Home affairs
On winning the 1964 election the new Labour government adopted an interventionist industrial policy. By the late 1960s a policy of amalgamation through merging firms was intended to deliver companies which could compete on a global basis, but the outcomes did not always match expectations.
Fifty years ago, Concorde made its first test flight in Britain. This supersonic aircraft has attracted considerable public interest over the years. Learn about Concorde's troubled history, and Tony Benn's amusing intervention in a diplomatic argument concerning the spelling of the aircraft's name.
Gifts to the State can present interesting challenges, particularly if they are alive and quite possibly kicking. For whom, ultimately, is the gift intended? And, who is responsible for looking after the gift and ensuring that it delivers the anticipated …
When the Post Office Tower was officially opened on 8 October 1965 by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, it was Britain’s tallest building. It was also seen as a symbolising a new, exciting technological revolution and a new spirit of optimism, …
How should a responsible government deal with the threat of military invasion? This question is not one that many British governments have had to consider. Yet for a 12-month period after May 1940 it was one that exercised those in …
On Wednesday, 1 December 1976, the Cabinet met to discuss the severe economic crisis confronting the UK and the terms of the rescue package then being negotiated from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It was an unusual meeting, one of …
Britain’s involvement in the Second World War began at 11am on 3 September 1939. The declaration came after eleven days of mounting international tension and was just one part of a flurry of governmental activity. Over three million people had …
The instruction to ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ has become one of the most recognisable slogans in British history. The phrase has reinforced a popular view of life in the Second World War and has been reproduced on everything from …
If I told you that records of 30 years ago have just been released, would you immediately think that records such as ‘Karma Chameleon’ (Culture Club), ‘Every breath you take’ (The Police) and ‘Down under’ (Men at work’) had been …
The first Prime Minister to carry out significant constitutional reform was the Duke of Wellington. Wellington was an unlikely figure to be associated with constitutional changes – he was a deeply conservative and aristocratic politician, a defender of the British ‘Protestant …
