Tides of History

Historians, archivists, librarians and historians working in the field of labour history. A starter pack to get you going…
go.bsky.app/CUqdx9a

Most accurate impression of all time

“I’ll tell you and you’ll listen”: the Neil Kinnock speech that lives on | Anthony Broxton | The Critic Magazine It was at Preston railway station, in September 1985, as he made his way back to London from the TUC Conference that Neil Kinnock realised his time had come. Picking up the Lancashire Evening Post…

40 years ago today, Neil Kinnock went to Bournemouth to make a speech

thecritic.co.uk/the-neil-kin...

#OTD 1997. Gordon Brown delivers Labour’s first budget for 18 years 🧰

“Previous Budgets pursued the short-term interests of the few. This Budget advances the long-term interests of the many”

Windfall tax on privatised companies pays for education & welfare to work programme

Great piece and plenty to think about

Ponting’s Breach of Promise is always worth revisiting on this era.

24 years ago today…

John Prescott connects with the voters in Rhyl as Labour launch their election manifesto

🥊 👊

Stunning - can’t wait to read it.

29 years ago almost to the day - the great Ray French insisting on English beer on the Eurostar to Paris for Super League opener

Looking forward to this one 🎊

#OTD 1900. 125 years ago today.

Labour Party is founded.

The Labour Representation Committee (LRC) is formed in London following a socialist conference.

The 129 delegates pass Keir Hardie's motion to create “a distinct group to represent working class people in Parliament”.

Masters No More: Clement Attlee and the ‘Revolt of the Suburbs’ | Anthony Broxton | The Critic Magazine In April 1946, the Attorney General, Sir Hartley Shawcross, told Conservative MPs in a Commons debate, “We are the masters” and will be “for a long time to come”. Labour had just become the party of…

Long Read: After the 1945 landslide, Labour believed they were the “masters now”

But while nationalisation won in the North, Middle England struck back against food shortages, austerity and the cost of living crisis.

75 years on from the 1950 election 👇🏼

thecritic.co.uk/masters-no-m...

#OTD 1979. 1.5 million workers out as part of a 'National Day of Action' in biggest strike since 1926

Callaghan says only “rank and file trade unionists”can “ensure that we do not plunge once more over the abyss”

He says the “survival of free trade unionism” is at stake now.

#OTD 1963. Death of Hugh Gaitskell.

As leader he had urged Labour to change:

"Above all our object must be to broaden our base, to be in touch always with ordinary people, to avoid becoming small cliques of isolated doctrine-ridden fanatics, out of touch with the mainstream"

#OTD 1979. Crisis? What Crisis?

Callaghan arrives back to transport strikes, fuel & food shortages and calls for a State of Emergency

He tells the press there is no “mounting chaos” and they should stop talking the country down.

He jokes that he might not be able to get a cup of tea.

The Miners’ Last Stand | Anthony Broxton | The Critic Magazine It was New Year’s Eve 1971, and Labour’s Tony Benn was in a sombre mood. Just eighteen months into his new life on the opposition benches, he feared that his party was becoming ever more unelectable.

#OTD 1972. Miners strike begins.

The industry had borne the brunt of  Lord Robens’ cuts, and over the decade, the number of miners dropped from 571,000 in 1960 to 280,000 in 1972

And they had fallen down the wages league table

The story of the miners last stand 👇🏼

thecritic.co.uk/the-miners-l...

#OTD 2003. Death of Roy Jenkins.

In the 1970s he was a key figure in the 1975 UK referendum campaign to remain in the Common Market:

“I think we are in danger of getting bogged down in a debate about theoretical paper sovereignty”.

Rugby league due its first knight – but Sir Kev must wait his turn Now 90, Billy Boston rose above discrimination to establish himself as a role model in a community that was proud to support him. He and his sport should be properly honoured sooner rather than later

My column on honours lists, the snubbing of rugby league, a history of racism in 20th century Welsh rugby and why Billy Boston should be league's first knight.
www.thetimes.com/sport/rugby-...

His White House Diary record of the visit

RIP President Jimmy Carter aged 100

Here he is in 1977 on his famous visit to the North East with PM Jim Callaghan

There were crowds of 20,000 and Carter visited the Corning glassworks in Sunderland where he was given a special gift…

Wham! Last Christmas takes out the Xmas no 1 again 🌲

40 years ago, just a few weeks before it’s release the band had “risked their reputation” by playing a benefit gig for striking miners at Festival Hall, London ⛏️

Pleased to welcome @historytrainsman.bsky.social, a member of our EC, to BlueSky - and to add him to our labour history starter pack
go.bsky.app/CUqdx9a

What a mad five years

Covid, the Captain Sir Tom Moore Memorial Spa, the lettuce, that week where everyone thought the royal family were covering up the death of the Princess of Wales

Just normal country things

#OTD 2019. “Brexit” Election. Johnson and the Conservatives win majority of 80.

It is Tories biggest win since 1987 and their highest share of the popular vote since 1979.

Labour drop to lowest number of MPs since 1935.

Well read: labour historians recommend books that deserve to be better known Newspapers and magazines always like to list their ‘best books of the year’ as Christmas approaches. But what if the best books weren’t published this year? Preferring to take a l…

What book would you choose?
sslh.org.uk/2022/12/17/w...

Terraced council housing

Terraced coucniol housing

This week's new post looked at Wigan: the borough was one of the few to build council housing before 1914: 'a slum abolished, an eyesore removed, the health of the inhabitants remarkably improved, their environment made clean, refined, and elevating' ...
municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2024/12/03/c...

#OTD 1955. Clement Attlee steps down as Labour leader after 20 years in charge.

The Times leads the tributes to the man they say would be remembered as being "distressed by the needs of the needy, the poverty of the poor and the lack of opportunity for the many"

#OTD 1923 Election. Tories forced to seek mandate on tariff reform as Labour win seats in North.

Labour argue tariffs "foster a spirit of profiteering, materialism and selfishness, poison the life of nations, lead to corruption in politics, promote trusts and monopolies, and impoverish the people"

Beveridge report published #OTD 1942. Beveridge was elected Liberal MP for Berwick-on-Tweed in a 1944 by-election, but lost to a Tory at the 1945 general election.

December 🌲🎅🎄🤶