#OTD 1902: Birth of Megan Lloyd George, the youngest child of David Lloyd George. She was the first female MP for a Welsh seat. She was Liberal MP for Anglesey 1929-51, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party 1949-51, and Labour MP for Carmarthen from 1957 until her death in 1966.
#OTD 1908: Death in 10 Downing Street of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Liberal Prime Minister 1905-1908, 19 days after leaving office due to ill health. He remains the only Prime Minister to die in the official residence.
#OTD 1839: Lord Palmerston, as Foreign Secretary, signs the Treaty of London along with other European powers, with the aim of preventing France from expanding into the Low Countries by guaranteeing the neutrality of a newly independent Belgium.
#OTD 1853: Gladstone presents his first budget as Chancellor of the Exchequer in a speech lasting four and three quarter hours.
#OTD 1894: Chancellor William Harcourt introduces his second Budget. His most important innovation was the introduction of graduated death duties to be paid on the consolidated value on an estate.
#OTD 1992: Polling day. John Major secures a fourth consecutive victory for the Conservatives. This was the first election for the newly merged Liberal Democrats and is discussed further here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N1K...
#OTD 1902: Death of John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley. Although largely unknown today, Kimberley was a fixture in Liberal Party politics for over 40 years, holding office in a succession of liberal governments from Lord Aberdeen to Lord Rosebery.
Cobden was MP for three different constituencies: Stockport, the West Riding and Rochdale. Find out more about his relationship with his constituents in this guest article from Prof. Simon Morgan: victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2024/01/24/c...
#OTD 1886: Death of William Edward Forster, Liberal MP and Cabinet minister. He isn perhaps best known for three things: the 1870 Education Act, the 1872 Ballot Act, and (most controversially) his use of lethal force against the Irish National Land League, which saw him nicknamed Buckshot Forster.
#OTD 1908: H.H. Asquith formally begins his term of office as Liberal Prime Minister, succeeding Henry Campbell-Bannerman. Asquith must still travel to kiss hands with King Edward VII in Biarritz in France, where the King is holidaying.
#OTD 1865: Death of Richard Cobden, manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with John Bright in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League. He also gave his name to the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty, a free trade agreement that was signed between Britain and France.
A nice picture of David Steel to accompany a post about Paddy Ashdown …
#OTD 1941: Birth of Paddy Ashdown. A supporter of the Lib-Lab Pact and the Alliance with the SDP, he was elected the 1st leader of the merged Social and Liberal Democrats in 1988. In 1997, Ashdown led the Lib Dems to their best performance in an election since the 1930s.
#OTD 1994: Happy birthday to Tom Gordon, Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate & Knaresborough since July 2024. Before becoming an MP, he served as a councillor on Newcastle City Council and later represented his hometown on Wakefield City Council.
#OTD 1903: Herbert Gladstone, Chief Whip of the Liberal Party, receives a letter from his political secretary Jesse Herbert, stressing the importance of an agreement over election strategy between the Liberals and the Labour Representation Committee.
#OTD 1983: Simon Hughes wins the Bermondsey by-election, increasing the Liberal share of the vote by an incredible 50.9%. The Labour campaign began disastrously with its candidate, Peter Tatchell, being denounced in the HoC by the Labour leader Michael Foot.
The 1950 election was the first election to be broadcast on the BBC - presented by Richard Dimbleby with expert commentary from R.B. McCallum and David Butler.
This was offset by three gains: Archie MacDonald in Roxborough and Selkirk and two figures who were to play important roles in the party in the 1950s and 60s - Jo Grimond in Orkney and Shetland and Donald Wade in Huddersfield West.
Two major blows were the defeats of Frank Byers by 97 votes in Dorset North and Wilfred Roberts fighting the new constituency of Penrith and the Border.
Of the Liberals elected in 1945, Tom Horabin had joined Labour, and Gwilym Lloyd George fought as a Liberal National while William Gruffydd retired following the abolition of his University of Wales seat.
However the tactic only produced a marginal increase in the Liberal vote, while 319 Liberal candidates lost their deposits - a record which was only exceeded in 2015. Only 9 Liberals were returned.
The party arranged for the cost fielding these extra candidates to be offset by insurance with Lloyds of London against more than 50 candidates losing their deposits.
#OTD 1950: Polling day in the 1950 general election. The Conservatives gain 90 seats but Clement Attlee's Labour Party hangs on with a majority of five. The Liberal Party led for the first time by Clement Davies fielded 475 candidates, the largest number since 1929.🧵
Four of Foot's sons followed him into public life, including Dingle, a Liberal and Labour MP and Michael who led the Labour Party from 1980 to 83.
He briefly held office in the National Government as Minister for Mines but resigned, along with his Liberal colleagues in 1932. Outside parliament Foot served as Vice-President of the Methodist Conference and in 1947 became President of the Liberal Party.
In parliament Foot was actively involved with Indian affairs and his championing of the rights of the poor of the subcontinent earnt Foot the nickname of 'The member for the depressed classes'.
#OTD 1880: Birth in Plymouth of Isaac Foot, Liberal MP for Bodmin 1922-24 and 1929-35. Foot joined the Liberal Party in 1907 and was a long-serving member of Plymouth City Council. In 1945, although no longer a member of the Council, he was unanimously elected Lord Mayor.🧵
Bright paid a price for his opposition to the war, at the following general election in 1857 Bright, along with many of his anti-war colleagues, lost his Manchester seat.
; he takes his victims from the castle of the noble, the mansions of the wealthy and the cottage of the poor and the lowly, and it is on behalf of all these classes that I make this solemn appeal'.
'The angel of death has been abroad throughout the land; you may almost hear the beating of his wings. There is no one as when the first-born were slain of old, to sprinkle with blood the lintel and the two side posts of our doors, that he may spare and pass on...