The View from Cullingworth

The View from Cullingworth

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Now is not the time to change the manager: the case for keeping Kemi
Reform’s destructive radicalism or the fragmented left’s anti-growth progressivism represent a terrible choice. Another bout of Tories ripping into each…
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Simon Cooke
3
Every girl may be crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man but there aren't many left: the hegemony of American Casual
American Casual means men no longer appear to make an effort beyond making sure the shirt is clean and the trainers don’t have mud on them.
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Simon Cooke
3
No everything is not fine (even if overall crime has fallen)
Saying that everything is fine when it plainly isn’t, even if we start with an objective look at rates of crime, merely fuels the idea that our…
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Simon Cooke
15
If people can buy dirt they'll have families.
Yimbyland culture presents an excuse for the fact folk can't buy a house with talk of walkability, liveability and standing on the balcony of a small…
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Simon Cooke
4

July 2025

If Britain wants better public infrastructure it needs to restore the power of local government to build it
The untidy mish-mash of local provision had built public utilities, enabled housing, laid out roads and, on top of that, provided parks, swimming pools…
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Simon Cooke
5
"It could buy me a boat": how elite conservatives lost touch with their voters
if you treat your voters as irredeemably naff, you deserve to lose
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Simon Cooke
7
Britain isn't lurching towards civil war, it's just a mess
Britain’s problem, other than a complacent and entitled public sector leadership, is that nothing much works any more and lots of things that were once…
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Simon Cooke
9
State capacity isn't a substitute for bad policy: is Britain ready for tobacco wars?
Australia’s tobacco wars are a consequence of ‘high state capacity’ and the authoritarian belief that if government mandates prohibition then strong…
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Simon Cooke
The "Dances with Wolves" conundrum: ethnicity, identity and Englishness
Being English is about a relationship with a place called England. It isn’t about being white, even though most English people are white.
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Simon Cooke
3

June 2025

London isn't 'over', London hasn't fallen. London just has very bad government
No party, no national politician and few commentators, have done any thinking or developed any ideas as to how we can get a better government of London…
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Simon Cooke
32
Why conservatives should listen to Larry the Liquidator (as well as Roger Scruton)
Larry Garfield was right. If you leave money trapped in dying companies, over-valued property and diminishing cash accounts then tomorrow’s great…
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Simon Cooke
8
If you want civic pride then you need accountable, practical and, above all, local government.
If we want to "sweat the small stuff", then we need a new life for local councils rather than the grandiose devolution schems and proposals for distant…
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Simon Cooke
2
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