News & Insight

2 April 2014

The forthcoming general election will be fought in a radically redefined political context from the last: the UK government is in coalition, Labour is determined to be a one-term opposition for the first time in 40 years and the post-war...

1 April 2014

The recent report published by the Fabians, ‘Measure for Measure’, argued that a broader, more sophisticated analysis of the economy should be used. Rather than relying on traditional economic success indicators - growth, inflation, and unemployment - the report argued...

28 March 2014

This will be the Asian century – defined as much by decisions made by the machinery of government in Beijing or the enterprises of the Pearl River Delta as the last century was by decisions made by the White House...

27 March 2014

In their 1983 book The Invention of Tradition, Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger argue that many traditions that claim to be old are “often recent in origin and sometimes invented”. Invented traditions are often used by proponents of nationalism to...

25 March 2014

No one should be in any doubt: this year’s budget was an historic day for UK pensions policy. Since the Finance Act of 1921, UK pensions policy has had as its foundation stone the ‘annuities deal’: in return for exceptionally generous...

24 March 2014

The need for greater authenticity in politics has become a truism, but is it possible? With the rise of so-called ‘independent minded’ politicians such as Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Alex Salmond and George Galloway it often seems that the new challenge...