History & policy database
Opinion Articles
H&P encourages historians to use their expertise to shed light on issues of the day. If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece for publication, please see our editorial guidelines. We currently have 342 Opinion Articles listed by date and they are all freely searchable by theme, author or keyword.
Cameron’s history lesson
During the Budget debate, David Cameron gave MPs a history lesson. The 'fundamental truth' he claimed, is that 'all Labour Governments run out of money.' He also argued that Gordon Brown 'can never be the future, because he doesn't understand what went wrong in the past'. But Cameron could do with a history lesson himself. […]
Read MoreHistory could have predicted a global financial crisis
During Wednesday's Budget debate, David Cameron rightly ridiculed Gordon Brown's claim to have ended boom and bust. For the leader of any national economy – especially the U.K. with its particularly high exposure to global markets – Brown's claim was risible and irresponsible, and probably now much regretted. Worse, Brown's defence – that this is […]
Read MoreHistorians respond to the budget
Erin Gill of Aberystwyth University and contributing editor to Environment Analyst warns the vehicle scrappage incentive could be a faux green measure: “This is being presented by the Government as a 'green' measure, but there is a real risk that it will not deliver environmental improvement. What is needed is a 'transitional' shift in the […]
Read MoreThe Energy Bill – tinkering while the planet burns?
Writing in The Guardian in May 2008, Gordon Brown described the escalation in the price of oil as the 'third great oil shock of recent decades'. The Energy Bill 2007-2008, due to recieve Royal Assent in the autumn, is the latest result of the Government's thirty-five year search for a UK energy policy, which began […]
Read MoreCan compulsion work? What history has to say about raising the school leaving age
By the autumn of 2008, it seems likely the school-leaving age will have been raised to 18, though compulsory attendance will not be enforced until 2013-15. The absence rate for year 11 pupils (aged 15-16) is currently over 10% and in 'schools facing challenging circumstances' even higher – leading some to argue that the leaving […]
Read MoreThe ‘ziz-zagging’ of British Prime Ministers
On becoming Prime Minister Gordon Brown presented himself as a collegiate chief supportive of collective Cabinet government. He also reduced the number of staff at No.10 and began transferring key functions away from it. This approach seemed strange given his reputation as a 'Stalinist with a clunking fist'. But his actions were within historical patterns […]
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