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Does the United Kingdom’s constitution sufficiently protect its democracy from a rogue prime minister?

In light of the resurgence of the far Right across Europe and some of the rhetoric of the 2024 General Election, which carried whiffs of political authoritarianism, Could It Happen Here? explores the possible consequences of a British prime minister refusing to leave office. Mapping out the processes that might occur after such an eventuality, the responsibilities of key players in the United Kingdom’s democratic system, and the integrity of that system after years of stress, Peter Hennessy and Andrew Blick analyze the United Kingdom’s “unwritten” constitution and provide a crucial recommendation for protecting and strengthening the resilience of its parliamentary democracy.

A compelling account of the transformative changes Britain is facing today, exploring how we can build a post-COVID society.

2021 and 2022 were two of the most turbulent and disruptive years experienced by Britain in peacetime. Land of Shame and Glory: Britain 2021–22 addresses a series of unprecedented challenges that laid bare the fragility of Britain and the Union during this time. Beginning with the chaotic Fall of Kabul, which exposed Britain's military dependence on the United States, through the prolonged, unsatisfying removal of a prime minister—and the economically catastrophic, short-lived tenure of his successor—that further exposed the vulnerabilities of an unwritten constitution; to the country sweltering in record-breaking temperatures amid dire warnings of climate catastrophe; and finally, to the death of a much-loved monarch, who was a point of consistency during decades of tremendous social and technological change. Peter Hennessy considers the continuities and upheavals of the last seventy years, asking whether there can be said to have been a second Elizabethan Age and lamenting that the post-war period came to its close amid such upheaval and loss.
 

New and selected writings by one of the United Kingdom’s leading contemporary historians.

As one of Britain’s foremost constitutional experts and contemporary historians, Peter Hennessy has spent his professional life unpicking the arcane world of Whitehall and Westminster. He began his career as a journalist for the Times, the Economist, and the Financial Times, developing a network of insider contacts who helped him shine a light on some of the dustiest corners of the British establishment. As a journalist, prize-winning contemporary historian, and political commentator, he has chronicled the workings of the British state with wit, affection, and a healthy sense of the absurd over a five-decade career. Now a crossbench peer, he has, in his own words, “moved in with his exhibits.” Hennessy is also a stalwart of BBC election night coverage and a regular commentator on BBC Radio 4, bringing a historical and constitutional perspective on current events.

In this new volume, he brings together selected journalism, unpublished lectures, and new writing alongside personal recollections and reflections on his time observing postwar Britain, how it is governed, and those who do the governing. He reflects on the making and unmaking of prime ministers from Attlee to Truss, life in the House of Lords, and the changing constitutional landscape in the wake of Brexit and amid uncertainty about the future of the Union. Interspersed with lectures, journalism, and new pieces, Hennessy also looks back at a fascinating career, reflecting on his own experiences as a young green graduate navigating the hard-nosed world of Fleet Street in the 1970s, bringing to life a cast of characters from a world now largely gone. He revisits his time as a public historian, academic, and crossbench peer with a levity reflected in his belief that history is “gossip with footnotes.”
 

A reflection on the state of democracy and observance of the British constitution in the United Kingdom.

In The Bonfire of the Decencies, Peter Hennessy and Andrew Blick use Boris Johnson’s tenure as prime minister to argue that mechanisms for the upholding of constitutional principles in the United Kingdom are deficient and require an overhaul. They show that, from the outset, Johnson’s time in office was a source of serious disruption that saw standards and integrity compromised, as well as constitutional values violated. Those problems, however, did not end with Johnson’s removal from office. Rather, they are part of longer-term tendencies in the UK, and of a worrying international trend towards the weakening of democracy. Hennessy and Blick analyze the pre-existing vulnerabilities that Johnson exposed in the UK system of government and conclude with a series of proposals to repair the damage and prevent a repetition of this anxious episode in the UK’s political history.
 

On the BBC radio show Reflections with Peter Hennessy, the preeminent historian of British political life interviewed leading figures from the UK’s governing parties during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Bringing together transcripts of the collected interviews for the first time, The Complete Reflections features interviews the biggest names from the Thatcher era, the New Labour years, and the coalition government of the 2010s. 

In The Complete Reflections, Peter Hennessy and Robert Shepherd provide not only an overview of the past three decades of British politics but also delve into the minds of those at the forefront of public life during times of great change. Hennessy’s deep knowledge and understanding of the lives and motivations of his interviewees, along with the obvious esteem in which they hold their interlocutor, leads to frank and revealing conversations in which the subject is not an object but an equal, giving these exchanges a unique veracity. The results are portraits of high authority, in which interviews become the chronicles that endure above all others—nothing less than the first draft of history.

A thoughtful examination of how to recenter decency in politics and public life, told through conversations between long-time historian and public servant Peter Hennessy and influential friends, decision makers, and leaders. 

Having surveyed eighty years of the UK's political and constitutional journey, Hennessy prepares to bid farewell to public life. And he’s left with one thought: that the essential quality of decency needs to be placed—once again—back at the heart of public life and public discourse. But what does decency look like today, where does it spring from, and how might we all play a role in recentering it in public life? In The Politics of Decency, Hennessy considers such issues alongside a group of people who might pick up his baton. After inviting public servants, colleagues, and those he has long admired, along with younger voices from politics and public life, into his home for conversations about what decency means to them, he reflects on what they have shared with him. Hennessy’s interest in this question springs from a concern about constitutional proprieties, but these conversations range much further afield—from the constitution to service delivery, from schooling to social media. What he hears is both worrying and uplifting: a sense that there is a problem, a real commitment to tackle it, and ideas for how that might be done—and what role all of us can play in doing it.