Alistair Lexden: Remembering Sir Henry Wilson, the MP the IRA assassinated – and the Commons forgot
This soldier and statesmen deserves the memorial shield in Parliament that is now customary for Members killed in the line of duty.
Posts by Lord Lexden
Lord Lexden is the Conservative Party’s official historian. His website can be found here.
Alistair Lexden: On this day 180 years ago – Sir Robert Peel’s great election victory
He ranks with Gladstone as one of the truly great premiers of the 19th Century. Both also inflicted huge damage on their respective parties.
Alistair Lexden: A century ago today, King George V opened the Parliament of Northern Ireland
It is a shame that IRA violence – and Westminster neglect – undid the hopeful and constructive spirit in which Stormont was born.
Alistair Lexden: We should have listened to “the great Lord Salisbury” on reform of the upper house
He proposed a limit was placed on the number of life peers that could be created. Much criticism of the House of Lords could have been spared.
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.