News and opinion

In the aftermath of the 2024 general election, a critical analysis of party positioning reveals much about the evolving political landscape in the UK. This session examines the policies prioritised and framed by the main parties and explores how their manifestos influenced the campaign and subsequent developments.

Modernization Without a Gender and Diversity Sensitivity Focus is not Modernization: An Agenda for the New Modernization Committee

The 2014 referendum on Scotland’s independence was a critical juncture with enduring effects. Ten years on, we take stock of the legacies of that event on the politics, institutions, and constitutional futures of Scotland and the UK.

For some years after the 2014 independence referendum it seemed that old alignments had been replaced by a new nationalist-unionist cleavage. The results of the 2024 General Election suggest that this may have been a simplification.

Rosie Campbell and Sarah Childs advocate for job-sharing among MPs to make politics more accessible to underrepresented groups, such as women and disabled people. They argue that concerns about representation and accountability can be effectively managed through carefully designed principles and practices.

In 2017, Brexit pushed Northern Ireland’s political representation in Westminster to the extremes of the spectrum. Now, Westminster will see a much more diverse range of views from Northern Ireland represented, including from seven new MPs.

Richard Parry reviews the way that the democratic process worked its way around the electoral system to produce surprising but clear outcomes, ejecting the UK government but not in a position to do the same to the administration in Edinburgh

After winning an historic landslide at the general election, the Labour Party is in a buoyant mood. However, while Labour was successful in terms of the number of seats won in Wales, digging deeper into the results suggests that the story might not be as rosy for the party.

Following Labour's overwhelming victory in the UK, few anticipated the extent of their success in Scotland. Mark McGeoghegan explores the factors that contributed to redrawing the Scottish electoral map.