Alistair Lexden: At the top of the greasy pole – Disraeli 140 years on

His first premiership was accidental and cut extremely short by Gladstone – but ‘Dizzy’ did manage to make the Queen a Tory.

Alistair Lexden: The Conservatives and the Carlton Club – in partnership for nearly 200 years

From Wellington to Johnson, this institution has managed to keep itself at the heart of Tory politics.

Alistair Lexden: On this day, 75 years ago – VJ Day at Westminster

By happy chance, it coincided with the State Opening of the new Parliament, elected in July, which was ‘restored to something of its pristine splendour’.

Alistair Lexden: On this day, 75 years ago – Churchill’s unexpected election disaster.

Butler added a further key factor: “six years of left-wing propaganda accompanied by a virtual cessation of right-wing propaganda”.

Alistair Lexden: On this day, 50 years ago, Edward Heath won an unexpected election victory

At no other time since 1945 has a working majority for one Party been turned at a single election into a working majority for another.

Alistair Lexden: On this day, May 8, 75 years ago. Churchill’s VE Day statement in the Lords Chamber.

The great Parliamentarian then spoke to his colleagues from the heart. “Some Members wept,” Channon noted.

Alistair Lexden: The origins of One Nation – now in fashion once again within the Conservative Party

If Boris Johnson now gives real political substance to what has become an overused catch-phrase, he will recreate the Tories in the image of “ Honest Stan” Baldwin.

Alistair Lexden: Forty years ago, Thatcher was assembling her transformative Government

Disraeli defined conservatism as ‘love of country and an instinct for power’, and her successors should strive for her winning fusion of the two.

Alistair Lexden: I heard the bomb as it exploded. My memories of Airey Neave, for whom I worked.

He was murdered by terrorists 40 years ago today. Now there is a new, exemplary biography of him.

Alistair Lexden: The Carlton Club meeting and the fall of the Lloyd George Coalition

How a proud, unbending leader misread his party, brought down a government, and set back the idea of sharing power for a generation.

Alistair Lexden: Commemorating Baldwin, the Prime Minister who pioneered ‘One Nation’

The Conservative Party’s official historian was speaking at the unveiling of a new statue to the former Party leader in his home town of Bewdley today.

Alistair Lexden: A rigorous new biography explores the ‘mild supremacy’ of Lord Liverpool

William Hay offers a well-researched and welcome antidote to the reactionary caricature of Peterloo mythology.

Alistair Lexden: Vivid writing, voracious research. Antonia Fraser’s account of the slow story of Catholic emancipation.

In her twenty-fourth book, she assembles a large cast of curious and colourful characters, much given to making outlandish remarks and fighting duels.

Alistair Lexden: How the 1918 election paved the way to inter-war Conservative hegemony

Just as they had with Joe Chamberlain before him, the Tory leadership wooed Lloyd George to fatally fracture the Liberal Party.

Alistair Lexden: Heath, the “almost great” Prime Minister who became the crosspatch of the century

This unusual leader still evokes passions in his Party even decades after his surprise election victory.