Download or read book The Political Lives of Postwar British MPs written by Emma Peplow and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-08-06 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Parliament is Britain's most important political institution, yet its workings remain obscure to academics and the wider public alike. MPs are often seen as 'out of touch' or 'all the same' and their individual motivations, achievements and regrets remain in the background of party politics. In this book, Emma Peplow and Priscila Pivatto draw on the History of Parliament Trust's collection of oral history interviews with postwar British MPs to highlight their diverse political experiences in Parliament. Featuring extracts from a collection of interviews with over 160 former MPs who sat from the 1950s until the 2000s, The Political Lives of Postwar British MPs gives a voice to those MPs' stories. It explores why they became interested in politics, how they found their seat and fought election campaigns, what it felt like to speak in the chamber and how their class or gender dictated their experiences at Westminster. In the process, readers will be given rare glimpse into the spaces inhabited by MPs, the political rivalries and friendships and the rising and falling of their careers. With accounts from MPs of all political stripes, from the well-known like David Owen and Ann Taylor to those who sat for just a few years such as Denis Coe; from old political families like Douglas Hurd to those like Maria Fyfe who felt themselves outsiders, this book provides deep insight into the political lives of MPs in our age.

Download or read book Red Ellen written by Laura Beers and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2016-10-10 with total page 569 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1908 Ellen Wilkinson, a fiery adolescent from a working-class family in Manchester, was “the only girl who talks in school debates.” By midcentury, Wilkinson had helped found Britain’s Communist Party, earned a seat in Parliament, and become a renowned advocate for the poor and dispossessed at home and abroad. She was one of the first female delegates to the United Nations, and she played a central role in Britain’s postwar Labour government. In Laura Beers’s account of Wilkinson’s remarkable life, we have a richly detailed portrait of a time when Left-leaning British men and women from a range of backgrounds sought to reshape domestic, imperial, and international affairs. Wilkinson is best remembered as the leader of the Jarrow Crusade, the 300-mile march of two hundred unemployed shipwrights and steelworkers to petition the British government for assistance. But this was just one small part of Red Ellen’s larger transnational fight for social justice. She was involved in a range of campaigns, from the quest for official recognition of the Spanish Republican government, to the fight for Indian independence, to the effort to smuggle Jewish refugees out of Germany. During Wilkinson’s lifetime, many British radicals viewed themselves as members of an international socialist community, and some, like her, became involved in socialist, feminist, and pacifist movements that spanned the globe. By focusing on the extent to which Wilkinson’s activism transcended Britain’s borders, Red Ellen adjusts our perception of the British Left in the early twentieth century.

Download or read book Parliament Buildings written by Sophia Psarra and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2023-10-30 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As political polarisation undermines confidence in the shared values and established constitutional orders of many nations, it is imperative that we explore how parliaments are to stay relevant and accessible to the citizens whom they serve. The rise of modern democracies is thought to have found physical expression in the staged unity of the parliamentary seating plan. However, the built forms alone cannot give sufficient testimony to the exercise of power in political life. Parliament Buildings brings together architecture, history, art history, history of political thought, sociology, behavioural psychology, anthropology and political science to raise a host of challenging questions. How do parliament buildings give physical form to norms and practices, to behaviours, rituals, identities and imaginaries? How are their spatial forms influenced by the political cultures they accommodate? What kinds of histories, politics and morphologies do the diverse European parliaments share, and how do their political trajectories intersect? This volume offers an eclectic exploration of the complex nexus between architecture and politics in Europe. Including contributions from architects who have designed or remodelled four parliament buildings in Europe, it provides the first comparative, multi-disciplinary study of parliament buildings across Europe and across history. Praise for Parliament Buildings ‘In its totality, this is an invaluable book, both as a comprehensive review of the wider implications of architecture and building in culture and society, and as a specific resource in the understanding of one highly specialised, but profoundly significant building type.’ Dean Hawkes, Cardiff University and University of Cambridge ‘Symbols of history and of hope, theatres of struggle, cradles of consensus: parliamentary buildings, as these diverse essays show, both reflect our democracies and can help them function better.’ David Anderson, House of Lords ‘Parliament Buildings is a brilliant interdisciplinary exploration of a fascinating topic. Theoretically sophisticated, empirically rich and historically informed, it demonstrates the multiple ways in which politics and the built environment intersect, and sheds light on the symbolic and material practices central to contemporary representative politics.’ Duncan Bell, University of Cambridge

Download or read book Westminster s World written by Donald Searing and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Policy Advocates to Whips to Ministers, the many roles within the British Parliament are shaped not only by institutional rules but also by the individuals who fill them, yet few observers have fully appreciated this vital aspect of governing in one of the world's oldest representative systems. Applying a new motivational role theory to materials from extensive first-hand interviews conducted during the eventful 1970s, Donald Searing deepens our understanding of how Members of Parliament understand their goals, their careers, and their impact on domestic and global issues. He explores how Westminster's world both controls and is created by individuals, illuminating the interplay of institutional constraints and individual choice in shaping roles within the political arena. No other book tells us so much about political life at Westminster. Searing has interviewed 521 Members of Parliament--including Conservative Ministers Margaret Thatcher, Peter Walker, and James Prior; Labour Ministers Harold Wilson, Barbara Castle, and Denis Healey; rising stars Michael Heseltine, Norman Tebbitt, David Owen, and Roy Hattersley; habitual outsiders, like Michael Foot, who eventually joined the inner circle; and former insiders, like Enoch Powell, who were shut out. Searing also gives voice to the vast number of Westminster's backbenchers, who play a key part in shaping political roles in Parliament but are less likely to be heard in the media: trade unionists, knights of the shires, owners of small businesses, and others. In this segment of his study, women, senior backbenchers, and newcomers are well represented. Searing adroitly blends quantitative with qualitative analysis and integrates social and economic theories about political behavior. He addresses concerns about power, duty, ambition, and representation, and skillfully joins these concerns with his critical discoveries about the desires, beliefs, and behaviors associated with roles in Parliament. Westminster's World offers political scientists, historians, anthropologists, political commentators, and the public rich new material about the House of Commons as well as a convincing model for understanding the structure and dynamics of political roles.

Download or read book Alice in Westminster written by Rachel Reeves and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-11-30 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alice Bacon was one of the twentieth-century's most remarkable female politicians. Born and raised in the Yorkshire town of Normanton, she defied the odds to be elected Labour MP for Leeds North East in the 1945 General Election. Famed in her home town for her unlikely love of sports cars, she was a much-respected, no-nonsense, hard-working representative for her beloved Yorkshire home in Westminster. Mentored by Herbert Morrison and Hugh Gaitskell, she rose through the party becoming a Home Office minister under Roy Jenkins and latterly an Education Minister with responsibility for the introduction of comprehensive schools. In the Home Office in the 1960s she oversaw the introduction of substantial societal changes, including the abolition of the death penalty, the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the legalisation of abortion. Her political career spanned some of the most momentous decades in Britain's postwar history and she played an integral part in some of the most significant social, educational and political changes which the country has ever witnessed.Labour MP Rachel Reeves here tells Alice Bacon's story, narrating one woman's extraordinary progression from the coalfields to the Commons.

Download or read book The 1922 Committee written by Philip Norton and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2023-10-17 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Conservative Private Members (1922) Committee is an important but elusive force in British politics. Despite becoming almost a household name during the leadership crises of 2022, it remains little understood beyond the corridors of Westminster. Established in 1923 by a group of Conservative MPs elected the year before, the Committee offers backbenchers an opportunity to discuss their views and coordinate independently of the frontbench. Over time it has become the kingmaker of the Conservative Party, overseeing leadership elections and confidence votes such as that faced by Boris Johnson over ‘partygate’. How did the Committee come together? How is it structured and how much power does it really wield? These are among the questions the book considers. Providing unprecedented insights into this long-standing institution, it is essential reading for anyone who cares about the integrity of our political system.

Download or read book The Establishment written by Owen Peter Jones and published by Melville House Publishing. This book was released on 2015 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published: London: Allen Lane/Penguin Books, 2014.

Download or read book The British Dream written by David Goodhart and published by Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2013-07-01 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The British Dream, David Goodhart tells the story of postwar immigration and charts a course for its future. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with people from all over the country and a wealth of statistical evidence, he paints a striking picture of how Britain has been transformed by immigration and examines the progress of its ethnic minorities—projected to be around 25 per cent of the population by the early 2020s. Britain today is a more open society for minorities than ever before, but it is also a more fragmented one. Goodhart argues that an overzealous multiculturalism has exacerbated this problem by reinforcing difference instead of promoting a common life. The multi-ethnic success of Team GB at the 2012 Olympics and a taste for chicken tikka masala are not, he suggests, sufficient to forge common bonds; Britain needs a political culture of integration. Goodhart concludes that if Britain is to avoid a narrowing of the public realm and sharply segregated cities, as in many parts of the U.S., its politicians and opinion leaders must do two things. Firstly, as advocated by the center right, they need to bring immigration down to more moderate and sustainable levels. Secondly, as advocated by the center left, they need to shape a progressive national story about openness and opportunity, one that captures how people of different traditions are coming together to make the British dream.

Download or read book The Beatles and Sixties Britain written by Marcus Collins and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-05 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this rigorous study, Marcus Collins reconceives the Beatles' social, cultural and political impact on sixties Britain.

Download or read book New Perspectives on Power and Political Representation from Ancient History to the Present Day written by Harm Kaal and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines modes of political communication between rulers and ruled from antiquity to the present by applying the concept of representation. It explores the dynamic relationship between elites and the people which is shaped by self-representation and representative claims.

Download or read book The Left Case for Brexit written by Richard Tuck and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-04-09 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Liberal left orthodoxy holds that Brexit is a disastrous coup, orchestrated by the hard right and fuelled by xenophobia, which will break up the Union and turn what’s left of Britain into a neoliberal dystopia. Richard Tuck’s ongoing commentary on the Brexit crisis demolishes this narrative. He argues that by opposing Brexit and throwing its lot in with a liberal constitutional order tailor-made for the interests of global capitalists, the Left has made a major error. It has tied itself into a framework designed to frustrate its own radical policies. Brexit therefore actually represents a golden opportunity for socialists to implement the kind of economic agenda they have long since advocated. Sadly, however, many of them have lost faith in the kind of popular revolution that the majoritarian British constitution is peculiarly well-placed to deliver and have succumbed instead to defeatism and the cultural politics of virtue-signalling. Another approach is, however, still possible. Combining brilliant contemporary political insights with a profound grasp of the ironies of modern history, this book is essential for anyone who wants a clear-sighted assessment of the momentous underlying issues brought to the surface by Brexit.

Download or read book NYE written by Nick Thomas-Symonds and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aneurin – Nye – Bevan was one of the pivotal Labour Party figures of the post-war era in Britain. As Minister for Health in Attlee's government, his role in the foundation of the National Health Service, the world's largest publically-funded health service, changed the face of British society forever. The son of a coal miner from South Wales, Bevan was a life-long champion of social justice and the rights of working people, as such becoming one of the leading proponents of Socialist thought in Britain. In this book, acclaimed author Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds provides the first full biography of Bevan in over two decades. Drawing on first-hand interviews as well as recently released sources, he provides a unique portrait of one of the great British statesmen of the twentieth century.

Download or read book Heroic Failure written by Fintan O'Toole and published by Apollo. This book was released on 2019-09 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A wildly entertaining but uncomfortable read ... Pitilessly brilliant' JONATHAN COE. 'There will not be much political writing in this or any other year that is carried off with such style' The Times. A TIMESBOOK OF THE YEAR. 'A quite brilliant dissection of the cultural roots of the Brexit narrative'David Miliband. 'Hugely entertaining and engrossing'Roddy Doyle. 'Best book about the English that I've read for ages'Billy Bragg. A fierce, mordantly funny and perceptive book about the act of national self-harm known as Brexit. A great democratic country tears itself apart, and engages in the dangerous pleasures of national masochism. Trivial journalistic lies became far from trivial national obsessions; the pose of indifference to truth and historical fact came to define the style of an entire political elite; a country that once had colonies redefined itself as an oppressed nation requiring liberation. Fintan O'Toole also discusses the fatal attraction of heroic failure, once a self-deprecating cult in a hugely successful empire that could well afford the occasional disaster. Now failure is no longer heroic - it is just failure, and its terrible costs will be paid by the most vulnerable of Brexit's supporters. A new afterword lays out the essential reforms that are urgently needed if England is to have a truly democratic future and stable relations with its nearest neighbours.

Download or read book UK Government and Politics for AS A level Fifth Edition written by Philip Lynch and published by Philip Allan. This book was released on 2017-08-29 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exam Board: AQA, Edexcel, OCR & WJEC Level: A-level Subject: Politics First Teaching: September 2017 First Exam: June 2018 Inspire political thinking with our bestselling politics textbook and help students get their best grade with political commentary and analysis; , fully updated the new 2017 specifications and including coverage of the June 2017 general election results. Covering key topics for all exam boards, this textbook puts politics in context with topical analysis of politics today and how UK governmental and political history shaped current events and thinking. - Extend knowledge and improve key skills with comprehensive coverage and analysis of relevant political developments, including the 2017 snap election, possible consequences of Brexit, and its effect on Scottish independence - Understand how different topics within the A-level link together with the new Synoptic Links feature - Develop key analysis and evaluation skills with activities and case studies throughout the textbook - look out for Debate, Case Study and Activity boxes - Clarify knowledge and understanding of political language with summaries and explanations of key terms - Test and develop understanding of key topics with exam focus sections tailored to the new Politics specifications

Download or read book A Fortunate Life written by Paddy Ashdown and published by Aurum. This book was released on 2010-09-25 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paddy Ashdown’s autobiography was hailed as one of the most readable and exciting political life stories ever written of all – precisely because it was so very much more. This is the autobiography of an old-fashioned Man of Action, an adventurer, to be compared more readily to Fitzroy Maclean than David Steel. Ashdown’s years as MP for Yeovil and leader of the Liberal Democrats pale alongside his time as a Royal Marine Commando, in the Special Boat squadron, as a spy, on military service in Northern Ireland and Indonesia, and then subsequently – perhaps his finest and most heroic role, as the UN’s High representative in war-torn Bosnia. As one reviewer remarked: “This must be the first political memoir to offer advice on the best way to execute a jungle ambush and on how to treat an open wound using red ants.” Ashdown’s appeal – which explains this books’s hardback bestseller status – is that he transcends party political allegiances, and is seen as a genuinely honest and decent man unafraid to take on the hardest challenges.

Download or read book Black British Lives Matter written by Lenny Henry and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring essays from David Olusoga, Dawn Butler MP, Kit de Waal, Kwame Kwei-Armah, and many more.In response to the international outcry at George Floyd's death, Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder have commissioned this collection of essays to discuss how and why we need to fight for Black lives to matter - not just for Black people but for society as a whole.Recognising Black British experience within the Black Lives Matter movement, nineteen prominent Black figures explain why Black lives should be celebrated when too often they are undervalued. Drawing from personal experience, they stress how Black British people have unique perspectives and experiences that enrich British society and the world; how Black lives are far more interesting and important than the forces that try to limit it."We achieve everything not because we are superhuman. We achieve the things we achieve because we are human. Our strength does not come from not having any weaknesses, our strength comes from overcoming them" Doreen Lawrence."I always presumed racism would always be here, that it was a given. But the truth is, it was not always here, it was invented." David Olusoga"Our identity and experience will shape every story, bleed into every poem, inform every essay whether it's about Black 'issues' or not" Kit de Waal

Download or read book Enoch Powell and the Making of Postcolonial Britain written by Camilla Schofield and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-03 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enoch Powell's explosive rhetoric against black immigration and anti-discrimination law transformed the terrain of British race politics and cast a long shadow over British society. Using extensive archival research, Camilla Schofield offers a radical reappraisal of Powell's political career and insists that his historical significance is inseparable from the political generation he sought to represent. Enoch Powell and the Making of Postcolonial Britain follows Powell's trajectory from an officer in the British Raj to the centre of British politics and, finally, to his turn to Ulster Unionism. She argues that Powell and the mass movement against 'New Commonwealth' immigration that he inspired shed light on Britain's war generation, popular understandings of the welfare state and the significance of memories of war and empire in the making of postcolonial Britain. Through Powell, Schofield illuminates the complex relationship between British social democracy, racism and the politics of imperial decline in Britain.