He came, he saw, he was chased into a pub. Nigel Farage plunged into the multi-polar world of Scottish politics yesterday. And took a hiding.
Farage appears to have been surprised that his brand of populism…
Life’s a gas: Nigel Farage enjoying UKIP’s success in the local council elections.
Chris Radburn/PA Wire
On the surface, the recent surge in support for the UK Independence Party (UKIP) suggests an urgent need to reform Britain’s relations with the European Union.
But polls tell a different story. The best…
I’ve seen the future Nick, and it’s behind us.
Stefan Wermuth
Compromise. It’s one of those Jekyll and Hyde verbs. Used actively, it’s a good thing – you want something; I want something different; we talk it over; we come to an arrangement; we compromise.
Used…
British PM Margaret Thatcher meets with her Australian counterpart Malcolm Fraser in 1979 – what was her lasting effect on politics here?
AAP/National Archives
Margaret Thatcher’s years as British prime minister from 1979 to 1990 coincided with an era of political upheaval in Australia. The exhaustion of Malcolm Fraser’s “Menziesian” liberalism was followed by…
Instituting policies of ‘class warfare’ was a key criticism of late British PM Margaret Thatcher (right) as well as of her Chilean contemporary Augusto Pinochet, pictured here with his wife.
EPA/Ian Jones
In Australia, Martin Ferguson has recently condemned the “class war rhetoric” of the Labor party, but on Monday morning (UK time) one of the world’s greatest class warriors passed away.
Margaret Thatcher…
Late British prime minister Margaret Thatcher leaves a lasting legacy through her ‘Thatcherism’ policies she instituted during her premiership.
EPA/Gerry Penny
On the eve of her resignation as British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher pondered her options. In a little over 36 hours time it seemed likely the parliamentary Conservative party would again refuse…
Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, pictured with current PM David Cameron at 10 Downing St, has passed away at the age of 87.
EPA/Facundo Arrizabalaga
Margaret Thatcher, Baroness of Kesteven, has died of a stroke aged 87.
The first female prime minister of the United Kingdom, Thatcher held office between 1979 and 1990 before being removed in an internal…
George Osborne’s austerity plan is under threat.
EPA/Stefan Rousseau
The UK’s former AAA credit rating is no more. Moody, a tyrant of the credit rating system, decided that a downgrade was in order from AAA to AA1 for the first time since 1978. The pound fell in a state…
The response to Leveson is less about media regulation and more about politics.
EPA/Andy Rain
The good Lord Leveson has certainly set the cat among both the press and political pigeons. His elegantly crafted proposal for establishing a self-regulatory regime for the press, backed by statutory under…
British Prime Minister, David Cameron leaves 10 Downing street to give a statement on Lord Justice Leveson’s report.
EPA/Facundo Arrizabalaga
By Brian McNair, Queensland University of Technology
Few public inquiries have been so closely followed by the British press, or its findings awaited by them with such nervous anticipation as Lord Leveson’s into their culture, practices and ethics.
The…
Murdered school girl Millie Dowler’s parents arrive at the release of the Leveson Report.
EPA/Kerim Okten
The Leveson Inquiry, set up by the UK coalition government in response to accusations of phone hacking at the now defunct Murdoch newspaper the News of the World, has reported – calling for press regulation…
If British Conservatives are worried about the environment, they would do well to focus on reducing emissions, not stopping wind turbines.
floato/Flickr
There are few cardinal sins in politics – but campaigning on behalf of your opponent has to be one of them. So when news broke this week that the British Conservative Party MP Chris Heaton Harris had boasted…
Families of the victims of the Hillsborough disaster have never given up their campaign for justice.
EPA/Lee Sanders
The release of Hillsborough Independent Panel’s report into the death of 96 football fans at the 1989 FA Cup Semi Final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest is not just a landmark in British history…
Argentinian President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is part of a renewed push to reclaim the Falkland Islands.
EPA/Leo La Valle
Argentinean wordsmith Jorge Luis Borges could be cryptic. But his powers of perception were always daunting. Borges came up with an excellent description of the 10 week conflict in 1982 that took place…
First Minister Alex Salmond could be the man who regained Scotland’s independence.
AAP
Scotland has always been a distinct nation but since the Act of Union in 1707, it has been a nation within a larger political entity: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
The election…
Tony Blair pulled back the curtain on the relationship between journalists and politicians..
AAP/Julian Smith
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: On the final day of The Conversation’s series on how the media influences the way our representatives develop policy, John Keane examines how the relationships between politicians…
Karl Rove was never far from President George W Bush’s side.
AFP/Stephen Jaffe
MEDIA & DEMOCRACY: Today, Anne Tiernan looks at how voters have become consumers of political marketing, as part of The Conversation’s week-long series on how the media influences the way our representatives…
Jubiliant Libyans celebrate the arrival of rebel forces in central Tripoli.
AAP
The situation in Libya remains fluid but with armed rebel fighters now in Green Square in central Tripoli, it appears the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is in its final hours.
Two of the dictator’s…
As the streets of England have calmed, the political debate over what to do with the rioters has been brought to a boil. A steady stream of individuals continues to flow into the court system, some being…
London’s burning: but the rioters had a point.
EPA/Kerim Okten
The powers that be describe the street violence and social upheaval which took place in England’s major cities last week as “mindless”. Yet it was anything but.
Prime Minister David Cameron, among others…
English police have defended their tactics in the riots.
AFP/Leon Neal
English police officers have defended their handling of the riots which erupted in several cities across the country last week.
After the worst urban disorder in living memory, leading politicians are…
Social media is helping, not hindering, police efforts in the UK.
AAP
By Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology
There’s a colourful and evocative term among regular users of social media: “headdesking”.
It’s what you do when somebody says or does something so stupid that your instant reaction is to smack your head…
A shop in Manchester city centre boarded after being attacked by looters.
AAP
By Robert Ralphs, Manchester Metropolitan University
The recent riots in major English cities like London have seen the media focus on the involvement of young people.
In particular, many media outlets have claimed that organised youth gangs have orchestrated…
The final edition of the News of the World carried a full page apology to its readers.
AFP/Ian Nicholson
The dramatic events around the phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s London News of the World are unprecedented in a major news media organisation in an advanced industrial country. A newspaper closed…
