Category
In the News
Could Trump University Prove Donald's Achilles Heel?
The establishment in the Republican Party is desperately trying to find an issue that might derail the seemingly runaway train that is the Donald Trump campaign for the GOP nomination. Could the...
What's Behind the Rise of Donald Trump?
As the Republican Party scramble to find ways of stopping Donald Trump winning the GOP nomination, it is timely to consider how and why the Republicans have found themselves with a candidate the...
Freedom of Information Act set to stay
Despite Sir Jeremy Heywood describing the FOI Act as having a "chilling effect" on the government, and Tony Blair describing himself following his introduction of the FOI Act as "There is really no...
With changes afoot in terms of boundaries (equalising the size of constituencies and reducing the number of MPs to 600) and reductions in the amount of money provided to the Opposition ("Short...
A quick Super Tuesday results map
We know now that Trump (R) and Clinton (D) did pretty well on Super Tuesday's primaries and caucuses. Here's a quick visual overview from the New York Times of who won what and where.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...