A Level Government and Politics Bridging Work YOUR NAME: COMPLETE YOUR WORK IN THIS BOOKLET – THERE IS SPACE AT THE BACK. IF YOU NEED EXTRA PAPER, USE YOUR OWN AND ATTACH IT BEFORE YOU HAND IN THE WORK TO MR ALDRIDGE/MR GILLESPIE. __________________________________________________________________________________ As strange as it might sound, the purpose of your Government and 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 Government and 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! 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 and commentators to follow from a wide array of publications and political views: Laura Kuenssberg Robert Peston Alex Wickham Julia Hartley Brewer Page 1 of 19 John Crace Marina Hyde Jonathan Freedland Dan Hodges Owen Jones Ash Sarkar Marie Le Conte Hadley Freeman Lewis Goodall 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 • Pod Save America • Hacks On Tap with Axe and Murphy • 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 (ie: 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. TASK 3: ANALYSING POLITICAL OPINION Read the two articles attached about the Trump impeachment, 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 each article have of the Trump impeachment process 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? In total, notes for both articles should amount to about a page of A4 Page 2 of 19 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 (ie: Corbyn, the manifesto, Brexit referendum) 2. The strengths of the Conservative Party (simple message, Brexit) 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) Page 3 of 19 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 National File LIBERAL TEARS: Leftists Rage Online Over Failed Impeachment Of President Donald Trump Biden voters have taken to Twitter en masse to express their frustrations with the Senate's decision to acquit the former President. by ANDREW WHITE February 13, 2021 Liberals all across the internet are expressing their grievances after the Senate voted 57-43 to acquit President Donald Trump from his second impeachment trial. President Trump was the first President in the history of the United States to be impeached and acquitted twice. He is also the first President in history to be tried by the Senate after already leaving office, a manoeuvre that many argued was unconstitutional. Following the final Senate vote, liberals were quick to take to the internet to rage over the latest Trump victory. One notable account on Twitter known as “Biden Voters Posting Their L’s Online” tweeted out screenshots of liberals on Reddit complaining about the impeachment failure. Some liberals are so upset that they are utilizing the notorious “all caps rage” format to drive their point across. Page 4 of 19 However, it is unclear how acquitting the former President of impeachment charges relating to the Capitol Hill incident on January 6 has anything to do with white supremacy. That has not stopped liberals from making similar false claims online. The Washington Post’s Karen Attiah, the so-called NABJ “Journalist of the Year,” tweeted this: Ironically, liberals were counting on Senator Mitch McConnell to vote to convict President Trump, given that the Republican senator played a major role in launching the impeachment procedures. Senator Mitch McConnell reportedly utilized the impeachment process as means to pressure President Trump to not pardon Edward Snowden or Julian Assange in the final days of his term. One could argue that this decision to vote for Trump’s acquittal could partially be because the looming threat of a Snowden or Assange pardon is no longer on the table, now that Biden has assumed the Presidency. Among the overwhelming majority of Democrats in the Senate, 7 establishment Republicans sided with their Democrat counterparts to convict President Trump. As National File reported, the 7 Republican senators include: Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) Sen.