The James Callaghan Premiership

Why John Major’s premiership deserves more credit than it is usually given

2017

John Major has been a successful former Prime Minister, still making impactful interventions over issues such as the Scottish independence referendum and Brexit. This is unlike other former prime ministers. Drawing on their latest book, Kevin Hickson and Ben Williams explain why we need to reconsider his premiership.

'The country needs fresh and virile leadership. Labour is ready'. To what extent did the Wilson Governments of the 1960s succeed in modernising Britain's economy and social fabric

Appeals which emphasise newness and modernisation have served as mainstay arguments for product advertisers and politicians alike - in the field of politics, rarely more so than in the British general election campaign of 1964, a contest which the Labour Party won by a tiny overall majority of just four seats. The Labour manifesto, entitled The New Britain, defiantly contrasted their plans for innovative economic, industrial and social change against a tired Tory appeal which seemed, even within their own election proposal, Prosperity with a Purpose, to epitomise a call for ‘more of the same’. This paper examines Labour’s successes and failures during their two administrations in the 1960s. In the event, their economic rejuvenation record was disappointing, yet historical opinion varies as to the degree of Labour culpability for their failure to achieve many of the goals that had been so confidently set out in 1964. By most standards, the economic crises which hampered the Government were not, in the main, of their own making. The lack of Labour’s Governmental achievement during the 1960s, much of it due to unforeseen, serious, inherited economic problems, was cruelly highlighted since the failure had occurred against a campaigning background of stridently promised modernisation. Labour’s difficulties therefore became intensified by unfulfilled public expectations that had been cultivated and reinforced by months of focused party political campaigning. As time passed, and economic revitalization objectives became evidently less achievable, a sense of political, indeed electoral, insecurity began to affect the Government’s ability to cope.

The end of the Attlee government: A whimper not a bang

2013

eprints@whiterose.ac.uk https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher’s website.

The Prime Minister, leadership and Britain’s conflicts, 1982-2014: reflections from Mass Observers.

Mass Observers write voluntarily without prompt about Britain's recent wars. Part of this discussion centers on political leadership, though routinely reduced to the office of the Prime Minister. This paper analyses the narratives which emerged among Observers' responses in relation to Prime Ministerial leadership across five cases; the Falklands, Persian Gulf, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq wars. It argues that there is no hegemonic, universal discourse related to prime ministerial leadership, and that different interpretations a frequently suggested, approved and condemned. Responses do not reflect a consumption of 'official' interpretation and instead opinions on leadership are viewed through the prism of legitimacy and morality.