Prof. Richard Rose

This blog initially appeared in the Analysis section of the website of the UK In a Changing Europe.  Friday is the 96th anniversary of the 1923 general election that led to Ramsay MacDonald becoming Labour’s first Prime Minister – even though his party finished second with 191 MPs. The door to Downing Street opened because the […]

The deal that Boris Johnson wants is a November election in which he can campaign for the voters to give his government a subservient majority on the grounds that he has delivered Brexit. Delivering Brexit in October would have three advantages for Johnson’s electoral ambitions. It would recover support from Nigel Farage’s one-issue Brexit Party […]

Today’s crisis in British government is the biggest since 1974, when a miner’s strike challenged the authority of the Conservative government and led to a three-day working week. To break the impasse, Ted Heath called a general election on the issue: ‘Who governs, an elected government or the miner’s union?’ The Brexit crisis raises the […]

Calling for a general election to settle Brexit may seem a neat solution, but it is risky. The two parties with the clearest views on EU membership, the Liberal Democrats and the Brexit Party, would both be grossly under-represented in the new Parliament, whatever their share of the popular vote. Moreover, there is a real […]

Featured on The UK in a Changing Europe Theresa May has denounced the EU’s rejection of her Chequers proposal for Brexit as an attempt to punish Britain. In fact, the driving force behind the EU rejection is the same as that of Theresa May: self-protection. The difference is that the EU wants protection from Brexit […]