United Kingdom

In spring 2013 the government announced that GDP had grown slightly in the first quarter of the year, thus preventing a slide back into a recession that would have been the third to afflict Britain in five years. Nevertheless, in local elections in parts of England and Wales in May, voters showed their dissatisfaction with the nature of the economic recovery by turning away from Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, who together lost 459 seats on English local councils. Labour made significant gains (picking up some 291 seats), but the big story of the election was the tremendous jump in representation by United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which advocates withdrawal from the EU. By gaining 139 seats, UKIP made one of the most impressive showings by a fourth party in recent British electoral history.

The birth of George, rejection of intervention in Syria, and regulation of GCHQ

On July 22, 2013, with much of the world’s media on “royal baby watch,” Catherine, duchess of Cambridge, gave birth to a boy, George, who became third in the line of succession to the British throne.

In late August, Cameron was dealt a stunning blow by Parliament’s rejection of his proposed response to events in the Syrian Civil War. Amid reports that hundreds of Syrians had been killed earlier in the month in an alleged chemical attack by the regime of Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad, Cameron asked the House of Commons to endorse in principle British military intervention in Syria. Although approval had been widely expected, MPs rejected the proposed involvement by a vote of 285 to 272—largely, it seemed, as a result of the fear of a rush to judgment regarding the cause of and responsibility for the Syrian deaths and a lack of faith in the certainty of intelligence reports in light of British involvement in the Iraq War.

In October 2013 an impassioned debate arose in the press and in Parliament over whether there was a need for greater regulation of surveillance practices of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in the wake of revelations that the agency had far greater eavesdropping capabilities than had previously been acknowledged publicly. Cameron and others condemned the news leaks (originating with former U.S. CIA and National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden) that had led to the revelations and claimed that the activities of the GCHQ were lawful and necessary for national security. The relationship of the government to the press had also been strained by the repercussions of a scandal in 2011 that involved press hacking of private phone calls, led to a public inquiry guided by Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson, and resulted in the establishment of a new press watchdog system (also in October 2013).

Euroskepticism

The British political landscape was shaken again in May 2014, when UKIP not only made more dramatic gains in local council elections (increasing its representation by more than 150 seats) but also finished first in elections for the European Parliament, becoming the first party other than Labour or the Conservatives in more than 100 years to triumph in a British national election. Capitalizing upon a growing wave of Euroskepticism that had a similar impact on elections to the European Parliament elsewhere (most notably in France, Denmark, and Hungary), the virulently anti-EU UKIP won 27 percent of the vote and 24 seats (a gain of 11 seats) to 20 seats for Labour (a gain of 7) and 19 seats for the Conservatives (a loss of 7). The biggest loser in the election was the generally pro-EU Liberal Democratic Party, which fell from 11 seats to a single representative, mirroring the tumble it took in the local elections and prompting some in the party to call for Clegg’s replacement as leader.

Scottish independence referendum