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Why the public realm still matters
The idea of the ‘public realm’ is one which is unlikely to grab everyone’s attention. But it captures an important set of ideas and they are ones we tend to take for granted. At its heart is the simple proposition that the health of a good society can be seen through its commitment to shared…
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Vote: Politics is about more than political parties and the ballot box
Russell Brand caused a stir in the media and amongst the political classes in recent months as he questioned the value of voting in what he sees as a corrupt political system which fails to serve the poorest and most vulnerable in society. Whilst I might have sympathy with some of the things Brand says,…
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Broken links!
Earlier this week (9 February) the Conservatives gave away the list of constituencies the party is not targeting in the General Election. They did this by including the words “non target” in the URL of each candidate’s page on the central website. A bit of an Ooops moment! So we now know, from the Conservatives’…
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Leaders’ Debates – a lot of fuss about nothing?
There’s certainly been a huge amount of fuss about the Leaders’ debates. Will they happen? Who will be included? When will they take place? All the rows certainly make for good copy. But we are missing the bigger question, which is what do these debates actually mean? How can we read them and their significance?…
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Why listening to what is said is as important as what is not said: Policy lesson one
In the UK back in 2010 whilst the recurring theme was that the then Labour Government had been responsible for the financial crash all the mainstream parties agreed that austerity was a necessary pre-condition for getting the economy straight. Looking back over the past five years, one of the things which is striking is how consistent…
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Oh no.. not another one!
In the run up to this election there’s a torrent of comment about unpredictability and possible deals. I have even heard people talk about another election shortly after this one. Certainly after the 2010 election many believed that a second election would follow quickly if a suitable deal couldn’t be done. The most recent example…
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Late to the party?
Among all the pre-election coverage of policy launches and manifestos, we’ve now had the first pre-election human drama – a defection. Time will tell whether we’ll see more of these in the febrile atmosphere of the run up to May 7. But as the world of football has its transfer season, we may well be…
