as the most acute commentator, bar none, writing on British politics. Not that I’ve always agreed with him, not least his indulgence of hoary old cliches with which to whack the Lib Dems.

He has now transferred to the US to personate another Economist pseudonym, Lexington. However, his final missive is a must-read ‘state of the nation’ take on the Britain …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 9 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Tim
    So glad you are a councillor again. Still miss you here....
  • Chris Webb
    Excellent piece. I really like the "I'm a Liberal because..." idea, and will prod my local association along just those lines....
  • Mick Taylor
    Hi Chris. A brave man to take on a seat on Lambeth. I suspect that the great increase in casework is at least partly caused by the huge cutbacks in Local Govern...
  • David Raw
    @ William Wallace William, what's happened to the party's old policy of partnership and co-ownership ? If I remember correctly, our mutual friend Donald Wad...
  • William Wallace
    Roz: This is exactly what we need to get us all thinking. I would add that we need to rethink our approach to political economy. Liberal democracy is easiest t...