ADMINISTRATION

Education Act 1902

education acts

The act that provided for the provision of LEA Local Education Authority system and was also a catlyst in encouraging the development of Higher Education.

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Appeasement as Pragmatic Policy

Appeasement Policy, why did it have any credibility in Neville Chamberlain’s eyes? Could he really believe Hitler wanted peace and when it did unravel was he really surprised and ill-prepared? Would Churchill have handled this period any better and with the position Britain found itself in at that particular point could Churchill really have fared any better by outright confrontation before 3rd Sept 1939?

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Neville Chamberlain Prime Minister

Neville Chamberlain made an error of judgement it is offten argued in seeking a path of appeasement and in particular by seeking to sacrifice other smaller countries in negotiations with Hitler i order to seek to avoid entangling Britain in a further costly war both in human and economic terms that it was currently ill-equipped to fight whilst still recovering from WW1 and the difficult period between the wars that had been book-ended by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and the Depression of the early 1930s. In this series we ask questions of wider Britain and its easy criticism of Chamberlain, who was damned for a short period of a career that had largely bee dedicated to public service. But was he individually to blame or part of a wider political history of Britain which wrongly and rashly seeks to attribute blame to a single man, even the Prime Minister. The outcome of war with Hitler may not have changed irrespective of Chamberlain’s actions but would we have been better prepared and avoided some of the early errors in WW2 when Britain as a nation was so ill-prepared for war?

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Arthur James Balfour Prime Minister 1902-1905

This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series British Prime Ministers

Arthur James Balfour was a Prime Minister cut from the old aristocratic mould, an intelligent man who perhaps lacked emotional intelligence to match. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, nephew of Lord Salisbury, his mother’s brother. He would serve in coalition during WWI alongside Lloyd George more than strange bed-fellows. It was then that his now infamous Balfour Declaration would be declared and continues to cited as the root cause of the troubles between the Arab and Zionist causes in Palestine. and modern Israel. Unsuccessful Prime Ministers can be even more important it would seem than those that succeed and the failures may also be greatest when they are no longer in the top job.

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Corn Laws Economic History and Big Data

This entry is part 1 of 15 in the series Reformers and Radicals
This entry is part 1 of 7 in the series Poor Law through the Ages

Learn a little and want to know more then this video by Cambridge University Expert D’Mariss Coffman can help. Find out how this humble grain and cereal returns lead to the “birth of political economy” and the start of Big Data as evidence for economic outcomes. Lecture given as part of the excellent Gresham College series.

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Winston Churchills Legacy a balanced perspective

This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series Winston Churchill polymath

How can you get a balanced view and perspective about this British Prime Minister and what his real legacy is on this (2015) the 50th Anniversary of Winston Churchill’s state funeral. The historians and politician’s literature never mind Winston’s own writings are huge. He never did a single TV interview Professor Vernon Bogdanor does us all proud with this excellent video lecture, in his roles as Emeritus Professor of Law and Visiting Professor of Political History at the excellent Gresham College find a little time and get an excellent balanced view and appraisal of the legacy left to us all by Winston Churchill.

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Winston Churchill 50th Anniversary Tribute

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Winston Churchill polymath

The start of a series of some facets of Winston Churchill and his intriguing connections, the character of the man himself his triumphs and failures, his polymorphic abilities, science, writing, oratory excellence, the people he knew and what he thought about them and vice versa. Simply one of the most intriguing men in at least British 20th century history, he had his failing but packed huge amounts in to a life of extremes and huge contrasts. What can we find and connect as a series on the intriguing people he was involved with, how he promoted and developed science and technology throughout his career and a little colour about the character of the man.

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Treaty of Troyes 1420

Treaties for peace, to resolve conflict, seal a marriage, create trade opportunities or simply to fuel naked ambition of a king? Treaty of Troyes a wedding and a truce for England or does it seal the fate of the House of Lancaster, see the sun set on York and an early dawn for a new dynasty the Tudors? Sounds far-fetched? Read-on since when did a Treaty actually create the conditions for lasting peace? Part 1 of a series of posts on Treaties and the Trouble that lies ahead.

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Night Will Fall Harrowing but Excellent Holocaust Documentary

Night will Fall Holocaust Documentary based on the 1945 Documentary film documenting the aftermath of the German Concentration Camps now being screened after a 6 year project by the Imperial War Museum to complete the original film in accordance with the script and sequences which involved film makers of the allies including Alfred Hitchcock, Bernstein the British Director, Richard Crossman’s script and narration and Richard Dimbleby father of the current broadcasters David and Jonathan. The document is a must watch but make sure you are braced to witness records made in the raw as allied forces went into the camps and witnessed for themselves the consequences of the crimes committed in the name of Germany. It should be required watching for Holocaust deniers.

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Battle of of Lewes 1264

Battle of lewes 2nd Barons War with Simon de Montfort

Calamity during The Barons Wars,for the royalists, de Montfort humiliates the crown and takes possession of the King, Heir and kingdom but for how long?

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