Do All Political Lives End in Failure?
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20419058231181276 |
| Author | Peter Geoghegan |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
JUNE 2023•POLITICAL INSIGHT3
Do All Political
Lives End in
Failure?
All political lives end in
failure. Few politicians have
demonstrated Enoch Powell’s
old saw as vividly in recent
times as Nicola Sturgeon.
At the turn of the year, Sturgeon could
claim to be the most effective British
politician of her generation. Her Scottish
National Party had been in government in
Edinburgh for almost a decade and a half.
Sturgeon’s personal popularity had fallen
back from its once dizzying highs but was
still at levels her Westminster counterparts
could only dream of. There was talk of a
future career in high level international
politics.
Behind the scenes, of course, the
situation was rather different. Bruising
encounters, including with senior
figures in her own party, over Scotland’s
Gender Recognition Act had left
Sturgeon politically wounded. Scottish
independence – the SNP’s
raison d’etre
–
remained tantalisingly out of reach.
Nonetheless, when Sturgeon
unexpectedly announced that she
was stepping down as SNP leader and
Scotland’s First Minister in February, it
stunned the political world. What came
next was even more dramatic.
In the aftermath of Sturgeon’s
resignation, Police Scotland arrested her
husband, Peter Murrell, in connection with
an investigation into the SNP’s finances.
Murrell, the party’s long-time Chief
Executive, was released without charge,
but as Lynn Bennie explores in this issue’s
cover feature, the ramifications have
rocked the SNP. At the same time, a bad-
tempered leadership contest has produced
a new First Minister, Humza Yousaf, but
already senior party figures are speculating
about how long he will last in office.
South of the border, Rishi Sunak seems
relatively safe as Conservative leader –
for now – but May’s local elections in
England dealt a further blow to his hopes
of remaining as Prime Minister after the
next general election. However, as Hannah
Bunting and Michael Thrasher argue,
Labour still has lots of work to do if it is to
win an outright majority in Westminster.
May’s local elections reaffirmed an
emerging feature of British electoral
politics: the divide between graduates,
who are generally more left-wing, and
non-graduates, who tend to be more
right-wing. In this issue’s Last Word slot,
Elizabeth Simon examines the educational
divide and what it means for British
politics.
One issue that is certain to emerge
in the next general election is online
campaigning. Digital ads, mainly on social
media, accounted for a whopping 53
per cent of parties’ advertising spending
during the 2019 General Election.
Isaac Silver, Ren Thompson, William
Bruce, James Brown, Clover Hamilton and
Kate Dommett report the main takeaways
from their analysis of more than 2,500
online political adverts placed in 2019,
and argue that it is likely that we will all
be seeing more political adverts in the
coming months.
Brexit has slid down the agenda of
voters, and newspaper editors. One reason
was the Windsor Framework signed earlier
this year that unblocked the impasse over
Northern Ireland. But does the agreement
between the UK and the European Union
signal a new dawn in post-Brexit relations?
Simon Usherwood investigates.
Two decades on from the invasion of
Iraq – a decision that still casts a dark
shadow over Tony Blair’s premiership –
Chris Featherstone asks what lessons have
been learned from the most examined
foreign policy decision in British history.
Jennifer G. Mathers reports on public
opinion in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion,
which has become far more supportive of
joining the EU and NATO – and of having
women in the armed forces.
Meanwhile, David Jeffery reports from
Liverpool, a city often held up as the
posterchild for anti-Conservatism in British
politics. However, the story of Conservative
decline in Liverpool is relatively recent and
holds warnings for politics well beyond
Merseyside: first-past-the-post can be
devastating for third parties, new rivals
can spring up at any time, and having your
own party in national government is not
necessarily good for you locally.
Ka Po Ng reports from Hong Kong, where
the Chinese government has strengthened
its grip on power while still touting the
city’s unique position internationally. Chris
Allen examines the recent independent
review of the UK’s Prevent counter-
extremism strategy and argues that it
perpetuates a focus on Muslims to the
exclusion of other terrorist threats.
In the regular In Focus slot, Benjamin
D. Hennig maps the Happy Planet Index,
and finds that many countries are living
far beyond global environmental limits.
(Spoiler alert: we have a lot to learn from
Costa Rica!)
Keep up to date with
Political Insight
for the best research, analysis and
commentary on the issues that really
matter.
Peter Geoghegan
Editor
Political Insight June 2023.indd 3Political Insight June 2023.indd 318/05/2023 14:5818/05/2023 14:58
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