Browne, J. Houston (1858). Lives of the Prime Ministers of England: From the Restoration to the Present Time. Vol.1. London: Thomas Cautley Newby. Disraeli 1868; Eccleshall & Walker 2002, p.183; Englefield, Seaton & White 1995, pp.187–189; Tout 1910, p.741. All of the adults were tearful and mournful. Now as I study politics at uni, and 10 years to the day, when I graduated from high school, I can clearly see why.

What would Britain be like today if we’d had Michael Portillo, Barbara Castle or Jeremy Corbyn as our prime ministers? Over the course of political journalist Steve Richards’s fascinating and, at times, revelatory series of potted biographies of some of the most prominent politicians who never made it to No 10, he considers afresh the leaders who could have been transformative – and those who may just have been disastrous. Whatever your political stance, Richards’s thorough and admirably even-handed account will make you think again about the might-have-beens of contemporary politics. Introduction". Britain before the Reform Act: Politics and Society 1815–1832 (2nded.). Routledge (published 2014). ISBN 978-1-317-88547-4. I thought that the chapter in regards to the Milliband brothers was very interesting and how the two brothers represented Blair and Brown for a new generation. Sandys, John (1910). "Orationes et epistolae Cantabrigienses (1876–1909): Index". Nature. Vol.84, no.2124. London, UK: Macmillan. pp.35–36. Bibcode: 1910Natur..84...35T. doi: 10.1038/084035a0. S2CID 3975449. Archived from the original on 20 February 2009 – via the Internet Archive. The Most Hon. Robert Cecil, Marquess of Salisbury. Alt URL The country would be a vastly different place with John Smith in office. He was a politician with true conviction, a rare breed in the modern world.

The Prime Ministers We Never Had

Stephen, Leslie (1890). "Godolphin, Sidney". In Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney (eds.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol.22. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Castlereagh, Viscount, President of the Board of Control (29 April 1805). "Military Commissioners' Bill". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol.4. House of Commons. col.496. Archived from the original on 22 February 2014. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list ( link) David Skelton—(@DJSkelton) Joe Chamberlain, Gaitskell, Heseltine, Ken Clarke, Iain Macleod all have to be on list. 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. I wonder what he'd make of the Labour Party today - my hunch is that he'd be quietly proud of Blair and the work of the government. Cook & Stevenson 1988, p.41; Eccleshall & Walker 2002, p.14; Englefield, Seaton & White 1995, pp.7–10; Jones & Jones 1986, p.222.

How unusual is it to have a Prime Minister without an election?

Similar to his book on Prime Ministers, the narrative can meander at times and there is some degree of repetition. But the overall presentation is good and the concluding summary is excellent.

This book is less a series of biographies of Richards’ chosen figures than it is a comparative political analysis of why some party leaders make it to Number 10 while others, no matter how talented or visionary they might be, fall short of attaining the PM’s office. If there are common themes as to why these ‘nearly men’ (and Barbara Castle) didn’t accede to the premiership, then the issue of Europe is pronounced, with Richards showing how Britain’s relationship with the E.E.C./E.U. hobbled the ambitions of many of his subjects (particularly the Tory examples). Other recurring shortcomings for an aspiring Prime Minister – from Rab Butler through to Denis Healy, Michael Heseltine, and Ken Clarke – are a failure to cultivate a band of devoted followers within their own parliamentary party, or falling out with their party’s grassroots supporters (no matter how demented and divorced from reality the latter group might be). Credited by many as the man who saved the economy in 1976 by negotiating a loan from the International Monetary Fund, Healey was the last survivor of the cabinet formed by Harold Wilson after Labour’s victory in the 1964 general election.My future wife and I were on our first holiday together in Turkey and we were enjoying an afternoon beer in a bar in Bodrum, some English tourists (I'm Scottish) were also standing at the bar and they had a copy of The Daily Star lying in front of them, unread, the banner headline announcing the terrible news.

Eccleshall & Walker 2002, p.54; Englefield, Seaton & White 1995, pp.45–50; Kebbel 1864, p.143; Venning 2005, p.93.Nonetheless, I feel this was a sad and tragic loss for his family and the Labour party and for Scotland. Morrill, John (25 January 2018). "Robert Harley, 1st earl of Oxford". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015 . Retrieved 5 February 2018.