What does GE2017 mean for Northern Ireland?
Stormont, home of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Photo credit: flickr user Robert Young Creative Commons license To maintain even a meagre sense of optimism in Northern Irish politics one…
What’s the point of Trident? The Prime Minister hasn’t made up her mind
Image by Mentat Kibernes, Flickr user. Discussions about Trident always seem to take place in a hypothetical world where the only countries involved in a nuclear war are the UK…
Progressive alliances are more than formal pacts: this is a culture shift
Photo credit: flickr user Matito under Creative Commons license Number of seats the Green Party will stand aside in to help unseat the Conservatives: 24. Number of seats other progressive…
A Plea to Fellow Remainers – Our Best Chance Lies In Jeremy Corbyn
Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. Photo credit: flickr Andy Miah Creative Commons license: If you are a hard-core Remainer, it might present a depressing prospect that the Labour Party…
Sortition: the way to remake democracy for the 21st century
Photo credit: flickr user Amy West used under Creative Commons license: One of the big – perhaps even the biggest – philosophical questions that any society must answer is…
Are we witnessing populism, or extremism?
A Trump rally in Las credit: flickr user Gage Skidmore Creative Commons license: Populism. You can’t get away from the term in the current climate of political commentary. At…
How PR ‘completely transformed’ New Zealand politics: Metiria Turei, Green Party co-leader
Metiria Turei, Green party Co-leader. Photo credit: New Zealand Tertiary Education Union used under Creative Commons license: In 1996, New Zealand introduced the Mixed Member Proportion (MMP) voting system…
The case for Progressive Alliances
Photo credit: flickr user Matito under Creative Commons license In 2020 or sooner, the Conservative Party will win the next general election with an increased majority. It will be…
Nicola Sturgeon’s Great Gamble
Earlier this week, the Scottish Parliament voted to support First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s call for a Second Referendum on Scottish Independence. Yesterday, Theresa May triggered Article 50. Now seems…
The case against ‘Progressive’ Alliances
It’s taken a while for me to get around to writing this piece. It could probably have been written at just about any point since the 2015 General Election,…