: Iain Dale
: On This Day in Politics Britain's Political History in 365 Days
: Atlantic Books
: 9781838954765
: 1
: CHF 13.90
:
: Geschichte
: English
: 400
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
Who became Britain's first Prime Minister on 3 April 1721? When was Karl Marx born? Where and when was the first battle of the Wars of the Roses? When did Big Ben first bong? When did the first British woman cast her vote? (Clue: It wasn't 1918.) Find the answers to these questions and many more in this landmark political history. From the first meeting of an elected English parliament on 20 January 1265 to the tabling of the Bill of Rights on 13 February 1689; from the Peterloo massacre of 16 August 1819 to Britain voting to leave the EU on 23 June 2016, there is a growing thirst for knowledge about the history of our constitutional settlement, our party system and how our parliamentary democracy has developed. Writing as an observer of political history, but also as someone with an opinion, acclaimed political broadcaster Iain Dale charts the main events of the last few hundred years, with one event per page, per day. 'The indefatigable Iain Dale always cuts to the nub of politics.' Adam Boulton

Iain Dale is an accomplished broadcaster, presenting his own daily radio show on LBC, and several podcasts, including For the Many and Iain Dale All Talk. He is a regular on Question Time, Newsnight, Good Morning Britain, Politics Live and a columnist for the Telegraph. He is the author/editor of more than 40 books, most recently The Presidents and The Prime Ministers. He lives in Tunbridge Wells and Norfolk. He can be found @iaindale on social media.

FEBRUARY


Tuesday, 1 February 1910

THE FIRST LABOUR EXCHANGE OPENS


The Liberal government led by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and then Herbert Henry Asquith was one of the great reforming governments of all time. It set the framework for the welfare state, which would develop over the rest of the century.

As part of these innovative reforms, dreamed up largely by Campbell-Bannerman, but implemented and paid for by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, the Labour Exchanges Bill was introduced into the House of Commons in May 1909 by the President of the Board of Trade, Winston Churchill, following the so-called People’s Budget on 29 April. It received its Royal Assent on 20 September.

Only five months later, the first state-organized labour exchanges in the UK opened their doors, and by the end of February 1910 there were eighty-three across the country. TheManchester Guardian declared that interest and demand was huge and there was a ‘promising start everywhere’.

Labour exchanges were not a particularly new innovation in that there had been private sector or charitable exchanges for some decades. The first was opened by social reformer and employment rights advocate Alsager Hay Hill in London in 1871.

The overriding purpose of the Labour Exchanges Act was to enable the unemployed to find work more easily, as well as to improve the mobility of workers. Somewhat counter-intuitively, the creation of labour exchanges was opposed by the nascent trade union movement. The unions thought their bargaining power might be impacted, making it easier for employers to recruit cheap labour from other parts of the country. Employers weren’t too keen either, at least initially, which meant that not all positions were advertised. My own grandfather moved from a farming background in Ayrshire to the Consett steelworks as a result of the local labour exchange advertising a position.

Initially, the exchanges didn’t fulfil their promise and only around a quarter of the people registered with them managed to find a job through their services. However, by 1913, three thousand people each day were being placed into jobs through more than 430 labour exchanges.

Wednesday, 2 February 1972

BRITISH EMBASSY IN DUBLIN BURNED TO THE GROUND


On the same day that eleven of the victims of the Bloody Sunday shootings in Londonderry were being buried, protesters in Dublin burned the British Embassy to the ground. For three days more than twenty thousand people had been protesting outside the embassy in Merrion Square, not far from the Dáil.

Hundreds of petrol bombs were thrown, as well as stones and random missiles. Fire engines were prevented from getting to the scene for several hours and the crowds cut their hoses. According to theGuardian:

All windows in the front of the building were smashed, and shutters torn from their hinges. Burning Union Jacks were hung on the front of the building above symbolic coffins, placed on the embassy steps by march leaders who were allowed through the police cordon around the building… watching crowds cheered as the interior of the embassy blazed fiercely. ‘Burn, burn, burn,’ they shouted as chunks of masonry and woodwork fell blazing on to the street. They redoubled their cheering whenever they saw the fire breaking through into new parts of the building. They stopped fire engines from getting through, and hurled petrol bombs at the b