The two docudramas chosen for this essay are The Deal (2003) and Einstein and Eddington (2008). The first is a political story of significance to recent domestic and foreign policy in Britain. The latter is an enduring story of two men of science, whose discoveries and theories are central to modern physics and astronomy. Both…
Tag: Tony Blair
Does the British education policy uphold class privilege over competitive pressures of globalization?
British society is one of the most stratified in terms of social class. In contrast to the United States, where politicians at least pay lip-serve to the notion of a class-less society, class divisions are woven into the fabric of the nation’s social, political and economic institutions. Barring occasional rhetoric from Labour benches, Realpolitik considerations…
The extent of reform of House of Lords membership in the century since the Parliament Act of 1911
The reform of the upper house of the Parliament has been attempted since the establishment of parliamentary democracy in the UK. Some of these attempts have fetched positive results whereas the rest have at best been nominal and ineffective. The Parliament Act of 1911 is a cornerstone legislation in this context as the provisions within…
Why is a state’s authority to govern is always contested?
In all forms of government there is always an element of dissent and disobedience to the authority of the state. While in totalitarian states, dissent is not tolerated and crushed as and when it happens, in the more democratic forms of government it is actually seen as a healthy sign. If we go back in…
What is distinctive about New Labour’s view of the welfare state and what has been its impact?
When the New Labour government rose to power in 1997, it was expected of it to engineer a more egalitarian society. A British society where the elderly will not be abandoned, the poor not neglected, etc. Now into its third term in power, the party’s promises to the underprivileged sections of society remains largely unfulfilled. …
How and why has “Financial Support for Parents” changed over the last 25 years
The notion of financial support for parents has undergone notable changes over the period of the last twenty five years. The era of Conservative hegemony, which started in February of 1975 with the election of Margaret Thatcher as leader of the Tory party, gave rise to the implementation of a political philosophy that strongly believed…