Blog and updates
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19 Jan 2016
Why the 2015 General Election Opinion Polls were wrong - the report
The findings from the inquiry into the poor predictions by opinion polls for the 2015 General Election have been published today - unrepresentative samples, combined with poor "statistical...
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19 Jan 2016
Why were UK election polls so wrong?
Remember the moment? The publication of the exit polls as voting ended in the May 2015 General Election was one of those occasions when millions of people took a sharp intake of breath.
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18 Jan 2016
Jeremy Corbyn on the UK's nuclear option
It's not news that the Labour party is well and truly split over the issue of maintaining the UK's nuclear capability by renewing the Trident scheme - but in a rare show of a possible compromise...
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18 Jan 2016
Analysis of Obama's final State of the Union address
It's always interesting to analyse the final State of the Union address of a particular President - the final year of an administration is often described as a "lame duck", so what can a President...
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18 Jan 2016
Are referendums in Europe becoming problematic?
The Charlemagne column in this week's Economist blames the increasing use of European referendums on "Europe's voters [being] hooked on the cheap rush of direct democracy". Jean-Paul Juncker,...
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17 Jan 2016
Here Come the EU Referendum Leaflets
Our posties are going to be kept busy over the coming weeks delivering a bundle of EU Referendum leaflets as it becomes increasingly likely that the UK will go to the polls in Summer 2016 to...
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17 Jan 2016
US Political Advert Round Up
With the countdown to Election Day well under way, I have compiled for you the latest adverts for the main candidates in the US Election. I have included Clinton and Sanders for the Democrats, and...
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16 Jan 2016
Key Points from the State of the Union
Last week President Barack Obama delivered his final State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. In case you missed it, the BBC have summed up the five key points to take away from...
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14 Jan 2016
Why were the 2015 General Election opinion polls wrong?
It turns out that people who vote Conservative are often reluctant to state publicly that they are Tories - these "Closet Conservatives" then affect the reliability of opinion polls.
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14 Jan 2016
Podcast series on democracy
Yet another super series of podcasts from Radio 4 - this time it's Roger Scruton examining what is meant by democracy, and whether democracy actually allows us to have true political freedom. You...
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14 Jan 2016
Podcast - who should sit in the House of Lords?
BBC Radio 4's "Point of View" usually provides a great 10 minute blast of a topical and interesting debate. Last week's episode by Tom Shakespeare on how to change who sits in the House of Lords...
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14 Jan 2016
Does 'English votes for English Laws' improve democracy?
Yesterday saw the first implementation of the 'English votes for English Laws' rule in Parliament as English and Welsh MPs voted on the parts of the Housing and Planning Bill that impacts on their...
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13 Jan 2016
The Shrinking Caliphate of ISIS
I guess in years to come, A Level History students will explore maps like this to help make sense of how the Coalition's War on ISIS was won, or lost.
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13 Jan 2016
Countdown to Election Day
Next month sees the start of the primary season with states voting for the nominees from both Democrats and Republicans. With the approaching primary seasons we will see a mix of caucuses and...
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13 Jan 2016
Who is Ted Cruz?
We may be hearing and seeing much more of Ted Cruz. Could he be the Republican Presidential Candidate in 2016? If so, it promises to be a fiery election campaign!
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13 Jan 2016
In Search of Endangered Species - Scottish Conservatives
Conservative voters in Scotland are hard to find. However, this somewhat tongue-in-cheek report by BBC Newsnight has a more serious purpose. It features an interesting interview with Ruth Davidson,...
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13 Jan 2016
Feminism back in the new A-level Politics syllabus
After much hoo-hah in the media and in schools, feminist ideology has been added back in to the proposed new A-level Politics syllabus, following a debate in the Commons last Monday. The final...
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13 Jan 2016
Is the UK government becoming authoritarian?
Lord Kerslake, the former civil servant and Cabinet Secretary who was "ousted" in the 2014 Cabinet reshuffle, is now a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, warned yesterday in the Lords that he...
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12 Jan 2016
English votes for English laws - the first outing
The new "English votes for English laws" voting procedure was used today in the Commons for the first time in a vote on a new Housing Bill, in an attempt to tackle the issue of the West Lothian...
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12 Jan 2016
Tackling poverty in the US and the link to federalism
Last weekend the Republican party held a presidential forum on tackling poverty, chaired by the popular House Speaker Paul Ryan - most of the Republican presidential hopefuls were present (Trump...
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