The Canadian electorate this week ejected Stephen Harper, the long-serving and controversial Conservative Prime Minister of Canada, and replaced him with the Liberal Party’s Justin Trudeau, who has promised to restore democracy to Canada after a decade of its slow-motion destruction. This moment must not be wasted, argues Claudia Chwalisz. Similar PostsThe promise to change the […]
Scotland has a female First Minister, who competes in Holyrood with a female Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, as well as a female leader of the Scottish Conservatives. While this should be welcomed, we should not assume that the problem of women’s under representation is solved for good, and instead look at what statutory […]
Wales has made more progress on gender equality in its elected bodies than Westminster or the other devolved governments. However, Rebecca Rumbul’s research indicates that the number of non-elected women giving evidence to committees in the Welsh National Assembly is much lower, and in one third of the cases all the participants were male. She […]
The EU Referendum Bill completed its eventful passage through the House of Commons in September. As scrutiny begins in the House of Lords Alan Renwick and Robert Hazell assess the changes made so far, arguing that whilst new clauses preventing the referendum from being held on the same day as devolved and local elections are welcome, the […]
Involve, a think tank and charity which specialises in public participation, recently published a report by Simon Burall on democracy as a deliberative system, inspired by the work of the political scientist John Dryzek who responds to Burall’s work here. Similar PostsInvolve’s ‘Room for a View’ represents an important intervention in the debate on democracy’s future […]
“Cleggmania” preceded the 2010 General Election, where Nick Clegg saw his and his party’s reputation and poll share sky-rocket following his assured performance in the general election debate. However in 2015, Clegg – as Deputy Prime Minister in a minority government with the Conservatives – was almost universally unpopular, leading his party to a disastrous result […]
Recent revelations about VW cheating emissions tests have underlined the obvious fact that private business interests are not the same as those of the public. Here, Christine Berry describes recent released research by the New Economics Foundation which shows that recent developments have further entrenched the dominance of British and international business over the UK Government. To […]
Constitutional change in the UK has progressed haphazardly in recent years, and with the benefit of hindsight many of the changes might be considered imprudent or ill-thought through. Matt Qvortrup argues that “Oops, I did it again”, the 2000 hit by pop princess Britney Spears could be a leitmotif in constitutional reforms undertaken by successive […]
In Hard Times: Inequality, Recession, Aftermath, Tom Clark offers a potent exploration of growing inequalities in US and British societies, contributing to the work of other leading intellectuals such as Thomas Piketty, Tyler Cowen and Robert Reich. Florian Bon argues that Clark looks beyond seemingly glowing statistics testifying to economic growth to examine the ‘social […]
Scotland, and particularly the West of the country, has a reputation for sectarianism, partly fuelled by the football fans of Rangers and Celtic FC in Glasgow. However, despite the widespread perception that it is a problem, most people feel that it doesn’t affect them personally. David McCrone argues that tackling sectarianism where it does exist […]
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