UK Politics
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To Win, Not to Govern: An Institutional View of Johnson’s Premiership
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The story of Johnson’s premiership is, from an institutional viewpoint, of such a decision made unacceptably close to the side of a purely election-winning government.
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What Could a Progressive Alliance Mean For the Labour Party?
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There has been a rise in calls for a ‘Progressive Alliance’ (PA) for a number of years, wherein Labour and the Lib Dems would have a pre-election agreement to streamline the centre-left choice in Tory-safe seats.
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The UK presidency of the UN Security Council: A decisive return to the global stage?
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The UK assumed the presidency of the United Nations Security Council today, as it continues to search for a global role post-Brexit. While the country’s 2021 G7 and COP26 climate conference presidencies receive most of the media coverage concerning “Global Britain”, the opportunity to preside once every 15 months is also an important privilege of…
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Where is a new UK post-Brexit foreign policy, a Global Britain?
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This partly rhetorical question came to me when I heard that the UK’s post-Brexit trade deal with Singapore is officially signed but ‘mirrors Singapore’s deal with the EU’. This and other instances of the widely used repetitions in dealing with other countries attract my attention more and more as, at first glance, it does not seem right: did…
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Dude or Dud? An assessment of Boris Johnson’s first year in office
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Last Friday marked the anniversary of when Boris Johnson walked proudly into Number 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister. He had thumped his chief competitor Jeremy Hunt in the Conservative Party leadership election, securing just over 66% of the vote, and immediately set about announcing major changes to the Cabinet. In the process, Johnson dismissed…
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Review of Nick Timothy’s ‘Remaking One Nation’
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In June 2017, Nick Timothy left Downing Street for the last time: disgraced and demoralised, in a few short months Timothy – with his co-Chief of Staff Fiona Hill – had steered Theresa May from an exalted status as the new Iron Lady to a vanishingly slim victory over a Labour leader she had been…
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Why the DFID – FCO Merger Must Be Opposed
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Make no mistake: this is the abolition of DFID, not the combination of two departments. Those arguing for this merger will inevitably say – and have already begun saying – that it will foster more ‘coherence’, more ‘joined up’ foreign policy, better coordination, alignment, and a way to consolidate resources. However, the realpolitik is, functionally,…
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“End of the world, end of the month, same struggle”: class and climate protest in France and the UK
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Since climate protests first hit front pages across Europe around two years ago, the question of reconciling social and environmental justice has gone increasingly mainstream. Many on the left rightly point out that transition to a green economy must simultaneously tackle inequality (an idea to which even organisations like the OECD now pay lip service[1]),…
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The UK Strikes Back: Similarities and Differences of the Brexit Negotiations
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At first glance, the current UK-EU negotiations remark a new step forward towards ‘a fully independent Britain’ from the European law and institutions. But looking deeper we can find that they reflect the previous Brexit negotiations in 2017-2018 when the UK was still a part of the EU. Same contradictions, rhetoric, strategy from both sides….
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Three tests in a week: two passes and a (major) fail for Boris Johnson
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Boris Johnson has faced three important tests in the last week: over his government’s coronavirus bereavement scheme; over a visa surcharge applicable to overseas NHS staff and care workers, and over Dominic Cummings. The first two he passed, but the third he failed, and spectacularly so. His decisions to extend the Home Office’s bereavement scheme…