Peter Franklin

Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.

@peterfranklin_

Could coronavirus topple skyscrapers?

01 Jun 2020

The self-harm of Britain’s R&D policies A new report offers some clues into the UK's dismal record on productivity

29 May 2020

To revive the economy, tax Britain’s piggy banks It is the only way to discourage unwanted flows of capital

27 May 2020

The terrible threat of Wokenomics

26 May 2020

Let’s put young Brits to work planting trees Why not give disenchanted youths a job to be proud of?

22 May 2020

Sobriety tags? Great, let’s put them on politicians The consequences of health monitoring devices are mind-boggling

20 May 2020

Will Covid mark the end of national sovereignty in Europe? One way or another, a Rubicon will have to be crossed

19 May 2020

Should we let the aviation industry die?

18 May 2020

After lockdown, prepare for the Big Move Leaving London is becoming an increasingly attractive prospect

14 May 2020

The new battle line in libertarian thought Covid has pitched the rationalists against the visceralists

13 May 2020

Are the young turning into progressive authoritarians? A recent poll seems to suggest so...

12 May 2020

Not so rosy: the legacy of the Coalition government

11 May 2020

Has Germany just blown up the Eurozone? The most important story of the week was buried in pages of Deutsche legalese

07 May 2020

The FT’s shameful false equivalence on America and China Gideon Rachman makes a series of dubious claims in his latest column

06 May 2020

Covid is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity

05 May 2020

Not now please, Universal Basic Income enthusiasts Government needs to be able to direct spending power to where it's needed most

04 May 2020

Can we have a grown-up conversation about free trade? I have to take issue with Daniel Hannan...

01 May 2020

Will the pandemic simplify our lives? It's an attractive but extremely wishful idea

30 Apr 2020

The Guardian’s paranoid anti-nationalism The paper makes a less-than-convincing case about who — or what — is to blame for the crisis

28 Apr 2020

Our government must learn to fail

28 Apr 2020

Should we all go Amish for the NHS? There's a lot we can learn from this religious minority

24 Apr 2020

Will a desperate EU resort to ‘perpetual bonds’? Financier George Soros makes a far-fetched proposal...

22 Apr 2020

The poison in the veins of the global economy We should see crude oil for what it truly is

21 Apr 2020

If Britain is becoming a ‘one-party state’, blame Labour At some point the Left will have to stop blaming the winners

20 Apr 2020

Who will pay for this Covid catastrophe?

20 Apr 2020

Is air pollution making the pandemic worse? There's mounting evidence that it leaves us more vulnerable to the virus

10 Apr 2020

Joe Biden didn’t win, Bernie lost The Vermont Senator didn't even win the battle of ideas among the Democratic base

09 Apr 2020

Why certain Right-wingers thirst for secret knowledge Esoteric belief systems can offer the ideologues a degree of exclusivity

08 Apr 2020

Has the FT really changed its mind on capitalism? An editorial called time on four decades of neoliberal policy

07 Apr 2020

Corbyn, Trump and other freaks of history

07 Apr 2020

Why are so many Italian doctors dying? Thus far, 77 have died

03 Apr 2020

The things we do for growth

02 Apr 2020

We’re going to need a new name for the Great Recession What we face now is so much worse than 2008

01 Apr 2020

Will coronavirus kill the shale revolution? With oil at $20 a barrel, the industry is struggling to survive

31 Mar 2020

Why do these epidemics always start in China? Many pandemics start in Asia because that is where most humans live

27 Mar 2020

Why we’re lost without our taboos Social habits can protect us during crises

26 Mar 2020

David Cameron was right about one thing He warned about the threat to our food security over a decade ago

25 Mar 2020

Can your ideology cope with coronavirus?

24 Mar 2020

The fatal flaw in the Job Retention Scheme Paying workers not to work is a serious error

23 Mar 2020

No, Matt Hancock, this is not a “once-in-a-century event” The remark implies that there's a ceiling on the risks we face from future pandemics

20 Mar 2020

Do we need a government of national unity? If holding things together means bringing in the other parties, then so be it

19 Mar 2020

The no-deal nightmare scenario doesn’t seem so bad now Coronavirus has made all those Doomsday Brexit predictions look rather silly

18 Mar 2020

Why had we never heard of Wuhan?

17 Mar 2020

What on Earth are the Saudis playing at? A price war with Russia helps neither side

12 Mar 2020

Welcome to ‘Conzervatism’ Judging by the Budget, the core tenet of this new philosophy is spending lots of money

11 Mar 2020

Ten woke ways to shut down debate

10 Mar 2020

Objectifying women: what’s the problem? The case for regulation is at least as strong for porn as it is for advertising

06 Mar 2020

The toilet paper crisis is just bog-standard capitalism Profiteering and stockpiling during a crisis reveals the weakness of the system

05 Mar 2020

Are humans heading for the knacker’s yard?

04 Mar 2020

Panicking about coronavirus will save lives Whatever you do, don't keep calm and carry on

03 Mar 2020

The end of the world for climate change hypocrites The Heathrow judgement marks the end of denial about the hard choices ahead

27 Feb 2020

Memo to Boris: Buses will only get you so far Boris Johnson's new seats in the North didn't vote to become commuter zones for a few urban centres

26 Feb 2020

No Mr Mount, Boris Johnson is not Mussolini An extraordinary LRB essay makes the comparison

25 Feb 2020

What do post-liberals really want?

25 Feb 2020

Why do ‘open’ liberals live in closed communities? It's ironic that 'open' cities restrict people from living in them

21 Feb 2020

Should we give the cabinet an IQ test? Ministers ought to be capable of creative, original thought — but that's rarely tested in public

19 Feb 2020

Bigger than Brexit: the new politics of climate change

19 Feb 2020

What’s the point of sex?

14 Feb 2020

Please Boris, let HS2 be your last white elephant The PM should check his attraction to 'grands projets'

13 Feb 2020

Why shouldn’t modern buildings be beautiful? Beauty doesn't always need to serve a structural purpose

11 Feb 2020

Dominic Cummings must win the battle of the SpAds A reformed cadre of advisors is an important first step

11 Feb 2020

Why we should be worried about coronavirus

11 Feb 2020

What Walter Bagehot would say about the State of the Union The essayist understood the difference between the political and ceremonial

06 Feb 2020

Boris is right — mercantilists are everywhere Unilaterally adhering to free-market ideology doesn't seem to be working so well for us either

05 Feb 2020

In (partial) defence of Grace Blakeley The commentator is right to say that alternatives to neoliberalism are being heard

04 Feb 2020

Which is worse, work or no work?

04 Feb 2020

Coronavirus leaves no room for cultural sensitivity In a globalised world we need to hold our neighbours to higher standards

30 Jan 2020

The House of Lords should become the Future Chamber It's time to turn the 'revising chamber' into the 'long term chamber'

29 Jan 2020

Labour must decentralise or die The party has always fallen prey to the top-down, micromanaging Left

28 Jan 2020

Should we be allowed to lie about our age?

27 Jan 2020

Tyler Cowen is pulling on a dangerous thread The economist's new ideological framework is missing a moral dimension

23 Jan 2020

When sensitive language stops helping There comes a point at which arguments over words become a substitute for deeds

22 Jan 2020

Should we send the Lords up north? Moving the House of Lords, while leaving the House of Commons in London, doesn't make much sense

21 Jan 2020

What Sajid Javid should say at Davos, but won’t

21 Jan 2020

The dark side of digital money The end of cash poses a potential threat to personal autonomy

16 Jan 2020

Nudge off: Is the end in sight for behavioural economics? One of the most influential ideas of the 2010s is facing a backlash

15 Jan 2020

The real reason why the high street is dying The future looks bleak for UK retailers

14 Jan 2020

How Boris could blow his majority

13 Jan 2020

Ursula von der London The EU President focused on the one bit of Britain that Brussels never had to worry about

08 Jan 2020

Here’s a better idea for reforming Whitehall It's not about re-organising departments, it's about dedicated teams

08 Jan 2020

Let’s re-do the Political Studies Association awards Here are five alternative winners for 2019...

07 Jan 2020

Greens need to starting talking solutions The Today programme should give a platform to someone like Michael Liebreich

30 Dec 2019

Three myths about social conservatives Unhelpfully, social and cultural conservatives are often used interchangeably

25 Dec 2019

Tolkien’s guide to contemporary politics

25 Dec 2019

2015 was a warm-up for the liberal Ragnarök

24 Dec 2019

Don’t nuke the North, Dom Cummings should bury nuclear, not praise it, in his vision for economic renewal

19 Dec 2019

Let’s all go back to the year 2000

18 Dec 2019

Don’t cancel the Corbynites The hard Left luminaries tell us more about Labour than the moderates

17 Dec 2019

Did this election change anything?

16 Dec 2019

Bernie Sanders is America’s magic grandpa He may be 78, but the veteran socialist has a commanding vote share of young people

12 Dec 2019

How we ruined election campaigns This is a high stakes campaign — so why is it all so boring?

11 Dec 2019

Has the FT turned red? For the first time in three elections, the pink paper is not endorsing the Tories

10 Dec 2019

What would ‘living with less’ actually look like?

09 Dec 2019

Who is the world’s most typical person? The answer might be very different in 100 years' time

05 Dec 2019

To boldly go? You first, Mr Bezos The Amazon founder should focus on problems back down on Earth

04 Dec 2019

How to turn higher production into higher wages A captive labour force might be good for a company, but not the economy

03 Dec 2019

Is this the Tories’ real manifesto?

02 Dec 2019

How old is too old in politics? Should there be an age limit for political candidates?

28 Nov 2019

Should we have just waited for the EU to die?

28 Nov 2019