How true are‘Political Truisms’?

DO NOWIn pairs, bullet point what you learned from yesterday's trip to the Cabinet Office. Focus on where you added most to your understanding of how government works. There is no limit to the number of points you can make, but try to rank your insights in terms of how fundamental they seem.

Evaluation

My participation in the Cabinet Office spending challenge has given me a significantly greater understanding of the way government works.

0 5

Don’t agree at all

Agree fully

3 421

Learning objectives

• To understand politics as an activity with identifiable trends and patterns

• To apply political theory to recent developments in British politics

• To practice our polemical skills through extended writing and public speaking

Blog about your visit to the Cabinet Office

• Write a blog about yesterday’s trip to the Cabinet Office.

• Your blog should be no more than 400 words.

• The best blogs will be sent to the CO and published on the Huffington Post, the world’s #1 hosted blog site.

Examples

These are some of the most influential blogs published about UK politics. Consult 2-3 of them to give you ideas about how good blogs are written.

• ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog• guardian.co.uk/profile/michaelwhite+politics/blog• http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mehdi-hasan/• leftfootforward.org• blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/benedictbrogan• conservativehome.blogs.com• timesonline.typepad.com/

What could you blog about?

• What did you see? Briefly describe the surroundings at Admiralty House? How did that affect you experience?

• Who did you meet? Refer to what you heard from Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office.

• Focus on the dynamics of the negotiation—What strategy did you adopt? How successful was it? What was the outcome you achieved?

• What did you learn about how government works? • Did the experience make you more or less likely to

vote when you turn 18?

How true is my truism?

We will evaluate a series of political ‘truisms’. Working in your table groups, answer the following questions: • What does it mean?

Interpret the truism in your own words.• How true is it?

Evaluate the statement using evidence or examples from current affairs and recent British political history (Thatcher onwards)

Excellent answers will include:

• Specific terminology from political theory and/or political science.

• Evidence from across our period, rather than concentrate solely on one government, and from different levels of government, rather than concentrating solely on the person of the prime minister.

• Sensible inferences regarding the political perspective of the quote or the person to whom it is attributed.

“All political careers end in failure.”

Enoch Powell MPBritish politician and author

“It’s the economy, stupid.”

Att. political aide working on Bill Clinton’s 1992 election campaign

“Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.”

Charles de Gaulle

French general and president

“Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.”

Oscar AmeringerGerman-American political activist

“If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.”

Mark Twain

Lessons from recent experience

• Tenure matters: 10 years and you’re out (Thatcher, 1990; Blair, 2007)

• Media matters: It’s not the events themselves, but how you’re judged to be handling them (Brown, 2010)

• Everything matters: It’s not just the economy stupid (Major, 1992; Major, 1997)

Learning objectives

• To understand politics as an activity with identifiable trends and patterns

• To apply political theory to recent developments in British politics

• To practice our polemical skills through public presentation

Margaret Thatcher• Margaret Thatcher made history both as Britain's first female prime minister and as

the leader of an ideological revolution that moved British politics significantly to the right.

• Thatcher battled economic recession by initially raising interest rates to control inflation. She was best known for her attacks on labour organizations such as the miner's union, and for the massive privatization of social housing and public transport.

• Thatcher’s poll approval ratings were consistently low until, in April 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland islands. Taking swift action, Thatcher sent British troops to the territory to retake the islands in what became known as the Falklands War. Argentina surrendered in June 1982. • In her second term, from 1983 to 1987, Thatcher handled a number of conflicts and crises, the most jarring of which may have been an assassination attempt against her by the IRA in 1984. Unharmed, Thatcher insisted that the conference continue, and gave a speech the following day.

• Thatcher was an outspoken supporter of President Ronald Reagan, who’s conservative, pro-business approach she shared. She publicly supported Reagan's air raids on Libya in 1986 and allowed US forces to use British bases to help carry out the attack.

• Returning for a third term in 1987, Thatcher sought to implement a standard educational curriculum across the British schools and to make changes to the country's national health system. However, she lost a lot of support due to her efforts to implement a fixed rate local tax—labelled a poll tax by many, since Thatcher sought to disenfranchise those who did not pay it. Hugely unpopular, this policy led to public protests and caused dissention within her party.

• Thatcher eventually yielded to pressure from party members and announced her intention to resign on November 22, 1990. In a statement, she said: "I have concluded that the unity of the Party and the prospects of victory in a General Election would be better served if I stood down to enable Cabinet colleagues to enter the ballot for the leadership."

John Major• Born on March 29, 1943, in London, England, John Major

worked in banking before being elected to Parliament as part of the Conservative Party in 1979. He rose through the ranks and was elected party leader after Margaret Thatcher’s resignation in 1990, thus becoming prime minister.

• Major was known for his calm, affable manner. He was often labelled the "grey man" of British politics by the popular media. Major nonetheless had to contend with the nation being in the throes of an economic recession, with the populace not taking to subsequent tax increases. Major also worked with the issue of preparing British entry into the European Union in spite of significant Conservative Party opposition.

• Major resigned as Conservative Party leader in 1995 and called for parliament to hold a special vote for leadership, yet was able to win re-election in July. By May 1997, however, the Conservative Party lost to the next prime minister Tony Blair and his Labour Party.

Tony Blair• Tony Blair was elected leader of the Labour Party in 1994, becoming the organization's

youngest leader to date. He quickly proved also to be Labour’s most right wing leader. He re-branded the party as “New Labour” to distance it from its successive electoral defeats in the 1980s.

• Blair identified a lack of credibility in economic management as the biggest barrier to election victory. His solution was to abandon the Labour Party’s traditional commitment to nationalised industries in order to win over the support of business and the right-wing press. His strategy paid off, with even the traditionally conservative Sun newspaper endorsing Blair for Prime Minister in 1997. He won the largest Labour House of Commons majority in the party’s history.

• As prime minister, Blair stuck to his centrist instincts on social and economic policy and moved gradually to the right on security issues. He advocated policies to cut taxes, deter crime, boost trade and increase the power of local government. Blair described his new vision for Great Britain as a nation "where people succeed on the basis of what they give to their country“. He was an outspoken supporter of President George W. Bush’s “War on Terror”, lending British support to the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

• Under Blair, central government was accused of over-stating the risk to Britain of the security situation in the Middle East. Blair’s support of Bush cost him significant personal popularity. The 2005 General Election, in which Labour’s majority shrank from over 160 seats to 66 seats, was seen as a referendum on Blair.

• Blair remained in office until 2007, but was increasingly regarded by his party as an electoral liability. He was persuaded to retire from mainstream British politics in favour of his long-term party rival Gordon Brown.

Gordon Brown• Gordon Brown was appointed prime minister and Labour Party Leader in July

2007. Brown had served as the Chancellor of the Exchequer since 1997, during which time he was regarded as a successful steward of the British economy. However, Brown lacked his predecessor’s popular touch and way with the media.

• Among Brown’s first actions were pledging to work to fight poverty, reform the National Health Service and continue the public-sector reforms that had been implemented by Blair's administration. Brown was initially popular and would later be criticised for not calling an election in 2008, when polls suggested an easy victory.

• The UK was badly affected by the financial crisis that erupted worldwide in 2008. The country suffered a dwindling economy, severe unemployment, rising foreclosures and a national budget deficit. Despite being hailed internationally for his response to the crisis, Brown found it difficult to escape criticism for its causes, having served for so long as the country’s finance minister.

• Adding salt to the wound, later in 2009, media outlets began reporting on expense account abuse by MPs, including some of Brown's cabinet members. The public scandal caused some members to resign, as well as a decrease in Brown's public ratings.

• In the 2010 general election, the Labour Party lost its majority in the House of Commons. Soon after, Brown publicly announced his resignation as Labour Party Leader, and in the following days, he announced that he would step down as prime minister.

David Cameron• David Cameron became leader of the Conservative Party 2005. He promised

that he would make people "feel good about being Conservatives again”, that he would “de-toxify” the Conservative brand, and shed the Conservatives’ image as the “nasty party” of British politics.

• Cameron positioned the Conservatives well for the 2010 general election, but failed to deliver an outright majority. The Conservatives became the largest party in the new House of Commons, with 258 seats. Cameron did, however, lead successful negotiations with the Liberal Democrats that formed the first peacetime coalition government for the UK since 1924. At age 43, Cameron became the youngest prime minister since 1812.

• Cameron’s record in office has been defined by his economic conservatism, notably his insistence on radical cuts in public spending in order to reduce the country’s fiscal deficit, but also by his social liberalism, notably in his sponsorship of gay marriage. Cameron has, however, often been accused of caring about nothing so much as his own popularity.

• Cameron has kept the right wing of his party at bay by promising severe curbs on net immigration and reform of the EU. However, both positions have become more difficult to sustain as a result of the rise of the UK Independence Party, which appeals to strongly to conservative voters with a more traditional social outlook than Cameron’s.