Tim Bale’s Blog- ‘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.
- ‘Our survey of Green party members suggests Zack Polanski has the mandate to take his party in a more radical direction’, (with Paul Webb and Stavroula Chrona) The Conversation, 3 September 2025
- ‘Even tactical voting will not help Labour survive a Tory-Reform pact’, Independent, 3 December 2025.
- ‘A Reform UK government isn’t inevitable’, Interview with LSE’s Joanna Bale (no relation!), 18 September 2025.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
‘The Conservatives have a leadership decision to make’, Financial Times, 9 June 2017
The Conservative party is, infamously, an autocracy tempered by assassination. If they win elections, or look like winning them, Tory leaders can do pretty much what they want. If they lose them, they are toast. If we were living in … Continue reading
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Tagged 2017 General Election, Conservative Party, DUP, Minority Government, Theresa May
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‘Forward Together: What the Tory manifesto says about Europe’, UK in a Changing Europe, 21 May 2017
Ah, Hear’Say! Not ‘hearsay’, as in stuff that you can’t really substantiate, but Hear’Say – the reality-TV band who went up like a rocket and down like a stick at the beginning of the noughties. Even if you can’t remember … Continue reading
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Tagged 2017 General Election, Conservative Party, EU, Europe, Manifesto, Theresa May
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‘Greens can thrive as a party on the margins’, Times, 31 May 2017
The Greens are clearly the most left-leaning of all the parties that won significant support in 2015. Whether they can repeat their performance then (3.8 per cent and one million votes) is a moot point but even if they end … Continue reading
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Tagged #GE2017, 2017 General Election, Caroline Lucas, Green Party, Greens
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‘Four reasons why the Lib Dem fightback may fall flat’, Times, 30 May 2017
Tim Farron’s party had high hopes for this election, based on its claim to represent the fabled 48 per cent who voted to remain in the EU last summer and on the impressive increase in membership it has seen since … Continue reading
‘Ukip seems to be facing a pretty bleak future’, Times, 1 June 2017
Theresa May isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but she has been extraordinarily successful in winning over the support of many of the nearly four million people (12.6 per cent of the electorate) who voted for the populist radical right United … Continue reading
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‘After an enormous victory in local elections, should the Tories fear voter complacency in the General? No’, CityAM, 8 May 2017
If your team is 3-0 up at half-time, then you can be fairly confident that you’re going to pull off an easy win. But even so, you need to guard against complacency. Remember the 2005 Champions League final, when the … Continue reading
‘Britain’s Labour Party is seeing a flood of new members. That’s why it’s in such trouble.’, Washington Post, 10 May 2017
Whether you look at the opinion polls or at the beating it’s just taken in a slew of local elections, Britain’s Labour Party is in a lot of trouble. Theresa May, the country’s Conservative prime minister, called for an early general election next month. … Continue reading
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Tagged Jeremy Corbyn, Labour leadership, Labour Party, Labour Party members
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‘What matters for Labour is not the general election but what happens next’, New Statesman, 19 May 2017
A handful of recent polls suggest Labour is doing better than many expected at the start of the campaign. Whatever the reason, though, the gap between it and the Conservatives is still a yawning one. Bluntly, it remains the case … Continue reading
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Tagged election, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour leadership, Labour members, Labour Party
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‘Theresa May announces dramatic re-think on “dementia tax”‘, 22 May 2017
In a hastily-scheduled (and totally-hypothetical) media appearance, Mrs May said the following: ‘Governing is about making hard choices but it’s also about listening and, wherever possible, about building a national consensus. In the last few days it’s become clear to … Continue reading
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Theresa May’s offer on ‘workers’ rights’: how does it stack up against past Tory governments?
Most Conservative governments in the 20th century couldn’t really be said to have positively increased workers’ rights. Indeed, some of them actually eroded them – most obviously the Thatcher government but also, one could argue, the Baldwin government (with its post- … Continue reading
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Tagged Benjamin Disraeli, Conservative Party, Theresa May, workers' rights
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