Since Attlee & Churchill

Lee and Richard are kicking off a new miniseries looking at the three major referendums David Cameron held as Prime Minister: on the electoral system, on the status of Scotland, and on Britain’s membership of the European Union. This first vote - widely seen as the least significant and also therefore the least well remembered - nevertheless prompted some important questions about how Britain chooses its MPs and its government. But perhaps more importantly, it helped a generation of campaigners learn how to win a referendum and, Richard argues, instilled a complacency in Cameron that encouraged him to keep on gambling with referendums.

PRE-ORDER: Lee’s book, ‘Coronations & Defenestrations: Choosing (and losing) Tory Leaders’, is now available for pre-order (released 30 June 2026). Save 30% by using the code AGENDA30 on IndiePubs: https://indiepubs.co.uk/products/coronations-and-defenestrations-1760081414340

Enjoy ad-free listening, bonus episodes and show your support for the podcast by joining the Since Attlee & Churchill Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill

Buying books via the Since Attlee & Churchill Bookshop is a great way to support the podcast. Click here to visit the shop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/saac

Enjoy listening to the Since Attlee & Churchill podcast? If so, we would be very grateful if you could leave us a 5 star review!
***
Since Attlee & Churchill is a podcast about post-war British politics - since Attlee & Churchill - and is hosted by Lee David Evans, an historian of the Conservative Party, and Richard Johnson, an historian of the Labour Party.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After giving a talk at the Manchester Histories Festival, Richard and Lee were joined by listeners to the show for a live Q&A. Questions ranged from how to get into history (especially if you don't go to university) and which TV programmes offer the most accurate representations of politics, to whether First Past the Post will survive and the political career of local Manchester MP Lucy Powell. Thank you to everyone who came along and asked their questions.

PRE-ORDER: Lee’s book, ‘Coronations & Defenestrations: Choosing (and losing) Tory Leaders’, is now available for pre-order (released 30 June 2026). Save 30% by using the code AGENDA30 on IndiePubs: https://indiepubs.co.uk/products/coronations-and-defenestrations-1760081414340

Enjoy ad-free listening, bonus episodes and show your support for the podcast by joining the Since Attlee & Churchill Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill

Buying books via the Since Attlee & Churchill Bookshop is a great way to support the podcast. Click here to visit the shop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/saac

Enjoy listening to the Since Attlee & Churchill podcast? If so, we would be very grateful if you could leave us a 5 star review!
***
Since Attlee & Churchill is a podcast about post-war British politics - since Attlee & Churchill - and is hosted by Lee David Evans, an historian of the Conservative Party, and Richard Johnson, an historian of the Labour Party.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special live recording of the podcast at the Manchester Histories Festival, Lee and Richard discuss four MPs, all with Manchester connections, who made an important (but largely forgotten) contribution to British politics: John Robert Clynes, Florence Horsbrugh, Harold Lever and Anthony Barber. Who were they? How did they come to represent Greater Manchester constituencies? And what is their overlooked political legacy?

PRE-ORDER: Lee’s book, ‘Coronations & Defenestrations: Choosing (and losing) Tory Leaders’, is now available for pre-order (released 30 June 2026). Save 30% by using the code AGENDA30 on IndiePubs: https://indiepubs.co.uk/products/coronations-and-defenestrations-1760081414340

Enjoy ad-free listening, bonus episodes and show your support for the podcast by joining the Since Attlee & Churchill Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill

Buying books via the Since Attlee & Churchill Bookshop is a great way to support the podcast. Click here to visit the shop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/saac

Enjoy listening to the Since Attlee & Churchill podcast? If so, we would be very grateful if you could leave us a 5 star review!
***
Since Attlee & Churchill is a podcast about post-war British politics - since Attlee & Churchill - and is hosted by Lee David Evans, an historian of the Conservative Party, and Richard Johnson, an historian of the Labour Party.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To kick off this midweek episode of Since Attlee & Churchill, Richard discusses an article he has recently read about the impact of proportional representation on forming governments in the Netherlands. Should advocates of PR in this country pay more attention to the potential drawbacks of the system they support? Next, Lee reflects on discovering a description of England and its place in an author’s imagination that chimed strongly with his own. Richard and Lee then exchange reflections on the important aspects of the nation, with Lee making the case that the English countryside can provide a unique space in which to understand the breadth of our history.

PRE-ORDER: Lee’s book, ‘Coronations & Defenestrations: Choosing (and losing) Tory Leaders’, is now available for pre-order (released 30 June 2026). Save 30% by using the code AGENDA30 on IndiePubs: https://indiepubs.co.uk/products/coronations-and-defenestrations-1760081414340

Enjoy ad-free listening, bonus episodes and show your support for the podcast by joining the Since Attlee & Churchill Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill

Buying books via the Since Attlee & Churchill Bookshop is a great way to support the podcast. Click here to visit the shop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/saac

Enjoy listening to the Since Attlee & Churchill podcast? If so, we would be very grateful if you could leave us a 5 star review!
***
Since Attlee & Churchill is a podcast about post-war British politics - since Attlee & Churchill - and is hosted by Lee David Evans, an historian of the Conservative Party, and Richard Johnson, an historian of the Labour Party.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode focuses on a former Labour MP who tried to return to Parliament in a by-election. If successful, he was expected to launch a challenge to the sitting leader - who was reluctant to see him return. On that occasion, the provocateur wasn’t Andy Burnham, but Tony Benn. In this episode, Richard and Lee discuss the 1984 Chesterfield by-election that Benn contested - how it came about, what it meant for Labour, and how the party hierarchy handled it - before asking what lessons it has to offer for Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham and the voters of Makerfield.

In this episode, the following books are discussed:
'A Prime Minister on Prime Ministers' by Harold Wilson
'Resisting Reagan: Liberal Strategies in a Conservative Age' by Joe Ryan-Hume. Available at: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/16406/9780700638789

BOOK NOW: Tickets are available for our live event in Manchester. Find out more here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/since-attlee-churchill-live-in-manchester-tickets-1989814631126

PRE-ORDER: Lee’s book, ‘Coronations & Defenestrations: Choosing (and losing) Tory Leaders’, is now available for pre-order (released 30 June 2026). Save 30% by using the code AGENDA30 on IndiePubs: https://indiepubs.co.uk/products/coronations-and-defenestrations-1760081414340

Enjoy ad-free listening, bonus episodes and show your support for the podcast by joining the Since Attlee & Churchill Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill

Buying books via the Since Attlee & Churchill Bookshop is a great way to support the podcast. Click here to visit the shop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/saac

Enjoy listening to the Since Attlee & Churchill podcast? If so, we would be very grateful if you could leave us a 5 star review!
***
Since Attlee & Churchill is a podcast about post-war British politics - since Attlee & Churchill - and is hosted by Lee David Evans, an historian of the Conservative Party, and Richard Johnson, an historian of the Labour Party.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.