Prime Ministers and the Constitution
The first Prime Minister to carry out significant constitutional reform was the Duke of Wellington. Wellington was an unlikely figure to be associated with constitutional changes – he was a deeply...
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'It was thirty* years ago today...'
If I told you that records of 30 years ago have just been released, would you immediately think that records such as ‘Karma Chameleon’ (Culture Club), ‘Every breath you take’ (The Police) and ‘Down...
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Keep Calm and Carry On – The Compromise Behind the Slogan
Poster Image via Wikimedia Commons The instruction to ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ has become one of the most recognisable slogans in British history. The phrase has reinforced a popular view of life in...
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Chaos and Censorship in the Second World War
Britain’s involvement in the Second World War began at 11am on 3 September 1939. The declaration came after eleven days of mounting international tension and was just one part of a flurry of...
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A private public record office: Tony Benn as a political diarist
On Wednesday, 1 December 1976, the Cabinet met to discuss the severe economic crisis confronting the UK and the terms of the rescue package then being negotiated from the International Monetary Fund...
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Invasion Publicity during the Second World War
How should a responsible government deal with the threat of military invasion? This question is not one that many British governments have had to consider. Yet for a 12-month period after May 1940 it...
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Harold Wilson opens the Post Office Tower
The Post Office Tower, The National Archives, CM 22/195 (40) When the Post Office Tower was officially opened on 8 October 1965 by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, it was Britain’s tallest building. It...
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Gift Horses and Horoscopes
Gifts to the State can present interesting challenges, particularly if they are alive and quite possibly kicking. For whom, ultimately, is the gift intended? And, who is responsible for looking after...
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Concorde’s first British test flight, 50 years on
Metropolitan Police motorcycle special escort, under the wing of a Concorde aircraft, 1975. Source: MEPO 13/234, The National Archives ‘It was wizard’ Fifty years ago this month, Concorde made its...
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The Industrial Reorganisation Corporation and the 1968 reorganisation of...
The descriptions 'the sick man of Europe' and 'the British disease' plagued the UK’s economy and industrial outlook in the 1950s through to 1970s. Economic historian Nick Crafts has summed up the...
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