Politics and International Relations

Sam Wren-Lewis asks whether people are really looking for the 'real change' that Labour are promising, arguing that taking a longer-term perspective has the potential to unite the left and right.…Read more

Sue Konzelmann shows why the next government, which will be faced with the consequences of a decade’s worth of cuts, should not focus on 'where’s the money coming from?' but ask the question 'where’s our society and economy going?'.…Read more

In advance of Thursday's General Election, Professor Judith Smith, Director of the Health Services Management Centre at the University of Birmingham, examines the main causes of NHS pressure that need attention by a new Government and the manifesto pledges that promise to address them…Read more

Sam Wren-Lewis looks at the General Election from the point of view of political psychology, revealing how the problems of democracy and happiness have more in common than you think.…Read more

After a year characterised by political uncertainty, one thing that seems clear during this election campaign is that the two largest parties have their work cut out to build enough support to achieve a clear majority. British politics is experiencing an unprecedented level of fragmentation. Traditional divides along the lines of class are blurring, as Read More

The extract below from Peak Inequality, published in 2018, sums up the conclusion to that book and remains pertinent today. Jeremy Corbyn, like all of us, may have many faults, but he also epitomises both something that is fundamentally decent and the possibility for change. It is significant that elections are held in December in Read More

In this long read, Roger Brown, author of The Inequality Crisis: The Facts and What We Can Do About It, outlines causes of the Neoliberal turn and shows how it has created vastly increased and unjust social inequality. Crucially, he explains where we need to begin in order to reverse the tide. In November 1984, Read More

Previously published on the Policy & Politics blog. What do policy makers do? The question is important, because making policy engages a great number of people one way or another, and what they do they might do well or badly. Our standard answers are rather hazy, not least because policy making entails such great numbers Read More

John Clarke’s book, Critical Dialogues: Thinking Together in Turbulent Times, celebrates the productive possibilities of what he terms ‘thinking together’. His work can be used to challenge the idea of identity as singular, fixed and immutable – an idea in which people are assumed to have their own, unique, authentic identity, and to belong to Read More

The weekend’s Howdy Modi rally in the US is significant not only because it represents Modi’s ongoing attempts to woo the Indian diaspora, from whom a significant amount of his support comes, but also his reliance on personal diplomacy. This may have won favour with Trump but with other leaders, Modi has had more mixed Read More