1.
Fraser Nelson
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Fraser Nelson is a British political journalist and editor of The Spectator magazine. Educated at Nairn Academy and Dollar Academy, Nelson went on to history and politics at the University of Glasgow and gained a diploma in journalism at City University. He is Catholic, and he worked as a barman at Cleos in Rosyth. Nelson began his career as a business reporter with The Times in 1997. At a party he met Andrew Neil, then editor of The Scotsman who recruited him as its editor in 2001. In 2003 he moved to The Business, a title of The Scotsman in the Barclay brothers Press Holdings group. In July 2004 the brothers bought The Telegraph Group, which included The Spectator, Neil had been appointed Chief Executive of The Spectator after the Barclays bought it, and in 2006 he brought in Nelson as associate editor and then political editor of the magazine. He replaced Matthew dAncona as editor of The Spectator when the latter was sacked in August 2009. In addition to his role as editor of The Spectator, Nelson was a political columnist for the News of the World from 2006 and he was named Political Columnist of the Year in the 2009 Comment Awards. In 2013, the Evening Standard named Nelson as one of the most influential journalists working in London, the British Society of Magazine Editors awarded Nelson the 2013 Editors’ Editor of the Year. In the same year he won the British Press Award as Political journalist of the Year, Nelson is an economic libertarian and a supporter of the Conservative Party. Nelson has stated that he is a supporter of immigration and he describes The Spectator magazine under his editorship as right of centre, but not strongly right of centre. He has on occasion criticised David Camerons leadership but is generally supportive, the irony is that Britain does not need legislation to make it more liberal. It can already claim to be one of the most tolerant places on earth, the 2011 census showed how we have absorbed the unprecedented rates of immigration over the past decade without anything like the far-Right backlash seen on the Continent. If the Unitarian Church and certain strands of Judaism want to marry gay couples on their premises, for the record, I quite agree. Religious freedom in Britain ought to be universal, extended to the handful of churches or synagogues who want same-sex marriage, David Cameron is the Prime Minister of a country where 48 per cent of children will see their parents split up. Strip out immigrants and only a minority of British babies are born to married parents, by the age of 16, a British child is considerably more likely to have a television in the bedroom than a father in the house. Interview in the Sunday Herald, June 2009 Interview in the Independent on Sunday, March 2010 Articles at The Spectator Articles at The Scotsman Articles at The Business journalisted. com, Fraser Nelson
2.
Conservatism
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Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes retaining traditional social institutions in the context of culture and civilization. The term, historically associated with right-wing politics, has since used to describe a wide range of views. There is no set of policies that are universally regarded as conservative, because the meaning of conservatism depends on what is considered traditional in a given place. Thus conservatives from different parts of the world—each upholding their respective traditions—may disagree on a range of issues. In contrast to the definition of conservatism, political theorists such as Corey Robin define conservatism primarily in terms of a general defense of social. In Great Britain, conservative ideas emerged in the Tory movement during the Restoration period, Toryism supported a hierarchical society with a monarch who ruled by divine right. Tories opposed the idea that sovereignty derived from the people, and rejected the authority of parliament, Robert Filmers Patriarcha, or the Natural Power of Kings, published posthumously in 1680 but written before the English Civil War of 1642–1651, became accepted as the statement of their doctrine. However, the Glorious Revolution of 1688 destroyed this principle to some degree by establishing a government in England. Faced with defeat, the Tories reformed their movement, now holding that sovereignty was vested in the three estates of Crown, Lords, and Commons rather than solely in the Crown, Toryism became marginalized during the long period of Whig ascendancy in the 18th century. Conservatives typically see Richard Hooker as the father of conservatism, along with the Marquess of Halifax, David Hume. Halifax promoted pragmatism in government, whilst Hume argued against political rationalism and utopianism, Burke served as the private secretary to the Marquis of Rockingham and as official pamphleteer to the Rockingham branch of the Whig party. Together with the Tories, they were the conservatives in the late 18th century United Kingdom, Burkes views were a mixture of liberal and conservative. He supported the American Revolution of 1765–1783 but abhorred the violence of the French Revolution and he insisted on standards of honor derived from the medieval aristocratic tradition, and saw the aristocracy as the nations natural leaders. That meant limits on the powers of the Crown, since he found the institutions of Parliament to be better informed than commissions appointed by the executive and he favored an established church, but allowed for a degree of religious toleration. Burke justified the order on the basis of tradition, tradition represented the wisdom of the species and he valued community. Burke was a leading theorist in his day, finding extreme idealism an endangerment to broader liberties, despite their influence on future conservative thought, none of these early contributors were explicitly involved in Tory politics. Hooker lived in the 16th century, long before the advent of toryism, whilst Hume was an apolitical philosopher, Burke described himself as a Whig. Shortly after Burkes death in 1797, conservatism revived as a political force as the Whigs suffered a series of internal divisions
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Conservatism in the United Kingdom
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Conservatism in the United Kingdom is related to its counterparts in other Western nations, but has a distinct tradition and has encompassed a wide range of theories over the decades. The Conservative Party, which forms the mainstream party in Britain has developed many different internal factions. Edmund Burke is often considered the father of modern English conservatism in the English-speaking world, the old established form of English and, after the Act of Union, British conservatism, was the Tory Party. It reflected the attitudes of a land owning class, and championed the institutions of the monarchy, the Anglican Church. The new coalition of landowners and sympathetic industrialists constituted the new Conservative Party. Conservatism evolved after 1820, embracing free trade in 1846, the effect was to significantly strengthen Conservatism as a grassroots political force. Nevertheless, inside the party there was attention between the numbers of wealthy businessmen on the one side, and the aristocracy and rural gentry on the other. The aristocracy gained strength as businessmen discovered they could use their wealth to buy a peerage, as a young man, Disraeli was influenced by the romantic movement and medievalism, and developed a critique of industrialism. In his novels, he outlined an England divided into two nations, each living in ignorance of each other. He foresaw, like Karl Marx, the phenomenon of an industrial proletariat. His solution involved a return to a view of a corporate or organic society. A Liberal-Conservative coalition during World War I, coupled with the ascent of the Labour Party, after World War II, the Conservative Party made concessions to the socialist policies of the left. This compromise was a measure to regain power, but also the result of the early successes of central planning. This was known as Butskellism, after the almost identical Keynesian policies of Rab Butler on behalf of the Conservatives, as one commentator explains, The privatization of state owned industries, unthinkable before, became commonplace and has now been imitated all over the world. Also emphasis on rights, in particular the European Convention on Human Rights whilst also supporting individual initiative
4.
David and Frederick Barclay
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Sir David Rowat Barclay and Sir Frederick Hugh Barclay, commonly referred to as the Barclay Brothers, are British businessmen. The identical twin brothers have very substantial business interests primarily in media, retail, the Sunday Times Rich List of 2015 estimated their wealth at £6.5 billion. They have earned a reputation for avoiding publicity, and are described as reclusive. Sir Davids son, Aidan, manages their UK businesses and their businesses have been accused of tax avoidance, by placing assets under ownership of companies registered abroad and controlled through trusts. Their Press Holdings company owns The Business and The Spectator magazine, the Telegraph Group Limited titles are controlled via a wholly owned subsidiary, Press Acquisitions Limited. In 1993 the brothers bought the lease of the island of Brecqhou, off the coast of Sark, one of the smallest of the British Channel Islands. The Barclay brothers were born ten minutes of each other in Hammersmith, County of London to Scottish parents Beatrice Cecilia and her husband, Frederick Hugh Barclay. The couple had eight other children, in 1955 David married Zoe Newton, a grammar school girl who trained as a ballet dancer, at St John the Baptist Church, Holland Road, Kensington. Despite standing only 411, Zoe Barclay pursued a career and became the most photographed and highly paid model of her time. She appeared on television and in the Dairy Council advertisements as the “drinka pinta milka day“ girl, by the end of the 1950s, the brothers were running Candy Corner, a tobacconists and confectioners on the edge of Kensington. Meanwhile, David was registered as a director of Hillgate Estate Agents in 1962, by 1968, however, Frederick was running the family businesses, replacing Zoe on the Hillgate board. He had obtained the discharge of his bankruptcy after David stepped in, during this time they redeveloped old boarding houses in London, and made them into hotels. Between 1968 and 1974, the twins received increasingly large loans from the Crown Agents, in 1970 they bought Gestplan Hotels — which operated the exclusive Londonderry House Hotel in Park Lane — from a group of Lebanese bankers. The property crash in late 1973 brought an end to the Crown Agents, in the mid-1970s Frederick met and married Hiroko Asada, née Kuzusaka, a familiar figure among Japanese society in London, she had a son from her previous marriage, Ko Asada. From the late 1960s onwards the Barclay brothers continued to build up stakes in a variety of businesses, including breweries, in 1975, they bought the Howard Hotel, overlooking the Thames at Temple Place. In 1983 they bought Ellerman, the brewing and shipping group for £45m and they later sold its brewing division for £240m. They used the proceeds to buy the Ritz Hotel in Londons Piccadilly in 1995 and they spent £370 million on Gotaas-Larsen, a Bermuda-based shipping company, and £200 million on the Automotive Financial Group, a motor retail chain in 1994. The brothers are involved in philanthropy and were knighted in 2000 for their support to medical research, to which they have donated an estimated forty million pounds between 1987 and 2000
5.
The Daily Telegraph
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It was founded by Arthur B. Sleigh in 1855 as The Daily Telegraph and Courier, the papers motto, Was, is, and will be, appears in the editorial pages and has featured in every edition of the newspaper since April 19,1858. The paper had a circulation of 460,054 in December 2016 and its sister paper, The Sunday Telegraph, which started in 1961, had a circulation of 359,287 as of December 2016. The Daily Telegraph has the largest circulation for a newspaper in the UK. The two sister newspapers are run separately, with different editorial staff, but there is cross-usage of stories, articles published in either may be published on the Telegraph Media Groups www. telegraph. co. uk website, under the title of The Telegraph. However, critics, including an editor, accuse it of being unduly influenced by advertisers. The Daily Telegraph and Courier was founded by Colonel Arthur B, Sleigh in June 1855 to air a personal grievance against the future commander-in-chief of the British Army, Prince George, Duke of Cambridge. Joseph Moses Levy, the owner of The Sunday Times, agreed to print the newspaper, the paper cost 2d and was four pages long. Nevertheless, the first edition stressed the quality and independence of its articles and journalists, however, the paper was not a success, and Sleigh was unable to pay Levy the printing bill. Levy took over the newspaper, his aim being to produce a newspaper than his main competitors in London. The same principle should apply to all other events—to fashion, to new inventions, in 1876, Jules Verne published his novel Michael Strogoff, whose plot takes place during a fictional uprising and war in Siberia. In 1937, the newspaper absorbed The Morning Post, which espoused a conservative position. Originally William Ewart Berry, 1st Viscount Camrose, bought The Morning Post with the intention of publishing it alongside The Daily Telegraph, for some years the paper was retitled The Daily Telegraph and Morning Post before it reverted to just The Daily Telegraph. As an result, Gordon Lennox was monitored by MI5, in 1939, The Telegraph published Clare Hollingworths scoop that Germany was to invade Poland. In November 1940, with Fleet Street subjected to almost daily bombing raids by the Luftwaffe, The Telegraph started printing in Manchester at Kemsley House, Manchester quite often printed the entire run of The Telegraph when its Fleet Street offices were under threat. The name Kemsley House was changed to Thomson House in 1959, in 1986 printing of Northern editions of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph moved to Trafford Park and in 2008 to Newsprinters at Knowsley, Liverpool. During the Second World War, The Daily Telegraph covertly helped in the recruitment of code-breakers for Bletchley Park, the ability to solve The Telegraphs crossword in under 12 minutes was considered to be a recruitment test. The competition itself was won by F. H. W. Hawes of Dagenham who finished the crossword in less than eight minutes, both the Camrose and Burnham families remained involved in management until Conrad Black took control in 1986
6.
Conservative Party (UK)
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The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a political party in the United Kingdom. It is currently the party, having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election. The partys leader, Theresa May, is serving as Prime Minister. It is the largest party in government with 8,702 councillors. The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, the other being its modern rival. The Conservative Partys platform involves support for market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defence, deregulation. In the 1920s, the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives main rivals, Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century, including Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher. Thatchers tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation, the Conservative Partys domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world. The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament, with twenty MEPs, the party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe Europarty and the International Democrat Union. The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly, the party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The Conservative Party traces its origins to a faction, rooted in the 18th century Whig Party and they were known as Independent Whigs, Friends of Mr Pitt, or Pittites. After Pitts death the term Tory came into use and this was an allusion to the Tories, a political grouping that had existed from 1678, but which had no organisational continuity with the Pittite party. From about 1812 on the name Tory was commonly used for the newer party, the term Conservative was suggested as a title for the party by a magazine article by J. Wilson Croker in the Quarterly Review in 1830. The name immediately caught on and was adopted under the aegis of Sir Robert Peel around 1834. Peel is acknowledged as the founder of the Conservative Party, which he created with the announcement of the Tamworth Manifesto, the term Conservative Party rather than Tory was the dominant usage by 1845. In 1912, the Liberal Unionists merged with the Conservative Party, in Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance had been formed in 1891 which merged anti-Home Rule Unionists into one political movement. Its MPs took the Conservative whip at Westminster, and in essence formed the Irish wing of the party until 1922. The Conservatives served with the Liberals in an all-party coalition government during World War I, keohane finds that the Conservatives were bitterly divided before 1914, especially on the issue of Irish Unionism and the experience of three consecutive election losses
7.
Frank Field (British politician)
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Frank Ernest Field DL is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Birkenhead since 1979. From 1997 to 1998, he served as the Minister of Welfare Reform, before leaving the Government and he went on to become one of the Labour governments most vocal critics from within the party on the backbenches. Field has campaigned against poverty and low pay throughout his career, in June 2015 Field was elected Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee. Field was born in London, the second of three sons and his father was a labourer in Morgan Crucibles factory in Battersea and his mother was a teaching assistant. His parents were Tories who believed in character and pulling oneself up by ones own bootstraps, Field was educated at St Clement Danes School which was then located in Hammersmith, before studying economics at the University of Hull. In his youth, he was a member of the Conservative Party, in 1964, he became a further-education teacher in Southwark and Hammersmith. Field served as a councillor in the London Borough of Hounslow from 1964 to 1968 and he was a Director of the Child Poverty Action Group 1969–79, and of the Low Pay Unit during 1974–80. Field unsuccessfully contested the constituency of South Buckinghamshire at the 1966 general election and he was selected to contest the safe Labour seat of Birkenhead at the 1979 general election on the retirement of the sitting MP Edmund Dell. Field held the seat with a majority of 5,909 and has remained the constituencys MP since then. In Parliament, Field was made a member of the Opposition frontbench by the then Labour leader Michael Foot as a spokesman on education in 1980, but was dropped a year later. Following the appointment of Neil Kinnock as the Labour leader in 1983, Field was appointed as a spokesman on health and social security for a year. He was appointed the chairman of the social services select committee in 1987, becoming the chairman of the new social security select committee in 1990, two nights before the Conservative Party leadership election in November 1990, he visited then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at 10 Downing Street. He advised her that her time as Prime Minister was drawing to a close and his reason for doing so was that he felt that her Conservative colleagues would not tell her straight that she could not win a leadership contest. Following this meeting, he was smuggled out of Downing Streets back door, two days later Margaret Thatcher supported John Major for the post, and Major went on to be Prime Minister. Following the 1997 election, with Labour in power, Field joined the government of Tony Blair as the Minister of Welfare Reform at the Department of Social Security with the rank of Minister of State and he was also made a member of the Privy Council. Field viewed his task as thinking the unthinkable in terms of social security reform, Blair writes that, the problem was not so much that his thoughts were unthinkable as unfathomable. There were clashes with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, Field resigned his ministerial position in 1998 rather than accept a move away from the Department of Social Security offered by Blair in a reshuffle. It was reported that Field had argued for Blair to promote him to Secretary of State for Social Security, after holding office, he was a member of the ecclesiastical and public accounts committees
8.
Boris Johnson
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He had previously been an MP for the Henley constituency from 2001 to 2008 and was later Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. Johnson was formerly a historian and journalist. A member of the Conservative Party, Johnson identifies as a conservative and has been associated with both economically and socially liberal policies. Born in New York City to wealthy upper-middle class English parents, Johnson was educated at the European School of Brussels, Ashdown House School and he studied Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected president of the Oxford Union in 1986. He was assistant editor from 1994 to 1999 before taking the editorship of The Spectator from 1999 to 2005, joining the Conservatives, he was elected MP for Henley in 2001, and under Michael Howard and David Cameron he was in the Shadow Cabinet. Mostly adhering to the Conservatives party line, he adopted a more socially liberal stance on issues like LGBT rights in parliamentary votes. Making regular television appearances, writing books, and remaining active in journalism, selected as Conservative candidate for the London mayoral election of 2008, Johnson defeated Labour incumbent Ken Livingstone and resigned his seat in parliament. In 2012, he was re-elected mayor, again defeating Livingstone, in 2015 he was elected MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, stepping down as mayor the following year. In 2016, Johnson became a prominent figure in the successful Vote Leave campaign to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union, Johnson is a controversial figure in British politics and journalism. Supporters have praised him as an entertaining, humorous, and popular figure with appeal beyond traditional Conservative voters, conversely, he has been criticised by figures on both the left and right, accused of elitism, cronyism and laziness, and using racist language. Johnson is the subject of biographies and a number of fictionalised portrayals. Johnson was born on 19 June 1964 at a hospital on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City and his birth was registered with both the US authorities and the citys British Consulate and he was granted both American and British citizenship. His father, Stanley Johnson, was studying economics at Columbia University. Stanleys paternal grandfather was Circassian–Turkish journalist Ali Kemal, while his other ancestry is English and French, Stanley had married Johnsons mother, Charlotte Johnson Wahl, in 1963, before they moved to the United States, she was an artist from a family of liberal intellectuals. She was the granddaughter of Americans Elias Avery Lowe, a palaeographer of Russian Jewish descent, and Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, in reference to his varied ancestry, Johnson has described himself as a one-man melting pot – with a combination of Muslims, Jews, and Christians as great-grandparents. Johnson was given his name of Boris after a Russian émigré the couple had once met in Mexico. Johnsons parents were living in an apartment opposite the Chelsea Hotel, although they soon embarked on a tour of Canada. In September 1964, they returned to Britain, enabling Charlotte to study for a degree at the University of Oxford and she lived with her son in Summertown, Oxford and gave birth to a daughter, Rachel, in 1965
9.
Iain Macleod
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Iain Norman Macleod was a British Conservative Party politician and government minister. He is credited with coining the term nanny state, a playboy and professional bridge player in his twenties, after war service Macleod worked for the Conservative Research Department before entering Parliament in 1950. He was an orator and debater, and was soon appointed Minister of Health. Macleod was unhappy with the “emergence” of Sir Alec Douglas Home as party leader and he refused to serve in Home’s government, and whilst serving as editor of The Spectator, alleged that the succession had been stitched up by Macmillan and a “magic circle” of Old Etonians. Macleod did not contest the first ever Conservative Party leadership election in 1965, when the Conservatives returned to power in June 1970, he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in Heath’s government, but died suddenly only a month later. Iain Macleod was born at Clifford House, Skipton, Yorkshire, Macleods father, Dr. Norman Alexander Macleod, was a well-respected general practitioner in Skipton, with a substantial poor-law practice. His parents were from the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles of Scotland, belonging to the branch of the Macleods of Pabbay and they moved to Skipton in 1907. He was educated at Ermysteds Grammar School in Skipton and at Fettes College in Edinburgh, Macleod showed no great academic talent but did develop an enduring love of literature, especially poetry, which he read and memorised in great quantity. In 1932 he was admitted to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and he was one of the great British bridge players. He won the Gold Cup in 1937, with teammates Maurice Harrison-Gray, Skid Simon, Jack Marx and he wrote a book that contains a description of the Acol system of bidding, Bridge is an Easy Game, published in 1952 by Falcon Press, London. He ended the war as a major, at one point during the war a drunk Macleod almost killed his senior officer, as the latter had retired to bed rather than play stud poker with him. He shot at his door until his revolver ran out of bullets and he demanded an apology the next morning for his refusal to play, although the two men remained friends thereafter. He unsuccessfully contested the Western Isles constituency at the 1945 general election, there was no Conservative Party in the seat, so Macleod advertised an inaugural meeting. Macleod came bottom of the poll, obtaining 2756 votes out of 13,000, in 1946, he joined the Conservative Parliamentary Secretariat, subsequently merged into the Conservative Research Department. Here he became friends with Enoch Powell, but the two fell out over Powells 1968 Rivers of Blood speech, and Macleod refused to speak to Powell again after the speech. At the general election of February 1950 he won in the constituency of Enfield. In October 1951 Churchill again became Prime Minister, a brilliant Commons performance in March 1952 by Macleod against former Labour cabinet minister Aneurin Bevan, in a debate on medical care, caught Churchills attention. Within seven weeks, on 7 May, Macleod was appointed Minister of Health, in this position, later in 1952, he famously made the announcement that British clinician Richard Doll had proved the link between smoking and lung cancer
10.
Ian Gilmour
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Ian Hedworth John Little Gilmour, Baron Gilmour of Craigmillar PC was a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom. He was styled Sir Ian Gilmour, 3rd Baronet from 1977, having succeeded to his fathers baronetcy and he served as Secretary of State for Defence in 1974, in the government of Edward Heath. He also served in the government of Margaret Thatcher, as Lord Privy Seal from 1979 to 1981, Gilmour was the son of stockbroker Lieutenant Colonel Sir John Gilmour, 2nd Baronet, and his wife, Victoria, a granddaughter of the 5th Earl of Cadogan. His parents divorced in 1929, and his father married Mary, the family had land in Scotland and he inherited a substantial estate and shares in Meuxs Brewery from his grandfather, Admiral of the Fleet, the Hon. They lived in the grounds of Syon Park in London, with a house in Tuscany and he was educated at Eton College and read history at Balliol College, Oxford. He served with the Grenadier Guards from 1944 to 1947 and he was called to the bar at Inner Temple in 1952 and was a tenant in the chambers of Quintin Hogg for two years. He bought The Spectator in 1954 and was its editor from 1954 to 1959 and he sold The Spectator to the businessman Harold Creighton in 1967. His editorship of the magazine is seen as one of the highlights of that papers long history and he was elected as Member of Parliament for Central Norfolk in a by-election in 1962, winning by 220 votes. In parliament, he was a liberal, voting to abolish the death penalty. He also supported the campaign to join the EEC and he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Quintin Hogg from 1963. He joined the Privy Council in 1973 and he replaced Carrington in January 1974 to join Heaths Cabinet as Defence Secretary, but lost his position after Labour won the most seats in the general election at the end of February. He was in the Shadow Cabinet after the election in February 1974 as Shadow Defence Secretary to late 1974. From the end of 1974 to February 1975 he was Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, in opposition, Gilmour joined the Conservative Research Department. With Chris Patten, he wrote the Conservative Party manifesto for the October 1974 election – a second loss, when Margaret Thatcher became the new leader of the Conservative party, she appointed Gilmour as Shadow Home Secretary in 1975, then as Shadow Defence Secretary from 1976 to 1978. He co-chaired with Carrington the Lancaster House talks, which led to the end of Ian Smiths government in Rhodesia, and he also negotiated with the EEC to reduce Britains financial contribution. Gilmour did not have relations with Thatcher. Thatcher remarked in her autobiography, somewhat sarcastically, Ian remained at the Foreign Office for two years, subsequently, he was to show me the same loyalty from the back-benches as he had in government. He survived a reshuffle in January 1981, but was sacked on 14 September 1981 and he announced that the government was steering full speed ahead for the rocks, and said that he regretted not resigning beforehand
11.
Nigel Lawson
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Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, PC is a British Conservative politician and journalist. He was a member of parliament representing the constituency of Blaby from 1974 to 1992, prior to entering the Cabinet, he served as the Financial Secretary to the Treasury from May 1979 until his promotion to Secretary of State for Energy. He was appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer in June 1983, in both Cabinet posts, Lawson was a key proponent of Thatchers policies of privatisation of several key industries. He is the father of six children, including Nigella Lawson, a writer and celebrity cook, Dominic Lawson, a journalist. Lawson was born in 1932 to a wealthy Jewish family living in Hampstead and his father, Ralph Lawson, was the owner of a commodity-trading firm in the City of London, while his mother, Joan Elisa Davis, was also from a prosperous family of stockbrokers. His paternal grandfather, Gustav Leibson, a merchant from Mitau, changed his name from Leibson to Lawson in 1925, Lawson carried out his National Service as a Royal Navy officer, during which time he commanded a fast patrol boat, HMS Gay Charger. Lawson began his career as a journalist at the Financial Times in 1956 and he progressed to the positions of City editor of The Sunday Telegraph in 1961 – where he introduced his friend Jim Slaters Capitalist investing column – and then editor of The Spectator. On the election of Margaret Thatchers government, Lawson was appointed to the post of Financial Secretary to the Treasury, in the Cabinet reshuffle of September 1981, Lawson was promoted to the position of Secretary of State for Energy. He was a key proponent of the Thatcher Governments privatisation policy, after the Governments re-election in 1983, Lawson was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in succession to Geoffrey Howe. The early years of Lawsons chancellorship were associated with tax reform, the 1984 Budget reformed corporate taxes by a combination of reduced rates and reduced allowances. The 1985 Budget continued the trend of shifting from direct to indirect taxes by reducing National Insurance contributions for the lower-paid while extending the base of value added tax. During these two years Lawsons public image remained low-key, but from the 1986 Budget, his stock rose as unemployment began to fall from the middle of 1986. Lawson also changed the budget deficit from £10.5 billion in 1983 to a surplus of £3.9 billion in 1988 and £4.1 billion in 1989. During his tenure the rate of taxation also came down, the basic rate was reduced from 30% in 1983 to 25% by 1988. In 1986 the City of Londons financial markets were deregulated in the so-called Big Bang, in an interview in 2010 Nigel Lawson said that an unintended consequence of the Big Bang was the financial crisis of 2007-2008. Lawson, in his own defence, attributes the boom largely to the effects of various measures of financial deregulation, Lawson also ascribes the difficulty of conducting monetary policy to Goodharts Law. His tax cuts, beginning in 1986, resulted in the Lawson Boom of the British economy, Lawson opposed the introduction of the Community Charge as a replacement for the previous rating system for the local financing element of local government revenue. His dissent was confined to deliberations within the Cabinet, where he found few allies, the issue of exchange-rate mechanism membership continued to fester between Lawson and Thatcher and was exacerbated by the re-employment by Thatcher of Sir Alan Walters as personal economic adviser
12.
Dundee
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Dundee, officially the City of Dundee, is Scotlands fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2015 was 148,210 which gave Dundee a population density of 2, 477/km2 or 6, 420/sq mi and it lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea. Under the name of Dundee City, it one of the 32 council areas used for local government in Scotland. Historically part of Angus, the city developed into a burgh in the late 12th century, rapid expansion was brought on by the Industrial Revolution, particularly in the 19th century when Dundee was the centre of the global jute industry. This, along with its major industries gave Dundee its epithet as the city of jute, jam. Biomedical and technological industries have arrived since the 1980s, and the city now accounts for 10% of the United Kingdoms digital-entertainment industry, Dundee has two universities — the University of Dundee and the Abertay University. In 2014 Dundee was recognised by the United Nations as the UKs first UNESCO City of Design for its contributions to fields including medical research, comics. A unique feature of Dundee is that its two football clubs Dundee United and Dundee F. C. have stadiums all but adjacent to each other. With the decline of industry, the city has adopted a plan to regenerate. The name Dundee is made up of two parts, the common Celtic place-name element dun, meaning fort, and a part that may derive from a Celtic element, cognate with the Gaelic dè. The situation of the town and its promotion by Earl David as a trading centre led to a period of prosperity, the earldom was passed down to Davids descendants, amongst whom was John Balliol. The town became a Royal Burgh on Johns coronation as king in 1292, the town and its castle were occupied by English forces for several years during the First War of Independence and recaptured by Robert the Bruce in early 1312. The original Burghal charters were lost during the occupation and subsequently renewed by Bruce in 1327, the burgh suffered considerably during the conflict known as the Rough Wooing of 1543 to 1550, and was occupied by the English forces of Andrew Dudley from 1547. In 1548, unable to defend the town against an advancing Scottish force, in 1645, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Dundee was again besieged, this time by the Royalist Marquess of Montrose. The town was destroyed by Parliamentarian forces led by George Monck in 1651. The town played a role in the establishment of the Jacobite cause when John Graham of Claverhouse. The town was held by the Jacobites in the 1715–16 rising, many in Scotland, including many in Dundee, regarded him as the rightful king. The economy of mediaeval Dundee centred on the export of raw wool, expansion of the whaling industry was triggered by the second Bounty Act, introduced in 1750 to increase Britains maritime and naval skill base
13.
The Spectator (1711)
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The Spectator was a daily publication founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in England, lasting from 1711 to 1712. Each paper, or number, was approximately 2,500 words long, and these were collected into seven volumes. The paper was revived without the involvement of Steele in 1714, appearing thrice weekly for six months, eustace Budgell, a cousin of Addisons, and the poet John Hughes also contributed to the publication. In Number 10, Mr. Spectator states that The Spectator will aim to enliven morality with wit and he hopes it will be said he has brought philosophy out of closets and libraries, schools, and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assemblies, at tea-tables and coffee–houses. He recommends that readers of the paper consider it as a part of the tea-equipage, the Spectator sought to provide readers with topics for well-reasoned discussion, and to equip them to carry on conversations and engage in social interactions in a polite manner. In keeping with the values of Enlightenment philosophies of their time, the authors of The Spectator promoted family, marriage and these readers came from many stations in society, but the paper catered principally to the interests of Englands emerging middle class—merchants and traders large and small. The Spectator also had many readers in the American colonies, in particular, James Madison read the paper avidly as a teenager. It is said to have had a big influence on his world view, jürgen Habermas sees The Spectator as instrumental in the formation of the public sphere in 18th century England. Although The Spectator declares itself to be neutral, it was widely recognised as promoting Whig values. The Spectator continued to be popular and widely read in the late 18th and 19th centuries and it was sold in eight-volume editions. Its prose style, and its marriage of morality and advice with entertainment, were considered exemplary, the decline in its popularity has been discussed by Brian McCrea and C. S. Lewis. Bully Dawson – mentioned in The Spectator as being kicked by Sir Roger de Coverley in a coffee house. The Spectator a current weekly British conservative magazine, the Spectator Nos.1,2,10, 1710–11. The standard edition of The Spectator is Donald F, bonds edition in five volumes, published in 1965. Selections can be found in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, ross, Angus Selections from The Tatler and The Spectator. Edited with an introduction and notes, bibliographical Notes on One Hundred Books Famous in English Literature. The Norton Anthology of English Literature
14.
Reform Act 1832
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The Representation of the People Act 1832 was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that introduced wide-ranging changes to the electoral system of England and Wales. According to its preamble, the Act was designed to take effectual Measures for correcting divers Abuses that have prevailed in the Choice of Members to serve in the Commons House of Parliament. Before the reform, most members nominally represented boroughs, the number of electors in a borough varied widely, from a dozen or so up to 12,000. Frequently the selection of MPs was effectively controlled by one patron, for example Charles Howard. Criteria for qualification for the franchise varied greatly among boroughs, from the requirement to own land, there had been calls for reform long before 1832, but without success. The Act that finally succeeded was proposed by the Whigs, led by Prime Minister Charles Grey and it met with significant opposition from the Pittite factions in Parliament, who had long governed the country, opposition was especially pronounced in the House of Lords. Nevertheless, the bill was passed, mainly as a result of public pressure. The Act also increased the electorate from about 500,000 to 813,000, with one in five adult males allowed to vote. The full title is An Act to amend the representation of the people in England and its formal short title and citation is Representation of the People Act 1832. The Act applied only in England and Wales, the Scottish Reform Act 1832 and Irish Reform Act 1832 brought similar changes to Scotland and Ireland, respectively. After the Act of Union 1800, sometimes referred to as the Act of Union 1801, there were two types of constituencies, counties and boroughs. County members were supposed to represent landholders, while members were supposed to represent the mercantile. Counties were historical national subdivisions established between the 8th and 16th centuries and they were not merely parliamentary constituencies, many components of government were organised along county lines. The members of Parliament chosen by the counties were known as Knights of the Shire, Parliamentary boroughs in England ranged widely in size from small hamlets to large cities, partly because they had evolved haphazardly. The earliest boroughs were chosen in the Middle Ages by county sheriffs, in later centuries the reigning monarch decided which settlements to enfranchise. The monarchs seem mostly to have done so capriciously, often with regard for the merits of the place they were enfranchising. Of the 70 English boroughs that Tudor monarchs enfranchised,31 were later disenfranchised, after Newark was enfranchised in 1661, no additional boroughs were enfranchised, and the unfair system remained unchanged until the Reform Act of 1832. Grampounds disenfranchisement in 1821 was the sole exception, most English boroughs elected two MPs, but five boroughs elected only one MP, Abingdon, Banbury, Bewdley, Higham Ferrers and Monmouth
15.
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
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His defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 put him in the top rank of Britains military heroes. Wellesley was born in Dublin, belonging to the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland and he was commissioned as an ensign in the British Army in 1787, serving in Ireland as aide-de-camp to two successive Lords Lieutenant of Ireland. He was also elected as a Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons and he was a colonel by 1796, and saw action in the Netherlands and in India, where he fought in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War at the Battle of Seringapatam. He was appointed governor of Seringapatam and Mysore in 1799 and, as a newly appointed major-general, following Napoleons exile in 1814, he served as the ambassador to France and was granted a dukedom. During the Hundred Days in 1815, he commanded the army which defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Wellesleys battle record is exemplary, he participated in some 60 battles during the course of his military career. Wellington is famous for his defensive style of warfare, resulting in several victories against numerically superior forces while minimising his own losses. He is regarded as one of the greatest defensive commanders of all time, after ending his active military career, Wellington returned to politics. He was twice British prime minister as part of the Tory party, from 1828 to 1830 and he oversaw the passage of the Catholic Relief Act 1829, but opposed the Reform Act 1832. He continued as one of the figures in the House of Lords until his retirement. As such, he belonged to the Protestant Ascendancy and his biographers mostly follow the contemporary newspaper evidence in saying that he was born 1 May 1769, the day that he was baptised. He was most likely born at his parents townhouse,24 Upper Merrion Street, Dublin, but his mother Anne, Countess of Mornington, recalled in 1815 that he had been born at 6 Merrion Street, Dublin. He spent most of his childhood at his familys two homes, the first a house in Dublin and the second Dangan Castle,3 miles north of Summerhill on the Trim Road in County Meath. In 1781, Arthurs father died and his eldest brother Richard inherited his fathers earldom and he went to the diocesan school in Trim when at Dangan, Mr Whytes Academy when in Dublin, and Browns School in Chelsea when in London. He then enrolled at Eton, where he studied from 1781 to 1784, moreover, Eton had no playing fields at the time. In 1785, a lack of success at Eton, combined with a shortage of funds due to his fathers death, forced the young Wellesley. Until his early twenties, Arthur showed little sign of distinction and his mother grew concerned at his idleness, stating. A year later, Arthur enrolled in the French Royal Academy of Equitation in Angers, where he progressed significantly, becoming a good horseman and learning French, upon returning to England in late 1786, he astonished his mother with his improvement
16.
First Opium War
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European silver flowed into China when the Canton System, instituted in the mid-18th century, confined the sea trade to Canton and to the Chinese merchants of the Thirteen Factories. The British East India Company had a monopoly of British trade. The British East India Company began to auction opium grown on its plantations in India to independent foreign traders in exchange for silver, the opium was then transported to the Chinese coast and sold to local middlemen who retailed the drug inside China. This reverse flow of silver and the numbers of opium addicts alarmed Chinese officials. In 1839, the Daoguang Emperor, rejecting proposals to legalise and tax opium, Lin confiscated around 20,000 chests of opium without offering compensation, blockaded trade, and confined foreign merchants to their quarters. The failure of the treaty to satisfy British goals of improved trade, in China, the war is considered the beginning of modern Chinese history. Direct maritime trade between Europe and China began in 1557 when the Portuguese leased an outpost at Macau, after the Spanish conquest of the Philippines, the exchange of goods between China and western Europe accelerated dramatically. From 1565, the annual Manila Galleon brought in enormous amounts of silver to the Asian trade network, from 1700–1842, Guangzhou came to dominate maritime trade with China, and this period became known as the Canton System. Official British trade was conducted through the auspices of the British East India Company, the British East India Company gradually came to dominate Sino-European trade from its position in India. From the inception of the Canton System in 1757, trade in goods from China was extremely lucrative for European, however, foreign traders were only permitted to do business through a body of Chinese merchants known as the Cohong and were restricted to Canton. Foreigners could only live in one of the Thirteen Factories, near Shameen Island, while silk and porcelain drove trade through their popularity in the west, an insatiable demand for tea existed in Britain. However, only silver was accepted in payment by China, which resulted in a trade deficit. From the mid-17th century around 28 million kilograms of silver were received by China, principally from European powers, Britain had been on the gold standard since the 18th century, so it had to purchase silver from continental Europe and Mexico to supply the Chinese appetite for silver. Attempts by a British embassy, a Dutch mission, Russias Golovkin in 1805, by 1817, the British realized they could reduce the trade deficit as well as turn the Indian colony profitable by counter-trading in narcotic Indian opium. Opium was produced in traditionally cotton-growing regions of India under British East India Company monopoly, both areas had been hard hit by the introduction of factory-produced cotton cloth, which used cotton grown in Egypt. The opium was auctioned in Calcutta on the condition that it be shipped by British traders to China, Opium as a medicinal ingredient was documented in texts as early as the Tang dynasty but its recreational use was limited and there were laws against its abuse. British sales of opium began in 1781, and sales increased fivefold between 1821 and 1837, by 1820, just when the Qing treasury needed to finance the suppression of rebellions, the flow of silver had reversed, Chinese merchants were now exporting it to pay for opium. The imperial court debated whether or how to end the opium trade, Napier was instructed to obey Chinese regulations, communicate directly with Chinese authorities, superintend trade pertaining to the contraband trade of opium, and to survey Chinas coastline
17.
Charles Dickens
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Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the worlds best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era and his works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the twentieth century critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories enjoy lasting popularity, born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school to work in a factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors prison. Dickenss literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers, within a few years he had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humour, satire, and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the publication of narrative fiction. The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audiences reaction, and he modified his plot. For example, when his wifes chiropodist expressed distress at the way Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield seemed to reflect her disabilities and his plots were carefully constructed, and he often wove elements from topical events into his narratives. Masses of the poor chipped in hapennies to have each new monthly episode read to them, opening up. Dickens was regarded as the literary colossus of his age and his 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol, remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also adapted, and, like many of his novels. His 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities, set in London, Dickens has been praised by fellow writers—from Leo Tolstoy to George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton—for his realism, comedy, prose style, unique characterisations, and social criticism. On the other hand, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf complained of a lack of depth, loose writing. The term Dickensian is used to something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings. Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7 February 1812, at 1 Mile End Terrace, Landport in Portsea Island and his father was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office and was temporarily stationed in the district. He asked Christopher Huffam, rigger to His Majestys Navy, gentleman, Huffam is thought to be the inspiration for Paul Dombey, the owner of a shipping company in Dickenss eponymous Dombey and Son. In January 1815 John Dickens was called back to London, when Charles was four, they relocated to Sheerness, and thence to Chatham, Kent, where he spent his formative years until the age of 11. His early life seems to have been idyllic, though he himself a very small. Charles spent time outdoors but also read voraciously, including the novels of Tobias Smollett and Henry Fielding, as well as Robinson Crusoe
18.
Bleak House
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Bleak House is one of Charles Dickenss major novels, first published as a serial between March 1852 and September 1853. The novel has characters and several sub-plots, and the story is told partly by the novels heroine, Esther Summerson. At the centre of Bleak House is the legal case, Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Though the legal profession criticised Dickenss satire as exaggerated, this novel helped support a reform movement. There is some debate among scholars as to when Bleak House is set, the English legal historian Sir William Holdsworth sets the action in 1827, however, reference to preparation for the building of a railway in Chapter LV suggests the 1830s. Sir Leicester Dedlock and his wife Lady Honoria live on his estate at Chesney Wold, unknown to Sir Leicester, Lady Dedlock had a lover, Captain Hawdon, before she married – and had a daughter by him. Lady Dedlock believes her daughter is dead, the daughter, Esther, is in fact alive, and being raised by Miss Barbary, Lady Dedlocks sister. Esther does not know Miss Barbary is her aunt, after Miss Barbary dies, John Jarndyce becomes Esthers guardian and assigns the Chancery lawyer Conversation Kenge to take charge of her future. After attending school for six years, Esther moves in with him at Bleak House, Jarndyce simultaneously assumes custody of two other wards, Richard Carstone and Ada Clare. They are beneficiaries in one of the wills at issue in Jarndyce and Jarndyce, their guardian is a beneficiary under another will, and the two wills conflict. Richard and Ada soon fall in love, but though Mr Jarndyce does not oppose the match, Richard first tries a career in medicine, and Esther meets Allan Woodcourt, a physician, at the house of Richards tutor. When Richard mentions the prospect of gaining from the resolution of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, meanwhile, Lady Dedlock is also a beneficiary under one of the wills. Early in the book, while listening to the reading of an affidavit by the solicitor, Mr Tulkinghorn. The sight affects her so much she almost faints, which Tulkinghorn notices and investigates and he traces the copyist, a pauper known only as Nemo, in London. Lady Dedlock is also investigating, disguised as her maid, Mademoiselle Hortense and she pays Jo to take her to Nemos grave. Meanwhile, Tulkinghorn is concerned Lady Dedlocks secret could threaten the interests of Sir Leicester and he also enlists Inspector Bucket to run Jo out of town, so that there are no loose ends that might connect Nemo to the Dedlocks. Esther sees Lady Dedlock at church and talks with her later at Chesney Wold – though neither woman recognises their connection, later, Lady Dedlock does discover that Esther is her child. However Esther has become sick after nursing the homeless boy Jo, Lady Dedlock waits until she has recovered before telling her the truth
19.
George M. Dallas
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George Mifflin Dallas was an American politician and diplomat who served as Mayor of Philadelphia, U. S. Senator from Pennsylvania and the 11th Vice President of the United States, George Mifflin Dallas was born on July 10,1792, to Alexander James Dallas and Arabella Maria Smith Dallas in Philadelphia. His father, born in Kingston, Jamaica and educated in Edinburgh, was the Secretary of the Treasury under United States President James Madison, George Dallas was given his middle name after Thomas Mifflin, another politician who was good friends with his father. Dallas was the second of six children, another of whom, Alexander, during Dallass childhood, the family lived in a mansion on Fourth Street, with a second home in the countryside, situated on the Schuylkill River. He was educated privately at Quaker-run preparatory schools, before studying at the College of New Jersey, while at College, he participated in several activities, including the American Whig–Cliosophic Society. Afterwards, he studied law, and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1813, Dallas did not have much enthusiasm at the time for legal practice, and wanted to fight in the War of 1812, a plan that he dropped due to his fathers objection. Dallas enjoyed the opportunities offered to him by being in Russia, in August 1814, he arrived in Washington, D. C. and delivered a preliminary draft of Britains peace terms. Since the job did not entail a large workload, Dallas found time to develop his grasp of politics and he later became the counsel to the Second Bank of the United States. After the War of 1812 ended, Pennsylvanias political climate was chaotic, the other faction was called the Amalgamators, headed by the future President James Buchanan. Voters elected Dallas Mayor of Philadelphia as the candidate of the Family party, Dallas served less than fifteen months—from December 13,1831, to March 4,1833. He was chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, Dallas declined to seek re-election, in part due to a fight over the Second Bank of the United States, and in part because his wife did not want to leave Philadelphia for Washington. Dallas resumed the practice of law, was general of Pennsylvania from 1833 to 1835. He was appointed by President Martin Van Buren as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia from 1837 to 1839, Dallas was offered the role of Attorney General, but declined, and resumed his legal practice. In the lead-up to the 1844 presidential election, Dallas worked to help Van Buren win the Democratic nomination over Dallass fellow Pennsylvanian, at the May 1844 Democratic National Convention in Baltimore, James K. Polk and Silas Wright were nominated as the Democratic ticket. However, when Wright declined the nomination, they chose Dallas as his replacement, Dallas, who was not at the convention, was woken up at his home by convention delegates who had traveled to Philadelphia to tell him the news. Dallas somewhat reluctantly accepted the nomination, the Democratic candidates won the popular vote by a margin of 1. 5%, and won the election with an electoral vote of 170 out of 275. Dallas was influential as the officer of the Senate, where he worked to support Polks agenda. Though Dallas was unsuccessful in preventing Polk from appointing Buchanan as Secretary of State, as Vice President, Dallas sought to maneuver himself into contention for the presidency in the 1848 election, as Polk had promised to serve only one term
20.
James Buchanan
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James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States, serving immediately prior to the American Civil War. He is the president from Pennsylvania, the only president to remain a lifelong bachelor. Beginning in the 1820s, he represented Pennsylvania in the United States House of Representatives and later the Senate, Buchanan was nominated by the Democratic Party in the 1856 presidential election, on a ticket with former Kentucky Representative John C. He defeated both the incumbent President Pierce and Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas to win the nomination and his subsequent election victory took place in a three-man race against Republican John C. Shortly after taking office, Buchanan lobbied the Supreme Court to issue a ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford. He allied with the South in attempting to gain the admission of Kansas to the Union as a state under the Lecompton Constitution. In the process, he alienated both Republican abolitionists and Northern Democrats, most of whom supported the principle of sovereignty in determining a new states slaveholding status. He was often called a doughface, a Northerner with Southern sympathies, and he fought with Douglas, in the midst of the growing sectional crisis, the Panic of 1857 struck the nation. Buchanan indicated in his 1857 inaugural address that he would not seek a second term, he kept his word, Breckinridge in the 1860 presidential election. In response, seven Southern states declared their secession from the Union, Buchanans view was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal, and so didnt confront the new polity militarily. Buchanan, an attorney, was noted for his mantra, I acknowledge no master, Buchanan supported the United States during the Civil War, and publicly defended himself against charges that he was responsible for the Civil War. Shortly after the Union victory, he published his memoirs, Mr. Buchanans Administration on the Eve of Rebellion and he died in 1868 at age 77. Buchanan aspired to be a president who would rank in history with George Washington, historians who participated in a 2006 survey voted his failure to deal with secession the worst presidential mistake ever made. His parents were both of Ulster Scots descent, the father having emigrated from Milford, County Donegal, Ireland, one of eleven siblings, Buchanan was the oldest child in the family to survive infancy. Shortly after Buchanans birth the family moved to a farm near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, Buchanans father became the wealthiest person in town, becoming a prosperous merchant and investing in real estate. The family home in Mercersburg was later turned into the James Buchanan Hotel, Buchanan attended the village academy and, starting in 1807, Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Though he was expelled at one point for poor behavior, he pleaded for a second chance. Later that year, he moved to Lancaster, which, at the time, was the capital of Pennsylvania, James Hopkins, the most prominent lawyer in Lancaster, accepted Buchanan as a student, and in 1812 Buchanan was admitted to the bar after an oral exam
21.
The Times
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The Times is a British daily national newspaper based in London, England. It began in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register, the Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, itself wholly owned by News Corp. The Times and The Sunday Times do not share editorial staff, were founded independently and have only had common ownership since 1967 and its news and its editorial comment have in general been carefully coordinated, and have at most times been handled with an earnest sense of responsibility. While the paper has admitted some trivia to its columns, its emphasis has been on important public affairs treated with an eye to the best interests of Britain. To guide this treatment, the editors have for long periods been in touch with 10 Downing Street. In these countries, the newspaper is often referred to as The London Times or The Times of London, although the newspaper is of national scope, in November 2006 The Times began printing headlines in a new font, Times Modern. The Times was printed in broadsheet format for 219 years, the Sunday Times remains a broadsheet. The Times had a daily circulation of 446,164 in December 2016, in the same period. An American edition of The Times has been published since 6 June 2006 and it has been heavily used by scholars and researchers because of its widespread availability in libraries and its detailed index. A complete historical file of the paper, up to 2010, is online from Gale Cengage Learning. The Times was founded by publisher John Walter on 1 January 1785 as The Daily Universal Register, Walter had lost his job by the end of 1784 after the insurance company where he was working went bankrupt because of the complaints of a Jamaican hurricane. Being unemployed, Walter decided to set a new business up and it was in that time when Henry Johnson invented the logography, a new typography that was faster and more precise. Walter bought the patent and to use it, he decided to open a printing house. The first publication of the newspaper The Daily Universal Register in Great Britain was 1 January 1785, unhappy because people always omitted the word Universal, Ellias changed the title after 940 editions on 1 January 1788 to The Times. In 1803, Walter handed ownership and editorship to his son of the same name, the Times used contributions from significant figures in the fields of politics, science, literature, and the arts to build its reputation. For much of its life, the profits of The Times were very large. Beginning in 1814, the paper was printed on the new steam-driven cylinder press developed by Friedrich Koenig, in 1815, The Times had a circulation of 5,000. Thomas Barnes was appointed editor in 1817
22.
Abraham Lincoln
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Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, in doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the economy. Born in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln grew up on the frontier in Kentucky. Largely self-educated, he became a lawyer in Illinois, a Whig Party leader, elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1846, Lincoln promoted rapid modernization of the economy through banks, tariffs, and railroads. Reentering politics in 1854, he became a leader in building the new Republican Party, in 1860, Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a moderate from a swing state. Though he gained little support in the slaveholding states of the South. Subsequently, on April 12,1861, a Confederate attack on Fort Sumter inspired the North to enthusiastically rally behind the Union. Politically, Lincoln fought back by pitting his opponents against each other, by carefully planned political patronage and his Gettysburg Address became an iconic endorsement of the principles of nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. Lincoln initially concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war and his primary goal was to reunite the nation. He suspended habeas corpus, leading to the ex parte Merryman decision. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection of top generals, including his most successful general, Lincoln tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, each time a general failed, Lincoln substituted another, until finally Grant succeeded. As the war progressed, his moves toward ending slavery included the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. On April 14,1865, five days after the surrender of Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton launched a manhunt for Booth, and 12 days later on April 26, Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as among the greatest U. S. presidents. Abraham Lincoln was born February 12,1809, the child of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm near Hodgenville. He was a descendant of Samuel Lincoln, an Englishman who migrated from Hingham, Norfolk to its namesake of Hingham, samuels grandson and great-grandson began the familys western migration, which passed through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Lincolns paternal grandfather and namesake, Captain Abraham Lincoln, moved the family from Virginia to Jefferson County, Captain Lincoln was killed in an Indian raid in 1786. His children, including eight-year-old Thomas, the presidents father
23.
Richard Holt Hutton
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Richard Holt Hutton was an English journalist of literature and religion. The son of Joseph Hutton, a Unitarian minister, Richard Holt Hutton was born at Leeds and he took his degree in 1845, and was awarded the gold medal for philosophy. He was not, however, called on by any church, in 1851, he married his cousin, Anne Roscoe, and became joint-editor with John Langton Sanford of the Inquirer, the main Unitarian periodical. His innovations and unconventional views about stereotyped Unitarian doctrines caused alarm and his health had broken down, and he visited the West Indies, where his wife died of yellow fever. In 1855 Hutton and Bagehot became joint editors of the National Review and he brought to his study of theology a spirituality of outlook and an aptitude for metaphysical inquiry and exposition which made his writings more attractive. In 1861 he joined Meredith Townsend as joint editor and part proprietor of the Spectator, then a liberal weekly. Hutton took charge of the side of the paper, and gradually his own articles became one of the best-known features of serious. Hutton had many friends, and became one of the most respected, in 1858 he married Eliza Roscoe, a cousin of his first wife, she died early in 1897, and Huttons own death followed in the same year. He was an member of the Metaphysical Society. He was an anti-vivisectionist, and a member of the Royal Commission on that subject and he was the vice present of the Society for Psychical Research in 1882. Criticisms on Contemporary Thought and Thinkers, aspects of Religious and Scientific Thought. Edited by Robert H. Tener and Malcolm Woodfield and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed. Tener, R. H. R. H. Huttons Editorial Career, the Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals. Victorian Weekly Reviews and Reviewing after 1860, R. H. Hutton, Works by Richard Holt Hutton at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Richard Holt Hutton at Internet Archive
24.
William Gladstone
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William Ewart Gladstone, FRS, FSS was a British Liberal and earlier conservative politician. In a career lasting over sixty years, he served as Prime Minister four separate times, more than any other person, Gladstone was also Britains oldest Prime Minister, he resigned for the final time when he was 84 years old. Gladstone first entered Parliament in 1832, beginning as a High Tory, Gladstone served in the Cabinet of Sir Robert Peel. After the split of the Conservatives Gladstone was a Peelite – in 1859 the Peelites merged with the Whigs, as Chancellor Gladstone became committed to low public spending and to electoral reform, earning him the sobriquet The Peoples William. Gladstones first ministry saw many reforms including the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland, after his electoral defeat in 1874, Gladstone resigned as leader of the Liberal Party, but from 1876 began a comeback based on opposition to Turkeys reaction to the Bulgarian April Uprising. Gladstones Midlothian Campaign of 1879–80 was an example of many modern political campaigning techniques. The government also passed the Third Reform Act, Back in office in early 1886, Gladstone proposed Irish home rule but this was defeated in the House of Commons in July. The resulting split in the Liberal Party helped keep out of office, with one short break. In 1892 Gladstone formed his last government at the age of 82, the Second Home Rule Bill passed the Commons but was defeated in the Lords in 1893. Gladstone resigned in March 1894, in opposition to increased naval expenditure and he left Parliament in 1895 and died three years later aged 88. Gladstone was known affectionately by his supporters as The Peoples William or the G. O. M, Gladstone is consistently ranked as one of Britains greatest Prime Ministers. Born in 1809 in Liverpool, at 62 Rodney Street, William Ewart Gladstone was the son of the slave-owning merchant Sir John Gladstone. Although born and brought up in Liverpool, William Gladstone was of purely Scottish ancestry, in 1814 young Willy visited Scotland for the first time, as he and his brother John travelled with their father to Edinburgh, Biggar and Dingwall to visit their relatives. William and his brother were both made freemen of the burgh of Dingwall, in 1815 Gladstone also travelled to London and Cambridge for the first time with his parents. In London he attended a service of thanksgiving with his family at St Pauls Cathedral following the Battle of Waterloo, William Gladstone was educated from 1816 to 1821 at a preparatory school at the vicarage of St Thomass Church at Seaforth, close to his familys residence, Seaforth House. In December 1831 he achieved the double first-class degree he had long desired, Gladstone served as President of the Oxford Union debating society, where he developed a reputation as an orator, which followed him into the House of Commons. At university Gladstone was a Tory and denounced Whig proposals for parliamentary reform, following the success of his double first, William travelled with his brother John on a Grand Tour of Europe, visiting Belgium, France, Germany and Italy. On his return to England, William was elected to Parliament in 1832 as Tory Member of Parliament for Newark, partly through the influence of the local patron, the Duke of Newcastle
25.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864
26.
Benjamin Disraeli
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Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS was a British politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party, defining its policies. Disraeli is remembered for his voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal Party leader William Ewart Gladstone. He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the glory and he is the only British Prime Minister of Jewish birth. Disraeli was born in Bloomsbury, then part of Middlesex and his father left Judaism after a dispute at his synagogue, young Benjamin became an Anglican at the age of 12. After several unsuccessful attempts, Disraeli entered the House of Commons in 1837, in 1846 the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel split the party over his proposal to repeal the Corn Laws, which involved ending the tariff on imported grain. Disraeli clashed with Peel in the Commons, Disraeli became a major figure in the party. When Lord Derby, the party leader, thrice formed governments in the 1850s and 1860s and he also forged a bitter rivalry with Gladstone of the Liberal Party. Upon Derbys retirement in 1868, Disraeli became Prime Minister briefly before losing that years election and he returned to opposition, before leading the party to a majority in the 1874 election. He maintained a friendship with Queen Victoria, who in 1876 created him Earl of Beaconsfield. Disraelis second term was dominated by the Eastern Question—the slow decay of the Ottoman Empire, Disraeli arranged for the British to purchase a major interest in the Suez Canal Company. This diplomatic victory over Russia established Disraeli as one of Europes leading statesmen, World events thereafter moved against the Conservatives. Controversial wars in Afghanistan and South Africa undermined his public support and he angered British farmers by refusing to reinstitute the Corn Laws in response to poor harvests and cheap imported grain. With Gladstone conducting a speaking campaign, his Liberals bested Disraelis Conservatives in the 1880 election. In his final months, Disraeli led the Conservatives in opposition and he had throughout his career written novels, beginning in 1826, and he published his last completed novel, Endymion, shortly before he died at the age of 76. Disraeli was born on 21 December 1804 at 6 Kings Road, Bedford Row, Bloomsbury, London, the child and eldest son of Isaac DIsraeli, a literary critic and historian. The family was of Sephardic Jewish Italian mercantile background, All Disraelis grandparents and great grandparents were born in Italy, Isaacs father, Benjamin, moved to England from Venice in 1748. Disraelis siblings were Sarah, Naphtali, Ralph, and James and he was close to his sister, and on affectionate but more distant terms with his surviving brothers
27.
H.H. Asquith
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He had a central role in the design and passage of major liberal legislation. In August 1914, Asquith took the United Kingdom into the First World War, Asquiths father owned a small business but died when Asquith was seven. Asquith was educated at City of London School and Balliol College and he trained as a barrister and after a slow start to his career achieved great success. In 1886, he was adopted as Liberal candidate for East Fife, in 1892, he was appointed as Home Secretary in Gladstones fourth ministry, remaining in the post until the Liberals lost the 1895 election. In 1908, Asquith succeeded him as minister, with David Lloyd George as chancellor. With their first majority government since the 1880s, the Liberals were determined to advance their agenda, an impediment to this was the unelected House of Lords, dominated by the Conservatives. When Lloyd George proposed, and the House of Commons passed, the Peoples Budget of 1909, meanwhile the South Africa Act 1909 passed. Asquith called an election for January 1910, and the Liberals won, Asquith was less successful in dealing with Irish Home Rule. Repeated crises led to gun running and violence, verging on civil war, bitter rivalries inside and between the three major parties worsened when Asquith was unable to forge the coalition into a harmonious team. It was weakened by his own indecision over strategy, conscription, Lloyd George organised his overthrow and replaced him as Prime Minister in December 1916. Asquith remained as leader of the Liberal Party, but was unable to quell the internal conflict, the party rapidly declined in popularity and was ruined by the 1918 general election. Asquith accepted a peerage in 1925 and died, aged 75 and his roles in creating the modern British welfare state, 1906-1911 have been celebrated, but his weaknesses as a war leader and as a party leader after 1914 have been emphasised by historians. Asquith was born in Morley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the couple also had three daughters, of whom only one survived infancy. The Asquiths were an old Yorkshire family, with a long nonconformist tradition and it was a matter of family pride, shared by Asquith, that an ancestor, Joseph Asquith, was imprisoned for his part in the pro-Roundhead Farnley Wood Plot of 1664. Both Asquiths parents came from families associated with the Yorkshire wool trade, Dixon Asquith inherited the Gillroyd Mill Company, founded by his father. Emilys father, William Willans, ran a successful wool-trading business in Huddersfield, both families were middle-class, Congregationalist, and politically radical. Dixon was a man, cultivated and in his sons words not cut out for a business career. He was described as a man of character who held Bible classes for young men
28.
Aberdare
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Aberdare is a town in the Cynon Valley area of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, at the confluence of the Rivers Dare and Cynon. The population at the 2001 census was 31,705, Aberdare is 4 miles south-west of Merthyr Tydfil,20 miles north-west of Cardiff and 22 miles east-north-east of Swansea. During the 19th century it became an industrial settlement, which was also notable for the vitality of its cultural life. Aberdare dates from the Middle Ages and it was originally a small village in an agricultural district, centred around the Church of St John the Baptist, said to date from 1189. By the middle of the 15th century, Aberdare contained a mill in addition to a number of thatched cottages. Two major industries supported the growth of the community, first iron, a branch of the Glamorganshire Canal was used to transport these products, then the railway became the main means of transport to the South Wales coast. From the 1870s onwards, the economy of the town was dominated by the mining industry. There were also several brickworks and breweries, during the latter half of the 19th century, considerable improvements were made to the town, which became a pleasant place to live, despite the nearby collieries. A postgraduate theological college opened in connection with the Church of England in 1892, the services in the majority of the chapels were in Welsh. Most of these chapels have now closed, with many converted to other uses, the urban district includes what were once the separate villages of Aberaman, Abernant, Cwmaman, Cwmbach, Cwmdare, Llwydcoed, Penywaun and Trecynon. There are several cairns and the remains of a circular British encampment on the mountain between Aberdare and Merthyr. This population growth, a result of the growth of the coal trade was increasingly concentrated in the previously agricultural areas of Blaengwawr. Many of the came from the rural parts of west Wales which had been affected by an agricultural depression. Population levels continued to increase over the forty years, albeit with a small decline in the 1870s. The first decade of the 20th century saw a sharp increase, largely as a result of the steam coal trade. The population has declined owing to the loss of most of the heavy industry. Welsh was the prominent language until the mid 20th century and Aberdare was an important centre of Welsh language publishing, a large proportion of the early migrant population were Welsh speaking, and in 1851 only ten per cent of the population had been born outside of Wales. Griffiths meanwhile, was vicar of Merthyr in order to escape local anger
29.
Fascism
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Fascism /ˈfæʃɪzəm/ is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism that came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe. The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I, opposed to liberalism, Marxism, and anarchism, fascism is usually placed on the far-right within the traditional left–right spectrum. Fascists saw World War I as a revolution that brought changes to the nature of war, society, the state. The advent of war and the total mass mobilization of society had broken down the distinction between civilians and combatants. A military citizenship arose in which all citizens were involved with the military in some manner during the war, Fascism rejects assertions that violence is automatically negative in nature, and views political violence, war, and imperialism as means that can achieve national rejuvenation. Fascists advocate a mixed economy, with the goal of achieving autarky through protectionist and interventionist economic policies. Since the end of World War II in 1945, few parties have openly described themselves as fascist, the descriptions neo-fascist or post-fascist are sometimes applied more formally to describe parties of the far right with ideologies similar to, or rooted in, 20th century fascist movements. The Italian term fascismo is derived from fascio meaning a bundle of rods and this was the name given to political organizations in Italy known as fasci, groups similar to guilds or syndicates. According to Mussolinis own account, the Fascist Revolutionary Party was founded in Italy in 1915, in 1919, Mussolini founded the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento in Milan, which became the Partito Nazionale Fascista two years later. The symbolism of the fasces suggested strength through unity, a rod is easily broken. Similar symbols were developed by different fascist movements, for example, historians, political scientists, and other scholars have long debated the exact nature of fascism. Each interpretation of fascism is distinct, leaving many definitions too wide or narrow, according to many scholars, fascism—especially once in power—has historically attacked communism, conservatism and parliamentary liberalism, attracting support primarily from the far right. Roger Griffin describes fascism as a genus of political ideology whose mythic core in its various permutations is a form of populist ultranationalism. Griffin describes the ideology as having three components, the rebirth myth, populist ultra-nationalism and the myth of decadence. Fascism is a revolutionary, trans-class form of anti-liberal, and in the last analysis. Fascist Philosophies vary by application, but remain distinct by one theoretic commonality, all traditionally fall into the far-right sector of any political spectrum, catalyzed by afflicted class identities over conventional social inequities. John Lukacs, Hungarian-American historian and Holocaust survivor, argues there is no such thing as generic fascism. He claims that National Socialism and Communism are essentially manifestations of populism, Fascism was influenced by both left and right, conservative and anti-conservative, national and supranational, rational and anti-rational
30.
Nazi Party
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Its precursor, the German Workers Party, existed from 1919 to 1920. The party emerged from the German nationalist, racist, and populist Freikorps paramilitary culture, the party was created as a means to draw workers away from communism and into völkisch nationalism. Pseudo-scientific racism theories were central to Nazism, the Nazis propagated the idea of a peoples community. Their aim was to unite racially desirable Germans as national comrades, while excluding those deemed either to be political dissidents, to maintain the supposed purity and strength of the Aryan race, the Nazis sought to exterminate Jews, Romani, and the physically and mentally handicapped. They imposed exclusionary segregation on homosexuals, Africans, Jehovahs Witnesses, the partys leader since 1921, Adolf Hitler, was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. Hitler rapidly established a regime known as the Third Reich. The term Nazi derives from the name given in German to a party member Nationalsozialist and was coined in response to the German term Sozi, members of the party referred to themselves as Nationalsozialisten, rarely as Nazis. The term Parteigenosse was commonly used among Nazis, with the feminine form Parteigenossin used when it was appropriate, the term was in use before the rise of the party as a colloquial and derogatory word for a backward peasant, characterising an awkward and clumsy person. It derived from Ignaz, being a version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria. Opponents seized on this and shortened the name in intentional association to the long-time existing Sozi to the dismissive Nazi. In 1933, when Adolf Hitler assumed power of the German government, usage of the designation Nazi diminished in Germany, the use of Nazi Germany, and Nazi regime, was popularised by anti-Nazis and German exiles abroad. Thereafter, the spread into other languages and eventually was brought back to Germany after the Second World War. The party grew out of political groups with a nationalist orientation that formed in the last years of World War I. In 1918, a called the Freien Arbeiterausschuss für einen guten Frieden was created in Bremen. On 7 March 1918, Anton Drexler, an avid German nationalist, Drexler saw the situation of political violence and instability in Germany as the result of the new Weimar Republic being out-of-touch with the masses, especially the lower classes. These were all well-known themes popular with various Weimar paramilitary groups such as the Freikorps, though very small, Drexlers movement did receive attention and support from some influential figures. Supporter Dietrich Eckhart brought military figure Count Felix Graf von Bothmer, later in 1918, Karl Harrer, convinced Drexler and several others to form the Politischer Arbeiterzirkel. The members met periodically for discussions with themes of nationalism and racism directed against the Jews and they became one of many völkisch movements that existed in Germany at the time
31.
Neville Chamberlain
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Arthur Neville Chamberlain, PC, FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. However, when Adolf Hitler later invaded Poland, the UK declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939 and he declined a junior ministerial position, remaining a backbencher until 1922. He was rapidly promoted in 1923 to Minister of Health and then Chancellor of the Exchequer, after a short Labour-led government, he returned as Minister of Health, introducing a range of reform measures from 1924 to 1929. He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in the National Government in 1931, when Stanley Baldwin retired in May 1937, Chamberlain took his place as Prime Minister. His premiership was dominated by the question of policy toward the increasingly aggressive Germany and he was succeeded by Winston Churchill but remained very well regarded in Parliament, especially among Conservatives. Before ill health forced him to resign he was an important member of Churchills War Cabinet, Chamberlain died of cancer six months after leaving the premiership. Most historians in the generation following Chamberlains death held similar views, nevertheless, Chamberlain is still unfavourably ranked amongst British Prime Ministers. Chamberlain was born on 18 March 1869 in a house called Southbourne in the Edgbaston district of Birmingham and he was the only son of the second marriage of Joseph Chamberlain, who later became Mayor of Birmingham and a Cabinet minister. His mother was Florence Kenrick, cousin to William Kenrick MP, Joseph Chamberlain had had another son, Austen Chamberlain, by his first marriage. Neville Chamberlain was educated at Rugby School, Joseph Chamberlain then sent Neville to Mason College. Neville Chamberlain had little interest in his studies there, and in 1889 his father apprenticed him to a firm of accountants, within six months he became a salaried employee. In an effort to recoup diminished family fortunes, Joseph Chamberlain sent his son to establish a sisal plantation on Andros Island in the Bahamas. Neville Chamberlain spent six years there but the plantation was a failure, on his return to England, Neville Chamberlain entered business, purchasing Hoskins & Company, a manufacturer of metal ship berths. Chamberlain served as managing director of Hoskins for 17 years during which time the company prospered and he also involved himself in civic activities in Birmingham. At forty, Chamberlain was expecting to remain a bachelor, but in 1910 he fell in love with Anne Cole, a distant relative by marriage, the two had a son and a daughter. Chamberlain initially showed little interest in politics though his father and half-brother were in Parliament, during the Khaki election of 1900 he made speeches in support of Joseph Chamberlains Liberal Unionists. The Liberal Unionists were allied with the Conservatives and later merged them under the name Unionist Party. In 1911 Neville Chamberlain successfully stood as a Liberal Unionist for Birmingham City Council for the All Saints Ward, Chamberlain was made chairman of the Town Planning Committee
32.
Munich agreement
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The agreement was signed in the early hours of 30 September 1938 after being negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe, excluding the Soviet Union. Today, it is regarded as a failed act of appeasement toward Germany. The purpose of the conference was to discuss the future of the Sudetenland in the face of demands made by Adolf Hitler. The agreement was signed by Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Sudetenland was of immense strategic importance to Czechoslovakia, as most of its border defenses, and banks were situated there, as well as heavy industrial districts. Part of the borderland was invaded and annexed by Poland, the phrase Munich Betrayal is also used because the military alliance Czechoslovakia had with France and Britain proved useless and also known because of the phrase About us, without us. This phrase is most hurtful for people of Czechoslovakia, Today the document is typically referred to simply as the Munich Pact. In Germany the Sudeten crisis led to the so-called Oster Conspiracy, from 1918 to 1938, after the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, more than 3 million ethnic Germans were living in the Czech part of the newly created state of Czechoslovakia. Sudeten German pro-Nazi leader Konrad Henlein founded the Sudeten German Party that served as the branch of the Nazi Party for the Sudetenland. By 1935, the SdP was the second largest political party in Czechoslovakia as German votes concentrated on this party while Czech, on 24 April, the SdP issued a series of demands upon the government of Czechoslovakia, that were known as the Carlsbad Program. Among the demands, Henlein demanded autonomy for Germans living in Czechoslovakia, the Czechoslovakian government responded by saying that it was willing to provide more minority rights to the German minority but it refused to grant them autonomy. As the previous appeasement of Hitler had shown, the governments of both France and Britain were intent on avoiding war, the French government did not wish to face Germany alone and took its lead from the British government of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain considered the Sudeten German grievances justified and believed Hitlers intentions were limited, both Britain and France, therefore, advised Czechoslovakia to concede to Germanys demands. Beneš resisted and on 19 May initiated a partial mobilization in response to possible German invasion, while recognizing that this would still be insufficient for a full-scale naval war with Britain, Hitler hoped it would be a sufficient deterrent. Ten days later, Hitler signed a directive for war against Czechoslovakia. On 22 May, Juliusz Łukasiewicz, the Polish ambassador to France, told the French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet that if France moved against Germany in defense of Czechoslovakia, Łukasiewicz also told Bonnet that Poland would oppose any attempt by Soviet forces to defend Czechoslovakia from Germany. Daladier told Jakob Surits, the Soviet ambassador to France, Not only can we not count on Polish support but we have no faith that Poland will not strike us in the back. Hitlers adjutant, Fritz Wiedemann, recalled after the war that he was shocked by Hitlers new plans to attack Britain. In the meantime, the British government demanded that Beneš request a mediator, Not wishing to sever his governments ties with Western Europe, Beneš reluctantly accepted
33.
Libertarianism
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Libertarianism is a collection of political philosophies that uphold liberty as a core principle. Libertarians seek to maximize freedom and autonomy, emphasizing freedom of choice, voluntary association, individual judgment. Libertarians share a skepticism of authority and state power, however, they diverge on the scope of their opposition to existing political and economic systems. Various schools of libertarian thought offer a range of views regarding the functions of state and private power. Some libertarians advocate laissez-faire capitalism and strong private property rights, such as in land, infrastructure, an additional line of division is between minarchists and anarchists. While minarchists think that a centralized government is necessary, anarchists and anarcho-capitalists propose to completely eliminate the state. The first recorded use of the term libertarian was in 1789, the word was again used in a political sense in 1802, in a short piece critiquing a poem by the author of Gebir, and has since been used with this meaning. Déjacque also used the term for his anarchist publication Le Libertaire, Journal du Mouvement Social, in the mid-1890s, Sébastien Faure began publishing a new Le Libertaire while Frances Third Republic enacted the lois scélérates, which banned anarchist publications in France. Libertarianism has frequently used as a synonym for anarchism since this time. Although the word continues to be widely used to refer to socialists internationally. Libertarianism in the United States has been described as conservative on issues and liberal on personal freedom. There is contention about whether right, left, and socialist libertarianism represent distinct ideologies as opposed to variations on a theme, all libertarians begin with a conception of personal autonomy from which they argue in favor of civil liberties and a reduction or elimination of the state. Right-libertarianism developed in the United States in the century and is the most popular conception of libertarianism in that region. It is commonly referred to as a continuation or radicalization of classical liberalism, right-libertarians value the social institutions that enforce conditions of capitalism, while rejecting institutions that function in opposition to these institutions. These may be the byproducts of conservatism, one or more of its historically specific, but they are not its animating purpose. Such a view might seem miles away from the defense of the free market, with its celebration of the atomistic. When the libertarian looks out upon society, he does not see isolated individuals, he sees private, often hierarchical, groups, where a father governs his family and an owner his employees. Left-libertarianism encompasses those libertarian beliefs that claim the Earths natural resources belong to everyone in a manner, either unowned or owned collectively
34.
Harold Macmillan
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Nicknamed Supermac, he was known for his pragmatism, wit and unflappability. Macmillan served in the Grenadier Guards during the First World War and he was wounded three times, most severely in September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. He spent the rest of the war in a hospital unable to walk. After the war Macmillan joined his business, then entered Parliament in the 1924 General Election. After losing his seat in 1929, he regained it in 1931, soon after which he spoke out against the rate of unemployment in Stockton-On-Tees. When Eden resigned in 1957 after the Suez Crisis, Macmillan succeeded him as Prime Minister, benefiting from favourable international conditions, he presided over an age of affluence, marked by low unemployment and high if uneven growth. In his Bedford speech in July 1957 he told the nation they had never had it so good, the Conservatives were re-elected in 1959 with an increased majority on an electioneering budget. In international affairs, Macmillan rebuilt the special relationship with the United States from the wreckage of the Suez Crisis, after his resignation, Macmillan lived out a long retirement as an elder statesman. He was as trenchant a critic of his successors in his old age as he had been of his predecessors in his youth and he had two brothers, Daniel, eight years his senior, and Arthur, four years his senior. His paternal grandfather, Daniel MacMillan, who founded Macmillan publishing, was the son of a Scottish crofter from Isle of Arran, Macmillan claimed to remember Queen Victorias Diamond Jubilee, which occurred in 1897, but his memory seems to his biographer suspiciously similar to Philip Guedallas account. He remembered Queen Victoria’s funeral, the Relief of Mafeking and the victory of the “gallant little Japs” against the Russians at Tsushima, Macmillan received an intensive early education, closely guided by his American mother. He learned French at home every morning from a succession of nursery maids, from the age of six or seven he received introductory lessons in classical Latin and Greek at Mr Gladstones day school, close by in Sloane Square. Macmillan attended Summer Fields School, Oxford and he won an exhibition to Balliol, but was less of a scholar than his older brother Dan. He went up to Balliol College, Oxford, where he joined many political societies and his political opinions at this stage were an eclectic mix of moderate Conservatism, moderate Liberalism and Fabian Socialism. He read avidly about Disraeli, but was particularly impressed by a speech by Lloyd George at the Oxford Union Society in 1913. He obtained a First in Honours Moderations, informally known as Mods, with his final exams over two years away, he enjoyed an idyllic Trinity term at Oxford, just before the outbreak of the First World War. No such ball has been traced, and the Archduke’s murder was not announced in the British Press until 2 July, promoted to lieutenant on 30 January 1915, he soon transferred to the Grenadier Guards. He fought on the front lines in France, where the casualty rate was known to be high, as was the probability of an early and he served with distinction as a captain and was wounded on three occasions
35.
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
