What to Make of the Midterms?
Tuesday, 11th May at 6pm BST
The midterms are over with results from Lambeth, Llanelli, and Lothian making this year’s devolved and local elections a truly national affair. The press has taken an enormous interest and the fates of national party leaders, and perhaps even the whole country, are being presented as though hanging in the balance.
The SNP got an increase in their vote share after 14 years in power at Holyrood but still failed to win a majority. Labour in Wales secured their best result, winning half the seats at the Welsh Parliament. The Tories—after a decade long rule at Westminster—gained councils and increased vote share in mayoral elections in what were once seen as unwinnable Teesside and Birmingham. In the Hartlepool by-election voters switched to the Tories — with Labour then dramatically switching their top team around as a response to the result.
Are we overthinking the results, are they designed in a way that gives a national picture, and do we even want them to? What do the political parties’ responses say about their own sense of where they'd like to be this far from a general election? What do the results mean for devolution and localism? Do they give succour or pause for thought to the intentions and interventions the Tory government at Westminster has in mind over the next few years? And what should we make of the fact that Cornish Nationalists Mebyon Kernow increased their seat tally by 25%?
To discuss all this and more are:
Matt Kilcoyne — Deputy Director of the Adam Smith Institute (host)
Tom Harwood — Political Correspondent at GB News. As a journalist and commentator he has previously written for Guido Fawkes and the Daily Telegraph.
Rachel Cunliffe — Deputy Online Editor at the New Statesman. She is a regular guest on the BBC and Sky News. Previously, Rachel was Comment and Features Editor at the London business newspaper City A.M. Her writing has also appeared in The Times, The Telegraph, The Spectator, Grazia, and Prospect Magazine.
Stephen Daisley — columnist for the Scottish Daily Mail and a regular contributor to the Spectator. He once called Matt Kilcoyne a ‘dangerous leftist’
Details:
Date: Tuesday, 11th May 2021
Time: 6:00pm - 7:00pm
The webinar will begin at 6.00pm, with an audience Q&A session taking place at approximately 6:45pm. The webinar will conclude at 7:00pm.
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