99. Cops and Catholics

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 Metropolitan Police going through particularly difficult times just now but, boy, it’s an initiative that has left its mark. And not just in Britain.

There was controversy about setting up a police force, with some resisting the idea of paying people to keep an eye on them and make sure they behaved. To libertarians, that felt like an incursion on basic freedoms. But far more controversial still was the extension of political rights to non-Anglican religious groups.

First, it was dissident Protestants, and Peel had to change his tune to support their emancipation.

But next it was the Catholics, and his U-turn was even more shocking. Nicknamed ‘Orange Peel’ for is backing for the Protestant (Orange) cause, it was astonishing to see him leading the charge for Catholic Emancipation in 1829. But Peel's dramatic changes of view would astonish a lot of people, a lot of times in his career.


Illustration: Photograph of a ‘Peeler’ of the 1850s. Public domain (PD-US-expired).

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License

Avsnitt(274)

273. From a humble address to a royal arrest

273. From a humble address to a royal arrest

Well, we’re living in curious times.For the first time in four centuries, a member of the British royal family has been arrested in connection with a criminal investigation. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor...

22 Feb 14min

272. What a fine mess you've got us into

272. What a fine mess you've got us into

This is the last episode in this main series of A History of England. I may add others on specific topics – by all means use the comments to suggest any you’d like me to examine – or in response to in...

20 Dec 202543min

271. Breaking records

271. Breaking records

Following the rather grim comedy of Boris Johnson, the Conservatives gave Britain the even more ridiculous spectacle of Liz Truss. She proceeded to push the British economy to the edge of the abyss, a...

7 Dec 202514min

270. Phenomenal Boris

270. Phenomenal Boris

It’s the time of Boris. This episode tracks Boris Johnson’s character, starting with a less than complimentary report from his housemaster at Eton to this parents, through his time in the rich kids’ B...

30 Nov 202514min

269. Brexit

269. Brexit

In 2015, Cameron returned to office with a majority of his own even if it wasn’t particularly huge. At least it meant he no longer needed to be in a coalition with the Lib Dems, who’d taken a terrible...

23 Nov 202514min

268. The winners and the damned: peacetime coalition

268. The winners and the damned: peacetime coalition

It’s 2007, and Tony Blair is out. In his place is Gordon Brown, who’d proved his capacity as a Chancellor. Sadly, he was now to show that promotion to Prime Minister was one step too many , since he s...

16 Nov 202514min

267. Bliar

267. Bliar

As the title of this episode suggests, this is where we look at how Tony Blair’s reputation was wrecked by the growing awareness that he’d produced infamously bad justifications to launch Britain into...

9 Nov 202514min

266. A time of dodgy dossiers

266. A time of dodgy dossiers

When Tony Blair took Britain to war in Iraq in 2003, as part of a US-led and rather limited coalition of nations, it was against the will of large numbers of Brits expressed in possibly the biggest de...

2 Nov 202514min

Populärt inom Historia

massmordarpodden
p3-historia
historiska-brott
motiv
kod-katastrof
olosta-mord
rss-historien-om
rss-historiska-brottslingar
rss-seriemordarpodden
rss-brottsligt
historiepodden-se
historianu-med-urban-lindstedt
rss-massmordarpodden
krigshistoriepodden
harrisons-dramatiska-historia
mannen-utan-spar
militarhistoriepodden
obskyr-historia
nu-blir-det-historia
bedragare