As Super League celebrates its 25th birthday, rugby league is further away from its founder’s vision than ever. As Britain approached the end of the 1970s there was much talk about the “managed decline” of a once-great powerhouse. As debts spiralled out of control and the creditors came knocking at the door, the future looked... Continue Reading →
Holding together working- and middle-class voters has been Labour’s historic Achilles’ heel. Can Keir Starmer do what Clement Attlee couldn’t in 1950? In April 1946, the Attorney General, Sir Hartley Shawcross, told Conservative MPs in a Commons debate, “We are the masters” and will be “for a long time to come”. Labour had just become... Continue Reading →
“Austerity is repealed for a day as Britons swarm to the pubs” The story of 1966 – the last time England were in a major a final Harold Wilson launched the tournament at a meeting of FIFA in London and claimed England had a good chance of winning. “England are playing together as a team.... Continue Reading →
BY PAUL RICHARDS The leafy lanes and pretty Chiltern villages surrounding Chesham and Amersham are not immediately redolent of Labour history. Swan Bottom is a long way from Clydeside, and Cholesbury is no Tolpuddle. Yet growing up in the area, I was always fascinated by the stories of three Labour titans who were drawn to... Continue Reading →
The Great Debate about education is a fascinating episode, both in the context of James Callaghan's Premiership and the ongoing argument about the purpose and practice of education. BY MARK WILLIAMS The Great Debate can be seen as a sequence of events, running from late 1976 to 1977. The critical moment was Callaghan's high-profile speech... Continue Reading →
In the 1970s, the Daily Mail “outed” Maureen Colquhoun – making her the first openly lesbian MP in British political history. But she wasn’t accepted in society so easily. Maureen Colquhoun was born on 12 August 1928 and joined the Labour Party aged 18 She read for a degree in Economics at the LSE before... Continue Reading →
Despite a mass public campaign, Kevin Sinfield hasn’t received a knighthood this year. It comes as no surprise to rugby league fans In the final PMQs before the Christmas break, Boris Johnson was urged by a fellow MP to acknowledge former rugby league star Kevin Sinfield’s heroic efforts. Sinfield had just completed seven marathons in... Continue Reading →
“WAS IT DELBOY WOT WON IT?” Its Christmas 1996 and Labour are 36pts clear in the polls. With the Tories in disarray, the Major Government clutches at one final straw. They think Only Fools and Horses might cost them some votes... Christmas 1996 and the nation is anticipating the final Only Fools and Horses trilogy.... Continue Reading →
