'The landscape of schooling in England has been transformed over the last five years' (House of Commons Education Committee, 2015:3). More than half of secondary schools in England have become academies, independent of local authorities and funded directly by central government. The programme was begun by New Labour in 2002, and by the time they left office at the 2010 General Election 203 academies had been established. The policy was considerably extended between 2010-2015 by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition, and 'Free Schools' were introduced by Education Secretary Michael Gove: that is, schools 'set up in response to what local people say they want and need in order to improve education for children in their community' (DfE, 2013/2015). By the time of the 2015 general election, there were 4,674 newly-sponsored or converter academies and 252 'Free Schools', representing 64% of secondary school students (47% of all state school students), and 51% of secondary schools (32% of all state schools). This research argues the hypothesis that there is a high degree of philosophical continuity on this policy across the main political parties in England. It also analyses the extent to which the policy-makers invoke historical expressions of conservatism and/or liberalism in their articulation of that convergence. Drawing on past associations with politicians, the principal expositors and key architects of the 'Free Schools' policy were interviewed, and these transcripts have given insight into how the themes of policy are conceptualised and understood. The data suggests that there are convergent philosophical views across the main political parties, and agreement on the course of history of the policy. There are, however, ethical concerns about the pace of reform, the primacy of the 'market', and the extent to which democratic public goods are consistent with schools that are 'free'.

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The administrative history of the Civil Wars and Interregnum has been largely ignored and dismissed as an aberration in the main stream of development. Yet the administrative history of the period is of great interest and significance both in itself, as an integral part of one of the most vibrant periods of English history, and as a part of the general development of the nation's administrative history. However, the period of the Civil Wars and Interregnum is too large a subject to be dealt with in its entirety. Consequently, the study limits itself to a consideration of only one part--the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. The administration of the years 1653 to 1658 will be dealt with in three inter-related parts. The first section sets out to establish what administrative machinery existed in these years. The preceding period of the Long Parliament, 1642-1653, discontinued the use of and even abolished some of the traditional machinery and created other new departments. This part of the paper establishes what existed under the Protectorate, when it was created, what' its purposes were and what officials were concerned with it. The dual nature of the administration of these years is established--the old traditional machinery, in various stages of use, and the new machinery organized on a Committee and Commission basis. The second part of the paper deals with the terms of employment of the office-holders under the Protectorate. Changes from conditions of entry and service prevalent under the monarchy are noted. It is found that in general there is a marked alteration in means of payment, the exaction of fees and the nature of tenure under the Protectorate. In fact, the administration under the Protectorate can he called far more tightly controlled or centralized, and somewhat more honest and efficient. The third and last part of the paper concerns itself with the personnel of the administration. A group of fifty-eight office-holders were found to have been particularly significant under Cromwell's administration. This Key group, selected from the ranks of the extremely important but secondary level of officials, is then analyzed to see if the nature of the group can add to an understanding of Cromwell's rule. The Key officials were found to be essentially a group of Cromwellian placemen. Analysis of geographical distribution, social origins and other factors determines that a large number of them represent a "lesser" and minor social class of men, originating from the backwaters of the English countryside. The Cromwellian administration is found to be a transitional phase between the Republicanism of the Rump and the Restoration of the Monarchy. It was tightly controlled from the centre, by Cromwell and the Council of State, and was fundamentally efficient and free from corruption. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation surveys electoral change in Great Britain during the period between 1979 and 1996. It analyzes the long-term factors and the short-term dynamics underlying the evolution of three aspects of the electorate: party identification, voting intentions and party support in inter-election periods. Drawing on cross-sectional and panel data from the British Election Studies and public opinion polls, I investigate the impacts of long-term socialization and short-term perceptions on voters' political decisions. I hypothesize that, over the last four elections, perceptual factors such as evaluations of party leaders and issues, particularly economic concerns, emerged as the major forces that account for the volatility in electoral behavior in Britain. Accordingly, this study is divided into three sections: Part I probes into the evolution in party identification across age cohorts and social classes as illustrated in trends in partisanship. Part II focuses on changes in voting intentions as affected by perceptual factors and party identification. Part III investigates the public's support for governing parties by analyzing the dynamics of aggregate party support during inter-election periods.

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In the past decade, there has been a surge of interest in extreme right Western European parties. Well-established parties such as the National Front (FN) in France, Vlaams Belang (formerly Vlaams Blok) in Belgium, and Lega Nord in Italy have been scrutinized. However, extreme right parties that have just recently begun to experience electoral successes such as the British National Party (BNP) have received less evaluation and discussion in the literature. Therefore, this study examines the BNP‟s electoral fortunes in the European elections of 1999, 2004, and 2009. I explore the support for the BNP using the traditional variables of unemployment, education, income, and immigration. In addition to these variables, I examine how support for other parties present in Great Britain, such as the right-wing United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) and the center-right Conservative Party affects electoral support for the BNP. I find that support for other right-wing parties in Great Britain do exert an influence on BNP electoral fortunes (the UKIP a positive one, and the Conservative Party a negative one). I also find a strong negative link between BNP support and education and a weak positive one between BNP support and unemployment. However, income and immigration rates appear to have no effect on voter support for the BNP.

Mrs Thatcher's third electoral victory in the summer of 1987 appeared to confirm and consolidate both the success and the popularity of the political and economic experiment attempted during her eight years in office. Thatcherism is perhaps most remarkable for guiding Britain out of the dark decades of the 1960's and 1970's when relative economic decline was the chief cause of a governmental and institutional paralysis that inevitably led to policy failures, "u-turns'', and defeats at the hands of the trade union movement. At a time when governmental effectiveness had been diluted, the hold of public expectations, symbolic of "consensus" or "Butskellite'' politics, showed no sign of loosening; despite the fact that welfare statism retained it's grip over the British public, years of economic decline and governmental ineffectiveness (symbolised by Heath's defeat by the miners and the "winter of discontent" under Callaghan), meant that fiscally, government commitments, both old and new, were outreaching their grasp and ability to deliver. It was speculated by many of the period's more prolific writers that public recognition of successive governments' inability to manage the demands of a modern economy was leading to severe, if immeasurable, credibility and legitimation problems. To what extent have the Thatcher policies solved these seemingly intractable problems? Has Thatcherism found a solution to the demands of social democratic Britain? What is the real extent of Britain's economic recovery? Is there a "new consensus" that underpins the Thatcher challenge to the "mal Anglais''? These questions will be central to this paper's analysis of the extent of the restoration of British governability in the Thatcher years. / Master of Arts

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