Bridging work for Sept 2021 GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS As strange as it might sound, the purpose of your Politics bridging work is not to begin covering the content you will be studying in Year 12. Instead, it is to help you to start thinking like an A Level Politics student should, by utilising the wide range of resources available to us as students of politics today, and developing key skills. You should see Politics as a subject that is constantly discussed and debated, and staying up to date with what’s going on in the UK and the US is essential to succeeding at A Level. Hopefully these tasks will help you to start to do that! WEEK 1 – TASK 1: KEEPING UP WITH NEWS It is hugely important that you stay up to date with the news. Below are a few things you should consider doing to help you to do this. • Download a newspaper app and get into the habit of keeping up to date every day with breaking news. Many newspapers use a paywall but some (like The Guardian) are still free. Even paywall websites often allow a couple of free articles per week. The BBC news website is certainly free and is also an essentials source of news. • Newspapers often have their own political slants which may affect what you like to read. The Guardian tends to be more left-wing, whereas the Mail, Telegraph and Express are right-wing. The Times is somewhere around the middle. Try to avoid tabloids like the Sun and Mirror at least for academic study! • Twitter is the most effective way of keeping up with the news – if you have a Twitter page, begin to follow political journalists as they often use this medium to break new stories. If you don’t have a Twitter page, consider setting one up to help with your Politics studies (you don’t need to tweet!). Below are some useful journalists to follow from a wide array of publications and political views: Laura Kuenssberg Robert Peston Alex Wickham Julia Hartley Brewer John Crace Marina Hyde Bridging work Page 1 of 20 Jonathan Freedland Dan Hodges Owen Jones Ash Sarkar Marie Le Conte Hadley Freeman WEEK 2 – TASK 2: PODCAST REVIEW Select one episode of a political podcast to listen to. There are hundreds of excellent podcast series available on Politics. Below are a few, but you are welcome to choose a different one of your own. • The Political Party with Matt Forde • Reflections with Peter Hennessy • Political Thinking with Nick Robinson • The Guardian Politics Weekly • The Economist Radio • Reasons to Be Cheerful with Ed Miliband • KCRW’s Left, Right and Center When you’ve listened to the episode, write a summary of it. Within this, consider the following: • Your thoughts on the episode – what topic it covered and what specific aspects of that topic it focused on • Your own opinion of the topic covered (i.e.: Brexit, Donald Trump) and the argument put forward • The tone of the podcast and how it conveyed the political issue • How effective you felt the episode was • Whether podcasts are effective ways of relating politics to wider audiences You should aim to write at least a page of A4 WEEK 3 – TASK 3: ANALYSING POLITICAL OPINION Read the two articles attached about the Trump presidency, and highlight key points as you go. When you’ve finished, look to make notes on the two articles under the following headings. • What are the key messages of each article? Include at least 4 points here • What opinion does the article have of the Trump presidency and how do you know? Refer to specific phrases from each column here • What does this tell us about studying politics? Do articles containing opinion help or hinder us? Bridging work Page 2 of 20 In total, notes for both articles should amount to about a page of A4 WEEK 4 – TASK 4: WRITING A POLITICAL ESSAY Essay Title: “The Conservative Party won the 2019 UK General Election due to the failings of the Labour Party” To what extent do you agree? A political essay should include: 1. A very short introduction that states clearly whether you agree with the question or not 2. AT LEAST TWO – and USUALLY THREE paragraphs. Each paragraph will have a clear theme (I.E. Labour failings) 3. In each paragraph you should follow this structure: • Outline theme • Make a point that supports the theme • Then add an example that backs up the point • Then explain WHY the point was so important. “This was important because…” • Then look to state why perhaps the theme was LESS IMPORTANT “However perhaps Labour failings were less significant because…” • Add an example to back up your however point • Then explain why the point was perhaps less important THIS WILL MEAN YOU ARE ANALYSING IN EACH PARAGRAPH! 4. You end your essay with a short conclusion that sums up what you feel was the most important reason for the Conservative election victory and why you think as you do. Here is part of a paragraph to give you an idea as to how it will look: How far has the modern Conservative Party retained basic conservative principles? One way that the modern party is still traditional is in its continued support for Tradition and Preservation. Traditional conservatives highlight the need to support traditional institutions such as the monarchy, church, marriage and political institutions. The Modern Party still supports this to a great extent. This has been seen recently in the Parties opposition to attempts to change the voting system for UK General elections from FPTP to AV in the Referendum of 2011 as well as their campaign to persuade the people Scotland to reject independence in 2014. Both of these policies clearly highlight the support of tradition and traditional institutions (namely retaining the current voting system as well as keeping the United Kingdom in one piece). However, in other ways the modern party seems to have slightly stepped away from tradition in other areas. For example, in 2013 the Party Leadership introduced legislation in support of Gay Marriage which clearly counters the idea of traditional values and perhaps suggests that in some ways the Party is less traditional to an extent as it has been seen to be supporting alternative lifestyles rather than traditional family values Potential paragraph themes for your essay: 1. Failures of the Labour Party (i.e.: Corbyn, the manifesto, Brexit referendum) 2. The strengths of the Conservative Party (simple message, Brexit) Bridging work Page 3 of 20 3. Other factors (Brexit could come in here as well, as could a paragraph on Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn (i.e. the party leaders or something on the other parties) There are some resources for you to use at the back - you can also find other information that might help you! What to do now: 1. Read each article and highlight key points 2. Re-read the articles and make notes that link to each section in the planning grid (final page) 3. Complete essay planning sheet 4. Write the essay RESOURCES Task 3 – Article 1 from The Atlantic The President Is Unravelling The country is witnessing the steady, uninterrupted intellectual and psychological decomposition of Donald Trump. Peter Wehner Contributing writer at The Atlantic and senior fellow at EPPC IN CASE THERE WAS ANY DOUBT, the past dozen days have proved we’re at the point in his presidency where Donald Trump has become his own caricature, a figure impossible to parody, a man whose words and actions are indistinguishable from an Alec Baldwin skit on Saturday Night Live. President Trump’s pièce de résistance came during a late April coronavirus task-force briefing, when he floated using “just very powerful light” inside the body as a potential treatment for COVID-19 and then, for good measure, contemplated injecting disinfectant as a way to combat the effects of the virus “because you see it gets in the lungs and does a tremendous number on them, so it’d be interesting to check that.” But the burlesque show just keeps rolling on. Take this past weekend, when former President George W. Bush delivered a three-minute video as part of The Call to Unite, a 24-hour live-stream benefiting COVID-19 relief. Bush joined other past presidents, spiritual and community leaders, front-line workers, artists, musicians, psychologists, and Academy Award winning actors. They offered advice, stories, and meditations, poetry, prayers, and performances. The purpose of The Call to Unite (which I played a very minor role in helping organize) was to offer practical ways to support others, to provide hope, encouragement, empathy, and unity. In his video, which went viral, Bush—in whose White House I worked—never mentioned Trump. Instead, he expressed gratitude to health-care workers, encouraged Americans to abide by social-distancing rules, and reminded his fellow Americans that we have faced trying times before. Bridging work Page 4 of 20 “I have no doubt, none at all, that this spirit of service and sacrifice is alive and well in America,” Bush said. He emphasized that “empathy and simple kindness are essential, powerful tools of national recovery.” And America’s 43rd president asked us to “remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat.” “In the final analysis,” he said, “we are not partisan combatants; we are human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of God.” Bush concluded, “We rise or fall together, and we are determined to rise.” That was too much for Trump, who attacked his Republican predecessor on (where else?) Twitter: “[Bush] was nowhere to be found in speaking up against the greatest Hoax in American history!” So think about that for a minute.