The Conservative Party After Brexit

The Conservative Party After Brexit PDF

Author: Tim Bale

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2023-03-13

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 1509546022

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The Conservative Party can lay convincing claim to being the world's most successful political party, not least because it is also one of the most adaptable, often appearing to do and say pretty much whatever it takes to win. But has it now taken things too far? Since the UK voted to leave the EU back in 2016, the Tories have arguably done more than simply re-shape themselves: rather, they seem to have transformed themselves from a mainstream centre-right party into a counter-intuitive combination of radical right-wing populism, free market fundamentalism, and fiscal constraint that is arguably not only inherently unstable but also poses a threat to many of the norms of both liberal democracy and economic common sense. In this compelling and persuasively argued book, Tim Bale, one of the country's foremost experts on contemporary British politics, takes us on a rollercoaster ride through the Conservatives' fortunes over the last decade. From the bombshell Brexit referendum, through to the chaotic premierships of Theresa May, Boris Johnson, and Liz Truss, and all the way up to Rishi Sunak’s rise to power, Bale tells the fascinating tale of a party that, in just a few short years, has gone from nervous breakdown to top of the world – and back again.

Falling Down

Falling Down PDF

Author: Phil Burton-Cartledge

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2021-09-14

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1839760362

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The Fall of the Tory Party Despite winning the December 2019 General Election, the Conservative parliamentary party is a moribund organisation. It no longer speaks for, or to, the British people. Its leadership has sacrificed the long-standing commitment to the Union to 'Get Brexit Done'. And beyond this, it is an intellectual vacuum, propped up by half-baked doctrine and magical thinking. Falling Down offers an explanation for how the Tory party came to position itself on the edge of the precipice and offers a series of answers to a question seldom addressed: as the party is poised to press the self-destruct button, what kind of role and future can it have? This tipping point has been a long time coming and Burton-Cartledge offers critical analysis to this narrative. Since the era of Thatcherism, the Tories have struggled to find a popular vision for the United Kingdom. At the same time, their members have become increasingly old. Their values have not been adopted by the younger voters. The coalition between the countryside and the City interests is under pressure, and the latter is split by Brexit. The Tories are locked into a declinist spiral, and with their voters not replacing themselves the party is more dependent on a split opposition - putting into question their continued viability as the favoured vehicle of British capital.

Riding the Populist Wave

Riding the Populist Wave PDF

Author: Tim Bale

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-08-26

Total Pages: 371

ISBN-13: 1009007114

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In spite of the fact that Conservative, Christian democratic and Liberal parties continue to play a crucial role in the democratic politics and governance of every Western European country, they are rarely paid the attention they deserve. This cutting-edge comparative collection, combining qualitative case studies with large-N quantitative analysis, reveals a mainstream right squeezed by the need to adapt to both 'the silent revolution' that has seen the spread of postmaterialist, liberal and cosmopolitan values and the backlash against those values – the 'silent counter-revolution' that has brought with it the rise of a myriad far right parties offering populist and nativist answers to many of the continent's thorniest political problems. What explains why some mainstream right parties seem to be coping with that challenge better than others? And does the temptation to ride the populist wave rather than resist it ultimately pose a danger to liberal democracy?

The Conservative Party

The Conservative Party PDF

Author: Tim Bale

Publisher: Polity

Published: 2011-02-28

Total Pages: 489

ISBN-13: 0745648584

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The Conservatives are back - but what took them so long? Why did the world's most successful political party dump Margaret Thatcher only to commit electoral suicide under John Major? Just as importantly, what stopped the Tories getting their act together until David Cameron came along? The answers are as intriguing as the questions.

One Party After Another

One Party After Another PDF

Author: Michael Crick

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2022-02-03

Total Pages: 470

ISBN-13: 1471192318

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'Enormously readable...excellent' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times 'A superb piece of thorough journalism' David Aaronovitch, The Times Nigel Farage is arguably one of the most influential British politicians of the 21st century. His campaign to take the UK out of the EU began as a minority and extreme point of view, but in June 2016 it became the official policy of the nation after a divisive referendum. In Michael Crick's brilliant new biography, One Party After Another, we find out how he did it, despite never once managing to get elected to Parliament. Farage left public school at the age of 16 to go and work in the City, but in the 1990s he was drawn into politics, joining UKIP. Ironically, it was the electoral system for the European Parliament that gave him access to a platform, and he was elected an MEP in 1999. His everyman persona, combined with a natural ability as a maverick and outspoken performer on TV, ensured that he garnered plenty of media attention. His message resonated in ways that rattled the major parties - especially the Conservatives - and suddenly the UK's membership of the EU was up for debate. Controversy was never far away, with accusations of racism against the party and various scandals. But, having helped secure the referendum, Farage was largely sidelined by the successful official Brexit campaign. When Parliament struggled to find a way to leave, Farage created the Brexit Party to ensure Britain did eventually leave the EU early in 2020. Crick's compelling new study takes the reader into the heart of Farage's story, assessing his methods, uncovering remarkable hidden details and builds to an unmissable portrait of one of the most controversial characters in modern British politics.

David Cameron and Conservative renewal

David Cameron and Conservative renewal PDF

Author: Gillian Peele

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2016-11-29

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 1526108259

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Offering a new overview of the Conservative modernisation project, this book assesses the efforts of David Cameron and his colleagues to rebuild the British Conservative Party in the period since 2005.

Brexit and British Politics

Brexit and British Politics PDF

Author: Geoffrey Evans

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2017-11-10

Total Pages: 140

ISBN-13: 1509523898

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Brexit has changed everything - from our government, to our economy and principal trading relationship, to the organization of our state. This watershed moment, which surprised most observers and mobilized previously apathetic sections of the electorate, is already transforming British politics in profound and lasting ways. In this incisive book, leading analysts of UK and EU politics Geoffrey Evans and Anand Menon step back from the immediacy and hyperbole of the Referendum to explain what happened on 23 June 2016, and why. Brexit, they argue, was the product of both long-term dissatisfaction with the EU and a gradual breakdown in the relationship between parties and voters that spawned detachment, disinterest and disenchantment. Exploring its subsequent impact on the June 2017 General Election, they reveal the extent to which Brexit has shattered the contemporary equilibrium of British politics. These reverberations will continue to be felt for a very long time and could pose a real danger to the health of British democracy if the government fails to deliver on the promises linked to Brexit.

The Left Case for Brexit

The Left Case for Brexit PDF

Author: Richard Tuck

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2020-04-09

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 1509542299

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Liberal left orthodoxy holds that Brexit is a disastrous coup, orchestrated by the hard right and fuelled by xenophobia, which will break up the Union and turn what’s left of Britain into a neoliberal dystopia. Richard Tuck’s ongoing commentary on the Brexit crisis demolishes this narrative. He argues that by opposing Brexit and throwing its lot in with a liberal constitutional order tailor-made for the interests of global capitalists, the Left has made a major error. It has tied itself into a framework designed to frustrate its own radical policies. Brexit therefore actually represents a golden opportunity for socialists to implement the kind of economic agenda they have long since advocated. Sadly, however, many of them have lost faith in the kind of popular revolution that the majoritarian British constitution is peculiarly well-placed to deliver and have succumbed instead to defeatism and the cultural politics of virtue-signalling. Another approach is, however, still possible. Combining brilliant contemporary political insights with a profound grasp of the ironies of modern history, this book is essential for anyone who wants a clear-sighted assessment of the momentous underlying issues brought to the surface by Brexit.

Brexitland

Brexitland PDF

Author: Maria Sobolewska

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-10-15

Total Pages: 411

ISBN-13: 1108611826

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Long-term social and demographic changes - and the conflicts they create - continue to transform British politics. In this accessible and authoritative book Sobolewska and Ford show how deep the roots of this polarisation and volatility run, drawing out decades of educational expansion and rising ethnic diversity as key drivers in the emergence of new divides within the British electorate over immigration, identity and diversity. They argue that choices made by political parties from the New Labour era onwards have mobilised these divisions into politics, first through conflicts over immigration, then through conflicts over the European Union, culminating in the 2016 EU referendum. Providing a comprehensive and far-reaching view of a country in turmoil, Brexitland explains how and why this happened, for students, researchers, and anyone who wants to better understand the remarkable political times in which we live.

The Free Economy and the Strong State

The Free Economy and the Strong State PDF

Author: Andrew Gamble

Publisher: Duke University Press

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 9780822308904

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A new politics emerged in the 1970s in response to the world recession, the exhaustion of Fordism (the theory, traced to Henry Ford, that well-paid industrial workers fuel continuous capitalist growth), and the breakdown of American hegemony. Thatcherism, one expression of this new politics, acquired its distinctive characteristics through the exceptional and deep-seated crisis of state authority that developed in Britain in the mid-1970s. By 1987, the Conservatives under Thatcher's leadership had won their third successive election victory over a divided opposition and enjoyed a degree of political and ideological dominance that led many commentators to speak of the end of the socialist era and the emergence of a new consensus in Britain. A new word--Thatcherism--had entered the political lexicon. It has come to signify a broad-ranging and distinctive program aimed at promoting economic recovery through the privatization of public enterprise and restoring the authority of the state. The Free Economy and the Strong State explores the roots of Thatcherism and its relationship to the Conservative tradition, to the economic liberal ideology of the New Right, and to the "new politics" which emerged from the recession and crisis of the world order in the mid 1970s.