Jacob Rees-Mogg Moves For Conservative Party Leadership.

Sadly varian the only LibDems I can think of are Nick Clegg and Vince Cable, so alas, no thank you.
Bring back David Steel (my MP in the Borders many years ago) and Jo Grimond (but he’s dead) or Charles Kennedy.

Am I living in the past? ?

To me, it would seem that the conservative Bow Group is emerging as the Momentum movement of the Tory party. In the last few weeks we have seen that faction openly engage in criticism of the current leadership while at the same time talking up Jacob Rees-Mogg as a prospective radical new leader of the party. The foregoing was almost exactly the same procedure that Momentum engaged in as they emerged within Labour.

If the Bow group were to be successful in bringing about radical change in the conservative party, then perhaps any new centre party could also look to Tory centrist to jump ship and join its ranks. I get the feeling that it would not take much change for Phillip Hammond to abandon the Conservative party.

However, there would still be the problem of funding for any new party to overcome before it had any prospect of success at the polls

James Keir Hardie along with Robert Bontine Cunningham -Graham were the first leaders of the Labour party in fact Cunningham -Graham was the very first Socialist MP.He was local to my home town and led a life that could well be turned into an adventure movie.He is /was idolised in Argentina where he spent part of his life.He also started the National Party of Scotland (snp) .The manifesto included votes for women,the handing back of the Indian continent and Home Rule for Scotland .My GM knew both these men ( she was a a suffragette)I grew up with stories about them.They were socialists of the old order NOT like New Labour and the clowns who run it today .Want it all verified ? I'm sure you'll find all the details you need online

Paddyman, for me and I believe many Clement Atlee and the 1945 Labour government he led was the greatest peacetime administration this country has ever had. That Government under the "Homes Fit for Hero's" slogan brought in the National Health Service, a huge council building program, the modern Welfare State and the Nationalisation of the railways.

Indeed, it was wishing to do even more that led to their defeat in the1950 election. For it was in the act of Nationalising of the Road Haulage industry the government placed a huge amount of freight traffic on the railways and in their post war run down state those railways simply just could not cope.

Perhaps it is only today that we can see and conceive the perceived long term wisdom in that action.

Maw, David Steele suffered from the way he was portrayed in ‘Spitting Image’, it really damaged him. I did like Charles Kennedy.

Paddyann, didn’t Graham and Hardie found The Scottish Labour Party. The Labour Party wasn’t formed untill 1900

I knew David Steel quite well and went riding with his wife Judy.
He wasn’t really as small as portrayed in Spitting Image

I believe the slogan was “Homes fit for Heroes”, Grandad. ??

ww1resources.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Homes-for-Heroes-2.pdf

For reference

And it would have predated the Beveridge Report by two decades and consequently the National Health Service.

Dr A. J. Cronin's controversial novel The Citadel, published in 1937, had fomented extensive debate about the severe inadequacies of healthcare. The author's innovative ideas were not only essential to the conception of the NHS, but in fact, his best-selling novels are said to have greatly contributed to the Labour Party's victory in 1945

A national health service was one of the fundamental assumptions in the Beveridge Report. The Emergency Hospital Service established in 1939 gave a taste of what a National Health Service might look like

Healthcare prior to the war had been an unsatisfactory mix of private, municipal and charity schemes. Bevan decided that the way forward was a national system rather than a system operated by local authorities. He proposed that each resident of the UK would be signed up to a specific General Practice (GP) as the point of entry into the system, building on the foundations laid in 1912 by the introduction of National Insurance and the list system for general practice. Patients would have access to all medical, dental and nursing care they needed without having to pay for it at the time

Haven’t read The Citadel for years, will read it this weekend.

Cronin was a GP in South Wales, the miners had been paying their GP’s weekly for health care.

I wonder if his books are now out of print? So many sadly are Annie he was a very good author.May be possible to get on Kindle?

I always understood that the book that won the 1945 election for Labour (if any did) was the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists By Robert Thressel. If you haven't read it I recommend it. When I first read it I thought some of the things in it were absolutely unthinkable in today's world. Now I'm not so sure.

lemon, I checked, his books are available in paperback and kindle, I bought Hatters Castle and The Stars Look Down as well, weekend sorted ?

'How green was my Valley', another must. I read this and A.J Cronin, when I was at school and thought them fantastic! Must have another read, as it was a VERY long time ago!!!

I find it difficult to believe that any book had much influence on the outcome of the 1945 general election.

Much of the British adult population had spent the 6 years of the Second World War either in the Armed Forces or requisitioned into jobs supplying those armed forces or this countries essential needs. Many had given great sacrifice and through all that had little control over where they were sent or what they had to accomplish.

Therefore, as the war drew to a close in 1945 those returning home did not wish to be greeted by the unemployment, poor housing and poor health conditions that had greeted those who survived the First World War and had returned home.

Therefore, change was looked for, and in that Labour offered greater promise than ether the Conservatives or Liberals. That generation decided that too much had been given to accept once again the pre-war status quo.

When I first read it I thought some of the things in it were absolutely unthinkable in today's world.

When I first read it, trisher I thought that some things were depressingly familiar. Like the inability of his workmates to understand the need for, and the use of, a trade union. I think I was reading it at the height of the Thatcher era and the demonisation of trade unions.

Oh I would not be so dismissive Grandad
The significance of a seminal work should not be underestimated. Maybe not “won” an election, but of enormous significance in political thinking at the time.
May I quote
The book provides a comprehensive picture of social, political, economic and cultural life in Britain at a time when socialism was beginning to gain ground. It was around that time that the Labour Party was founded and began to win seats in the House of Commons
The book advocates a socialist society in which work is performed to satisfy the needs of all rather than to generate profit for a few
Anyway, my original point was that “Homes for Heroes” came after WWI nearly a generation before the foundation of the NHS in 1947 and the post-war social reforms you refer to.

The SDP was indeed founded as a Centrist Socialist party in 1981 by Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers, nicknamed the “Gang of Four” after the Chinese political group. It survived unto 1988 when merging with the Liberal party we got the LibDems and many of us regret its demise.
The origin of the party can be traced back to the ideological divisions in the Labour Party in the 1950s (with its forerunner being the Campaign for Democratic Socialism established to support the Gaitskellites), but publicly lies in the 1979 Dimbleby Lecture given by Roy Jenkins as he neared the end of his presidency of the European Commission. Jenkins argued the necessity for a realignment in British politics, and discussed whether this could be brought about from within the existing Liberal Party, or from a new group driven by European principles of social democracy
Not a lot wrong with that IMHO.

MawBroom, I very much appreciate your comments on the "homes fit for Heroes" but I believe that the slogan was again used by Labour in the 1945 campaign. It was especially prevelent among the troops fighting in the Far East Burma campaign many of whom did not return home until 1946.

My wife states that her father used the phrase any number of times when in 1951 they got a brand new council house allocated to them in the Broomhill area of Bristol. He had fought in the far East Burma jungle campaign and had been through so much.

Thoroughly deserved, as it was for so many.

And, of course, the books were made even more popular by the tv series Dr Findlay's Casebook in the 1960s.

trisher I haven't heard of that book, I will look it up.

Homes Fit for Heroes:
www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/towncountry/towns/overview/councilhousing/

The Housing Act aka The Addison Act was passed in 1919.

Nevertheless, most property was privately rented and much was substandard.
The availability of 'Council mortgages' enabled many to buy their own homes (not council property, privately built houses).

MaizieD I first read it in the 60s,when I thought things like electricity would always be a public company providing essential services- how foolish that seems now!
Jalima1108 It's well worth a read.
Grandad1943 I think the point is that many of the more privileged encountered working men for the first time when they were servicemen and something like TRTP Brought home to them the reality of working class family life.

Jacob Rees-Mogg gave yet another media interview today (27/05/18), this time on the Andrew Marr BBC 1 program. For those that may still have remained unconvinced that JRM is now bidding for the leadership of the Conservative party, viewing this Interview must have changed their minds

He criticised Theresa Mays whole approach to the brexit negotiations, along with the Irish border question along and the whole Customs Union problem. Asked by Andrew Marr if he would be prepared to join the Theresa May cabinet if asked, he replied that he was perfectly content to remain as a prominent backbench MP.

He looked very uncomfortable when questioned about his Somerset Investment Company having large Holdings in Russian companies. JRM insisted he had no direct investment himself in those banks and other companies, but Andrew Marr pointed out that he still made money from what his Investment Company charged to those placing investments in those Russian Holdings.

All the above begs the question that if he is only interested in remaining as a backbencher, why is Jacob Rees mogg giving so many Media interviews? JRM is now rated as five to one by the Bookies to be the next Tory leader.

So, perhaps an autumn election with Jacob Rees-Mogg running against Jeremy Corbyn for the keys to ten Downing Street.

Now there is a thought.

He was so patronising on Marr today. “Patience is a virtue” when Marr pressed him.
Unbearable.
Why didn’t Marr ask him about abortion after yesterday’s Irish vote?
He is strongly anti-abortion yet his company makes money from selling abortion pills. So he is a hypocrite too.