Three on politics to start with today.

1. An engaging series for BBC Radio 4 from David Runciman, Postwar, in which he tells the story of the 1945 UK general election which rejected Winston Churchill and the dawn of a new age. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00249zx/episodes/player?page=2

2. A piece for The Conversation by John Curtice, How Britain’s new political divide delivers voters to Reform and the Greens, in which he suggests that Britain’s political tectonic plates may recently have moved irreversibly https://theconversation.com/how-britains-new-political-divide-delivers-voters-to-reform-and-the-greens-259613

This, of course, is not the first time that Britain’s two-party system has been under challenge. In the early 1980s the Liberal/SDP Alliance threatened to “break the mould of British politics”. In spring 2019, at the height of the Brexit impasse, the Brexit Party and the Liberal Democrats appeared poised to upset the traditional order. This time, however, the challenge to the Conservative/Labour duopoly seems more profound.

3. And a piece from Ipsos, Reform with Ipsos record 9-point lead over Labour, as public satisfaction with government nears lowest point recorded under a modern Labour administration, telling a very similar story https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/reform-ipsos-record-9-point-lead-over-labour-public-satisfaction-government-nears-lowest-point

Ipsos’ newly relaunched Political Monitor shows Reform UK on a 34% vote share, the highest Ipsos has ever recorded for them, and nine points ahead of the Labour Party. Just under a year since the 2024 general election, Ipsos in the UK’s new findings show how dramatically the political landscape has changed:

Labour’s 25% voting intention is the lowest share Ipsos has recorded for Labour since October 2019.

The Conservatives’ 15% is the lowest share Ipsos has ever recorded.

Keir Starmer and the government’s satisfaction ratings have fallen significantly since last year, with around three in four (73% and 76% respectively) now dissatisfied.

4. A new (non-political) position paper from Oxford ELT, The Impact of Assessment on Teaching and Learning: Creating positive washback https://elt.oup.com/feature/global/expert/positive-washback?cc=gb&selLanguage=en PDF below, in case that’s easier for you.

• Explore research on how testing and assessment shape classroom practices
• Find practical guidance on how teachers can prepare their students for exams while also addressing their broader language learning needs
• Explore recommendations to help schools and policymakers foster positive washback
• Discover how emerging technologies are reshaping the way educational institutions approach testing and assessment

5. And, finally, if you live in Andorra, Belarus, Bolivia, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Guatemala, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mali, the Marshall Islands, Monaco, Mongolia, Paraguay, Sao Tome and Principe, Sweden, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, or Vatican City, this one’s for you, Map of the Week: Every Country Britain HAS NOT Invaded https://blog.richmond.edu/livesofmaps/2023/10/13/map-of-the-week-every-country-britain-has-not-invaded/