Governing in style
You’ve won the election and soon you’ll be sworn in as the governor of the state. What is top of your list of priorities? Fulfilling manifesto pledges? Dishing out patronage?…
-
-
Juche couture – North Korea and the fabric of the future
The economic sanctions placed on North Korea have forced the People’s Republic to develop novel ways to sidestep western technology. Step forward Vinalon, a fabric made from the unlikely source…
-
The rotten part of the constitution
Vincent Hanna: Master William Pitt, the Even Younger, are you disappointed? Pitt the Even Younger: Yes I’m horrified. I smeared my opponents, bribed the press to be on my side,…
-
Premier rewards
The Prime Minister is the political leader of the country and at the apex of Britain’s power pyramid. Whilst in office, they benefit from the perks of the position –…
-
Dictatorial diatribes
Mein Kampf and the Little Red Book (or, to give it the proper title, Quotations from Chairman Mao) are two of the most famous examples of political tracts written by…
-
Estate of the Union
The United States started life as colonies strung along the Atlantic seaboard of the North American continent and barely extending 50 miles inland. By the time of the Declaration of…
-
Executive privileges – palaces of power
Where do the world’s most powerful people live? In most countries, the head of state or leading politicians are given grace and favour residences that have become emblematic of their…
-
The English Octopus and Argentina
Argentine animosity towards the United Kingdom is neither a recent trend nor solely attributable to competing claims for islands in the South Atlantic. The roots of Anglo-Argentine friction go back…
-
The Exchange
In the early 1920s, millions of people moved from either Greece to Turkey or from Turkey to Greece. Ancient communities were uprooted in a devastating campaign of mass ethnic cleansing…
-
We are going to ‘Tredegarise’ you – birthing the NHS
Can the origins of Britain’s National Health Service be traced to a small town in the Welsh valleys? The first of a two-part piece on health provision in the UK…
-
Gladstone and slavery – the liberal lie?
Gladstone stood for reform and progress, championing Irish Home Rule, Parliamentary reform, free trade and a fair deal for labour. But Gladstone and slavery? Was this great liberal Parliamentary career…
-
A right turn for European politics?
The envelope landed on the floor with a distinct slap. Postmarked with a ‘London Elects’ logo, my wodge of election material for this year’s Mayoral and Assembly elections had arrived….
-
Phoenix parties (or how the right rises from the dead)
The strange death and resurrection of centre-right parties is a phenomenon exemplified by the almost complete parliamentary wipeout of Canada’s Progressive Conservatives in the 1993 Federal Elections. From government to…
-
Prime Ministers Out of Office – the top job en vacances
> As buildings burned, shops looted and streets ceded to the control of rampaging youth, the country’s leaders were on holiday. With escalating civil disorder and public demands for action,…
-
Acknowledging the Prime Minister
The office of the Prime Minister is at the heart of the Westminster system of government. In any other country so central a role would be clearly defined and delineated…
