1.
Order of the Garter
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The Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry and the third most prestigious honour in England and the United Kingdom. It is dedicated to the image and arms of Saint George and it is awarded at the Sovereigns pleasure as a personal gift on recipients from the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms. Membership of the Order is limited to the Sovereign, the Prince of Wales, the order also includes supernumerary knights and ladies. New appointments to the Order of the Garter are always announced on St Georges Day, the orders emblem is a garter with the motto Honi soit qui mal y pense in gold lettering. Members of the wear it on ceremonial occasions. King Edward III founded the Order of the Garter around the time of his claim to the French throne, the list includes Sir Sanchet DAbrichecourt, who died on 20 October 1345. Other dates from 1344 to 1351 have also been proposed, the Kings wardrobe account shows Garter habits first issued in the autumn of 1348. Also, its original statutes required that member of the Order already be a knight. The earliest written mention of the Order is found in Tirant lo Blanch and it was first published in 1490. This book devotes a chapter to the description of the origin of the Order of the Garter, at the time of its foundation, the Order consisted of King Edward III, together with 25 Founder Knights, listed in ascending order of stall number in St.1431. Various legends account for the origin of the Order, the most popular legend involves the Countess of Salisbury, whose garter is said to have slipped from her leg while she was dancing at a court ball at Calais. When the surrounding courtiers sniggered, the king picked it up and returned it to her, exclaiming, Honi soit qui mal y pense, King Edward supposedly recalled the event in the 14th century when he founded the Order. This story is recounted in a letter to the Annual Register in 1774, The motto in fact refers to Edwards claim to the French throne, the use of the garter as an emblem may have derived from straps used to fasten armour. Medieval scholars have pointed to a connection between the Order of the Garter and the Middle English poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in Gawain, a girdle, very similar in its erotic undertones to the garter, plays a prominent role. A rough version of the Orders motto also appears in the text and it translates from Old French as Accursed be a cowardly and covetous heart. While the author of that poem remains disputed, there seems to be a connection between two of the top candidates and the Order of the Garter. Scholar J. P. Oakden has suggested that it is related to John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and, more importantly. Another competing theory is that the work was written for Enguerrand de Coucy, the Sire de Coucy was married to King Edward IIIs daughter, Isabella, and was given admittance to the Order of the Garter on their wedding day
2.
House of Commons of the United Kingdom
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The House of Commons of the United Kingdom is the lower house of the countrys parliament. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster, officially, the full name of the house is, The Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. The House is a body consisting of 650 members known as Members of Parliament. Members are elected to represent constituencies by first-past-the-post and hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved, under the Parliament Act 1911, the Lords power to reject legislation was reduced to a delaying power. The Government is primarily responsible to the House of Commons and the prime minister stays in office only as long as he or she retains the support of a majority of its members. Although it does not formally elect the prime minister, the position of the parties in the House of Commons is of overriding importance, by convention, the prime minister is answerable to, and must maintain the support of, the House of Commons. Since 1963, by convention, the minister is always a member of the House of Commons. The Commons may indicate its lack of support for the Government by rejecting a motion of confidence or by passing a motion of no confidence, confidence and no confidence motions are sometimes phrased explicitly, for instance, That this House has no confidence in Her Majestys Government. Many other motions were considered confidence issues, even though not explicitly phrased as such, in particular, important bills that form a part of the Governments agenda were formerly considered matters of confidence, as is the annual Budget. Parliament normally sits for a term of five years. Subject to that limit, the minister could formerly choose the timing of the dissolution of parliament. By this second mechanism, the government of the United Kingdom can change without a general election. In such circumstances there may not even have been a party leadership election, as the new leader may be chosen by acclaim. A prime minister may resign if he or she is not defeated at the polls. In such a case, the premiership goes to whoever can command a majority in the House of Commons, in practice this is usually the new leader of the outgoing prime ministers party. Until 1965, the Conservative Party had no mechanism for electing a new leader, when Anthony Eden resigned as PM in 1957 without recommending a successor and it fell to the Queen to appoint Harold Macmillan as the new prime minister, after taking the advice of ministers. By convention, all ministers must be members of the House of Commons or of the House of Lords, a handful have been appointed who were outside Parliament, but in most cases they then entered Parliament either in a by-election or by receiving a peerage. Since 1902, all ministers have been members of the Commons
3.
Ramsay MacDonald
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Historians credit MacDonald, along with Keir Hardie and Arthur Henderson, as one of the three principal founders of the Labour Party. His speeches, pamphlets and books him an important theoretician. He entered Parliament in 1906 and was the Chairman of the Labour MPs from 1911 to 1914 and he was widely denounced for his opposition to the First World War, and he lost his seat in 1918. The antiwar mood of the 1920s led to his rehabilitation in the 1920s and he returned to Parliament in 1922, the first Labour government—formed with Liberal support—in 1924 lasted only nine months but demonstrated that the Labour Party was sufficiently competent to run a government. In 1931, MacDonald formed a National Government in which two of his Labour colleagues agreed to serve. His majority came from the Conservatives and he abandoned the gold standard and called a general election in 1931 seeking a doctors mandate to do whatever was necessary to fix the economy. MacDonalds National coalition won a landslide and the Labour Party was reduced to a rump of around 50 seats in the House of Commons. Nevertheless budget pressures, and a strong popular pacifist sentiment, forced a reduction in the military and his health rapidly deteriorated and he became increasingly ineffective as a leader. He stood down as Prime Minister in 1935, losing his seat at the election that autumn. He remained in the Cabinet as Lord President of the Council until retiring from the government in 1937 and dying, still an MP, later that year. Since 1931 MacDonald has been denounced by Labour supporters as a traitor to their cause. Since the late 1970s historians have defended his reputation, emphasising his role in building up the Labour Party. MacDonald was born at Gregory Place, Lossiemouth, Morayshire, Scotland, the son of John MacDonald, a farm labourer, and Anne Ramsay. Although registered at birth as James McDonald Ramsay, he was known as Jaimie MacDonald and his mother had worked as a domestic servant at Claydale farm, near Alves, where her future husband was also employed. Ramsay MacDonald received an education at the Free Church of Scotland school in Lossiemouth from 1872 to 1875. He left school at the end of the term in 1881, at the age of 15. In December 1881 he was appointed as a teacher at Drainie parish school. In 1885 he left to take up a position as an assistant to Mordaunt Crofton and it was in Bristol that Ramsay MacDonald joined the Democratic Federation, a Radical sect
4.
Stanley Baldwin
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Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC, JP, FRS was a British Conservative politician, who dominated the government in his country between the two world wars. Three times Prime Minister, he is the premier to have served under three monarchs. Baldwin first entered the House of Commons in 1908 as the Member of Parliament for Bewdley and he held government office in the coalition ministry of David Lloyd George. Upon Bonar Laws resignation due to reasons in May 1923, Baldwin became Prime Minister. He called an election on the issue of tariffs and lost the Conservatives majority, after winning the 1924 General Election Baldwin formed his second government, which saw important tenures of office by Sir Austen Chamberlain, Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain. The latter two ministers strengthened Conservative appeal by reforms in areas associated with the Liberal Party. They included industrial conciliation, unemployment insurance, a more extensive old-age pension system, slum clearance, more private housing, Baldwin narrowly lost the 1929 General Election and his continued leadership of the party was subject to extensive criticism by the press barons Lord Rothermere and Lord Beaverbrook. In 1931, Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald formed a National Government, most of whose ministers were Conservatives and which won an enormous majority at the 1931 General Election. As Lord President of the Council, and one of four Conservatives among the small ten-member Cabinet and this government saw an Act delivering increased self-government for India, a measure opposed by Churchill and by many rank-and-file Conservatives. The Statute of Westminster 1931 gave Dominion status to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, as party leader, Baldwin made many striking innovations, such as clever use of radio and film, that made him highly visible to the public and strengthened Conservative appeal. During this time, he oversaw the beginning of the rearmament process of the British military, Baldwin retired in 1937 and was succeeded by Neville Chamberlain. By 2004, however, historians generally painted a positive portrait of his governments. Less equivocal was his rediscovery as a moderate and inclusive Conservative for the modern age, Modern scholars generally rank him in the upper half of British Prime Ministers. The family was prosperous, and owned the eponymous iron and steel making business that in later became part of Richard Thomas. Baldwin then went on to the University of Cambridge, where he studied history at Trinity College. His time at university was blighted by the presence, as Master of Trinity, of Montagu Butler, his former headmaster who had punished him at Harrow for writing a piece of schoolboy smut. He was asked to resign from the Magpie & Stump for never speaking and his father sent him to Mason College for one session of technical training in metallurgy as preparation. As a young man he served briefly as a Second Lieutenant in the Artillery Volunteers at Malvern, Baldwin married Lucy Ridsdale on 12 September 1892
5.
Arthur Henderson
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Arthur Henderson PC was a British iron moulder and Labour politician. He was the first Labour cabinet minister, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1934 and, uniquely and he was popular among his colleagues, who called him Uncle Arthur in acknowledgement of his integrity, his devotion to the cause and his imperturbability. After his fathers death the Hendersons moved to Newcastle upon Tyne in the Northeast of England, Henderson worked in a locomotive factory from the age of twelve. After finishing his apprenticeship at seventeen he moved to Southampton for a year, Henderson became a Methodist in 1879 and became a Local Preacher. After he lost his job in 1884 he concentrated on preaching, in 1892 Henderson entered the complex world of trade union politics when he was elected as a paid organiser for the Friendly Society of Iron Founders. He also became a representative on the North East Conciliation Board, Henderson believed that strikes caused more harm than they were worth and tried to avoid them whenever he could. For this reason he opposed the formation of the General Federation of Trade Unions, in 1900 Henderson was one of the 129 trade union and socialist delegates who passed Keir Hardies motion to create the Labour Representation Committee. In 1903 Henderson was elected Treasurer of the LRC and was also elected Member of Parliament for Barnard Castle in a by-election, in 1906 the LRC changed its name to the Labour Party and won 29 seats in the general election. In 1908, when Hardie resigned as Leader of the Labour Party and he remained Leader until he resigned in 1910. In 1914 the First World War broke out and Ramsay MacDonald resigned the Leadership of the Labour Party in protest, Henderson was elected to replace him. In 1916 David Lloyd George forced Asquith to resign and replaced him as Prime Minister, Henderson became a member of the small War Cabinet with the post of Minister without Portfolio. Henderson resigned in August 1917 after his proposal for a conference on the war was rejected by the rest of the cabinet. Henderson turned his attention to building a strong constituency-based support network for the Labour Party, previously, it had little national organization, based largely on branches of unions and socialist societies. Working with Ramsay MacDonald and Sidney Webb, Henderson in 1918 established a network of constituency organizations. They operated separately from trade unions and the National Executive Committee and were open to everyone sympathetic to the partys policies, secondly, Henderson secured the adoption of a comprehensive statement of party policies, as drafted by Sidney Webb. Entitled Labour and the New Social Order, it remained the basic Labour platform until 1950 and it proclaimed a socialist party whose principles included a guaranteed minimum standard of living for everyone, nationalisation of industry, and heavy taxation of large incomes and of wealth. However, Henderson returned to Parliament in 1919 after winning a by-election in Widnes and he then became Labours Chief Whip, only to lose his seat in the general election of 1922. Vladimir Lenin held Henderson in very low regard, Henderson returned to Parliament via yet another by-election, this time representing Newcastle East, but he lost this seat in the general election of 1923
6.
Lord Privy Seal
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The Lord Privy Seal is the fifth of the Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and above the Lord Great Chamberlain. The office is one of the sinecure offices of state. Originally, its holder was responsible for the personal seal. Today, the holder of the office is given a seat in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. Since the premiership of Clement Attlee, the position of Lord Privy Seal has frequently been combined with that of Leader of the House of Lords or Leader of the House of Commons. The office of Lord Privy Seal, unlike those of Leader of the Lords or Commons, is eligible for a ministerial salary under the Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975. The office does not confer membership of the House of Lords, leading to Ernest Bevins remark on holding office that he was neither a Lord, nor a Privy. During the reign of Edward I, prior to 1307, the Privy Seal was kept by the Controller of the Wardrobe, the Lord Privy Seal was the president of the Court of Requests during its existence
7.
Leader of the House of Commons
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The Leader of the House of Commons is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom who is responsible for arranging government business in the House of Commons. This office does not attract a ministerial salary, and as such it is held jointly with another ministerial position. The Leader is assisted in the Office of the Leader of the House of Commons by the Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, at times the nominal leadership was held by the Prime Minister but the day-to-day work was done by a Deputy. At other times a Deputy was appointed merely to enhance an individual politicians standing within the government, however, since 2010 the Deputy Leader of the House of Commons has been a ministerial role at the level of Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State. The House of Commons devotes approximately three-quarters of its time to Government business, such as introduced by the government. The Leader of the House, with the chief whips, is responsible for organising Government business. The Leader of the House additionally announces the next weeks debate schedule in the Business Statement every Thursday, when there is either no Deputy Prime Minister or First Secretary of State, the Leader of the House may stand in for an absent Prime Minister at Prime Ministers Questions
8.
David Lloyd George
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David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman. As Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lloyd George was a key figure in the introduction of reforms which laid the foundations of the modern welfare state. His most important role came as the highly energetic Prime Minister of the Wartime Coalition Government, during and he was a major player at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 that reordered Europe after the defeat of the Central Powers. He made an impact on British public life than any other 20th-century leader. Furthermore, in foreign affairs he played a role in winning the First World War, redrawing the map of Europe at the peace conference. His main political problem was that he was not loyal to his Liberal party—he was always a political maverick, while he was Prime Minister he favoured the Conservatives in his coalition in the 1918 elections, leaving the Liberal party as a hopeless minority. He became leader of the Liberal Party in the late 1920s, by the 1930s he was a marginalised and widely mistrusted figure. He gave weak support to the Second World War amidst fears that he was favourable toward Germany, Lloyd George was born on 17 January 1863 in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, to Welsh parents, and was brought up as a Welsh-speaker. He is so far the only British Prime Minister to have been Welsh and his father, William George, had been a teacher in both London and Liverpool. He also taught in the Hope Street Sunday Schools, which were administered by the Unitarians, in March of the same year, on account of his failing health, William George returned with his family to his native Pembrokeshire. He took up farming but died in June 1864 of pneumonia, Lloyd George was educated at the local Anglican school Llanystumdwy National School and later under tutors. He added his uncles surname to become Lloyd George and his surname is usually given as Lloyd George and sometimes as George. The influence of his childhood showed through in his entire career, brought up a devout evangelical, as a young man he suddenly lost his religious faith. Biographer Don Cregier says he became a Deist and perhaps an agnostic, though he remained a chapel-goer and he kept quiet about that, however, and was hailed as one of the foremost fighting leaders of a fanatical Welsh Nonconformity. It was also during this period of his life that Lloyd George first became interested in the issue of land ownership, by the age of twenty-one, he had already read and taken notes on Henry Georges Progress and Poverty. This strongly influenced Lloyd Georges politics later in life through the Peoples Budget which heavily drew on the georgist tax reform ideas, the practice flourished, and he established branch offices in surrounding towns, taking his brother William into partnership in 1887. Although many Prime Ministers have been barristers, Lloyd George is to date the only solicitor to have held that office, by then he was politically active, having campaigned for the Liberal Party in the 1885 election, attracted by Joseph Chamberlains unauthorised programme of reforms. The election resulted firstly in a stalemate with neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives having a majority, William Gladstones proposal to bring about Irish Home Rule split the party, with Chamberlain eventually leading the breakaway Liberal Unionists
9.
Bonar Law
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Andrew Bonar Law, PC, commonly called Bonar Law, was a British Conservative Party politician and Prime Minister. Born in the colony of New Brunswick, he is the only British Prime Minister to have been born outside the British Isles. Law was of Scottish and Ulster Scots descent, and having moved back to Scotland in 1870, he left school aged sixteen to work in the iron industry, becoming a wealthy man by the age of thirty. He entered Parliament at the 1900 general election, relatively late in life for a front-rank politician, Law joined the Shadow Cabinet in opposition after the 1906 election. In 1911 he was appointed a Privy Councillor, and stood for the vacant party leadership, as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition, Law focused his attentions in favour of tariff reform and against Irish Home Rule. Law first held Cabinet office as Secretary of State for the Colonies in Asquiths Coalition Government, on Asquiths fall from power he declined to form a government, instead serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lloyd Georges Coalition Government. He resigned on grounds of ill-health early in 1921, after Conservative MPs voted to end the Coalition, he again became Party Leader and, this time, Prime Minister. In November he won a majority at the 1922 general election. His brief premiership saw negotiation with the USA over Britains war loans, seriously ill with throat cancer, Law resigned in May 1923 and died later that year. He was the shortest-serving Prime Minister of the 20th century and is sometimes called The Unknown Prime Minister. Law was born on 16 September 1858 in Kingston, New Brunswick, to the Reverend James Law, a minister of the Free Church of Scotland with Scottish and Irish ancestry, and his wife Eliza Kidston Law. From the perspective of the time, Law was not born in Canada, as New Brunswick was then a separate colony, throughout his life he was always called Bonar by his family and close friends, never Andrew. He originally signed his name as A. B. Law, changing to A. Bonar Law in his thirties, James Law was the minister for several isolated townships, and had to travel between them by horse, boat and on foot. To supplement the income he bought a small farm on the Richibucto River, which Bonar helped tend along with his brothers Robert, William and John. Studying at the village school, Law excelled at his studies. After Eliza Law died in 1861, her sister Janet travelled to New Brunswick from her home in Scotland to look after the Law children, when James Law remarried in 1870 his new wife took over Janets duties, and Janet decided to return to Scotland. She suggested that Bonar Law should come with her, as the Kidston family were wealthier and better connected than the Laws, both James and Bonar accepted this, and Bonar left with Janet, never to return to Kingston. Law went to live at Janets house in Helensburgh, near Glasgow, immediately upon arriving from Kingston, Law began attending Gilbertfield School, a preparatory school in Hamilton
10.
Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood
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Edgar Algernon Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, CH, PC, QC, known as Lord Robert Cecil from 1868 to 1923, was a British lawyer, politician and diplomat. He was one of the architects of the League of Nations and he was the brother of James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury, Lord William Cecil, Lord Edward Cecil and Lord Quickswood and the cousin of Arthur Balfour. He was educated at home until he was thirteen and then spent four years at Eton College and he claimed in his autobiography to have enjoyed his home education most. He studied law at University College, Oxford, where he became a well known debater, a first job was as private secretary to his father, when commencing in office as Prime Minister from 1886-88. In 1887, he was called to the bar by the Inner Temple and he was fond of saying that his marriage to Lady Eleanor Lambton, daughter of George Frederick DArcy Lambton, 2nd Earl of Durham on 22 January 1889, was the cleverest thing he had ever done. From 1887 to 1906, Cecil practised civil law, including work in Chancery and parliamentary practice, on 15 June 1899, he was appointed a Queens Counsel. He also collaborated in writing a book, entitled Principles of Commercial Law, in 1910 he was appointed a member of the General Council of the Bar, and a Bencher of the Inner Temple. He was already a Justice of the Peace when he was raised the year as Chairman of the Hertfordshire Quarter Sessions. At the 1906 general election, Cecil was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament representing Marylebone East, Cecil argued that he had identified at least 25 seats in which such attacks had taken place. He did not contest the Marylebone seat in either of the elections in 1910 as a result of the Tariff Reform controversy. Instead he unsuccessfully contested Blackburn in the January election and Wisbech in the December election, in 1911 he won a by-election in Hitchin, Hertfordshire as an Independent Conservative and served as its MP until 1923. Fifty years old at the outbreak of the First World War and too old for military service and he was made Vicar-General to the Archbishop of York, on account of his deep religious convictions and commitment to pacifism. Following the formation of the 1915 coalition government, he became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on 30 May 1915, promoted to Assistant Secretary in 1918-19. He served in this post until 10 January 1919, additionally serving in the cabinet as Minister of Blockade between 23 February 1916 and 18 July 1918. After the war, in 1919, he was made and Honorary Fellow, in September 1916, he wrote and circulated a ‘Memorandum on Proposals for Diminishing the Occasion of Future Wars’ in the Cabinet. Cecil noted the suffering and destruction of the war, along with the threat to European civilisation, compulsory arbitration Cecil rejected but claimed a regular conference system would be unobjectionable. Peaceful procedures for settling disputes should be compulsory before there was any outbreak of fighting, sanctions, including blockade, would be necessary to force countries to submit to peaceful procedures. If overwhelming naval and financial power could be combined in a peace system and he hoped that America might be willing to join in organized economic action to preserve peace
11.
Chancellor of the Exchequer
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The office is a British Cabinet-level position. The chancellor is responsible for all economic and financial matters, equivalent to the role of Secretary of the Treasury or Minister of Finance in other nations. The position is considered one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor of the Exchequer is now always Second Lord of the Treasury as one of the Lords Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Treasurer. Formerly, in cases when the Chancellorship was vacant, the Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench would act as Chancellor pro tempore, the last Lord Chief Justice to serve in this way was Lord Denman in 1834. The earliest surviving records which are the results of the audit, date from 1129–30 under King Henry I. The Chancellor controlled monetary policy as well as fiscal policy until 1997, the Chancellor also has oversight of public spending across Government departments. The current Chancellor of the Exchequer is Philip Hammond and he is entrusted with a certain amount of misery which it is his duty to distribute as fairly as he can. The Chancellor has considerable control over other departments as it is the Treasury which sets Departmental Expenditure Limits, the amount of power this gives to an individual Chancellor depends on his personal forcefulness, his status within his party and his relationship with the Prime Minister. Gordon Brown, who became Chancellor when Labour came into Government in 1997, had a personal power base in the party. One part of the Chancellors key roles involves the framing of the annual year budget, as of 2017, the first is the Autumn Budget, also known as Budget Day which forecasts government spending in the next financial year and also announces new financial measures. The second is a Spring Statement, also known as a mini-Budget, britains tax year has retained the old Julian end of year,24 March /5 April. From 1993, the Budget was in spring, preceded by an annual autumn statement. This was then called Pre-Budget Report, the Autumn Statement usually took place in November or December. The 1997,2001,2002,2003,2006,2007,2008,2012 and 2016 Budgets were all delivered on a Wednesday, although the Bank of England is responsible for setting interest rates, the Chancellor also plays an important part in the monetary policy structure. He sets the target which the Bank must set interest rates to meet. Under the Bank of England Act 1998 the Chancellor has the power of appointment of four out of nine members of the Banks Monetary Policy Committee – the so-called external members. The Act also provides that the Government has the power to give instructions to the Bank on interest rates for a period in extreme circumstances. This power has never officially used. At HM Treasury the Chancellor is supported by a team of four junior ministers
12.
Arthur Balfour
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Entering Parliament in 1874, Balfour achieved prominence as Chief Secretary for Ireland, in which position he suppressed agrarian unrest whilst taking measures against absentee landlords. He opposed Irish Home Rule, saying there could be no half-way house between Ireland remaining within the United Kingdom or becoming independent. From 1891 he led the Conservative Party in the House of Commons, serving under his uncle, Lord Salisbury, a brilliant debater, he was bored by the mundane tasks of party management. In July 1902 he succeeded his uncle as Prime Minister and he oversaw reform of British defence policy and supported Fishers naval innovations. He secured the Entente Cordiale with France, leaving Germany in the cold and he cautiously embraced the imperial preference championed by Joseph Chamberlain, but resignations from the Cabinet over tariffs left his party divided. He also suffered from public anger at the stages of the Boer war. He resigned as Prime Minister in December 1905 and the month the Conservatives suffered a landslide defeat at the 1906 election. He resigned as party leader later in 1911, Balfour returned as First Lord of the Admiralty in Asquiths Coalition Government. In December 1916 he became Foreign Secretary in David Lloyd Georges coalition and he was frequently left out of the inner workings of foreign policy, although the Balfour Declaration on a Jewish homeland bore his name. He continued to serve in positions throughout the 1920s, and died on 19 March 1930 aged 81. Arthur Balfour was born at Whittingehame House, East Lothian, Scotland and his godfather was the Duke of Wellington, after whom he was named. He was the eldest son, third of eight children, and had four brothers, Arthur Balfour was educated at Grange preparatory school in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, and Eton College, where he studied with the influential master, William Johnson Cory. He went to the University of Cambridge, where he read moral sciences at Trinity College and his younger brother was the Cambridge embryologist Francis Maitland Balfour. Margot Tennant wished to marry him, but Balfour said, No, I rather think of having a career of my own. His household was maintained by his sister, Alice. In middle age, Balfour had a 40-year friendship with Mary Charteris, Lady Elcho, later Countess of Wemyss, in 1874 he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for Hertford until 1885. In spring 1878, Balfour became Private Secretary to his uncle and he accompanied Salisbury to the Congress of Berlin and gained his first experience in international politics in connection with the settlement of the Russo-Turkish conflict. At the same time he became known in the world of letters, Balfour divided his time between politics and academic pursuits
13.
Charles Ritchie, 1st Baron Ritchie of Dundee
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Charles Thomson Ritchie, 1st Baron Ritchie of Dundee PC was a British businessman and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1874 until 1905 when he was raised to the peerage. He served as Home Secretary from 1900 to 1902 and as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1902 to 1903, the Ritchie family had long been connected with the town of Dundee. His elder brother James Ritchie was Lord Mayor of London from 1903 to 1904 and was created a Baronet in 1903, Ritchie was educated at the City of London School, after which he went into business. He married Margaret Ower, daughter of Thomas Ower of Perth, in 1874 was returned to parliament as Conservative member for the Tower Hamlets. On 22 December 1905, he was created a peer as Baron Ritchie of Dundee, however, he was in ill-health, and died at Biarritz in January 1906. He is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery, London and he was succeeded in the title by his second but only surviving son, Charles. Ritchie, Charles Thomson, first Baron Ritchie of Dundee, attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Ritchie, Charles Thomson Ritchie, 1st Baron. Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by Charles Ritchie Portraits of Charles Ritchie at the National Portrait Gallery, London
14.
H. H. Asquith
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He had a central role in the design and passage of major liberal legislation. In August 1914, Asquith took the United Kingdom into the First World War, Asquiths father owned a small business but died when Asquith was seven. Asquith was educated at City of London School and Balliol College and he trained as a barrister and after a slow start to his career achieved great success. In 1886, he was adopted as Liberal candidate for East Fife, in 1892, he was appointed as Home Secretary in Gladstones fourth ministry, remaining in the post until the Liberals lost the 1895 election. In 1908, Asquith succeeded him as minister, with David Lloyd George as chancellor. With their first majority government since the 1880s, the Liberals were determined to advance their agenda, an impediment to this was the unelected House of Lords, dominated by the Conservatives. When Lloyd George proposed, and the House of Commons passed, the Peoples Budget of 1909, meanwhile the South Africa Act 1909 passed. Asquith called an election for January 1910, and the Liberals won, Asquith was less successful in dealing with Irish Home Rule. Repeated crises led to gun running and violence, verging on civil war, bitter rivalries inside and between the three major parties worsened when Asquith was unable to forge the coalition into a harmonious team. It was weakened by his own indecision over strategy, conscription, Lloyd George organised his overthrow and replaced him as Prime Minister in December 1916. Asquith remained as leader of the Liberal Party, but was unable to quell the internal conflict, the party rapidly declined in popularity and was ruined by the 1918 general election. Asquith accepted a peerage in 1925 and died, aged 75 and his roles in creating the modern British welfare state, 1906-1911 have been celebrated, but his weaknesses as a war leader and as a party leader after 1914 have been emphasised by historians. Asquith was born in Morley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the couple also had three daughters, of whom only one survived infancy. The Asquiths were an old Yorkshire family, with a long nonconformist tradition and it was a matter of family pride, shared by Asquith, that an ancestor, Joseph Asquith, was imprisoned for his part in the pro-Roundhead Farnley Wood Plot of 1664. Both Asquiths parents came from families associated with the Yorkshire wool trade, Dixon Asquith inherited the Gillroyd Mill Company, founded by his father. Emilys father, William Willans, ran a successful wool-trading business in Huddersfield, both families were middle-class, Congregationalist, and politically radical. Dixon was a man, cultivated and in his sons words not cut out for a business career. He was described as a man of character who held Bible classes for young men
15.
Robert Horne, 1st Viscount Horne of Slamannan
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Robert Stevenson Horne, 1st Viscount Horne of Slamannan GBE PC KC was a Scottish businessman, advocate and Unionist politician. He served under David Lloyd George as Minister of Labour between 1919 and 1920, as President of the Board of Trade between 1920 and 1921 and as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1921 and 1922, in 1937 he was ennobled as Viscount Horne of Slamannan. Horne was born at Slamannan, Stirlingshire, the son of Reverend Robert Stevenson Horne, the villages Church of Scotland minister and he was educated at George Watsons College in Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow, where he studied Law and was President of the Students Representative Council. Horne then spent a year teaching philosophy at the University College of North Wales and he became a successful advocate, specialising in commercial and shipping cases, and became a Kings Counsel in 1910. He also served as Examiner in Philosophy and Rector at the University of Aberdeen and he was also a director of the Suez Canal Company, chairman of the Great Western Railway Company and director of several other companies and banks. During the First World War, Horne became Director of Railways on the Western Front with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Royal Engineers. In 1917 he joined the Admiralty as Assistant Inspector-General of Transportation, becoming Director of Materials and Priority in 1918, having unsuccessfully stood for Stirlingshire in both general elections of 1910, Horne was elected as Member of Parliament for Glasgow Hillhead in 1918. He served under David Lloyd George as Minister of Labour between 1919 and 1920, as President of the Board of Trade between 1920 and 1921 and as Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1921 and 1922. It was in this capacity that he signed the Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement, when the Lloyd George Coalition Government fell in 1922, Horne refused to join the new government of Andrew Bonar Law. Two years later, Stanley Baldwin offered to make Horne Minister of Labour once more, although he remained a Member of Parliament until 1937, he never again held ministerial office. In 1919 he was sworn of the Privy Council. He was ennobled as Viscount Horne of Slamannan, of Slamannan in the County of Stirling, Horne, a womanising bachelor, was famously referred to by Baldwin as a Scots cad, a remark that has stuck. He died in September 1940, aged 69, when the viscountcy became extinct
16.
Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe
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He went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1880. A Liberal in politics, Milnes became Assistant Private Secretary to Lord Granville in April 1883 when Granville was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in an 1884 by-election he was the losing Liberal candidate at Barnsley. As Baron Houghton he was made Liberal whip in 1885, in January 1886 he was made a Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria during the Third Gladstone ministry, and remained a Home Ruler. He was determined to get over this tragedy by studying agriculture at Cirencester. However, he was prevented by illness from pursuing his studies, leaving England, he travelled to Egypt where the Stray Verses were written in a somewhat mournful lament at his great loss. Further melancholy hit hard when his son and heir Richard died in 1890. Returning to Houghton in 1892, he was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the Liberal Government of 1892–1895, John Morley served as Chief Secretary. From 17 July 1895 he took a name of Crewe-Milnes with creation as Earl of Crewe. On 20 April 1899, he married an eighteen-year-old society beauty, Lady Mary Etienne Hannah Primrose, the Boer War broke out only months later in October. Crewe remained a leader of the conciliators who to the last tried to find a settlement with President Kruger. He began to grow apart from his father-in-laws Liberal imperialism, advocating a gradualist step-by-step policy of containment of the situation, but the war soon escalated with Crewe finding himself isolated. He was not much of an orator, but had skills in administration and he became increasingly influential with Henry Campbell-Bannerman and the Radicals. He made a friend out of H. H. Asquith. A close confidante he was appointed as an aide on almost every committee, from 1905 to 1908 he was Lord President of the Council in the Liberal government. The Lords, dominated by Tory Peers, were hostile to Asquiths proposed reforms and they wrecked the Education Bill of 1906, while Crewe stood out as the main defender of the Cabinets policy. In response to pleas from Campbell-Bannerman he assumed the role of cross-party convenor, Crewe was a moderate in all things. He deplored Lloyd Georges rabble-rousing Limehouse Speech in the east end of London in 1909 that called for destruction of the class system, by the same token he found it unacceptable for die-hard Tories and Unionists to continue to block legislation. Crewe could be haughty and coldly disapproving, alike to Grey he took a dim view of Lloyd Georges peoples budget, in spite of Churchills opposition to it in a minority of the cabinet, it was Crewes job to steer it through the Lords
17.
Edwin Samuel Montagu
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Edwin Samuel Montagu PC was a British Liberal politician who served as Secretary of State for India between 1917 and 1922. Montagu was a radical Liberal and the second Jew to serve in the British cabinet, Montagu was the second son and sixth child of Samuel Montagu, 1st Baron Swaythling, by his wife Ellen, daughter of Louis Cohen. He was educated at Clifton College, the City of London School, University College London, at Cambridge, he was the first student president of the Cambridge University Liberal Club from 1902 to 1903. In 1902, he was president of the Cambridge Union. Montagu was elected Member of Parliament for Chesterton in 1906, a seat he held until 1918, in 1915 he was sworn of the Privy Council. In 1916 he was promoted to Minister of Munitions, Montagu was a friend of Asquith, Gertrude Bell, Lord Lloyd, and Maurice Hankey, with whom he dined frequently. When Hankey was promoted to the newly created post of Cabinet Secretary, he recommended Montagu as Minister for National Service, instead he was initially left out of David Lloyd Georges coalition government in December 1916, but in August 1917 he was appointed Secretary of State for India. Montagu was not initially part of Lloyd Georges inner circle, when he became Prime Minister, Montagu led the Indian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, where he opposed plans for dividing Turkey. On this subject, at the Council of Four on 17 May 1919, he introduced representatives of Muslim India and he was primarily responsible for the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms which led to the Government of India Act 1919, committing the British to the eventual evolution of India towards dominion status. Montagu was the third British Jew to enter the Cabinet, the circle of government. In a memo to the Cabinet, he outlined his views on Zionism thus, perhaps also citizenship must be granted only as a result of a religious test. He was opposed by his cousin Herbert Samuel, a moderate Zionist who became the first High Commissioner of the British Mandate of Palestine, in 1912, Montagu accompanied the prime minister on holiday in Sicily. H. H. Asquith brought along his daughter Violet, and she in turn brought her friend Venetia Stanley, daughter of Edward Stanley and it appears that during this holiday, both men fell in love with Stanley. During the next three years, Asquith wrote more and more frequently to her, even during Cabinet meetings, at the same time, Montagu was attempting to court her, unsuccessfully proposing marriage in 1913. She liked him but did not reciprocate his love, also, Montagu had to marry within his Jewish faith to keep his inheritance. Although Stanley was from a family and was not a devout Anglican. As a result, she finally accepted Montagus proposal on 28 April 1915 and she converted to Judaism, and the couple were wed on 26 July 1915. A2012 book argues that the marriage was one of convenience to cover both Montagus homosexuality and Venetias earlier affair with Asquith
18.
Postmaster General of the United Kingdom
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The Postmaster General of the United Kingdom was a Cabinet-level ministerial position in HM Government. Aside from maintaining the system, the Telegraph Act of 1868 established the Postmaster Generals right to exclusively maintain electric telegraphs. This would subsequently extend to telecommunications and broadcasting, the office was abolished in 1969 by the Post Office Act 1969. A replacement public authority governed by a chairman was established under the name of the Post Office, in England, the monarchs letters to his subjects are known to have been carried by relays of couriers as long ago as the 15th century. The earliest mention of Master of the Posts is in the Kings Book of Payments where a payment of £100 was authorised for Tuke as master of the posts in February 1512. Belatedly, in 1517, he was appointed to the office of Governor of the Kings Posts. In 1609 it was decreed that letters could only be carried and delivered by persons authorised by the Postmaster General, in 1657 an Act entitled Postage of England, Scotland and Ireland Settled set up a system for the British Isles and enacted the position of Postmaster General. The Act also reasserted the postal monopoly for letter delivery and for post horses, after the Restoration in 1660, a further Act confirmed this and the post of Postmaster-General, the previous Cromwellian Act being void. 1660 saw the establishment of the General Letter Office, which would become the General Post Office. A similar position evolved in the Kingdom of Scotland prior to the 1707 Act of Union, the office was abolished in 1969 by the Post Office Act 1969. A new public authority governed by a chairman was established under the name of the Post Office, from 1691 to 1823 there were two Postmasters General, to divide the patronage between the Whigs and Tories. In 1823 the idea of a Whig and a Tory sharing the post was abolished
19.
Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby
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He was twice Secretary of State for War and also served as British Ambassador to France. Derby was born at 23 St Jamess Square, London, the eldest son of Frederick Stanley and he was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire. He was seconded as aide-de-camp to the Governor General of Canada, his father and he was again seconded from his regiment on 10 July 1892, to take his seat in the House of Commons. On 11 January 1899, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the reserve of officers, Lord Stanley served on the staff in the Second Boer War, and was appointed Chief Press Censor at Cape Town, graded as assistant adjutant-general, on 18 January 1900. He accompanied Lord Roberts headquarters as Press Censor when he left Cape Town and he was subsequently appointed Roberts private secretary on 25 July 1900. and was again mentioned in despatches of 2 April 1901 for his thorough knowledge of men and affairs. He was appointed colonel of the 6th Battalion, Manchester Regiment on 24 December 1902. In October 1903 he entered the cabinet as Postmaster General, a post he held until the government fell in December 1905 and he lost his seat in the 1906 general election. In 1908 he succeeded his father in the earldom and took his seat in the House of Lords, in August 1914 Lord Derby organised one of the most successful recruitment campaigns to Kitcheners Army in Liverpool. Over two days,1500 Liverpudlians joined the new battalion, within the next few days three more pals battalions were raised in Liverpool. In October 1915, as Director-General of Recruiting, he instituted the Derby Scheme and it was not sufficiently successful in spite of the fact that the execution of Nurse Edith Cavell by the Germans on 12 October 1915 was used in recruitment rallies and conscription followed in 1916. In this position he was a supporter of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff Sir William Robertson and of the Commander-in-Chief of the BEF. In April 1918 he was made Ambassador to France, which he remained until 1920. In April 1921 he was sent secretly to Ireland for talks with Éamon de Valera and he again served as Secretary of State for War under Andrew Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin from 1922 to 1924. Derby was made a CB in 1900, sworn of the Privy Council in 1903, KCVO in 1905, Derby was Lord Mayor of Liverpool between 1911 and 1912. This is now known as the Lord Derby Cup and he was also, from 1929 to 1945, the chairman of the Pilgrims Society, becoming their president, until his death in 1948. Derby served as East Lancashire Provincial Grand Master of Freemasonry from 1899 until his death and he also held the post of Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire between 1928 and 1948. The Epsom Derby was named after the 12th Earl while the Epsom Oaks was named after the 12th Earls house near Epsom, Derby followed in the family tradition and was one of the most prominent owner breeders during the first half of the 20th century. His biggest achievement though was his breeding of the horse Phalaris, two of them, Edward, Lord Stanley and Oliver, achieved the rare distinction of sitting in the same Cabinet between May and October 1938 until Edwards death
20.
Birmingham
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Birmingham is a major city and metropolitan borough of West Midlands, England lying on the River Rea, a small river that runs through Birmingham. It is the largest and most populous British city outside London, the city is in the West Midlands Built-up Area, the third most populous urban area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2,440,986 at the 2011 census. Birminghams metropolitan area is the second most populous in the UK with a population of 3.8 million and this also makes Birmingham the 8th most populous metropolitan area in Europe. By 1791 it was being hailed as the first manufacturing town in the world, perhaps the most important invention in British history, the industrial steam engine, was invented in Birmingham. From the summer of 1940 to the spring of 1943, Birmingham was bombed heavily by the German Luftwaffe in what is known as the Birmingham Blitz. The damage done to the infrastructure, in addition to a deliberate policy of demolition and new building by planners, led to extensive demolition. Today Birminghams economy is dominated by the service sector and its metropolitan economy is the second largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $121. 1bn, and its six universities make it the largest centre of higher education in the country outside London. Birmingham is the fourth-most visited city in the UK by foreign visitors, Birminghams sporting heritage can be felt worldwide, with the concept of the Football League and lawn tennis both originating from the city. Its most successful football club Aston Villa has won seven league titles, people from Birmingham are called Brummies, a term derived from the citys nickname of Brum. This originates from the citys name, Brummagem, which may in turn have been derived from one of the citys earlier names. There is a distinctive Brummie accent and dialect, Birminghams early history is that of a remote and marginal area. The main centres of population, power and wealth in the pre-industrial English Midlands lay in the fertile and accessible river valleys of the Trent, the Severn and the Avon. The area of modern Birmingham lay in between, on the upland Birmingham Plateau and within the wooded and sparsely populated Forest of Arden. Birmingham as a settlement dates from the Anglo-Saxon era, within a century of the charter Birmingham had grown into a prosperous urban centre of merchants and craftsmen. By 1327 it was the third-largest town in Warwickshire, a position it would retain for the next 200 years, by 1700 Birminghams population had increased fifteenfold and the town was the fifth-largest in England and Wales. The importance of the manufacture of goods to Birminghams economy was recognised as early as 1538. Equally significant was the emerging role as a centre for the iron merchants who organised finance, supplied raw materials. The 18th century saw this tradition of free-thinking and collaboration blossom into the phenomenon now known as the Midlands Enlightenment
21.
Warwickshire
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Warwickshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton, the county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Commonly used abbreviations for the county are Warks or Warwicks, the county is divided into five districts of North Warwickshire, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Rugby, Warwick and Stratford-on-Avon. The current county boundaries were set in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, the historic county boundaries also included Coventry and Solihull, as well as much of Birmingham. The northern tip of the county is only 3 miles from the Derbyshire border, an average-sized English county covering an area of almost 2,000 km2, it runs some 60 miles north to south. Equivalently it extends as far north as Shrewsbury in Shropshire and as far south as Banbury in north Oxfordshire, the majority of Warwickshires population live in the north and centre of the county. The market towns of northern and eastern Warwickshire were industrialised in the 19th century, and include Atherstone, Bedworth, Nuneaton, of these, Atherstone has retained most of its original character. Major industries included coal mining, textiles, engineering and cement production, of the northern and eastern towns, only Nuneaton and Rugby are well-known outside of Warwickshire. The south of the county is rural and sparsely populated. The only town in the south of Warwickshire is Shipston-on-Stour, the highest point in the county, at 261 m, is Ebrington Hill, again on the border with Gloucestershire, grid reference SP187426 at the countys southwest extremity. There are no cities in Warwickshire since both Coventry and Birmingham were incorporated into the West Midlands county in 1974 and are now metropolitan authorities in themselves, the largest towns in Warwickshire in 2011 were, Nuneaton, Rugby, Leamington Spa, Bedworth, Warwick, Stratford and Kenilworth. Much of western Warwickshire, including that area now forming part of Coventry, Solihull, thus the names of a number of places in the central-western part of Warwickshire end with the phrase -in-Arden, such as Henley-in-Arden, Hampton-in-Arden and Tanworth-in-Arden. The remaining area, not part of the forest, was called the Felden – from fielden, areas historically part of Warwickshire include Coventry, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, Erdington, and some of Birmingham including Aston and Edgbaston. These became part of the county of West Midlands following local government re-organisation in 1974. Some organisations, such as Warwickshire County Cricket Club, which is based in Edgbaston, in Birmingham, Coventry is effectively in the centre of the Warwickshire area, and still has strong ties with the county. Coventry and Warwickshire are sometimes treated as an area and share a single Chamber of Commerce. Coventry has been a part of Warwickshire for only some of its history, in 1451 Coventry was separated from Warwickshire and made a county corporate in its own right, called the County of the City of Coventry. In 1842 the county of Coventry was abolished and Coventry was remerged with Warwickshire, in recent times, there have been calls to formally re-introduce Coventry into Warwickshire, although nothing has yet come of this
22.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
23.
Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
24.
Joseph Chamberlain
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He split both major British parties in the course of his career. Chamberlain made his career in Birmingham, first as a manufacturer of screws and he was a radical Liberal Party member and an opponent of the Elementary Education Act 1870. As a self-made businessman, he had never attended university and had contempt for the aristocracy and he entered the House of Commons at 39 years of age, relatively late in life compared to politicians from more privileged backgrounds. Rising to power through his influence with the Liberal grassroots organisation, Chamberlain resigned from Gladstones Third Government in 1886 in opposition to Irish Home Rule. He helped to engineer a Liberal Party split and became a Liberal Unionist, from the 1895 general election the Liberal Unionists were in coalition with the Conservative Party, under Chamberlains former opponent Lord Salisbury. In that government Chamberlain promoted the Workmens Compensation Act 1897 and he served as Secretary of State for the Colonies, promoting a variety of schemes to build up the Empire in Asia, Africa, and the West Indies. He had major responsibility for causing the Second Boer War in South Africa and was the government minister most responsible for the war effort and he became a dominant figure in the Unionist Governments re-election at the Khaki Election in 1900. In 1903, he resigned from the Cabinet to campaign for tariff reform and he obtained the support of most Unionist MPs for this stance, but the Unionists suffered a landslide defeat at the 1906 general election. Shortly after public celebrations of his 70th birthday in Birmingham, he was disabled by a stroke, despite never becoming Prime Minister, he was one of the most important British politicians of his day, as well as a renowned orator and municipal reformer. Historian David Nicholls notes that his personality was not attractive, he was arrogant and ruthless and he never succeeded in his grand ambitions. However, he was a highly proficient grassroots organizer of democratic instincts and he is most famous for setting the agenda of British colonial, foreign, tariff and municipal policies, and for deeply splitting both major political parties. Chamberlain was born in Camberwell, then in Surrey to a shoe manufacturer also named Joseph. His younger brother was Richard Chamberlain, later also a Liberal politician and he was educated at University College School 1850–1852, excelling academically and gaining prizes in French and mathematics. At 18 he joined his uncles screw-making business, Nettlefolds of Birmingham, the company became known as Nettlefold and Chamberlain when Chamberlain became a partner with Joseph Nettlefold. During the businesss most prosperous period, it produced two-thirds of all metal screws made in England, Chamberlain married Harriet Kenrick, the daughter of Archibald Kenrick, in July 1861. Their daughter Beatrice Mary Chamberlain was born in May 1862, Harriet, who had had a premonition that she would die in childbirth, became ill two days after the birth of their son Joseph Austen in October 1863, and died three days later. Chamberlain devoted himself to business, while bringing up Beatrice and Austen with the Kenrick parents-in-law, in 1868, Chamberlain married for the second time, to Harriets cousin, Florence Kenrick, daughter of Timothy Kenrick. Chamberlain and Florence had four children, Arthur Neville in 1869, Ida in 1870, Hilda in 1871, on 13 February 1875, Florence gave birth to their fifth child, but she and the child died within a day
25.
Trinity College, Cambridge
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Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. With around 600 undergraduates,300 graduates, and over 180 fellows, by combined student numbers, it is second to Homerton College, Cambridge. Members of Trinity have won 32 Nobel Prizes out of the 91 won by members of Cambridge University, five Fields Medals in mathematics were won by members of the college and one Abel Prize was won. Other royal family members have studied there without obtaining degrees, including King Edward VII, King George VI, along with Christs, Jesus, Kings and St Johns colleges, it has also provided several of the well known members of the Apostles, an intellectual secret society. In 1848, Trinity hosted the meeting at which Cambridge undergraduates representing private schools such as Westminster drew up the first formal rules of football, Trinitys sister college in Oxford is Christ Church. Like that college, Trinity has been linked with Westminster School since the schools re-foundation in 1560, the college was founded by Henry VIII in 1546, from the merger of two existing colleges, Michaelhouse, and Kings Hall. At the time, Henry had been seizing church lands from abbeys, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, being both religious institutions and quite rich, expected to be next in line. The King duly passed an Act of Parliament that allowed him to any college he wished. The universities used their contacts to plead with his sixth wife, the Queen persuaded her husband not to close them down, but to create a new college. The king did not want to use royal funds, so he combined two colleges and seven hostels to form Trinity. Contrary to popular belief, the lands granted by Henry VIII were not on their own sufficient to ensure Trinitys eventual rise. In its infancy Trinity had owed a great deal to its college of St Johns. Its first four Masters were educated at St Johns, and it took until around 1575 for the two colleges application numbers to draw even, a position in which they have remained since the Civil War. Bentley himself was notorious for the construction of a hugely expensive staircase in the Masters Lodge, most of the Trinitys major buildings date from the 16th and 17th centuries. Thomas Nevile, who became Master of Trinity in 1593, rebuilt and this work included the enlargement and completion of Great Court, and the construction of Neviles Court between Great Court and the river Cam. Neviles Court was completed in the late 17th century when the Wren Library, in the 20th century, Trinity College, St Johns College and Kings College were for decades the main recruiting grounds for the Cambridge Apostles, an elite, intellectual secret society. In 2011, the John Templeton Foundation awarded Trinity Colleges Master, Trinity is the richest Oxbridge college, with a landholding alone worth £800 million. Trinity is sometimes suggested to be the second, third or fourth wealthiest landowner in the UK – after the Crown Estate, the National Trust, in 2005, Trinitys annual rental income from its properties was reported to be in excess of £20 million
26.
Sciences Po
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Sciences Po, or Paris Institute of Political Studies is a selective university located in Paris, France, and is widely considered to be one of the most prestigious in France. Sciences Po is a university focused on the social sciences and its main campus encircles Boulevard Saint Germain in the 7th arrondissement. Undergraduate students can choose to study in one of its six campuses in Reims, Dijon, Le Havre, Nancy, Poitiers or Menton, each focusing on a different cultural. The institution is a member of several academic consortia, Sciences Po was created in 1872 to improve the training of public servants and politicians in the aftermath of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1871. Many notable public figures are among its alumni, including most French presidents and it has also been strongly criticized for creating an oligarchy in French society and being at the centre of several scandals. Following defeat in the 1870 war, the demise of Napoleon III, and the Paris Commune, politically and economically, people feared Frances international stature was waning due to inadequate teaching of its political and diplomatic corps. ELSP was meant to serve as breeding ground where nearly all the major, non-technical state commissioners were trained. ”New disciplines such as International Relations, International Law, Political Economy. In August 1894, the British Association for the Advancement of Science spoke out for the need to advance the study of politics along the lines of ELSP. Sidney and Beatrice Webb used the purpose and curriculum of Sciences Po as part of their inspiration for creating the London School of Economics in 1895. As per ordinance 45-2284 issued on 9 October 1945, two entities were created from ELSP, Fondation nationale des sciences politiques or FNSP, and Institut détudes politiques de Paris or IEP Paris. Both entities were tasked by the French government to ensure “the progress, the epithet Sciences Po was applied to both entities, which inherited the reputation previously vested in ELSP. Frances Legislature entrusted FNSP with managing IEP Paris, its library, and budget, and they are not to be confounded with Sciences Pos satellite campuses. FNSP further strengthened its role as a publication center with significant donations from the Rockefeller Foundation. Sciences Po underwent various reforms under the directorship of Richard Descoings, in these years, Sciences Po introduced a compulsory year abroad component to its undergraduate degree, and began to offer a multilingual curriculum in French, English, and other languages. It was during this period that Sciences Po added its regional campuses, Sciences Po also implemented reforms in its admissions process. Previously, Sciences Po recruited its students exclusively on the basis of a competitive examination and this system was seen to favor students from prestigious preparatory high schools or those who could afford year-long preparatory courses. In March 2001, the governing council widened its admissions policy. Sciences Po is located in Paris, in the 6th and 7th districts,27 rue Saint-Guillaume houses the office since 1879
27.
Neville Chamberlain
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Arthur Neville Chamberlain, PC, FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. However, when Adolf Hitler later invaded Poland, the UK declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939 and he declined a junior ministerial position, remaining a backbencher until 1922. He was rapidly promoted in 1923 to Minister of Health and then Chancellor of the Exchequer, after a short Labour-led government, he returned as Minister of Health, introducing a range of reform measures from 1924 to 1929. He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in the National Government in 1931, when Stanley Baldwin retired in May 1937, Chamberlain took his place as Prime Minister. His premiership was dominated by the question of policy toward the increasingly aggressive Germany and he was succeeded by Winston Churchill but remained very well regarded in Parliament, especially among Conservatives. Before ill health forced him to resign he was an important member of Churchills War Cabinet, Chamberlain died of cancer six months after leaving the premiership. Most historians in the generation following Chamberlains death held similar views, nevertheless, Chamberlain is still unfavourably ranked amongst British Prime Ministers. Chamberlain was born on 18 March 1869 in a house called Southbourne in the Edgbaston district of Birmingham and he was the only son of the second marriage of Joseph Chamberlain, who later became Mayor of Birmingham and a Cabinet minister. His mother was Florence Kenrick, cousin to William Kenrick MP, Joseph Chamberlain had had another son, Austen Chamberlain, by his first marriage. Neville Chamberlain was educated at Rugby School, Joseph Chamberlain then sent Neville to Mason College. Neville Chamberlain had little interest in his studies there, and in 1889 his father apprenticed him to a firm of accountants, within six months he became a salaried employee. In an effort to recoup diminished family fortunes, Joseph Chamberlain sent his son to establish a sisal plantation on Andros Island in the Bahamas. Neville Chamberlain spent six years there but the plantation was a failure, on his return to England, Neville Chamberlain entered business, purchasing Hoskins & Company, a manufacturer of metal ship berths. Chamberlain served as managing director of Hoskins for 17 years during which time the company prospered and he also involved himself in civic activities in Birmingham. At forty, Chamberlain was expecting to remain a bachelor, but in 1910 he fell in love with Anne Cole, a distant relative by marriage, the two had a son and a daughter. Chamberlain initially showed little interest in politics though his father and half-brother were in Parliament, during the Khaki election of 1900 he made speeches in support of Joseph Chamberlains Liberal Unionists. The Liberal Unionists were allied with the Conservatives and later merged them under the name Unionist Party. In 1911 Neville Chamberlain successfully stood as a Liberal Unionist for Birmingham City Council for the All Saints Ward, Chamberlain was made chairman of the Town Planning Committee
28.
Locarno Treaties
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It also stated that Germany would never go to war with the other countries. Locarno divided borders in Europe into two categories, western, which were guaranteed by Locarno treaties, and eastern borders of Germany with Poland, historian Sally Marks says, Henceforth the spirit of Locarno would reign, substituting conciliation for enforcement as the basis for peace. Yet for some peace remained a desperate hope rather than an actuality, a few men knew that the spirit of Locarno was a fragile foundation on which to build a lasting peace. German foreign minister Gustav Stresemann made his highest priority the restoration of German prestige, french withdrawal from the occupation of the Ruhr was scheduled for January 1925, but Stresemann Sense that France was very nervous about it security and might cancel the withdrawal. He realized that France deeply desired a British guarantee of its postwar borders, Stresemann came up with a plan whereby all sides would get what they wanted through a series of guarantees set out in a series of treaties. British Foreign Minister Austen Chamberlain enthusiastically agreed, France realized that its occupation of the Ruhr Had caused more financial and diplomatic damage that was worth, as well along with the plan. The conference of foreign ministers they convened in the Swiss resort of Locarno cannot Tober 1925 agreed on a plan, the first treaty was the most critical one, a mutual guarantee of the frontiers of Belgian, France, and Germany, which was guaranteed by Britain and Italy. The second and third treaties called for arbitration between Germany and Belgium, and Germany and France, regarding future disputes, the fourth and fifth were similar arbitration treaties between Germany and Poland, and Germany and Czechoslovakia. Poland especially, and Czechoslovakia as well, felt threatened by the Locarno agreements, thanks to the Dawes plan, Germany was now making regular reparations payments. The success of the Locarno agreements Led to the admission of Germany to the League of Nations, in September 1926, with a seat on its counsel as a permanent member. In this way, promoting territorial revisionism in Eastern Europe in Germany’s favor was one of the principal British objects of Locarno, the principal treaty concluded at Locarno was the Rhineland Pact between Germany, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Italy. Germany formally recognised its new western borders acted by the Treaty of Versailles, furthermore, the first three signatories undertook not to attack each other, with the latter two acting as guarantors. In the event of aggression by any of the first three states against another, all parties were to assist the country under attack. France signed further treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia, pledging mutual assistance in the event of conflict with Germany, the Locarno Treaties marked a dramatic improvement in the political climate of western European in 1924–1930. They promoted expectations for continued peaceful settlements, often called the spirit of Locarno and this spirit was made concrete when Germany joined the League in 1926, and the withdrawal of Allied troops occupying Germanys Rhineland. The Nobel Peace Prize was given to the negotiators of the treaty, going to Sir Austen Chamberlain in 1925 and jointly to Aristide Briand. Nazi Germany had no use for a peaceful spirit, hitler repudiated Locarno by sending troops into the demilitarized Rhineland on 7 March 1936. In contrast, in Poland, the humiliation received by Polish diplomats was one of the contributing factors to the fall of the Grabski cabinet
29.
Nobel Peace Prize
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Per Alfred Nobels will, the recipient is selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member committee appointed by the Parliament of Norway. Since 1990, the prize is awarded on 10 December in Oslo City Hall each year, the prize was formerly awarded in the Atrium of the University of Oslo Faculty of Law, the Norwegian Nobel Institute, and the Parliament. Due to its nature, the Nobel Peace Prize has, for most of its history. Alfred Nobels will further specified that the prize be awarded by a committee of five chosen by the Norwegian Parliament. Nobel died in 1896 and he did not leave an explanation for choosing peace as a prize category, as he was a trained chemical engineer, the categories for chemistry and physics were obvious choices. The reasoning behind the peace prize is less clear, some Nobel scholars suggest it was Nobels way to compensate for developing destructive forces. His inventions included dynamite and ballistite, both of which were used violently during his lifetime, ballistite was used in war and the Irish Republican Brotherhood, an Irish nationalist organization, carried out dynamite attacks in the 1880s. Nobel was also instrumental in turning Bofors from an iron and steel producer into an armaments company and it is unclear why Nobel wished the Peace Prize to be administered in Norway, which was ruled in union with Sweden at the time of Nobels death. The Norwegian Nobel Committee speculates that Nobel may have considered Norway better suited to awarding the prize, the Norwegian Parliament appoints the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which selects the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Each year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee specifically invites qualified people to submit nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, the statutes of the Nobel Foundation specify categories of individuals who are eligible to make nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. Nominations by committee members can be submitted up to the date of the first Committee meeting after this deadline. In 2009, a record 205 nominations were received, but the record was again in 2010 with 237 nominations, in 2011. Nominations from 1901 to 1956, however, have released in a database. Nominations are considered by the Nobel Committee at a meeting where a short list of candidates for review is created. Advisers usually have some months to complete reports, which are considered by the Committee to select the laureate. The Committee seeks to achieve a decision, but this is not always possible. The Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of the King of Norway on 10 December each year, the Peace Prize is the only Nobel Prize not presented in Stockholm. The Nobel laureate receives a diploma, a medal, and a document confirming the prize amount, as of 2013, the prize was worth 10 million SEK
30.
Winston Churchill
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Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill KG OM CH TD PC DL FRS RA was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 for his overall, in 1963, he was the first of only eight people to be made an honorary citizen of the United States. Churchill was born into the family of the Dukes of Marlborough and his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a charismatic politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, his mother, Jennie Jerome, was an American socialite. As a young officer, he saw action in British India, the Anglo–Sudan War. He gained fame as a war correspondent and wrote books about his campaigns, at the forefront of politics for fifty years, he held many political and cabinet positions. Before the First World War, he served as President of the Board of Trade, Home Secretary, during the war, he continued as First Lord of the Admiralty until the disastrous Gallipoli Campaign caused his departure from government. He then briefly resumed active service on the Western Front as commander of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers. He returned to government under Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions, Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for Air, at the outbreak of the Second World War, he was again appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. Following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain on 10 May 1940, Churchill became Prime Minister and he led Britain as Prime Minister until victory over Nazi Germany had been secured. After the Conservative Party suffered a defeat in the 1945 general election. He publicly warned of an Iron Curtain of Soviet influence in Europe, after winning the 1951 election, Churchill again became Prime Minister. His second term was preoccupied by foreign affairs, including the Malayan Emergency, Mau Mau Uprising, Korean War, domestically his government laid great emphasis on house-building. Churchill suffered a stroke in 1953 and retired as Prime Minister in 1955. Upon his death aged ninety in 1965, Elizabeth II granted him the honour of a state funeral and his highly complex legacy continues to stimulate intense debate amongst writers and historians. Born into the family of the Dukes of Marlborough, a branch of the noble Spencer family, Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, like his father. His ancestor George Spencer had changed his surname to Spencer-Churchill in 1817 when he became Duke of Marlborough, to highlight his descent from John Churchill, Churchill was born on 30 November 1874, two months prematurely, in a bedroom in Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire. From age two to six, he lived in Dublin, where his grandfather had been appointed Viceroy, Churchills brother, John Strange Spencer-Churchill, was born during this time in Ireland
31.
Liberal Party (UK)
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The Liberal Party was a liberal political party which was one of the two major parties in the United Kingdom in the 19th and early 20th century. The party arose from an alliance of Whigs and free-trade Peelites and Radicals favourable to the ideals of the American, by the end of the nineteenth century, it had formed four governments under William Gladstone. Despite splitting over the issue of Irish Home Rule, the party returned to power in 1906 with a landslide victory, by the end of the 1920s, the Labour Party had replaced the Liberals as the Conservatives main rival. The party went into decline and by the 1950s won no more than six seats at general elections, apart from notable by-election victories, the partys fortunes did not improve significantly until it formed the SDP–Liberal Alliance with the newly formed Social Democratic Party in 1981. At the 1983 General Election, the Alliance won over a quarter of the vote, at the 1987 General Election, its vote fell below 23% and the Liberal and Social Democratic parties merged in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats. A splinter group reconstituted the Liberal Party in 1989 and it was formed by party members opposed to the merger who saw the Lib Dems diluting Liberal ideals. Prominent intellectuals associated with the Liberal Party include the philosopher John Stuart Mill, the economist John Maynard Keynes, the Liberal Party grew out of the Whigs, who had their origins in an aristocratic faction in the reign of Charles II, and the early 19th century Radicals. The Whigs were in favour of reducing the power of the Crown, although their motives in this were originally to gain more power for themselves, the more idealistic Whigs gradually came to support an expansion of democracy for its own sake. The great figures of reformist Whiggery were Charles James Fox and his disciple, after decades in opposition, the Whigs returned to power under Grey in 1830 and carried the First Reform Act in 1832. The Reform Act was the climax of Whiggism, but it brought about the Whigs demise. As early as 1839 Russell had adopted the name of Liberals, the leading Radicals were John Bright and Richard Cobden, who represented the manufacturing towns which had gained representation under the Reform Act. They favoured social reform, personal liberty, reducing the powers of the Crown and the Church of England, avoidance of war and foreign alliances, for a century, free trade remained the one cause which could unite all Liberals. This allowed ministries led by Russell, Palmerston, and the Peelite Lord Aberdeen to hold office for most of the 1850s and 1860s, a leading Peelite was William Ewart Gladstone, who was a reforming Chancellor of the Exchequer in most of these governments. The formal foundation of the Liberal Party is traditionally traced to 1859 and this was brought about by Palmerstons death in 1865 and Russells retirement in 1868. After a brief Conservative government Gladstone won a victory at the 1868 election. The establishment of the party as a membership organisation came with the foundation of the National Liberal Federation in 1877. John Stuart Mill was a Liberal MP from 1865 to 1868, for the next thirty years Gladstone and Liberalism were synonymous. William Ewart Gladstone served as prime minister four times, called the Grand Old Man later in life, Gladstone was always a dynamic popular orator who appealed strongly to the working class and to the lower middle class
32.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
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The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of Her Majestys Government in the United Kingdom. The prime minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Monarch, to Parliament, to their political party, the office is one of the Great Offices of State. The current prime minister, Theresa May, leader of the Conservative Party, was appointed by the Queen on 13 July 2016. The position of Prime Minister was not created, it evolved slowly and erratically over three hundred years due to acts of Parliament, political developments, and accidents of history. The office is therefore best understood from a historical perspective, the origins of the position are found in constitutional changes that occurred during the Revolutionary Settlement and the resulting shift of political power from the Sovereign to Parliament. The political position of Prime Minister was enhanced by the development of political parties, the introduction of mass communication. By the start of the 20th century the modern premiership had emerged, prior to 1902, the prime minister sometimes came from the House of Lords, provided that his government could form a majority in the Commons. However as the power of the aristocracy waned during the 19th century the convention developed that the Prime Minister should always sit in the lower house. As leader of the House of Commons, the Prime Ministers authority was further enhanced by the Parliament Act of 1911 which marginalised the influence of the House of Lords in the law-making process. The Prime Minister is ex officio also First Lord of the Treasury, certain privileges, such as residency of 10 Downing Street, are accorded to Prime Ministers by virtue of their position as First Lord of the Treasury. As the Head of Her Majestys Government the modern Prime Minister leads the Cabinet, in addition the Prime Minister leads a major political party and generally commands a majority in the House of Commons. As such the incumbent wields both legislative and executive powers, under the British system there is a unity of powers rather than separation. In the House of Commons, the Prime Minister guides the process with the goal of enacting the legislative agenda of their political party. The Prime Minister also acts as the face and voice of Her Majestys Government. The British system of government is based on an uncodified constitution, in 1928, Prime Minister H. H. Asquith described this characteristic of the British constitution in his memoirs, In this country we live. Our constitutional practices do not derive their validity and sanction from any Bill which has received the assent of the King, Lords. They rest on usage, custom, convention, often of slow growth in their early stages, not always uniform, the relationships between the Prime Minister and the Sovereign, Parliament and Cabinet are defined largely by these unwritten conventions of the constitution. Many of the Prime Ministers executive and legislative powers are actually royal prerogatives which are still vested in the Sovereign
33.
Rugby School
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Rugby School is a day and boarding co-educational independent school in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain and its re-establishment by Thomas Arnold during his time as Headmaster, from 1828 to 1841, was seen as the forerunner of the Victorian Public School. It is one of the original seven English Public Schools defined by the Public Schools Act 1868, total enrolment of day pupils from forms 4 to 12 numbers around 800. Rugby School was the birthplace of Rugby football, in 1845, three Rugby School pupils produced the first written rules of the Rugby style of game. Rugby School was founded in 1567 as a provision in the will of Lawrence Sheriff, since Lawrence Sheriff lived in Rugby and the neighbouring Brownsover, the school was intended to be a free grammar school for the boys of those towns. Up to 1667, the school remained in comparative obscurity, a final decision was handed down in 1667, confirming the findings of a commission in favour of the trust, and henceforth the school maintained a steady growth. Floreat Rugbeia is the school song. Pupils beginning Rugby in the F Block study various subjects and this is continued through to D block. The school then provides standard A-levels in 29 subjects, students at this stage have the choice of taking 3 or four subjects and are also offered the opportunity to take an extended project. The Governing Body provides financial benefits with school fees to families unable to afford them, parents of pupils who are given a Scholarship are capable of obtaining a 10% fee deduction, although more than one scholarship can be awarded to one student. Rugby School claim they aim to give more than education with their new tagline being The Whole Person. The school has three magazines, The Meteor, The Boomer and Quod, the core of the school was completed in 1815 and is built around the Old Quad, with its Georgian architecture. Especially notable rooms are the Upper Bench, the Old Hall of School House, Thomas Hughes once carved his name onto the hands of the school clock, situated on a tower above the Old Quad. By the twentieth century Rugby expanded and new buildings were inspired by this Edwardian Era. The Temple Speech Room, named after former headmaster and Archbishop of Canterbury Frederick Temple and now used for assemblies, speech days, concerts, musicals –. Oak-panelled walls boast the portraits of alumni, including Neville Chamberlain holding his piece of paper. Between the wars, the Memorial Chapel, the Music Schools and she wrote to John Vickers, the OFT director-general, saying, They are not a group of businessmen meeting behind closed doors to fix the price of their products to the disadvantage of the consumer. They are schools that have quite openly continued to follow a long-established practice because they were unaware that the law had changed, rugbys most famous headmaster was Thomas Arnold, appointed in 1828, he executed many reforms to the school curriculum and administration
34.
Imperial Federation
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The Imperial Federation was a proposal in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to create a federal union in place of the existing British Empire. The project was championed by Unionists such as Joseph Chamberlain as an alternative to William Gladstones proposals for home rule, at the time, the British Empire consisted of many colonies, some of which were largely self-governing dominions and others were not. The future of the empire remained uncertain, as it was unclear what the end result would be if all colonies eventually became self-governing, among other concerns, it would be very difficult for British interests to be maintained if every colony was essentially already sovereign. Creating an Imperial Federation thus became an alternative proposal to colonial imperialism. The plan was never firm, but the proposal was to create a single federal state among all colonies of the British Empire. The federation would have a parliament and would be governed as a superstate. Thus, Imperial unity could be maintained while still allowing for democratic government, the colonies would increase their influence while Britain would be able to share the costs of imperial defence. The best features of large states could be combined with the best features of small states and it was seen as a method of solving the Home Rule problem in Ireland, as England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland would have their own Parliaments. Westminster would become a purely Imperial body, in response to claims that geography was against federation on such a large scale, it was said that scientific advancements would solve the difficulty. C. From California before passes over the Rockies were made, the Imperial Federation League was founded in London in 1884 and subsequent branches were established in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Barbados, and British Guiana. While the proposal was often associated with segments of the British Conservative Party, noted Canadian Imperialists included George Monro Grant, Sir George Robert Parkin, Stephen Leacock, and George Taylor Denison III. In 1900, Thomas Hedderwick, a Scottish Liberal Party MP, one of the main obstacles to the scheme was what one of its proponents, Richard Jebb, called colonial nationalism. The granting of authority to a super-parliament composed of many competing interests was seen by opponents as a compromise to the powers of the local parliaments, similarly, proposals for centralising the Empires armed forces were also rejected as were his proposals for an Empire customs union. At subsequent Imperial Conferences, proposals for Imperial preferential trade were rejected by the British Liberal governments due to their preference for free trade. It would not be until the British Empire Economic Conference in 1932 that imperial Preference would be implemented, however, support for imperial federation waned with World War I which produced greater feelings of national identity in several dominions, Canada and Australia in particular. It was last discussed seriously at the level at the 1937 Imperial Conference where it was dismissed. In recent years, the idea has received new life in several Commonwealth nations, a federation of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom has been promoted by some in the United Kingdom as an alternative to continued British membership in the European Union. Commonwealth free trade Federalism Political union Supranational union
35.
The Cambridge Union
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The Cambridge Union Society, commonly referred to as The Cambridge Union, is a debating and free speech society in Cambridge, England, and the largest society at the University of Cambridge. It is the oldest continuously running debating society in the world, additionally, the Cambridge Union has served as a model for the foundation of similar societies at several other prominent universities, including the Oxford Union and the Yale Political Union. The Union is a society with membership open to all students of Cambridge University or Anglia Ruskin University. The Union became a charity in May 2010. The Cambridge Union was founded on 13 February 1815, several years after it was founded, on 24 March 1817, the Union was temporarily shut down by the University. In 1821 the Union was allowed to reform, under strict guidelines, the Unions Bridge Street premises were designed by Alfred Waterhouse and formally opened on 30 October 1866. An additional wing was added several decades later, the future radical Liberal politician, Sir Charles Dilke, was the President chiefly responsible for construction. Included among the many rooms are the debating chamber, a dining room, bar, snooker room. Although Cambridge escaped virtually undamaged from the widespread bombing destruction of World War II, the explosion caused extensive damage to the Unions library. The Union is legally a charity that owns and has full control over its private property. It enjoys strong relations with the university, and allows other student societies to hire rooms for a nominal cost, guests are sometimes admitted to Union events for a charge. After more than 200 years, The Cambridge Union is best known for its debates, the top members of its debating team compete internationally against other top debating societies. The Union also organises talks by visiting speakers and an array of events throughout the academic year. Although The Cambridge Union has never functioned as a union in the modern sense. In 2015 the Union celebrated its bicentenary, a composed of former. This included special debates, dinners and parties in Cambridge and, for the first time in its history, in January 2015 the Union announced a £9. The development is to be financed through the leasing of disused parts of its site to Trinity College in a deal worth £4.5 million. A fundraising campaign to cover the remaining cost is to be launched on March 11th with a debate between Jon Snow and Nick Robinson
36.
French Third Republic
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It came to an end on 10 July 1940. Harsh reparations exacted by the Prussians after the war resulted in the loss of the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine, social upheaval, and the establishment of the Paris Commune. The early governments of the Third Republic considered re-establishing the monarchy, but confusion as to the nature of that monarchy, thus, the Third Republic, which was originally intended as a provisional government, instead became the permanent government of France. The French Constitutional Laws of 1875 defined the composition of the Third Republic and it consisted of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate to form the legislative branch of government and a president to serve as head of state. The period from the start of World War I to the late 1930s featured sharply polarized politics, Adolphe Thiers called republicanism in the 1870s the form of government that divides France least, however, politics under the Third Republic were sharply polarized. On the left stood Reformist France, heir to the French Revolution, on the right stood conservative France, rooted in the peasantry, the Roman Catholic Church and the army. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 resulted in the defeat of France, after Napoleons capture by the Prussians at the Battle of Sedan, Parisian deputies led by Léon Gambetta established the Government of National Defence as a provisional government on 4 September 1870. The deputies then selected General Louis-Jules Trochu to serve as its president and this first government of the Third Republic ruled during the Siege of Paris. After the French surrender in January 1871, the provisional Government of National Defence disbanded, French territories occupied by Prussia at this time did not participate. The resulting conservative National Assembly elected Adolphe Thiers as head of a provisional government, due to the revolutionary and left-wing political climate that prevailed in the Parisian population, the right-wing government chose the royal palace of Versailles as its headquarters. The new government negotiated a settlement with the newly proclaimed German Empire. To prompt the Prussians to leave France, the government passed a variety of laws, such as the controversial Law of Maturities. The following repression of the communards would have consequences for the labor movement. The Orléanists supported a descendant of King Louis Philippe I, the cousin of Charles X who replaced him as the French monarch in 1830, his grandson Louis-Philippe, Comte de Paris. The Bonapartists were marginalized due to the defeat of Napoléon III and were unable to advance the candidacy of any member of his family, the Bonaparte family. Legitimists and Orléanists came to a compromise, eventually, whereby the childless Comte de Chambord would be recognised as king, consequently, in 1871 the throne was offered to the Comte de Chambord. Chambord believed the monarchy had to eliminate all traces of the Revolution in order to restore the unity between the monarchy and the nation, which the revolution had sundered apart. Compromise on this was if the nation were to be made whole again
37.
Georges Clemenceau
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Georges Benjamin Clemenceau was a French politician, physician, and journalist who served as Prime Minister of France during the First World War. A leader of the Radical Party, he played a role in the politics of the French Third Republic. Clemenceau first served as Prime Minister from 1906 to 1909, in favour of a total victory over the German Empire, he militated for the restitution of Alsace-Lorraine to France. He was one of the architects of the Treaty of Versailles at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Clemenceau was a native of the Vendée, born at Mouilleron-en-Pareds, during the period of the French Revolution, the Vendée had been a hotbed of monarchist sympathies, but by the time of his birth, its people were fiercely republican. The region was remote from Paris, rural and poor and his mother, Sophie Eucharie Gautreau, was of Huguenot descent. His father, Benjamin Clemenceau, came from a line of physicians. Benjamin had a reputation as an atheist and a political activist, he was arrested and briefly held in 1851 and he instilled in his son a love of learning, devotion to radical politics, and a hatred of Catholicism. The lawyer Albert Clemenceau was his brother, after his studies in the Lycée in Nantes, Georges received his French baccalaureate of letters in 1858. He went to Paris to study medicine, eventually graduating with the completion of his thesis De la génération des éléments anatomiques in 1865, in Paris, the young Clemenceau became a political activist and writer. In December 1861, he co-founded a weekly newsletter, Le Travail, on 23 February 1862, he was arrested by the police for having placed posters summoning a demonstration. He spent 77 days in the Mazas Prison and he finally graduated as a doctor of medicine on 13 May 1865, founded several literary magazines, and wrote many articles, most of which attacked the imperial regime of Napoleon III. Clemenceau left France for the United States when the agents began cracking down on dissidents. Clemenceau worked in New York City in the years 1865-69, following the American Civil War and he maintained a medical practice, but spent much of his time on political journalism for a Parisian newspaper. He taught French at the home of Calvin Rood in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on 23 June 1869, he married one of his students, Mary Eliza Plummer, in New York City. She was the daughter of William Kelly Plummer and wife Harriet A. Taylor, the Clemenceaus had three children together before the marriage ended in a contentious divorce. During this time, he joined French exile clubs in New York opposing the imperial regime, Clemenceau returned to Paris after the French defeat at the Battle of Sedan in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War and the fall of the Second French Empire. When the Paris Commune seized power in March 1871, he tried unsuccessfully to find a compromise between the radical leaders and the commune and the more conservative French government
38.
Alexandre Ribot
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Alexandre-Félix-Joseph Ribot was a French politician, four times Prime Minister. Ribot was born in Saint-Omer, Pas-de-Calais, after a brilliant academic career at the University of Paris, where he was lauréat of the faculty of law, he rapidly made his mark at the bar. He was secretary of the conference of advocates and one of the founders of the Sociéte de legislation comparée, during 1875 and 1876 he was successively director of criminal affairs and secretary-general at the ministry of justice. His impassioned yet reasoned eloquence gave him an influence which was increased by his articles in the Parlement in which he opposed violent measures against the unauthorized congregations and he devoted himself especially to financial questions, and in 1882 was reporter of the budget. He became one of the most prominent republican opponents of the Radical party and he refused to vote the credits demanded by the Ferry cabinet for the Tongking expedition, and helped Georges Clemenceau overthrow the ministry in 1885. At the general election of that year he was a victim of the Republican rout in the Pas-de-Calais, after 1889 he sat for Saint-Omer. His fear of the Boulangist movement converted him to the policy of Republican Concentration and he retained his post in Émile Loubets ministry, and on its defeat he became president of the council, retaining the direction of foreign affairs. The government resigned in March 1893 over the refusal of the chamber to accept the Senates amendments to the budget, on the election of Félix Faure as president of the Republic in January 1895, Ribot again became premier and minister of finance. On 10 June he was able to make the first official announcement of an alliance with Russia. On 30 October the government was defeated on the question of the Chemin de fer du Sud, after the fall of Jules Mélines ministry in 1898 M. Ribot tried in vain to form a cabinet of conciliation. He was elected, at the end of 1898, president of the important commission on education and he was re-elected deputy for Saint-Omer in 1906. In the same year he became a member of the Académie française in succession to the duc dAudiffret-Pasquier, in justification of his policy in opposition he published in 1905 two volumes of his Discours politiques. On 3 January 1909, Ribot was elected a member of the French Senate, and in February of the year was offered, but refused. In 1913 he was a candidate for the presidency of the Republic, and on the fall of Barthous Government was invited by Poincaré, who was now President, to form a Cabinet. In 1914 he became, with Jean Dupuy, leader of the Left Republican group which refused to accept the decisions of the Radical Socialist congress at Pau in October 1913. On June 9,1914, Ribot became Prime Minister and Minister of Justice, but his Government was bitterly assailed by the Radical Socialists as well as other groups, and only lasted one day. With the outbreak of World War I Ribots great reputation as an expert in finance, on 27 August 1914 he became Minister of Finance in Vivianis Ministry of National Defence, an office which he retained when, on 28 October 1915, Aristide Briand succeeded Viviani as Prime Minister. On February 7,1916 he visited London and held a conference with the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the Treasury, when Briand reconstituted his Cabinet, in December 1916, Ribot retained the portfolio of Finance
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