Women2Win and the feminisation of the UK Conservative Party

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baroness Anne Jenkin ◽  
Sarah Childs
Keyword(s):  
Conservative Party ◽  
Women Candidates ◽  
Considerable Success ◽  
Political Office ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Conservative Women ◽  
Selection Of

This chapter is an account of the establishment of Women2win, an organization created in 2005 to support the selection of women candidates for political office in the UK Conservative party. Its author is its founding, and still, co-Director, Baroness Anne Jenkin. The chapter charts the efforts of Women2win over the last decade, and discusses the issues that it has faced in securing a higher number of Conservative women MPs in the UK Parliament. In 2015 there were a total of 68 Conservative women MPs (20 percent) up from 17 (9 percent) in 2005. The chapter charts, then, considerable success for the party, although it also points out ongoing concerns about the supply pool – the number of women seeking selection – and the practical issues of seeing women aspirant candidates being selected for the party’s winnable seats.

Conserving Conservative women: a view from the archives

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy McIlwaine
Keyword(s):  
Conservative Party ◽  
Women And Gender ◽  
Cultural Attitudes ◽  
Record Keeping ◽  
Archival Material ◽  
Special Collections ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Conservative Women

This chapter discusses the issues affecting the acquisition and preservation of archival material relating to Conservative women, and how this necessarily impacts on our understanding of the role of women and gender within the Conservative Party. It looks at the difficulties affecting archivists particularly with regard to changing cultural attitudes towards record-keeping, the financial constraints in which special collections libraries operate, and the lack of protection afforded to modern records within the UK. Finally, it proposes some ways in which, jointly, archivists and academics can work together to prevent further loss of potentially useful archival material and identify possible alternatives to material formerly available, within the context of a rapidly changing record-keeping environment.

A Court of Specialists

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Hanretty
Keyword(s):  
Family Law ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Tax Law ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Political Differences ◽  
Uk Supreme Court ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Initial Selection ◽  
Selection Of

This book explains how judges on the UK Supreme Court behave. It looks at different stages in the court's decision-making process—from the initial selection of cases, to the choice of judges to sit on panels, to the final outcome. The main argument of the book is that judges' behavior is strongly affected by their specialism in different areas of law. Cases in tax law (or family law, or public law) are more likely to be heard by specialists in that area, and those specialists are more likely to write the court's decision—or disagree with the decision when there is dissent. Legal factors like specialization in areas of law explains more of the court's work than do political differences between judges.

Ruth Davidson's Conservatives: The Scottish Tory Party, 2011-19

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Retrospective Study ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
Academic Discourse ◽  
Point Of No Return ◽  
Lgbt Politics ◽  
The Uk

Examines the startling revival of the Scottish Conservative Party under Ruth Davidson’s leadership: A very timely retrospective study of the Scottish Conservative Party's revival under Ruth Davidson's leadership (November 2011–August 2019). Analyses the Scottish Conservative Party under Ruth Davidson’s in the context of gender and LGBT politics; its relationships with the SNP, Northern Ireland, the Scottish media and the UK Tory Party; and its use of Scottish national identity. Helps inform Scottish political and academic discourse ahead of the 2021 Holyrood elections. When Ruth Davidson was elected leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party in 2011, it was considered something of a joke: in electoral decline for decades, politically irrelevant and seemingly past the point of no return. But by 2017, ‘Ruth Davidson’s Conservatives’ had become Scotland’s second party at Holyrood and Westminster, and its leader spoken of as a future leader of the UK Conservative Party, if not the next Scottish First Minister. Then, in August 2019, Ruth Davidson resigned.

scholarly journals Brexit and Animal Protection: Legal and Political Context and a Framework to Assess Impacts on Animal Welfare

Animals ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven McCulloch
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Agricultural Policy ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
Political Support ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
Animal Protection ◽  
Protection Policy ◽  
The Uk

The British people voted to leave the European Union (EU) in a 2016 referendum. The United Kingdom (UK) has been a member of the EU since the Maastricht Treaty was signed in 1993 and before that a member of the European Communities (EC) since 1973. EU animal health and welfare regulations and directives have had a major impact on UK animal protection policy. Similarly, the UK has had a substantial impact on EU animal protection. Brexit represents a substantial political upheaval for animal protection policy, with the potential to impact animal welfare in the UK, EU and internationally. Brexit’s impact on farmed animals will determine the overall impact of Brexit on animals. A major threat to animal welfare is from importing lower welfare products. A major opportunity is reform of UK agricultural policy to reward high welfare outside the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). A soft Brexit, in which the UK remains in the single market and/or customs union, mitigates the threat of importing lower welfare products. A harder Brexit means threats to animal welfare are more likely to materialise. Whether threats and opportunities do materialise will depend on political considerations including decisions of key political actors. The Conservative Government delivering Brexit has a problematic relationship with animal protection. Furthermore, Brexit represents a shift to the political right, which is not associated with progressive animal protection. There is significant political support in the Conservative Party for a hard Brexit. Further research is required to investigate whether the various threats and opportunities are likely to materialise.

scholarly journals CONSERVATIVE PARTY AND THE PROBLEMS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR (on the pages of “Diary of a diplomat” by I. M. Maisky)

2016 ◽  
pp. 32-37
Author(s):  
E. V. Khakhalkina
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Early Years ◽  
World War ◽  
Dominant Position ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Second World

The “Diary” of the Soviet diplomat I. M. Maisky, who worked in London for more than ten years first as a messenger, then as the Soviet ambassador to the UK, is one of the valuable sources for the interwar period and the Second World War. The “Diary” contains records of Maisky’s conversations with the leading British politicians and public figures and his own thoughts on a wide range of issues, including the problems of the British Empire. The author of the paper analyzes the views of the Tories on the prospects for the British Empire and the Commonwealth of the postwar period and reveals the plans for the reconstruction of the Empire and its transformation while maintaining the dominant position of Britain in the format of a new relationship with the dominions and colonies. The paper shows that within the British political establishment there was no consensus on the future of the empire and, as the materials of the “Diary of diplomat” evidence, the problem of the evolution of the Empire had a close relationship with other areas of foreign and domestic policy.

scholarly journals Does political discourse matter? Comparing party positions and public attitudes on immigration in England

Politics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Leruth ◽  
Peter Taylor-Gooby
Keyword(s):  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Public Deficit ◽  
Net Migration ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Large Group Discussion

The 2015 UK General Election campaign was mostly dominated by the issues of immigration, public debt, and income inequality. While most political parties adopted austerity-led programmes in order to reduce the level of public deficit, their stances on immigration vary significantly despite the two main parties converging on a welfare chauvinist frame. This article compares party positions to policy recommendations formulated by participants in a democratic forum as part of the ‘Welfare States Futures: Our Children’s Europe’ project in order to determine whether recent party pledges on immigration are being used by citizens in a large group discussion over the future of welfare policy in the United Kingdom. The analysis shows that while participants are committed to tougher policies in order to reduce existing levels of net migration, most of the policy priorities formulated do not match those of the two mainstream parties (i.e. the Conservative Party and the Labour Party) but rather those of the UK Independence Party (UKIP). It also demonstrates that participants’ individual political preferences do not seem to match their own positions on immigration and that there is little difference between left-leaning and right-leaning voters.

Modes and models of Conservative women’s leadership in the 1930s

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie V. Gottlieb
Keyword(s):  
Conservative Party ◽  
Women's Leadership ◽  
Women's Issues ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
National Leaders ◽  
Conservative Women

Women came into their own in the Conservative Party in the aftermath of suffrage as party workers, as MPs, as local and national leaders, and as part of a notional women’s bloc of voters that Conservatives felt they could rely on at election time. The valuable work performed by Conservative women at grass roots has been acknowledged in the scholarship, as have the strategies developed by the party to mobilise women as both party workers and voters. Much less attention has been conferred on those Conservative women who became virtual national celebrities. By the late 1930s the two women Conservative MPs to achieve this celebrity and notoriety were Lady Nancy Astor, the first woman MP to take her seat, a committed feminist, and hostess of the so-called Cliveden Set, and the Duchess of Atholl, the first woman MP from Scotland, an avowed anti-(non) feminist, and the Chamberlain scourge at the height of appeasement. Both defied stereotypes of Tory femininity with their own personal styles, by taking an abiding interest in international affairs when most Conservative women were expected to be focused on the local and parochial, and by engaging with women across party lines to advance their favoured policies. They are contrasted with Irene Ward MP whose long Parliamentary career offers a different perspective on where a Conservative MP stood on women’s issues.

The Scottish Conservatives and Europe: The Reluctant Brexit Party

2020 ◽  
pp. 169-181
Author(s):  
Anthony Salamone
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Conservative Party ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The European Union ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Eu

As Scottish Conservative leader, Ruth Davidson was a prominent campaigner for a ‘Remain’ vote in the European Union referendum of June 2016. Following the 2017 general election, meanwhile, Davidson repositioned herself as someone who could – aided by 13 Scottish Tory MPs in the House of Commons – influence the Brexit negotiations and nudge the UK Conservative Party towards a ‘soft’ rather than ‘hard’ deal with the EU. This chapter considers the impact of Brexit on the Scottish Conservatives during the leadership of Ruth Davidson in four dimensions: Brexit’s distinct Scottish political context, its electoral consequences, the conduct of Brexit within the UK, and the Brexit negotiations themselves. It concludes with reflections on the future prospects for the Scottish party in light of all four dimensions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document