A-Level Politics
Your daily politics brief, mapped to your exam board
Real news, analysed by AI, tagged to your exam board specification. Delivered every morning before school so you walk into class already informed.
How it works
News that teaches
Real-world politics, distilled into exam-ready insights every day.
AI-Powered Analysis
Every morning, Claude analyses the latest politics news and extracts the concepts, evidence, and arguments that matter for your exams.
Curriculum Mapped
Every article is tagged to your politics specification topics so you know exactly which part of the syllabus it relates to.
Daily Email Digest
A concise briefing delivered before school. Read it on the bus, in registration, or over breakfast.
Exam Technique Tips
Each article includes guidance on how the topic could appear in a politics essay and how to use the evidence in your answers.
Preview
See What You'll Get
Here's a taste of what students receive every morning — real news, mapped to your spec, with exam-ready analysis.
Monday, 9 February 2026
Labour Joins Crackdown on Protest: Civil Liberties Under Pressure
Today we're diving deep into a crucial debate about the balance between public order and the right to protest, as Labour's new amendment targeting animal rights activists raises important questions about civil liberties in modern Britain. This story perfectly illustrates key concepts from your UK Politics spec, including pressure group tactics, the tension between state authority and individual freedoms, and how party ideology shapes policy decisions. We'll explore why both major parties seem to be taking similar approaches to protest restrictions, and what this means for pluralist democracy. And find out what happened on this day in political history, when the IRA brought violence to the very heart of British government at Downing Street.
Animal rights protesters targeted by a Labour government…again
Labour's recent amendment targeting animal rights protesters continues the party's historical approach to limiting protest freedoms, echoing New Labour's previous restrictions. The article examines how the current Labour government is following the Conservative Party's path on anti-protest legislation, raising questions about civil liberties and the right to protest.
Exam Tip: This article provides excellent contemporary evidence for Paper 1 questions on democracy and participation (P.1.4.5) and pressure groups (P.1.4.9). Students could use this to evaluate whether UK democracy adequately protects civil liberties or whether pressure groups are effectively restricted by the state. The continuity between Conservative and Labour approaches challenges assumptions about ideological differences between parties (P.1.4.8) and could support arguments about consensus politics or the decline of traditional left-right divisions. For Paper 3, this evidence illustrates tensions between classical liberal negative freedom and state authority, and can be used to evaluate whether modern Labour (P.3.3.4) has abandoned traditional socialist values around civil liberties.
Historical Insight
When the IRA Bombed Downing Street
7 February 1991
On 7 February 1991, the Provisional IRA launched a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street while Prime Minister John Major's War Cabinet was meeting to discuss the ongoing Gulf War. Three mortar shells were fired from a van in Whitehall, with one exploding in the garden of Number 10, just metres from the Cabinet Room. The blast shattered windows and briefly disrupted the meeting, but remarkably caused no fatalities. Major famously insisted the Cabinet continue their discussions moments later, declaring they should 'adjourn to another room'. The attack demonstrated the IRA's capability to strike at the heart of British government despite extensive security measures. It occurred during a period when the Northern Ireland peace process seemed distant, yet paradoxically may have reinforced the case for seeking a political settlement rather than purely military solutions. This attack remains relevant to understanding executive security and constitutional continuity. The incident raises questions about the physical vulnerability of government and how democracies balance security with accessibility - issues intensified after 9/11 and recent terrorist threats. The event connects to Paper 1's coverage of the executive and the principle of collective Cabinet responsibility, demonstrated by Major's determination to continue government business uninterrupted. It also illuminates the Northern Ireland conflict's impact on UK politics, relevant when studying devolution and the Good Friday Agreement (1998). The attack preceded the 1993 Downing Street Declaration that began the peace process, showing how even during violent escalation, political solutions were being explored. For students examining terrorism's impact on democratic institutions and the relationship between political violence and constitutional governance, this event provides a stark case study of resilience under direct attack. Note: This feature is AI-generated. While care has been taken to ensure accuracy, dates and details should be independently verified for academic use.