Iain James Martin (born 2 October 1971) is a Scottish political commentator, author and public speaker. He writes a weekly column for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' and is co-founder, editor and publisher of ''

Reaction Reaction may refer to a process or to a response to an action, event, or exposure. Physics and chemistry *Chemical reaction *Nuclear reaction *Reaction (physics), as defined by Newton's third law * Chain reaction (disambiguation) Biology and ...

'', a news site providing analysis and opinion on politics, economics and culture. He is a former editor of ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

'' and '' Scotland on Sunday'', a former senior executive at ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' and ''

The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, first published on 5 February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Tele ...

,'' and is an author of two books on the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

and the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

. He is a member of the Advisory Board at The Alpine Fellowship. He lives in London. He is the director of the London Defence Conference since 2022.

Life and career

He was born in Paisley, and is a graduate of

Glasgow University The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ...

. Martin worked as a reporter for the '' Sunday Times Scotland'' (1993–97), as political editor of '' Scotland on Sunday'' (1997–2000), political editor of ''

'' (2000–01), deputy editor of '' Scotland on Sunday'' (2001), editor of ''The Scotsman'' (2001–04), editor of ''Scotland on Sunday'' (2004–06), deputy editor of the ''

Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, first published on 5 February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegr ...

'' (2006), and head of comment for the

Telegraph Media Group Telegraph Media Group Limited (TMG; previously the Telegraph Group) owns ''The Daily Telegraph'' and '' The Sunday Telegraph'' and is a subsidiary of Press Holdings. David and Frederick Barclay acquired the group on 30 July 2004 from Hollinger I ...

(2008–09). In 2016 he founded and is Editor of pro-market news website Reaction that focuses on commentary and analysis on politics, economics, and culture. From 2009 to 2011 he was Deputy Editor of the '' Wall Street Journal Europe'', for which he wrote a blog on politics. He moved to the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

'' newspaper in 2011 for a short time to write a weekly political column. He was a co-founder and editor of CapX, the site launched by the London-based Centre for Policy Studies in 2014. Since early 2017, he has written a weekly column in ''

.'' Martin is wine critic for ''The Conservative''. He has contributed to '' Standpoint'' magazine and the ''

Financial News ''Financial News'' is a weekly financial newspaper published in London and news website, founded in 1996. It is published by eFinancial News Limited, and provides news and opinions regarding the financial services sector, and information ab ...

''. His book ''Making it Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the Men Who Blew Up the British Economy'', on the

, was published in 2013 by Simon & Schuster. ''Crash, Bang, Wallop: the inside story of London's Big Bang and a financial revolution that changed the world'', was published by Sceptre in September 2016. He is a supporter of

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

and believes that

Nigel Farage Nigel Paul Farage ( ; born 3 April 1964) is a British politician and broadcaster who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Clacton (UK Parliament constituency), Clacton and Leader of Reform UK since 20 ...

should be given a peerage.

Works

* *

Awards and honours

*2013 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, shortlisted for ''Making it Happen''

References

1971 births Living people Alumni of the University of Glasgow Place of birth missing (living people) Scottish male journalists Scottish political journalists Scottish male bloggers Scottish newspaper editors The Scotsman people The Wall Street Journal people {{UK-journalist-stub