The Many Constitutional Crises Of Theresa May
Ben Worthy Sometimes, I tell my students, Prime Ministers fail because they are no good at their job. Theresa May seems to fall pretty neatly into the ‘not up to it’ category. I knew her premiership...
View ArticleOn Brexit, EU institutions are leagues ahead of their UK counterparts
Birkbeck’s Dermot Hodson has written in the Guardian about the EU’s institutions with John Peterson. They write: ‘It’s a huge challenge for all involved, but where the EU has expertise and cohesion,...
View ArticlePatriotism, pessimism and politicians: understanding the vote to Leave
Ben Worthy Why did people vote for Brexit? I thought I’d take up the challenge of Robert Saunders and John Curtice. As Saunders put it in a tweet thread ‘With honourable exceptions, academia has...
View ArticleIs Theresa May Safer Than She Looks?
(Image courtesy of twitter) Is Theresa May Safer Than She Looks? Iknow it doesn’t look like it. May appears to be now deep in her final, terminal doom loop. For more than a year she seems to have been...
View ArticleWhat is a vote of no confidence?
The Prime Minister is the head of the Government and holds that position by virtue of his or her ability to command the confidence of the House of Commons, which in turn commands the confidence of the...
View ArticleA tale of two failures: poor choices and bad judgements on the road to Brexit
As the process of leaving the EU finally reaches crisis point, politicians, parties and people seem trapped in legal processes and strict deadlines. Brexit now looks as if it was fated to happen...
View ArticleTheresa May and her Failure
Here’s a piece on May from March-probably a better prediction than this. I think we can safely now say Theresa May is, and was, a very poor prime minister. Labour MP Wes Streeting tweeted calling her...
View ArticleThe nightmare of high unemployment during the Eurozone crisis
Rachel Pinto (Msc student) With recent reports about unemployment at an all-time low in the Eurozone, it’s hard to believe how different the situation was during the Eurozone crisis with millions of...
View ArticleDenmark, the EU and the “Brexit Effect”
For over 50 years, Danish and British attitudes towards the European Union have been closely intertwined. However, as Kirsten Kaarre Jensen (MSc Global Politics) explains, recent elections indicate...
View ArticleWhat makes a Prime Minister great?
Portraits of former Prime Ministers in 10 Downing Street. Picture: Number 10 / (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) licence Theresa May, now she has departed, and Boris Johnson, now in number 10, should be made aware...
View ArticleGeneral Election 2019: Marginal Seats, Gender and the Four Nations
Here’s a paper on marginal and safe seats across the UK that you can keep to hand. Majorities are ‘measured as the difference between the number of votes for the first and second placed candidates’....
View ArticleThe Role of Progressives in Northern Irish Unionism: Event Podcast
On Thursday 27th February, Birkbeck’s Centre for British Political Life hosted a discussion on the place, role, and future of progressive unionism in Northern Ireland. The event asked two big...
View ArticleBudget 2020: is talk of the ‘safety net’ back?
Laura Richards-Gray Last Wednesday Rishi Sunak made his first budget statement in the House of Commons. These are strange and testing times and the budget included increased investment in the NHS in...
View ArticleBirkbeck Politics Lockdown List: What books do staff recommend?
Birkbeck Politics Lockdown List: What books do staff recommend? We asked Birkbeck Politics staff to recommend reading for the lockdown. Here’s their recommendations for fiction and non-fiction: Milkman...
View ArticleBirkbeck Politics Online Staff Debate: COVID 19 and the Future of Politics
Birkbeck Politics held its first online staff debate on 23rd April at 6pm, where three academics discussed the impact of COVID 19 on the EU, UK and the future of policy-making and responded to...
View ArticleBirkbeck Politics Online Staff Debate: COVID-19 and Food
COVID-19 has starkly revealed much about the relationship between food and society, from panic buying and the gig economy to bigger questions around global supply chains and inequality. For our second...
View ArticleStaff Debate on Surveillance, Big Data and Behavioural Science: governing...
‘Test, track and trace’ is a key strategy used in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic but the use of technology may well have major implications for the way in which polities, societies and...
View ArticleFourth Birkbeck Politics Online Staff Debate: COVID 19 and Global Political...
COVID-19 has starkly revealed much about our politics, while bringing unimaginable tragedy and pain. As a truly global event, it has highlighted inequalities and questions over North and South, the...
View ArticleFifth Online Staff Debate: Far From a Great Leveller? COVID-19 and its Impact...
Covid-19 is reshaping politics and public in a startling way, bringing unimaginable tragedy and pain. It has highlighted structural inequalities in the UK and around the world, especially now the...
View ArticleDemocratic Representation masterclass: In Conversation with Dr Sarah Wollaston
In the first of our Masterclasses looking at Democratic Representation and COVID, we spoke with Dr Sarah Wollaston, former MP for Totnes and Chair of the Health Select committee and then the Liaison...
View Article
