“Labour isn’t working” read the Conservative Party slogan for the 1979 general election in which they were ultimately and predictably victorious. This sentiment also underpins The Year of the Beaver, though examined from a very different political perspective.
Ellen Wilkinson (1891-1947) was a champion of the rights of women and the working-classes. During her influential political career, she was among the first female Labour MPs and the second woman to serve in the Cabinet. She had many nicknames including ‘Red Ellen’ (due to the colour of her hair and her socialist beliefs) and ‘Shelter Queen’ (because of her tremendous efforts in distributing half a million Morrison shelters as a Minister for Home Security during the Second World War). As a local Mancunian and University of Manchester History graduate, she is well deserving of the UoM building named in her honour.
Ed Miliband’s recent Conference Speech was met with great acclaim for its ambitious and surprising declaration of a “One Nation” Labour Party. It was undoubtedly a brave and rousing message, but the proposal of “One Nation” is nothing new.The concept originated with a Conservative Prime Minister speaking 140 years earlier, yards from where Miliband himself Continue Reading
