The Prime Ministers We Never Had: Success and Failure from Butler to Corbyn

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Venning, Timothy (2005). "Prime Ministers". Compendium of British Office Holders. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-50587-2. This is usually the MP who leads the party with the most seats in the House of Commons, or who can unite a coalition of MPs or parties into a working majority.

I remember that day very well. I was working as a barman and as I had been working a late shift the previous night, I didn't hear any news before I got to the pub the following morning. Steve Richards is acutely fair-minded in his political analysis, but never at the expense of his prose becoming leaden or dull. He is also more than willing to challenge conventional political wisdom (his chapter on the gregarious Ken Clarke show the arch-Thatcherite economics lying behind his amiable public persona). Unsurprisingly, as a former editor of Harper’s Bazaar UK, Picardie writes most vibrantly when reflecting on the sartorial history and effervescent atmosphere of postwar Paris. The hope that the opulent silks of Dior’s 1947 “New Look” collection represented ­– the luxury, femininity and freedom ­– was everything that the Nazi occupation had sought to extinguish and, as we now know, Catherine’s bravery helped to restore.

‘Electing’ Prime Ministers

Parker, Robert J. (2013). British Prime Ministers (2nded.). Amberley Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4456-1021-4. Cook & Stevenson 1988, p.44; Courthope 1838, p.19; Eccleshall & Walker 2002, p.34; Englefield, Seaton & White 1995, pp.23–26; Schumann & Schweizer 2012, p.143. By the late Stuart period, the Treasury was often run not by a single individual (i.e., the lord high treasurer) but by a commission of lords of the Treasury, [16] led by the first lord of the Treasury. The last lords high treasurer, Sidney Godolphin, 1st Earl of Godolphin (1702–1710) and Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford (1711–1714), [17] ran the government of Queen Anne. [18] From 1707 to 1721 [ edit ]

He also came close to winning the Labour leadership in 1980, finishing just 10 votes behind Michael Foot. However, he went on to win a battle that many came to see as one for the soul of the Labour party when he saw off a challenge for the deputy leadership from the hard left candidate Tony Benn in 1981. Healey won by 50.4% to Benn’s 49.6%.A similar sense of modesty might well have rescued Where Power Stops, David Runciman’s new collection of essays on political books. I say “new”: actually, only the introduction and the afterword are new; the rest are revisions of pieces that Runciman penned for the London Review of Books. Collections of this type are always something of a challenge to review: taken singly, the essays are well-written meditations on a biography or memoir of a major political figure; presented together as reflections on the nature of personality and what they reveal about the limits of power renders them irksome. The introduction, which claims that “once we can understand the character of a person, we can follow that character behind the curtain and get to see what is really there”, writes a cheque that the essays cannot cash, because Runciman is not familiar with the character of the people he is writing about – he is familiar with books written about and by them. I accept that answering that question would have been answering a hypothetical which is hardly definitive. However, this is arguably an odd omission given that the “what if” element in the title and aim of this book is in large part it’s main spark of interest to potential readers. I found that it was easier to fill in the blanks on this question with those potential leaders who were determinedly reformist cabinet ministers, since their policy fixations help provide valuable clues. Occasionally, such as in the Ken Clarke chapter the author took time to explain away public misconceptions about particular figures. This was useful in making clear points about their world views. No. 32987". The London Gazette. 31 October 1924. p.7861. The King has been graciously pleased to confer the Territorial Decoration upon the undermentioned Officers. Cook & Stevenson 1980, p.11; Eccleshall & Walker 2002, p.28; Englefield, Seaton & White 1995, pp.16–21; Pryde et al. 1996, p.46; Tout 1910, p.740.

David Skelton—(@DJSkelton) Joe Chamberlain, Gaitskell, Heseltine, Ken Clarke, Iain Macleod all have to be on list.The Prime Ministers We Never Had. A study into recent history in British politics. Asking the key question as to why certain political figures failed to get the top job of Prime Minister. Roberts’ treatment of the men (and woman) under the spotlight in this book is sympathetic, with no obvious political bias. There were some annoyances, which is why it earns 4 rather than 5 stars. I was a little frustrated that Barbara Castle’s chapter felt like one long comparison with Margaret Thatcher. A few times I felt Ken Clarke was reduced to a jolly stereotype, although Roberts did an excellent job of making clear his considerable strengths too. Eccleshall & Walker 2002, p.196; Englefield, Seaton & White 1995, pp.195–198; Royal Statistical Society 1892, p.9. Disraeli 1868; Eccleshall & Walker 2002, p.183; Englefield, Seaton & White 1995, pp.187–189; Tout 1910, p.741. As you’d expect, the chapters on Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are the jewels in the crown, but the entire set glitters. Richards has a nice line in pithy summaries of the politicians who cross his stage – David Cameron, we are told, “possessed a sunnier personality than most leaders and yet his ending was uniquely dark”, while Harold Wilson’s deputy, George Brown, “was a formidable character when sober, but too often he was drunk”.