Ballots & Bullets

In a footnote in Representative Government, John Stuart Mill described the Tory party as the ‘stupid party’, providing a handy insult for its opponents. Not that such a charge did the Party’s electoral success much harm during the twentieth century. It was to be another soubriquet, popularised at the beginning of the next century, that of ‘nasty party’ that …

The Christmas break saw the release of the latest data on backbench rebellions by Philip Cowley and Mark Stuart.

This data shows that more than half of the Conservative rebels who have defied David Cameron to vote against the Coalition Government were elected as MPs only in 2010.

The figures were reported in the Independent.…

When you’ve just suffered the largest European backbench rebellion since dinosaurs ruled the earth, the last thing you want on the Commons agenda is a take note motion on an increase in the EU’s budget.

So how do you avoid it?

Philip Cowley and Mark Stuart spotted a neat parliamentary manoeuvre yesterday, as they explain here.…

In reacting to the recent riots, David Cameron claimed that they reflected a widespread ‘moral collapse’ afflicting society. What is needed, according to the Prime Minister, is to rebuild our broken society. This is a recurring theme in Cameron’s rhetoric over recent years and it lies at the heart of his much-hyped ‘Big Society’ project, something designed to underpin the …

Downton Abbey is that very rare thing – an ITV series popular enough to be commissioned for a second season. It also seems to appeal to middle-class viewers – when was the last time the Daily Telegraph put together a readers’ quiz about an ITV series? -  so watch out for lots of adverts for expensive German cars.

Such is its …

This was the question asked at ‘A Permanent Revolution?’, an event organised by the Centre for British Politics and the Centre for Political Ideologies.

Most of those who have written on this subject have described the ‘capitulation’ of Britain’s political parties, portraying neo-liberalism as the ideological equivalent of a tidal wave which has swept away all of the (intellectual) …

In an insightful piece in this blog, Matthew Goodwin reported on his research about the UKIP and the BNP, portraying the former as a ‘polite alternative’ to the latter or the ‘BNP in Blazers’. Its more civil face allows UKIP to appeal to voters repelled by the neo-fascist image of the BNP, and to acquire ‘access to mainstream media …

Despite our politicians’ constant clamour for novelty and their wish to appear as pretty modern kind of guys, nothing is truly new in politics.

I am currently researching the history of party posters since the Liberal landslide of 1906 and my analysis of their role in the 2010 campaign has just been published in the latest account of the election, …