UK strategy – STUFF HAPPENS

Which way? The High Line, Liberty and Britain’s road to nowhere

Last week I was working in New York and with time to kill at midday I walked the High Line, a mile-long park created along a derelict stretch of elevated railway built in the 1930s to run freight along Manhattan’s West Side. Originally the trains ran at ground level, with cow boys hired to ride […]

by Alex Hickman

London clay

The grey stuff inexpertly photographed by me from the platform at Royal Oak Tube Station is a big pile of London clay, excavated from somewhere under central London to create Crossrail, a new commuter train service operating east-west across London. By the time the new trains begin operating in 2018, 26 miles of new tunnel […]

by Alex Hickman

Notes on UK Strategy for C21 iii

Sorry – still going on this. My bullet point analysis of Britain’s malaise … Britain is caught – even now – between an imperial sense of responsibility, know-how and engagement; and limited post-imperial capability. This gap has become wider since the financial crisis. The context of international relations has been transformed by technology, population growth, […]

by Alex Hickman

Notes on UK Strategy for C21 ii

A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed by a Bosnian journalist about the future of the City and the UK’s relationship with Europe. The conversation made me think – not for the first time – about just how deep a hole we are in, and how we find the right way out of it […]

by Alex Hickman

Notes on our “Era of Insecurity”

Last week my firm hosted a discussion in London on “Geopolitics in the Era of Insecurity”. The discussion was led by Major General Sir Rupert Smith, who commanded 35,000 British troops in the First Gulf War (1990/91), led UNPROFOR to suppress the war in Bosnia (1995/6), served as NATO’s Deputy Supreme Commander Europe (1998/2001), and published […]

by Alex Hickman

Notes on UK Strategy for C21

I’ve written before about the UK’s need for a strategy for the 21st century. I think David Cameron’s EU referendum pledge + his announcement of a new generational struggle against Islamic terrorism in Africa +the looming referendum on Scottish independence + the shifting priorities of the US under Obama etc. etc. pose interesting questions about […]

by Alex Hickman

Notes on Salisbury Plain

Early in the morning I walked back up the hill to pick over the beacon site. I hoped to find some fired nails for the boys. On the hill the grass was wet from the night rain. At the top I found a neat circle of burnt ground. I couldn’t find a single nail, someone […]

by Alex Hickman

Is Britain going to be OK?

I have been itching to try and answer this question. Over the past 6 months I have travelled to the US, Asia and Europe and each time when I come home I bring with me a clear sense of Britain’s advantages. But within days the imperfections we all live with return to the forefront of […]