Sep 2011: A 'Plan B' for the Liberal Democrats

Shaping the coalition

John Curtice 29 Sep 2011

The challenge for Mr Clegg and the Lib-Dems over the next four years is to show that they have played a distinctive part in developing government policies that people care about so that the electorate will want to say ‘thank you’ and not ‘goodbye’

John Curtice is Professor of Politics, Strathclyde University.

Constitution and government

A Memo to Gus and Nick

Andrew Blick 29 Sep 2011

A memo to the Rt. Hon. Nick Clegg MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Sir Gus O'Donnell, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service. Subject: The Cabinet Manual

Dr. Andrew Blick is Senior Research Fellow at Democratic Audit and the Centre for Political and Constitutional Studies, King’s College London.

Business and finance

All words, no action

Simon Lee 29 Sep 2011

‘Thus far, the leadership of the major economies and international financial institutions have failed the most important test of individual and collective statesmanship for at least a generation'

Dr Simon Lee is Senior Lecturer in Politics and a Director of the Centre for Political Economy, University of Hull.

Growth? Back exports, finance for SMEs, youth employment and proven business sector

Derek Marshall 29 Sep 2011

Our government faces a dilemma. The promise of strong economic recovery based on resurgent exports, new and growing SMEs and vigorous big company investment has not materialised. The best we … » more

Derek Marshall is Managing Director of Policy and Public Affairs at A|D|S.

Landowners should not pay the price of clamping down on the cowboy

Antonia Tildesley 29 Sep 2011

The Freedom Bill is set for its third reading before it heads off to the Lords. Yet there is one provision, which was slipped in rather quickly, that has no … » more

Antonia Tildesley is a staff writer on Parliamentary Brief.

Health and welfare

Keeping children at the heart of child protection

Eileen Munro 29 Sep 2011

In the aftermath of the death of Baby P, everyone was shocked to hear that social workers were spending up to 80 per cent of their time in front of … » more

Eileen Munro is Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics. She led the Munro Review into child protection which reported in May 2011.

Foreign affairs

Stabling The White Horse

Pete Redford 29 Sep 2011

Cameron can take credit for intervention in Libya, but don’t expect that this means the Blair doctrine is Tory policy, for pragmatism dictates the opposite and the fact is that we don’t have the global reach to do it again in a hurry..

Pete Redford writes and researches on UK politics.

Democracy

We don’t do God? Well, Mr Campell, nowadays you'd miss a trick if you didn’t

Jonathan Chaplin 29 Sep 2011

The global resurgence of public religion is confronting liberal democratic publics with a new language barrier. Such publics — with the exception of the US — have lost familiarity with … » more

Jonathan Chaplin is Director of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, Cambridge, and author of ‘Talking God: The Legitimacy of Religious Public Reasoning’ (Theos 2008).

Party political

How do you solve a problem like Gordon?

Victoria Honeyman 29 Sep 2011

A review of Brown at 10, Anthony Seldon and Guy Lodge (2010 Biteback Publishers, London Paperback published 6 October 2011.

Victoria Honeyman is a Lecturer in British politics at the University of Leeds.

Sep 2011: A 'Plan B' for the Liberal Democrats

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