All posts by sellarsd

The 1923 General Election

 

Junior Imperial League Gazette
Junior Imperial League Gazette, Dec 1923, p.7 [PUB 199/2]
The Prime Minister, Theresa May, surprised many when she announced her intention to call a UK general election to be held this Thursday, 8 June 2017. The ‘snap’ election came as a shock not least because, as she acknowledged in her announcement, since becoming Prime Minister she had made it clear that she did not anticipate any election before the next scheduled general election in 2020. A combination of Westminster ‘game playing’, which might weaken her government’s hand in Brexit preparations and negotiations, and the fact that talks would otherwise reach a critical stage in the run up to the next scheduled election, led Mrs May to conclude that it was in the national interest to hold an election after all and by so doing remove possible uncertainty or instability with regard to the country’s future. So the electorate is being asked to provide Mrs May and her Conservative government with a direct mandate to settle the terms of Britain’s exit from the European Union, leaving it “free to chart its own way in the world” (regaining control of our money, laws, and borders with the opportunity to strike our own trade deals). Surely few can have missed the campaign mantra ‘strong and stable leadership’ versus a ‘coalition of chaos’ (Labour propped up by the Liberal Democrats and Scottish Nationalist Parties).

So, as we look forward to the results of this week’s ‘snap’ general election it might be interesting to look back to a previous ‘snap’ election, specifically the general election called by Stanley Baldwin in 1923.

Continue reading The 1923 General Election →

2016 Conservative Party Conference

20th century, 21st century, Cataloguing, Event, Learning and teaching, Modern, Social Sciences, , ,

The 2016 Conservative Party Conference was held at Birmingham’s International Conference Centre (2-5 October) and, as in previous years, the Conservative Party Archive was there.

Jeremy McIlwaine (Conservative Party Archivist) and myself left behind the quiet confines of the Bodleian Library where the collection is housed and took a very small number of items from the Archive ‘on tour’.

Continue reading 2016 Conservative Party Conference →

The 1975 Referendum on Europe

20th century, 21st century, Cataloguing, Modern, Social Sciences, , , ,

Car campaign sticker
[Car campaign sticker, CCO 508/11/9-16]
The United Kingdom joined the European Economic Community (as it then was) on 1 January 1973 after negotiations by the Conservative government led by Edward Heath. In the run up to the subsequent 1974 General Election the Labour Party pledged, in its manifesto, the United Kingdom’s first nationwide referendum on whether to stay part of the Economic Community on renegotiated terms or to completely part company. With a Labour victory, the new Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, followed through on his promise and a referendum was held on 5 Jun 1975. The outcome was an overwhelming victory (67%) for the ‘In’ campaign.

The 1975 vote in favour of Europe did not, however, end the debate on the United Kingdom’s membership of what is now a much expanded European Union.  As we await the results of a second referendum on whether to ‘remain’ or to ‘leave’ on 23 June, the Conservative Party Archive provides much research material to those interested in exploring the Party’s position with regard to the 1975 EU referendum and toward the EEC/EU more generally during this period.

Continue reading The 1975 Referendum on Europe →

Friends in High Places: Mabel FitzGerald and Victoria Cross

20th century, Cataloguing, Modern, ,

Mabel FitzGerald is best remembered for her scientific work, particularly that related to the effects on human physiology of living at altitude. The collection of her papers currently being processed by the Bodleian certainly reflects her scientific leanings including as it does examples of her research notes and correspondence with the great and the good with whom she worked closely in the scientific arena. However, we are also lucky enough also to have interesting correspondence with other notable individuals of the time, including from the author Victoria Cross, and her uncle, Heneage Griffin. Continue reading Friends in High Places: Mabel FitzGerald and Victoria Cross →

The 1968 Sheffield Brightside By-Election: An Archaeologist in the City of Steel

20th century, 21st century, Cataloguing, Modern, Social Sciences, Uncategorized, , ,

Colin Renfrew Campaign Flyer
Colin Renfrew Campaign Flyer: CCO 500/18/115

Following the death of the Labour MP Harry Harpham on 4 February 2016 the Sheffield constituency of Brightside and Hillsborough goes to the Polls today for the election of a new MP.

Created in 2010 following a review by the Boundary Commission, the constituency is essentially the successor to the Sheffield Brightside. Since its creation for the 1885 General Election Sheffield Brightside had elected a Conservative Member of Parliament only twice: James Hope in 1900 and Hamer Russell in 1931. Indeed, since 1935 it had been a staunchly held labour seat which is perhaps identified in the minds of many today with David Blunkett, its long-standing labour MP, 1987-2015.

The papers of the Conservative Party Archive held at the Bodleian Library allow us to look back to the last by-election of Sheffield Brightside on 13 June 1968 held after the death of Richard Winterbottom who had been elected in the 1950 General Election. Continue reading The 1968 Sheffield Brightside By-Election: An Archaeologist in the City of Steel →