Posted by Chris Lowe on 18 May 2012
How much of this week’s news do you remember? 1. The Leveson inquiry announced that it would call Jeremy Hunt’s former special adviser before them. But what is his name? 2. What did Immigration Minister, Damian Green, blame for the delays at Heathrow – the wrong kind of wind, rain or fire? 3. Who is Labour’s [...]
Posted by Chris Lowe on 11 May 2012
To celebrate the lighting of the Olympic torch, we focus on UK politicians who have appeared in the Olympics. 1. During which parliament did Lord Coe represent Falmouth and Camborne in the Commons? 2. Which current Lib Dem MP competed in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in the 200m and the 4x100m relay? 3. Which member of the [...]
Posted by PGaffney on 9 May 2012
The last time the Queen formally opened Parliament the Coalition Government was still in its infancy, Labour were in the midst of a leadership election having lost the General Election, David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s personal ratings and popularity were high and press conferences were held in the sunshine of the rose garden rather than [...]
Posted by Tom Corbett on 8 May 2012
Doing a quick search on Google of the words ‘Climate + Change’ it doesn’t take you long to come across numerous stories from various media outlets that would lead joe public to believe that if we fail to deal with climate change we are pushing the world to the brink of a climate catastrophe. Last week [...]
Posted by Chris Lowe on 4 May 2012
We are almost at the 2nd anniversary of the 2010 General Election, but how much of it do you remember? 1. On what date was the 2010 General Election held? 2. A record number of MPs from the 2005-10 parliament chose not to seek re-election, but how many: 78, 108, 128 or 148? 3. What [...]
Posted by kderschewsky on 1 May 2012
As a former student of Brunel University’s Professor Justin Fisher I was particularly intrigued by yesterday’s Policy Exchange event discussing the publication of their research report ‘Northern Lights. Public policy and the geography of political attitudes in Britain today’. Amidst Neil O’Brien’s discussions of a plethora of graphs, subsequent regression analysis, and focus groups (the [...]
Posted by Chris Lowe on 27 April 2012
This week’s quiz ‘celebrates’ the healthy relationship between politicians and the press. 1. Fill in the blank: “If _______ wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights” 2. Who did the Sun describe as “The most odious man in Britain” in 1981? (clue, he is still very much around!) [...]
Posted by Chris Lowe on 20 April 2012
In a week where Lord Sugar says don’t vote for Ken and Michael Portillo says he’s not voting for Boris, we take a look at political defections. 1. Which Labour MP on Merseyside (allegedly) has a butler? 2. Who were the original “Gang of Four” that defected from the Labour Party to start the SDP in 1981? [...]
Posted by Ania Swirski on
Social enterprise, mutualism and cooperatives are all political buzz words that are becoming increasingly fashionable of late. But, what do they actually mean and how can these models be applied to tackle some of the country’s social and economic issues. I went along to Respublica’s event on ‘Driving the UK economy through co-operation and innovation’ [...]
Posted by Chris Lowe on 5 April 2012
This week’s quiz is on the elections to be Mayor of London since 2000. 1. Who gained the highest number of first preferences in any Mayoral election? 2. Spot the three 2012 candidates from their middle names: Leonard, Robert, and de Pfeffel? 3. What parliamentary seats did Ken and Boris represent at the time of [...]