Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds was born in Torfaen, South Wales, where he attended St. Felix R.C. Primary School and St. Alban's R.C.Comprehensive School, at which he is now a Governor. He read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, graduating in 2001 before starting work as a Lecturer in Politics at his old college, specialising in twentieth-century British government. He also trained as a barrister, and is a tenant at Civitas Law in Cardiff, Wales's first specialist civil and public law Chambers. He is the Secretary of the Torfaen Constituency Labour Party . Nicklaus lives in north Torfaen with his wife Rebecca, his daughter Matilda, and his pet dog, Ellie. He writes in a personal capacity.

Culturally distinct, economically intertwined

The British may psychologically be an island race.  But our links with continental Europe go far deeper than busy cheap flights

An attack on employment rights

Today’s industrial dispute is about more than public sector pensions – it also arises from unease about individual employment rights which look likely to be severely eroded by the UK Government

Europe’s reluctant saviours

From the ashes of the Second World War and in spite of the division of the Iron Curtain, Germany remains Europe’s leading economic power. But it marks a special anniversary of the Berlin Wall with searching questions about its future and that of the Eurozone’s

The LibDems’ self-imposed crisis

Are the junior partners in the coalition helping to dig their own grave?

Do knock it: why doorstep campaigning still matters

What role does the time-honoured practice of canvassing voters face-to-face have in this electronic age? Quite a lot, actually

A miserable compromise and an expensive mistake

The Alternative Vote is presented as a good way to get around some of the more egregious aspects of first-past-the-post. But it isn’t, and it introduces new problems all of its own

What Woolas means for Wales

The decision of a court to declare Labour MP Phil Woolas’s General Election victory void and to bar him from office has shocked the political establishment. Wales may be the first real test of the new precedent it establishes

What would Clem have done?

Clement Attlee’s government faced a financial crisis every bit as serious as today’s, yet managed to deal with it while also creating the welfare state and the NHS. Can we learn from his administration?