...subsequent criticisms of his actions (or inaction) owe much to hindsight. It is part of what Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman calls the ‘drive to replace history as celebration by history...
...full flow, he simply said ‘No’. Clement Attlee (The National Archives reference INF 14/19) It is difficult to envisage a twenty-first century politician passing up the opportunity to promote their...
...then Aldborough in 1754. Although widely acknowledged as a formidable Commons performer, Pitt lacked a large personal following and George II still treated him with suspicion. He was not promoted...
...a royal puppet. The election also buttressed Pitt’s preferred stance as an independent politician by freeing him from association with Lowther: Pitt won the University of Cambridge’s seat in the...
...India in the run-up to independence and in Palestine in 1947 under 'Operation Polly' at the end of the British Mandate. Plans even existed to evacuate British families from the...
...forced upon him, and in summer 1783 let it be known that he would welcome opposition to the ministry’s bill to reform the East India Company; its parliamentary defeat gave...
...office under Perceval before joining the Admiralty Board in June 1810. Controversial Corn Laws When Castlereagh joined Lord Liverpool’s administration in 1812, however, Robinson was promoted to Vice-President of the...
...weakened Labour government and complacent thinking by company and government officials. He also highlighted an inability to project military power following the loss of India, and a lack of support,...
...Cabinet despatched the Minister of Food to Washington to plead for extra wheat supplies, to avert famine in South Africa and India, and starvation in the British Zone of Germany....
...on India, against a backdrop of inter-communal rioting, following the announcement in February that Britain would transfer power to an Indian government no later than June 1948. Problems remained in...