Archive of UK politics

Tom Nairn, who died on Saturday morning, 21st January 2023, made his name with a series of coruscating essays on the British state published in New Left Review and collected in the 1977 book The Break-Up of Britain.  Here, we republish Tom Nairn's classic account of the nature, and the twilight, of the British state.

Historian Alexander Zevin looks through the pages of the Economist and finds a record of democracy's challenge to liberalism.

In an extract from his new book, Andy Merrifield visits Marx's grave in Highgate Cemetery and argues that his thinking has never been more urgent or alive.

Gazelle Mba on the pernicious myth of Britain's 'covert' racism.

Freya Marshall Payne looks at how communities have been imagined under COVID-19 and what the future of Mutual Aid might be after the virus.

The current crisis has made the dangers of austerity painfully clear. Harry Quilter-Pinner argues for a new, popular consensus on the welfare state based on equality and justice.

Following Labour's defeat in last week's general election, and the collapse of the vote in the North and Midlands, there has been a revival of Blue Labour and debate about the white working class and the need for Labour to regain their votes. Eleanor Penny argues that the only viable option for Labour is a vision real economic offer of revival, combined with a true story of where power lies, not a pandering to bigotry and xenophobia.

Regardless of whether Boris Johnson manages to win the UK General Election on December 12th, the Conservative Party is in deep and possibly existential crisis – a consequence of the long-term effects of neoliberalism on the state, the party, and the ruling class itself.

Throughout the 2019 general election campaign Politics Theory Other podcast will be releasing regular election special episodes covering topics including: Labour's grassroots campaigning model, the digital war, the leadership styles of Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, Scotland and what the general election means for Scottish independence, and much besides.