politics – Manchester Historian

As the run-up to the 2024 UK general election begins in earnest, it is likely that we will see a rapid increase in hysteria surrounding Chinese and Russian interference in Britain’s electoral process. However, there is no doubt that the majority of this discourse will fail to connect this meddling with Britain’s own historical involvement in election interference, military interventions, and assassinations, in its attempt to preserve commercial and ideological interests abroad.

Since 2016, Polish women have been engaged in a continuous battle against the politicians from Law and Justice, a right-wing populist party led by Jarosław Kaczyński. Today, as the party lost its bid for majority in the Polish parliament, many questions concerning women’s rights start to arise. Is the democratic opposition going to liberalise the abortion law? And how many more women are going to lose their lives until proper legislation is introduced?

On January 6th 2021, following Joe Biden’s election, Donald Trump spoke at a rally where he told voters that if they did not “fight like hell, [they were] not going to have a country anymore”. Fuelled by the belief that the 2020 election was ‘rigged,’ enraged Americans, some armed, stormed Capitol Hill. The attack resulted in five deaths and over $2.7 million in damages. Since then, Donald Trump has faced impeachment twice, been arrested and been charged with 97 felonies, including charges related to the inciting of violence on Jan. 6th.

Following the death of Tony Benn, who was universally revered, Stephen Fulham looks at the cultural phenomenon that is the death of great statesmen and women.

While advertising originally evolved to answer the needs of industry, it is now a key element of the political world too. Thom Iddon looks at how political leaders have used advertising.