Tim Bale’s Blog- Electoral reform for the UK? Don’t bet on it, Financial Times, 3 June 2026.
- ‘Britain’s “ungovernable” decade’, Anadolu Ajansı, 21 May 2026.
- ‘Dumping Starmer won’t reverse Labour’s fortunes [unless….]’, New Statesman, 12 May 2026
- ‘Will Nigel Farage overtake the prime minister as the U-turn leader?’, Independent, 2 April 2026
- ‘Polarised and Powerful: Party Members in British Politics’, Political Insight, 18 March 2026.
- ‘Political treachery is a dangerous art. Streeting must perfect it if he wants to wear the crown’, Daily Telegraph, 16 February 2026.
- ‘The two bloc polarisation of Britain’s voters and Party members’, LSE British Politics Blog, 2 February 2026.
- ‘Ahead of seismic local elections, what we know about Reform’s ability to put boots on the ground for the campaign’, The Conversation, 20 January 2026
- ‘Churchill’s defection didn’t kill the Tories. Robert Jenrick’s certainly won’t’, Daily Telegraph, 19 January 2026.
- ‘The ten most surprising facts from the 2024 election revealed’, The Conversation, 15 December 2025.
Author Archives: tpbale
He has a beef with David Cameron, but who is Lord Ashcroft?, The Conversation, 23 September 2015
Britain is still reeling from the allegations that surfaced about the university antics of its prime minister, David Cameron. The claims, made in a forthcoming unauthorised biography of the PM, are the work of Conservative peer Michael Ashcroft and journalist … Continue reading
A look ahead to the 2016 Labour Party Conference, Speri, 17 September 2015
Ever since the BBC’s and LSE’s Bob McKenzie published his seminal work on British political parties back in 1955, we’ve known that Labour isn’t quite as democratic as it looks. Its leader, and those around him, has rather more say … Continue reading
Labour has moved outside the ‘zone of acceptability’, Prospect, 14 September 2015
Jeremy Corbyn’s victory has to be seen not only as a major advance for a Labour left that once looked entirely moribund. More worryingly for some, it also presents a huge opportunity to influence mainstream politics for much a harder, … Continue reading
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Tagged Conservative Party, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour leader, Labour Party
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‘Just who are these Labour Party members who will be choosing the new leader?’ (with Paul Webb), Independent, 23 July 2015
Most of the coverage of Labour’s leadership contest has focused on the candidates. But what about the people who will be choosing between Corbyn, Burnham, Cooper and Kendall? In May 2015, we surveyed 1,180 Labour Party members as part of … Continue reading
‘The UK general election, 2015: Surprise! Or maybe not….’, Report for German-Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance (CPG), July 2015
One does not need to be a political scientist, let alone a rocket scientist, to know why, broadly speaking, the opposition Labour Party lost the election and why its rival, the Conservative Party, won a second term in office –this … Continue reading
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Tagged 2015 General election, Conservative Party, David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Labour Party
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‘Who will win the Labour leadership election? It’s a little early to tell’ (with Paul Webb) New Statesman, 22 June 2015
It’s doubtful that voters are paying that much attention to Labour’s leadership contest, but that hasn’t prevented pollsters from beginning to ask them who they think the party should pick. First out of the traps was Ipsos MORI. Its poll … Continue reading
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Tagged Andy Burnham, contest, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour leader, Labour leadership, Labour Party, Liz Kendall, party members, Yvette Cooper
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‘Only 15 per cent of Conservative party members would vote to leave the EU’ (with Paul Webb) Telegraph, 15 June 2015
Europe is already impinging, if only indirectly on Labour’s leadership contest. Andy Burnham in particular has suggested the party needs to be careful it doesn’t ‘do a Scotland’ by associating itself so closely with an all-party campaign that it ruins … Continue reading
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Tagged Conservative Party, David Cameron, EU, EU referendum, EU renegotiation, Europe, Euroscepticism, Labour Party, party members
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‘Fight or flight: On rationality and resilience in the Labour Party’, IPPR, 1 June 2015
‘Nobody knows anything … Not one person in the entire … field knows for a certainty what’s going to work. Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an educated one.’ So wrote the acclaimed screenwriter, William Goldman, … Continue reading
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Tagged Andy Burnham, Labour, Leadership contest, Liz Kendall, Yvette Cooper
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‘Persuade the public, frighten the Tories and Labour could win again’, Observer, 24 May 2015
No one really knows who first declared that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”. But somebody should tell the LabourParty – and quickly. It is May 2010. Labour has just gone down to one … Continue reading
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‘As Nicola Sturgeon demands more powers, is a second Scottish independence vote inevitable? Yes.’, CityAM, 18 May 2015
The genie is out of the bottle, the toothpaste out of the tube. Pick whichever metaphor you like, but be sure of one thing: it’s a case of “when”, not “if”. The SNP is simply biding its time, waiting for … Continue reading
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