1.
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
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Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians, who are present or former members of either the House of Commons or the House of Lords, the Council also holds the delegated authority to issue Orders of Council, mostly used to regulate certain public institutions. The Council advises the sovereign on the issuing of Royal Charters, which are used to grant special status to incorporated bodies, otherwise, the Privy Councils powers have now been largely replaced by the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The Judicial Committee consists of judges appointed as Privy Counsellors, predominantly Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The Privy Council of the United Kingdom was preceded by the Privy Council of Scotland, the key events in the formation of the modern Privy Council are given below, Witenagemot was an early equivalent to the Privy Council of England. During the reigns of the Norman monarchs, the English Crown was advised by a court or curia regis. The body originally concerned itself with advising the sovereign on legislation, administration, later, different bodies assuming distinct functions evolved from the court. The courts of law took over the business of dispensing justice, nevertheless, the Council retained the power to hear legal disputes, either in the first instance or on appeal. Furthermore, laws made by the sovereign on the advice of the Council, powerful sovereigns often used the body to circumvent the Courts and Parliament. During Henry VIIIs reign, the sovereign, on the advice of the Council, was allowed to enact laws by mere proclamation, the legislative pre-eminence of Parliament was not restored until after Henry VIIIs death. Though the royal Council retained legislative and judicial responsibilities, it became an administrative body. The Council consisted of forty members in 1553, but the sovereign relied on a smaller committee, by the end of the English Civil War, the monarchy, House of Lords, and Privy Council had been abolished. The remaining parliamentary chamber, the House of Commons, instituted a Council of State to execute laws, the forty-one members of the Council were elected by the House of Commons, the body was headed by Oliver Cromwell, de facto military dictator of the nation. In 1653, however, Cromwell became Lord Protector, and the Council was reduced to thirteen and twenty-one members, all elected by the Commons. In 1657, the Commons granted Cromwell even greater powers, some of which were reminiscent of those enjoyed by monarchs, the Council became known as the Protectors Privy Council, its members were appointed by the Lord Protector, subject to Parliaments approval. In 1659, shortly before the restoration of the monarchy, the Protectors Council was abolished, Charles II restored the Royal Privy Council, but he, like previous Stuart monarchs, chose to rely on a small group of advisers. Under George I even more power transferred to this committee and it now began to meet in the absence of the sovereign, communicating its decisions to him after the fact. Thus, the British Privy Council, as a whole, ceased to be a body of important confidential advisers to the sovereign and it is closely related to the word private, and derives from the French word privé
2.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
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It alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories. Its head is the Sovereign of the United Kingdom and its seat is the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster, one of the boroughs of the British capital, the parliament is bicameral, consisting of an upper house and a lower house. The Sovereign forms the third component of the legislature, prior to the opening of the Supreme Court in October 2009, the House of Lords also performed a judicial role through the Law Lords. The House of Commons is an elected chamber with elections held at least every five years. The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster in London, most cabinet ministers are from the Commons, whilst junior ministers can be from either House. The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Treaty of Union by Acts of Union passed by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The UK parliament and its institutions have set the pattern for many throughout the world. However, John Bright – who coined the epithet – used it with reference to a rather than a parliament. In theory, the UKs supreme legislative power is vested in the Crown-in-Parliament. However, the Crown normally acts on the advice of the Prime Minister, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created in 1801, by the merger of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland under the Acts of Union. The principle of responsibility to the lower House did not develop until the 19th century—the House of Lords was superior to the House of Commons both in theory and in practice. Members of the House of Commons were elected in an electoral system. Thus, the borough of Old Sarum, with seven voters, many small constituencies, known as pocket or rotten boroughs, were controlled by members of the House of Lords, who could ensure the election of their relatives or supporters. During the reforms of the 19th century, beginning with the Reform Act 1832, No longer dependent on the Lords for their seats, MPs grew more assertive. The supremacy of the British House of Commons was established in the early 20th century, in 1909, the Commons passed the so-called Peoples Budget, which made numerous changes to the taxation system which were detrimental to wealthy landowners. The House of Lords, which consisted mostly of powerful landowners, on the basis of the Budgets popularity and the Lords consequent unpopularity, the Liberal Party narrowly won two general elections in 1910. Using the result as a mandate, the Liberal Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, introduced the Parliament Bill, in the face of such a threat, the House of Lords narrowly passed the bill. However, regardless of the Parliament Acts of 1911 and 1949, the Government of Ireland Act 1920 created the parliaments of Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland and reduced the representation of both parts at Westminster
3.
South Molton (UK Parliament constituency)
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South Molton was a parliamentary constituency centred on the small town of South Molton in Devon, in the South West of England. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the constituency was created for the 1885 general election, and abolished for the 1950 general election, when it was largely replaced by Torrington. 1885-1918, The Municipal Borough of South Molton, and the Sessional Divisions of Crediton, Great Torrington, and South Molton. 1918-1950, The Municipal Boroughs of Great Torrington, Okehampton, and South Molton, the Urban District of Crediton, and the Rural Districts of Crediton, Okehampton, South Molton, General Election 1914/15, Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. General Election 1939/40, Another General Election was required to place before the end of 1940. Leigh Rayments Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with S
4.
Newton Wallop, 6th Earl of Portsmouth
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Newton Wallop, 6th Earl of Portsmouth JP, DL, styled Viscount Lymington until 1891, was a British Liberal politician but then joined the Liberal Unionist Party in 1886. He later switched back to the Liberal Party to serve as Under-Secretary of State for War under Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman from 1905 to 1908 and he was educated at Balliol College, Oxford. At the 1885 general election, he was elected MP for South Molton, in the latter year he succeeded his father in the earldom and took his seat in the House of Lords. From 1905 to 1908 Lord Portsmouth served as Under-Secretary of State for War in the Liberal administration of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Lord Portsmouth was also a Justice of the Peace for Hampshire and Devon and a Deputy Lieutenant. Lord Portsmouth married Beatrice Mary Pease, only child of Edward Pease of Darlington and he died in December 1917 at Whitchurch, aged 61, and was succeeded in the earldom by his younger brother, John. The Countess of Portsmouth died in 1935, hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Portsmouth
5.
Devon
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Devon, also known as Devonshire, which was formerly its common and official name, is a county of England, reaching from the Bristol Channel in the north to the English Channel in the south. It is part of South West England, bounded by Cornwall to the west, Somerset to the northeast, combined as a ceremonial county, Devons area is 6,707 km2 and its population is about 1.1 million. Devon derives its name from Dumnonia, which, during the British Iron Age, Roman Britain, the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain resulted in the partial assimilation of Dumnonia into the Kingdom of Wessex during the eighth and ninth centuries. The western boundary with Cornwall was set at the River Tamar by King Æthelstan in 936, Devon was constituted as a shire of the Kingdom of England thereafter. The north and south coasts of Devon each have both cliffs and sandy shores, and the bays contain seaside resorts, fishing towns. The inland terrain is rural, generally hilly, and has a low density in comparison to many other parts of England. Dartmoor is the largest open space in southern England at 954 km2, to the north of Dartmoor are the Culm Measures and Exmoor. In the valleys and lowlands of south and east Devon the soil is fertile, drained by rivers including the Exe, the Culm, the Teign, the Dart. As well as agriculture, much of the economy of Devon is linked with tourism, in the Brittonic, Devon is known as Welsh, Dyfnaint, Breton, Devnent and Cornish, Dewnens, each meaning deep valleys. One erroneous theory is that the suffix is due to a mistake in the making of the original letters patent for the Duke of Devonshire. However, there are references to Defenascire in Anglo-Saxon texts from before 1000 AD, the term Devonshire may have originated around the 8th century, when it changed from Dumnonia to Defenascir. Kents Cavern in Torquay had produced human remains from 30–40,000 years ago, Dartmoor is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer peoples from about 6000 BC. The Romans held the area under occupation for around 350 years. Devon became a frontier between Brittonic and Anglo-Saxon Wessex, and it was absorbed into Wessex by the mid 9th century. This suggests the Anglo-Saxon migration into Devon was limited rather than a movement of people. The border with Cornwall was set by King Æthelstan on the east bank of the River Tamar in 936 AD, the arrival of William of Orange to launch the Glorious Revolution of 1688 took place at Brixham. Devon has produced tin, copper and other metals from ancient times, Devons tin miners enjoyed a substantial degree of independence through Devons Stannary Parliament, which dates back to the 12th century. The last recorded sitting was in 1748, agriculture has been an important industry in Devon since the 19th century
6.
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
7.
National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)
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The National Liberal Party, known until 1948 as the Liberal National Party, was a liberal political party in the United Kingdom from 1931 to 1968. It broke away from the Liberal Party, and later merged with the Conservative Party, by June 1931 three Liberal MPs — Simon, Ernest Brown and Robert Hutchison — resigned their partys whip and sat as independents. For the next election in 1935 they reunited with the mainstream Liberals, by 1933 they had abandoned it completely and crossed the floor of the House of Commons, leaving the Liberal Nationals supporting the government. Within the wider party the split was not so clear and its replacement, the Liberal National Council, the main organ of the local party, was founded in 1936. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s there were a number of proposals to reunite the two Liberal parties, but these routinely foundered on the question of continued support for the National Government. During World War II the Liberal Nationals suffered a stream of defectors who joined either the independent Liberals or the Conservatives, or else became non-party supporters of the government. In 1940 the National Government was replaced by an all-party coalition led by Winston Churchill, the partys new leader, Ernest Brown, was only occasionally accorded the status of a party leader within the coalition and otherwise faced questions over the future of the party. After both parties drubbing and the Labour Partys victory in the 1945 general election, the two factions made renewed attempts at reuniting, in May 1947 the Woolton-Teviot agreement between Lord Woolton and Lord Teviot resulted in the two parties merging at the constituency level. The Liberal Nationals also changed their name to National Liberals at this stage, the National Liberals therefore fought the next five British general elections as allies of the Conservative Party. To confuse matters, their candidates stood for election with a variety of names including National Liberal, National Liberal and Conservative, Liberal and Conservative and so on. Even established Conservatives with little or no connection to the original party after 1950 used the National Liberal name when going forward as candidates in some wards. Even more than before 1947, the appearance of National Liberal candidates aggrieved the Liberal Party, in 1951 it was only thanks to fraught local arrangements that five of the six remaining Liberal MPs were elected in the absence of a Conservative candidate. Two of these elections were achieved by formal local pacts, whereby only one Liberal or Conservative candidate would stand in each constituency in Bolton, while the Liberal Party struggled to survive, National Liberals won 17 seats in the 1950 general election. In subsequent elections their numbers increased to 19,21 and 19 continuing their new status as the larger of the two Liberal groupings in Parliament and he lost his place in the Cabinet in Harold Macmillans reshuffle in 1962. Gwilym Lloyd George, MP for Pembrokeshire 1922-1951, had moved away from the Liberal Party by 1946 and he sat as a Liberal, but joined Winston Churchill on the opposition front bench. He served as Home Secretary from 1954 to 1957, by the early 1960s it was obvious there was very little point to the continued separate political existence of the National Liberals. A joint Conservative and National Liberal candidate gained a seat in a by-election in Brighouse, after 1962 the party lacked a senior government presence, and with the retirement or death of former leaders, only six with the National Liberal label were elected in the general election of 1964. A further four who had sat with this label preferred to be elected under a straight Conservative label, butcher retired before the 1966 general election, in which the National Liberals were reduced to just three MPs
8.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
9.
Drewsteignton
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Drewsteignton is a village, civil parish and former manor within the administrative area of West Devon, England, also lying within the Dartmoor National Park. It is located in the valley of the River Teign,13 miles west of Exeter and 9 miles south east of Okehampton, visitor attractions in the area include the village centre itself, nearby Castle Drogo, and Fingle Bridge. The population of the ward at the 2011 census was 1,616, settlement in the area dates back to the Neolithic period. Spinsters Rock at Shilston, within the parish, is a Neolithic chambered tomb dating from around 3000 BC, later, an Iron Age hill fort, now known as Prestonbury Castle, was developed on the end of a prominent ridge. The manor of Taintone is listed in the Domesday Book of 1086 as the 107th of the 176 Devon landholdings of Baldwin the Sheriff, otherwise known as Baldwin FitzGilbert and Baldwin de Meulles. He was William the Conquerors Sheriff of Devon and held lands granted to him personally by that king in Devon which comprised the barony of Okehampton. In the reign of King Henry II it was held by a certain Drew, also known in Anglo-Norman French as Drew de Teignton, Latinized to Drogo, however, by 1242 it had passed from the Drew family and was held by the Daubernon family. Later it passed to the Carew family of Antony in Cornwall, in mediaeval times, the village was relatively prosperous. It was important as a wool producing area, and there were also limestone quarries, the village was a stopping place on the old road from Exeter to Okehampton. Much of the building is of granite, as is Fingle Bridge, over the Teign. Historically the village formed part of Wonford Hundred, the parish church of Holy Trinity dates mostly from the 15th century, with some later rebuilding. Tother day Varmer Dadd killed a peg, and gied the natlins to the poor of the parish, darned if the ringers didden ring vor a whole hour, as they zed, to cillebrate the hayvent. The village square adjoining the church may date from the formation of the settlement. Census information indicates that Drewsteignton underwent prolonged depopulation through the 19th century, the centre was designated as a conservation area in 1972. Among the village buildings is the Drewe Arms, a pub retaining some historic features, previously known as The Druids Arms, the name was changed in the 1920s when Julius Drewe built Castle Drogo, his family home. The pub was managed by Mabel Mudge, originally with her husband, from 1919 until 1994 when she retired at the age of 99, the oldest pub landlady in the country. Sculptor Peter Randall-Page lives nearby, and a number of his works can be viewed in the area, including the bench, table, Castle Drogo Media related to Drewsteignton at Wikimedia Commons Photos of Drewsteignton
10.
North Tawton
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North Tawton is a small town in Devon, England, situated on the river Taw. The Roman fort is believed to have had the name Nemetostatio, meaning The road-station of the sacred groves and it covered an area of roughly 600 ft east-west by 390 ft, and was located adjoining the Roman road between Isca Dumnoniorum and Okehampton. In addition, the site of a marching camp has been identified half a mile to the north. By the time of the Domesday survey, there were six farm / manor holdings in what is now North Tawton Parish, St Peters Church is first recorded in 1257. Only the tower of the present building dates from that time, the tower is on the west and is topped by an oak-shingled spire. There are two aisles with arcades and a number of old benchends. North Tawton was already a town by the end of the 12th century. The railway came to North Tawton in 1865, North Tawton railway station lies a mile or two outside the town on the line from Exeter to Okehampton which continued on to Plymouth and Cornwall. It closed to passenger traffic in 1968, although a shuttle service between Okehampton and Exeter continued until 1972. Bathe Pool, a hollow near North Tawton, is said to fill with water at times of national crisis. The former town hall became a cinema. Broad Hall is a house dated 1680 but it incorporates the remains of a house of the 15th century, burton Hall is a mid-Victorian villa which was brought here from Norway. Cottles Barton is an Elizabethan manor house one mile south of the town, the town has become something of a centre for light industry. The population currently stands at around 2,026 and this is small for a town, but as a former market town North Tawton has retained this title, and is designated a Post Town by the Royal Mail. There are a number of bus services,315 – Barnstaple to Exeter 51/51A – Hatherleigh to Exeter 318 – Okehampton The doctor William Budd was born in the town, son of Samuel Budd and this discovery contributed to national improvements in public health through improved sanitation. The poet Ted Hughes bought a house, Court Green, in North Tawton in 1961 with his then-wife Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes moved his partner Assia Wevill into Court Green where Assia helped care for Hughes and Plaths two children, Frieda and Nicholas. In due course Hughes made North Tawton his permanent home, until his fatal myocardial infarction in a Southwark, London, hospital on 28 October 1998, in 2005, North Tawton was chosen as the location for the filming of Jennifer Saunders BBC television series Jam & Jerusalem. The town represents the fictional Clatterford St Mary, the Church and Town Hall feature prominently in the series, and some of the acting extras for the series were recruited locally
11.
County council
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A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has different meanings in different countries. County councils were formed in the late 19th century, in the various constituent countries of the United Kingdom councils had different powers and different memberships. Following local government reforms in the 1970s, county councils no longer exist in Scotland or Northern Ireland, in England they generally form the top level in a two-tier system of administration, in Wales they are unitary authorities. In England county councils were introduced in 1889, and reformed in 1974, since the mid-1990s a series of local government reorganisations has reduced the number of county councils as unitary authorities have been established in a number of areas. Until the 1990s they also ran colleges of education and the careers services. That decade also saw the privatisation of some services, such as highway maintenance, cleaning. County councils were created by the Local Government Act 1888, largely taking over the functions of the unelected county courts of quarter sessions. County councils consisted of councillors, directly elected by the electorate, there was one county alderman for every three councillors. The first elections to the councils were held at various dates in January 1889, and they served as provisional or shadow councils until 1 April, elections of all councillors and half of the aldermen took place every three years thereafter. The areas over which the councils had authority were designated as administrative counties, the writ of the county councils did not extend everywhere, large towns and some historic counties corporate were constituted county boroughs by the same act. County borough councils were independent of the council for the county in which they were geographically situated, the new system was a major modernisation, which reflected the increasing range of functions carried out by local government in late Victorian Britain. A major accretion of powers took place when education was added to county council responsibilities in 1902, County councils were responsible for more strategic services in a region, with smaller urban district councils and rural district councils responsible for other activities. The Local Government Act 1929 considerably increased the powers of county councils, in 1965 there was a reduction in the number of county councils. The London Government Act 1963 abolished those of London and Middlesex, Greater London was declared to be an area and not to lie in any county. The Local Government Act 1972 completely reorganised local authorities in England, County boroughs were abolished and the whole of England was placed in a two-tier arrangement with county councils and district councils. In the six largest conurbations metropolitan county councils, with increased powers, were created, the post of county alderman was abolished, and the entire council was thereafter directly elected every four years. In 1986 the six county councils were abolished, with their functions transferred to the metropolitan boroughs
12.
United Kingdom general election, 1924
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It was the third general election to be held in less than two years. The Conservatives, led by Stanley Baldwin, performed better, in electoral terms, than in the 1923 general election. Labour, led by Ramsay MacDonald, lost 40 seats, the election also saw the Liberal Party, led by H. H. Asquith, lose 118 of their 158 seats which helped to polarise British politics between the Labour Party and Conservative Party. The fourth party in terms of number of candidates, number of seats and number of votes were not a party, three of the seven Constitutionalists elected, including Winston Churchill, had been opposed by official Liberal candidates, and sat as Conservatives after the election. The other four sat as Liberals, however, it is difficult to prove that this had a major impact on the election result. This partly helps to explain the performance of the Liberal Party in the general election. The only Irish Nationalist candidate was elected unopposed, the Conservatives include the Ulster Unionists. All comparisons are with the 1923 election, in some cases the change is due to the MP defecting to the gaining party. Such circumstances are marked with a *, in other circumstances the change is due to the seat having been won by the gaining party in a by-election in the intervening years, and then retained in 1923. Such circumstances are marked with a †, 1previous MP had defected to Labour by the time of the 1924 election F. W. S
13.
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
14.
United Kingdom general election, 1929
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The 1929 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday,30 May 1929, and resulted in a hung parliament. It was the second of four elections under the secret ballot. In 1929 that party was Ramsay MacDonalds Labour, which won the most seats in the Commons for the first time ever, the Liberals led by David Lloyd George regained some of the ground they had lost in the 1924 election, and held the balance of power. The election was referred to as the Flapper Election in that it was the first election in which women aged 21 or over were allowed to vote. The election was fought against a background of rising unemployment with the memory of the 1926 General Strike still fresh in voters minds, by 1929 the Cabinet was being described by many as old and exhausted. The Liberals campaigned on a programme of public works under the title We Can Conquer Unemployment. The Conservatives campaigned on the theme of Safety First, for a full list of the results by constituency, Constituency election results in the United Kingdom general election,1929. All comparisons are with the 1924 election, in some cases the change is due to the MP defecting to the gaining party. Such circumstances are marked with a *, in other circumstances the change is due to the seat having been won by the gaining party in a by-election in the intervening years, and then retained in 1929. Such circumstances are marked with a †, 1previous MP had defected to the Conservatives by the 1929 election 2previous MP had defected to the Liberals by the 1929 election F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts, 1832-1987 Howell, David. MacDonald’s Party, Labour Identities and Crisis, 1922–1939 Redvaldsen, David, today is the Dawn, The Labour Party and the 1929 General Election, Parliamentary History 29#3 pp 395-415. Safety First, Baldwin, the Conservative Party and the 1929 General Election, Historical Journal 25, 385–409
15.
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
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Labour Party (UK)
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The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Labour later served in the coalition from 1940 to 1945. Labour was also in government from 1964 to 1970 under Harold Wilson and from 1974 to 1979, first under Wilson and then James Callaghan. The Labour Party was last in government from 1997 to 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, beginning with a majority of 179. Having won 232 seats in the 2015 general election, the party is the Official Opposition in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the party also organises in Northern Ireland, but does not contest elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Labour Party is a member of the Party of European Socialists and Progressive Alliance. In September 2015, Jeremy Corbyn was elected Leader of the Labour Party, the first Lib–Lab candidate to stand was George Odger in the Southwark by-election of 1870. In addition, several small socialist groups had formed around this time, among these were the Independent Labour Party, the intellectual and largely middle-class Fabian Society, the Marxist Social Democratic Federation and the Scottish Labour Party. In the 1895 general election, the Independent Labour Party put up 28 candidates, Keir Hardie, the leader of the party, believed that to obtain success in parliamentary elections, it would be necessary to join with other left-wing groups. Hardies roots as a lay preacher contributed to an ethos in the party led to the comment by 1950s General Secretary Morgan Phillips that Socialism in Britain owed more to Methodism than Marx. The motion was passed at all stages by the TUC, the meeting was attended by a broad spectrum of working-class and left-wing organisations—trades unions represented about one third of the membership of the TUC delegates. This created an association called the Labour Representation Committee, meant to coordinate attempts to support MPs sponsored by trade unions and it had no single leader, and in the absence of one, the Independent Labour Party nominee Ramsay MacDonald was elected as Secretary. He had the task of keeping the various strands of opinions in the LRC united. The October 1900 Khaki election came too soon for the new party to campaign effectively, only 15 candidatures were sponsored, but two were successful, Keir Hardie in Merthyr Tydfil and Richard Bell in Derby. Support for the LRC was boosted by the 1901 Taff Vale Case, the judgement effectively made strikes illegal since employers could recoup the cost of lost business from the unions. In their first meeting after the election the groups Members of Parliament decided to adopt the name The Labour Party formally, the Fabian Society provided much of the intellectual stimulus for the party. One of the first acts of the new Liberal Government was to reverse the Taff Vale judgement, the Peoples History Museum in Manchester holds the minutes of the first Labour Party meeting in 1906 and has them on display in the Main Galleries. Also within the museum is the Labour History Archive and Study Centre, the governing Liberals were unwilling to repeal this judicial decision with primary legislation
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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
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United Kingdom general election, 1945
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The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, because of local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, owing in part to the time it took to transport the votes of those serving overseas and this resulted in Labour winning its first majority government, and a mandate to implement its postwar reforms. The 12. 0% national swing from the Conservative Party to the Labour Party remains the largest ever achieved in a British general election. Held less than two months after VE Day, it was the first general election since 1935, as general elections had been suspended during the Second World War. Attlee, Leader of the Labour Party, refused Churchills offer of continuing the Wartime Coalition until the Allied defeat of Japan, Parliament was dissolved on 15th June. It resulted in the defeat of the government led by Winston Churchill and the landslide victory of the Labour Party led by Clement Attlee. Henry Pelling, noting that polls showed a steady Labour lead after 1942, equally, though voters respected and liked Churchills wartime record, they were more distrustful of the Conservative Partys domestic and foreign policy record in the late 1930s. This was the first election in which Labour gained a majority of seats, the election was a disaster for the Liberal Party, as it lost all its urban seats, while their leader Archibald Sinclair lost his own rural Scottish seat. Baines says the defeat marked its transition from being a party of government to a party of the political fringe, the 8 seats won by National Labour in 1935 were not defended. With World War II coming to an end in Europe, the Labour Party decided to out of the wartime national coalition government. King George VI dissolved Parliament, which had been sitting for ten years without an election, what followed was perhaps one of the greatest swings of public confidence of the twentieth century. In May 1945, the month in which the War in Europe ended, Churchills approval ratings stood at 83%, Labour won overwhelming support while Churchill. Was both surprised and stunned by the defeat suffered by the Conservatives. The greatest factor in Labours dramatic win appeared to be the policy of social reform, the Beveridge Report, published in 1942, proposed the creation of a Welfare State. It called for a turn in British social policy, with provision for nationalised healthcare, expansion of state-funded education, National Insurance. The report was extremely popular, and copies of its findings were widely purchased, the Labour Party adopted the report eagerly. The Conservatives accepted many of the principles of the report, Labour offered a new comprehensive welfare policy, reflecting a consensus that social changes were needed. The Conservatives were not willing to make the concessions that Labour proposed
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Integrated Authority File
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The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives, the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero license, the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format
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Virtual International Authority File
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The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library, the National Library of France joined the project on October 5,2007. The project transitions to a service of the OCLC on April 4,2012, the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together, a VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary see and see also records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are available online and are available for research and data exchange. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol, the file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated into Wikidata. VIAFs clustering algorithm is run every month, as more data are added from participating libraries, clusters of authority records may coalesce or split, leading to some fluctuation in the VIAF identifier of certain authority records
