‘Friend or Foe?’: Brexit and French Bashing in the Conservative Parliamentary Party (2016–2022)

This article explores the extent of anti-French rhetoric in Conservative parliamentary discourse since 2016. It argues that up to the end of Liz Truss's extremely brief period of power, a fair number of Conservative MPs embarked on an escalation of tabloid-like anti-French bashing after the election of Boris Johnson, in an attempt to mimic the dramaturgy staged by their leader, while those who tried to provide a more positive discourse were left crying in the wilderness. Moreover, positive attempts to renew the relationship essentially came from MPs who had specific interests to defend, either in terms of representation of French residents in their constituencies or out of loyalty to family connections. Post-Johnson, a more realistic and sensible discourse is anticipated, but damaging traces of this populist drift are likely to continue.     

The Long March Through Whitehall: A Comment on Lowe and Pemberton,The Official History of the British Civil Service,Volume II: 1982–1997

The Thatcher‐Major ‘permanent revolution’ massively changed the British civil service and Whitehall. The political clout provided by strong prime ministerial backing was a key factor in sustaining the momentum of change over the 1980s and 1990s. The process of change developed piecemeal, in a step‐by‐step and, in some ways, even haphazard fashion, with ‘New Right’ ideology just one factor. Economic and financial constraints were important in driving and sustaining the Whitehall efficiency drives and managerial reforms of the period. Support from managerially minded insiders and skilful prime ministerial businessmen advisers brought in from outside were also crucial. In contrast, the Johnson government's approach to civil service reform may be self‐defeating if it creates too much instability and needless strife, rather than building on ideas and building up support at different levels from within Whitehall itself.     

Does Controlling Behavior Predict Physical Aggression and Violence to Partners?

Using data obtained from women’s shelter residents, male and female students, and male prisoners, this study investigated the association between non-violent controlling behaviors, physical aggression, and violence towards a spouse (N = 264). It was predicted that only men and women involved in intimate terrorism (Johnson, Violence Against Women, 11(12):1003–1018, 2006) would use controlling aggression, and that physical aggression used by those involved in situational couple violence would be unrelated to controlling behavior. Contrary to predictions derived from Johnson’s theory, regression analysis showed that control accounted significant proportions of the variance in the use of physical aggression for all three relationship categories. Some support was provided, however, as it was found that the pattern of both interrelationships of the five types of controlling behaviors, and control and physical aggression, supported Johnson’s distinction.     

"9·30事件"与约翰逊政府的印尼政策

1965年“9·30事件”前后,约翰逊政府通过培植与以陆军为首的印尼军人集团以及军人政权的特殊关系力图影响乃至操纵印尼的国内政治和对外政策走向,从而深刻地介入印尼的内部事务。对印尼陆军的政策构成了美国印尼政策的一个重要组成部分。     

Black music and pan-African solidarity in Keorapetse Kgositsile’s poetry

The African American revolutionary poetry outfit and purported grandfathers of rap The Last Poets coined their name from Keorapetse Kgositsile's poem “Towards a Walk in the Sun”. This is relatively common knowledge. However, no sustained academic research has been conducted on this crucial exchange in diasporic studies. In this paper, I show how Kgositsile's poem in question harvested the rich oral, aural, and literary practices of his native Setswana, which in turn enabled The Last Poets to not only draw a name from Kgositsile's poetry, but also a language and poetic. This way, I demonstrate multivalent streams of influences between black South Africa and black America, as opposed to the current one-way exchange in scholarship that almost always presents black South Africans as emulators and mimickers of Afro-American culture. I expose how Kgositsile's poetry trans/figures both Afro-American literary and musical histories. Functioning within the framework of pan-Africanism, I uncover black music's transatlantic arch in Kgositsile's poetry, which unifies Africa, the Caribbean, and black America. I offer a deep analysis of that arch, and demonstrate its dynamic and complex networks which span generations and centuries, and continues to be generative till today. I focus particularly on the evolution of orality and aurality in black expressive cultures, understood as practices that express the black cultural continuum on both sides of the Atlantic.     

The Continuing Conceptual Crisis in the Common Law of the Contract of Employment

The effects on the common law of the contract of employment of the decision of the House of Lords in Johnson v Unisys Ltd are considered. The focus is on liability rather than remedies. It is argued that the case created conceptual instability in the common law understanding of a breach of a contract of employment. The logical consequence of the majority reasoning is that in some cases the existence or not of a breach by an employer is contingent on an employee's reaction. Relevant case law history and developments since the Johnson decision inform a detailed critique of the arguments that underpinned it. A solution is suggested according to which, prima facie, contracts of employment would be required to be performed in accordance with terms that have been implied by law.     

From Rebellion to Extinction: Where have all the Tory Remainer MPs Gone?

This article examines the process of extinction of former remainer Conservative MPs who followed different paths in the run-up to the 2019 general election: either choosing to stay loyal and merge with the rest of the parliamentary party, or to express their discontent and leave the party. When they chose to rebel against the leadership, only a small minority dared to vindicate their position. The other rebels constantly played down their identity as remainers and justified their views in an apologetic way. More remarkably, they were treated differently by Boris Johnson, who eventually suspended the last remainers and called for a general election to renew the composition of the party. The consequences of this last move are crucial in order to understand the radical transformation of the Conservative Party into the actual (and only) ‘party of Brexit’.     

One Man's Damage: The Consequences of Boris Johnson's Assault on the British Political System

The disgraced British prime minister, Boris Johnson, was forced to resign by his own backbench MPs on 7 July 2022 (effective from 6 September) in complete denial that he had done anything wrong. Optimists might argue that this shows the strength of the British political system; that a way was found to throw out a proven rascal, thus providing the opportunity for a restoration of ‘normal politics’. In my view, this optimism is misplaced. Boris Johnson's behaviour, mirroring that of his populist role model, Donald Trump, has raised a number of serious questions about the continued successful functioning of the UK's unwritten constitution. The article reviews the character of Johnson's constitutional violations during his period as prime minister. Using data from a recent survey of UK voters, it then explores the damaging effect that his period in office has had on UK public opinion. Despite his removal from office, Johnson retains a hard core of support across the wider electorate and, in particular, among grassroots Conservative supporters and party members. These supporters remain largely unaware of Johnson's constitutional crimes, and where they do know about them, they forgive them. This creates the real danger either that Johnson may at some future date return to office to repeat his offences, or that a similarly populist successor might deploy the same anti-democratic devices that Johnson himself used in his desperate attempts to cling to power.     

中美两国在“越美和谈”问题上的较量

为了试探北越的意图并传达武力讹诈的信息,给战争升级制造恰当的理由,美国约翰逊政府在与越南在巴黎和谈前的1964年6月至1968年4月,曾多次做出和谈的姿态和尝试。越美间的试探性接触引起了中国政府的极大关注,出于谈判时机、国家利益、反"苏修"斗争和抑止"苏修"在印度支那扩张的考虑,中国政府坚决反对越美间的任何试探性和谈,因而在这个问题上与美国进行了反复的较量。     

Those bothersome Rho-dents: Lyndon B. Johnson and the Rhodesian Information Office

My article explores the response of the Johnson Administration to the establishment of the Rhodesian Information Office (RIO) in Washington DC in the aftermath of the Rhodesian Unilateral Declaration of Independence. The stance adopted by Johnson toward the RIO is illustrative of the viewpoint of the White House toward the broader issues of achieving majority rule and racial equality in Rhodesia and indeed the wider Southern African region. As clearly demonstrated by its policies toward the RIO, the White House adopted a measured approach of condemning Rhodesia and white minority rule in Africa and engaged in limited actions to demonstrate US opposition. Johnson, however, was not prepared to countenance more extreme measures that could threaten US geopolitical and domestic interests.