Rows, plots, leaks, secret deals, an inquiry, debates in Parliament and the loss of the Defence Secretary – all over “a company with a capitalisation of only £30 million”.
Is he a Salisbury or a Baldwin, a Disraeli or a Thatcher?
Nearly every observer expected the same result – a Conservative win with a reduced majority. This as found to be in error when the votes were counted.
From the point of view of 1945, the British political world of 1938-39 looked tawdry, and cowardly, but as far as we can tell the majority of people liked it at the time.
The poll of that year set up a future of competitive politics between two large, moderate parties with broad churches of support and solid institutional foundations.
Sixty years ago both main parties found themselves exploring completely new approaches to politics.
He defeated the favourite, Reggie Maudling. And ever since, when offered a choice, the Tories have gone with the less familiar face among the main candidates.
We cannot know yet whether 2015 was the start of a new ascendancy or whether, like 1900, it is an anomaly that posterity hardly notices.
Think of today’s two main parties led in 2015 by Nicholas Soames and Denis Healey and you are part of the way there.
Most produce results that are more or less what a reader of opinion polls and other electoral data might have anticipated a few months in advance.
The former ground the Commons to a halt in his campaign for Home Rule. That wouldn’t be so easy for the SNP. But they will make their presence felt…
Elevating FPTP to the status of a Tory principle would be a historical, and perhaps also a historic, mistake.
The classic pattern of Government honeymoon, mid-term discontent and Government recovery happens less often than one might believe.
The Conservatives are stronger in the new towns, weaker in some some suburbs and more concentrated in the South-East – the cause and effect of changes in the party.
Events then hold some uncomfortable echoes of today’s politics. What, if anything, can we learn?