1.
Order of the Companions of Honour
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The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. Founded on the date as the Order of the British Empire. The order consists of the Sovereign plus no more than 65 members, additionally, foreigners from outside the realms may be added as honorary members. Membership confers no title or precedence, but those inducted into the order are entitled to use the post-nominal letters CH. Appointments can be made on the advice of Commonwealth realm prime ministers, for Canadians, the advice to the Sovereign can come from a variety of officials. The quota numbers were altered in 1970 to 47 for the United Kingdom,7 for Australia,2 for New Zealand, the quota was adjusted again in 1975 by adding 2 places to the New Zealand quota and reducing the 9 for the other countries to 7. While able to nominate candidates to the Order, New Zealand, as of 2016 those countries have nominated only politicians who have served as Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister. Men wear the badge on a ribbon and women on a bow at the left shoulder. Sovereign Queen Elizabeth II List of Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour List of honorary British Knights List of people who have declined a British honour
2.
Fellow of the Royal Society
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As of 2016, there are around 1600 living Fellows, Foreign and Honorary Members. Fellowship of the Royal Society has been described by The Guardian newspaper as “the equivalent of a lifetime achievement Oscar” with several institutions celebrating their announcement each year. Up to 60 new Fellows, honorary and foreign members are elected annually usually in May, each candidate is considered on their merits and can be proposed from any sector of the scientific community. Fellows are elected for life on the basis of excellence in science and are entitled to use the post-nominal letters FRS, see Category, Fellows of the Royal Society and Category, Female Fellows of the Royal Society. Every year, Fellows elect up to ten new Foreign Members, like Fellows, Foreign Members are elected for life through peer review on the basis of excellence in science. As of 2016 there are around 165 Foreign Members, who are entitled to use the post-nominal ForMemRS, see Category, Foreign Members of the Royal Society. Honorary Fellows include Bill Bryson, Melvyn Bragg, Robin Saxby, David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville, Honorary Fellows are entitled to use the post nominal letters HonFRS. Others including John Maddox, Patrick Moore and Lisa Jardine were elected as honorary fellows, statute 12 is a legacy mechanism for electing members before official honorary membership existed in 1997. Fellows elected under statute 12 include David Attenborough and John Palmer, prime Ministers of the United Kingdom such as Margaret Thatcher, Neville Chamberlain, H. H. Asquith were elected under statute 12, see Category, Fellows of the Royal Society. The Council of the Royal Society can recommend members of the British Royal Family for election as Royal Fellows of the Royal Society. As of 2016 there are five royal fellows, Charles, Prince of Wales, Anne, Princess Royal, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Prince Andrew, Duke of York. Her Majesty the Queen, Elizabeth II is not a Royal Fellow, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was elected under statute 12, not as a Royal Fellow. The election of new fellows is announced annually in May, after their nomination, each candidate for Fellowship or Foreign Membership is nominated by two Fellows of the Royal Society, who sign a certificate of proposal. Previously, nominations required at least five fellows to support each nomination by the proposer, the certificate of election includes a statement of the principal grounds on which the proposal is being made. There is no limit on the number of nominations each year. In 2015, there were 654 candidates for election as Fellows and 106 candidates for Foreign Membership. The final list of up to 52 Fellowship candidates and up to 10 Foreign Membership candidates is confirmed by the Council in April, a candidate is elected if he or she secures two-thirds of votes of those Fellows present and voting. A further maximum of six can be ‘Honorary’, ‘General’ or ‘Royal’ Fellows, nominations for Fellowship are peer reviewed by sectional committees, each with fifteen members and a chair
3.
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
4.
Clement Attlee
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Attlee was the first person to hold the office of Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, serving under Winston Churchill in the wartime coalition government. He went on to lead the Labour Party to an election victory in summer 1945. One of only a handful of Labour frontbenchers to retain his seat in the defeat of 1931. In 1935 he became the Leader of the Party, at first advocating pacificism and appeasement, he later reversed his position and by 1938 became a strong critic of Neville Chamberlains attempts to appease Adolf Hitler. He took Labour into the Churchill war ministry in 1940, initially serving as Lord Privy Seal, he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in 1942. With victory in Europe in May 1945, the government was dissolved. Attlee led Labour to win a majority in the ensuing 1945 general election two months later. Within this context, his government undertook the nationalisation of public utilities and major industries, Attlee himself had little interest in economic matters but this settlement was broadly accepted by all parties for three decades. Foreign policy was the domain of Ernest Bevin, but Attlee took special interest in India. He supervised the process by which India was partitioned into India and he also arranged the independence of Burma, and Ceylon. His government ended the British Mandates of Palestine and Jordan, from 1947 he and Bevin pushed the United States to take a more vigorous role in the emerging Cold War against Soviet Communism. When the budgetary crisis forced Britain out of Greece in 1947 he called on Washington to counter the Communists with the Truman Doctrine and he avidly supported the Marshall Plan to rebuild Western Europe with American money. In 1949, he promoted the NATO military alliance against the Soviet bloc and he sent British troops to fight in the Malayan Emergency in 1948 and sent the RAF to participate in the Berlin Airlift. He commissioned an independent nuclear deterrent for the UK and he used 13,000 troops and passed special legislation to promptly end the London dock strike in 1949. After leading Labour to a victory in the 1950 general election. Attlee was narrowly defeated by the Conservatives under Churchill in the 1951 general election and he continued as Labour leader but had lost his effectiveness by then. He retired after losing the 1955 general election and was elevated to the House of Lords, in public, Attlee was modest and unassuming, he was ineffective at public relations and lacked charisma. His strengths emerged behind the scenes, especially in committees where his depth of knowledge, quiet demeanour, objectivity and he saw himself as spokesman on behalf of his entire party and successfully kept its multiple factions in harness
5.
Hugh Dalton
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Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton, Baron Dalton PC was a British Labour Party economist and politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1945 to 1947. He served in Churchills wartime coalition cabinet, as Chancellor, he pushed his cheap money policy too hard, and mishandled the sterling crisis of 1947. Daltons political position was already in jeopardy in 1947, when, he, seemingly inadvertently, Prime Minister Clement Attlee accepted his resignation, but he later returned to the cabinet in relatively minor positions. His biographer Ben Pimlott characterised Dalton as peevish, irascible, given to poor judgment, Dalton was educated at Summer Fields School and then at Eton College, where he was head of his house, but was disappointed not to be elected to Pop. He went up to Kings College, Cambridge, where he was active in student politics and his socialist views, then very rare amongst undergraduates, whilst at Cambridge he was President of the Cambridge University Fabian Society. He did not succeed in becoming President of the Cambridge Union Society and he went on to study at the London School of Economics and the Middle Temple. During the First World War, he was called up into the Army Service Corps, following demobilisation, he returned to the LSE and the University of London as a lecturer, where he was awarded a DSc for a thesis on the principles of public finance in 1920. At the 1929 general election, he succeeded his wife Ruth Dalton as Labour Member of Parliament for Bishop Auckland in 1929 and he gained ministerial and foreign policy experience as Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office in MacDonalds Second Government, 1929–31. He lost the position when he, and most Labour leaders, as with most other Labour MPs, he lost his seat in 1931, he was elected again in 1935. Dalton in 1935 published Practical Socialism for Britain, a bold, the book revived updated nuts-and-bolts Fabianism, which had been out of favour, and could be used to attack the more militant Left. His emphasis was on using the state as a planning agency. Turning his attention to the crisis in Europe, he became the Labour Partys spokesman on foreign policy in Parliament. Pacifism had been an element in Labour Party, but the Spanish Civil war changed that. Aided by union votes, Dalton moved the party from semi-pacifism to a policy of armed deterrence and he was a bitter enemy of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain who tried to buy off Germany at Munich in 1938. After Chamberlain resigned early in May, and Lord Halifax had declined the position, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister, during Churchills coalition government Dalton was Minister of Economic Warfare from 1940–42. He established the Special Operations Executive, and was later a member of the committee of the Political Warfare Executive. He became President of the Board of Trade in 1942, the future Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell, after the unexpected Labour victory in the 1945 general election, Dalton wished to become Foreign Secretary, but instead the job was given to Ernest Bevin. Dalton, a highly skilled economist, became Chancellor of the Exchequer, alongside Clement Attlee, Ernest Bevin, Herbert Morrison and Stafford Cripps, Dalton was initially seen as one of the Big Five of the Labour Government
6.
Hugh Gaitskell
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Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell, CBE, PC was a politician and Leader of the British Labour Party. With Labour in opposition from 1951, Gaitskell won bitter leadership battles with Bevan and his supporters to become the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition in 1955. He opposed British military action at Suez in 1956, but against a backdrop of a booming economy led the Labour Party to another defeat in 1959. His revisionist views on the right of Labour were sometimes called Gaitskellism and he was loved and hated for his confrontational leadership and brutal frankness. He died suddenly in 1963, when he appeared to be on the verge of leading Labour back to power and he was known as “Sam” as a child. The Gaitskells had a family connection with the Indian Army. After his fathers death his mother remarried and returned to Burma. Gaitskell was educated at the Dragon School from 1912 to 1919 and he then attended Winchester College from 1919 to 1924. He attended New College, Oxford, from 1924 to 1927, studying under G. D. H. Cole, Gaitskell became a socialist and wrote a long essay on Chartism, arguing that the working class needed middle-class leadership. Gaitskells first political involvement came about as a result of the General Strike of 1926, most students supported the government and many volunteered for civil defence duties, or helped to run essential services. After the collapse of the General Strike, Gaitskell spent another six months raising funds for the miners and he graduated with a first class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1927. In 1927-28 Gaitskell lectured in economics for the Workers Educational Association to miners in Nottinghamshire and his essay on Chartism was published as a WEA booklet in 1928. This was his first experience of interaction with the working class, Gaitskell helped to run the New Fabian Research Bureau, set up by G. D. H. Cole in March 1931. He was selected as Labour candidate for Chatham in autumn 1932, Gaitskell moved to University College London in the early 1930s at the invitation of Noel Hall. In 1934 he joined the XYZ Club, a club for Labour financial experts, Dalton and Gaitskell were often referred to as “Big Hugh and Little Hugh” over the next fifteen years. In 1934 Gaitskell was in Vienna on a Rockefeller scholarship and this event made a lasting impression, making him profoundly hostile to conservatism but also making him reject as futile the Marxian outlook of many European social democrats. This placed him in the socialist revisionist camp, in the 1935 General Election, he stood unsuccessfully for election at Chatham. Gaitskell helped to draft “Labour’s Immediate Programme” in 1937 and this had a strong emphasis on planning, although not as much as his mentor Dalton would have liked, with no plans for the nationalisation of banks or the steel industry
7.
President of the Board of Trade
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The President of the Board of Trade is head of the Board of Trade. The current holder is Liam Fox who is also the Secretary of State for International Trade, charles II established a Council of Trade on 7 November 1660 followed by a Council of Foreign Plantations on 1 December that year. The two were united on 16 September 1672 as the Board of Trade and Plantations, after the Board was re-established in 1696, there were 15 members of the Board - the 7 Great Officers of State, and 8 unofficial members, who did the majority of the work. The senior unofficial member of the board was the President of the Board, the board was abolished on 11 July 1782, but a Committee of the Privy Council was established on 5 March 1784 for the same purposes. On 23 August 1786 a new Committee was set up, more focused on commercial functions than the previous boards of trade. At first the President of the Board of Trade only occasionally sat in the Cabinet, but from the early 19th century it was usually a cabinet-level position
8.
Oliver Lyttelton, 1st Viscount Chandos
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Born in Mayfair, London, Lord Chandos was the son of the Rt. Hon. Alfred Lyttelton, younger son of George Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton and his mother was his fathers second wife Edith, daughter of Archibald Balfour. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge and he served in the Grenadier Guards in the First World War, where he met Winston Churchill, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Military Cross. From 1947 to 1955 he served as the first President of Farnborough Bowling Club, Hampshire, Chandos was managing director of British Metal Corporation, at a time when it was a major shareholder in Metallgesellschaft A. G. a German Industrial giant which financed Hitlers Nazi party. He also served as Chairman of both the London Tin Corporation and Associated Electrical Industries, Chandos entered Parliament as Conservative Member of Parliament for Aldershot in a wartime by-election in 1940 and was sworn of the Privy Council the same year. He was again President of the Board of Trade in Churchills brief 1945 caretaker government, instead he became Secretary of State for the Colonies, which he remained until 1954. The latter year he was elevated to the peerage as Viscount Chandos, Chandos then returned to Associated Electrical Industries, and steered it to become a major British company. In 1961 he was invited to deliver the MacMillan Memorial Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland and he chose the subject Jungle-or Cloister. – Some Thoughts on the Present Industrial Scene, in 1962, Chandos became the first chairman of the National Theatre, serving until 1971. He then served as president until his death and his parents had been active campaigners for its development, and the Lyttelton Theatre, part of the Nationals South Bank complex, was named after him. During Laurence Oliviers tenure as director of the National, Chandos was a figure in the controversy over a proposed production of Rolf Hochhuths Soldiers. The production had been championed by Oliviers dramaturg, Kenneth Tynan, though Olivier, a great admirer of Winston Churchill did not particularly like the play or its depiction of Churchill, he backed his dramaturg. There was a problem with the Lord Chamberlain, who might not have licensed the play due to its controversial stand on Churchill. The Nationals board vetoed the production and Lord Chandos damned the play as a grotesque, in 1970 he was made a Knight of the Garter. His Garter banner, which hung in St. Georges Chapel in Windsor during his lifetime, is now on display in the church of St John the Baptist, Lord Chandos married Lady Moira, daughter of George Osborne, 10th Duke of Leeds in January 1920. They had three sons and one daughter and he died in Marylebone, London, in January 1972, aged 78, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Antony. Lady Chandos died in May 1976, aged 84, ball, Simon The Guardsmen, Harold Macmillan, Three Friends and the World They Made. Harper Perennial, London 2005, ISBN 978-0-00-653163-0, howard, Anthony RAB, The Life of R. A. Butler
9.
Harold Wilson
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James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, PC, FRS, FSS was a British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976. Wilson narrowly won the 1964 election, going on to win an increased majority in a snap 1966 election. Wilsons first period as Prime Minister coincided with a period of low unemployment and relative economic prosperity, in 1969 Wilson sent British troops to Northern Ireland. After losing the 1970 general election to Edward Heath, he spent four years as Leader of the Opposition before the February 1974 general election resulted in a hung parliament. A period of crisis was now beginning to hit most Western countries. He took little action to pursue the Labour Party constitutions stated dedication to such nationalisation, Labour Party historians see his years in office as lost opportunities for major reforms. However, in keeping with the mood of the 1960s his government sponsored liberal changes in a number of social areas and his stated ambition of substantially improving Britains long-term economic performance remained largely unfulfilled. He lost his energy and drive in his second government 1974–76 and accomplished little as the split over Europe. Wilson was born at 4 Warneford Road, Huddersfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England and he came from a political family, his father James Herbert Wilson was a works chemist who had been active in the Liberal Party and then joined the Labour Party. His mother Ethel was a schoolteacher before her marriage, and her brother, when Wilson was eight, he visited London and a later-to-be-famous photograph was taken of him standing on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street. He was a supporter of his football club, Huddersfield Town. Wilson won a scholarship to attend Royds Hall Grammar School, his grammar school in Huddersfield in Yorkshire. In December 1930, his father, working as an industrial chemist, was made redundant and he moved to Spital on the Wirral, Cheshire in order to do so. Wilson was educated in the Sixth Form at the Wirral Grammar School for Boys, at Oxford, Wilson was moderately active in politics as a member of the Liberal Party but was strongly influenced by G. D. H. Cole. He graduated in PPE with an outstanding first class Bachelor of Arts degree, with alphas on every paper in the examinations. Biographer Roy Jenkins says, Academically his results put him among prime ministers in the category of Peel, Gladstone, Asquith, and no one else. What he was superb at was the assimilation of knowledge, combined with an ability to keep it ordered in his mind. He continued in academia, becoming one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21 and he was a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a Research Fellow at University College
10.
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
11.
John Jestyn Llewellin, 1st Baron Llewellin
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Colonel John Jestyn Llewellin, 1st Baron Llewellin GBE MC TD PC was a British army officer, Conservative Party politician and minister in Winston Churchills war government. Llewellin was the son of William Llewellin, of Upton House, Dorset, Llewellin was commissioned into the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1914 and reached the rank of Major during the First World War, winning the Military Cross in 1917. He remained in the Territorial Army after the war and was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the Dorset Heavy Brigade in 1932 and he was promoted Colonel in 1936 and retired in 1938. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1926, promoted to a Commander in 1939, Llewellin was elected Member of Parliament for Uxbridge in Middlesex in 1929. He held a number of posts in the Coalition government. Llewellin lost his seat in the election and was raised to the peerage as Baron Llewellin, after the war he served as Governor General of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland between 1953 and his death in January 1957. Lord Lewellin died in January 1957, aged 63, when the barony became extinct, Leigh Rayments Peerage Pages Leigh Rayments Historical List of MPs Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by John Jestyn Llewellin
12.
Ernest Brown (British politician)
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Alfred Ernest Brown CH MC PC was a British politician who served as leader of the Liberal Nationals from 1940 until 1945. Born in Torquay, Devon, Brown was the son of a fisherman and prominent Baptist and it was following his father that he came to preach. He soon came to the attention of the local Liberals and became a prominent public speaker at political meetings, Brown served in the First World War, in 1914 he joined the Sportsmans Battalion and in 1916 was commissioned as an officer in the Somerset Light Infantry. He was mentioned in dispatches and was awarded the Military Cross, after three unsuccessful attempts in other constituencies, he was elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Rugby in the 1923 general election but lost his seat in the 1924 general election. In 1927 he returned to Parliament in a by-election at Leith, in 1931 he followed Simon in resigning the Liberal party whip and then subsequently in setting up the Liberal Nationals. In the National Government of Ramsay MacDonald, Brown became Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health in November 1931, the following year the official Liberals resigned from the government and Brown was promoted to become Secretary for Mines. In 1935 when MacDonald was succeeded as Prime Minister by Stanley Baldwin and he held the post for the next five years under both Baldwin and his successor, Neville Chamberlain. One of his most prominent achievements was the Unemployment Insurance Act,1936 which extended social security to all workers in agriculture, forestry. In another sphere he oversaw the formation of the National Joint Advisory Committee which assisted in wage control, compulsory arbitration and he also helped workers in distributing to organise and took great pride when in 1937 the Trades Union Congress passed a unanimous resolution thanking him for this. In 1939 his department was expanded to incorporate overseeing National Service, at the same time Brown became the leader of the Liberal Nationals after Sir John Simon was transferred to the House of Lords. Brown served as Secretary of State for Scotland for a year before becoming Minister of Health for two years and finally Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Browns tenure as leader of the Liberal Nationals was one of decline, as the party saw its influence diminish. Brown was instead appointed Minister of Aircraft Production, in the 1945 general election Brown lost his seat. After the war Brown devoted his attention to the church, often visiting other parts of the Commonwealth, Brown had a reputation for being a fast speaker and many contemporary political commentators estimated that he could deliver a statement to the House of Commons faster than any other minister. The size of his voice was also noted, Baldwin once saw Brown in a phonebox at the House of Commons and is said to have remarked, I didnt think he needed a phone to communicate with his constituents. Another more famous story reflecting on Browns strong voice, is told of when Stanley Baldwin was living at 11 Downing Street he was startled by a great shouting in the building. When informed that it was Ernest Brown talking to Scotland, Baldwin said Why doesnt he use the telephone, torrance, David, The Scottish Secretaries Hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by Ernest Brown
13.
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
14.
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
15.
Anthony Eden
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Achieving rapid promotion as a young Member of Parliament, he was Foreign Secretary at the age of 38, before resigning in protest at Neville Chamberlains appeasement policy towards Mussolinis Italy. He again held that position for most of the Second World War, having been Winston Churchills deputy for almost 15 years, he succeeded him as Prime Minister in 1955, and a month later won a general election. Most historians argue that he made a series of blunders, especially not realising the depth of U. S. opposition to military action. Eden is generally ranked among the least successful British Prime Ministers of the 20th century, thorpe says the Suez Crisis was a truly tragic end to his premiership, and one that came to assume a disproportionate importance in any assessment of his career. Eden was born at Windlestone Hall, County Durham, England and he was born into a very conservative family of landed gentry. He was a son of Sir William Eden, 7th and 5th Baronet. Sir William, an eccentric and often foul-tempered man, was a talented watercolourist, Edens mother, Sybil Frances Grey, was a member of the famous Grey family of Northumberland. She had wanted to marry Francis Knollys, later an important Royal adviser, although she was a popular figure locally, she had a strained relationship with her children, and her profligacy ruined the family fortunes. Eden’s older brother Tim had to sell Windlestone in 1936, Rab Butler would later quip that Eden—a handsome but ill-tempered man—was half mad baronet, half beautiful woman. Edens great-grandfather was William Iremonger who commanded the 2nd Regiment of Foot during the Peninsular War, fighting under Wellington at Vimiero. He was also descended from Governor Sir Robert Eden, 1st Baronet, of Maryland, the Calvert Family of Maryland, the Schaffalitzky de Muckadell family of Denmark, and Bie family of Norway. Eden was once amused to learn one of his ancestors had, like Churchill’s ancestor the Duke of Marlborough. His mother was rumoured to have had an affair with Wyndham, Eden was educated at two independent schools. The first was Sandroyd School in Cobham from 1907 to 1910 and he then started at Eton College in January 1911. There he won a Divinity prize and excelled at cricket, rugby, Eden learned French and German on continental holidays and, at one stage, as a child spoke French better than English. g. When he met Hitler in February 1934, although Eden later claimed to have had no interest in politics until the early 1920s, his teenage letters and diaries show him to have been obsessed with the subject. By 1914 he was a member of the Eton Society, during the First World War, Edens older brother John was killed on 17 October 1914 whilst serving with the 17th Lancers. His uncle Robin was later shot down and captured whilst serving with the RFC and he was commissioned a temporary second lieutenant on 2 November 1915
16.
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury
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Robert Arthur James Gascoyne-Cecil, 5th Marquess of Salisbury, KG PC FRS DL, known as Viscount Cranborne from 1903 to 1947, was a British Conservative politician. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, receiving an honorary Doctorate of Civil Laws 1951 and he served in the Army during the First World War. He was commissioned as a lieutenant into the Grenadier Guards from 1915 throughout the war until its end and he was awarded the Croix de Guerre and Chevalier Order of the Crown of Belgium. When the war ended, he went to work at Westminster Bank, in 1928, he was appointed a director and to the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, he was promoted to chairman of the commission in 1957. Salisbury was elected as a Conservative to the House of Commons as MP for South Dorset in 1929 and he was made Paymaster-General by Winston Churchill in May 1940 for the duration of the Battle of Britain but was appointed Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs from 1940 to 1942. In 1941, he was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in one of his fathers titles as Baron Cecil of Essendon. As a friend of Churchill, in 1943, he was appointed President of the English-Speaking Union to promote the universality of the language throughout the British Empire. His final wartime appointment was as President of University College South-West Exeter for a ten years before it was converted to university status. In 1947, King George VI made Salisbury a Knight of the Order of the Garter and he became High Steward of Hertfordshire, where he lived, in 1947, shortly before the office was abolished. During the period of the coronation of Elizabeth II, he was appointed Acting Foreign Secretary, in November 1951, he received an honorary doctorate of law from the University of Liverpool. Salisbury was known as a hardline imperialist, in 1952, as Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, he tried to make permanent the exile of Seretse Khama, kgosi of the Bamangwato people in Bechuanaland, for marrying a white British woman. In January 1957, Eden resigned as prime minister, the two candidates were Rab Butler and Harold Macmillan. To the surprise of the media, the advice was overwhelmingly to appoint Macmillan as Prime Minister instead of Butler, salisburys cultural pursuits were recognised when he was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy that year. These artistic credentials were enhanced as a Trustee of the National Gallery from 1960 to 1966, in 1961, he became the first president of the Conservative Monday Club and held the post until his death in 1972. Apart from his career, Salisbury was Chancellor of the University of Liverpool from 1951 until 1971. In 1970, students at the university staged an occupation at Senate House to demand his removal over his support for apartheid, Lord Salisbury married Elizabeth Vere Cavendish, daughter of Lord Richard Cavendish and his wife Lady Moyra de Vere Beauclerk, on 8 December 1915. Lord Salisbury died in February 1972, at 78, and was succeeded by his eldest and only surviving son, Robert, Lady Salisbury died on 5 June 1982. He is portrayed by Clive Francis in the Netflix series The Crown, harper Perennial, London 2005, ISBN 978-0-00-653163-0
17.
Solicitor General for England and Wales
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He or she can exercise the powers of the Attorney General in the Attorney Generals absence. There is also a Solicitor General for Scotland, who is the deputy of the Lord Advocate, the Solicitor General is addressed in court as Mr Solicitor or Ms Solicitor. Despite the title, the position is held by a barrister. Robert Buckland, MP for South Swindon, was confirmed in the post on 15 July 2014, replacing Sir Oliver Heald
18.
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
19.
Thomas Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote
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Thomas Walker Hobart Inskip, 1st Viscount Caldecote CBE PC KC was a British politician who served in many legal posts, culminating in serving as Lord Chancellor from 1939 until 1940. Despite legal posts dominating his career for all but four years, Inskip was the son of James Inskip, a solicitor, by his second wife Constance Sophia Louisa, daughter of John Hampden. The Right Reverend James Inskip was his elder half-brother and Sir John Hampden, Lord Mayor of Bristol and he attended Clifton College from 1886 to 1894 and Kings College, Cambridge from 1894 to 1897. He joined Clifton RFC in 1895–96, in 1899 he was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple. Inskip became a Kings Counsel in 1914 and he served in the Intelligence Division from 1915 and from 1918 to 1919 worked at the Admiralty as head of the Naval Law branch. From 1920–22, he served as Chancellor of the Diocese of Truro, in 1918 he entered Parliament as Member of Parliament for Bristol Central. He was first appointed Solicitor General in 1922 and would hold this post for the six years. A staunch Protestant, he first came to attention when in 1927 he joined with the Home Secretary Sir William Joynson-Hicks in attacking the proposed new version of the Book of Common Prayer. The debate on the Prayer Book is regarded as one of the most eloquent ever seen in the Commons, a revised version was submitted in 1928 but rejected again. However the Church of England Convocation then declared an emergency and used this as a pretext to use the new Prayer Book for many decades afterwards, in 1928 Inskip was promoted to Attorney General, which post he held until the Conservative government fell in 1929. Inskip lost his Bristol seat in the 1929 election and he was sworn of the Privy Council in 1932. In 1935 he prosecuted the 26th Baron de Clifford for manslaughter, despite an exclusively legal track record, in 1936 Inskip became the first Minister for Coordination of Defence. His appointment to this office was highly controversial. Winston Churchill had long campaigned for such an office and when its creation was announced, when Inskip was named, one famous reaction was that This is the most cynical appointment since Caligula made his horse a consul. After leaving ministerial office he served as Lord Chief Justice of England from 1940 until 1946, as of 2015, Inskip was the last Lord Chief Justice of England to have held elected or ministerial office prior to his appointment. Lord Caldecote married Lady Augusta Helen Elizabeth, daughter of David Boyle, 7th Earl of Glasgow and widow of Charles Lindsay Orr-Ewing and he died in October 1947, aged 71, and was succeeded by his son, Robert Andrew in the viscountcy. Lady Caldecote died in May 1967, aged 90, hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Caldecote
20.
Bristol East (UK Parliament constituency)
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Bristol East is a constituency covering the eastern part of the City of Bristol represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Kerry McCarthy of the Labour Party. The seat is in its period of existence, the first period was 1885–1950. The most powerful representative of Bristol East in Parliament has been Sir Stafford Cripps, the only Conservative Party MP to have represented Bristol East was Jonathan Sayeed, who won when he defeated Tony Benn, the incumbent MP for Bristol South East. Benn was effectively the leader of his own faction on the left-wing of the Labour Party at the time. The Liberal Democrats won the largest share of the vote for parties of the centre since 1929 at the 2005 election receiving 25. 2% of the vote. 1885-1918, The Municipal Borough of Bristol ward of South, part of North ward, 1918-1950, The County Borough of Bristol wards of St George East and St George West, and part of Easton ward. 1983-1997, The City of Bristol wards of Brislington East, Brislington West, Easton, Eastville, Hengrove, Lawrence Hill, and Stockwood. 1997-2010, The City of Bristol wards of Brislington East, Brislington West, Easton, Eastville, Lawrence Hill, St George East, St George West, and Stockwood. 2010–present, The City of Bristol wards of Brislington East, Brislington West, Eastville, Frome Vale, Hillfields, St George East, St George West, and Stockwood. The constituency covers the part of the city of Bristol. General Election 1914/15, Another General Election was required to place before the end of 1915. W. S. Craig nomis Constituency Profile for Bristol East — presenting data from the ONS annual population survey, interviews with the 2005 parliamentary candidates
21.
Walter Baker (British politician)
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Walter John Baker was a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom who served as Member of Parliament for Bristol East from 1923 until his death. He was unsuccessfully contested the 1918 and 1922 general elections in the Harborough division of Leicestershire, at the 1923 general election he stood in Bristol East, where he won the seat from the National Liberal MP Harold Morris. Baker was re-elected in 1924 and 1929, and died in office in December 1930, the resulting by-election in January 1931 was won by the Labour candidate Stafford Cripps
22.
Tony Benn
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Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn, originally known as Anthony Wedgwood Benn, but later as Tony Benn, was a British politician, writer, and diarist. He was a member of parliament for 47 years between the 1950 and 2001 general elections and a Cabinet minister in the Labour governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan in the 1960s and 1970s. Originally a moderate, he was identified as being on the hard left from the early 1980s. Benn inherited a peerage on his fathers death, which prevented his continuing as an MP and he fought to remain in the House of Commons, and then campaigned for the ability to renounce the title, a campaign which succeeded with the Peerage Act 1963. He was an member of the Fabian Society and its Chair 1964–65. In the Labour Government of 1964–70 he served first as Postmaster General, where he oversaw the opening of the Post Office Tower and he unsuccessfully challenged Neil Kinnock for the Labour leadership in 1988. Benn was described as one of the few UK politicians to have become more left-wing after holding ministerial office, after leaving Parliament, Benn was President of the Stop the War Coalition from 2001 until his death in 2014. Benn was born in London on 3 April 1925 and he had two brothers, Michael, who was older, and David, a specialist in Russia and Eastern Europe. William Benn was elevated to the House of Lords with the title of Viscount Stansgate in 1942 – the new coalition government was short of working Labour peers in the upper house. In 1945–46, William Benn was the Secretary of State for Air in the first majority Labour Government, Benns mother, Margaret Wedgwood Benn, was a theologian, feminist and the founder President of the Congregational Federation. Later in his life, Benn emphasised issues regarding morality and righteousness, ive never thought we can understand the world we lived in unless we understood the history of the church, Benn said to the Catholic Herald. All political freedoms were won, first of all, through religious freedom, some of the arguments about the control of the media today, which are very big arguments, are the arguments that would have been fought in the religious wars. You have the satellites coming in now – well, it is the church all over again. According to Peter Wilby in the New Statesman, Benn decided to do without the paraphernalia and doctrine of organised religion, although Benn became more agnostic as he became older, he was intrigued by the interconnections between Christianity, radicalism and socialism. Ive looked at Labour leaders in a funny way ever since, Benn also met David Lloyd George when he was 12 and later recalled that, while still a boy, he once shook hands with Mahatma Gandhi. This was in 1931, while his father was Secretary of State for India, would I have been a freedom fighter or a terrorist. In July 1943 Benn enlisted in the Royal Air Force as an aircraftman 2nd Class and his father and elder brother Michael were already serving in the RAF. He was granted a commission as a pilot officer on 10 March 1945
23.
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
24.
Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
25.
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
26.
Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor
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Cripps was the third son of Henry William Cripps, a wealthy barrister and Queens Counsel from Berkshire. He attended Winchester College and New College, Oxford, both on scholarships, and won four first classes at Oxford, at the end of his undergraduate years he was awarded a Fellowship at St Johns College, Oxford, which he held for six years. He was called to the Bar in 1877 and went into practice as a barrister and he became a Queens Counsel in 1890 and a Bencher of the Middle Temple in 1893. Cripps later claimed to have been a supporter of the Liberal Party, however he sided with the Unionists over the issue of home rule for Ireland and was elected as a Unionist to Parliament for Stroud in 1895, where he was a member of the South Africa Commission. He lost his seat in 1900, but soon returned in a by-election as MP for Stretford, as a devout Anglican of the high church tradition, Cripps was very active in church affairs and was appointed Vicar-General of York in 1900 and of Canterbury in 1902. He again lost his seat in the Liberal landslide victory of 1906 and he received a peerage from the Liberal government in 1914 and took the title Baron Parmoor, of Frieth in the County of Buckingham, from the family estate. During World War I he headed a committee determining compensation for damage caused by German air raids, Parmoor considered that his elevation to the peerage in a semi-judicial role had removed any previous political affiliations. The war had an effect on Parmoors political views, as he considered the decision to go to war a disaster. He opposed conscription and sympathised with conscientious objectors, who he thought were subject to excessive punishment. In the aftermath of war, he became active in international causes. The organisation was non-partisan but several trade unions and senior members of the Labour Party took part, when the National Church Assembly was established in 1920 to govern the Church of England, Parmoor was elected to the House of Laity and became its first chairman. Parmoor approved of the statement on peace in the Labour Partys 1923 election manifesto, after the election, with a Labour government in prospect, he received a letter from Ramsay Macdonald inviting him to join it. Parmoor wrote that he should rejoice in the formation of a Labour Government under your leadership, although the government lost practically every vote, Parmoor was able to persuade the opposition that they would lose support by wrecking the whole legislative programme. Macdonald, who was serving as his own Foreign Secretary, also chose Parmoor as British representative to the Council of the League of Nations, and to its Assembly in September 1924. After the end of the Labour government, Parmoor remained active in the House of Lords, in 1881 Charles Cripps married Theresa Potter, daughter of the Radical MP Richard Potter and sister of Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield, and Catherine Courtney, Baroness Courtney of Penwith. Of the four sons of the marriage, the two, Alfred and Frederick, succeeded in turn to the peerage, and the youngest, Stafford. In 1919 Lord Parmoor married Marian Ellis, there were no children of the marriage, Lord Parmoor died in June 1941, aged 88. His second wife died in July 1952, hansard 1803–2005, contributions in Parliament by Charles Cripps
27.
Alma mater
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Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college. In modern usage, it is a school or university which an individual has attended, the phrase is variously translated as nourishing mother, nursing mother, or fostering mother, suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students. Before its modern usage, Alma mater was a title in Latin for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. The source of its current use is the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum, of the oldest university in continuous operation in the Western world and it is related to the term alumnus, denoting a university graduate, which literally means a nursling or one who is nourished. The phrase can also denote a song or hymn associated with a school, although alma was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. Alma Redemptoris Mater is a well-known 11th century antiphon devoted to Mary, the earliest documented English use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when University of Cambridge printer John Legate began using an emblem for the universitys press. In English etymological reference works, the first university-related usage is often cited in 1710, many historic European universities have adopted Alma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The University of Bologna Latin name, Alma Mater Studiorum, refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. At least one, the Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the Alma Mater of the Nation because of its ties to the founding of the United States. At Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant. Modern sculptures are found in prominent locations on several American university campuses, outside the United States, there is an Alma Mater sculpture on the steps of the monumental entrance to the Universidad de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. Media related to Alma mater at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of alma mater at Wiktionary Alma Mater Europaea website
28.
University College London
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University College London is a public research university in London, England, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It is the largest postgraduate institution in the UK by enrollment and is regarded as one of the worlds leading research universities. UCL also makes the claims of being the third-oldest university in England. In 1836 UCL became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London, which was granted a charter in the same year. UCL has its campus in the Bloomsbury area of central London, with a number of institutes and teaching hospitals elsewhere in central London. UCL is organised into 11 constituent faculties, within there are over 100 departments, institutes. In 2015/16, UCL had around 38,300 students and 12,000 staff and had an income of £1.36 billion. UCL ranks highly in national and international league tables and its graduates rank among the most employable in the world, UCL academics discovered five of the naturally occurring noble gases, co-discovered hormones, invented the vacuum tube, and made several foundational advances in modern statistics. There are at least 29 Nobel Prize winners and 3 Fields medalists amongst UCLs alumni and current, UCL was founded on 11 February 1826 under the name London University, as an alternative to the Anglican universities of Oxford and Cambridge. London Universitys first Warden was Leonard Horner, who was the first scientist to head a British university and this suggests that while his ideas may have been influential, he himself was less so. In 1827, the Chair of Political Economy at London University was created, with John Ramsay McCulloch as the first incumbent, in 1828 the university became the first in England to offer English as a subject and the teaching of Classics and medicine began. In 1830, London University founded the London University School, which would later become University College School, in 1833, the university appointed Alexander Maconochie, Secretary to the Royal Geographical Society, as the first professor of geography in the UK. In 1834, University College Hospital opened as a hospital for the universitys medical school. In 1836, London University was incorporated by charter under the name University College. The Slade School of Fine Art was founded as part of University College in 1871, in 1878, the University of London gained a supplemental charter making it the first British university to be allowed to award degrees to women. The same year, UCL admitted women to the faculties of Arts and Law and of Science, although women remained barred from the faculties of Engineering and of Medicine. Armstrong College, an institution of Newcastle University, also allowed women to enter from its foundation in 1871. Women were finally admitted to medical studies during the First World War in 1917, in 1898, Sir William Ramsay discovered the elements krypton, neon and xenon whilst professor of chemistry at UCL
29.
British people
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British people, or Britons, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown dependencies, and their descendants. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, although early assertions of being British date from the Late Middle Ages, the creation of the united Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 triggered a sense of British national identity. The notion of Britishness was forged during the Napoleonic Wars between Britain and the First French Empire, and developed further during the Victorian era, because of longstanding ethno-sectarian divisions, British identity in Northern Ireland is controversial, but it is held with strong conviction by unionists. Modern Britons are descended mainly from the ethnic groups that settled in the British Isles in and before the 11th century, Prehistoric, Celtic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norse. The British are a diverse, multi-national and multicultural society, with regional accents, expressions. Although none of his own writings remain, writers during the time of the Roman Empire made much reference to them, the group included Ireland, which was referred to as Ierne inhabited by the different race of Hiberni, and Britain as insula Albionum, island of the Albions. The term Pritani may have reached Pytheas from the Gauls, who used it as their term for the inhabitants of the islands. Greek and Roman writers, in the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, name the inhabitants of Great Britain and Ireland as the Priteni, the origin of the Latin word Britanni. It has been suggested that name derives from a Gaulish description translated as people of the forms. By 50 BC Greek geographers were using equivalents of Prettanikē as a name for the British Isles. However, the term Britannia persisted as the Latin name for the island, during the Middle Ages, and particularly in the Tudor period, the term British was used to refer to the Welsh people and Cornish people. At that time, it was the held belief that these were the remaining descendants of the ancient Britons. This notion was supported by such as the Historia Regum Britanniae. Wales and Cornwall, and north, i. e. Cumbria, Strathclyde and this legendary Celtic history of Great Britain is known as the Matter of Britain. The indigenous people of the British Isles have a combination of Celtic, Norse, Anglo-Saxon, oppenheimer continues that the majority of the people of the British Isles share genetic commonalities with the Basques, ranging from highs of 90% in Wales to lows of 66% in East Anglia. Oppenheimers opinion is that. by far the majority of male gene types in the British Isles derive from Iberia, ranging from a low of 59% in Fakenham, Norfolk to highs of 96% in Llangefni, north Wales. The English had been unified under a single state in 937 by King Athelstan of Wessex after the Battle of Brunanburh. However, historian Simon Schama suggested that it was Edward I of England who was responsible for provoking the peoples of Britain into an awareness of their nationhood in the 13th century
30.
Barrister
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A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation and their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching the philosophy, hypothesis and history of law, and giving expert legal opinions. Often, barristers are also recognised as legal scholars, Barristers are distinguished from solicitors, who have more direct access to clients, and may do transactional-type legal work. It is mainly barristers who are appointed as judges, and they are hired by clients directly. In England and Wales, barristers may seek authorisation from the Bar Standards Board to conduct litigation and this allows a barrister to practise in a dual capacity, fulfilling the role of both barrister and solicitor. A barrister, who can be considered as a jurist, is a lawyer who represents a litigant as advocate before a court of appropriate jurisdiction, a barrister speaks in court and presents the case before a judge or jury. In some jurisdictions, a barrister receives additional training in law, ethics. In contrast, a solicitor generally meets with clients, does preparatory and administrative work, in this role, he or she may draft and review legal documents, interact with the client as necessary, prepare evidence, and generally manage the day-to-day administration of a lawsuit. Barristers usually have particular knowledge of law, precedent. When a solicitor in general practice is confronted with a point of law. In most countries, barristers operate as sole practitioners, and are prohibited from forming partnerships or from working as a barrister as part of a corporation, however, barristers normally band together into chambers to share clerks and operating expenses. Some chambers grow to be large and sophisticated, and have a corporate feel. In some jurisdictions, they may be employed by firms of solicitors, banks, in contrast, solicitors and attorneys work directly with the clients and are responsible for engaging a barrister with the appropriate expertise for the case. Barristers generally have little or no contact with their lay clients. All correspondence, inquiries, invoices, and so on, will be addressed to the solicitor, in court, barristers are often visibly distinguished from solicitors by their apparel. For example, in Ireland, England, and Wales, a barrister usually wears a wig, stiff collar, bands. Since January 2008, solicitor advocates have also been entitled to wear wigs, in many countries the traditional divisions between barristers and solicitors are breaking down. Barristers once enjoyed a monopoly on appearances before the courts, but in Great Britain this has now been abolished
31.
United Kingdom general election, 1931
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The bulk of the National Governments support came from the Conservative Party, and the Conservatives won 470 seats. The Labour party suffered its greatest defeat, losing four out of five compared with the previous election. The Liberal Party, split into three factions, continued to shrink and the Liberal National faction never reunited, Ivor Bulmer-Thomas said the results were the most astonishing in the history of the British party system. It was the last election where one party received a majority of the votes cast. After battling with the Great Depression for two years, Ramsay MacDonalds Labour government had faced with a sudden budget crisis in August 1931. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden refused to consider deficit spending or tariffs as alternative solutions, when the government resigned, MacDonald was encouraged by King George V to form an all-party National Government to deal with the immediate crisis. However the Liberals were sceptical about an election and had to be persuaded, former Liberal leader David Lloyd George firmly opposed the decision to call an election and urged his colleagues to withdraw from the National Government. A main issue was the Conservatives wish to introduce protectionist trade policies, in order to preserve the Liberals within the National Government, the government itself did not endorse a policy but appealed for a Doctors Mandate to do whatever was necessary to rescue the economy. Individual Conservative candidates did support protective tariffs, Labour campaigned on opposition to public spending cuts, but found it difficult to defend the record of the partys former government and the fact that most of the cuts had been agreed before it fell. Historian Andrew Thorpe argues that Labour lost credibility by 1931 as unemployment soared, especially in coal, textiles, shipbuilding, the working class increasingly lost confidence in the ability of Labour to solve the most pressing problem. The 2.5 million Irish Catholics in England and Scotland were a factor in the Labour base in many industrial areas. The Catholic Church had previously tolerated the Labour Party, and denied that it represented true socialism, however, the bishops by 1930 had grown increasingly alarmed at Labours policies toward Communist Russia, toward birth control and especially toward funding Catholic schools. The Catholic shift against Labour and in favour of the National government played a role in Labours losses. In the event, the Labour vote fell sharply, and the National Government won a landslide majority, although the overwhelming majority of the Government MPs were Conservatives under the leadership of Stanley Baldwin, Ramsay MacDonald remained Prime Minister in the new National government. The Liberals lacked the funds to contest the full range of seats, note, Seat changes are compared with the dissolution and are based on The Times House of Commons 1931 p. 134–6 with revisions from F. W. S. Craig. This differs from the above list in including seats where the incumbent was standing down, the aim is to provide a comparison with the previous election. In addition, it provides information about which party gained the seat, all comparisons are with the 1929 election. In some cases the change is due to the MP defecting to the gaining party, such circumstances are marked with a *
32.
Popular Front (UK)
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The Popular Front despite not having the formal endorsement of either the Labour Party or the Liberal Party, fielded candidates at parliamentary by-elections with success. There was no election to test the support of the PF. The Popular Front was launched by the Liberal MP Richard Acland, Richard Acland was a relatively new Liberal MP who had gained Barnstaple from the Conservatives at the 1935 election. He quickly became a figure on the left of the Liberal Party. He advocated closer ties with the Labour Party and electoral co-operation with them at constituency level and he also became an outspoken supporter of a Popular Front, becoming one of its founders. He was elected as Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Aston in 1929 and he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Oswald Mosley. He resigned from the Parliamentary Labour Party in 1931 for Mosleys New Party, following the New Partys drift towards fascism he resigned to become a supporter of the Communist Party, contesting the Aston constituency as an independent. He assisted the publisher Victor Gollancz in founding the Left Book Club in 1936, as the author of The Coming Struggle for Power, and a series of other significant works, Strachey was one of the most prolific and widely read British Marxist-Leninist theorists of the 1930s. Cole was an Oxford academic, writer and political theorist who favoured Libertarian socialism and he was a notable figure in the Labour Party. In 1936 Cole began calling for a Popular Front movement in Britain, Boothby had been Tory MP for Aberdeen and Kincardine East since 1924. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill from 1926 to 1929, the PF campaign was preceded by the United Front campaign. The campaign for a United Front, sought to get co-operation between the Labour Party, the Independent Labour Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain, a major part of that unity campaign was to have electoral co-operation against the National Government at a future general election. Within the Labour Party, one of the figures in support of the United Front was Sir Stafford Cripps. By 1937 the Labour Party showed little indication for resolving this issue and he was Labour MP for Bristol East and Solicitor General in the last Labour government of 1931. He had not given up on trying to unite the left, in putting the case for a Popular Front, he argued that the Labour Party acting alone would not be able to defeat the National Government. The Communist Party of Great Britain took its lead from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the view of the CPSU in the mid-to-late 1930s was that Communist parties across Europe should form Popular fronts to work with all other anti-Fascist parties to oppose Fascism. The CPGB was happy to fall in line with this position, the ILP, who had chosen not to affiliated to the Labour Party during the 1930s, had been supporters of the United Front with Socialists and Communists. However, they did not support the Popula Front as it was to include the Liberal Party, at the 1937 ILP Conference they voted to oppose a Popular Front but to continue to support a United Front
33.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
34.
War cabinet
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A war cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war. It is usually a subset of the executive cabinet of ministers. It is also common for a war cabinet to have senior military officers. During the First World War, lengthy cabinet discussions came to be seen as a source of vacillation in Britains war effort. In December 1916 it was proposed that the Prime Minister H. H. Asquith should delegate decision-making to a small, Asquith initially agreed before changing his mind after being infuriated by an article in The Times which portrayed the proposed change as a defeat for him. The political crisis grew from this point until Asquith was forced to resign as Prime Minister, among others, the Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, was never a member of the war cabinet, nor were the service ministers Lord Derby and Sir Edward Carson. From the spring of 1917, the Imperial War Cabinet was formed and it had representation from the Dominions. On 3 September 1939, Neville Chamberlain announced his War Cabinet, unlike Lloyd Georges War Cabinet, the members of this one were also heads of Government Departments. In January 1940, after disagreements with the Chiefs of Staff, Hore-Belisha resigned from the National Government and he was succeeded by Oliver Stanley. It was originally the practice for the Chiefs of Staff to attend all discussions of the Chamberlain War Cabinet. Churchill became uneasy with this, as he felt that when they attended they did not confine their comments to purely military issues, to overcome this, a Military Coordination Committee was set up, consisting of the three Service ministers normally chaired by Lord Chatfield. This together with the Service chiefs would co-ordinate the strategic ideas of top hats and brass, unfortunately, except when chaired by the Prime Minister, the Military Co-ordinating Committee lacked sufficient authority to override a Minister fighting his corner. When Churchill took over from Chatfield, whilst continuing to represent the Admiralty, this introduced additional problems, Chamberlain announced a further change in arrangements in the Norway debate, but this was overtaken by events, the Churchill War Cabinet being run on rather different principles. Even so, there were a number of ministers who, though they were not members of the war cabinet, were Constant Attenders, as the War Cabinet considered issues that pertained to a given branch of the service or government due input was obtained from the respective body. The War Cabinet would undergo a number of changes in composition over the five years. The Full Cabinet approved the formation of the War Cabinet on 26 September 1939 and it held its last meeting in Canberra on 19 January 1946. In response to the 11 September 2001 attacks, United States President George W. Bush created a War Cabinet and they met at Camp David on the weekend of 15 September to shape what became the War on Terrorism. The membership was mostly, but not entirely, identical to that of the United States National Security Council, the Cabinet comprised President – George W. Kennedys EXCOMM had some characteristics of a War Cabinet
35.
Churchill war ministry
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The Churchill war ministry was a Conservative-led coalition government in the United Kingdom, which lasted for most of World War II. It was led by Winston Churchill, as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, formed in 1940, within a year of the wars outbreak, it lasted until 23 May 1945, shortly after the defeat of Nazi Germany, when Churchill resigned and an election was called. Red indicates a member of the Labour Party, whilst blue indicates a member of the Conservative Party, members of the War Cabinet are in bold face. August 1940, Lord Beaverbrook, Minister of Aircraft Production, joins the War Cabinet October 1940, Sir Kingsley Wood, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Ernest Bevin, the Minister of Labour, enter the War Cabinet. Lord Halifax assumes the job of Leader of the House of Lords. December 1940, Anthony Eden succeeds Lord Halifax as Foreign Secretary, Halifax remains nominally in the Cabinet as Ambassador to the United States. His successor as Leader of the House of Lords is not in the War Cabinet, may 1941, Lord Beaverbrook ceased to be Minister of Aircraft Production, but remains in the Cabinet as Minister of State. His successor was not in the War Cabinet, june 1941, Lord Beaverbrook becomes Minister of Supply, remaining in the War Cabinet. 1941, Oliver Lyttelton enters the Cabinet as Minister Resident in the Middle East,4 February 1942, Lord Beaverbrook becomes Minister of War Production, his successor as Minister of Supply is not in the War Cabinet. 19 February 1942, Beaverbrook resigns and no replacement Minister of War Production is appointed for the moment, clement Attlee becomes Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister. Sir Stafford Cripps succeeds Attlee as Lord Privy Seal and takes over the position of Leader of the House of Commons from Churchill, Sir Kingsley Wood leaves the War Cabinet, though remaining Chancellor of the Exchequer. 22 February 1942, Arthur Greenwood resigns from the War Cabinet, march 1942, Oliver Lyttelton fills the vacant position of Minister of Production. Richard Gardiner Casey succeeds Oliver Lyttelton as Minister Resident in the Middle East, October 1942, Sir Stafford Cripps retires as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons and leaves the War Cabinet. His successor as Lord Privy Seal is not in the Cabinet, the Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison, enters the Cabinet. September 1943, Sir John Anderson succeeds Sir Kingsley Wood as Chancellor of the Exchequer, clement Attlee succeeds Anderson as Lord President, remaining also Deputy Prime Minister. Attlees successor as Dominions Secretary is not in the Cabinet, November 1943, Lord Woolton enters the Cabinet as Minister of Reconstruction. January to November 1944, Lord Moyne replaces Richard Gardiner Casey as Minister Resident in the Middle East, D. Butler and G. Butler, Twentieth Century British Political Facts 1900–2000. Photo of the Churchill Coalition Government 1940–45 from the website of the Imperial War Museum, roger Hermiston, All Behind You, Winston – Churchills Great Coalition 1940–45, Aurum Press 2016
36.
Cripps' mission
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The Cripps mission was an attempt in late March 1942 by the British government to secure full Indian cooperation and support for their efforts in World War II. The mission was headed by Sir Stafford Cripps, a senior left-wing politician, Cripps was sent to negotiate an agreement with the nationalist leaders, speaking for the majority Indians, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, speaking for the minority Muslim population. Cripps worked to keep India loyal to the British war effort in exchange for a promise of full self-government after the war, Cripps promised to give dominion status after the war as well as elections to be held after the war. Cripps discussed the proposals with the Indian leaders and published them, both the major parties, the Congress and the League rejected his proposals and the mission proved a failure. Cripps had designed the proposals himself, but they were too radical for both Churchill and the Indians, no way was found. Congress moved towards the Quit India movement whereby it refused to cooperate in the war effort, Jinnah was pleased to see that the right to opt out of a future Union was included. In 1939 the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow, declared India a belligerent state on the side of Britain without consulting Indian political leaders or the provincial representatives. The Muslims, however, as well as minorities, gave their support to Britain. The British feared the destabilizing of India might encourage a Japanese invasion, japan in 1942 had overrun Malaya and was into Burma, the threat of an invasion of India was real. London wanted the cooperation and support of Indian political leaders in order to recruit more Indians into the British Indian Army, in the event they did recruit over 2½ million men, the largest volunteer army in history. The Congress was divided upon its response to Indias entry into World War II, angry over the decision made by the Viceroy, some Congress leaders favoured launching a revolt against the British despite the gravity of the war in Europe, which threatened Britains own freedom. Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League, supported the war effort, insisting on a Pakistan, a separate Muslim state, he resisted Congresss calls for pan-Indian cooperation and immediate independence. Upon his arrival in India, Cripps held talks with Indian leaders, there is some confusion over what Cripps had been authorised to offer Indias nationalist politicians by Churchill and Leo Amery, and he also faced hostility from the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow. He began by offering India full dominion status at the end of the war, with the chance to secede from the Commonwealth, privately, Cripps also promised to get rid of Linlithgow and grant India Dominion Status with immediate effect, reserving only the Defence Ministry for the British. Cripps spent much of his time in encouraging Congress leaders and Jinnah to come to a common, public arrangement in support of the war, there was little trust between the British and Congress by this stage, and both sides felt that the other was concealing its true plans. The Congress stopped talks with Cripps and, guided by Gandhi, Gandhi said that Cripps offer of Dominion Status after the war was a post-dated cheque drawn on a crashing bank. When the British remained unresponsive, Gandhi and the Indian National Congress began planning a public revolt, the Quit India movement. As the Imperial Japanese Army advanced closer to India with the conquest of Burma, the invasion force contained elements of the Indian National Army, founded and led by Subhas Chandra Bose to end British control of India
37.
Attlee ministry
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Clement Attlee formed the Attlee ministry in the United Kingdom in 1945, succeeding Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It won a victory in 1945, enacting much of the Post-war consensus policies, especially the welfare state. It worked to reduce the severity of economic austerity, gave independence to India and it was narrowly re-elected in 1950, and narrowly defeated by the Conservatives in 1951. The Labour Party came to power in the United Kingdom after its victory in the July 1945 general elections. Party leader Clement Attlee became Prime Minister replacing Winston Churchill in late July, Ernest Bevin was Foreign Secretary until shortly before his death in April 1951. Hugh Dalton became Chancellor of the Exchequer, but had to resign in 1947, the most notable of the few female members of the government was Ellen Wilkinson, who was Minister for Education until her early death in 1947. It was an age of austerity, as wartime rationing was continued despite the Allied Forces victory, living conditions were poor, instead of expansion, it was a matter of replacing the national wealth destroyed or used up during the war. The Great Depression did not return, and full employment was created, returning veterans were successfully reabsorbed into the postwar society. The Attlee government nationalised about 20% of the economy, including coal, railways, road transport, the Bank of England, civil aviation, cable and wireless, electricity and gas, and steel. However, there was no money for investment to modernise these industries, the National Insurance Act of 1946 provided sickness and unemployment benefits for adults, plus retirement pensions. The National Assistance Act of 1948 provided a safety net for anyone not otherwise covered, since there was little money for detailed planning, the government adopted Keynesianism, which allowed for planning in the sense of overall control of the national deficit and surplus. In foreign affairs, the government was active in the United Nations and negotiated a $5,000,000,000 loan from the United States and it eagerly joined the Marshall Plan in 1948. It could no longer afford to support the Greek government and encouraged the U. S. to take its place through the Truman Doctrine in 1947 and it took an active role in joining the United States in the Cold War and forming NATO. It gave independence to India, Pakistan, Ceylon and Burma, 1945-51 The Labour Party comes to power with a program for nationalising weak sectors of the economy. 1946 Coal industry under the National Coal Board,1946 Bank of England 1946 National Health Service created taking over hospitals and making medical services free. 1947 British Electricity Authority and area electricity boards,1948 National rail, inland water transport, some road haulage, some road passenger transport and Thomas Cook & Son under the British Transport Commission. Separate elements operated as British Railways, British Road Services,1949 Local authority gas supply undertakings in England, Scotland and Wales 1951 Iron and Steel Industry. This was a publicly funded system, which offered treatment free of charge for all
38.
Marshall Plan
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The plan was in operation for four years beginning April 8,1948. The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-devastated regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, make Europe prosperous once more, the Marshall Plan aid was divided amongst the participant states roughly on a per capita basis. A larger amount was given to the industrial powers, as the prevailing opinion was that their resuscitation was essential for general European revival. Somewhat more aid per capita was also directed towards the Allied nations, the largest recipient of Marshall Plan money was the United Kingdom, followed by France and West Germany. Some 18 European countries received Plan benefits, although offered participation, the Soviet Union refused Plan benefits, and also blocked benefits to Eastern Bloc countries, such as East Germany and Poland. The United States provided similar aid programs in Asia, but they were not called Marshall Plan, the initiative is named after Secretary of State George Marshall, who also served as the United States Army Chief of staff during WWII. The plan had bipartisan support in Washington, where the Republicans controlled Congress, Marshall spoke of an urgent need to help the European recovery in his address at Harvard University in June 1947. The purpose of the Marshall Plan was to aid in the recovery of nations after WWII as well as to antagonize the Soviet Union. In order to combat the effects of the Marshall Plan, the USSR developed its own economic plan and it was not as effective as the Marshall Plan, and in some ways contradictory to eastern block countries that served alongside the axis powers in WWII. The phrase equivalent of the Marshall Plan is often used to describe a proposed large-scale economic rescue program, the reconstruction plan, developed at a meeting of the participating European states, was drafted on June 5,1947. It offered the aid to the Soviet Union and its allies. In fact, the Soviet Union prevented its satellite states from accepting, Secretary Marshall became convinced Stalin had no interest in helping restore economic health in Western Europe. President Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan on April 3,1948, the Marshall Plan was replaced by the Mutual Security Plan at the end of 1951, that new plan gave away about $7 billion annually until 1961 when it was replaced by another program. The ERP addressed each of the obstacles to postwar recovery, the plan looked to the future, and did not focus on the destruction caused by the war. By 1952, as the funding ended, the economy of every participant state had surpassed pre-war levels, for all Marshall Plan recipients, by the end of World War II, much of Europe was devastated. Sustained aerial bombardment during the war had badly damaged most major cities, the regions trade flows had been thoroughly disrupted, millions were in refugee camps living on aid from United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and other agencies. Food shortages were severe, especially in the winter of 1946–47. From July 1945 through June 1946, the United States shipped 16.5 million tons of food, primarily wheat, to Europe and Japan
39.
Beatrice Webb
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Martha Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield, FBA, was an English sociologist, economist, socialist, labour historian and social reformer. It was Webb who coined the collective bargaining. She was among the founders of the London School of Economics and her paternal grandfather was Liberal Party MP Richard Potter, co-founder of the Little Circle which was key in creating the Reform Act 1832. From an early age Beatrice was self-taught and cited as important influences the cooperative movement, after her mothers death in 1882 she acted as a hostess and companion for her father. In 1882, she began a relationship with twice-widowed Radical politician Joseph Chamberlain and he would not accept her need for independence as a woman and after four years of storm and stress their relationship failed. Marriage in 1892 to Sidney Webb established a partnership of shared causes. At the beginning of 1901 Beatrice wrote that she and Sidney were still on our honeymoon and every year makes our relationship more tender, Beatrice Webb left unfinished a planned autobiography, under the general title My Creed and My Craft. At her death, aged 85, the only work she had published was My Apprenticeship. The posthumously issued Our Partnership covered the first two decades of her marriage to Sidney Webb between 1892 and 1911 and their collaboration on a variety of public issues, one of Beatrices older sisters, Catherine, became a well-known social worker. After Catherine married Leonard Courtney, Beatrice took over her work as a voluntary rent-collector in the dwellings at Katharine Buildings, Wapping. These experiences stimulated a critical attitude to current ideas of philanthropy, in 1890 Beatrice Potter was introduced to Sidney Webb, whose help she sought with her research. They married in 1892, and until her death 51 years later shared political and professional activities. When her father died in January 1892, leaving Potter an endowment of £1,000 pounds a year, she had an income for life with which to support herself. The Webbs became active members of the Fabian Society, with the Fabians support, Beatrice Webb co-authored books and pamphlets on socialism and the co-operative movement including The History of Trade Unionism and Industrial Democracy. In 1895, the Fabians used part of a legacy of £10,000 from Henry Hutchinson. Beatrice Webb made a number of important contributions to the political, in her 1891 book The Cooperative Movement in Great Britain, based on her experiences in Lancashire, she distinguished between co-operative federalism and co-operative individualism. She identified herself as a co-operative federalist, a school of thought which advocates consumer co-operative societies and she argued that consumers co-operatives should be set up co-operative wholesale societies and that these federal co-operatives should then acquire farms or factories. Examples of successful worker cooperatives did of course exist, then as now, in some professions they were the norm
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