Leaders
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The unknown Prime Minister
Review of Ferdinand Mount, Umbrella (Heinemann, 1994).
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The election of Jeremy Thorpe to the Liberal leadership
The first phase of the Liberal postwar revival came to an end with the resignation of Jo Grimond as leader. Tim Beaumont recalls the election of his successor.
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Jo Grimond’s leadership of the Liberal Party
‘The personification and the hope of postwar Liberalism.’ The record of Jo Grimond.
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Roy Jenkins remembered
Appreciation of the life of Roy Jenkins (Lord Jenkins of Hillhead), who died on 5 January 2003.
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Roy Jenkins (Lord Jenkins), 1920-2003
Roy Jenkins played a significant role in developing and articulating a new progressive vision of social, political and constitutional change. His reforms at the Home Office helped to transform Britain into a more modern, more civilised society. He was a successful, if orthodox, Chancellor of the Exchequer. He played an important and consistent role in…
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Jeremy Thorpe, 1929-2014
The infamy of Jeremy Thorpe’s downfall unfairly colours all else in his life. Thorpe was a stylish, progressive and popular politician. Under his leadership the Liberal Party won more votes than ever before or since at a general election and helped drive legislation taking Britain into the European Community through a divided Parliament. But the…
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Charles James Fox, 1749-1806
[…]His first years as an MP were marked by a conservative, even reactionary, attitude. […. What] marked his shift to support the Whigs and reform of the system of government were, first, the Royal Marriage Bill, and then the American War of Independence. […] When the Royal Marriage Bill attempted to restrict, at George III’s…
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David Lloyd George
Owen Lloyd George, the present and 3rd Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor, the grandson of Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George, will speak about his famous ancestor at the Kettner Lunch (organised jointly together with the Liberal Democrat History Group) to be held at the National Liberal Club on 15th April. The lunch takes place…
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Clement Davies Liberal Party Saviour?
Clement Davies led the Liberal Party from 1945 to 1956. During that time, the party came very close to dying out but it survived. He turned down Churchills offer of a government position and in so doing preserved the partys integrity. His tenure was as long as that of Jo Grimond, the hero of modern…