...four times Chancellor before he was four time Prime Minister – who developed the Exchequer into recognisably modern form. He did not envisage anything like today’s welfare state, being obsessed...
...be brought to her. Subsequent events eroded the Queen’s prerogative. From July 1965 onwards, the Conservative Party elected its leader, as the Labour Party had done since 1922. Today it...
...rich heiresses: when Rosebery died in 1929, he left £1.7 million – the equivalent of nearly £60 million in today’s money. But some former Prime Ministers had money troubles, both...
...origin of the Government Art Collection (GAC). Today the GAC is responsible for acquiring and displaying works of art in over 400 British Government buildings in the UK and nearly...
...and his greater willingness later in his reign to adapt to the realities of parliamentary monarchy – the constitutional system we still have today. In the 1760s, both King and...
...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 last peer...
...electoral register, you don't get a say in who runs the country and how. Register to vote today Suggested further reading J.M. McEwen (ed), The Riddell Diaries 1908-1923 (1986) Roy...
...of leading courtiers and bureaucrats – in essence, creating the first government department that we’d recognise today. A more formal commission and re-organisation by George Downing in 1667 gave permanency...
...department of state formally ended in 1833. All that remains today is the honorific post of the Queen's Remembrancer, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer (now part of the Treasury...
Modern technology means that today’s politicians remain contactable, even when on holiday. Constant access to digital communications can be a mixed blessing but, in the event of a crisis, the...