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For a brief moment in 2019 Britain's politics looked like it might be transformed. Just when it seemed that the divisions within and across British political parties over Brexit could not get any more intense, 7 Labour and 3 Conservative MPs broke away to form The Independent Group (TIG) -- later Change UK. This is the first book to explore the meteoric lifespan of that party, within the wider context of the experiences of other small political groupings in the House of Commons. Ultimately, it shows why the party failed and disbanded after just a few months. Timely and thoroughly researched, Louise Thompson's book takes us deep inside the struggles facing MPs who leave behind the comforts of the large political parties. Drawing on interviews with current and former politicians, it explores the practicalities of being a small party MP in the Commons. What challenges face you? Who can you turn to? And just how can you make an impact? Crisply written for the non-specialist reader, this fascinating book opens a window onto the perilous world of parliamentary politics.

Legislators --- Brexit. --- British politics. --- Change UK. --- House of Commons. --- MPs. --- campaigning. --- elections. --- govenrment. --- independents. --- parliament. --- parliamentary rights. --- participation. --- party splits. --- political parties. --- politics. --- small parties.

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Beyond Slacktivism examines how routine social media use shapes political participation. Many commentators have argued that activism has been compromised by “slacktivism,” a pejorative term that refers to supposedly inauthentic, low-threshold forms of engagement online. Dennis argues that this critique has an overly narrow focus. He offers a novel theoretical framework—the continuum of participation—to help illuminate how and why citizens use social networking sites to consume news, discuss civic matters, and engage in politics. This idea is explored in two interrelated settings. Firstly, in an activist context, through an ethnography of the campaigning organisation 38 Degrees. Secondly, within day-to-day life, by combining evidence of behaviour online with reflective diaries. Drawing on this rich data on individual-level attitudes and behaviours, Dennis challenges slacktivism as a judgement on contemporary political action. Beyond Slacktivism provides an account of how the seemingly mundane everyday use of social media can be beneficial to democracy. James Dennis is Senior Lecturer in Political Communication and Journalism at the University of Portsmouth, UK. .

Democracy. --- Political communication. --- Social media. --- Great Britain-Politics and gover. --- Political Communication. --- Social Media. --- British Politics. --- Self-government --- Political science --- Equality --- Representative government and representation --- Republics --- User-generated media --- Communication --- User-generated content --- Political communication --- Great Britain—Politics and government.

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This book is concerned with the ideology of Islamophobia as a cultural racism, and argues that in order to understand its prevalence we must focus not only on what Islamophobia is, but also why diversely situated individuals and groups choose to employ its narratives and tropes. Since 2001, Muslims in Britain have been constructed as the nation’s significant ‘other’ – an internal and external enemy that threatened both social cohesion and national security.  Through a consideration of a number of pertinent contemporary issues, including no-mosque campaigns, the rise of anti-Islamist social movements and the problematisation of Muslim culture, this book offers a new understanding of Islamophobia as a form of Eurocentric spatial dominance, in which those identified as Western receive a better social, economic and political ‘racial contract’, and seek to defend these privileges against real and imagined Muslim demands.

Great Britain-Politics and gover. --- Religion and politics. --- British Politics. --- Politics and Religion. --- Political science --- Politics, Practical --- Politics and religion --- Religion --- Religions --- Religious aspects --- Political aspects --- Great Britain—Politics and government.

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A strong emotional attachment to the memory of empire runs deep in British culture. In recent years, that memory has become a battleground in a long-drawn ideological war, inflecting debates on race, class, gender, culture, the UK’s future and its place in the world. This provocative and passionate book surveys the scene of the imperial memory wars in contemporary Britain, exploring how the myths that structure our views of empire came to be, and how they inform the present. Taking in such diverse subjects as Rory Stewart and inter-war adventure fiction, man’s facial hair and Kipling, the Alt-right and the Red Wall, Imperial Nostalgia asks how our relationship with our national past has gone wrong, and how it might be improved.

Imperialism. --- Collective memory --- Great Britain --- History. --- Brexit. --- Britain. --- British Empire. --- British empire. --- British politics. --- crisis. --- cultural studies. --- decolonisation. --- empire. --- historiography. --- history wars. --- imperial nostalgia. --- imperialism. --- memorial studies. --- nostalgia. --- postcolonial studies. --- racial imaginary.

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 ‘This insightful study shines a critical spotlight on the evolution of the ombud, that well-studied but little-understood creature. Using legal services regulation as a case study, the authors trace the shift from democratic accountability to consumer empowerment evident in the set-up of ombuds today. In doing so, they not only expose the impoverishment brought about by this new dispute resolution focus but consider what’s at risk to society and our administrative justice system. This is a sobering reminder of the need to retain the collective memory of the history and purpose of the ombud institution, which is otherwise in danger of being lost.’ – Margaret Doyle, Senior Research Officer, UKAJI, University of Essex, UK ‘This important study locates the story of the Legal Services Ombudsman within the socio-political and professional contexts from which it emerged. By drawing on a range of conceptual insights into the nature of adjudicative law within liberal democracies, it exposes the profound tensions that characterise current dilemmas facing ombuds(man) systems.’  – Kevin Kearns, Barrister and former Senior Lecturer, University of Central Lancashire, UK  ‘Ombudsmen at the Crossroads’ is an excellent review of the staged introduction and development of independent complaint-handling in the legal sector. But this book is also a timely addition to ombudsman studies more generally, reminding us of the different roles that ombudsman schemes can perform.' – Richard Kirkham, Senior Lecturer in Public Law, University of Sheffield, UK This book charts the evolution of the Legal Services Ombudsman for England and Wales. Established in 1990, it had a statutory remit that explicitly recognized its dual responsibility for consumer dispute resolution and democratic accountability. It was replaced in 2010 by a very different type of ombudsman institution. The book describes how the Ombudsman reconciled its different roles and how far it succeeded in changing the mentality of the legal profession. The authors relate the Ombudsman’s successes and failures to current debates facing the ombudsman and regulatory community, and highlight the continuing potential of the ombudsman institution. The ombudsman institution emerges as a ‘third way’ between the courts and various forms of alternative dispute resolution, and as a creative and democratic means of responding to public grievance. Nick O’Brien is an Honorary Research Fellow at Liverpool University, UK. He was formerly Legal Director of the Disability Rights Commission.  Mary Seneviratne is Emeritus Professor of Law, Nottingham Trent University, UK. She was formerly Member of the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council. She is author of The Legal Profession: Regulation and the Consumer (1999), and Ombudsmen: Public Services and Administrative Justice (2002).                                                                                                                                   .

Political science. --- Political communication. --- Public policy. --- Great Britain --- Public law. --- Political Science and International Relations. --- Public Policy. --- Political Communication. --- British Politics. --- Public Law. --- Politics and government. --- Ombudspersons --- Lawyers --- Discipline. --- Advocates --- Attorneys --- Bar --- Barristers --- Jurists --- Legal profession --- Solicitors --- Legal status, laws, etc. --- Representation in administrative proceedings --- Great Britain-Politics and gover. --- Law --- Political communication --- Political science --- Great Britain—Politics and government. --- Public law .