In some ways, Tom Williams was an unlikely hero of British agricultural workers. After all, as a coal miner, he was associated with heavy industry before entering parliament for the Don Valley seat in 1922. As a cabinet minister, however, he made his name at agriculture, a post he held throughout the period of Clement …

The concept of the ‘lost leader’ is a recurring idea in political history. In 1997, Edward Pearce’s The Lost Leaders: The Best Prime Ministers We Never Had considered the Conservatives’ RA Butler and Iain Macleod and Labour’s Denis Healey. Will Crooks was not, however, a politician who found himself at the top of the greasy …

Nothing demonstrates the importance of the right to vote more than a consideration of the sacrifices of previous generations to obtain it. This month, April 2013, marks the 100-year anniversary of the passing of Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913. Passed by the Liberal government of 1905-15, it was extraordinarily illiberal. On 3 …

The performance of UKIP in the Eastleigh by-election has generated a great deal of comment in recent days. The party took 27.8 per cent of the votes cast on 28 February 2013, and beat David Cameron’s Conservatives into third place. The Liberal Democrats won the by-election with a record low vote in the postwar era …

‘Markets understand the need for more public investment in infrastructure.’  No, this is not a quotation from John Maynard Keynes. Neither is it a quotation from Paul Krugman. Remarkably, it is a quotation from an editorial in The Times on 26 January 2013. This is significant. The Times, which has been fairly positive towards the …

The US presidential election of 2012 was heartening for progressives, not only because of the re-election of Barack Obama, but also because it showed that a left-of-centre administration could win an election in the current economic climate. In addition, it illustrated that the Republican party is totally out of step with modern America. The Republican …

Two months ago, when Ed Miliband claimed the ‘One Nation’ mantle for the Labour party, there was always a possibility that David Cameron could seek to reclaim it, with both the Conservative party conference and the chancellor’s autumn statement providing ideal opportunities. However, there is little danger of George Osborne being thought an heir of …

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat government’s open attack on the legal rights of workers has taken many forms, from watering down the law on unfair dismissal, to offering shares in exchange for rights, to introducing tribunal fees to act as a deterrent to workers bringing claims. Yet their latest move is so far-reaching, it turns back the …

Ed Miliband’s choice of ‘One Nation’ as the theme of his 2012 Labour party conference speech captured the moment. The note-less delivery was excellent and effective, and the concept of national unity has run through the great sporting summer of 2012, typified by ‘Team GB’ and the 65 Olympic and 120 Paralympic medals won by …

The preamble to the Parliament Act of 1911 described it as an ‘interim measure’ until such times as the second chamber could be constituted on popular basis rather than the hereditary basis. The act’s major change to the power of the House of Lords, to a delaying, rather than an absolute, veto, remains in place, …