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Category Archives: Uncategorized
The pastoral role of the Party Whips
This post first appeared on the PSA Parliaments Group blog on 7 November 2018. In a recent interview in The Sunday Times, the Conservative MP, Andrew Griffiths, discussed the circumstances which led him to send a series of sexually explicit … Continue reading
In praise of the PM’s Parliamentary Private Secretary
I have become transfixed by Prime Minister’s Questions, but not by the weekly joust between the PM and the Leader of the Opposition. I am fascinated, instead, by what is going on just over the Prime Minister’s right shoulder. The MP sitting just behind … Continue reading
Who governs? Knowing your Secretary of State from your Parliamentary Private Secretary
If one were to ask a random selection of the public on any high street in the UK, who they think runs the country, while the answers would be varied and perhaps laced with a healthy dose of scepticism about … Continue reading
Choosing a politics textbook
Choosing a textbook for your first year politics course can be a daunting prospect, as much for those delivering the course as for students embarking on a degree in politics. As I write this a pile of no less than eight different politics text books … Continue reading
Lord Carrington – NATO Secretary-General 1984-1988
Some years ago I wrote the entry on Lord Carrington for a planned encyclopaedia on NATO which never went to press. Lord Carrington’s death this week at the age of 99 provides an opportune moment to publish the entry in full here. Carrington, Lord … Continue reading