UK Politics
-
Conservative climate policy: where are we heading?
|
Harvey Phythian analyses the government’s record on the environment After 10 years in government, the Conservatives have recently tried to represent their environmental policy – and its supposes success – as a natural extension of Conservative thinking. While climate change, sustainability and environmental issues are not generally the focus when the Conservatives talk about the…
-
Coronavirus and the expanding state
|
In response to the coronavirus crisis, governments across the developed world have expanded beyond anything seen in peacetime. In Britain, a Conservative Government has forcibly shut down almost the entire economy. In what was unthinkable three months ago, welfare payments have substantially increased, the state is guaranteeing business loans, and even paying the wages of furloughed workers….
-
New Labour Shadow Cabinet: What Does It Say About Future UK Foreign Policy?
|
‘What we can’t do is go back to business as usual’ Keir Starmer The Labour Party now has a new leader and a new Shadow Cabinet. As the opposition takes shape for the foreseeable future, should we expect visible shifts in foreign policy and efforts to influence the government’s own strategy? And if this Shadow Cabinet…
-
Banks are now an arm of the state
|
The Covid-19 pandemic that is gripping the nation has been frequently compared to the 2008 financial crisis, as both have had devastating impacts on our livelihoods, wellbeing and sense of security. On a global scale there have been many crises since 2008 that have had an equally destressing impact on certain groups, but most of…
-
Can anyone lead Labour back into power?
|
Never has a major party leadership election felt so insignificant. Whereas the race which followed Labour’s 2015 defeat felt like a battle for the soul of the party, the 2020 equivalent has nowhere near the same sense of urgency. This partly reflects the severity of Labour’s defeat in last year’s general election, and the Covid-19…
-
Can Those from Bangladesh’s Long-silent Tea Gardens Speak?
|
To design development projects to transform the lives of thousands of tea-pickers in Sreemangal, Bangladesh, state and non-state actors must critically engage with local ideas and culture. Perhaps this morning too, you were energised by the stimulating effect of tea, the most widely consumed drink around the world after water. The increasingly widespread aroma of this…
-
Labour Leadership Race – The Road to Power
|
This marks the beginning of a series on the Labour leadership race. I’m kicking off by discussing what choosing the right leadership team means, and why it matters. A Conservative led government first came into power when I was nine years old. The Left in this country has torn itself apart and put itself back…
-
Try Again, Fail Again, Learn Nothing – The Nauseating Repetition of Britain’s Justice Reforms
|
Right wing political parties live and die less on the basis of specific policy outcomes than on their ability to cultivate a general image as the ‘sensible’ option, the ‘common sense’ option and the ‘hard but fair’ option. The most recent changes to policing and prisons policy announced last month by the British government, which…
-
Is British democracy really under threat?
|
What’s been going on? In late September 2019, the UK Supreme Court ruled that the government acted unlawfully in proroguing, i.e. suspending, parliament for 5 weeks. The supposed reason for this prorogation – to prepare for a Queen’s speech – was deemed by the courts to be insufficient to justify such a long period of…
-
Why Brexit must happen
|
More than three years on from the 2016 referendum, Britain is still no closer to determining its future relationship with the European Union. This has led increasing numbers of people to advocate—or come out as supporters of—cancelling Brexit entirely either by directly revoking the Article 50 notification or staging a second referendum with the aim…