Reclaiming the political : emancipation and critique in security studies

The critical security studies literature has been marked by a shared commitment towards the politicization of security – that is, the analysis of its assumptions, implications and the practices through which it is (re)produced. In recent years, however, politicization has been accompanied by a tendency to conceive security as connected with a logic of exclusion, totalization and even violence. This has resulted in an imbalanced politicization that weakens critique. Seeking to tackle this situation, the present article engages with contributions that have advanced emancipatory versions of security. Starting with, but going beyond, the so-called Aberystwyth School of security studies, the argument reconsiders the meaning of security as emancipation by making the case for a systematic engagement with the notions of reality and power. This revised version of security as emancipation strengthens critique by addressing political dimensions that have been underplayed in the critical security literature

England’s dissatisfactions and the conservative dilemma

In the immediate aftermath of the Scottish independence referendum, Prime Minister David Cameron raised the ‘English Question’ by advocating English Votes for English Laws in the House of Commons. This article explains why. It uses findings from the 2014 Future of England Survey of attitudes to constitutional issues in England. It reveals a group of interlinked concerns in England: about the advantages Scotland is perceived to have in the UK Union, about the absence of institutional recognition of England in the UK political system, and about the European Union and immigration. It shows that these concerns are distinctively English, held in a broadly uniform way across England and held most strongly by people in England who identify themselves as English, and not British. These concerns, and their linkage to and by English identity, differentiate the supporters of different political parties. They are held least strongly by Labour and Liberal Democrat supporters, and more strongly by Conservative and, especially, UKIP supporters. Cameron’s move on the English Question – and subsequent profiling of English issues in the 2015 UK general election – recognised a territorially distinctive electoral battleground in England on which the Conservatives are now competing with UKIP to articulate a new English nationalism, perhaps at the expense of the Conservative Party’s unionist heritage

Racism, crisis, Brexit

This article offers a conjunctural analysis of the financial and political crisis within which Brexit occurred with a specific attentiveness to race and racism. Brexit and its aftermath have been overdetermined by racism, including racist violence. We suggest that the Leave campaign secured its victory by bringing together two contradictory but interlocking visions. The first comprises an imperial longing to restore Britain’s place in the world as primus inter pares that occludes any coming to terms with the corrosive legacies of colonial conquest and racist subjugation. The second takes the form of an insular, Powellite narrative of island retreat from a ‘globalising’ world, one that is no longer recognisably ‘British’. Further, the article argues that an invisible driver of the Brexit vote and its racist aftermath has been a politicization of Englishness. We conclude by outlining some resources of hope that could potentially help to negotiate the current emergency

The UK Independence Party and the Politics of Englishness

The rise of the UK Independence Party has been one of the most dramatic and widely discussed features of British politics in recent years. This article argues that one vital but largely overlooked facet of this phenomenon has been the politics of national identity. It argues that despite the UK Independence Party’s ostensibly unionist stance, Englishness is an important pivot around which key elements of the party’s appeal revolve, notably in terms of its Euroscepticism, its opposition to immigration and its anti-establishment narrative. It argues that the Anglo-Britishness promulgated by the UK Independence Party allows space for the celebration of English identity rather more easily than of other sub-state national identities, as it does not challenge the legitimacy of the UK state, which is itself seen as the expression of Anglo-British identity and sovereignty. Scottish nationalism, on the other hand, is seen as a threat to the union and therefore anti-English

The changing patterns of group politics in Britain

Two interpretations of ways in which group politics in Britain have presented challenges to democracy are reviewed: neo-corporatism or pluralistic stagnation and the rise of single issue interest groups. The disappearance of the first paradigm created a political space for the second to emerge. A three-phase model of group activity is developed: a phase centred around production interests, followed by the development of broadly based 'other regarding' groups, succeeded by fragmented, inner directed groups focusing on particular interests. Explanations of the decay of corporatism are reviewed. Single issue group activity has increased as party membership has declined and is facilitated by changes in traditional media and the development of the internet. Such groups can overload the policy-making process and frustrate depoliticisation. Debates about the constitution and governance have largely ignored these issues and there is need for a debate

Iso-osmotic regulation of nitrate accumulation in lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.)

Concerns about possible health hazards arising from human consumption of lettuce and other edible vegetable crops with high concentrations of nitrate have generated demands for a greater understanding of processes involved in its uptake and accumulation in order to devise more sustainable strategies for its control. This paper evaluates a proposed iso-osmotic mechanism for the regulation of nitrate accumulation in lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) heads. This mechanism assumes that changes in the concentrations of nitrate and all other endogenous osmotica (including anions, cations and neutral solutes) are continually adjusted in tandem to minimise differences in osmotic potential of the shoot sap during growth, with these changes occurring independently of any variations in external water potential. The hypothesis was tested using data from six new experiments, each with a single unique treatment comprising a separate combination of light intensity, N source (nitrate with or without ammonium) and nitrate concentration carried out hydroponically in a glasshouse using a butterhead lettuce variety. Repeat measurements of plant weights and estimates of all of the main soluble constituents (nitrate, potassium, calcium, magnesium, organic anions, chloride, phosphate, sulphate and soluble carbohydrates) in the shoot sap were made at intervals from about 2 weeks after transplanting until commercial maturity, and the data used to calculate changes in average osmotic potential in the shoot. Results showed that nitrate concentrations in the sap increased when average light levels were reduced by between 30 and 49 % and (to a lesser extent) when nitrate was supplied at a supra-optimal concentration, and declined with partial replacement of nitrate by ammonium in the external nutrient supply. The associated changes in the proportions of other endogenous osmotica, in combination with the adjustment of shoot water content, maintained the total solute concentrations in shoot sap approximately constant and minimised differences in osmotic potential between treatments at each sampling date. There was, however, a gradual increase in osmotic potential (ie a decline in total solute concentration) over time largely caused by increases in shoot water content associated with the physiological and morphological development of the plants. Regression analysis using normalised data (to correct for these time trends) showed that the results were consistent with a 1:1 exchange between the concentrations of nitrate and the sum of all other endogenous osmotica throughout growth, providing evidence that an iso-osmotic mechanism (incorporating both concentration and volume regulation) was involved in controlling nitrate concentrations in the shoot