Wed, 14 Oct
|Asia Society Hong Kong Center
The End of British Party Politics?
[ASHK Program] Join us for an evening with Professor Roger Awan-Scully on the UK's fragmented politics and unstable leadership.
Time & Location
14 Oct 2026, 6:30 pm – 7:45 pm
Asia Society Hong Kong Center, 9 Justice Dr, Admiralty, Hong Kong
About the event
⊹ This is a public ASHK program offering complimentary tickets to ELA students.
The End of British Party Politics?
The United Kingdom has just sworn in its seventh leader since 2016, in a period marked by economic turbulence, deep political polarization and repeated party crises. This level of turnover is unprecedented in modern British history—a pace of change with “no parallel since the 1820s”. As the UK continues to navigate the long‑term implications of Brexit, frequent leadership changes undermine policy continuity, complicate long‑term planning, and raise fresh doubts about party stability, effective governance and the future of the Union.
Professor Roger Awan-Scully, a leading scholar of devolution and electoral politics, will show how UK-wide “British” politics has fragmented into four distinct national party systems—in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland—and why that makes stable, UK-wide leadership increasingly hard to sustain.
In conversation with Arjun Neil Alim, Asia financial correspondent at the Financial Times, Professor Awan-Scully will explore whether the relative stability of the post-war era up to Brexit was in fact an abnormal interlude, link these structural shifts to the rapid succession of prime ministers, and what this means for the coherence of British democracy and the long-term viability of the Union.
⊹ This activity will be conducted in English.
About Roger Awan-Scully (click to expand)
Professor Roger Awan-Scully has been Dean of Wu Jieh Yee School of Arts and Social Sciences at Hong Kong Metropolitan University since August 2025.
Professor Scully completed his undergraduate and masters degrees in his native United Kingdom before studying for a doctorate at the Ohio State University in the United States. A political scientist by training, his published work in top journals has contributed to knowledge within the fields of political science, history, law, psychology, sociology and, in some recent collaborations, sports sciences and public health. He has authored numerous books including: The End of British Party Politics, Becoming Europeans? Attitudes, Behaviour, and Socialization in the European Parliament, and co-authored Representing Europe’s Citizens? Electoral Institutions and the Failure of Parliamentary Representation in Europe and Wales Says Yes: Devolution and the 2011 Welsh Referendum.
Prior to becoming Dean, Professor Scully had held a number of major leadership roles, including as Head of Politics and International Relations at Cardiff University, Chair of the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom, and the inaugural Director of the Academy of Geography, Sociology and International Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. Professor Scully is an elected Academician of the UK Academy of Social Sciences; an elected Fellow (and former Council member) of the Learned Society of Wales; and a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. He was also winner of the UK Political Studies Association’s Political Studies Communicator of the Year Award in 2017, and of the University Mentor of the Year at the UK National Mentoring Awards in 2019. In 2025, Professor Scully was named as one of the seven leading scholars in the whole of China within the field of Political Science.
About Arjun Neil Alim (click to expand)
Arjun Neil Alim is the FT's Asia financial correspondent, covering finance and private capital across the region. He previously covered Asian capital markets in Hong Kong, German industry in Frankfurt and asset management in London. Arjun joined the FT as a reporter in Beijing. He speaks English, French, German and Mandarin.
Activity Time 活動時間 : 6:30pm - 7:45pm
Venue 地點: Asia Society Hong Kong Center, Admiralty 金鐘亞洲協會香港中心
(Please arrive at the event venue/assembly point 15 minutes before the event start time. 參加者在活動時間前 15 分鐘於指定地點集合。)
REMINDER 溫馨提示
Please bring along your ELA passport. 請帶備ELA 通行證。
⊹ Our general Terms and Conditions apply. We encourage you to review them. By participating in these activities, you agree to our general Terms and Conditions.
⊹ 本中心的一般條款及細則將適用於本活動，參加即視為同意並接受。敬請細閱有關內容。