Welcome to the first issue of the 11th volume of British Politics. Our first contribution for this issue is from Craig Berry and explores the development of the financialisation agenda in pensions policy. The paper argues that while financialisation is being justified by demographic changes and a rhetoric of austerity in the wake of the financial crisis, the trend has strong continuities with policy dating back to the governments of New Labour. Our second article is from Matthew Williams, and examines the ‘judicialization’ of British politics. Using a descriptive time series analysis, the author discusses the increasing role played by judges in the interpretation of law, demonstrating a significant increase in the use of indeterminate language in legislation passed by parliament.
The third original article for this issue is from Shaun McDaid, and examines the failure of power-sharing arrangements in Northern Ireland during the 1970s. Drawing on archival sources, the author argues that this failure was due to conflicting attitudes towards devolution among Northern Ireland politicians, rather than traditional ideological divisions between nationalists and unionists. Following this, our fourth article, from Timothy Heppell, Andrew Crines and Michael Hill, provides an analysis of the rhetoric used in Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, and shows how this speech managed to succeed in making a high-profile impact when controversial comments by other Conservatives had failed to. Our final original article, from Peter Dorey, examines the circumstances surrounding the fateful decision by James Callaghan not to call a general election in the summer of 1978. This is explained a rational decision under the political calculations of the time, but proved to have far-reaching consequences that paved the way for the emergence of Thatcherism. The final paper for this issue is for our Forward Thinking section, and comes from Daniel Bailey. The paper explores the economic challenges of climate change and consumerism, and highlights the need for a more sustainable pattern of consumption.