The New Zealand Centre for Public Law and the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies,
Victoria University of Wellington, jointly invite you to attend

Two lectures by Sir Ivor Crewe
Thursday, 17 September 2015

Sir Ivor Crewe is the Master of University College, Oxford and President of the Academy of Social Sciences. He is a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Essex, founding Director of the Institute of Social and Economic Research and Head of the Department of Government at Essex.

He is currently a governor of the European University Institute in Florence, the School of Oriental and African Studies and the University of the Arts London.  He is Chairman of the  Higher Education Policy Institute and an adviser to the Office for Fair Access.

Sir Ivor’s academic work focuses on British politics. He has written extensively on elections, public opinion and party politics in the United Kingdom. His books include Decade of Dealignment (with Bo Sarlvik) and SDP: The Birth, Life and Death of the Social Democratic Party (with Anthony King). In 2013 he published as co-author with Anthony King The Blunders of our Governments (OneWorld Publishers).

Lecture 1: 12.30pm

Lecture Theatre 3, Ground floor, Old Government Buildings, 55 Lambton Quay
Why is Britain badly governed? And what might be done about it?
Successive British governments led by both the Conservative and Labour parties launch too many policy initiatives that fail to meet their objectives, waste large amounts of money and cause widespread dissatisfaction amounting sometimes to human distress. The causes are rooted both in the failings of our politicians and senior officials and in the policy-making system in which they operate. Are there ways to improve the quality of our governing classes? How should the UK’s political institutions be reformed in order to reduce the scale of government blunders? What lessons can be learned from, and imparted to, other parliamentary democracies?

Lecture 2: 5.30pm

Lecture Theatre 3, Ground floor, Old Government Buildings, 55 Lambton Quay
No longer a United Kingdom: the history and politics of Britain’s identity crisis
The general election of May 2015 revealed a country more divided about its national identity and destiny than at any time since the rise of Irish nationalism over a century earlier. Each of the four nations of the United Kingdom is dominated by a different party; the winners of the election, the Conservatives, have a significant presence only in England.  They must resolve in short order two existential crises, the prospect of an independent Scotland and of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union.  By the next election in 2020 the ‘United Kingdom’ may be unrecognisable. Why is one of history’s most successful political unions under threat? What might be done to restore it?

Refreshments following the evening lecture sponsored by the Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington. Please RSVP for catering purposes to law-events@vuw.ac.nz

The organisers are grateful to the NZ Rhodes Scholars Association for organising Sir Ivor’s tour and offering us the opportunity to host these events.