history archive
How small could the Cabinet be?
It looks like Gordon Brown might be finding it a bit hard to persuade people to serve in the Cabinet. But good news for him, there’s plenty of historical precedent of small Cabinets. George Grenville in the mid-eighteenth century had a Cabinet of just nine, whilst the Fox-North coalition of the late eighteenth century managed [...]
What they said about the Commons
Following up my piece on what they said about the Speaker in the nineteenth century, here’s what the Quarterly Review wrote in 1830:
There is something in the very atmosphere of the House unfavourable to bold and uncompromising conduct. It is, de facto, a sort of overgrown club. This is the worst part of the business. [...]
A puzzler for any procedural pedants
The Liberal History Group’s committee had an extended debate via email a few months ago over the number of days for which Lloyd George was an MP. We’d set this as a quiz question before discovering that we didn’t all agree on the answer. Leap years weren’t the problem. It was the question of when [...]
What they said about the Speaker
“An incompetent and unknown man forced into the Chair by a petty majority in the face of an election defeat known to be impending.”
Oh, perhaps I should add that this was Lord Salisbury 1895 about Speaker William Court Gully.
Drawing for Social Democracy: an interview with the SDP's cartoonist
Chris Radley, former cartoonist for the Social Democrat (the SDP’s weekly newspaper), was interviewed by myself, Duncan Brack and Sarah Taft for the summer 2003 issue of the Journal of Liberal History. Having looked through his collection for this interview I was so taken with this one that it now hangs on my wall at [...]
Charles James Fox, the repeal of Poynings Law and the Act of Union
This article first appeared in a special edition of the Journal of Liberal History (Issue 33) on Liberals and Ireland. The repeal of Poynings’ Law in 1782 brought about a short-lived period of real devolved power for the Irish Parliament that lasted until the 1801 Act of Union which, despite its name, was in effect [...]
Jeremy Thorpe interview
I carried out this interview with Duncan Brack for the Journal of Liberal History in 2000, at a time when Charles Kennedy was Liberal Democrat leader, William Hague was Conservative leader and Tony Blair was approaching his first general election since becoming Prime Minister in 1997. Jeremy Thorpe was elected as leader of the Liberal [...]
Great Liberal Speeches: Fox on the suspension of habeas corpus
I was one of the contributors to Great Liberal Speeches. Here is my introduction to the selected speech from Charles James Fox speech, followed by the speech itself. Charles James Fox, 1749-1806, was one of the leading orators of his generation, easily able to hold his own against other such talents and opponents such as [...]
The Alliance: a chronology
Parts of the following chronology have been used in various Liberal Democrat History Group publications over the years, but here it is all together in one place. Spot any errors or omissions? Just let me know. 1979 3 May General election won by Tories. Defeated Labour MPs include Shirley Williams. June Social Democrat Alliance (SDA) [...]
Great Liberal Speeches: George Tierney on sacrificing the constitution on the altar of public security
I was one of the contributors to Great Liberal Speeches. Here is my introduction to the selected speech from George Tierney, followed by the speech itself. The issues are arguments are still very pertinent today. George Tierney, who led the Whigs in the Commons between 1817 and 1821, was born in 1761 in Gibraltar to [...]
