Tag Archives: politics

‘What do Britons Want in a Political Leader?’ (with Paul Webb and Stavroula Chrona), Political Insight, 2 December 2024.

In 1964, US Supreme Court Justice, Potter Stewart, famously gave his opinion in a case that revolved in part around what did and did not constitute hard core pornography. ‘I shall not’, he wrote, ‘today attempt further to define the … Continue reading →

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‘What does Trump’s victory mean for UK politics?’, LSE Blog, 12 November 2024.

Elections can sometimes make us crazy, even when they’re going on elsewhere – especially, perhaps, when they take place in the USA, where the results inevitably have more implications for the rest of us than do contests taking in smaller, … Continue reading →

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‘What makes a good leader – according to Tory members’, House Magazine, 30 September 2024

Whether the Hansard Society’s Audit of Political Engagement, published in the spring of 2019, helped persuade Boris Johnson to get Brexit done “by any means necessary”, we shall never know. But its finding that just over half of respondents believed that … Continue reading →

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‘Election vox pops may entertain – but they won’t tell you who’s won…’, Independent, 3 June, 2024.

Only one week into a six-week election campaign and, if you’re watching or listening to any of the UK’s biggest broadcasters, you already can’t move for vox pops. Ironically, the journalists who conduct them aren’t necessarily that keen on them. Indeed, some … Continue reading →

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‘Like it’s 1997? Major’s lot weren’t so pointless, poisonous or loathed’, Observer, 17 March 2024.

We learned two things about the Conservatives last week. First, that they’re planning to spend so much money at the next election that they can’t afford to return Frank Hester’s tainted millions. Second, that the election won’t be held in May. … Continue reading →

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‘Reform’s success is not the real story of the by-elections’, Financial Times, 16 February 2024

If some of the more excitable commentary that has accompanied the news from Kingswood and Wellingborough is anything to go by, then the real story of this week’s by-elections is not so much a dreadful defeat for the Conservatives and … Continue reading →

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‘Tories’ worst nightmare is coming true as Reform threat proves real’, Daily Express, 16 February 2024

Both the Prime Minister and his opposite number have had a torrid time of it over the last week. Things began particularly badly for Starmer, when anti-Semitic remarks made by Labour’s candidate in Rochdale, Azhar Ali, came to light. They … Continue reading →

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‘The plotters, the coup and Farage’s path to the Tory throne’, Daily Telegraph, 27 January 2024.

Tory nerves have been fraying for months. But with the publication of a survey predicting the loss of nearly 200 seats, funded (apparently to the tune of £40,000) by the so-far-so-mysterious “Conservative Britain Alliance”, there’s a serious risk of full-blown … Continue reading →

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‘Europe is marching to the right. Can Keir Starmer carry the centre-left torch?’, Observer, 14 January 2024.

If Keir Starmer’s Labour party wins power this year, it will be bucking a trend. In many European countries, it’s not the centre left but the right – and all too often the far right – that seems to be … Continue reading →

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‘The Conservative Party’, UK in a Changing Europe, 5 December 2023.

British voters have fallen out of love with the Conservative Party – and hopes that Rishi Sunak might persuade them otherwise are fading fast. On almost any measure, the Conservatives have fallen behind Labour. And while the Leader of the … Continue reading →

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