Cameron Takes Tories Back to the Future
Yesterday’s big launch went well, with 1.6 million viewers excitedly tuning in to watch on television. But enough about Game of Thrones…
Posted by Events on April 14th, 2015Not Quite New, Not Quite Blue
Much has been made of the similarity in language between Labour’s Manifesto today and Hilary Clinton’s campaign launch last night – but there is…
Posted by Events on April 13th, 2015Young People, Political Participation and the 2015 General Election
Young people in the UK are increasingly disillusioned with electoral politics. Over the past three General Elections, an average of 40 percent…
Posted by Events on April 13th, 2015Social Media Carves out a Fifth Estate
The increasing integration of new media technologies, and particularly social media, into our personal and working lives has heralded an enormous amount…
Posted by Events on April 10th, 2015Food for thought
It’s little surprise that it was a question about food banks that kicked off last night’s leaders’ debate. The ‘food bank question’…
Posted by Events on March 27th, 2015Method in the madness
David Cameron is a more skilful politician than most people seem to think. His statement this week that he would not seek a…
Posted by Events on March 25th, 2015A tactical retreat?
‘The Tories will take Britain back to 1930s levels of spending’ might be Labour’s most important and effective slogan in this election.Even…
Posted by Events on March 19th, 2015What’s going on
I know what Ed Miliband meant when he tweeted last week that:
‘I think Nigel Farage’s comments today are wrong, divisive and dangerous….
Posted by Events on March 16th, 2015Debating the debates
The Prime Minister’s refusal to agree to the broadcasters’ ‘final’ offer on TV debates in the run up to May’s election has…
Posted by Events on March 9th, 2015Where to draw the line?
David Anderson QC, the current Independent Reviewer of counter-terrorism powers is conducting a review of internet surveillance. Anyone who thinks there aren’t…
Posted by Events on February 20th, 2015News values
As I read through Peter Oborne’s extraordinary article last night, on his resignation from the Daily Telegraph, one sentence lept out at me:
…
Posted by Events on February 18th, 2015The Twitter election
As the election campaigns get underway, there is a new battleground: Twitter. Tweets are the newest weapons in the political arsenal, and…
Posted by Events on February 17th, 2015Behind the numbers
Stories of online abuse abound in the media. Often the focus is on the abuse of women and it is widely assumed…
Posted by Events on February 16th, 2015The flaw in ‘vote X, get Y’ politics
This may be a radical proposition but I think that, mostly, people are not stupid, do not like being blackmailed, and tend…
Posted by Events on February 4th, 2015The generation game
Rachel Sylvester’s piece in the Times yesterday portrayed the coming election as a ‘generation game’ where Conservatives court the grey vote, while Labour targets…
Posted by Events on February 4th, 2015Mind the gap: 2015
Deeper analysis of last week’s 2013/14 GCSE results show the attainment gap between pupils on free school meals and their peers has…
Posted by Events on February 3rd, 2015Will other parties follow the (Labour) leader?
Today in Sheffield, Ed Miliband will draw attention to the ‘missing one million voters’ from the electoral role as a result of…
Posted by Events on January 16th, 2015What’s in a label?
One thing that has always puzzled me is why liberals are not more critical of the EU. Liberals tend to support the…
Posted by Events on January 16th, 2015What is a ‘major’ party?
Televised debates for general elections are a relatively new phenomenon in the UK. The first such spectacles were held in advance of…
Posted by Events on January 15th, 2015Dancing in the dark
Here are three things I’ve noticed recently:
1) Barney Stringer’s fascinating blog about London passing an extraordinary milestone – the population finally caught…
Posted by Events on January 15th, 2015