A time of glamour, class division, social progress and the height of empire: the Edwardian era. Tony Robinson’s History of Britain s2e2: Edwardians, Channel 5 2022
Chainmaking: Patience says that from the age of ten she worked relentlessly and hardly ever had a day off … A new minimum wage, which meant that chainmaking companies had to pay their workers a whole penny more, an increase of over 50%. So how did the owners respond? Easy. They just refused to pay it … In 1910 the National Federation of Women Workers called a strike. In retaliation the employers locked the chainmakers out … Patience aged 79 joined the march … And after a ten-week standoff the employers finally caved in. ibid.
The early ’50s saw a massive recruitment drive for nurses; they came from across the world, from the West Indies to Ireland, part of an unprecedented period of immigration that bolstered both the NHS and the British economy. Tony Robinson’s History of Britain s2e3: 1950s, Channel 5 2022
That momentous event was the amalgamation of the 123 companies that made up Britain’s railways. Dubbed the Big 4 each new company would run a quarter of the network. Mark Williams on the Rails s1e8: Speed and Power
You don’t have to be a locomotive connoisseur to appreciate the Castle class; they are beautifully proportioned. ibid.
Long distance may have come first but it was speed the public loved. ibid.
Less than a year later the LNER snatched back the title with an A-4 Pacific called Mallard. ibid.
Midnight on December 31st 1947: every steam locomotive in Britain sounded their whistle ... The most radical shake-up Britain’s railways had ever seen: nationalisation. Mark Williams on the Rails s1e9: Diesel Generation
Steam was seen as dirty, inefficient and even worse than that – old fashioned. The last steam loco to be built for British Rail was a 9F ... Evening Star. ibid.
A hundred and fifty years of steam had come to an end – the new diesel era was dawning. ibid.
The Class 31 diesel electric marked a huge turning point: more efficiency meant fewer jobs. In the twenty years after its introduction, 400,000 railwaymen were laid off. ibid.
Thousands of families were forcibly displaced by the building of the lines and termini. Mark Williams on the Rails s1e10: Going Underground
There was just one place to go – London was going to have to go underground. ibid.
Twenty years after he [Pearson] first suggested the idea, work on an underground railway began. ibid.
By 1905 all the steam lines had been converted to electricity. ibid.
21st May 2019: Police called to Carrie Symond’s flat. This is England I-VI, Sky Atlantic 2022
Dignity still matters in public life. And Johnson will never have it. ibid. Max Hastings
We want to hire an unusual set of people with different skills and backgrounds to work in Downing Street. ibid. Cummings
People right now are not that focussed on the virus, they’re still pretty pissed off by the floods. ibid. focus group online
They’re calling it Black Money and with traders braced for the worst but in seconds it came. ibid.
It’s going to have to be something huge to make an impact. ibid.
Dignity still matters in public life. And Johnson will never have it. ibid. Max Hastings
About 60% is what you need from herd immunity. ibid. II expert
These numbers are … huge … ibid. Johnson
Something goes wrong between a man and the gods, and his whole life is overturned. ibid. IV
April 2020. The PM will be back in charge as soon as possible. But in the meantime we do have to operate like grown-ups and we have to work together as a team. ibid. V grandee’s video ink to cabinet meeting
Why is the government ignoring two Nobel prize winners in Medicine? ibid. VI expert to expert
You fucked up, Dom. ibid. Boris