105. Grey, the Poor and the Irish
Another significant measure passed by the Grey government was a lot less creditable than the Great Reform Act or Abolition of Slavery. The 1834 Poor Law mandated the construction of workhouses and set...
28 Aug 202214min
104. Votes to the people. Freedom to the slaves. Up to a point...
Just how great was the Great Reform Act? It was passed in an atmosphere that came close to being revolutionary. That drove the passage of the Act. It didn’t, however, make it a revolutionary Act. On t...
21 Aug 202214min
103. Great Reform
The shift from Tories to Whigs in government in 1830 was dramatic enough, but nothing like as dramatic as the changes that had taken place in Britain as a nation. Both the impact of the Industrial Rev...
14 Aug 202214min
102. Aristocrats in pursuit of reform
Just who were these Whigs? It turns out that, though theirs would be a government having to undertake reform, in its make-up it would be the most aristocratic of the century. Since the biggest obstacl...
7 Aug 202214min
101. The Whigs are back
It had been 46 years. In all that time, apart from the 14 months when they had led the Ministry of all the Talents in 1806-1807, the Whigs had been excluded from power. But in 1830, they at last came ...
31 Jul 202214min
100. From upstart to superpower
To greet our reaching 100 episodes, we’re going to pause and recap how far we’ve come. When we started, England, was just a small country on the edge of Europe, trying to punch above its weight, givin...
24 Jul 202214min
99. Cops and Catholics
The cops are what Robert Peel’s best remembered for. Thanks to him, the world’s first professional, civilian police force was launched. It hasn’t always lived up to initial expectations, with London’s...
17 Jul 202214min
98. A Conservative Reformer
Reformers were on the move. Elizabeth Fry was notable as a woman speaking out in a man’s world, campaigning for prison reform, especially for women prisoners. But there were many others, notably the U...
10 Jul 202214min
