Teaching Fellow, Department of History, University of Birmingham
I am an historian of modern Britain with a particular interest in twentieth century constitutional and party politics, and local history.
As a Morrell Scholar at the University of York between 1984 and 1987 I examined the relationship between the work of John Stuart Mill and the arguments used to support campaigns to widen the franchise in nineteenth and twentieth-century Britain.
I was awarded a Research Associateship of the Open University between 1998 and 2001 to examine the determinants of British parties’ attitudes to constitutional reform, and was awarded the PSA’s David Butler Prize in 1998 for research on policy towards electoral reform.
Between 2007 and 2011 the Scurrah Wainwright Trust funded my research into the history of the Liberal Party in the twentieth century, particularly to produce a biography of Richard Wainwright, former MP for the Colne Valley.
My current research continues to focus on recent Liberal Party and Liberal Democrat history, and is also in the field of Birmingham social and cultural history.
In 2014 I was awarded a grant by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd to undertake 'Liberalism in Power', a study of the impact upon their image and fortunes of Liberal Democrat MPs at the 2015 general election of their party's participation in government.
Boris Johnson: what first 24 hours reveal about new prime minister's prospects
Jul 26, 2019 09:02 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
It seems that more has been said about the Boris Johnson premiership in 24 hours than was said about his predecessor, Theresa May, during her whole three years in Number 10. Certainly, the new prime minister is intent on...
Brexit breakthrough? May and Corbyn will meet to find a compromise
Apr 03, 2019 10:29 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
There is some good news about Brexit. The magic eye picture of Britains policy is beginning to emerge from the random pixels of the referendum campaigns promises and threats to a shadowy image of compromise. But there are...
How Brexit brought Britain's constitution to the brink
Apr 01, 2019 17:26 pm UTC| Insights & Views
It would be amusing but unhealthy at the moment to host a drinking game based on the use of the phrase constitutional crisis. The term has been uttered 155 times in parliament since the EU referendum (38 times in 2019 and...
Why an oath to 'British values' just isn't British
Jan 08, 2017 02:34 am UTC| Insights & Views Life Politics
According to three-time British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin: An Englishman is all right, as long as he is content to be what God made him an Englishman. Three generations later, another Worcestershire Tory Cabinet...
A sustainable future begins at ground level
Canada needs a national strategy for homeless refugee claimants
An eclipse for everyone – how visually impaired students can ‘get a feel for’ eclipses