Factions
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Arthur Latham and the rise of the Labour Left
On this day, 1930, Arthur Latham was born. Labour MP for Paddington North (later Paddington) from 1969 to 1979, his career both inside and outside the Commons reflected the ebb and flow of the Labour Party’s ‘hard left’. Alfie Steer…
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Election Chairing Ballads: The Songs and Music of Electoral Victory from Handel to ‘Things Can Only Get Better’
In today’s blog for the Georgian Elections Project, Dr Kendra Packham (Institute of English Studies, University of London and Newcastle University) tells us about her research on eighteenth-century election ballads, and finds in the forgotten election ‘chairing’ song points of…
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Breaking the Political Mould: a new 18th-century political party
With a multiple of parties vying for your vote in the 2024 General Election, the Whig and Tory monopoly of the 18th Century would have presented a much more limited choice for Georgian voters. However, in today’s blog for the…
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Winchester v. Winchester: rivalries and election-rigging in 1560s Hampshire
Whatever the outcome of a modern election, the process of voting is predictable, reliable, and well-understood. However, in the sixteenth century, the picture was a lot more complicated, and sometimes corrupt, as Dr Paul Hunneyball of our Elizabethan Lords section…
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Tory to Whig – or helping out the Family?
Historians J.B. Owen, J.H. Plumb, and Linda Colley have all alluded to the post-1714 drift of the Tories into the Whig party. One of the families particularly referenced was the Legges. In the latest blog for the Georgian Lords, Dr…
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Enter the Dragon: the education of Robert Harley
Robert Harley (1661-1724) was in his late 20s when he was first elected to Parliament as MP for Tregony in April 1689. He would remain a member of Parliament, first of the Commons and then of the Lords, for the…
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‘Not voting at all’: the election of an imprisoned MP in 1769
2024 represents the 250th anniversary of John Wilkes’s re-election for Middlesex and election as Lord Mayor of London. It was by any measure a remarkable achievement for a man who had been expelled from Parliament and imprisoned; but what of…
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The earl of Abingdon and the treatment of American prisoners of war
In the latest post for the Georgian Lords, Dr Robin Eagles highlights the career of one of the House’s more eccentric orators: Willoughby Bertie, 4th earl of Abingdon: musician, breeder of champion race-horses and radical politician concerned about corruption at…
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‘True Blue’: the choice of political colours in the 18th century
In British politics, we are now used to the idea of certain parties (or causes) being associated with particular colours. The Conservative party is blue; Labour red; the Greens are green. In the 18th century such notions were by no…
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The Civil War and the First Age of Party
May 2023 saw the publication of the History of Parliament House of Commons 1640-1660 volumes. This research has uncovered that many of the political identities, behaviours and structures that constitute a recognisable party-political system first came together during this time.…
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Loud enough to wake the dead? Fireworks and celebration in the mid-18th century
With Guy Fawkes night almost upon us, we can expect to see and hear fireworks going off all across the country. A previous blog showed how throughout the late 17th century, fireworks and bonfires were used to mark the momentous…
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Horatio Bottomley – how a radical journalist became a right-wing populist MP
Ahead of next Tuesday’s Parliaments, Politics and People seminar, we hear from Professor David Renton of SOAS/Garden Court chambers. On 31 October between 5.30 p.m. and 7.00 p.m., David will discuss his recent biography of Horatio Bottomley. The seminar takes…