Tim Bale’s Blog- ‘Like it’s 1997? Major’s lot weren’t so pointless, poisonous or loathed’, Observer, 17 March 2024.
- ‘The fading promises of COP28’, QMUL, 26 February 2024.
- ‘Reform’s success is not the real story of the by-elections’, Financial Times, 16 February 2024
- ‘Tories’ worst nightmare is coming true as Reform threat proves real’, Daily Express, 16 February 2024
- ‘The plotters, the coup and Farage’s path to the Tory throne’, Daily Telegraph, 27 January 2024.
- ‘Europe is marching to the right. Can Keir Starmer carry the centre-left torch?’, Observer, 14 January 2024.
- ‘The Conservative Party’, UK in a Changing Europe, 5 December 2023.
- ‘The Tories have changed direction – but they may not be headed where you think’, Daily Telegraph, 18 November 2023.
- ‘Brexit and the “Merkel Myth”‘ (with Karl Pike), UK in a Changing Europe, 27 October 2023
- ‘Cricket fan Rishi should shun Right and hold out for a Geoff Boycott route to unlikely victory’, Evening Standard, 25 October 2023
Monthly Archives: April 2015
‘UKIP should not be written off yet’, Financial Times, 24 April 2015
The narrative says one thing but the numbers say another. Contrary to common wisdom, the UK Independence party — and its leader — seem to be holding up fairly well under fire. There are plenty of accounts of the campaign … Continue reading
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Tagged Conservatives, David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Labour, Nigel Farage, UKIP
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‘General Election: the Parallels with 1970’s Shock Result’, Financial Times, 17 April 2015
Human beings are hard-wired to search for patterns and parallels — especially those that seem to confirm their existing prejudices. Hardly surprising, then, that politicians are so fond of comparisons between elections past and present, and so inclined to pick … Continue reading
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Tagged 1970 General Election, Conservatives, David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Harold Wilson, Labour, Ted Heath
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‘UK general election: ‘Happy Warrior’ confronts bomber pilot’, Financial Times, 10 April 2015
What constitutes a good week for a party leader during an election campaign depends very much on which leader you are talking about, as well as the kind of campaign they have made up their mind to fight. David Cameron, … Continue reading
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‘The Napoleonic truth about coalitions: getting most seats doesn’t mean you win’, Guardian, 6 April 2015
Imagine this. It’s Sunday 18 June 1815 near a little-known place called Waterloo. Battle lines are drawn when word comes down the line that Napoleon Bonaparte is to be declared the winner without a shot being fired. He, after all, … Continue reading
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‘Do party leaders really matter?’, FT, 3 April 2015
As TV debate postmortems continue into the weekend, we would do well to step back and ask ourselves a simple question — one that’s far more fundamental than who won and who lost on Thursday night. Do party leaders really … Continue reading
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‘An over-chillaxed David Cameron drops a brick with his bombshell’, FT, 24 March 2015
Either David Cameron is one of the more unusual men ever to have become British prime minister — one of those rare birds in politics (the last was Stanley Baldwin back in 1937) who quit while they are genuinely ahead … Continue reading
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Tagged Boris Johnson, Conservative Party, David Cameron, George Osborne, leader, Prime Minister, Theresa May, Tories
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‘The Labour Campaign, 2015: some educated guesses’, Political Studies Association Media Briefing, 24 March 2015
Labour will: Focus as much as possible on measures contained in three of its five rather vague pledges – particularly on its popular (if not necessarily workable or sensible) offers on university tuition fees (a heat seeking missile aimed directly … Continue reading
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‘It’s competence, stupid: Labour should have done more with the Tories’ mistakes’, New Statesman, 1 April 2015
We live in an era of valence rather than position politics. Like it or not, most voters prefer good government to grand ideological visions. This does not mean to say that there is no place for narrative or for values. … Continue reading
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Tagged Competence, Conservatives, Ed Miliband, Labour, Maurice Saatchi
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‘How Left is Labour?’, Compass, 23 March 2015
Red Ed. His opponents swear he is. Some of his supporters wish to God he was. For every Tory politician who claims that Labour has moved left under his leadership, there’s a Labour activist who only wishes that it really … Continue reading
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