My Peaceful Paradise

Journalist and commentator Isabel Oakeshott opens up about her life in Dubai

That New Year’s Day morning in January 2025 when Labour announced it was going to tax school fees was the darkest of my life.

Everything Richard and I had worked so hard for across the previous years – from celebrating the many successes of Brexit, to campaigning on Twitter against disabled spaces in station car parks, saying that lockdowns were a waste of time, and stopping the uncontrolled torrent of Muslim migration into Britain – seemed suddenly to hang in the balance.

The cruelty of this greedy government beggared belief and it pushed me to do something I had never imagined would happen. I knew in that moment that I would have to leave the country I loved and find one I could love much more.