The left isn’t prominently represented; the result is the centre conserves far more than it progresses. ibid.
Politicians who call themselves the centre aren’t really doing so in good faith. ibid.
The moderate’s role in politics is to slow things down to a trickle. ibid.
If you are ‘neither left nor right’, then you are definitely on the right. Why ‘Neither Left Nor Right’ Just Means Right Wing, Youtube 16.49, Second Thought 2022
At this point we reach the supreme irony of how ideology functions today: it appears precisely as its own opposite, a radical critique of ideological utopias. The predominant ideology today is not a positive vision of some utopian future but a cynical resignation, an acceptance of how ‘the world really is’, accompanied by a warning that, if we want to change it (too much), only totalitarian horror can ensue. Slavoj Zizek, The Relevance of the Communist Manifesto, 2019
Max Atkinson spends his life studying video tapes of top politicians talking. After analysing hundreds of speeches, Dr Atkinson has discovered the hidden rules of the world-games played by politicians to make us applaud. World in Action: Clap Trap, ITV 1984
Two battling opponents: the fiercest political rivals Britain has ever seen. There’s the man who virtually invented the Liberal party, William Gladstone, and close by the founder of modern Conservatism, Benjamin Disraeli. Gladstone & Disraeli: Clash of the Titans, Huw Edwards reporting, BBC 2012
Gladstone and Disraeli dominated political life in the Victorian age and became inseparable in the public mind. ibid.
Beneath its cloak of global eminence the country was a mess. Bedevilled by poverty and disease and riddled with discontent. ibid.
Right from the start significantly they did not hit it off. ibid.
In the end Peel did get his way over the corn laws but Disraeli’s campaign against him had weakened his authority so much that he resigned. ibid.
Gladstone’s attack on Disraeli’s first budget marks a turning point in their relationship. Their private feud was about to go public in a big way. ibid.
Hemmed in by Gladstone, Disraeli was prime minister in name only. Hugely frustrated by this he called a general election. ibid.
The Tories needed to get serious about social reform … Hard-headed political calculation was the main factor involved. ibid.
Their forty-year drama wasn’t over yet. ibid.
For centuries a succession of colourful mavericks have lit up British politics. But what is it that makes a maverick? The bad boys ranged from a brilliant rogue of the 18th century to some reckless rebels of recent times. We have an incurring love of politicians who dare to be different. Those politicians with a maverick streak have an advantage: they often draw the biggest crowds. John Sergeant, Political Mavericks, BBC 2008
My favourite political maverick was Mayor of London 250 years ago. And he makes the present lot look rather tame. He was a rebel and a rogue but his name became synonymous with liberty and political reform: John Wilkes. ibid.
The first socialist maverick blazed a trail from west Yorkshire to Westminster 100 years ago: Victor Grayson was a shooting star of the early Labour movement. ibid.
Bob Boothby is the maverick’s maverick. A brilliantly talented but roguish Tory MP, he had a magnificently reckless streak … Boothby soon started an affair with the wife of a fellow Tory MP; it wasn’t just any Tory MP, he was Harold Macmillan … ‘An improper relationship with Ronnie Kray.’ ibid.
A showman: Sir Gerald Nabarro was a Tory MP with a famous moustache, a twinkle in his eye and a love of fast cars … His secretary, a young Christine Hamilton. ibid.
This place is meant to be in charge. But with five prime ministers in six years it hasn’t felt that way … What happened to our political system? Laura Kuenssberg: State of Chaos I, BBC 2023
In this episode not one but two prime ministers removed from office [Cameron & May]. ibid.
Brexit: The Civil Service had not expected or prepared for it. ibid.
But Michael Gove had betrayed his running mate forcing Boris Johnson out of the leadership race. ibid.
A maverick prime minister and his power-hungry adviser face the biggest crisis since the Second World War. Laura Kuenssberg, State of Chaos II
The Conservatives smashed Labour grabbing seat after seat in towns they called their own. ibid.
Boris Johnson had relentlessly promised to get Brexit done. ibid.
When Dominic Cummings left, he left behind a government full of turbulence, a system that didn’t really seem to work. ibid.
The party that likes to believe it’s born to rule has indulged in an epic drama with no heroes. Laura Kuenssberg, State of Chaos III
Somebody [Boris Johnson] who is far too self-indulgent and self-focused to really do the job of a minister let alone the job of prime-minister.’ ibid. Philip Hammond
By now 39 ministers had resigned … Johnson was still trying to dig in. ibid.
Of course there was immediately a line-up of ambitious candidates ready to take his place. ibid.
Roy Jenkins is a man who arouses conflicting emotions … But the man fascinated with figures never quite got the timing right that might have taken him to number ten. A Very Social Democrat: A Portrait of Roy Jenkins, Michael Cockerell reporting, BBC 1996
1968: He was made Chancellor of the Exchequer … just turned 47. He was a favourite of the Tory press. ibid.
After briefly flirting with the left, he settled on the right of the party with a set of libertarian and internationalist beliefs. ibid.
Jenkins was one of the youngest Home Secretaries … Jenkins’ rigorous austerity measures sparked bitter protests. ibid.
He was growing increasingly disenchanted with Labour Party politics. ibid.