Each month No 10 invites a professional historian to contribute a short article to this series.
...both to play a leading political role himself and to distance himself from the ministers of his grandfather, George II. It was not until 1770 that George found a satisfactory...
In Anthony Trollope’s 1876 novel The Prime Minister, the Prime Minister of the title is Plantagenet Palliser, the Duke of Omnium. It may today appear very strange that a member of the House of Lords could head the British government. …
...the newly formed BBC, wrote to the King in 1923 to inquire whether he would be interested in ‘delivering a message to his people’ on a significant holiday such as...
...announced his plan to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. The marriage was unpopular with many in Parliament and the Church of England. The Cabinet rejected the King’s compromise solution...
...the Conservative Party split over the repeal of the protectionist Corn Laws in 1846). Although the Cabinet was united in their advocacy of Free Trade, this rich political compound contained...
...arrive and were often written in code in case they were stolen by foreign spies. When his conduct at the 1814 Congress of Vienna was later challenged in Parliament, Castlereagh...
...the 1920s, under three different prime ministers. Tony Blair immediately gave up his seat in the House of Commons on leaving Number 10, but David Lloyd George stayed on in...
...the ten British officials from intelligence and policy departments, ranging from the Chief of the JIC Assessments Staff and ‘C’, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service, to representatives from...
...process repeated in October 1963 when Sir Alec Douglas-Home was appointed. At first, the Queen did not find Macmillan easy to deal with. He was unsure whether the Prime Minister’s...
...generally been seen as the most important factor in determining electoral success. The Chancellor, charged with keeping the economy on track, therefore becomes a unique point of strength or weakness...