Alan Whitehead Meeting: Mr Endersby’s Last Hurrah

By the Co-Chair The last meeting of the year was with Alan Whitehead MP on 20th June. He focussed on climate change, with a fascinating look at the possibilities for the future of our environment. It was great to round off the year with such an important issue and we are grateful to Mr Whitehead …

2018-2019: A Summary

By the Co-Chair We've had quite a year! Galloway censorship, UKIP censorship... not that either of those were strictly true, but still, they created some excitement! This year we had 10 meetings, plus the hustings and US Midterms breakfast (see previous posts!). Starting the year, we had Jamie Capp, and Old Wordsworthian who has since …

Hustings, Protests and General Excitement

By the Co-Chair  A few weeks ago, on 9th May, the Politics Society held a hustings open to the general public for the European elections which were to be held on 23rd May. Yes, I should have written this blog post weeks ago, but revision/exams/ (ah, joy!) got in the way! Alas. It was a …

Theresa May’s Career: An Obituary

June marks the end of May Our embattled Prime Minister will be standing down this Friday as Conservative Party leader to make way for a new Prime Minister. Theresa May, whose term as Prime Minister will only be slightly longer than that of Gordon Brown’s, will have a legacy defined by the unfortunate failure to …

The Brexit Debacle: An update on UK current affairs

Brexit is, as per usual, an absolute mess. But luckily, it's now become a more interesting absolute mess after the past week's dramatic Parliamentary votes and Monday's shocking announcement from House Speaker Bercow. First off, let's look at the votes on Brexit Parliament had last week. These votes happened on Tuesday, leading to a Wednesday …

Lord Adonis- A Take on Brexit

Lord Adonis, former Cabinet minister, key founder of New Labour, Tony Blair's best friend (this editor is very jealous) and now Remain campaigner, took a break from his trips around the country to give his hot-take on all things Brexit. To put things rather simply, Adonis is a remainer and strongly supports a second referendum, …

Justin Fisher talk: Constituency Campaigning and its Electoral Effects

Justin Fisher, Professor of Politics at Brunel University of London, came in to talk to the politics society about an area extremely relevant for politics students, particularly in its relation to voting behaviour. Constituency campaigning has long been seen as dead; most focus now is on online campaigning, using social media (as we saw with …

Politics/Medical Society Cara Charles-Barks

As a start to the New Year, nothing could have been better than hearing from Cara Charles-Barks: the chief executive of the Salisbury NHS trust. As the person in charge of the NHS trust for some of the most turbulent years in the history of Salisbury, no one else could provide better insight into both …

Brexit and Confidence: The most important Parliamentary votes, explained

This week in Parliament has been the most significant for the Brexit negotiations thus far. The government's Brexit deal was brought forward to Parliament for the "meaningful vote" that has been spoken of for the last two years on Tuesday, followed by a motion of no confidence in the government the following evening. It has …

Clare Moody MEP: Jeremy Corbyn, Brexit and the “People’s Vote”

By Billy Welfare, Year 12 To end the calendar year the Politics Society was very thankful to hear from our local MEP; Clare Moody. She is the only Labour MEP to represent the South West England constituency in the European Parliament which sends six MEPs respectively. She is undoubtedly a very committed MEP who spends …