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Steven Fielding

Steven Fielding is director of the Centre for British Politics and professor of Political History in the School of Politics and IR, University of Nottingham

March 2022

  • Keir Starmer visit to Estonia<br>Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer talks with troops during a visit to Tapa Military Base in Estonia, where British armed forces are deployed as part of Nato's Enhanced Forward Presence. Picture date: Thursday March 10, 2022. PA Photo. See PA story POLITICS Ukraine Starmer. Photo credit should read: Victoria Jones/PA Wire

    Call him ‘Security’ Starmer – it seems to be the word the Labour leader likes best

    Steven Fielding
    Whether applied to the military, energy or family life, it’s a mantra being used to shape the party’s pitch to the public, says historian Steven Fielding

September 2020

  • Keir Starmer talking to Darlington sixth formers last month.

    Keir Starmer has to abandon Corbyn's promise on student fees

    Steven Fielding
    Sooner or later, the Labour leader will realise that spending at least £6bn a year on free tuition won’t break down inequality

August 2020

  • Students at an IT seminar.

    UK universities' promise of face-to-face teaching is risking academics' health

    Steven Fielding
    Desperate managers are trying to attract students with in-person seminars despite fear of Covid second wave

September 2014

  • Wilson At No 10 in 1964

    Guardian Comment Network
    What Ed Miliband could learn from Harold Wilson

    Steven Fielding for the Conversation, part of the Guardian Comment Network
    Steven Fielding for the Conversation: Despite his elite education, Wilson projected a persona that made him seem a man of the people. Miliband would do well to emulate that

September 2013

  • Harold Wilson at No 10 Downing Street after winning 1964 election

    Political science
    Harold Wilson's 'white heat' speech was aimed at the 'squeezed middle'

    Steven Fielding: Wilson probably didn't realise he had just delivered one of post-war British politics' most cited pieces of rhetoric. He just wanted to win the election

March 2013

  • Spirit of '45 still

    Ken Loach's Spirit of '45 is a fantasy

    Steven Fielding

    Steven Fielding: It was a stirring time, but people were seeking not socialism but reformed capitalism. This film obscures some inconvenient truths

January 2013

  • Gloria de Piero

    The long history of Britain's distrust of MPs

    Steven Fielding
    Steven Fielding: Gloria de Piero wants to know why MPs are hated. The roots of it go back much further than the expenses scandal

September 2012

  • A scene from the final series of The Thick Of It

    Why The Thick of It is safe comedy

    Steven Fielding
    Steven Fielding: The series may have provided some memorable lines, but it's done little more than pander to our prejudices about politicians

March 2011

  • kay burley

    Kay Burley's book betrays a venerable tradition

    Steven Fielding
    Steven Fielding: Political women writing about politics is a noble theme – but this novel forms a downwards staging post in the Conservative take on the genre

January 2011

  • Colin Firth in The King's Speech

    The gaps in The King's Speech

    Steven Fielding
    Steven Fielding: Like most British dramas about the monarchy, The King's Speech skates over the less savoury aspects of royal history

December 2010

  • Upstairs Downstairs

    The new Upstairs, Downstairs is more period than drama

    Steven Fielding
    Steven Fielding: Period dramas from the 1970s often explored class politics from a leftish perspective. Today's versions are escapist fantasy

April 2010

  • General election 2010: Cif at the polls
    Meet the Nick Clegg of 1942

    Steven Fielding

    Steven Fielding: Sir Stafford Cripps's radio broadcast is a timely warning to those who think the Lib Dem leader is our saviour

  • British prime minister Tony Blair tours the West Bank city of Hebron

    The ghost of Tony Blair

    Steven Fielding
    Steven Fielding: Roman Polanski's The Ghost is the latest in a very long line of fictionalised Tonys. What does this obsession say about us?
  • David Cameron mumsnet

    General election 2010: Cif at the polls
    'Lambrini Ladies': why the election turns them off

    Steven Fielding
    Steven Fielding: Young women on lower incomes are ignored by the political class – and aren't swung by pictures of leaders holding babies

February 2009

  • The Iron Lady was no victim

    Steven Fielding

    Steven Fielding: Recent portrayals of Margaret Thatcher try too hard to emphasise her humanity, making it easy to lose sight of what she did

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