129. The Liberals get liberal
The Liberals are back, and they're being liberal. Gladstone followed Disraeli into Downing Street, and led a reforming government. So Disraeli with the Conservatives managed to reach the top of the gr...
12 Feb 202314min
128. The greasy pole
We're reaching the moment when Disraeli, fresh from outwitting Gladstone over electoral reform, climbed, in his own words, to the top of the greasy pole. Indeed, becoming Prime Minister after Derby re...
5 Feb 202314min
127. Master class. In opposition. And opportunism
It’s time for a master class in opposition by the man who said that the role of the Opposition is to oppose. Disraeli and Gladstone, both now leaders in the House of Commons of the Liberal and Conserv...
29 Jan 202314min
126. Helping the poor. But not too much
The American Civil War, like the war led by Prussia against Denmark, showed that Britain was no longer the superpower that had emerged from the Napoleonic wars. In both those conflicts, Britain had vi...
22 Jan 202314min
125. King Cotton and his Lancashire Famine
After talking last week about wars in China and Italy, and potentially with France, in this episode we turn to the United States where one of the biggest wars of the nineteenth century was just breaki...
15 Jan 202314min
124. The tide begins to ebb
When the Earl of Derby’s second government fell, Victoria tried to impose a Prime Minister of her choice on the elected politicians who felt rather differently. That, though, was obsolete thinking. In...
8 Jan 202314min
123. Dizzy times
This week we’re into Dizzy times again. Disraeli, or Dizzy as he came to be known, had played a leading role in bringing down the Palmerston government in 1858. That allowed the Earl of Derby, leader...
1 Jan 202314min
122. Events, dear boy, events
After discussing his relative success with a moderately liberal programme in England last time, in this episode we talk about Palmerston’s far greater difficulties abroad. There was another Opium War ...
25 Dec 202214min
