Politics

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor Today’s PMQs was followed by the final autumn statement of this parliament. Luckily pretty much all of it had already been leaked out, so you didn’t really need to pay attention. Interestingly during PMQs Ed was on fire, it was one of his strongest performances I have seen. Sadly even when it goes right for Miliband, it goes wrong, as none of it will make the news headlines later. He is the type of person...

By Margaret Kett A new paper on women in leadership roles, Rethink What You “Know” About High-Achieving Women, that was released in the December 2014 issue of the Harvard Business Review (HBR), is only set to further the debate on women in the C-Suite and the boardroom. The authors, Robin Ely and Colleen Ammerman of Harvard Business School, and Pamela Stone of Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center, based their paper on a study of more than 25,000 Harvard...

Twenty-four stars over twenty-four days as part of one woman’s mission to save lives. That’s the Inspired By Millie campaign that was kicked off on 1st December by Anthony Nolan with a star-studded advent calendar revealing one mystery star every day to say a few words about why you should do something amazing for a stranger during the season of goodwill. Millie was inspiring. And she loved Christmas. That’s why, ten years after Millie died from Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, her...

By David Thomson Alex Salmond may have lost the vote for independence and stood down as  leader of the SNP and Scotland's First Minister, but there's still widespread respect for him as a politician. Conservative leader David Cameron and his Labour counterpart reacted to him stepping down with similar expressions of cautious admiration, both praising him for "fighting his corner" while carefully distancing themselves from his stance on independence. “Whatever our disagreements, he always spoke his mind and he has always stood...

By Joe Mellor, Deputy Editor On the surface, today’s PMQs was a battle over the NHS, the PM insisting a strong economy needs a good health service I’m not 100% convinced, Cuba has a pretty decent health service, but a dismal economy. But this was all window dressing; this was a war from all sides to win the hearts of minds of the white van man. They have never had it so good. I half expect the Tories to enshrine...

To what extent is the Mayor of London Boris Johnson a political duplication of our revered war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill? For all the undertones of that question littered across in the mayor’s latest book, The Churchill Factor, it is worth exploring. The first thing to note is that Johnson will be incredibly smug that the question is even on the table, which goes some way in answering whether this is an engineered quandary or viable comparison. It is apparent that...

By Bill Lytton The Rochester and Strood by-election delivered more than a second Ukip MP last week. In fact, the incumbency of former Conservative Mark Reckless was backseat news to other, more telling, political situations. Namely that, in Alberto Nardelli’s words, “Britain has gone from a two-three party system to a six party system,” and that Labour’s very infrastructure is deteriorating. Embarrassment abounded following Ukip’s 2,920 vote majority win. The UK Independence Party scored 42 per cent of the vote,...

By Samuel Fawcett Voter turnout will be a hot topic in the run up to the General Election in May 2015. Disillusionment seems to be the word of the day amongst the politically active in the UK and with public figures such as Russell Brand championing revolution through political inaction, it's clear that something must be done to re-engage the electorate. In his first vlog for The London Economic, Samuel Fawcett discusses whether a Democracy Day could help prompt more people turn...

Vlog from Ellis Palmer  Ellis Palmer's new vlog on Spanish politics for The London Economic this week focuses on the latest insurrectionary force in Spanish politics, the Podemos or 'We Can' party. In this edition of the vlog, he analyses: 1) Who Podemos are? 2) How they came about? 3) The different explanations behind their rise to prominence. 4) What effect they will have on on the future of Spanish politics? He'll be back next week, with an analysis of...