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1922. In contrast to the majority of the former Liberals who went 93 DEFECTORS AND THE LIBERAL PARTY to the Conservatives, the first two – Reginald McKenna and Ronald Munro-Ferguson (Viscount Novar) – were anti-coalitionists. They were to become the first of eight Asquithians to defect to the Conservatives.2 Reginald McKenna was offered, and negotiated about, the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer under two Conservative prime ministers – Bonar Law and Baldwin. McKenna had already served as Chancellor in the Asquith Coalition, and in the process, some Liberals
to female suffrage, the chapter analyses Churchill’s attitude to the extension of the franchise in the late 1920s, his record on social and taxation policy as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and his attitude to women’s issues as both Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition in the 1940s and 1950s. It also examines how far Churchill constructed his public appeals in gendered terms. To what extent did he specifically attempt to appeal to women voters and to women as wartime c itizens – and how did his efforts (or the lack of them) fit into the context of the
4 The oratory of Iain Macleod Mark Garnett Iain Macleod has been a hero to many Conservatives, particularly but not exclusively to those who identify with the party’s ‘One Nation’ tradition. This is a fitting legacy for the man who co-founded (and named) the One Nation group of MPs. In part, he owes his continuing appeal to the fact that he died, at the age of just fifty-six, soon after reaching the pinnacle of his career by taking office as Chancellor of the Exchequer. The sense of promise unfulfilled is reinforced by the fact that, unlike so many moderate
Alarmed by the diversion of material and technological resources to military ends, politicians and scientists on the left warned that this new war economy could undermine the development of civil industry. When a £4.7 billion rearmament package was announced by Labour's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Hugh Gaitskell, in 1951, three ministers resigned in protest. As John Callaghan observed, the left felt that ‘costly overseas military commitments’ meant ‘that the future of the welfare state was jeopardised, let alone any further advances towards a socialist or social
that there should be someone well informed but detached from local politics with whom matters can on occasion be discussed. This aspect also has not been so prominent in the last few years, but at one time it was of considerable importance and is pretty sure to be again. (TNA HO 45/20942) It depended on the individual holding the post. The Duke of Abercorn commanded some respect in Northern Ireland whereas Lord Erskine, who graduated to the governorship via the Joint Exchequer Board, had little local influence. Concerns that formal mechanisms for liaison between
executives at the expense of the state, Comerford and the other Irish Sugar executives were exempt from any punishment for their actions. The Irish exchequer would later foot a €7 million fine imposed by the European Commission due, to a large degree, to decisions taken by the same executives which were found to have seriously breached EU competition rules.8 As it happens, because Irish Sugar deliberately ignored EU competition laws, their monopoly on the Irish Sugar market meant that Irish Sugar prices were ‘among the highest in the Community, to the detriment of both
This book examines the impact that nostalgia has had on the Labour Party’s political development since 1951. In contrast to existing studies that have emphasised the role played by modernity, it argues that nostalgia has defined Labour’s identity and determined the party’s trajectory over time. It outlines how Labour, at both an elite and a grassroots level, has been and remains heavily influenced by a nostalgic commitment to an era of heroic male industrial working-class struggle. This commitment has hindered policy discussion, determined the form that the modernisation process has taken and shaped internal conflict and cohesion. More broadly, Labour’s emotional attachment to the past has made it difficult for the party to adjust to the socioeconomic changes that have taken place in Britain. In short, nostalgia has frequently left the party out of touch with the modern world. In this way, this book offers an assessment of Labour’s failures to adapt to the changing nature and demands of post-war Britain.
English radicalism has been a deep-rooted but minority tradition in the political culture since at least the seventeenth century. The central aim of this book is to examine, in historical and political context, a range of key events and individuals that exemplify English radicalism in the twentieth century. This analysis is preceded by defining precisely what has constituted this tradition; and by the main outline of the development of the tradition from the Civil War to the end of the nineteenth century. Three of the main currents of English radicalism in the twentieth century have been the labour movement, the women’s movement and the peace movement. These are discussed in some detail, as a framework for the detailed consideration of ten key representative figures of the tradition in the twentieth century: Bertrand Russell, Sylvia Pankhurst, Ellen Wilkinson, George Orwell, E.P. Thompson, Michael Foot, Joan Maynard, Stuart Hall, Tony Benn and Nicolas Walter. The question of ‘agency’ – of how to bring about radical change in a predominantly conservative society and culture – has been a fundamental issue for English radicals. It is argued that, in the twentieth century, many of the important achievements in progressive politics have taken place in and through extra-parliamentary movements, as well as through formal political parties and organisations – the Labour Party and other socialist organisations – and on occasion, through libertarian and anarchist politics. The final chapter considers the continuing relevance of this political tradition in the early twenty-first century, and reviews its challenges and prospects.
Refiguring childhood stages a series of encounters with biosocial power, which is a specific zone of intensity within the more encompassing arena of biopower and biopolitics. Assembled at the intersection of thought and practice, biosocial power attempts to bring envisioned futures into the present, taking hold of life in the form of childhood, thereby bridging being and becoming while also shaping the power relations that encapsulate the social and cultural world(s) of adults and children. Taking up a critical perspective which is attentive to the contingency of childhoods – the ways in which particular childhoods are constituted and configured – the method used in the book is a transversal genealogy that moves between past and present while also crossing a series of discourses and practices framed by children’s rights (the right to play), citizenship, health, disadvantage and entrepreneurship education. The overarching analysis converges on contemporary neoliberal enterprise culture, which is approached as a conjuncture that helps to explain, and also to trouble, the growing emphasis on the agency and rights of children. It is against the backdrop of this problematic that the book makes its case for refiguring childhood. Focusing on the how, where and when of biosocial power, Refiguring childhood will appeal to researchers and students interested in examining the relationship between power and childhood through the lens of social and political theory, sociology, cultural studies, history and geography.
Does European integration contribute to, or even accelerate, the erosion of intra-party democracy? This book is about improving our understanding of political parties as democratic organisations in the context of multi-level governance. It analyses the impact of European Union (EU) membership on power dynamics, focusing on the British Labour Party, the French Socialist Party (PS), and the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). The purpose of this book is to investigate who within the three parties determines EU policies and selects EU specialists, such as the candidates for European parliamentary elections and EU spokespersons.
The book utilises a principal-agent framework to investigate the delegation of power inside the three parties across multiple levels and faces. It draws on over 65 original interviews with EU experts from the three national parties and the Party of European Socialists (PES) and an e-mail questionnaire. This book reveals that European policy has largely remained in the hands of the party leadership. Its findings suggest that the party grassroots are interested in EU affairs, but that interest rarely translates into influence, as information asymmetry between the grassroots and the party leadership makes it very difficult for local activists to scrutinise elected politicians and to come up with their own policy proposals. As regards the selection of EU specialists, such as candidates for the European parliamentary elections, this book highlights that the parties’ processes are highly political, often informal, and in some cases, undemocratic.