Birkbeck Politics: Recent Episodes
Department of Politics, Birkbeck College
The Birkbeck Department of Politics and its research centre, the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, hosts a range of talks, lectures, seminars and workshops throughout the year. Our events feature leading academics, public figures and commentators from a range of fields. Listen to them here.
On 6 September 2022, Liz Truss became the third women in history to occupy the UK's highest political office and the UK’s ninth ‘takeover' Prime Minister since the Second World War. Truss inherits a Parliamentary Conservative Party which remains scarred by Brexit and divided over how to handle the cost-of-living crisis and worsening outlook for economic growth.
International challenges, including the war in Ukraine, require close cooperation between the UK and European partners, but Truss enters Downing Street with a reputation as a divisive figure who plays to the domestic gallery. And yet, throughout her political career, Truss has beaten expectations and changed her policy positions.
In this roundtable, members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck discussed what to expect from Liz Truss’s premiership, as a general election and perhaps even further leadership challenges loom on the political horizon. The panel was chaired by Dr Samantha Ashenden (Reader in Politics and Sociology) and included Dr Laura Richards-Gray (Lecturer in British Politics) and Dr Ben Worthy (Senor Lecturer in Politics) as speakers.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck, University of London discuss current issues in British politics. In Episode 62, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the Conservative leadership election. For more information about research on politics at Birkbeck, the range of events run by the Birkbeck Centre for British Political Life and our undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes in politics, please visit www.bbk.ac.uk/politics
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck, University of London discuss current issues in British politics. In Episode 61, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Boris Johnson’s resignation as leader of the Conservative Party and his legacy as Prime Minister. For more information about research on politics at Birkbeck, the range of events run by the Birkbeck Centre for British Political Life and our undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes in politics, please visit www.bbk.ac.uk/politics
‘Studying Politics at Birkbeck prepared me for this campaign'. Listen to current Birkbeck Politics student Ben Wood talking about his experience of running for Parliament in the recent North Shropshire by-election. For more information about Birkbeck’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Politics, please visit www.bbk.ac.uk/politics
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck, University of London discuss current issues in British politics. In episode 60, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Boris Johnson’s troubled premiership and Dominic Raab’s review of the Human Rights Act. For more information about research on politics at Birkbeck, the range of events run by the Birkbeck Centre for British Political Life and our undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes in politics, please visit www.bbk.ac.uk/politics
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck, University of London discuss current issues in British politics. In episode 59, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss political sleaze and the government’s on-off approach to the Northern Ireland Protocol. For more information about research on politics at Birkbeck, the range of events run by the Birkbeck Centre for British Political Life and our undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes in politics, please visit www.bbk.ac.uk/politics
Politics and the Arts is a new undergraduate module at Birkbeck that explores the representation of politics in literature, film and other branches of the arts. It asks how artists think about politics and what political scientists can learn from the arts. To mark the launch of this module. Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy from Birkbeck’s Department of Politics discuss the first chapter of George Orwell’s 1984. For more information about undergraduate modules at Birkbeck, please visit www.bbk.ac.uk/politics
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London discuss current issues in British politics. In this episode, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy debate Boris Johnson’s lobbying scandal and Arlene Foster’s resignation announcement. For more information about research on politics at Birkbeck, the range of events run by the Birkbeck Centre for British Political Life and our undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes in politics, please visit www.bbk.ac.uk/politics
Beyond Westminster is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College look at politics outside the UK. It discusses events in other parts of the world and asks what if the UK had a political system closer to that of other countries. In Episode 3, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy compare UK and US politics in the light of the 2020 presidential election.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London discuss current issues in British politics. In this episode, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy debate the Conservative rebellion over the English lockdown and what the US election means for the special relationship. For more information about research on politics at Birkbeck, the range of events run by the Birkbeck Centre for British Political Life and our undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes in politics, please visit www.bbk.ac.uk/politics
Beyond Westminster is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College look at politics outside the UK. It discusses events in other parts of the world and asks what if the UK had a political system closer to that of other countries. In Episode 2, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Italy’s constitutional referendum and ask whether, in political terms, the UK is becoming more Italian. For more information about research on politics at Birkbeck, the range of events run by the Birkbeck Centre for British Political Life and our undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes in politics, please visit www.bbk.ac.uk/politics
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London discuss current issues in British politics. In this episode, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy debate the prospects for Scottish independence and the perennial politics of civil service reform. For more information about research on politics at Birkbeck, the range of events run by the Birkbeck Centre for British Political Life and our undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes in politics, please visit www.bbk.ac.uk/politics
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London discuss current issues in British politics. In this episode, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy explore the impact of COVID-19 on British politics and the tumultuous state of Brexit negotiations. For more information about research on politics at Birkbeck, the range of events run by the Birkbeck Centre for British Political Life and our undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes in politics, please visit www.bbk.ac.uk/politics
The newly relaunched Birkbeck Centre for British Political Life (BPL) will host a public-facing seminar on progressive Ulster unionism. With funding from the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, this seminar brings together journalists, political scientists, and historians, from Birkbeck and Northern Ireland.
Representations of Northern Irish Politics in recent years have been dominated by the £1billion confidence and supply agreement between the Conservatives and the DUP; allegations of corruption over a renewal heating scheme; the contestation of abortion rights and celebratory cakes; and failing political institutions at Stormont. Such representations are often partial and superficial readings of the politics of Northern Ireland. But if the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that Britain’s tendency to ‘park’ questions of Northern Ireland is no longer sustainable. Given this new focus – and to better understand Ulster unionist’s position in UK politics, there is an urgent need for greater consideration of unionism; to explore voices from the wide spectrum of opinions which exist within modern unionism.
The prominence of the DUP in the UK Parliament in recent years creates a narrative of an inherently socially conservative unionism. This excludes voices including other unionist parties, liberal unionists in favour of progressive reforms, and those who backed Remain in 2016. As attention focused on Northern Ireland during the Brexit impasse in 2019, major constitutional and social changes have occurred including the legalisation of both gay marriage and abortion. This seminar centres progressive unionism’s role in Northern Ireland as it enters a new decade where its relationship with the European Union, within the United Kingdom, and on the Island of Ireland are uncertain and subject to competing aims/perspectives.
Speakers:
Dr Sean Brady
Lecturer in Modern British and Irish History at Birkbeck. His research focuses on gender, sexuality, politics and religion in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain and Ireland. He is currently working on a book entitled: ‘Sex and Sectarianism: Gender and Sexuality in Northern Ireland’s History’
Dr Sophie Long
Dr Long’s PhD from Queen’s University Belfast was entitled ‘An Investigation into Ulster Loyalism and the Politics of Misrecognition’. She uses recognition theory to assess the experiences of loyalists in post-ceasefire Northern Ireland. Dr Long has also worked on the Northern Ireland programme at the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust from 2018 and now leads the Sustainable Future programme.
Panel:
Conor Kelly
MRes/PhD student at Birkbeck’s Department of Politics. His research focuses on Northern Irish political parties attitudes towards the EU. Conor also works as a Research Assistant at the Constitution Unit, UCL on their Unification Referendums on the Island of Ireland project.
Sian Norris
Writer and journalist. She was formerly the Ben Pimlott writer-in-residence at Birkbeck’s Politics Department (2018-2020). Sian is a regular contributor to the New Statesman, the Guardian, the Pool, Prospect UK, politics.co.uk, and 50.50 openDemocracy.
Claire Sugden MLA
Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for East Londonderry. Ms Sugden sits as an Independent Unionist in Stormont due to her socially liberal views. She has a master’s degree in Irish politics from Queen’s University Belfast.
Chair:
Dr Ben Worthy
Deputy Director of the Birkbeck Centre for British Public Life and Senior Lecturer in Politics. His research interests include Government Transparency, particularly Freedom of Information, as well as Political Leadership and British Politics.
Beyond Westminster is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College look at politics outside the UK. It discusses events in other parts of the world and asks what if the UK had a political system closer to that of other countries. In Episode 1, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy offer their thoughts on Ireland’s extraordinary general election.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. In episode 54, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy look at the Conservative Party’s comprehensive victory in the 2019 general election. They ask what went right for the Conservatives and wrong for progressive parties.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. In Episode 53, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss two recent works on Northern Ireland: Spotlight on the Troubles: A Secret History and Burned: The Inside Story of the 'Cash-for-Ash' Scandal and Northern Ireland's Secretive New Elite.
Helen Thompson gave the The 2019/20 Academic Lecture for the Birkbeck Centre of British Political Life on Thursday 14 November 2019.
Helen Thompson is Professor of Political Economy at the University Cambridge, she is at present Deputy Head of the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences. She is a regular panelist on Talking Politics Podcast.
Helen’s present work is focused on the historical origins of the post-2008 economic and political world and the crises it is generating for western countries. More particularly her recent work covers the political economy of oil, Brexit and the euro zone crisis.
Her most recent book is Oil And The Western Economic Crisis, published by Palgrave. Her article ‘Inevitability and contingency: the political economy of Brexit,’ won the 2017 prize for best article in the British Journal of Politics and International Relations.
Description: Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 52, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy look beyond national coverage of the 2019 general election to explore key campaign issues in Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the North of England.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 51, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Parliament’s response to Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal and new laws on abortion and same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland.
David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, held an ‘in conversation’ event with Sarah Childs to celebrate the re-launch of Birkbeck’s new Centre for British Political Life. David Lammy has been an MP since 2000, was a minister between 2002 and 2010, and is now a noted backbench campaigner. He began by reflecting on how his own life experience had played into his time as an MP and the campaigns he pursued, before offering his thoughts on a whole range of subjects, from the consequences of Brexit, to his time at SOAS and what it is like to be an MP. Listen to the podcast below to find out what he thinks about Britain, Brexit and being called a ‘passionate’ MP.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 50, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 49, Professor Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the domestic and EU context of Boris Johnson’s Brexit strategy as the October European Council approaches.
Description: Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 48, Prof. Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Parliament's second vote against Theresa May's Brexit deal and what might happen next.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 47, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Parliament's Brexit amendments.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 46, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Parliament's defeat of Theresa May’s Brexit deal.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 45, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Theresa May’s decision to cancel Parliament’s vote on her Brexit plan.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 44, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Parliament’s five days of debate over Brexit.
This event hosted by Birkbeck on 15 November 2018 focused on and around topics from Eric Kaufmann's new book Whiteshift. The book argues that we need to talk about white identity if we hope to address the root causes of populism and polarisation. The West is in the midst of two epochal demographic transformations. First, the white share of the population is projected to drop to less than half the total by 2050 in North America and 2100 in Western Europe. Second, the mixed-race population is projected to rise exponentially late this century to form the majority in western countries by the early 2100s. The first phase of Whiteshift, which we are currently in, increases the existential insecurity of conservative whites and emboldens the cosmopolitan left, with its dream of radical cultural transformation. Left-liberal hegemony in the high culture and its attempt to stanch the expression of conservative anxieties in established institutions has delegitmated the cultural elite in the eyes of conservatives, opening space for right-wing populism and 'culture wars' polarisation. The advent of mass racial melting offers a way out of this impasse, if we are able to grasp it.
Panellists discussed aspects of the theme of 'Right-Wing Populism and the Left' alongside Kaufmann's new book.
PANELLISTS
Eric Kaufmann is Professor of Politics at Birkbeck and author of the forthcoming Whiteshift: Populism, Immigration and the Future of White Majorities (Penguin Allen Lane, 25 October, 2018)
Munira Mirza was Deputy Mayor for Education and Culture of London. She is author of The Politics of Culture: The Case for Universalism (2012).
Trevor Phillips, writer and broadcaster, was formerly head of the Commission for Racial Equality and the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
John Judis, author of a new book The Nationalist Revival: Trade, Immigration, and the Revolt Against Globalization (2018) and The Populist Explosion (2016), an editor-at-large at Talking Points Memo, a former senior writer at The National Journal and a former senior editor at The New Republic.
David Goodhart, author of The Road to Somewhere: the Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics (2017), and The British Dream. He was founding editor of Prospect magazine, was director of the think tank Demos and is currently Head of the Demography, Immigration and Integration Unit at the think tank Policy Exchange.
CHAIR
Robert Singh, Professor of Politics at Birkbeck will chair the event. Robert is is a specialist in contemporary US politics and the politics of American foreign policy. He is the author of eleven books - including, most recently, In Defense of the United States Constitution (Routledge, 2018)
The Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public life held their annual public lecture on 13 November 2018 at Birkbeck College with Professor Alan Finlayson, who delivered a lecture on ‘The Changing Rhetorical Culture of British Politics: From Parliament and PEBs to Twitter and Youtube’. The event was chaired by Birkbeck's Dr Ben Worthy.
One of the things that makes a political society what it is, is its rhetorical culture – the way in which it defines, organises and evaluates political arguments. That includes the places and rituals it establishes for the presentation of political claims and counter claims as well as expectations concerning the styles of political communication , norms about who can speak and ideas of what counts as a good argument. A key characteristic of contemporary British Politics is that its rhetorical culture is in considerable flux and may even be breaking down. As ‘traditional’ locations for political argument have been found wanting, communications technology has enabled the creation of new stages and the rise to prominence of different kinds of political actor with distinct ways of making political arguments. That has upended norms of what a good argument might look or sound like and expectations about what is an appropriate way to conduct political dispute That is why we spend a lot of our time not debating the issues but the ways in which they should be debated. In this lecture Alan Finlayson tries to put the situation into a larger conceptual and historical context, explore some of the new forms of political rhetoric emerging from digital culture and think about how we might manage this in such a way as to maintain and deepen our British democracy.
Alan Finlayson is Professor of Political & Social Theory at The University East Anglia. He writes in particular about British Politics, Political Ideologies and Rhetoric and is currently involved in two research projects supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. “The Crisis of Political Rhetoric: Renewing Political Speech and Speech writing” is concerned with reflecting on how the art of political speech writing and speech making can be supported and developed in British Politics. “Political Ideology Rhetoric and Aesthetics in the 21st Century: The Case of the alt-right” is a study of how digital communication platforms are changing the ways in which political ideas are created, made persuasive and shared.
Recording of a two part evening event which took place on Tuesday 13th November 2018 addressing the celebration of the Centenary of Women’s Suffrage. The event was hosted by the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, at Birkbeck College.
In the first half of the evening Dr Mari Takayanagi a Senior Archivist at the Parliamentary Archives delivered her paper ‘Celebrating Suffrage Centenaries’ followed by a Q&A Session. This was followed by a round table discussion with contributions from Mary Branson, Sian Norris and Dr Red Chidgey.
Chair: Sarah Childs (Birkbeck)
Recording of an event which took place on Wednesday 6 November 2018 at Birkbeck.
This was an ‘In Conversation’ with Jacqui Smith, Co-editor of The Honourable Ladies: Volume I Profiles of Women MPs 1918–1996
The book focuses on the lives and achievements of the Women who served as MPs between 1918-1996 and have shaped the political landscape today. There will be a chance to purchase a signed copy of the book after the event.
Jacqui Smith was Labour MP for Redditch from 1997 until 2010. While Tony Blair was Prime Minister, she held junior ministerial positions before being promoted to Home Secretary in Gordon Brown’s Cabinet – becoming the first-ever female Home Secretary and only the third woman to hold one of the great offices of state.
Following her parliamentary career, Jacqui has acted as a consultant for KPMG and featured regularly on TV and radio, presenting documentaries for BBC 5 Live and appearing on programmes such as Question Time and This Week. She previously delivered the Sky News Paper Review, alongside co-editor Iain, and the pair now co-host LBC weekly political podcast For The Many.
Speaker: Jacqui Smith Discussant: Sarah Childs (Birkbeck)
This was round table discussion looking at how Australia and the UK compare in terms of the openness of their government, based on the views of two academics involved in the Open Government Partnership assessment process. Reflecting particularly on the two government's Open Government Partnership commitments, it also looked more broadly at the performance and workings of their respective Freedom of Information (FOI) regimes and other experiments in openness.
Speaker: Daniel Stewart (ANU and Australia IRM).
Discussant: Ben Worthy (Birkbeck College and UK IRM).
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 43, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Boris Johnson’s resignation and his controversial tenure as Foreign Secretary.
Recording of an event which took place on Thursday 5 July at Birkbeck.
Is the rise of populism in the West a threat to liberal democracy, or does it renew democracy by bringing new voices into the conversation? All panellists agree that elites bear some culpability for the rise of populism, but how should the system be reformed? The evening featured a panel debate between four high-profile speakers with contrasting views on this question. Claire Fox, Director of the Institute of Ideas and a regular on Radio 4’s Moral Maze joined Yascha Mounk (Harvard/Slate), author of The People vs. Democracy, Sasha Polakow-Suransky (Foreign Policy, author of Go Back Where You Came From) and David Goodhart (Policy Exchange, author of Road to Somewhere) to discuss these issues. Professor Eric Kaufmann of Birkbeck moderated the event.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 42, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy give a rapid reaction to David Davis’s resignation as Brexit secretary.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 41 Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy talk about Boris Johnson's no-show for the Heathrow expansion vote and Theresa May’s puzzling persistence as PM.
Recording of a round table discussion on current attitudes towards immigration, hosted by the Birkbeck Department of Politics. Chaired by Professor Rosie Campbell with speakers Professor Eric Kaufmann, Dr Kristoffer Ahlstrom-Vij & Anna Killick.
The plight of many contemporary members of the Windrush generation has served as a moving reminder of the lives affected by government policy on immigration. Much of this policy was designed to respond to voters’ concerns about rising immigration. Certainly, interpretations of the publics’ attitudes to immigration have had a profound effect on our politics in recent years. Since the early 2000s the salience of immigration has risen up the public agenda prompting the parties to promise reductions in absolute numbers and setting targets for net migration as well – apparently – as repatriations. In this roundtable experts on public attitudes towards immigration debate how the statistics should be interpreted and how citizens, politicians and parties might respond.
This is a recording of an event which took place at the at Birkbeck College on Wednesday 9 May 2018. Chaired by Birkbeck Professor of Politics Rosie Campbell.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 40 - recorded on the UCU picket line at Birkbeck - Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy talk about the #strikeforUSS and its wider political significance.
How do we distinguish between truth and fact? Is there such a thing as an "alternative" fact? In the age of fake news and "fake news!", staff and researchers from Birkbeck College discuss how information is used in policy-making, public discourse and campaign politics.
Panel: Sam Ashenden, Senior Lecturer in Sociology Rosie Campbell, Professor of Politics Andrew Fugard, Senior Lecturer in Social Science Research Methods Antonella Patteri, PhD candidate in the Department of Politics
Ali Guven, Lecturer in International Relations & International Political Economy, chairs the event.
This is a recording of an event that took place at Birkbeck College on Wednesday 21 February.
The Rt Hon John Bercow MP, Speaker of the House of Commons, delivers a lecture at Birkbeck College on parliamentary reform. Addressing the conclusions of The Good Parliament report (authored by Birkbeck's Professor Sarah Childs), the Speaker discussed his vision for a reformed Parliament and the principles which must underpin it.
Since his election as Speaker in 2009, John Bercow has embarked on an extensive outreach programme, travelling across the country to visit schools, universities and community groups to talk about his role and that of Parliament. He has sought to champion the rights of backbenchers, and has ensured parliamentary business is dealt with in a timely manner to ensure as many MPs can contribute as possible. In addition, he has granted an unprecedented number of Urgent Questions in order that Parliament discusses the pressing issues of the day.
This is a recording of an event that took place at Birkbeck College on Monday 12 February 2018. He is introduced by Birkbeck Professor of Politics Rosie Campbell.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Description: Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 38, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy reflect on their 2017 predictions and offer some thoughts as to what 2018 may hold.
In episode 38 of our politics podcast, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy reflect on some emerging data about the June 2017 General Election and on the instability in Ireland’s supply and confidence arrangements.
Dr Duncan Kelly (Cambridge) speaks at Birkbeck College, a recording of an event on Tuesday 21 November 2017. This event was hosted by the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life. The discussion is chaired by Dr Jason Edwards (Birkbeck).
It is almost impossible to overstate the impact of John Maynard Keynes in the field of modern political economy, and certainly impossible to tell the political and economic history of the first half of the last century without at least some reference to his thinking, teaching and public presence. But what might be said about Keynes both in the context of the history of British political thought in that period, and also of the extent to which Keynes, as a political economist, might himself be considered an historian of political thought?
This lecture attempts to engage these questions in two ways. First, by looking at Keynes’s attempts to redeploy the legacy of Thomas Malthus from the Great War to the middle of the 1930s, alongside his attempts to consider the nature of modern liberalism in general, it aims to consider to what extent this part of his wide-ranging output might actually be seen as an exercise in the history of political thinking. Second, and much more speculatively, by connecting up some of the ways in which contemporary debates about the interrelationship between environmental and financial crisis take us back to debates about political economy in the 1970s, might we see how the illustration of Keynes’s various ‘Malthusian moments’ may retain some resonance in contemporary debates about the interconnection between environmental and financial crisis.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 37, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy reflect on the power of the Prime Minister to hire and fire and the constitutional crisis in Northern Ireland.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 36, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy ask who can be Prime Minister under Britain’s uncodified constitution.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 35, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy reflect on the 2017 Labour and Conservative Party Conferences.
In the last decades British government and society has been opened up in all sorts of new ways. From the Freedom of information Act to Open Data and from surgeons’ performance rates to ownership of UK businesses, we know a great deal more about what is being done and spent in our name. New initiatives promise new openness about everything from gender pay gaps to executive bonuses. Exposés such as the MPs’ expenses scandal show what effect the new openness can have.
But how open is Britain? How well do these new systems of openness and streams of data work? Can they be avoided or turned to politicians’ advantage? This seminar asks a panel of experts to discuss how open Britain really is and to look to the future and ask, as Britain moves into the opaque world of the Brexit negotiations and faces new and uncertain post-EU world, how open will the new UK be?
Panel:
Martin Rosenbaum (Journalist, BBC) Rosemary Agnew (Former Scottish Information Commissioner and now Scottish Public Services Ombudsman) Professor Sarah Childs (Professor of Politics and Gender, Birkbeck College)
The event is chaired by Dr Ben Worthy, whose book The Politics of Freedom of Information: How and Why Governments Pass Laws that Threaten Their Power was published in 2017.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 34, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy ask why political scientists failed to predict the 2017 general election result and discuss what's next for Theresa May's minority government.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 33, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the 2017 General Election two days before voters go to the polls.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 32, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the British General Election 2017.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 31, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy revisit the Westminster Model in the light of recent developments in British politics.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 30, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the Surrey tax referendum and Sadiq Khan’s mayoralty.
A lecture delivered by Professor Michael Kenny (QMUL)at Birkbeck College on 8 May 2017. The event is introduced by Dr Jason Edwards (Birkbeck).
The English radical lineage has been repeatedly invoked on the British left in recent years: as an antidote to the technocratic character of social democratic thought and rigidity of socialist orthodoxy; and for its intimate relationship with English traditions at a point when ‘Englishness’ appears resurgent. Edward Thompson, one of Britain’s leading public historians, best known intellectuals and leading figure in the peace movement during the 1980s, is often seen as the last exemplar of this tradition. This lecture takes a critical look at this characterisation. It also reappraises standard dismissals of Thompson’s patriotism, asking what kind of Englishness was at stake in the work of the author of The Making of the English Working Class. It explores the shifting ways in which he wrote – as historian, intellectual contrarian and romantic critic — about the English radical tradition, and compares Thompson’s raucous, eclectic and argumentative conception of this lineage with latter-day progressive thinking. The lecture finishes by asking who in British politics can lay claim to the title deeds of Thompson’s brand of English radicalism.
Michael Kenny is a Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London. He has written widely on British political thought and politics, and is the author of The Politics of English Nationhood (2014), The Politics of Identity (2004) and author of the Preface to the Penguin Modern Classics edition of E.P.Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class (2013). He is currently writing a book, with Nick Pearce, on The Anglosphere in British Politics, which will be published by Polity Press.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/ PQ Magazine: www.politicalquarterly.org.uk/
Philip Collins, Lucy Barnes and Tony Wright (Chair) discuss tax enforcement in the UK and the relationship between parliament and the civil service in the collection of taxes.
Is it possible to get corporations to pay more tax, or are current practices the inevitable result of Britain’s ‘bargain basement’ approach to competition with other countries for investment and jobs? And are criticisms of senior civil servants fair, given that they may not be supported in taking a tougher line by their political masters?
This is a recording of an event co-organised by the Centre for British Politics and Public Life and The Political Quarterly. The event was organised around Margaret Hodge MP and her book Called to Account. Due to events in Westminster on 22 March, Margaret Hodge was unable to attend.
About the Speakers:
Tony Wright was an MP from 1992 to 2010, and played a leading role in the ‘Wright reforms’ to Parliamentary select committees. He is currently a visiting professor at UCL and Birkbeck.
Lucy Barnes is a lecturer in comparative politics at UCL, specialising in the politics of taxation.
Philip Collins is a columnist and chief leader writer for The Times, and chair of the board of trustees at the independent think tank Demos.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/ PQ Magazine: http://www.politicalquarterly.org.uk/
Staff from the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College and special guest David Goodhart discuss the populist backlash in Western politics.
This debate features Professor Eric Kaufmann, Dr Sam Ashenden, Dr Jason Edwards and special guest David Goodhart, founding editor of Prospect magazine and head of the Demography, Immigration and Integration Unit at Policy Exchange.
Dr Alex Colas, Head of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck, chairs the event.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
As it comes to look increasingly like hard Brexit for Britain, what is the future for progressive politics? One suggestion has been for an electoral alliance on the Left bringing together the Greens, Labour and the SNP. Not everyone is convinced – including Jeremy Corbyn – but the proposal has sparked debate and discussion across progressive parties.
Birkbeck Politics hosts an evening of discussion with a cross-party panel to discuss what such an alliance would look like, how it would work and whether it is the quickest way back to power for the left or a dangerous dream?
Our panel includes Labour MP and Birkbeck alumnus Lisa Nandy, Greens MP Caroline Lucas and former Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Chris Bowers, who co-edited the recent book The Alternative: Towards a New Progressive Politics. We will also be joined by Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham and Rainham.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 29, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss UK defence policy and Tony Blair’s new anti-Brexit campaign.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 28, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the Government’s new industrial strategy and Theresa May’s first six months as PM.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 27, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Theresa May’s first meeting with Donald Trump and the Parliamentary debate on Brexit.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 26, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the Northern Ireland Assembly elections and Theresa May's Lancaster House speech
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 25, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy review British politics in 2016 and look ahead to 2017.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 24, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the Investigatory Powers Act and Boris Johnson’s comments on Saudi Arabia.
In the first of our occasional series, I speak with Professor Rob Singh about his book After Obama: Renewing American Leadership, Restoring Global Order
As part of the Birkbeck Department of Politics Workshop Week, we convened a staff debate on the topic of A World in Crisis.
The panel features Birkbeck staff members Alex Colas, Aideen Foley, Ali Guven, Eric Kaufmann and David Styan. It is chaired by Deborah Mabbett.
The ongoing political turmoil in Brazil and Turkey is symptomatic of local and regional crises within and around many of the emerging powers in the Global South. With no clear end to the wars in the greater Middle East, and unequal and uneven development still prevalent across many parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America, the world seems to be facing a period of continuous uncertainty. If we add to this the intractable crisis of climate change and the predicted population growth of our planet to 11 billion by the end of the century, a sense of impending doom appears hard to avoid. Our panel addresses these and related issues through the prisms of international security, political economy, environmental politics and political demography. Drawing one their teaching and research expertise in these areas, they will analyse the dynamics and extent of these various crises, and debate the prospects of a more optimistic future.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 23, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy talk about the High Court’s ruling on Article 50 and what Donald Trump’s presidency means for the UK.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 22, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the Richmond by-election and discussions over Brexit in the Joint Ministerial Committee.
For Parliament Week UK, author Robert Dale joined Birkbeck Politics to discuss what it's like to work for an MP and how to get there.
Thousands of people apply to work in MPs' parliamentary offices every year. Why? Because they want to operate at the centre of British politics and are drawn by the sense of power, history and importance of the House of Commons. They want hear words they've written read out in the chamber, or see them printed on newspaper front pages. Many want to make a difference to society. Some see the role as the first step to becoming an MP themselves, and others as the beginning of a successful career in lobbying or communications. Robert Dale – author of How to Be a Parliamentary Researcher – will explain all.
Former Labour MP and first Minister for Women discusses a life in politics and her new memoir Going Nowhere with Birkbeck Professor Rosie Campbell.
This talk is chaired by Dr Melissa Butcher, Reader in Social and Cultural Geography at Birkbeck and Acting Director of the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research.
As Labour MP for Lewisham Deptford from 1987 to 2015, Dame Joan Ruddock had a long, varied and pioneering parliamentary career, but it didn’t always move in the direction she expected.
After her election to the Commons in 1987, Joan held three consecutive shadow portfolios and, by the time of Labour’s election victory in 1997, was thought to be on the fast track to high office. But she was overlooked by Tony Blair in his first round of government appointments, eventually becoming the country’s first Minister for Women – a role she took, famously, without pay, the budget for salaries having been finalised by the time the appointment was made.
Nevertheless, as Minister, Joan worked with fellow MP Harriet Harman to push through a radical agenda. A year later, she was sacked.
What followed was a prominent career on the backbenches, where she ran a series of high-profile campaigns, including opposition to GMOs, championing Afghan women’s rights and changing the hours of the Commons. In 2009 she returned to government as Minister for Energy and Climate Change under Gordon Brown. She retired as an MP in 2015.
What next for Labour, and where does it go from here?
Following the party's leadership election, Birkbeck Politics was joined by Lord Stewart Wood, a Labour peer since 2011 who served in Ed Miliband’s Shadow Cabinet and held an advisory role in the party’s 2015 General Election campaign. He was formerly an adviser to Gordon Brown in the Treasury and later in 10 Downing Street.
Image credit: Policy Exchange (Flickr)
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's British politics modules. Episode 21 looks at Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for a second Scottish independence referendum and Tony Blair’s possible return to British politics.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's British politics modules. In episode 20, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy consider Phillip Hammond’s conference speech and the government’s controversial new policy on grammar schools.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 19, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy ask what, if anything, we have learned over the summer about the government’s plans for Brexit.
Professor Rob Singh looks at the state of the US election and the prospects for a Trump victory in November.
The 2016 US presidential election has already proven one of the most unpredictable and volatile in decades. The Republican Party nomination has been captured by a populist, nativist and authoritarian property developer and TV star, Donald J. Trump. After a powerful insurgent campaign by the self-proclaimed democratic socialist, Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Party has nominated the first woman ever to head a major party ticket, Hillary Clinton. Although conventional wisdom and prevailing models of American elections suggest the White House is Clinton’s to lose, the two nominees represent the most unpopular since polling records began. Moreover, polls are tightening in key battleground states, suggesting that a Trump presidency is a real possibility. The potential consequences for America, and the wider world, of the outcome of the 2016 vote promise to be momentous.
In this lecture and Q & A, Professor Rob Singh examines the prospects for a Trump victory in November, the key factors determining the election, and the six paths by which Trump could reach the White House. This is an evening to answer everything you wanted to know about current American politics but were too afraid to ask.
Rob Singh is Professor of Politics at Birkbeck. His new book, ‘After Obama: Renewing American Leadership, Restoring Global Order‘ was published by Cambridge University Press in May.
Event Description On 23 June Britain voted to leave the EU. The vote has triggered a series of political crises, from a leadership vacuum in the Conservative party and challenges in the Labour party to a possible second referendum in Scotland. The result has also exposed deep dividing lines between parts of the United Kingdom and across British society. So what next for the UK and EU? Staff from the Birkbeck Department of Politics will debate the consequences of Brexit:
- Is this the end of a ‘United’ Kingdom?
- Has British politics changed forever?
- When and how will article 50 be triggered?
- What is the future of the EU without the UK?
Learn more about this topic by reading the Department of Politics Brexit Briefing: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/news/brexit-briefing-from-the-department-of-politics
Image credit: threesleepingfish (Flickr)
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 18, the second of two podcasts on the EU referendum, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy reflect on an extraordinary week of instability for the UK.
A roundtable discussion and reception launching the MSc in Global Environmental Politics and Policy, organised by the Birkbeck Population, Environment and Resources Group and presented by the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research.
As we approach the 25th anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit in 2017, climate change continues to pose a formidable global socio-economic, political and environmental challenge. The latest Conference of Participants in Paris culminated with a multilateral commitment to keep global temperature rise this century below 2 degrees Celsius, promising an agreement with a ‘long-term vision’ that was also to act as an ‘engine of safe growth’.
In this panel, we consider whether these aspirations to reconcile economic growth with control over global warming are realistic, feasible or even desirable. What are the prospects of enforcing these objectives? What kind of policies and political mobilisations might help to secure them? Can and does technology help in addressing climate change? And what are the implications of all this for an increasingly ‘crowded, complex and coastal’ planet? Four specialists on these subjects will discuss these and other related questions in an accessible and conversational format.
Panelists: Aideen Foley, Lecturer in Physical and Environmental Geography Birkbeck College Diane Horn, Reader in Coastal Geomorphology Birkbeck College Eric Kaufmann, Professor of Politics, Birkbeck College Nick Srnicek, co-author of Inventing the Future
Chair: Alex Colás, Reader in International Relations, Birkbeck College
Image credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Former Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne and a panel of Birkbeck academics discuss his newest book on British entrepreneurs and the history and future direction of British capitalism in general.
Liam Byrne has held a wide variety of roles in government, serving in the Home Office, 10 Downing Street and finally the Treasury, where he was Chief Secretary in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. He is the author of over 20 books and pamphlets, including Turning to Face the East, published in 2013, where he argues that greater ties with China will be key to Britain’s future prosperity.
Liam appears in this talk with a panel of academics from Birkbeck’s Department of Politics: Dr Jason Edwards and Professor Deborah Mabbett, as well as Dr Alex Colas, who chairs the discussion.
Jason Edwards is a lecturer in politics in the Department of Politics, Birkbeck. Jason is a political theorist with interests in political sociology and the history of political thought. Jason is an expert in radical politics. His book The Radical Attitude and Modern Political Theory (London: Palgrave Macmillan) was published in 2007 and he continues to return to the theme throughout his writing.
Deborah Mabbett is Professor of Public Policy in the Department of Politics, Birkbeck. Deborah writes and researches on a wide range of issues related to welfare and inequality. She has wide experience of public policy in practice, particularly in the field of social security, having worked at various times for the New Zealand Treasury and the World Bank, as well as undertaking consultancy and research for public bodies in the UK and the European Union.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 17, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy reflect on the UK’s EU referendum campaign with one day to go before the country goes to the polls.
On Thursday 23 June 2016 the UK will vote on whether to stay in the European Union or leave in one of the most important political events of modern times.
As the polls get closer and the debate heats up, staff from Birkbeck Politics will hold a Q&A panel event to discuss how the two campaigns have gone so far, what the polls are telling us and whether they can answer the big question: Will it be Remain or Leave on June 23rd?
The panel includes Professor Rosie Campbell; Dr Dermot Hodson; Dr Jason Edwards; Dr Dionyssis G. Dimitrakopoulos and Professor Deborah Mabbett. The event is chaired by Dr Ben Worthy.
Find out more about the Birkbeck Politics faculty: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/our-staff/our-staff#
Image credit: European Parliament (Flickr)
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Richard Clarke and Jason Edwards discuss Birkbeck's centrality in providing working-class Londoners access to real education in an era when such ideas were considered radical and potentially dangerous. In his research Richard Clarke has identified, and visited, the sites of the Birkbeck Bank, its Land and Building Societies and the Birkbeck Estates (including the Birkbeck Railway Station), the Birkbeck Schools, and the four remaining Birkbeck pubs (two of which still serve alcohol). Through his investigations he has revealed the hidden history that Birkbeck played in changing the physical as well as the political landscape of London.
There are many grand institutions in London that have a lauded and venerable history but the significant role Birkbeck played in challenging a social order that deprived London’s working people of a decent home, the vote and an education is not widely known. In the run up to Birkbeck’s bicentenary in 2023 we revisit Birkbeck’s radical past concealed within London’s streets.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 16, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy look at Irish politics through the lens of the Westminster model from Ireland’s road to independence 100 years ago to the 2016 general election.
The marginal constituency of Croydon Central was a key battleground in the 2015 General Election. The incumbent Conservative MP Gavin Barwell was fighting a serious challenge from Labour, for whom the seat was an essential win if they were to become the largest party. But Gavin Barwell held it by 165 votes. The rest is electoral history – one that he hopes to write in a forthcoming book about the campaign trail in Croydon. He joined Birkbeck Politics to discuss the issue not just of winning, but governing in difficult times.
Gavin Barwell was elected as the MP for Croydon Central in 2010. Before becoming an MP, he worked for the Conservative Party, serving as its Chief Operating Officer between between October 2003 and May 2006, and had his own consultancy business. In 2011 he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Greg Clark, which was followed by his appointment in 2012 as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Michael Gove, the then Secretary of State for Education. In 2013 he became the Assistant Government Whip and in 2014 was promoted to his current role as Lord Commissioner of Her Majesty’s Treasury.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 15, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the Queen’s entanglement in the Brexit debate and the privatisation of UK railways.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 14, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss UK policy on Syria and what the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament tells us about the changing face of pressure group politics in Britain.
In a lecture co-organised by Birkbeck Politics and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz speaks on the growth of economic inequality in the USA and UK over the last 30 years. Median incomes in the USA have stagnated, Professor Stiglitz explains, with a real decline in incomes among full-time male workers being observed over the last four decades. He describes that there are now more people in poverty, more wealth is concentrated among those at the top and that the middle classes are being ‘eviscerated’. Professor Stiglitz concludes that, fundamentally, "inequality is bad for business, bad for the economy, bad for our democracies, and bad for society”.
Professor Stiglitz is introduced by Birkbeck Professor of Public Policy Deborah Mabbett. His talk is followed by a Q&A chaired by Shadow Chancellor and Birkbeck alumnus John McDonnell.
More information: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/news/bb...
For more events and updates from the Birkbeck Department of Politics and the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, see below.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Video © Birkbeck Media Services / Mansour Shabbak
Thumbnail © Birkbeck Media Services / Dominic Mifsud
With the EU referendum date now set, academics from Birkbeck's Department of Politics (and beyond) debate David Cameron's renegotiation, the referendum and the likelihood of a "Brexit" vote.
This event was held on Thursday 18 Feburary 2016 at Birkbeck College.
Panelists include Rosie Campbell, Dionyssis G. Dimitrakopoulos, Dermot Hodson, Deborah Mabbett and Hussein Kassim, currently Professor of Politics at UEA but formerly at Birkbeck. Chair: Jason Edwards.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 13, Dr Edwin Bacon and Dr Dermot Hodson discuss UK-Russia relations and the government's negotiations with EU partners over Brexit.
British democracy is in a period of rapid change and considerable uncertainty. The rise of the SNP in Scotland has radically changed the electoral map of the UK in ways that we have yet to fully understand. We have an unexpected majority Conservative government, but with a working majority of just 12, and an EU referendum that is likely to split the party. In this context it is a good time to take a step back from the media maelstrom and ask what these changes are likely to mean for British Democracy in the medium to long term. The panel will be made up of Professor Tony Wright (Ex MP and author of the Wright reforms), Professor Joni Lovenduski (expert on gender and democracy and political representation), Dr. Rosie Campbell (expert on British political attitudes and behaviour) and Dr Jason Edwards (democracy theorist).
A roundtable with Professor Tony Wright, Professor Joni Lovenduski, Dr. Rosie Campbell and Dr Jason Edwards with Dr Benjamin Worthy as panel chair.
For more events and updates from the Birkbeck Department of Politics and the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, see below.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
What are charities for, why are they special and what is the purpose of regulating them? How should they be regulated? How do and should they organise their funding? Why do charities fail? What are the ideas behind our current system and how are these changing? What is the appropriate role of the regulator (The Charities Commission, Fundraising Standards Board etc.)? The sudden closure of Kids Company in August 2015 brought these questions into sharp relief and raised popular awareness of the importance of regulation.
In fact charities regulation has been under considerable public scrutiny in recent years. The 2012 ACEVO Governance Commission marked a major review into the state of the charity sector, with recommendations covering issues of appraisal, accountability, communication of roles and effective board management. A fundamental review of Charity law by Lord Hodgson in 2012, wholesale replenishment of the Charity Commission board in 2012/13 and strong criticism by the Public Accounts Committee have been followed by greater powers for the Commission and a number of controversial interventions. And in 2013 new legislation under the so called ‘Lobbying Act’ of 2014 (Transparency of Lobbying, Non Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014) placed new constraints on charities during election campaigns.
In 2015, NCVO Chief Executive Sir Stuart Etherington led an official cross-party review into the regulation of charity fundraising. Its recommendations include replacing the Fundraising Standards Board with a more powerful regulator and allowing the public to opt out of all fundraising communications. If implemented, these changes would mark a significant shift in how charities raise money and the checks and balances placed on this process.
The Centre for British Politics and Public Life is joined by an expert panel of speakers, including Sir Stuart Etherington, to talk about the regulation of charities from a range of perspectives. The event is chaired by Joe Irvin, Chief Executive of Living Streets.
Programme of speakers: 1. Sir Stuart Etherington 2. Lucy de Groot 3. Dr Rob Macmillan
More information: http://www.csbppl.com/2016/02/17/charities-regulation-under-scrutiny/
Conservative politician and former Universities Minister with a reputation as a big thinker David Willetts joins Tony Wright for an evening in conversation at Birkbeck Politics.
As a Conservative MP from 1992–2015 David Willetts served in the Treasury, held several key Shadow Cabinet roles across a number of portfolios and, from 2010–2014, he was Universities Minister – the man responsible for changes to tuition fees and other reforms in the higher education sector. He is also a significant thinker and policy analyst, the theorist of 'civic Conservatism' and the author of a much-discussed controversial book on inter-generational inequality (The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children’s Future – and Why They Should Give It Back).
Image credit: The Open University
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Professor Anne Phillips delivers the annual Paul Hirst Memorial Lecture at Birkbeck College, 10 February 2016.
In ‘On Humanity in Dark Times’, Hannah Arendt questions the limitations of a humanism that pretends to a commonality while evading the reality of a ‘world become inhuman’. Anne Phillips takes this as a starting point for an exploration of the notion of the human. Though the assertion of our common humanity remains a powerful ethical and political ideal, it too often involves either a substantive account of what it is to be human that then becomes the basis for gradations, or else a stripped down contentless account that denies important differences. Professor Phillips argues that we need to think of the human, rather, as an enactment of and commitment to equality.
Anne Phillips is Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science and Professor of Political and Gender Theory at the London School of Economics. Her work has been influential in questioning liberal positions in contemporary political thought, and provides important insights into feminist theory and politics, democracy, equality, multiculturalism, and difference. She is the author of Engendering Democracy (Polity, 1991), The Politics of Presence (Clarendon Press, 1995), Which Equalities Matter (Polity, 1999), Multiculturalism without Culture (Princeton University Press, 2007), and Our Bodies, Whose Property? (Princeton University Press). Her latest book is The Politics of the Human (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
For more events and updates from the Birkbeck Department of Politics and the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, see below.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Professor Anne Phillips delivers the annual Paul Hirst Memorial Lecture at Birkbeck College, 10 February 2016.
In ‘On Humanity in Dark Times’, Hannah Arendt questions the limitations of a humanism that pretends to a commonality while evading the reality of a ‘world become inhuman’. Anne Phillips takes this as a starting point for an exploration of the notion of the human. Though the assertion of our common humanity remains a powerful ethical and political ideal, it too often involves either a substantive account of what it is to be human that then becomes the basis for gradations, or else a stripped down contentless account that denies important differences. Professor Phillips argues that we need to think of the human, rather, as an enactment of and commitment to equality.
Anne Phillips is Graham Wallas Professor of Political Science and Professor of Political and Gender Theory at the London School of Economics. Her work has been influential in questioning liberal positions in contemporary political thought, and provides important insights into feminist theory and politics, democracy, equality, multiculturalism, and difference. She is the author of Engendering Democracy (Polity, 1991), The Politics of Presence (Clarendon Press, 1995), Which Equalities Matter (Polity, 1999), Multiculturalism without Culture (Princeton University Press, 2007), and Our Bodies, Whose Property? (Princeton University Press). Her latest book is The Politics of the Human (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
For more events and updates from the Birkbeck Department of Politics and the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, see below.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Description: Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 12, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr David Styan discuss the Labour Party’s policy on Trident and Parliament’s debate on Donald Trump as an instance of e-democracy in action.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 11, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the postmortem over election polling in 2015 and the governance of Britain’s ailing steel industry.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 10, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss George Osborne’s downbeat speech on the economy and David Bowie's political legacy.
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular. In episode 9, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss divisions among Labour and the Conservative MPs and the politics of ratifying the Paris Agreement on climate change.
From 2013, Dr Alex Colas presents a roundtable debate on the subject of politics, profits and power, the first in a series titled the Bloomsbury Debates.
Panellists: Fabrice Weissman (Coordinator and Research Director of MSF CRASH); Sarah Collinson (Humanitarian Policy Group ODI London; Stephen Hopgood (Reader in International Relations, SOAS).
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular.
In episode 8, recorded on 4 December 2015, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Hilary Benn’s speech in the House of Commons over Syria and John McDonnell’s controversial response to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.
Subscribe to the Birkbeck Poltics podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/department-politics-birkbeck/id1066955188
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular.
In episode 7, recorded on 20 November 2015, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the risk of mutiny within the Labour Party and among members of the British military over Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Subscribe to the Birkbeck Poltics podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/department-politics-birkbeck/id1066955188
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular.
In episode 6, recorded on 30 October 2015, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the House of Lords’ decision to block the government’s tax credit reform and David Cameron’s lego building at the Northern Futures Summit.
Subscribe to the Birkbeck Poltics podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/department-politics-birkbeck/id1066955188
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular.
In episode 5, recorded on 23 October 2015, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the House of Lords threat to veto the government’s tax credit cuts and the Bank of England’s controversial role in the Brexit debate.
Subscribe to the Birkbeck Poltics podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/department-politics-birkbeck/id1066955188
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular.
In episode 4, recorded on 16 October 2015, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the Independent Commission on Freedom of Information and Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon’s balancing act over a second independence referendum.
Subscribe to the Birkbeck Poltics podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/department-politics-birkbeck/id1066955188
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular.
In episode 3, recorded on 9 October 2015, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss the secretive role of the Privy Council in British politics and what Prime Minister David Cameron didn’t say about the EU in his speech to the Conservative Party Conference.
Subscribe to the Birkbeck Poltics podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/department-politics-birkbeck/id1066955188
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular.
In episode 2, recorded on 2 October 2015, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Parliament's role in the Syrian crisis and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell's speech at the Labour Party Conference.
Subscribe to the Birkbeck Poltics podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/department-politics-birkbeck/id1066955188
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Westminster Watch is a podcast in which members of the Department of Politics at Birkbeck discuss current issues in British politics. It is aimed at those with an interest in British politics in general and students on Birkbeck's BA Politics module, Contemporary British Politics, in particular.
In episode 1, recorded on 22 September 2015, Dr Dermot Hodson and Dr Ben Worthy discuss Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour Leader and Robert Chote's reappointment as head of the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Subscribe to the Birkbeck Poltics podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/department-politics-birkbeck/id1066955188
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
The Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life welcomed author and journalist Polly Toynbee to the Keynes Library on 11 November, where she appeared in conversation with Birkbeck Professorial Fellow in Politics Tony Wright.
The wide-ranging talk, which was followed by a Q&A with the audience, mixed biographical detail with political insight, covering Toynbee’s education, early work experiences and the effort behind writing two columns a week. It also addressed the challenges facing the Labour party in upcoming votes in London and Scotland, and the pitfalls for the Yes campaign in the EU referendum.
Please note, the first minute of the talk is missing due to a technical issue.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
The Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life welcomed author and journalist Polly Toynbee to the Keynes Library on 11 November, where she appeared in conversation with Birkbeck Professorial Fellow in Politics Tony Wright.
The wide-ranging talk, which was followed by a Q&A with the audience, mixed biographical detail with political insight, covering Toynbee’s education, early work experiences and the effort behind writing two columns a week. It also addressed the challenges facing the Labour party in upcoming votes in London and Scotland, and the pitfalls for the Yes campaign in the EU referendum.
Please note, the first minute of the talk is missing due to a technical issue.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
The unending Syrian civil war and the accompanying rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) have generated a profound crisis for the peoples of the region and its neighbours. State collapse and multiple insurgencies have generated mass displacements, generalised destruction and social involution. Regional powers have played a central role in the unfolding of these events, as are increasingly Russian and American military and diplomatic forces.
In this debate, a panel of experts drawn from the Birkbeck Politics faculty will analyse and assess the origins and dynamics of the crisis. Why is ISIL so successful in its Western recruitment? How are new military and communications technologies shaping the regional conflict? Can ISIL be defeated? What are the possible solutions to the Syrian civil war? Does ISIL fragment and weaken or focus and reenergise global jihadi struggle? What explains the new sectarianism in the Middle East that ISIL is also a manifestation of? Will this crisis further entrench mistrust between Washington and Moscow, or is this an opportunity to activate collective security? These are some of the questions the panel addresses.
Panel: Ed Bacon, Matthijs van den Bos, Antoine Bousquet, Rob Singh, Barbara Zollner Chair: Alex Colás
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
The unending Syrian civil war and the accompanying rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) have generated a profound crisis for the peoples of the region and its neighbours. State collapse and multiple insurgencies have generated mass displacements, generalised destruction and social involution. Regional powers have played a central role in the unfolding of these events, as are increasingly Russian and American military and diplomatic forces.
In this debate, a panel of experts drawn from the Birkbeck Politics faculty will analyse and assess the origins and dynamics of the crisis. Why is ISIL so successful in its Western recruitment? How are new military and communications technologies shaping the regional conflict? Can ISIL be defeated? What are the possible solutions to the Syrian civil war? Does ISIL fragment and weaken or focus and reenergise global jihadi struggle? What explains the new sectarianism in the Middle East that ISIL is also a manifestation of? Will this crisis further entrench mistrust between Washington and Moscow, or is this an opportunity to activate collective security? These are some of the questions the panel addresses.
Panel: Ed Bacon, Matthijs van den Bos, Antoine Bousquet, Rob Singh, Barbara Zollner Chair: Alex Colás
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Thousands of people apply to work in MPs’ parliamentary offices every year. Why? Robert Dale, author of How to Be a Parliamentary Researcher, visited the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life on 16 November to explain.
Working in an MP’s office is an opportunity to operate at the centre of British politics. In an insightful discussion with comments from Tony Grew (Lobby journalist for The Telegraph, founder of the Parly app) and Susan McLaren (Birkbeck PhD student), Robert Dale explored how to get a job in an MP’s office, the challenges of these positions and the culture around working in parliament.
For more events and updates from the Birkbeck Department of Politics and the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, see below.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Thousands of people apply to work in MPs’ parliamentary offices every year. Why? Robert Dale, author of How to Be a Parliamentary Researcher, visited the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life on 16 November to explain.
Working in an MP’s office is an opportunity to operate at the centre of British politics. In an insightful discussion with comments from Tony Grew (Lobby journalist for The Telegraph, founder of the Parly app) and Susan McLaren (Birkbeck PhD student), Robert Dale explored how to get a job in an MP’s office, the challenges of these positions and the culture around working in parliament.
For more events and updates from the Birkbeck Department of Politics and the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, see below.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ Twitter: www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Centre website: www.csbppl.com Department website: www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
On 23 November, the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism in collaboration with the Birkbeck’s Department of Politics brought together a panel of leading commentators and scholars to discuss the implications of Europe’s migrant crisis for the rise of the populist right.
The UK Independence Party, Danish People’s Party and French Front National won nearly 30 percent of the vote in the 2014 European elections on an anti-immigration platform. Since then, Europe’s migrant crisis has further raised the significance of the immigration issue among western European publics.
Populist right parties such as the Sweden Democrats, Austrian Freedom Party and True Finns have surged in the polls. The Freedom Party has doubled its vote share in Austrian local elections. In Germany and Sweden, opposition to immigration has risen dramatically. At the same time, many voters support the plight of the refugees which some observers hope will damage the populist right.
Speakers:
Chris Bertram is Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol, and blogs regularly on issues related to migration.
David Goodhart is director of the Demos Integration Hub and founder of Prospect magazine.
Matthew Goodwin, University of Kent, and author of two books on UKIP, Revolt on the Right: Explaining Support for the Radical Right in Britain (with Rob Ford) 2014, and the upcoming UKIP: Inside the Campaign to Redraw the Map of UK Politics (Nov 2015).
Daphne Halikiopoulou, University of Reading, is co-author of The Golden Dawn’s ‘Nationalist Solution’: Explaining the Rise of the Far Right in Greece (2015).
Eric Kaufmann, Birkbeck, University of London is co-author of Changing Places: the White British Response to Ethnic Change in Britain (2014, Demos), co-editor of Political Demography (Oxford 2012), and author of Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth (2010).
For more events and updates from the Birkbeck Department of Politics and the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, see below.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: http://www.csbppl.com Department website: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
A lecture by Professor David Runciman.
Conspiracy theory is widely believed to be intellectually disreputable and epistemically flawed. Yet ideas of conspiracy have been central to the thought of many leading political thinkers. Jeremy Bentham exemplifies this: he was, if not a conspiracy theorist, then certainly a theorist of conspiracy.
This lecture explores what Bentham had to say about conspiracies real and imagined and how his ideas of conspiracy changed in line with his changing view of democracy. It will ask whether it makes sense to call Bentham a conspiracy theorist, and if so, what that tells us about the relationship between conspiracy theory and political theory.
David Runciman teaches political theory at Cambridge University and is a fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He writes for The Guardian and the London Review of Books. He researches late-nineteenth and twentieth century political thought, theories of the state and of political representation, and various aspects of contemporary political philosophy and contemporary politics. His most recent books are Politics: Ideas in and The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from the First World War to the Present.
For more events and updates from the Birkbeck Department of Politics and the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, see below.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Centre website: http://www.csbppl.com Department website: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
A talk by Professor David Runciman.
Conspiracy theory is widely believed to be intellectually disreputable and epistemically flawed. Yet ideas of conspiracy have been central to the thought of many leading political thinkers. Jeremy Bentham exemplifies this: he was, if not a conspiracy theorist, then certainly a theorist of conspiracy.
This lecture explores what Bentham had to say about conspiracies real and imagined and how his ideas of conspiracy changed in line with his changing view of democracy. It will ask whether it makes sense to call Bentham a conspiracy theorist, and if so, what that tells us about the relationship between conspiracy theory and political theory.
David Runciman teaches political theory at Cambridge University and is a fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He writes for The Guardian and the London Review of Books. He researches late-nineteenth and twentieth century political thought, theories of the state and of political representation, and various aspects of contemporary political philosophy and contemporary politics. His most recent books are Politics: Ideas in and The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from the First World War to the Present.
For more events and updates from the Birkbeck Department of Politics and the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, see below.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Centre website: http://www.csbppl.com Department website: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
A lecture by Professor David Runciman.
Conspiracy theory is widely believed to be intellectually disreputable and epistemically flawed. Yet ideas of conspiracy have been central to the thought of many leading political thinkers. Jeremy Bentham exemplifies this: he was, if not a conspiracy theorist, then certainly a theorist of conspiracy.
This lecture explores what Bentham had to say about conspiracies real and imagined and how his ideas of conspiracy changed in line with his changing view of democracy. It will ask whether it makes sense to call Bentham a conspiracy theorist, and if so, what that tells us about the relationship between conspiracy theory and political theory.
David Runciman teaches political theory at Cambridge University and is a fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He writes for The Guardian and the London Review of Books. He researches late-nineteenth and twentieth century political thought, theories of the state and of political representation, and various aspects of contemporary political philosophy and contemporary politics. His most recent books are Politics: Ideas in and The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from the First World War to the Present.
For more events and updates from the Birkbeck Department of Politics and the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, see below.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Centre website: http://www.csbppl.com Department website: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/
Labour Shadow Chancellor and Birkbeck alumnus John McDonnell in conversation with academics from the Birkbeck Department of Politics.
The talk is followed by a Q&A with the audience.
For more events and updates from the Birkbeck Department of Politics and the Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, see below.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BirkbeckPolitics/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/birkbeck-dept-of-politics Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bbkpolitics Centre website: http://www.csbppl.com Department website: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/politics/