We have been here before of course.  In March 1962 the Liberals sensationally captured the supposedly safe Conservative seat of Orpington.  On the very same day elsewhere in the country they turned in a swing of 22% in a safe Labour seat, leaving the official opposition looking distinctly short of voter support even though they

At time of writing the Liberal Democrats are gathering in Glasgow for their last conference before the 2015 election.  Conventional wisdom amongst the political commentators and pollsters is that they are looking at an election where they are likely to lose about half their seats.  Even that isn’t as bad as it could have been.

I’ll be celebrating 100 podcasts with a special podcast devoted to answering listeners questions.  If you have a question, just pop it in the comments below some time before the 16th of October.

Genseric was tight lipped but passionate.  He set himself almost impossible objectives and used every tactic available to him to achieve them.  It is worth bearing in mind right from the start just how unlikely his career was.  The Vandals were not a big tribe and before Genseric they would not have been considered a

The reign of Honorius was eventful, but his actual life settled into a fairly sedate business at the centre of his court.  He didn’t travel much or indeed do very much.  His sister on the other hand had as varied a career as any woman in Roman history.  She was taken from Rome when it

There are plenty of options to choose from for dating the start of the Byzantine Empire. But if you wanted one that would stand up in court, the reign of Arcadius is a pretty sound bet. The great Theodosius I was the last emperor to rule both halves of the empire unambiguously. He divided his