Professor Amelia Hadfield and Christian Turner On the morning of February 24th, Europe woke up to the spectre of war hanging over the continent. It should not have been a surprise. We’ve had numerous indications – both diplomatic and geopolitical – of Russia’s aggressive intentions, including clear illustrations of Russian hardware making its way inexorably […]
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At 10pm on 15th September, a noticeably tired looking Boris Johnson virtually joined Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and US President Joe Biden to announce a new defence pact that would be, rather unimaginatively, called AUKUS. The tripartite pact would initially focus on the development of nuclear-powered submarines for Australia but would also include closer […]
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The Airdrie and Shotts By-election; squeezed between the Hartlepool triumph, and the Lib Dem Landslide in Chesham and Amersham, became the forgotten By-election of the 2021 spring-summer campaign. This by-election was further overshadowed by the Scottish Parliament elections just a week before. In those elections the SNP took 47.7% of the constituency vote in Scotland, […]
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In the UK governments typically lose by-elections, or at best they hold on to the seat. It is exceptional for a government to actually gain a seat. In 1982, the then Conservative government gained Mitcham and Morden as the Falklands War[1]reached its climax[2]. Since then, Hartlepool is only the second time a government has gained […]
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Over the ten weeks between May 6th and July 1st four Westminster Parliamentary by-elections[1] were held in the UK. These were for the constituencies of: Hartlepool in the North-East of England (Conservative gain from Labour) Airdrie and Shotts in the Scottish Central Belt region, between Glasgow and Edinburgh (SNP hold) Chesham and Amersham in the Buckinghamshire […]
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Something’s bothering me about Brexit. The main thrust of Johnson’s time in Number 10 has been ‘getting Brexit done’, which I have always taken to mean ‘getting Brexit off the front pages so we can get back to some more interesting/important thing’. This has manifested itself in Johnson’s lack of engagement with the detail (or […]
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