Before the publication of his new book on May 4th 2011 – New British Fascism: Rise of the British National Party – Matthew Goodwin discusses the growing importance of anti-Muslim sentiment on the influential ConservativeHome website.…
How similar is the current economic crisis to the one that hit the UK and the rest of the world before 1939? There have certainly been many comparisons between our own times and the interwar depression. At the very least, journalists and experts agree, ours is the worst recession since the 1930s.
How we now think about the 1930s …
In October 2010 joint US-Russian raids on Afghan drugs laboratories near the Pakistani border in which more than a tonne of heroin and opium was destroyed made it into the headlines.
The raids followed years of criticism in Russia of what it saw as the NATO-led coalition’s failure to eradicate poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, resulting in the exponential growth …
On 17th February 2010, the Coalition Government unveiled a bill that promised to bring about ‘the most radical shake-up of the welfare system for sixty years’. We’ve been here before. At least since Thatcher’s social security reforms of the mid-1980s, ‘the most radical reform of welfare since its inception’ has featured somewhere in the first year programme of most …
In a world increasingly conscious of security risks, is the EU relevant? Many people – especially in Euro-sceptic Britain – think not. In the diffcult process of fostering integration , the challenge of corralling diverse European states into common security efforts appears to be a step too far.
The 2003 invasion of Iraq seems to bear out this scepticism. Throughout …
Somewhere in Cairo, an artist is writing a manifesto.
Artists’ manifestos are often more political than political manifestos. They are also more entertaining. Artists’ manifestos outstrip art to embrace life.
As I argue in my recent book, 100 Artists’ Manifestos, artists are revolutionaries. In 1919 Raoul Hausmann and Johannes Baader ‘founded’ a Dada Republic by manifesto, in which they …
The current restructuring in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is of phenomenal importance to the global economy. In particular it has added millions of workers to the international workforce.
Chinese workers often work in conditions of super-exploitation. The impact of the current global crisis on Chinese manufacturing has put further pressure on their wages. This has international consequences: workers …
How do MPs behave when faced with a coalition government? For all that behaviour in the House of Commons has changed over the post-war era – with MPs becoming more rebellious and less willing to be lobby fodder – there has been one constant: rebellion has remained the exception, cohesion the norm. Whilst the exact rate of rebellion has varied …
The January 2011 Oldham by-election confirmed the UK Independence Party (UKIP) as the fourth largest party in British politics, ahead of the British National Party (BNP).
With local elections looming, Drs Rob Ford, David Cutts and I have produced evidence that UKIP is well positioned to become a successful radical right party and a significant vehicle for Islamophobia.
Our research …
What is it about the British and period drama? The success of The King’s Speech might have taken a few critics by surprise, but ITV’s Downtown Abbey during the autumn and the BBC revival of Upstairs Downstairs over Christmas suggests it’s now open season for producers to raid the past for stories.
We have been here before. As I have …
This blog is produced by members of the School of Politics and International Relation at the University of Nottingham, and will include occasional guest pieces. The analysis contained in each entry is informed by our internationally-ranked research, and we hope it will help readers better understand the political dynamics that underpin the world in which we all live.
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