When the death of John P. Mackintosh, the Labour Member of Parliament for Berwick and East Lothian, was announced on 31 July 1978, William Russell, the Glasgow Herald’s man in SW1A, reflected on the premature passing of a man ‘who looked a winner but failed to conquer’. Aged only 48 but having been an MP since… Continue reading Labour Lives: The Story of John P. Mackintosh
Category: Guest Writers
Three Lights Shining in Buckinghamshire
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 Three Lights Shining in Buckinghamshire
“A Kingdom on the Brink” – The Story of the 1979 Scottish Referendum (Part One)
By Tom Chidwick On 10 January 1979, after a six-day summit in Guadeloupe with President Jimmy Carter, Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, an avuncular British Prime Minister James Callaghan touched down at Heathrow Airport to be met with a pack of the Fourth Estate. With severe frosts and heavy snowfall, a mean… Continue reading “A Kingdom on the Brink” – The Story of the 1979 Scottish Referendum (Part One)
End of an Era: A Political Earthquake in Sussex by the Sea
Thirty years on, how significant was the Eastbourne by-election? By Paul Richards Thirty years ago, the people of Eastbourne, a sedate seaside town in East Sussex, went to the polls in a parliamentary by-election, caused by the assassination of Conservative MP Ian Gow by the IRA. It came amidst the choppiest of political waters for… Continue reading End of an Era: A Political Earthquake in Sussex by the Sea
