On a recent trip to the USA, I took a detour to the heart of rustbelt America to see how the great cities of Cleveland and Detroit are reinventing themselves after decades of industrial decline.
When I moved to Scotland at the age of four, I was enrolled in the West Primary School in Paisley. A few years later, at the time of the 1983 general election, my teacher asked me if I wanted to play the role of Margaret Thatcher in our class equivalent.
The importance of our relationship with America cannot be understated. With Anglo-American capitalism increasingly under attack, those who believe in the power of free markets and enterprise to create wealth and social progress must stand up and be counted and champion our way of life.
In January I swiped my thumb, took the plunge and changed my Instagram settings from private to public. Entering a world washed in the Clarendon filter, I went Truss Unchained.
From the coffee bars of Camden to the gin joints of Norfolk – across Britain, a revolution is brewing. And no, it’s not John McDonnell’s bitter socialist hooch. It’s a generation growing up with an entirely different view of the world – free thinking, optimistic and hungry for success.
We in Britain are embracing freedom in a way we never have before. The ability to reach across the world and communicate faster than ever. To order food and heat our homes at the touch of a button. To trade instantaneously the goods and services we have created.
On Monday morning, I visited the Lilian Baylis Technology School in South London, and met an extraordinary girl called Claudia. With a smile, she told me she had chosen maths because everyone had warned her off the idea, that it was too difficult.
For the under-30s, the ability to hail a cab or order a takeaway at the touch of a button is a way of life. Like this freedom-loving generation, I celebrate the disruptors that challenge the status quo.
