Nonetheless, I feel this was a sad and tragic loss for his family and the Labour party and for Scotland. What kept him from the job? Heseltine was beaten in a leadership contest in 1990 by future Prime Minister John Major. He could not recover from being smeared as Thatcher's executioner, having played an instrumental role in her downfall, and even those who agreed that the Iron Lady had to be scrapped couldn't quite bring themselves to support the man who did the deed. Bogdanor, Vernon (3 October 1997). "Ministers take the biscuit". Times Higher Education. Archived from the original on 29 April 2018 . Retrieved 28 April 2018. The title... was not used in an official document until 1878 when Disraeli... signed the Treaty of Berlin as 'First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister of her Britannic Majesty'. I enjoyed this book immensely. It is British political history as Plutarch might have written it: these short vignettes are Lives, not histories, composed with an eye for character rather than a magnifying glass for detail, and expressed in conversational prose seasoned with anecdotes and peppered with quips. Like Plutarch, Richards is interested in drawing wider lessons from the lives he studies. While he tells these politicians’ stories very well, he never shies away from evaluating their actions, and asking why they never made it to the very top of British politics. Often, his conclusions are sapid: that the enemies you make to be a successful minister will make prevent you from ascending higher; that few things are more dangerous than being hailed as your party’s next leader before the vacancy arises; and that you can never stray too far from your party’s beliefs, regardless of how deeply held your own convictions are, if you aspire to lead it. And while Richards emulates Plutarch in many admirable respects, I trust his historical accuracy is better.

Rt Hon Tony Blair". Parliament.uk. UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 19 November 2017 . Retrieved 30 August 2018. First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service. The late Tony Benn has been called the "Grandfather of British Politics," and was known in his old age as a great speaker and man of morals beloved by both sides of the House. As a young politician, however, he was a firebrand, and in the mid-70s (and later in opposition) was Thatcher and the new right's loudest critic. A Guardian obituary recently argued that his challenges to the government during these years "shattered the centre of British politics." Proudly socialist, Benn refused to take part in the neoliberal "me decade." Lefties mourn his downfall to this day. Such inaccuracies make it hard not to roll one’s eyes. How, I found myself asking time and again, does Runciman reach such confident and wide-ranging conclusions about politicians he does not know and who in some cases are long dead? I was reminded of something that my first boss, the former political commentator Ben Brogan, used to say about David Cameron: that one of his great strengths was that he knew what he did not know. That’s part of the strength of Richards’s The Prime Ministers, and it is the absence of it that makes Where Power Stops fall flat.Rt Hon Gordon Brown". Parliament.uk. UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 20 April 2012 . Retrieved 30 August 2018. First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service. Rt Hon Theresa May". Parliament.uk. UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 10 June 2017 . Retrieved 30 August 2018. First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service.

John Smith was that very rare thing, a politician of genuine conviction and integrity. We would be living in a very different, and in my opinion, better country had he lived. Before the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, the Treasury of England was led by the Lord High Treasurer. [12] By the late Tudor period, the Lord High Treasurer was regarded as one of the Great Officers of State, [12] and was often (though not always) the dominant figure in government: Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (lord high treasurer, 1547–1549), [13] served as lord protector to his young nephew King EdwardVI; [13] William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (lord high treasurer, 1572–1598), [14] was the dominant minister to Queen ElizabethI; [14] Burghley's son Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, succeeded his father as Chief Minister to Elizabeth (1598–1603) and was eventually appointed by King JamesI as lord high treasurer (1608–1612). [15] Courthope 1838, p.33; Eccleshall & Walker 2002, p.123; Englefield, Seaton & White 1995, pp.124–130; Evans 2001, p.471; Mahon & Cardwell 1856, p.17; Shaw 1906, p.447.

Hung Parliaments

Chamberlain, Joseph, President of the Board of Trade (27 March 1884). "Second Reading—Adjourned Debate". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol.286. House of Commons. col.954. Archived from the original on 2 September 2018. This matter was brought before the House on the 13th of May, 1874... It was opposed... by Mr. Disraeli, who was then the Leader of the House.

Balfour 1910; Eccleshall & Walker 2002, p.174; Englefield, Seaton & White 1995, pp.177–184; Royal Society 2007, p.349. Why do some politicians rise to become prime minister, while others, often no less talented, fail to make it? Why did Harold Wilson become PM while Denis Healey didn’t? Why John Major but not Michael Heseltine? And what went wrong for Jeremy Corbyn, Ed Miliband and, indeed, David Miliband? Missed opportunities and political miscalculations are the subject of veteran political commentator Steve Richards’ latest collection – 11 essays about figures who did not quite reach No 10. First Lord of the Treasury". Gov.uk. UK Government. Archived from the original on 20 May 2013 . Retrieved 3 September 2017. You have to say right away that Steve Richards is very fair to politicians. It is an admirably unfashionable habit among political commentators. Some scribblers nowadays would concoct an affair between David Attenborough and the Queen if either secular saint were to show an inclination to vote Labour. In 1929 and 2015, the general election directly led to the appointment of a new Prime Minister who took charge of a coalition government (Ramsay Macdonald in 1929 and David Cameron in 2010).John Smith always seemed a very noble, brave and honest man and I confess that I had to drive to a quiet spot and sat in my car and sobbed for a time. I can remember too feeling such sympathy for Elizabeth and the girls too. I read again about John Smith's death today, ten years on. Again, like ten years ago, I felt very upset! I remember feeling that all was lost and we would never get the Tories out of power. As you’d expect, the chapters on Tony Blair and Gordon Brown are the jewels in the crown, but the entire set glitters. Richards has a nice line in pithy summaries of the politicians who cross his stage – David Cameron, we are told, “possessed a sunnier personality than most leaders and yet his ending was uniquely dark”, while Harold Wilson’s deputy, George Brown, “was a formidable character when sober, but too often he was drunk”.

Fisher Russell Barker, George (1890). "Harley, Robert". In Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney (eds.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol.24. London: Smith, Elder & Co. The Annual Register 1941, p.11; Eccleshall & Walker 2002, p.289; Englefield, Seaton & White 1995, pp.270–274. I felt the author’s unique contributions to this book were their interesting in-person encounters with many of the book’s subjects, their casual observations about the behaviours of these actors and their shrewd observations about trends in modern British politics. The latter in particular included some observations so well made that I have even had to re-examine some of my own preconceptions. The author stated that in British politics we often see what we want to see. He may be right about that.

I remember it well. I was at college studying for my electronics qualifications when one of the tutors announced this sad news to the class.