If Labour can turn its fiasco of a leadership election into a voter registration drive, it can push back against a rigged system.
- Honorary Senior Lecturer, Institute of Local Government Studies, University of Birmingham
Gains for the Tories and obliteration for the Lib Dems as councils are selected — sound familiar?
Counting tens of thousands of paper votes is no small task. How does the UK get it done?
Pollsters don’t aim to predict the results, but that doesn’t stop the media trying. Maybe they should ask William Hill who will win instead.
Students have helped solve the mystery of the million missing voters. We should thank them by giving them a reason to show up on May 7.
A recent study suggests the Conservatives are leading the way on this issue but the story isn’t quite that simple.
Staggeringly slow progress keeps women out of power and out of the top jobs.
Two noteworthy things happened in Milton Keynes on Monday morning. Ed Miliband chaired the first meeting of Labour’s English Regional Shadow Cabinet – comprising mainly leaders of councils and combined…
All university admissions tutors know about single-termers. They are those students – some badly advised and intellectually bewildered, others more devious – who decide around mid-November that they want…
With a forced smile and through gritted teeth, Tower Hamlets’ elected mayor, Lutfur Rahman, has announced himself willing to accept – and even “welcome” – the intervention package set out for his borough…
Two topics now compete for the opening paragraph in MP Brooks Newmark’s political obituary. One is of course his hubris in thinking that a 26-year old woman – be she Tory or not – would be interested in…
I really thought we might make it. We’d got past the publication of YouGov’s potentially constitution-changing poll showing a minuscule lead for the Yes campaign without anyone grabbing for an easy headline…
It seems Scottish voters are warming to the whole independence idea, then – bucking the trend that the experts have been telling us for months they’re almost bound to follow. The poll that this week put…
The least surprising part of Douglas Carswell’s defection to UKIP was surely his decision to resign his Clacton seat and seek re-election in a by-election. Quite apart from any satisfaction at the anxiety…
MPs from all parties have called in recent weeks for parliament to be reconvened to enable them to debate the ongoing crisis in Iraq. They have met with unbending opposition. But David Cameron’s decision…
“Meaningless”, “a stitch-up”, “a breathtakingly cynical attempt to convey an impression of democratic reform” – this was how Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith reacted to his own government’s announcement in…
The “35% strategy” – the idea that a party could win the 2015 general election on 35% of the vote – entered political discourse last year, generally as a Conservative taunt directed at Labour. The 35…
You’ll be expecting, understandably, UKIP stuff – and there will be, but later. But first let’s look at results of the elections to determine the political and policy control of 161 English local authorities…
Two countries have synchronised their EU election and local election dates this cycle: Greece and parts of the UK (England and Northern Ireland). On May 25, Greeks vote in run-off elections in all their…
Contact Chris for
- General
- Media request
- Speaking request
- Consulting / Advising
- Research collaboration
- Research supervision
- Website
- Article Feed
- Joined
