Vocapedia
> UK > Democracy, Politics > Politics

The Guardian p. 13 2 July 2004
L:
Gordon Brown
Chancellor of the Exchequer
(1997-2007)
R:
Tony Charles Lynton Blair
British Prime Minister (1997-2007)

The Guardian
14 May 2004
Prime Minister Tony Blair

Steve Bell
https://www.theguardian.com/cartoons/stevebell/
0,,1771530,00.html
Blair v Brown: the public and the private
disputes
· Fresh demand for exit date
· No 11 anger at PM letter
· No 10 intervenes in spending
· New pensions row
Patrick Wintour, political editor
The Guardian
p. 29
Wednesday May 10, 2006
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/may/10/
uk.topstories3
L to R: Gordon Brown, Prime Minister Tony Blair


Tony Blair delivers his
speech
at the Labour party conference in Brighton.
Photograph: Andrew Parsons
PA
'We are the changemakers.'
Blair urges
ever-faster reform
PM silent on handover.
But Cherie tells BBC: 'Darling, it's a long way in the
future'
Michael White Political editor
The
Guardian p. 1
28
September 2005
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/sep/28/
publicservices.politics
Cartoon:
Martin Rowson
The Guardian p. 29
28
Septrember 2005
https://www.theguardian.com/cartoons/martinrowson/
0,7371,1579984,00.html
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Related
> Labour Party conference, Brighton

Martin Rowson
The Guardian p. 25
29 September 2005
https://www.theguardian.com/cartoons/martinrowson/
0,7371,1580743,00.html
M: Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
Background > Labour Party conference, Brighton
Minister apologises for ejecting party veteran over Iraq
David Hencke and Joseph Harker
The
Guardian
Thursday September 29, 2005
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/sep/29/
uk.iraq
power
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/14/
tony-benn-the-history-man-editorial
battle for power
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2015/may/07/
election-2015-live-final-votes-cast-as-battle-for-power-looms
power vacuum
the powers that
be
power-sharing
separation of powers
big-power politics
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/20/
big-power-politics-world-order-un-icc
empire
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/20/
big-power-politics-world-order-un-icc
establishment
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/25/
dominic-cummings-one-rule-establishment-sacrifices
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2018/dec/14/
why-we-stopped-trusting-elites-podcast
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/14/tony-benn-socialism-epitaph
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/majornews/5545521/
Gordon-Brown-is-condemned-over-secret-inquiry-into-Iraq-war.html
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/jun/05/comment.politics2
elite
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/26/
dominic-cummings-debacle-exposed-weakness-dependency-boris-johnson
elites
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2018/dec/14/
why-we-stopped-trusting-elites-podcast
devolution
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2014/sep/20/
gordon-brown-timeline-scottish-devolution-independence-video
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/19/
david-cameron-devolution-revolution-uk-scotland
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/19/
scottish-referendum-david-cameron-devolution-revolution
rule
divide and
rule
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/mar/29/
immigrationpolicy.prisonsandprobation
ruler
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/07/
tories-royals-natural-rulers-out-of-touch
coalition
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/11/
coalition-government-liberal-democrats-editorial
Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition
agreement
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/interactive/2010/may/15/
coalition-conservative-liberal-democrat-agreement
government
caretaker government
governance 2009
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/
dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-stop-bleating-
about-the-need-for-change-and-hold-an-election-1700199.html
state
police state
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jan/28/
terrorism.humanrights1
Russia > terrorist
state UK
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/30/
vladimir-putin-war-crime-russia-terrorist-state-ukraine
welfare state
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/welfare
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/26/
iain-duncan-smith-interview-welfare
war on welfare
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/10/
thatcherism-infected-politics
nanny state
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/sep/09/
health.healthandwellbeing
politics
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/15/
britain-racism-tory-labour-diane-abbott
the right
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/25/
lies-london-britain-capital
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/17/
america-britain-right-in-crisis-donald-trump-ted-cruz-boris-johnson-nigel-farage
to the right
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/sep/04/
david-cameron-government-reshuffle-cabinet
rightwing
rightwing thinktank
conservative
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jul/17/
its-socialism-heated-tory-leadership-debate-exposes-deep-divisions
the left
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2016/jul/27/
the-left-is-not-dead-heres-how-we-come-back-fighting-video
the British left
http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2014/mar/14/
tony-benn-labour-died-aged-88
Tony Benn (...)
was the figurehead
of the British left
for a
generation.
http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2014/mar/14/
tony-benn-labour-died-aged-88
leftwing
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/14/
tony-benn-obituary
leftwinger
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/12/
jeremy-corbyn-labour-leader-mps-party-split
UK > leftist
USA
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/09/12/
439741271/leftist-jeremy-corbyn-wins-leadership-of-britains-labour-party
socialists
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/14/
left-after-tony-benn-bob-crow
socialism
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jul/17/
its-socialism-heated-tory-leadership-debate-exposes-deep-divisions
radicals
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/14/
left-after-tony-benn-bob-crow
struggle
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2014/mar/14/
tony-benn-rip
struggle
republicanism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/29/
royal-wedding-love-storming-palace
freedom
freedom of speech
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2006/oct/20/
highereducation.uk
free speech
http://comment.independent.co.uk/leading_articles/
article3191534.ece
speech
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/simon-carr/
simon-carr-labours-campaign-may-end-in-their-coming-third-1794984.html
rousing speech
democracy
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/series/
the-fight-for-democracy
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2021/oct/16/
david-amesss-death-an-assault-on-democracy-cartoon
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/03/
britain-democracy-tories-coronavirus-public-power
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/10/
britain-needs-more-than-theresa-may-to-reshape-democracy
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jul/01/
leaders.comment1
http://www.theguardian.com/news/1953/sep/14/
mainsection.fromthearchive
parliamentary
democracy
representative democracies
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2018/dec/14/
why-we-stopped-trusting-elites-podcast
'chumocracy'
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2020/dec/07/
the-rise-of-the-chumocracy
democrat
democratic
troll state
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/14/
the-guardian-view-on-theresa-may-and-russia-tackling-the-troll-state
constitution
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/16/
will-self-need-constitution-for-country-write-it-down
Britain's "unwritten constitution"
of acts of Parliament, common
law and conventions
Push for written constitution 2004-2007
Gordon Brown's
route map for constitutional reform
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/jul/04/uk.houseofcommons
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/jul/04/uk.constitution
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/jul/04/houseofcommons.constitution
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jul/04/politics.uk
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/jun/29/labour.gordonbrown
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/asguru/generalstudies/
society/27constitution/constitution04.shtml
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/may/12/uk.topstories31
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4744980.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/5165392.stm
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/oct/09/law.immigrationpolicy
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2006/sep/25/publicservices.politics
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/aug/03/constitution.humanrights
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/aug/03/constitution.humanrights
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/
cm200405/cmhansrd/vo050111/debtext/50111-04.htm
anarchy
anarchist
anarchism
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/video/2013/jul/25/
simon-critchley-infinitely-demanding-video
cronies
cronyism
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/08/
boris-johnson-no-confidence-vote-partygate
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/22/
cronyism-britain-rampant-banana-republic-covid-contracts-government
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/14/
gove-attacks-preposterous-number-old-etonians-cameron-cabinet
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2002/mar/28/
londonpolitics.londonmayor
nepotism
civil liberties
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/14/
the-observer-view-on-the-erosion-of-our-civil-liberties
politics (+ Vsingular)
https://www.theguardian.com/
politics
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/24/
conservative-leadership-grownup-politics-poverty
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/11/
jeremy-corbyn-aims-to-throw-out-theatrical-abuse-in-parliament
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/10/
thatcherism-infected-politics
‘Alice in Wonderland’ politics
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/29/
tony-blair-corbynmania-alice-in-wonderland
green politics
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2010/apr/22/
climate-debate-miliband-clark-hughes
public trust in politics
restore faith in politics
The Red Box
Sam Coates
is Chief Political Correspondent for The Times,
based in the
Houses of Parliament.
Red Box is a rolling insider guide to Westminster
http://archive.today/2bbWI
party politics
politics and terrorism > counter-terrorism policy
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/
terrorism
politics books
https://www.theguardian.com/books/
politics
political
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/17/
margaret-thatchers-funeral-deeply-political
political documents
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/apr/15/
ten-of-the-best-political-documents
political landscape
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/15/
britains-new-political-landscape
political freedoms
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2014/mar/14/
tony-benn-rip
religious freedom
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2014/mar/14/
tony-benn-rip
political will
political deadlock
political battlefield
political Armageddon
political savvy
political blog
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2004/jul/19/
weblogs.onlinesupplement
political commentators
commentariat / political bloggers
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/nov/17/
newmedia.politicsandthemedia
political elites
policy
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/sep/26/
labourconference.labour
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/jul/30/
syria.israel
foreign policy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/19/
gordon-brown-internet-foreign-policy
foreign policy > appease
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2017/jan/29/
martin-rowson-theresa-mays-international-travels-
cartoon - Guardian cartoon
policy maker
politician
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/
ian-birrell-
how-our-politicians-failed-to-stop-the-rise-of-the-far-right-1700206.html
- 16 March 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/jul/20/uk.
partyfunding4
shrewd politician
politicians on all sides
the political class
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/10/
britain-needs-more-than-theresa-may-to-reshape-democracy
political player
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/14/
tony-benn-the-history-man-editorial
believe
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2014/mar/14/
tony-benn-rip
belief
idealism
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/14/
tony-benn-rare-breed-idealism
demagogue
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/05/
nigel-farage-reform-rishi-sunak-tories
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/03/
demagogues-fury-violence-outrage-discourse
demagoguery
populism
https://www.theguardian.com/world/series/
the-new-populism
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2023/dec/03/
populism-is-all-about-hair-
what-rightwing-leaders-are-trying-to-tell-us-with-their-wild-coiffures
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2018/dec/14/
why-we-stopped-trusting-elites-
podcast
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2018/nov/20/
revealed-one-in-four-europeans-vote-populist
woo the middle classes
class war
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/jun/05/
comment.politics2
coup
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jun/08/
gordon-brown-leadership-crisisl
plot 2009
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/gordon-brown/5463596/
Revealed-how-Cabinet-Blairites-plotted-to-topple-Brown.html
topple
2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/gordon-brown/
5463596/Revealed-how-Cabinet-Blairites-plotted-to-topple-Brown.html
oust
2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/5480104/
Analysis--No-one-had-the-guts-to-ouse-Gordon-Brown.html
lobby
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2021/apr/15/
david-camerons-lobbying-scandal
lobby
cigarette / tobacco lobby
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/04/
smoking-tobacco-lobby
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/may/04/
cigarette-lobby-plain-packs
lobbying
https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2021/apr/15/
david-camerons-lobbying-scandal
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/12/
lobbying-10-ways-corprations-influence-government
scapegoat
be made a scapegoat
scapegoat
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/mar/27/
binyam-mohamed-torture
whistleblower
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/19/
chelsea-manning-guilty-but-spared-solitary-confinement-for-contraband
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/nov/14/
freedomofinformation.iraq
white elephant
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/cartoon/2009/feb/10/
steve-bell-cartoon-bankers-questioned
whitewash
red herring
power
hand power
hand over
handover
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/may/01/uk.
topstories3
take over
press officer
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/aug/31/uk.media
poll // survey ( ≠ election)
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/scottish-independence-blog/live/2014/sep/17/
scottish-independence-referendum-salmond-and-darling-interviewed-on-today-live
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/aug/12/
guardian-icm-poll-tories-economic-confidence
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/mar/25/
voters-cuts-coalition-poll
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/27/
support-poll-support-far-right
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/dec/26/
coalition-government-support-dramatically-down

The Guardian p.10
29 June 2004
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/jun/29/
uk.tradeunions
lead
leader
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/sep/25/
ed-miliband-wins-labour-leadership
leadership
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/may/09/labour.uk
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/may/06/
election2005.uk6
leadership challenge
leadership bid
leadership coup
Labour party leadership
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/labourleadership
contender
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/may/06/election2005.uk6
defect to N

James Purnell's letter
The Times
http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/pdfs/jp_to_pm.pdf
added 6 June 2009
quit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/02/darling-hoon-expenses-reshuffle
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/mar/12/immigrationpolicy.military
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/jan/22/uk.liberaldemocrats
quit /
stand down
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/may/06/election2005.uk7
resign
/
step down
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/24/
david-cameron-resigns-after-uk-votes-to-leave-european-union
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jun/02/darling-hoon-expenses-reshuffle
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/nov/10/immigrationpolicy.research
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/oct/20/labour.clareshort
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2005/nov/02/money.davidblunkett
walk out
walkout
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/
new-walkout-hits-brown-reshuffle-1697487.html
walk away
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/05/
gordon-brown-elections
stand aside
resignation
resignation's speech
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/may/06/election2005.comment
resignation letter
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/05/
caroline-flint-resignation-letter
spin
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/oct/05/
uk.conservatives20061
spin one's way off the hook
spin doctor
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/15/
eremy-corbyn-needs-spin-doctor-media-four-reasons
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/apr/21/
damian-mcbride-whitehall-media-no10
hype
stonewall
sleaze
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/mar/31/lords
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_wilby/2006/12/post_803.html
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/mar/18/uk.constitution1
cash for honours
2006-2007
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/jul/20/cashforhonours.partyfunding
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/cashforhonours/story/0,,2130915,00.html
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/cashforhonours/story/0,,2130989,00.html
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/cashforhonours/story/0,,2130958,00.html
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/cashforhonours/story/0,,2130926,00.html
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/cashforhonours/story/0,,2130928,00.html
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/cashforhonours/story/0,,2130925,00.html
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/cashforhonours/story/0,,2130927,00.html
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/funding/story/0,,1972222,00.html
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,1972191,00.html
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/funding/story/0,,1972222,00.html
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/dec/14/
labour.comment
abuse of perks
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/may/01/uk.labour1
spokesman / spokeswoman
ombudsman
activist
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/31/
kingsnorth-activists-climate-change-coal
political activist > Solly Kaye 1913-2005
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/may/04/
guardianobituaries.obituaries
eco war
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/31/
kingsnorth-activists-climate-change-coal
disobedient
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/dec/09/
comment.nuclear
UK, USA,
SA > civil rights UK / USA
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2022/oct/07/
black-triangle-moments-and-heroes-of-the-civil-rights-era-in-pictures
Rights and freedom
UK
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/series/
rights-and-freedom
agenda
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jun/14/child-poverty-iain-duncan-smith
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/may/18/uk.society
welfare agenda
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jun/14/
child-poverty-iain-duncan-smith
top of the agenda
leaked document
white paper
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk-news/2013/jul/02/
part-time-soldiers-incentives-employers
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2006/may/26/politics.lifeandhealth
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/
security-in-retirement-towards-a-new-pensions-system
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2006/may/25/politics.business
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/may/22/politics.money
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2005/dec/19/schools.uk3
white elephant
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/cartoon/2010/aug/01/
trident-replacement-coalition-government
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/jun/16/
egovernment.politics
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jun/23/
economy
red herring
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/dec/29/
uk.iraq
red tape
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2005/nov/28/
budget2006.politics
cross party support
implement
scrap
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/sifting-the-evidence/2013/may/03/
lives-lost-standardised-cigarette-pack-plans
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/apr/24/titan-prisons-jack-straw
endorse /
back
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/apr/29/uk.labourleadership
pledge
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/nov/29/ed-miliband-pledge-simplify-energy-bills
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jan/19/david-cameron-pledges-popular-capitalism
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/5546288/
Gordon-Brown-pledges-broadband-for-all-amid-claims-millions-will-be-denied-service.html
pledge
hype up
run a
smear campaign
deal
with
N
stand on
N
toe the
line
make it
clear
U-turn
turn
turtle
climbdown
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2006/apr/04/
politics.business
unveil
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/08/banking.economy1
unveil
proposals
elected regional assembly
devolve
devolution
be dissolved
ombudsman
pressure group
scandal
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/may/15/
shahid-malik-1000-tv
MPs' expenses:
The Telegraph's investigation,
The Expenses Files,
into how politicians
- from Gordon Brown's Cabinet
to backbenchers of all
parties -
exploit the system
of parliamentary allowances
to subsidise their lifestyles
and
multiple homes 2009
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/mp-expenses/
row
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/01/lockerbie-libya-megrahi
be held accountable for
N
beleaguered
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/16/simon-lewis-pr-downing-brown1
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/01/alistair-darling-apology-expenses-gordon-brown
embattled
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/sep/30/
embattled-may-struggles-keep-show-on-road
UK > mayor of London UK /
USA
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/06/
477101551/london-elects-first-muslim-mayor-sadiq-khan-of-the-labour-party
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2000/may/05/
londonmayor.past
quango
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/oct/07/quangos-government-multibillion-pound-bill
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/06/waste-recycling
feminism
suffragettes
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/womens-suffrage
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/sep/29/gender.women
peace movement
Trotskyist group
Communist party
EU
euro
single currency
EU membership
join
the EU
entry
treaty
European charter
Ireland
taoiseach
https://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/
Northern Ireland
Sinn Féin
soundbites
mantra
catchphrase
"You've never had it so good"
1957: Britons 'have never had it so good'
The British Prime Minister,
Harold Macmillan,
has made an optimistic speech
telling fellow Conservatives
that "most of our people
have never had it so good".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/20/
newsid_3728000/3728225.stm
"the enemy within"
But Maggie still wanted
a showdown with a major union.
She got her wish in 1984
when the battle mode
she had recently adopted
for the Falklands conflict
was directed towards a new combatant:
Arthur Scargill, who led his loyal troops
into the trap she set.
As she famously - and controversially -
framed the dispute at the time,
"We had to fight the enemy without
in the Falklands.
We always have
to be aware of the enemy within,
which is much more difficult to fight
and more dangerous to liberty."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3067563.stm
"Labour is not working"
1978
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/1222326.stm
Mr Blair promised to focus on
"education, education, education,"
after his landslide victory in 1997
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/sep/04/uk.highereducation
Tony Blair's landmark pledge
to be 'tough on crime,
tough on the causes of crime'.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/wintour-and-watt/2011/mar/10/
yvette-cooper-labour
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/jun/23/immigrationpolicy.ukcrime1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/otr/intext92-93/Blair4.7.93.html
John Major > Back to basics
In 1993,
the Major governmen
-
perhaps fatally -
launched the 'Back to Basics' campaign.
It was notorious for its high moral tone
and sparked intense media interest
in MPs' private lives.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/202525.stm
Margaret Thatcher's most famous soundbites
/ speeches
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1888444.stm
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/oct/09/
conservatives2003.conservatives5
1981 > UK >
Margaret Thatcher > "the
lady's not for turning" USA
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/world/europe/
former-prime-minister-margaret-thatcher-of-britain-has-died.html
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/apr/30/
conservatives.uk1
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=mwzCvuj8XXA
Guardian Special Report >
Politics past
https://www.theguardian.com/
politics/past
Corpus of news articles
UK
> Democracy, Politics > Politics
The
evidence is clear.
Labour isn't working
Sunday
September 21 2008
The Observer
Editorial
This article appeared in the Observer
on Sunday September 21 2008
on p40 of the
Comment section.
It was last updated at 00:02
on September 21 2008.
A
disorderly rebellion by backbench Labour MPs and minor ministers last week
failed to provoke a formal challenge to Gordon Brown at the party's conference.
But there will still be urgent discussion of the leadership in Manchester. The
only question is whether the debate will be conducted in hushed whispers in
hotel corridors or encouraged by speakers from the conference platform.
Senior Labour figures think the party must pursue a radically different agenda,
which means a change of leader. So will they hide their views, impart them to
journalists on condition of anonymity or share them openly with the country?
The natural inclination is towards a pretence of unity. Cabinet ministers have
warned that voters will punish a party that obsesses about its internal affairs
in turbulent economic times. They are right, but their warnings are also beside
the point. The introspection cannot be halted by fiat. Besides, voters are
already deeply hostile to Gordon Brown.
That is proven beyond doubt by a poll of unprecedented scale revealed in today's
Observer - the most comprehensive account to date of Labour's woeful position. A
survey of marginal seats, conducted for the Politics-Home website, paints a
harrowing picture for the government. On its current trajectory, Labour will
emerge from the next election with 160 seats, fewer than they won under Michael
Foot in 1983. Meanwhile, any belief that Tory support might wilt is exposed as a
delusion. Those who plan to vote Conservative are firmer in their resolve than
those who might back the government. Things could get still worse for Labour.
The party might hope its position will recover under Gordon Brown, especially if
the economic outlook improves. But the evidence suggests otherwise. The Prime
Minister has already tried several times to regain the public's affection, and
failed. Even if people accept that the financial crisis is not entirely of Mr
Brown's making, they do not want him in charge of the recovery. The poll data
are clear: Labour under its current leader is bust.
The only possible reason to stick with Mr Brown is fear that ousting him would
just accelerate the march towards defeat. A new leader would face enormous
pressure to seek a mandate from the country. Labour will need reassurance that
there is a candidate with a plausible chance of taking on David Cameron before
starting a process likely to end with a premature general election.
Opinion polls give little guidance on that front. None of the mooted
challengers, not even David Miliband, has sufficient public profile for voters
to envisage them taking charge of the country. Candidates will only be evaluated
in earnest when they have signalled unambiguously that they want the job.
If anyone in the cabinet believes they have the requisite charisma and political
vision to lead Labour away from disaster they need to prove it. This week's
conference is the place to start. They might be tempted to hold back, for fear
that impassioned speeches, full of grand ambition, will be read as overt
disloyalty to Mr Brown. But dull rhetoric with half-hearted statements of
support for the current leader will also be seen as disloyal, only cowardly to
boot. If, however, no one in the cabinet wants to be Prime Minister soon, a
simple declaration of that fact is the surest way to unify the party.
The worst scenario for Labour would be a stage-managed charade of loyalty,
followed by a resumption of underground agitation; despair disguised as unity.
There may be no ballot, but there is still a contest this week in Manchester.
The prospective candidates are on display. They face a clear choice: set out
your stall or put away your ambition. Labour is desperate for inspiring
leadership. If after 11 years in power neither the Prime Minister nor anyone in
the cabinet can provide it, defeat will not only be certain, it will be
deserved.
The evidence is clear. Labour isn't working,
O,
21.9.2008,
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/sep/21/
labourleadership.gordonbrown
The battle over government
that has raged since Magna Carta
Published: 04 July 2007
The Independent
By Ben Chu
Yesterday Mr Brown referred to the British Constitution as
"unwritten". That is misleading. A more accurate description would be
"un-codified". In common with the citizens of other countries, subjects of the
British Crown enjoy certain legally prescribed rights and freedoms. And like the
governments of other nations, British administrations are bound by the chains of
law and convention.
The difference is that the various Royal Charters, Acts of Parliament and legal
rulings that make up the framework of proper British governance have never been
gathered and written down in a single legal document in the style of, for
example, the Constitution of the US.
Up until the 19th century, the history of the British constitution was, in large
part, the history of the struggle for power between the monarch and the
aristocracy. In 1215 a coalition of disgruntled barons forced King John to sign
the Magna Carta (or Great Charter), left, guaranteeing the right for freemen to
be judged, not by the king, but their peers. The monarch was also forced to
pledge that "to no one will we deny or delay right or justice", a significant
undertaking at a time when rulers enjoyed power unchecked by formal commitments.
The dispute over the limits of royal power rumbled on over the following
centuries but it exploded again with great force in the 17th century during the
reign of King Charles I. A period of turmoil culminated in the so-called
"Glorious Revolution". In 1688, a collection of peers deposed James II and
invited Prince William of Orange and his wife Mary to become joint sovereigns on
the condition that they acquiesce to some rigid restrictions on the power of the
monarchy and guarantees of the rights of parliament. This settlement was
enshrined in the Bill of Rights, which guaranteed freedom of speech, frequent
parliaments and free elections. This settlement, perhaps more than anything else
before or since, was the basis for our system of parliamentary sovereignty. But
still only a minority of rich men were entitled to vote. It took a succession of
reform acts to widen the franchise.
The battle over
government that has raged since Magna Carta, I, 4.7.2007,
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2733250.ece
May 3 1997
The history man's
'noble causes'
From The Guardian archive
May 3 1997
The Guardian
This was our Velvet Revolution, and yesterday the population
went wild, British-style. People were seen breaking into half-smiles in public
while reading the papers; some thought about making eye contact in the Tube,
then remembered themselves and drew back.
The extent of Labour's landslide meant that comparisons with 1945 were
inevitable. But there was no repe tition of the remark attributed to a lady
diner at the Savoy as news of Clement Attlee's triumph filtered through: 'But
this is terrible. They have elected a Labour Government and the country will
never stand for that.'
Mr Attlee could never have entered Downing Street with one-hundredth of the
studied triumphalism of Tony Blair, or one-thousandth of his elan. The new Prime
Minister omitted to drape himself in a purple toga, dragging the defeated
general in chains behind his chariot. His symbolism experts must have lost their
nerve. Instead, he progressed on foot from the Thatcher Memorial Gates to No.
10, working a cheering throng, who had all been given flags and placards with
suspiciously similar handwriting.
This was the piece de resistance of Labour's campaign show, the final
celebratory burst of electoral fireworks. At least one hopes it is. There is a
lingering suspicion that the next five years could be like this. It worked all
right for Kennedy, Reagan and Clinton; and Blair is the first British leader
charismatic enough to make the comparisons sensible. He refrained from quoting
Francis of Assisi like Mrs Thatcher. He said he would lead 'a government of
practical measures in pursuit of noble causes'. Then he said there had been
enough talking. 'It is time now to do.'
But it wasn't. It was time for another photo opportunity. The children posed,
and Tony and Cherie hugged and waved, and hugged again. Finally, the door shut
behind them, and Blair began that mystical process of governance of which he —
until that moment — knew as little as the rest of us. The rest of us, meanwhile,
tried to come to terms with the magnitude of what had occurred. It was not easy.
But it really has happened. The long years of Toryism are history.
Outside Downing Street, London looked as it always does on a warm spring day,
more frazzled than sunlit. The West End was clogged with traffic, and there were
beggars on the Strand.
You can't blame the Government. Not yet. Reality will intrude soon enough: every
one knows that, the Prime Minister better than anyone. But for one shining
moment everything does seem bright and new again. Please God, don't let Labour
ruin it.
From The Guardian
archive > May 3 1997 > The history man's 'noble causes',
G, 17.5.2007,
Republished 3.5.2007, p. 34,
http://digital.guardian.co.uk/guardian/2007/05/03/pages/ber34.shtml
On This Day - July 25, 1969
From The Times Archive
Imprisoned for smuggling leaflets into the USSR,
Gerald
Brooke was exchanged for the Soviet agents
Peter and Helen Kroger
LOOKING gaunt and pale after four years in Soviet gaols, Mr
Gerald Brooke flew home yesterday “numbed” — to use his own word — by the shock
of his sudden release.
Speaking haltingly at first, he explained that he had to get used again to
speaking English — “and to seeing so many people”. Half-an-hour earlier, after
stepping from a Soviet Ilyushin 62 aircraft, he was reunited with his wife
Barbara in a private lounge at Heathrow airport.
Wearing his old grammar school tie and the same charcoal grey suit in which he
was arrested by the KGB, the Soviet secret police, in April, 1956, Mr Brooke,
who is 32 and was a lecturer in Russian, talked with reporters before being
driven in a Foreign Office car to his home in Finchley. He said the Russians had
only broken the news of his release 24 hours earlier — exactly four years to the
day after they had gaoled him. A Soviet official said they had “splendid” news
for him. “Tomorrow”, he was informed, “you will be in England, and tomorrow
evening at home with your wife and family.”
Mr Brooke was visibly bewildered by his sudden switch from the harshness of a
Soviet gaol to the brightly lit interview room. Asked about his health he
answered: “I am not well at all.” He had been suffering from an inflammation of
the lower colon which had been “aggravated by the sort of food I had to eat in
prison”.
All attempts to get Mr Brooke to speak about conditions in prison and the
Russians’ treatment of him failed. All Mr Brooke would say about his prison
conditions was that “they were not particularly soft”.
From The Times
Archives > On This Day - July 25, 1969,
The Times, 25.7.2005,
http://www.newsint-archive.co.uk/pages/main.asp
On This
Day - August 5, 1963
From The Times Archive
Dr Stephen Ward, the osteopath at the centre
of the Profumo
scandal,
died after taking an overdose at a friend's flat
AN inquest will be held at Hammersmith on Friday on Dr Stephen
Ward, who died in hospital on Saturday after having been in a coma for 80 hours
following an overdose of drugs. A post-mortem examination is expected to take
place today. Dr Ward was found unconscious at the flat in Chelsea of Mr Noel
Howard-Jones on the last day of his trial at the Central Criminal Court. Mr
Justice Marshall decided to complete his summing up in his absence. When the
jury found him guilty on two charges of living on immoral earnings the judge
postponed sentence.
In an unsigned note addressed to Mr Howard-Jones which was found at the flat, Dr
Ward said: “Dear Noel, I am sorry I had to do this here! It’s really more than I
can stand — the horror day after day at the court and in the streets.” Another
extract read: “I do hope I haven’t let people down too much. I tried to do my
stuff but after Marshall's summing up I've given up all hope . . . I’m sorry to
disappoint the vultures — I only hope this has done the job. Delay resuscitation
as long as possible.”
One of Dr Ward’s last actions was to telephone the Home Office official who is
helping Lord Denning in his inquiry. A statement from Miss Christine Keeler’s
solicitor said that she was very distressed by the news of the death of Dr Ward.
“Under these circumstances,” the statement added, “she does not intend to carry
out the plans for her to take part in a film based on her life.”
From The Times
Archives > On This Day - August 5, 1963, The Times, 5.8.2005,
http://www.newsint-archive.co.uk/pages/main.asp
On This Day - May 12, 1956
From The Times Archive
In 1957 the colony Gold Coast became,
as Ghana, the first
black African nation
to be granted independence from Britain
A FIRM date for granting the Gold Coast independence within
the Commonwealth will be given by her Majesty’s Government, if a reasonable
majority for such a step is obtained in the local Legislature after a general
election. This promise was given in a statement made by the Secretary of State
for the Colonies in the House of Commons yesterday.
Mr Lennox-Boyd said the present constitution marked the last stage before the
assumption by the Gold Coast of full responsibility for its own affairs.
Since the present constitution was introduced there had arisen a dispute about
the form of constitution which the Gold Coast should have when it achieved
independence within the Commonwealth. Efforts had been made to bring about a
reconciliation between the major parties, but they had so far met with no
success.
“I have been in close touch with the Prime Minister of the Gold Coast on these
matters,” Mr Lennox-Boyd continued. “I have told Dr Nkrumah that if a general
election is held, her Majesty’s Government will be ready to accept a motion
calling for independence within the Commonwealth passed by a reasonable majority
in a newly elected Legislature, and then to declare a firm date for this
purpose.
“Full membership of the Commonwealth is, of course, a different question, and is
a matter for consultation between all existing members of the Commonwealth.”
From The Times
Archives > On This Day - May 12, 1956, The Times, 12.5.2005,
http://www.newsint-archive.co.uk/pages/main.asp
July 5 1948
From The Guardian archive
Mr Bevan's bitter
attack on Tories
July 5 1948
The Guardian
"The eyes of the world are turning to Great Britain. We now
have the moral leadership of the world, and before many years are over we shall
have people coming here as to a modern Mecca, learning from us in the twentieth
century as they learned from us in the seventeenth," said Mr Aneurin Bevan,
Minister of Health, at a Labour rally in Manchester yesterday.
The meeting was called to celebrate the anniversary of Labour's accession to
power. The Labour party, he said, would win the 1950 election because successful
Toryism and an intelligent electorate were a contradiction in terms. His own
experiences ensured that no amount of cajolery could eradicate from his heart a
deep burning hatred of the Tory party. "So far as I am concerned they are lower
than vermin," he went on. "They condemned millions of people to semi-starvation.
I warn you young men and women, do not listen to what they are saying, do not
listen to the seductions of Lord Woolton. They have not changed, or if they have
they are slightly worse."
The Government decided the issues in accordance with the best principles, he
said: "The weak first; and the strong next." Mr. Churchill preferred a
free-for-all, but what was Toryism except organised Spivvery?
As a result of controls, the well-to-do had not been able to build houses, but
ordinary men and women were moving into their own homes. Progress could not be
made without pain. People who campaigned against controls were conducting an
immoral campaign. There was a kind of schizophrenia in the country, so that
people reading newspapers and hearing talk in luxury hotels got an entirely
different conception of what was happening, which did not square with the
statistics. The bodies and spirits of the people were being built up — but the
Government's efforts could not be sustained except by the energies and labour of
the people. Production must be raised to make the new legislative reforms a
living reality.
The Government never promised in 1945 that everybody was going to be better off.
It knew some were worse off to-day, but it always intended they should be.
[Bevan's "vermin" remark — one of the most famous jibes in politics — was
adroitly turned against the Attlee government by Tory speakers, who pretended it
insulted their voters rather than policy makers. However, Bevan merely retorted
that men of Celtic fire were needed to bring about great reforms like the new
NHS. That was why, he explained, Welshmen were put in charge instead of "the
bovine and phlegmatic Anglo-Saxons."]
From The Guardian
archive > July 5 1948 > Mr Bevan's bitter attack on Tories, G,
republished
5.7.2007, p. 30,
http://digital.guardian.co.uk/guardian/2007/07/05/pages/ber30.shtml
June 21, 1945
Labour's
'great
moral purpose' in 1945
From the Guardian archive
Thursday June 21, 1945
Guardian
Declaring that the Labour party were in the most deadly
earnest in their purpose, Sir Stafford Cripps, in a broadcast last night,
appealed to youth to help to drive forward fearlessly into a new and better
world.
"We need your enthusiasm and vitality, linked with that of
your comrades the world over, if we are to break with the evil ways and outworn
traditions of the past.
"During the war all our resources have been put at the disposal of the nation.
They had to be or we could never have planned their most efficient use and so
win the war.
"Listen to this roll-call of the unemployed and think what it meant in human
suffering: 1932, 2,800,000; 1934, 2,200,000; 1936, 1,800,000; 1938, 900,000 -
and all that time the Conservatives had a huge majority in Parliament.
"Either they did not try, or they tried their best and failed, which proves
their policies useless."
"The only way to defeat poverty and unemployment after the war was by careful
planning and control by the government. Between the two wars there were tens of
thousands of competing plans each based upon how the greatest profit could made
out of a particular manufacture. That was private enterprise which so often
tended to keep down output as to keep up prices.
"We want to change these controls - take them out of the anonymous and
irresponsible hands of private individuals and place them in the hands of the
people's representatives - the Government.
"We can't afford to let private enterprise muddle along in inefficiency or
combine into cartels to hold the public up to ransom. Just imagine the absurdity
of Messrs Smith and Company's Grenadiers, advertised as the best fed and
equipped unit, Messrs Robinson's the most up-to date aircraft carriers the world
has ever seen, and expect that sort of thing to win a war.
"That is how it is suggested by the Conservatives that we should conduct the
forces with which we must fight all the peace-time evils of our society.
"The industries of our country are a national asset. We must give to the
scientist and the technician their proper place in the national service.
"We in the Labour party are in the most deadly earnest. Our nation will never
rise supreme unless behind all our acts, and instinct with all our policies, is
some great moral purpose. Greed and profit, opportunism and material gain are no
foundation".
· In the July 5 election Labour won a 2-1 majority. Cripps, the party's famous
high-taxing idealist, became chancellor of the exchequer in 1947.
From the Guardian
archive > June 21, 1945 >
Labour's 'great moral purpose' in 1945,
G, Republished
21.6.2006,
https://www.theguardian.com/news/1945/jun/21/
mainsection.fromthearchive
May 8 1940
Lessons of Norway
From The Guardian archive
May 8 1940
The Guardian
[In popular histories of the war, this debate was dominated
by
one phrase, "in the name of God go",
which destroyed Neville Chamberlain.
That
was not how the Manchester Guardian
or the Times
reported the occasion.]
As far as the debate has gone it has changed nothing in the
Parliamentary situation. That is, superficially.
And yet there was a difference. Today's Prime Minister was not the Chamberlain
of a few weeks ago whom one heard telling the Tory Central Council that Hitler
had missed the bus. But one can still hear those cheers from the embattled "Yes
Men" .
Mr Chamberlain's apologia for the Norwegian failure can be studied elsewhere.
Here one turns to his "general observations" which shed a good deal of light on
himself and his Government. The lessons are those which the Opposition parties
have been trying to teach him for months, so the Labour and Liberal benches
rocked with cheers at his discoveries.
One lesson was that we had not realised the imminence of the threat. There the
Opposition cheered for a full minute. The Leader of the Opposition [Mr Attlee]
saw Norway as only one more failure in the uninterrupted story of Ministerial
failures. Yet he was full of confidence about our winning the war, though he
said bluntly it would only be done by putting different men at the helm.
Drama touched the debate once, when Admiral Sir Roger Keyes alleged in effect
that Trondheim had been lost through faint hearts in Whitehall. He rose in his
uniform of an admiral of the fleet, as he explained, because he had come to
Westminster to speak for men in the fighting Navy who were very unhappy.
Sir Roger admonished [Mr Churchill] to steel himself for vigorous action,
because he possesses the confidence of the War Cabinet, the country and the
Navy. He ended by reminding Mr Churchill of Nelson's saying that bold est
measures are always the safest. So far this had been quite the most disturbing
speech in the debate.
Sir Roger's speech will probably tell for more against the Government than Mr
Amery's, which followed, but Mr Amery's speech was a sustained and harsh
denunciation of the Government for its timidity and ineffectiveness, full of
power, and concluding with the savage application to the Government of
Cromwell's words to the Long Parliament: "You have sat too long here for any
good you have been doing. Depart, I say. Let us have done with you. In the name
of God, go."
Mr Amery's philippic was delivered as usual to half-empty benches on his own
side, but there was a goodly muster of the Opposition to hear him.
From The Guardian
archive > May 8 1940 > Lessons of Norway, G,
republished 8.5.2007, p. 28,
http://digital.guardian.co.uk/guardian/2007/05/08/pages/ber28.shtml
June 8 1934
Mosley's circus at
Olympia
From The Guardian archive
June 8 1934
The Guardian
Sir Oswald Mosley provided close on 10,000 people in Olympia
tonight with an entertainment which Mr. Bertram Mills might at once have envied
and deplored. For while Mr. Mills must certainly have envied Sir Oswald the
number of his audience and the excitement he and his hecklers provided, he must
have deplored the violence with which that excitement was obtained.
For what is described in the talk of the gangsters as 'rough-house work' no
meeting in these islands within memory can have shown anything like it.
Inside the great hall it was seen that Sir Oswald Mosley had nothing of
theatricalism to learn from either Hitler or Mussolini. There was a massed band
of Blackshirts, the Union Jack, and the black and yellow flag of the British
Union of Fascists. There were arc-lamps, and there was an aisle lined with
Blackshirts.
Exactly thirty-five minutes after the meeting was due to begin the band dropped
into a Low German march, the arc-lamps swung on the Blackshirted aisle, and Sir
Oswald appeared — preceded by six men carrying Union Jacks and the British
Blackshirt flag. The march proceeded to the platform while some people — they
did not seem to be many — raised their arms in a Fascist salute.
Sir Oswald began his speech. Almost at once a chorus of interrupters began in
one of the galleries. Blackshirts began stumbling and leaping over chairs. There
was a wild scrummage, women screamed, black-shirted arms rose and fell, blows
were dealt.
Sir Oswald stood to attention in the half-darkness, making unintelligible
appeals through the amplifiers. For close on two hours the meeting dragged on
like that, interruption and ejection. Suddenly, as Sir Oswald was speaking, a
voice sounded high up in the girders, 'Down with Fascism!'
There, balanced one hundred and fifty feet above the crowd, a man was seen
clambering across the girders. Then from each side Blackshirts appeared treading
the same precarious perch. Sir Oswald went on speaking, but all eyes were on the
climbers. Suddenly the interrupter clambered up above his pursuers and swung
along the girders on to a platform high above them. His pursuers followed.
A sudden crash of glass tore the air. Someone had fallen sixty feet, at a guess,
on to a floor. It is not disclosed whether the man was the interrupter or one of
his pursuers.
The meeting ended in a mild chaos — not from interrupters but from a general
stampede of the audience, who had plainly grown tired of Sir Oswald's two-hour
monologue.
Our London Staff
From The Guardian
archive > June 8 1934 > Mosley's circus at Olympia, G,
republished 8.6.2007, p.
40,
http://digital.guardian.co.uk/guardian/2007/06/08/pages/ber40.shtml
On This Day - April 16, 1929
From The Times Archive
The attempt by Winston Churchill,
then the Chancellor of
the Exchequer,
to win over the electorate by reducing some taxes
and promoting
Conservative economic competence
failed to secure victory for the Tories
in the
1929 general election.
With the support of the Liberal Party,
a minority Labour
government was formed
BUDGET day lived up to its reputation in attracting to the
House of Commons this afternoon a crowded audience of the public anxious to
learn their fate as taxpayers, and of members anxious to take the omens of their
fate as politicians.
The essence of Mr Churchill’s statement was a sober review of his record at the
Exchequer and a balanced use of the last modest opportunities of the present
Government. Without at any time passing the bounds of legitimate challenge, he
forced home on the Socialists the magnitude of the economic disaster of 1926 and
the immense recovery expressed by the realization of a “solid surplus” in
1928-29. His conclusion was that a lucid interval of two years had permitted a
steady advance in prosperity which already outweighed the setback of one
catastrophic year.
This general improvement in the conditions of the country the two Oppositions
proposed to consolidate by spending money as fast as possible. The Socialists
proposed to create “disillusionment in our own time” by raising £65,000,000 in
chaos-producing taxation — a sum sufficient to finance about a quarter of their
pledges. The Liberals proposed to borrow £200,000,000 in order to make racing
tracks for well-to-do motorists. No could accuse them of “cheap ”
electioneering. The Conservatives could adduce £7,500,000 saved on the annual
cost of armaments, and £5,500,000 saved on the annual cost of the Civil
Services.
He firmly believed that the only cure for unemployment was the revival of
industry as a whole, and that private finance was the best spur and guide to
rationalization. But the State would help. The railway passenger duties would be
abolished in return for a guarantee by the railway companies to spend £6,500,000
on transport improvements. The bulk of his prospective surplus would be used to
abolish the tea duty.
Mr Churchill insisted on the merit of the Government’s record. It had increased
the Sinking Fund, restored the gold standard, checked expenditure, and initiated
rating reform. The nation had rounded the corner of its economic difficulties.
On This Day -
April 16, 1929, The Times, 16.4.2005,
http://www.newsint-archive.co.uk/pages/main.asp
July 6, 1928
Celebrating full
suffrage for women
From the Guardian archive
Friday July 6, 1928
Guardian
"This recalls the famous breakfasts we used to have in the old
fighting days when the prison gates were opened," said Mr Pethick-Lawrence, one
of the speakers at the breakfast held this morning at the Hotel Cecil to
celebrate the passing of the Equal Franchise Bill.
Of the 250 people present many could remember with him the
breakfast welcomes that used to be given to the militant women released from
Holloway Gaol. Dame Millicent Fawcett had on an early occasion, strongly as she
disapproved of militant methods, consented generously to preside at one of the
prisoner breakfasts. But many others, ex-prisoners or colleagues, who would have
liked to join the celebration were unable to do so. They belong now to the great
new army of business women and had to be in their office, which shows with wider
freedom comes new restraint.
The great stars of the occasion were those two wonderful women Mrs Despard,
founder of the Women's Freedom League, and Dame Millicent Fawcett, leader of the
National Union of Suffrage Societies.
Great sympathy was felt with Mr Baldwin [prime minister], Sir William
Joynson-Hicks, and more especially with Lady Astor, who had been unable to come,
and it was felt that the Labour party had every cause to be proud because their
leader, Mr Ramsay MacDonald, did come, and was able to say that his party had
from the beginning supported the claim of women to equal civil rights.
Mrs Pethick-Lawrence referred with gratitude to the pioneers, and in touching
words named specially four of those who had not lived to see the victory: Mrs
Pankhurst, Miss Emily Davidson, Lady Constance Lytton, and Mrs Cobden Sanderson.
"We have our differences but have never had any difference as to women's
franchise," said Mr Ramsay MacDonald, expressing the congratulations of the
Labour party. "I want to say that as far as the great body of people in this
country was concerned, the victory was won before a single shot was fired in the
European War."
Lady Rhondda, who was to thank "the men who have helped us", said the men
deserved more credit, for the women had had the prick of discomfort to spur them
on.
Mrs Despard [recalled] the little meeting in a small room at which the Women's
Freedom League was formed twenty-one years ago, expressing her delight that so
many comrades from other societies were present, and assuring her friends that
women continuing to work together in unity would accomplish great things in the
future.
From the Guardian
archive > July 6, 1928 > Celebrating full suffrage for women, G,
Republished
6.7.2006,
https://www.theguardian.com/news/1928/jul/06/
mainsection.fromthearchive
March 7 1924
'Sloppy sentiment' on the
illegitimate
From the Guardian archive
March 7 1924
The Guardian
The House of Lords yesterday went into Committee on Lord
Buckmaster's Legitimacy Bill. The Archbishop of Canterbury moved an amendment
providing that nothing in the Act shall operate to legitimate a person whose
father or mother was married to a third person when the illegitimate person was
born. He said this proviso was in the bill they passed last year, and its
adoption would assimilate the law of England and Scotland.
The Duke of Atholl supported the amendment, believing that, without it, the bill
would stand no chance of becoming law. As drafted, the bill would encourage free
love and polygamy. It was sloppy sentimentalism run wild. It might even lead to
crime.
The Lord Chancellor said the Government had nothing to say as a Government. In
this matter he spoke as a private member. The noble lords overlooked the fact
that the whole object of the bill was to remove the stigma from illegitimate
children.
Lord Parmoor strongly supported the amendment, and repudiated the Duke of
Atholl's insinuation that the Labour party had not as good a moral standard as
any other party.
He added that he would be away in Geneva next week and therefore he would not be
able to oppose Lord Buckmaster's Divorce Bill. Viscount Finlay urged Lord
Buckmaster to accept the amendment.
Lord Buckmaster said he had been accused of introducing a bill which was an
incitement to murder and suicide, free love and polygamy, and other devastating
consequences. The bill was designed to do justice to children born out of
wedlock and the amendment would shut out a certain class from that benefit.
It had been backed up by inflammatory and denunciating arguments and fantastical
hypotheses which almost bewildered him. He asked the House to reject the
amendment.
The House divided, and the amendment was carried by 54 to 18. A new clause,
proposed by Lord Buckmaster, making an illegitimate child next of kin in law to
its mother if she died intestate was agreed to.
The bill passed Committee as amended. The Administration of Justice Bill and the
Treaty of Peace (Turkey) Bill passed the third reading.
The Diseases of Animals Bill passed Committee and was read a third time.
[The successful clause of the Liberal peer
Lord Buckmaster's bill
legitimised children whose parents subsequently married.
As late as 1959 peers
again voted down a Commons bill
legitimising children of adulterous unions.
Advised to avoid a fight with MPS,
they later passed the measure.]
From the Guardian
archive > March 7 1924 > 'Sloppy sentiment' on the illegitimate, G,
Republished
7.3.2007, p. 38,
http://digital.guardian.co.uk/guardian/2007/03/07/pages/ber38.shtml
November 10, 1910
Tonypandy's
day of fear ends in peace
From the Guardian archive
Thursday November 10, 1910
Guardian
Tonypandy, Wednesday. The town was awake all night. Excitement
and fear kept many out of bed, and only the dawn scattered the prevailing alarm.
All night long men were boarding up the shattered shop fronts
and carts were going round for the sweepings of plate glass that littered the
main street for three quarters of a mile.
Now and again there was the heavy tramp of large bodies of police going or
returning from the Glamorgan pit at Llwynypia, but nothing occurred to remove or
increase the anxious suspense. Today is also full of fear.
The few shops that escaped damage yesterday are being barricaded today, and the
night is awaited with dread. Soldiers have arrived. A squadron of the 18th
Hussars reached Pontypridd early this morning, and after a rest a troop came
here by road, a distance of seven miles, while the other troop went to
Aberdare... The troop here rode through the town about one o'clock to their
quarters at the New Colliery offices. The Metropolitan Mounted Constabulary have
also arrived.
Superficially there is nothing but curiosity in the minds of the slow-moving
crowds that are in the streets, but the same could have been said yesterday, and
those who know the temper of the Rhondda miners predict more trouble. Let us
hope the prophets of evil are wrong.
Ten o'clock. Tonypandy tonight and Tonypandy last night are not like the same
town. Even within the past two hours there has been a great change. There is not
even a crowd about except in the square. At first the disappearance of the
strikers caused misgiving. It seemed as if they had acted on a common
understanding, and the fear was that they might be congregating elsewhere.
I have walked to Llwynypia and as far as the grounds of Mr. Llewellyn's [the
colliery general manager] house. There are only curious sightseers about. The
colliery is brightly lighted, and the loud hum of the machinery in the
power-house shows that it is running at full speed. The police are stamping up
and down to keep themselves warm. Mr. Llewellyn's house looks as secure as
Buckingham Palace. No doubt there are many police guarding it, but they are all
hidden by the darkness, and it has not been thought necessary to secure the
gates.
· Many trade unionists believed for decades that troops sent by Winston
Churchill, as home secretary, fired on locked-out miners during this dispute.
This report indicates troops only arrived the day after the savage disturbances,
though the decision to send them was known earlier.
From the Guardian
archive > November 10, 1910 >
Tonypandy's day of fear ends in peace, G,
Republished 10.11.2006,
https://www.theguardian.com/news/1910/nov/10/
mainsection.fromthearchive
September 28, 1909
The Lords and
Tories fear a land tax
From the Guardian archive
Tuesday September 28, 1909
Guardian
That the Lords will reject the Budget - or postpone it, which
is the same thing - till after a general election, the spokesmen of the
Opposition seem now agreed.
No one with eyes and a memory really doubts why they will;
what they dislike, as they started by showing quite simply, are the land taxes.
It was only when the land taxes were found unexpectedly very popular that this
attitude had to be abandoned.
All sorts of refinements were resorted to in order that the land-owning peers
who condemned the Budget because it touched their pockets might be saved. Since
then we have a series of alternative cries.
Lord Rosebury disclosed the appalling spectre of commercial insecurity, happily
not visible on the markets; and then Mr. Balfour lit a still brighter lantern
inside a larger turnip and labelled it Socialism.
The drawback to all these devices has been that they have not really touched the
obnoxious land taxes. When they are described as Socialism, the description, if
not dismissed at once, tends rather to make people think less ill of Socialism.
Some other direct weapon had to be found. The latest and most logical was that
which Mr. Balfour tried to wield last night - the plea that they were not levied
solely for the benefit of the local authorities.
Now no one who puts to the landowner who receives unearned increment Mr.
Churchill's question, "How did you get it?" can fail to see that the local
authorities, by expenditure out of the rates, have helped confer the increment.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer [Lloyd George] sees that, and he proposes
to hand half the yield of the taxes over to them. But when Mr. Balfour and Mr.
[FE] Smith condemn him for not letting them have the whole, they expose
themselves to two crushing replies. Their whole criticism is based on the asking
of that very question "How did you get it?" which every spokesman of the
landowners has told us it is so wicked to ask.
Where a public authority has helped to create a great value, it is justified in
taking a reasonable toll of the value. This is what, in defence of the land
taxes, we have urged all along; and if when urged on behalf of the municipality
it is, in Mr. Balfour's words, "a simple principle" and one which he
"appreciates", how when urged on behalf of the State does it become "Socialism"
and robbery and spoliation, and, in fine, the beginning of the end?
[Lloyd George's budget proposed a tax on sales of land.
It had to be dropped
because of opposition.]
From the archive >
September 28, 1909 >
The Lords and Tories fear a land tax,
G, Republished
28.9.2006,
https://www.theguardian.com/news/1909/sep/28/
mainsection.fromthearchive
July 25, 1889
Mr Gladstone's
untiringly youthful mind
From the Guardian archive
Thursday July 25, 1889
Guardian
We all know what we owe to Mr. Gladstone, or some of us at
least know, but perhaps no one but Mr. Gladstone himself knows what we owe to
his wife.
We shall best express our sense of what we owe to the lady who
completes her fiftieth year of married life today by declining to regard her as
apart from her husband, and rather uniting them in our thought as they have been
united in purpose, in labour, and in sympathy.
And what a fifty years it has been! In the marriage register Mr. Gladstone is
described as member of Parliament for Newark, where he had sat for half-a-dozen
years as the friend of Sir Robert Peel and the nominee of the Duke of Newcastle.
Already he had held office as an Under-Secretary of State, and men pointed to
him as destined to do great things and as the rising hope of the Tory party. One
half of that forecast has been fulfilled in ample measure, but the other has
been strangely falsified.
Nothing is more wonderful than the unceasing growth and expansion of Mr.
Gladstone's mind. Lord Palmerston lived to a greater age than Mr. Gladstone has
just attained and held power to the last, but long before then he had reached
the limits of his political tether, and the world waited to move on till he
should have passed away.
But to Mr. Gladstone it would seem to have been given to carry forward to the
limits of his age the privilege of youth - its elasticity, its hopefulness, its
readiness to embark on new and great undertakings. Had Mr. Gladstone retired
from political life even ten years ago he would already have accomplished more
things and greater than any other statesman of the century.
To have borne a great part in the battle of Free Trade, to have reformed the
tariff, to have compelled the enfranchisement of the householders in the
boroughs and to have carried their enfranchisement in the counties, to have
given protection to the voter by ballot, to have laid broad and deep the
foundations of a system of national education, this surely would have been
praise enough and labour enough for any single man.
Yet to all this Mr. Gladstone has added the greatest by far of the tasks of his
life - the reconstruction of the political relations of Ireland to the remainder
of the United Kingdom. Of all living men he is best able to carry it to a happy
and a fruitful issue.
· Attributed to GWE Russell.
Gladstone, 80 at this time,
still had his
fourth spell
as Liberal prime minister before him.
From the Guardian
archive > July 25, 1889 >
Mr Gladstone's untiringly youthful mind,
G,
Republished 25.7.2006,
https://www.theguardian.com/news/1889/jul/25/
mainsection.fromthearchive
July 6 1850
The death
of a remarkable prime minister
From The Guardian archive
July 6 1850
The Guardian
Our latest intelligence on Wednesday contained the melancholy
announcement, received by electric telegraph, of the decease of Sir Robert Peel
of the injuries received by the fall from his horse on Saturday.
[The ex-prime minister] had called at Buckingham Palace. Proceeding up
Constitution Hill, he had arrived nearly opposite the wicket gate leading into
the Green Park, when he met Miss Ellis, one of Lady Dover's daughters. Sir
Robert had scarcely exchanged salutes with this young lady, when his horse,
becoming restive, swerved towards the rails of Green Park, and threw Sir Robert
sideways on his left shoulder.
Sir Robert, on being raised, groaned very heavily, and [asked] whether he was
much hurt, replied, "Yes, very much."
From A Special Correspondent: From 1841 to 1846 I heard every speech he
delivered and [have read] every speech he ever delivered. He is open to the
reproach of having been a dextrous party leader, often leading people who
trusted him astray as to his real objects.
But, apart from this, his public life of forty years is associated with some of
the most remarkable of the measures which have changed the very character of the
government; the remodelling of the currency, the improvement of the executive in
Ireland, the amelioration of the criminal law, catholic emancipation, and
commercial freedom, are the monuments of his public career.
[As a young MP] Peel was in the prime of manhood, and the champion of the
protestant interest. It would have been absurd to expect an early abandonment of
his position.
But any one who will take the time to read his speeches during several years
prior to catholic emancipation will detect the gradual conquest of his intellect
over his prejudices.
Any observer, during the period between 1841 and 1846, could discern that the
intellect of Sir Robert Peel was capitulating to the arguments of the economists
and that the repeal of the corn laws was merely a question of time.
Had [the Irish potato] famine been followed by the European revolutions of 1848,
with the corn-law unrepealed, the Anti-corn-law League in full operation and the
middle classes exasperated to the last pitch of endurance, the whole fabric of
English society would have been shaken to its very foundations.
From that tremendous peril did Sir Robert Peel save us; and he accomplished it
at the sacrifice of his power, his reputation and even his health.
From The Guardian
archive > July 6 1850 >
The death of a remarkable prime minister,
G, republished
6.7.2007, p. 36,
http://digital.guardian.co.uk/guardian/2007/07/06/pages/ber36.shtml
August 2, 1848
The Irish
uprising that never was
From the Guardian archive
Wednesday August 2, 1848
Guardian
[This was the reality behind Manchester's official panic about
a supposed insurrection in Ireland, as reported in Saturday's archive extract.]
Although we never expected any very serious consequences from
the treasonable conspiracy in which so large a number of Irishmen were known to
be engaged, and the existence of which they took care to proclaim to all the
world, we scarcely expected so ridiculous a burlesque of an insurrection as that
which Mr. Smith O'Brien and his friends have been acting in Tipperary.
These amazingly foolish people appear to have paraded themselves through great
part of the counties of Waterford, Tipperary, and Kilkenny, sporting green and
gold uniforms of unquestionable brilliancy - the possession of which they seem
to have considered sufficient guarantees of their strategic and military skill.
The people of the south of Ireland, however, were a little wiser than Mr.
O'Brien. They do not appear to have thought that a few green uniforms
constituted a sufficient nucleus for an insurrectionary army.
They wanted to see that formidable force which was alleged to have been
organised in Dublin, but which was by no means forthcoming.
No doubt the rebel leaders were, to a great extent, the victims of their own
mis-statements as to the extent of the organisation. The repealers of Dublin,
who saw clearly enough the dangers which they would have to encounter in case of
an outbreak in that city, were very willing to believe that the first move would
be made by the people of the south.
They had been taught that nothing was easier than to overthrow British power in
Ireland - that almost at the first shout the Lord Lieutenant and his court would
be but too happy to make their escape.
The Dublin men saw, however, that their share of the achievement was not quite
so easy.There were rather too many troops and police and too much vigilance.
It was much easier to rely upon the people of Waterford and Tipperary. The
Dublin leaders on the first appearance of danger betook themselves to the south;
never doubting but they should find an army on foot to receive them.
But it happened that the "boys" of Tipperary and Waterford had been doing just
what had been done in Dublin. They had relied upon the great army from some
other quarter; from Dublin, or Cork or the United States.
When [the leaders from Dublin] made their appearance, with no other military
appliances than four uniforms, and urged them to rise in insurrection, they
naturally demurred.
From the Guardian
archive > August 2, 1848 > The Irish uprising that never was, G,
Republished
2.8.2006,
https://www.theguardian.com/news/1848/aug/02/
mainsection.fromthearchive
April 12 1834
A prayer for
the Dorchester convicts
From The Guardian archive
April 12 1834
The Guardian
On Monday last, a meeting of unionists and others, convened by
placard as "the working classes", was held at Mr Scholfield's chapel, Every
Street, Ancoats, to petition parliament for remission of the sentence of
transportation passed upon the six men [known as "the Tolpuddle martyrs"]
convicted of administering secret and illegal oaths at Dorchester.
The chapel being found too small to hold the crowd of idle people, an
adjournment took place to the chapel yard, 1,400 or 1,500 persons being present.
The chair was taken by a young man named Grant, who it is said was formerly a
cotton spinner.
The meeting was addressed by a delegate from some union in Edinburgh, a delegate
from "the consolidated trades unions of London", and others, who spoke in
violent language of the partiality and injustice with which they said the law
against secret oaths was administered. The Duke of Sussex [was] suffered to
preside over a lodge of freemasons, and the late Duke of York over the orange
lodges, in both of which secret oaths were taken.
Petrie, the London delegate, said government dared as soon send the men abroad
as they dared cut their own throats. It was merely an experiment on the
submission of the people. They had drawn the sword against two millions of men
who were pledged to effect their own emancipation and to obtain a proper return
for their industry. He would not advise any appeal to force, but recommend the
labouring classes to rest upon their oars, and declare that they would cease
producing until "the thing" rotted away.
The following petition was adopted: The petition of the undersigned labourers,
and others, humbly represents that these poor men have been entrapped by a law
grown obsolete in the memory of the nation, until the revival of it by a
sentence of unusual and undeserved severity; and as there are other associations
which meet and administer oaths unlawfully, one of which is presided over by a
prince of the blood royal, your petitioners fear that the law may fall into
contempt from its seeming partiality and cruelty.
They therefore pray that your honourable house will use its influence with the
executive government for a remission of the sentences, pass an act rendering the
law upon this question more equal and impartial.
It was resolved that the petition after lying a few days for signatures should
be sent up to Mr John Fielden for presentation, and that Mr Cobbett, Mr Hume, Mr
Ewart and other members should be requested to support its prayer. A collection
was made for the support of the convicts.
From The Guardian
archive > April 12 1834 >
A prayer for the Dorchester convicts,
G, 12.4.2007, p.
32,
http://digital.guardian.co.uk/guardian/2007/04/12/pages/ber32.shtml
On This Day: March 23, 1802
From The Times
Archive
Until the mid-19th century,
general
elections were notorious
for the bribes, or treats,
offered by candidates to
electors.
Lord Belgrave’s Bill
was one of many attempts to stop
such corrupt
practices
LORD BELGRAVE rose to move leave to bring in a Bill to repeal much of the Act of
the seventh of William the Third, as related to disabling persons from sitting
in that House who should offend against the said Act; and to make more effectual
provisions in lieu of the same.
To the principles of this Bill he did not suppose there could be any objection;
it was evidently intended to prevent the riot and excess which too generally
prevailed at Elections; to preserve the health and morals of the people; and was
calculated to secure the freedom and purity of popular Elections.
He had at first intended to propose the repeal of this Act altogether, but from
further consideration, it appeared that the former part of it was unexceptional,
but that the latter was not sufficiently explicit or effective to answer the
purpose — it was found to have produced many contradictory opinions in the
Election Committees of that House.
The necessity for such a measure must be acknowledged by every person who
recollected the disgraceful scenes that had occurred during the last Election,
particularly in the Borough of Southwark. He felt much pleased in reflecting on
the assistance the Treating Act derived from some late decisions in the Courts
of Law, where it was determined that the value of articles furnished for
Election purposes, contrary to the spirit of this Act, was not recoverable by
law. This would serve, no doubt, to check the publican’s readiness to give
credit, and perhaps, in consequence, to restrain the candidates’ disposition to
extravagance.
On This Day: March 23, 1802,
Times,
23.3.2005,
http://www.newsint-archive.co.uk/pages/main.asp - broken link
Explore more on these topics
Anglonautes > Vocapedia
British monarchy
democracy, politics > UK
democracy, politics > USA
democracy, politics >
activism, protests, riots, looting > UK, USA
politics > world > oligarchy, autocracy,
communism, despotism,
dictatorship, totalitarianism, fascism
democracy, human rights, migration, politics,
society, religion, health, climate, resources >
world > regions, countries
world > foreign policy,
United Nations
(U.N.), diplomacy
language > debate
Related > Anglonautes >
History
> Timeline in pictures
England, United Kingdom, British Empire
20th century
> Northern Ireland
|