Abstract
Anyone who attended the Political Studies Association's awards ceremony back in November - or watched the highlights on BBC Parliament - would have witnessed a stirring speech from Labour's Dr Tony Wright. On accepting his award for parliamentarian of the year, Dr Wright argued that politicians can be divided into two camps: ‘what’ and ‘why’. The former are politics' bean-counters, with the shillings and pence of public administration. The latter, on the other hand, ask why certain policies are being implemented and not others, why funds are being spent in one area and not another. It is these politicians who are crucial to the success of democracy and who must be encouraged and supported.
Like Dr Wright and other ‘why’ politicians, Political Insight is all about asking the important, often awkward, questions of politics and politicians. If we do not call government to account, who will?
Each issue of Political Insight will cover a broad range of topics. In this issue, election expert Paul Whiteley predicts the forthcoming UK general election; Andrew Gamble takes a look at the implications of the financial crisis and Alexandra Kelso considers whether last year's expenses crisis will lead to lasting parliamentary reform. Elsewhere, Charlie Jeffery shows how devolution has changed Scottish electoral politics and John Benyon profiles the politics of our ageing society.
Political Insight is not restricted to national politics. In this issue, Inderjeet Parmar analyses how American foreign policy has changed under President Obama, and Muhammad Idrees Ahmad reports from Peshawar on the growth of the Pakistani Taliban. Meanwhile, Allison Drew profiles the politics of South Africa and Edward Huijbens and Huginn Freyr Porsteinsson explain how the credit crunch has affected Iceland.
As well as regular feature-lenth pieces, between the covers of Political Insight you will find a variety of irregular columns on everything from research impact and methods to controversial views and opinions. This month, Iain McLean and Vernon Bogdanor debate the thorny issue of whether or not the UK should have an elected head of state and upper house, and, in our Foresight slot, David McNair and Dries Lesage argue the case for greater international co-operation on taxation to help developing nations. Meanwhile, I talk to former Liberal Democrat leader and parliamentary stalwart Ming Campbell about his life in politics.
Political Insight has a vital role to play in bringing research and debates on all aspects of politics to a broad audience. If you would like to be part of this process, drop me an email (address on the opposite page) with your comments and suggestions.
All that is left for me to say is enjoy the magazine's first issue and see you again in September.