The Political Quarterly announced the winner of The Bernard Crick prize for the best piece 2014 a couple of weeks ago. It was awarded to Alan Finlayson’s article Proving, pleasing and persuading? Rhetoric in contemporary British Politics (free to read at the moment). Finlayson contrasts political rhetoric at the […]
This is supposed to be the most exciting election for decades, with the outcome still unclear only four days before polling day. But I can’t say I’m feeling it. With the exception of yesterday’s quite extraordinarily bizarre #Edstone stunt, it has all felt pretty humdrum, slightly surreal, and […]
You can find one or two brave souls who are willing to put a positive spin on Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour party conference yesterday. But the dominant view among the commentariat seemed to be that it all felt rather flat and unfocused. Given this was the […]
I guess it’s a small thing. But I find it intensely irritating. I read much of the press coverage across a range of policy areas, but most commonly housing policy and welfare reform. A lot of the coverage in the broadsheet newspapers at the moment is documenting the […]
The abject failure of housing policy is among the biggest challenges facing this country yet it barely gets a mention on the hustings or in any political debate. (Anthony Hilton, Evening Standard, 28/05/13) There was a time when the stance taken by the major political parties on housing […]
Participation in representative democratic processes at local level is on the wane. Not just in Britain but in several other western democracies. There is plenty of cause to reflect on why that might be, and what might be done about it. How can more local people become engaged […]
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