Tim Bale’s Blog- ‘Boris’s North Shropshire nightmare is eerily reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher’s Eastbourne defeat’, Telegraph, 17 December 2021.
- ‘Your starter for 10: Would the Tories be better off without Boris Johnson?’, Open Democracy, 14 December 2021.
- ‘Boris Johnson’s woes are multiplied if he cannot “unite the right”‘, Financial Times, 11 December 2021.
- ‘Riding the populist wave: the UK Conservatives and the constitution’, Constitution Unit Blog, 10 December 2021.
- ‘To regain lost ground at the next election, Labour will need to convince voters that it can deliver greater social justice and security without risking the economy’, LSE British Politics and Policy, 8 November 2021 (with Paul Webb).
- ‘Boris Johnson wants net zero by 2050. Are his voters behind him?’, The Loop, 3 November 2021.
- ‘Macmillan’s many, many Chancellors’, Daily Telegraph, 30 October 2021.
- ‘The Tories will never change’, UnHerd, 27 October 2021.
- ‘What has happened to western Europe’s centre right?’ (with Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser), The Conversation, 13 October 2021.
- ‘Identity politics are a risky strategy for both Labour and the Tories’, Financial Times, 2 October 2021.
Tag Archives: Brexit
‘To Defeat Far-Right Nationalists, Don’t Try to Imitate Them’, New York Times, 16 July 2018.
Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative government in Britain is in turmoil. But the resignations that have rocked it in recent days — even that of Boris Johnson, who was until recently her obsessively ambitious foreign secretary — risk blinding us to a … Continue reading
‘Here’s Tory Brexiteers’ real plan for 2019: a leaner, meaner Britain’, Guardian, 13 July 2018.
It’s a truth pretty universally acknowledged that the reason the Conservative government has struggled to come up with an agreed negotiating position in the wake of the country voting for Brexit is that many Tories who campaigned for leave didn’t … Continue reading
‘Why Labour’s Brexit strategy may be in trouble – and why Theresa May has reason to worry too’ (with Alan Wager), New Statesman, 5 February 2018.
In spite of the fact that it accords with common wisdom – or maybe because of it – aside from the odd (sometimes very odd) political scientist, not many people will have heard of ‘May’s special law of curvilinear disparity’. Essentially, it … Continue reading
‘On Brexit, Labour is about to take a big gulp from a poisoned chalice’, New Statesman, 27 November 2017
What we always seem to talk about when we talk about Brexit is the Tories. Given that they’re in government, and given the mess they seem to be making of the whole thing, that’s wholly understandable. But it’s also dangerous, … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Brexit, EU, European Union, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Party
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‘My secret plan to turn students against Brexit’, Politico, 26 October 2017.
My name is Tim Bale and I’m an academic. I’ve been abusing Brexit for nearly a year and a half now, and I just can’t seem to stop. Not a day goes by without me thinking about it, even if … Continue reading
‘The Tory temperament means a U-turn on Europe is always possible’, Financial Times, 27 September 2017.
The prime minister’s speech in Florence may well help, in the short term, to clear some of the obstacles that currently stand in the way of the UK’s departure from the EU in 2019. But here is a heretical thought: … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Brexit, Conservative Party, EU, Europe, Euroscepticism
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‘Pro-EU Tories flirting with rebellion need to put their votes where their mouths are’, Times Red Box, 6 September 2017.
How much more of this can we be expected to take? With each and every passing day, we seem to read more and more about the looming threat posed to the government’s supposedly precarious commons majority on Brexit by rebellious … Continue reading
‘A new centrist pro-EU party can be a catalyst even if it flops’, Financial Times, 12 August 2017.
Journalists bemoaning the loss of yet another colleague to PR or the civil service sometimes talk about that hack-to-flak transformation as “going over to the dark side”. James Chapman, who in 2015 was persuaded by George Osborne to give up … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Andrew Adonis, Brexit, Centre party, Conservative Party, James Chapman, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, SDP
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‘EU referendum: one year on – political parties’, UK in a Changing Europe, 26 June 2017.
As far as the UK’s political parties were concerned, last summer’s EU referendum was a bit like one of those tag-team wrestling matches you see on TV. Although the bout began with everyone thinking they knew who was on which … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Article 50, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Conservative Party, David Cameron, EU, Greens, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Party, Lib Dems, Michael Gove, Nigel Farage, UKIP
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‘Should Ukip just dissolve itself?’, CityAM, 1 March, 2017.
The phrase “existential threat” is bandied around a lot these days, but in Ukip’s case it is an accurate description of the danger it faces. With a Conservative Prime Minister not only determined to ensure that the UK leaves the … Continue reading
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