“War – huh. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing”, sang Edwin Starr back in the sixties. Most people say the same about party conferences. They take up half a week. They cost a fortune. They don’t actually…
As Conservatives head to Manchester for their annual party conference this weekend, it seems a very long time since David Cameron, then newly-elected party leader, urged the electorate to “Vote Blue, Go…
Speakers in this week’s Commons debate on the Transparency of Lobbying, non-Party Campaigning, and Trade Union Administration Bill did not pull their punches. The bill was described as “flawed”, “rushed…
It doesn’t matter who won the Commons vote: these are the losers.
Freedom House via Creative Commons
As a policy analyst, I am naturally interested in the dynamics of domestic politics, the role of specific actors, institutions and communities. So I understand why so much talk in Britain yesterday and…
Cameron ‘gets’ a clear message from the Commons.
PA Wire
One of the few bits of political memorabilia I own is a copy of the parliamentary proceedings – the Hansard – of Tuesday, March 18, 2003, signed for me by the then chief whip, Hilary Armstrong. That day…
Will the US attack Syria in the face growing international condemnation and opposition?
EPA/Jim Lo Scalzo
Former Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser has attacked American plans to launch attacks on the Assad regime in Syria, describing them as illegal and reminiscent of the disastrous invasion of Iraq…
The chances of EU reform are improving for David Cameron.
Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
There has been in a shift in the way the Conservative party leadership has talked about the European Union over the past fortnight. No longer is the talk of “giving the people a choice” about membership…
Barack Obama’s comments that murdered teen Trayvon Martin ‘could have been me’ continue a long trend of Obama using ‘intimate politics’.
EPA/Shawn Thew
Barack Obama’s “Trayvon Martin could have been me” speech has been heralded as a political landmark. American commentators have lauded its seamless fusion of different voices: “a president, an African-American…
Hard hats at the ready: a Johnson-Osborne clash over transport funding may be a dress rehearsal for a much bigger fight ahead.
Matt Dunham/PA Wire
The clash between Boris Johnson and George Osborne over cuts to Transport for London’s budget, which would scupper the mayor’s 2020 vision for a cycling city, represents far more than an argument over…
They’re going thataway: David Cameron delivers a speech on immigration at the University of Suffolk, March 2013.
Paul Rogers/The Times/PA Wire/Press Association Images
Foundation essay: Welcome to the first in a series of articles marking the launch of The Conversation in the UK. Our foundation essays are longer than our usual comment and analysis articles and take a…
The failure of the entire political class to stress the positive contribution of migrants is taking us back to the 1950s.
Cathal McNaughton/PA
If you listen to UKIP, you could be forgiven for thinking migrants are coming to Britain to access our foolishly generous welfare benefits and care nothing for integration. But that’s simply not true…
Sorry captain, I thought the big red button made it go faster.
PA/Andy Buchanan
The Coalition government is pressing ahead with a long, expensive and controversial programme to replace the Trident nuclear weapon system beginning with the procurement of a new fleet of submarines armed…
Plotting an escape from the naughty step.
Carl Court/PA Archive/Press Association Images
Recent news that David Cameron has been placed on the naughty step by China after his meeting with the Dalai Lama caused much concern in UK business circles. Reports suggested the Chinese sovereign wealth…
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 passively…
On the noes: more than 100 Tory MPs voted for an amendment to the Queen’s Speech last night in a huge rebuff to the PM on Europe.
PA Wire
When more than 100 Conservative MPs vote for an amendment to their own government’s Queen’s Speech, it is more than a rebellion - it is historically unprecedented. And despite David Cameron’s insistence…
The Falkland Island may be cold, windswept and remote, but they retain major geo–political importance and this weekend’s referendum on sovereignty will define the relationship between the UK and Argentina for years to come.
Felipe Trueba/EPA
History is about to be made on the Falkland Islands, which holds its first official sovereignty referendum this weekend. Some 1,600 Islanders will be asked whether they wish to retain their current political…
David Cameron’s 2006 campaign to “vote blue, go green” was discarded under a double dip recession - but could he now pick up on Obama’s State of the Union lead?
In Wednesday’s state of the union address, US President Barack Obama threw down the gauntlet to Congress on climate change action - and in the process, cemented the re-prioritisation of the issue which…
The European question: British PM David Cameron has put it to the public to decide whether Britain should stay in the EU.
AAP
The threatened renegotiation of Britain’s place in the European Union is considered by many to be a gamble for the UK. Forty years after the UK’s entry into the European Economic Community, this declaration…
The EU faces more than just a debt crisis.
AAP/Patrick Seeger
You can’t join a football club and then ask to play rugby. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius summed up negative reaction to British Prime Minister David Cameron’s speech about the EU on “the Continent…
British Prime Minister David Cameron has promised the electorate an “in or out” referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU by 2017.
EPA/Facundo Arrizabalaga
British Prime Minister David Cameron has announced an “in/out” referendum for UK voters on European Union (EU) membership, scheduled for 2017. There were few surprises in this, as the full text of his…