Prime Ministers are not like you and me
In the Guardian last Friday Simon Hoggart produced a few anecdotes about recent PMs, all taken from his new book “A Long Lunch”.
What Mrs Thatcher’s Husband, Denis, says about Canada is sure to make anyone laugh.
Friday afternoon lesson (in?)activity: more power to the mob?
We all know lessons Friday after lunch are a necessary evil. But if this doesn’t get discussion going for students of politics…?
This November, it is widely expected that Americans will go to the polls to deliver a quasi-referendum on Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House. Though in many ways voters will equally be delivering a general anti-government protest given that the GOP is slightly more unpopular than the Democrats. But also on the same day Californians will go to the polls to deliver a verdict on whether Marijuana should effectively be decriminalised.
This is an excellent case study which can be used to toss around the for and against points in respect of direct democracy:
Are voters sufficiently well informed?
Does it lead to the tyranny of the majority - or even the tyranny of the minority, if you don’t feel that Mill’s point had any validity (and some don’t)
Can finance skew the issue?
Can complex issues be reduced to simple binary options?
And if nothing else, what about a general discussion of the legality of cannabis use? Andrew Sullivan doesn’t think a vote in favour of Prop 19 would be the worst thing that west coasters have ever done.
read more...»Is Labour democratic?
It is often said that parties are more democratic than pressure groups because their leadership is elected. But given that the new Labour leader Ed Miliband failed to garner most votes from party members or MPs and essentially won because he had the union vote, you have to wonder about the true state of internal democracy in the Labour Party.
The Labour years: out of the wilderness
If you are studying UK issues or want an overview of what the Labaour government delivered in policy terms in their 13 years of power if you are new to UK political parties, then this excellent piece from today’s Guardian should fill that gap.
With Labour leaderless at least until later today, it is an extremely useful starting point when tackling party politics. Can help support answers to questions such as:
Is New Labour different from Old Labour?
To what extent is Labour still committed socialism?
Does Labour maintain its traditional goals, but look to secure them via different means?
To what extent are labour and the Tories different?
What was the Labour government’s approach to education/health/the economy/tackling poverty?
See it here - I’ll say it again, it is one to file for future reference.
UK welfare policy: new directions?
If you are studying UK issues, there is an interesting feature that should prompt some class debate on a cross-party attmept to tackle Britain’s long term unemployment problem. According to the Sunday Times the government is looking to the City of London to pump investment into blighted communities as a way of relieving the burden on the state and breaking the cycle of poverty of aspiration that has blighted households across generations in some of the poorest parts of the country.
See the story here. And before you think that the Sunday Times has suddenly found a heart, note the accompanying story of an extreme case of the absent father who apparently costs UK taxpayers millions. It seems that this part of the Murdoch empire is nearly as “fair and balanced” as its Fox News counterpart in the US.
Lesson activity: weekly media sessions, with future AV poll as an example
A good idea for encouraging students to keep up-to-date with political developments is to slot into the weekly timetable a regular media slot.
How Conservative Members Rate Coalition Cabinet Ministers
It is common lore at Westminster and beyond that David Cameron and Nick Clegg face more significant problems from their own parties than from their partners in coalition. This is, of course, because their parties comprise committed activists who tend to be on the more aggressive (or extreme) wing, fighting for policies that are more ideologically pure than any government, coalition or not, can really produce. One regular indicator of David Cameron’s backyard problems is the Conservative Home website, which today publishes one of its regular Cabinet ‘fan’ tables, where Conservative activists vote on who their favourite minister is.
read more...»Crikey! More Boris
Tonight’s London Evening Standard runs with a front page story reporting on how Boris Johnson has now officially announced he will stand for another term in 2012. This will likely mean a repeat of the 2008 contest, with a slightly rejuvenated Ken Livingstone odds on to be his opponent.
But away from the electoral politics, what can we say about the success of the office now a second man has taken the helm?
read more...»Connecting between class and the media
Accessing a quality daily is an absolute must for students new to the study of British politics. But from experience I know that students find it difficult to know what to focus on, what particularly useful articles or comment pieces look like compared to analysis that isn’t directly relevant to the course.
Here on the blog I will try to provide some direction.
read more...»Labour leadership campaign - who are you closest to?
Here’s a neat online survey which encourages people to match their views on a range of political issues against the stated policies and views of the Labour Party leadership campaign.
read more...»Great resource on Con-Lib coalition so far
A series in the Observer this week provides a rich source of material for teachers to plunder, or for students to use as part of a research exercise.
Getting into judges
Once by far the least popular and most inaccessible topic, the judiciaryon the UK politics papers is attracting more, and better, responses.
Part of this, I am sure, is with the increasing role that judges have played in politics in recent years. It is now a much less dry topic than when I studied it at school, believe me.
Here are some further examples for students to get their teeth into.
read more...»Full Cabinet graphic
There’s an excellent pullout in today’s Guardian detailing the composition of government ministers.
You can also access a version online. Click here
Election mania!
Here are some “quirky” video clips on the BBC website re: the general election mania!
Judges and rights exam update - contains link to excellent revision source
As if recent cases by judges on civil liberties weren’t enough to convince students that the judiciary is far from the most boring topic on the AS syllabus (see my earlier posting on this), the Supreme Court yesterday did us a big favour in making one of the most controversial rulings by UK judges in recent history.
Indeed, were it not for the perfect storm that Nick Clegg seems to have found himself in I am sure this would have been much higher up the news agenda.
read more...»Schools Election 2010
A good resource from Google with the opportunity to enter your class or school’s votes into the election map, and be part of the national survey of how young people would vote.
Brown’s inner circle - AS exam update
Over the next few weeks I will try to provide important updates of examples that students can employ in exams.
First off, the always popular PM power debate. It’s incredible to think that about two thirds of the way through the current election campaign, Gordon Brown will have been PM for longer than John Kennedy was the American President. By my rough calculations JFK was President for 1036 days, and Brown has been in Number 10 for 1014 days. What’s my point? Brown often barely gets a mention in essays analysing where power lies within the core executive.
An article by Nicholas Watt in today’s Guardian got me thinking about how we can apply our wider reading in the exam hall.
read more...»Trust in Politics
The BBC iplayer has an episode on Trust in Politics by Anthony Seldon.
We’ve lost trust in politics and only major reform of the system can restore it. Political historian Anthony Seldon believes the 2010 election could mark a turning point in our democracy, a moment to overhaul the way politics works and put trust into the heart of the system.
Looking back at four critical British elections, Anthony seeks ideas and inspiration for his own manifesto to rebuild trust and positively reconnect politicians with a disenchanted public. He tests his ideas in other professions and suggests how politicians and politics might change. But democratic renewal is a two-way street and Anthony emphasises ways in which we can all play a part in this process. With the help of leading historians, those familiar with the corridors of power and ordinary citizens determined to see change, Anthony finds energy, ideas and enthusiasm to restore and rebuild trust in politics.
Dispatches
An excellent Channel 4 Dispatches documentary last night on Cameron’s government. Lots of good stuff here for both Politics and Economics students, for example discussing the proposed “Office for Budget Responsibility” to introduce more independence into Treasury forecasts. There’s been lots of talk about fiscal tightening in recent months, but this program asks where exactly do the Tories want to start fiscal tightening - and the non-committal answers will have you laughing/crying*, with no Shadow Minister agreeing to a cut in their department; and the Conservative party not wanting to admit to future tax rises just before the election. It also discusses the issue of the Conservatives and their stance on Europe.
*delete as appropriate
Beefing up the Commons
During discussion on reforming the constitution, usually little attention is paid to reforming the powers and responsibilities of MPs. But creating a less executive dominated lower chamber would, it can be argued, lead to more effective legislation.
Late last year a new parliamentary committee was set up on Commons reform, chaired by Tony Wright MP. They came up with a series of recommendations, a summary of which can be found here.
According to the Guardian the main reforms are as follows: “The first is that the chairs of select committees should be elected by secret ballot of the house, and that committee members should be elected by secret ballot from within party groups. The second is that backbenchers should wrest a significant portion of the government’s power over the scheduling of business in the Commons. The third is that the public should be actively assisted to play a real part, including through the use of e-petitions, in setting the agenda for debate in parliament. All of these changes would weaken the power of the whips.”
And Henry Porter in today’s Observer reports on the arcane, but significant political battle on Standing Order 14.
Prospects for electoral reform, and a changed electoral landscape?
A little while back I penned an article for t2u’s digital politics magazine outlining the steps that would need to be taken for electoral reform to become a reality for Westminster. In summary, these were: a possible hung parliament; a PM committed to change; a majority of Cabinet; MP support; safe passage through the Lords; and at some stage in all of this a plebiscite of the people.
Like an alignment of the stars, this seems to be taking shape.
Yesterday’s vote on a vote in the Commons on AV brings us closer to moving from simple plurality than at any stage in recent history.
The BBC has some great graphics on how a remodelled election would have played out over the past three decades. Useful stuff for considering the merits of change. From a personal perspective, this move by Labour continues the British tradition of tinkering with the constitution for reasons of short term political expediency. In other words, Brown is trying to cuddle up to the Lib Dems—a horrible image for all sorts of reasons.
A simple guide to electoral reform
From the BBC website.
A useful Q&A on electoral reform explaining the AV debate and providing an overview of the operation of the various systems used in the UK in plain English.
I’ll file this away for use when doing Unit 1 revision later in the year.
Party Games on the Web
Pre-election fever is highlighting ever more regularly just how the parties want to be seen, and which policies they are hoping to showcase. It couldn’t come at a better time for any teachers and students about to labour through (sorry!) the ‘parties’ topic in the AS specification. Election year is putting the parties uppermost in terms of media profile. And there are some excellent sites to give that extra feel for party policy, membership and internal debate. These are not the official party sites, useful though they may be, but the burgeoning ‘unofficial’ sites like Conservative Home.
read more...»More mayors
One of the constitutional reforms that gets little attention is directly elected mayors. A report from the New Local Government Network (NLGN) champions the idea for city regions.
Student Challenge - make their own Cameron poster
A terrific interactive resource here. Students have the chance to make their own version of the infamous David Cameron airbrushed, presidential campaign poster from the early weeks of Jan 2010. Simply type in the message, the strap line and off they go.
Launch Make Your Own David Cameron Poster
Judges and civil liberties
The question asking about the extent to which judges protect civil liberties resurfaced this week as the European Court in Strasbourg (which is, of course, a non EU body) when judges ruled that the government’s s44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 was illegal.
A Green first?
A few years back there was a question on an OCR paper asking candidates to name two parties other than the big three who had MPs elected to the House of Commons. It was surprising how many candidates nominated the Greens. Whilst they have tasted electoral success at local, devolved and European level they have yet to return an MP to Westminster. In fact, Britain is alone in Europe in never electing a Green to the national legislature.
But this may change this year as Caroline Lucas is leading in the polls in Brighton. Read more in today’s Indy.
How adversarial is British Politics? Not very - according to this data
A fascinating piece of analysis by Phil Cowley and Mark Stuart over at revolts.co.uk. It suggests that, when it comes to the Conservative’s voting record on bills in the House of Commons, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair have enjoyed the support of a very loyal opposition…
read more...»The Internet on the Great Hoon Non-Plot
The internet political gurus have been busy in the wake of Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt’s unloved plot. The Spectator’s Fraser Nelson said that there were German operas which lasted longer than today’s Hoon-Hewitt plot to oust Gordon Brown. He was being generous, given that the Ring cycle goes on for rather longer than the plot ever did. But comment on it - well that’s another matter entirely. The blogs and online writers have all been leaping into action to comment, presumably preceding the Dead Tree Press’s more lofty commentators on the following day.
read more...»Schools: did things only get better?
Sometimes when looking for information relating to education policy with a view to route A for edexcel it’s a case of what to ignore rather than what to read. This is a good overview from a Guardian editorial, covering the pros and cons of Labour reform post 1997.
From a personal perspective I just can’t see how massive investment in education can’t have a positive long term supply side effect. Perhaps it will only be visible in five or ten years when the earliest cohort to benefit from the spending increases works through.
