Abstract It has been claimed repeatedly that transparency undermines decision‐making. The fear of disclosure means officials and politicians may not discuss policy fully, are inhibited from giving frank advice, and could avoid proper record keeping. The use of informal communications—particularly the use of WhatsApp—makes all these tensions more likely, as decisions are made outside formal structures. This article uses data from the official UK Covid‐19 Inquiry (established in 2021 and chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett) to examine the stresses between informal communications methods and transparency. It examines the use of informal communications, drawing on primary written evidence and testimony from the Inquiry, as well as searchable documents, supported by secondary reporting and broader research. The evidence from the Inquiry is somewhat mixed in relation to fullness, frankness and keeping of records. There are clear signs that informal communications meant policy was not properly thought out and decisions were often made in a casual, unofficial manner. Although there was little sign of a lack of frankness or candour, the very informality made communications more potentially embarrassing or dangerous for politicians, creating stronger incentives to delete or hide them.
Abstract The rise to power of Andy Burnham, a vocal critic of first past the post, has put Westminster electoral reform back on the political agenda. This article examines the case for reforming the voting system, why it has strengthened in recent years, why efforts have failed before and what this tells us about the necessary conditions for reform: a legislative majority for change in principle, a legislative majority for a specific change proposal and a means for securing public consent. With the chances of meeting all three conditions looking higher now than at any point for generations, I set out some plausible scenarios whereby electoral reform may happen and offer some thoughts on what effects it might have.
Abstract Digital democracy needs tools and platforms for people to engage with public life and governance. Yet we know surprisingly little about the political life of this ‘civic technology’ infrastructure. How do citizens make use of these well‐intentioned invitations to participate? In this article, I draw on new work by John Boswell in How Citizens Encounter the Democratic State to consider civic tech users’ everyday, creative political agency and whether digital tools help them build working relationships with local representatives and bureaucrats. I draw on platform affordances and insights from a research project into local civic tech use in South London to describe a largely unexamined kind of politics: everyday online politics that works by ‘composing’ across many platforms, however imperfectly, rather than skilled use of any single one.
Abstract There's a constant refrain in the press, on social media and from populist politicians that the NHS is dying on its feet. How accurate is this picture? This article takes a behind‐the‐scenes look at daily life in a modern, big city hospital. The Queen Elizabeth is now the biggest workplace in Birmingham. Its 12,000 staff reflect the multi‐racial diversity of contemporary Britain. Based on interviews with staff and patients, this article gives readers a feel for the realities, joys and pressures of working at one of the biggest and busiest hospitals in the country. It covers working conditions; the stresses on staff; relations with management; efforts to improve the work culture; the focus on patients; and the realities of a multi‐ethnic workplace. It offers a measured contrast to those purveying doom and gloom and suggests a core resilience within the hospital service.
Abstract In 2022, the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament announced a gender‐sensitive parliament (GSP) audit of women's representation and participation. The audit made thirty‐four recommendations, including establishing a GSP Advisory Group to drive institutional change. In doing so, Scotland became part of a global trend—advanced by international and regional organisations—to redress parliamentary gender insensitivities in respect of participation, rules and infrastructure, culture and outputs. Drawing on feminist institutionalism (FI), this article maps the GSP process and critically evaluates the outcomes of the Scottish case. Specifically, we apply key FI insights regarding gendered formal and informal rules and the interplay between actors and institutions to assess the success of GSP reforms at Holyrood. Situating the Scottish Parliament within wider and comparative debates around institutional continuity, change and resistance, we close by reflecting on future prospects for GSP in Scotland and beyond.
Abstract The seemingly inexorable rise in global tourism has generated widespread concerns about rising negative externalities—from the degradation of the natural and cultural environment of host destinations, to the exclusion of locals from the most desirable destinations of their country. Moving beyond gradualist solutions, this article focusses on Greece, using it to rethink the phenomenon of tourism starting from first principles. How should tourism change so that it can help host destinations generate much needed income, while also preserving their natural and cultural assets and allowing access to locals? The article outlines an answer and describes its key components.
Abstract The Treasury has long been seen as a root cause of Britain's economic malaise, blocking much‐needed industrial intervention and embedding short‐termism. This article examines the politics of Concorde and civil nuclear power in postwar Britain to show that the Treasury was not the problem in these cases. The arguments of the Treasury's critics are inverted: there was too much industrial ambition in postwar Britain—not a lack of it—and there was too much long‐termism. The policy lessons are that we need to move beyond innovation‐centric views of industrial strategy in favour of the foundational economy and imitation‐led growth, with devolution—not breaking up the Treasury—as a surer route to pro‐productivity, pro‐growth policies. This should be complemented by a stronger Cabinet Office capability to assess major cross‐departmental problems, such as industrial strategy.
Abstract Resentment felt by people in areas that have suffered from social and economic decline is a significant driver of populist backlash—‘the revenge of the places that don't matter’. An effective place‐based strategy could provide something of an antidote to populist discontent. In power, populist leaders are arch‐centralisers, organising government to dance to their tune. By focusing on place, UK government can respond to people's feelings of being neglected by Westminster and give them the power and tools to tackle issues that matter to their community. Drawing on a survey conducted in England in 2025, we show that, although place‐based grievance is widespread, people still express pride in place and see unfulfilled potential, while negative perceptions reflect the material condition of local areas. There is demand for state intervention, but little faith in the ability of central government to deliver. In response, a place‐based strategy requires a new style of multilevel governance followed by a slower, more place‐sensitive push towards devolved government.
Abstract This article brings histories of British fascism and the Black Radical Tradition into conversation with the study of contemporary British politics to offer a race‐critical analysis of Reform UK's rise. Drawing on race‐critical scholarship and Black Radical analyses of fascism, it argues that Reform UK is the latest formation of a distinctively British racial nationalism, one that has moved across parties, leaders and conjunctures while drawing on an identifiable repertoire of demographic threat, white victimhood, anti‐cosmopolitan populism and the restoration of sovereignty. Understanding race as a structural social relation rather than an ideological feature makes this continuity visible in ways that dominant frameworks have not. This article contributes a race‐critical framework for analysing movements that operate through racial grammar while carefully omitting specific ‘biological’ racialism from their official vocabulary.
Abstract This paper investigates the extent to which changing the leader will help Labour to win back support in the polls. It models public attitudes to incumbent parties, prime ministers and leaders of the opposition as determinants of vote intentions over a period of twenty‐eight years. The findings show that voter satisfaction with parties is nearly four times more important than voter satisfaction with prime ministers when it comes to influencing the vote. This means that changing the Labour leader is likely to have only a limited impact on support for the party in the long run.
Abstract Tourism is one of the fastest‐growing internationally traded service industries. The articles in this special collection examine the circumstances under which it can act as a driver of sustainable, equitably shared growth. The introduction argues that tourism offers a promising path to regional development—not only in southern Europe and the Global South, but also in the UK—as long as the economic rents that it generates are distributed broadly within local communities, rather than being concentrated in the hands of a few investors and siphoned out of the local economy. However, the shift from having too few tourists to having too many can happen swiftly, with serious negative consequences for social, environmental and economic sustainability. Addressing this challenge requires autonomous political leadership, a robust civil society and out‐of‐the‐box thinking across policy areas and scales of governance.
This article reconstructs the first initiatives for a British Bill of Rights from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s and argues that their failure shaped the eventual form of the Human Rights Act. Proposals for a Bill of Rights emerged across the political spectrum, but commanded most support on the right as a means of restraining trade unions and socialist legislation. While some advocates supported the entrenchment of a distinctively British instrument, others advanced the more modest alternative of incorporating the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law. These disputes hinged above all on concerns over the preservation of parliamentary sovereignty and the expansion of judicial power. Over this period, entrenchment became regarded by the Conservative and Labour leaderships as unacceptable or unfeasible, leaving incorporation as the only viable option. The Human Rights Act thus represented not a constitutional rupture, but the outcome of earlier debates that had already narrowed the field of possibilities.
