Culture Wars

UK Politics Digest – October 2023

In this course, Professor Andrew Blick (King's College London) analyses the major events of UK politics between April and September 2023. In the the first module, we explore the issue of culture wars in UK politics. After this, we look at Scotland and the issue of Scottish Independence. Then, we explore the ongoing issue of Brexit. In the fourth module, we look at Northern Ireland and the political difficulties there. Then, we examine the issue of standards in public life. Finally, we look at electoral politics and the July 2023 by-elections.

Culture Wars

In this module, we explore the issue of culture wars in UK politics. In particular, we look at: (i) what we mean by the term culture wars in the context of UK politics; (ii) the issues that culture wars normally focus on, including UK opposition to net zero policies; (iii) Rishi Sunak's recent approach to net zero and how this can be seen as a culture wars issue; and (iv) the Conservative Party's pursuit of new, harsher asylum policies.