Blog and updates
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2 Mar 2016
Politicisation of the UK civil service?
The complexity of the EU referendum has certainly been muddying the waters around the relationships between ministers and their civil servants. Yesterday, the Commons Public Administration Select...
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2 Mar 2016
Lord Mandelson on Collective Cabinet Responsibility
Lord Mandelson, the Labour peer, has said today that he believes Ministers endorsing the Leave campaign in the EU Referendum should have been handed their P45s, because their behaviour is not in...
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2 Mar 2016
The world's longest filibuster finally ends
Today, South Korea's Opposition finally ended a 192 hour filibuster in their Parliament, which was intended to block an anti-terrorism bill. The Opposition finally gave up as they realised that in...
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1 Mar 2016
No planned changes to the Freedom of Information Act
A report out later today will recommend no changes to the workings of the Freedom of Information Act (first introduced in 2000). One suggestion was to introduce a fee schedule for FOI requests in...
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1 Mar 2016
Clarence Thomas (finally!) asks a question
Clarence Thomas, the conservative Supreme Court justice, asked a question in a hearing on Monday for the first time in TEN YEARS! Having got the ball rolling with one question, he then managed to...
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29 Feb 2016
Clinton Builds Support from the Black Vote
The Clinton campaign in 2016 seems to be building unstoppable momentum now, helped in no small part by endorsements from black political and cultural leaders. That marks a significant change in...
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29 Feb 2016
Michael Gove and changes to the judiciary
How much influence does the Minister for Justice have over the judiciary? This is a key element of the debate of whether politicians have too much influence over the judiciary, and therefore...
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29 Feb 2016
Vernon Bogdanor - lecture on the UK's 1975 EU Referendum
Here's an enrichment lecture from the venerable Vernon Bogdanor on the 1975 EU Referendum in the UK, when votes were 2 to 1 in favour of being in the EU - not quite as close as polls currently...
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28 Feb 2016
How the Donald could be stopped?
Donald Trump has run away with the Republican nomination battle, yet there is still plenty of time for him to trip up. This video from the New York Times explains the five ways in which the Trump...
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26 Feb 2016
Petty, Mean, and Deliciously Rude, yet still better than US Politics
It is not often that British Parliamentary affairs make the news in the United States, and we are quite use to have it the other way around. However, occasionally the antics of MPs in the Commons...
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26 Feb 2016
Democracy vs Autocracy - trends and impacts
There are some fascinating time-series charts and graphs from the Systemic Peace website, based on Polity 4 data, tracking trends in types of political systems. I've included some charts below that...
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26 Feb 2016
Beyond the Bike lesson resource - Date a Dictator
As part of the Beyond the Bike story and educational adventure supported by tutor2u and the RES, I've put together a simple but effective lesson resource on 20th and 21st century dictators, that...
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26 Feb 2016
All the election action you can handle? It must be Super Tuesday!
The American Presidential Election is a fantastic process, certainly for self-confessed election geeks like me. However, the process itself is often one that confuses many and simply causes them to...
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26 Feb 2016
The GOP Texas Debate
Last night was the latest Republican Debate from Texas ahead of Super Tuesday coming up on March 1st. If you did not manage to catch any of the debate, the New York Times has a nice round up for...
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25 Feb 2016
Gore v Bush - The Most Dramatic Presidential Election in History
Is it really 16 years since the infamous Gore v Bush presidential election?
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25 Feb 2016
Best and worst MPs for Parliamentary Activity
Various news outlets are reporting that the House of Parliament's library has released figures on the number of speeches and written questions that have been undertaken by MPs since the General...
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23 Feb 2016
Play the 'Should we stay or should we go?' EU referendum game
Here's an engaging starter to your next lesson which should help stimulate further discussion about the upcoming referendum on the UK's membership of the EU entitled 'Should we stay or should we...
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22 Feb 2016
Parliament's lobbies
The Parliament YouTube channel is a treasure trove of fascinating videos and insights into the workings of Parliament. I've been exploring many of the virtual tours of Parliament that are available...
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22 Feb 2016
Divided government over the EU referendum
I've found it both fascinating and startling that there are such clear dividing lines on the government frontbenches over the EU in-out referendum. What are the implications of (rare) divided...
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21 Feb 2016
Will the EU referendum enhance democracy? Arguments for AS Politics Unit 1 essays
David Cameron has announced that the "In-Out Referendum" on the UK's EU membership will take place on Thursday June 23rd - you can find a useful timeline of EU referendum events here. This blog...
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