Churchill, Mosley, Powell, Prentice, Owen, Berkeley, Taverne…There are the awkward men of principle. Those whose parties have changed radically. And the lost souls.
The Iron Curtain crumbled in Eastern Europe. De Klerk took power in South Africa. The birth of the internet loomed…and the beginning of the end loomed for Mrs Thatcher.
What would the result have been of a 1914/15 poll – in a Britain that sometimes seemed to be on the verge of civil war?
Camden, Haringey, Lambeth, Wandsworth…. At the age of 50, they now seem natural units and alternatives are hard to imagine.
Our monthly history columnist says that the man who Edward Heath later beat for the leadership almost pulled it off.
Long-range phone calls, premium bonds, parking meters, yellow pavement lines, summary traffic penalties…his hand was in them all.
If Heath had won in February 1974, there would have been a deal with the unions, faster Euro-integration…and no Thatcherism?
From an alleged member of ‘The Cult of the Clitoris’ to the Anti-Waste League, insurgents on the right flowered in the inter-war period.
1923-24 reminds one of the intricate relationship between conservatism, liberalism and the Conservative Party, a story that is far from over.
Or: how a newly-minted commoner was endorsed by a Perthshire electorate.