history archive
The race to fly to the North Pole
Had I not been sent a review copy of Show me a hero: The sin of Richard Byrd Junior by Jeremy Scott, I suspect I would never have read it – and what a treat I would have missed out on. From the cover and beautifully chosen typography – wonderfully invoking the 1920s – through [...]
Lloyd George is (still) on YouTube
Reviving and updating a list I put together a little while back about David Lloyd George, here are some of the former Liberal Prime Minister’s appearances courtesy of YouTube: Lloyd George visits Chequers – a silent movie, like the others (and therefore perfect for those who, shock horror, browse the internet whilst at work) David [...]
The Riddle of the Sands: showing its age but still enjoyable
Several years after The Riddle of the Sands was first published and became a best seller, one of the first British spy cases came before the German courts – the so-called Brandon-Trench affair, named after the two Britons (correctly) convicted of spying. During the court case one of the lawyers held up a copy of [...]
MI6’s early years: Michael Smith’s version
After decades of secrecy over even their chiefs’ names, MI5 and MI6 in recent decades have started opening up their records and their personnel to authors of espionage and counter-espionage history. Christopher Andrew’s various works played a key role in pioneering the independently written but officially blessed spy histories. Now it is an increasing crowded [...]
How well do you know the British Prime Ministers?
A quick history quiz for the weekend: only five recent Prime Ministers have not subsequently taken a seat in the House of Lords. Who are the five? Three you should find quite easy, a fourth not too hard if you are an older reader, but the fifth may surprise – or make you think “oh, [...]
David Steel, bombing Greenland and regulating cats
It being over four years since I last read David Steel’s speech to the Liberal Party Assembly of 1976, I thought it was time I did so again. As you do. And yes, once again, it is the bombing of Greenland and the cats which caught my attention: I have been leader of the Party [...]
The Acta Diurna, or how the Romans had an internet-savvy approach to information
Before the internet, before computers, before even electricity, the Romans had a communications technology that showed an understanding of how to get the right information into the right hands which is still highly applicable to the online world. The Acta Diurna were daily public notices, posted up in public locations around Rome. Lesson one – [...]
The government must stand for more than just cuts
I’ve written a few times now about the strategic problem the Liberal Democrats currently face: The message is basically this: look at the four polices on the front page of the 2010 Lib Dem manifesto and how they are now being implemented (along with many other Liberal Democrat policies). Then look at what the Conservatives [...]
Want to hear Asquith’s defence of the 1909 People’s Budget?
Of course you do. So listen to Asquith here.
(And you can find out more about the 1909 People’s Budget and why it is so famous courtesy of the Liberal Democrat History Group website.)
The Triple Lock: Where it came from, how it worked and its future
I’ve penned a piece for the Journal of Liberal History about the party’s so-called triple lock – the procedures agreed to ratify or reject agreements with other parties such as the coalition agreement. As the introductory blurb says: Fears over Paddy Ashdown’s talks with Labour in the late 1990s triggered the Liberal Democrats to introduce [...]
