LiberalHistoryToday@LibHistoryToday

Discussion and research on histories of the Lib Dems and predecessors, Liberal Party and SDP, and of Liberalism. Publish quarterly Journal of Liberal History.

 United Kingdom
liberalhistory.org.uk/
Joined February 2013
135 Photos and videos
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Liberal Democrat History Group

The Liberal Democrat History Group promotes the discussion and research of topics relating to the histories of the British Liberal Democrats and its predecessor parties, the Liberal Party and the...

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#OTD 1929 1/2 - Death of George Jackson Bentham. Bentham served as Liberal MP for Gainsborough, Lincolnshire from 1910-1918. The previous Liberal MP Leslie Renton who gained the seat from the Conservatives rapidly fell out with his party and, in 1907, left the Liberals and...
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2/2 -...joined the Liberal Unionists. In the election of January 1910, Renton chose not to fight the seat & Jackson won in a straight fight against the Conservatives. In 1918, Jackson fought the seat but lost to a Coalition Conservative. Bentham then retired from active politics.
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#OTD 1939 1/4 - Death of James Scott, lawyer and Liberal MP for Kincardine and West Aberdeen 1929-31. Scott had a distinguished legal career serving as a solicitor to the Supreme Courts of Scotland and a member of the interestingly named Game and Heather Burning Committee.
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3/4 - Scott was selected to contest Perth in 1934 but the following year when a by-election arose in the constituency Scott was controversially de-selected in favour of Francis Norrie-Miller, a Liberal National, in return for Tory support.
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4/4 - Despite an intervention from Liberal Party HQ in support of Scott, the local Liberals refused to budge and Scott stood down and Norrie-Miller was elected.
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#OTD 1865 1/3 - Following the sudden death of Lord Palmerston, Queen Victoria asks Earl Russell to form his second administration. Russell made few changes to Palmerston's cabinet. The Earl of Clarendon succeeded Russell at the Foreign Office and George Goschen...
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2/3 - ...entered the cabinet for the first time as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Russell's key policy during his short-lived ministry was to fulfil his commitment to extend the franchise. Unfortunately for Russell his proposals did not command the full support of the...
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3/3 -...Liberal Party and was opposed by the 'Adullamites' led by Robert Lowe. They allied with the Conservatives and in June 1866 the reform bill was defeated. In the wake of the defeat Russell resigned after just nine months in office.
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LiberalHistoryToday retweeted
Lee David Evans
@LeeDavidEvansUK
Oct 27
Interesting thread on Churchill's big, bold offer to bring the Liberal leader into his Cabinet in 1951. The Liberals' refusal paved the way for Florence Horsburgh to become Minister of Education, and subsequently the first Conservative woman Cabinet minister.
LiberalHistoryToday@LibHistoryToday
Oct 27
#OTD 1951 1/4 -Liberal Party leader Clement Davies meets newly elected Conservative Prime Minister Winston Churchill at Churchill's London home at Hyde Park Gate. The meeting was to discuss Churchill's offer to include Davies in his cabinet as Minister for Education...
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#OTD 1928 1/3 - Happy birthday to Bill Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank. First elected as Labour MP for Stockton-on-Tees at a by-election in 1962, Rodgers served in the governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, entering the cabinet in 1976 as Secretary of State...
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2/3 - ...for Transport. In 1981, along with Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and David Owen, Rogers formed the 'Gang of Four' who founded the Social Democratic Party. Out of parliament following the 1983 election, Rodgers led the successful 'Yes to Unity' campaign in the SDP in...
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3/3...favour of merger with the Liberals. Appointed to the House of Lords in 1992, Rodgers succeeded Roy Jenkins as Liberal Democrat leader in the Lords and led the peers from 1997-2001. Retiring from the Lords in Dec. 2023. Rodgers published an autobiography Fourth Among Equals.
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#OTD 1951 1/4 -Liberal Party leader Clement Davies meets newly elected Conservative Prime Minister Winston Churchill at Churchill's London home at Hyde Park Gate. The meeting was to discuss Churchill's offer to include Davies in his cabinet as Minister for Education...
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3/4 - The Executive voted by 11 to 1 to reject the offer (the sole vote in favour being that of Lady Violet Bonham Carter) & Davies announced that he 'felt unable' to accept Churchill's offer. This act ensured the survival of the Liberal Party, as any move towards the...
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4/4 - ...Conservatives could have seen them disappear. A fate that befell the National Liberal Party in 1968. Prof. Deacon calls this '...the most important act by any Welsh Liberal to determine the party’s future, it was also perhaps the greatest act undertaken by any Liberal.'
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#OTD 1800 1/3 - Birth of Thomas Babbington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, poet, historian and Whig MP for Calne 1830-32, Leeds 1832-34 and Edinburgh 1839-47 & 1852-56. A key figure in early 19th century literature and politics,
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2/3 - Macaulay's series of popular ballads Lays of Ancient Rome were required reading in schools for many years, while his History of England with its theme of human progress gave rise to the Whig interpretation of history. Macaulay served in several Whig governments in the 1830s
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3/3 - & 40s as Secretary of War and Paymaster General. He was also involved in Indian administration and played a major part in drafting India's penal code, (including controversial Section 377 on the ban of 'sexual acts against the order of nature'), which is still in force.
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