Political Quarterly Blog

“It honestly feels like we’re in the middle of a government cover-up”: Interview with Carole Cadwalladr

anyapearson2November 27, 2018

The Political Quarterly and the Orwell Foundation have teamed up to produce a series of exclusive interviews with female Orwell Prize winners and...

BrexitElectionsInterviewsScience & techUK10 min read

Looking for Loyalty: Colin Kaepernick and the Nike Backlash

Gamal Abdel-ShehidNovember 25, 2018

In his classic study of racism and psychiatry, Black Skin, White Masks, Frantz Fanon made a number of startling and powerful observations. While many of these h...

International politicsLong ReadsMedia & cultureWelfare & Inequality7 min read

I don’t wear a poppy because it’s problematic

Alan WareNovember 7, 2018

Wearing poppies has become far more controversial than in any period since this British initiative of remembrance began in 1921. For example, white poppies, fir...

CommentMedia & cultureUK3 min read

Stop doing things to poor neighbourhoods without asking what they need

Bert ProvanNovember 5, 2018

These days, few organisations can escape the clamour to assess the ‘Social Return on Investment’, or SROI, of proposed new projects. But how often are local peo...

CommentUKWelfare & Inequality4 min read

Don’t be fooled: UK industrial strategy has a long history of picking winners

Richard Woodward and James SilverwoodOctober 24, 2018

Conventional wisdom asserts that industrial policy in the UK expired shortly after Margaret Thatcher’s arrival in 10 Downing Street. As our recent Politica...

CommentEconomyUK5 min read

Regional government isn’t the answer to the UK’s constitutional unsettlement

Michael KennyOctober 22, 2018

Bruce Ackerman takes the kind of fresh, wider?angled approach to constitutional change which is increasingly needed as debates about the UK's territorial cons...

CommentGovernmentUK4 min read

Improving diversity in higher education

Kalwant BhopalOctober 18, 2018

The Race Equality Charter mark (REC) was introduced in 2014 to improve the representation and progression of minority ethnic staff and students in higher educat...

CommentEducationUKWelfare & Inequality3 min read

Is South Korea as leftist as it gets?

Soon?Mee Kwon and Ijin HongOctober 15, 2018

Considering its conservative past, South Korea is undergoing an unprecedented turn to the left, led by President Moon Jae?in. Since priority was given to econom...

CommentEconomyGovernmentInternational politics4 min read

Too many bodies

Deborah MabbettOctober 11, 2018

Recent years have not been good to independent committees and policy advisory bodies. Last December, the entire Social Mobility Commission, headed by Alan Milbu...

CommentEconomyGovernmentUK5 min read

What kind of Brexit do voters actually want? We held a Citizens’ Assembly and asked them (clue: it’s not a no-deal)

Alan Renwick, Sarah Allan, Will Jennings, Rebecca McKee, Meg Russell and Graham SmithOctober 8, 2018

The Brexit vote told us that a majority of voters wanted to leave the EU, but it said little about their preferences for the form that Brexit should take. Pub...

BrexitCommentElectionsGovernmentUK6 min read

“People will have to reconceptualise their ideas of gender”: Why reform of the Gender Recognition Act could be life-changing

Vic ParsonsOctober 5, 2018

On 4 April 2005, the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) – which allows people who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria to change their legal gender – came into f...

FeminismLaw & JusticeLong ReadsUK7 min read

As doctors, improving children’s mental health should be a national priority. Here is how to do it

Kailash Chand and Sandeep RanoteOctober 4, 2018

With one in four adults now affected by mental illness, mental health problems are the largest single cause of disability in the UK. It is time for mental healt...

CommentHealth4 min read