British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak talks to journalists on his plane as he travels from Northern Ireland to Birmingham in May 2024 during a day of campaigning for the British election on July 4.
(HENRY NICHOLLS/Pool photo via AP)
The “PM and the Pendulum” model has been successfully forecasting British elections since 2005. This year’s predictions suggest UK Conservatives are in for a major drubbing on July 4.
Miners from different collieries gather in Port Talbot in April 1984.
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The strike saw different political factions uniting, which eventually led to a more collaborative form of politics in Wales.
Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was portrayed as a bullying, tyrant in Spitting Image.
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Thatcher provided the show with its star turn, but her government’s policies were also influential in bringing the programme to air.
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Conspiracy theories about urban planning are born of a national context in which public transport provision is failing
‘Spycatcher’ Peter Wright pictured at the time of his court battle.
Alamy/Associated Press.
Cabinet Office papers expose Thatcher’s anxiety over the famous book, and the difference between governing in the 1980s and the modern information age.
Prime Minister Edward Heath and his education secretary, Margaret Thatcher, hold a press conference on the three-day week.
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Fifty years ago, an under-pressure Tory leader’s battle with a powerful union triggered the introduction of restrictions to the working day.
EPA/Chris Ratcliffe
Data across multiple decades suggests Starmer will benefit from giving the impression that he is shifting to the right.
A protest against Section 28 in Manchester, February 1988.
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A teacher reflects on how Section 28 affected her career and the young people she taught.
The Grant family, some of Brookside’s most famous characters.
Lime Pictures / STV Player
The show is being rebroadcast for a new generation and is more educational and political than it might have first appeared.
John Kay, 1790.
Wikiwand
Everyone wants to claim the economic thinker as their own.
The battle against poor nutrition: a history of school meals in the UK.
Canva/Shutterstock
From soup and semolina to Jamie’s school dinners: the changing face of school meals in the UK.
Striking miners face off against police in 1984.
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Workers have gradually lost all powers to take industrial action when they feel conditions are unfair.
Is this the new Jim Callaghan?
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With everyone from rail workers to civil servants going on strike over the winter, it’s hard to see this ending well.
One giant leap for soccerkind.
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As the ball that Maradona’s fist helped on its way to the back of the net – with some divine help – goes up for auction, a scholar of soccer explains why that goal means so much.
Frank Augstein/AP/AAP
The Conservative Party is hopelessly stuck in the 1980s, and it may yet be the undoing of Liz Truss as prime minister.
The first Mrs T in 1980.
PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo
Too much has changed, economically and politically, since 1979.
The credibility of John Major’s government arguably never recovered.
Independent/Alamy
On September 16 1992 the state fought the markets, and the markets won.
Liberator, failed reformer or architect of Soviet demise?
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Mikhail Gorbachev died at 91 on Aug. 30, 2022. A historian of the Soviet era assesses his impact and the consequences of his failed attempts to reform state socialism.
President Ronald Reagan, shown here speaking in Moscow in 1980, was an early adopter of neoliberalism in the U.S.
Dirck Halstead/Liaison
The word ‘neoliberal’ gets thrown around a lot, often with differing and even contradictory meanings. Here, a political economist explains the origins and evolution of this complex concept.
Will Boris Johnson be back? The chances may be slim.
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The UK prime minister tendered his resignation after a slew of resignations by former allies in his government.