Video

The Chancellors examines how the Treasury has been able to fight off attempts by Prime Ministers, from Blair to Johnson, to cut it down to size. Based on in-depth interviews with the Chancellors and key senior officials, it gives the insiders’ view of exactly how the Treasury has been able to dominate policy-making for 25 turbulent years, a period that spans the global financial crisis, austerity, the Scottish referendum, Brexit and the pandemic. Faced with a stuttering economy, can the Treasury continue to exercise such remarkable influence? 

Panel:

• Howard Davies (Chairman of the NatWest Group and former director of the LSE)
• Alistair Darling (Lord Darling of Roulanish, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 2007-2010)
• Philip Hammond (Lord Hammond of Runnymede, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 2016-2019)
• Clare Lombardelli (Chief Economic Advisor at the Treasury and Joint-Head of the Government Economic Service)
• Jill Rutter (Senior Research Fellow: UK in a Changing Europe)
• Duncan Needham (Darwin College, Cambridge)

Chair: Philip Murphy (History & Policy)

On the 21 June History & Policy organised a special online round table discussion on Digital History and Government Recordkeeping. An expert panel considered a range of questions including: 
 

1. What opportunities do digital history techniques - from tailored search interfaces to data visualisations - offer historians interested in government records?   
2. To what extent are digital recordkeeping practices - such as the guidance from the National Archives and the Lord Chancellor’s Code of Practice – informing recordkeeping and shaping the archives of the future? 
3. How far can automation and AI be relied upon to identify, file and preserve public records more effectively than human members of staff? 
4. Will the shift towards the born-digital and ephemeral in the materials generated by the government change the ways in which official histories are researched and written? 
5. How might public access to government records be transformed by digital humanities techniques?  
6. What are the security, data protection and Freedom of Information implications of the shift to digital records in contemporary government, and how might this affect the work of historians?

Speakers:

• Prof Ulrich Tiedau (Professor of European History and Associate Director of the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities)
• Tom Storrar (Head of Web Archiving at the National Archives)
• Jason Webber (Web Archive Engagement Manager at the British Library and the UK Web Archive)
• Prof Jane Winters (Professor of Digital Humanities and Director of the Digital Humanities Research Hub at the School of Advanced Study)
• Sir Alex Allen (Advisory board member at the Oxford Internet Institute, formerly served as the first UK Government e-Envoy) 

Chair: Philip Murphy (Director of History & Policy)

ONLINE BOOK LAUNCH

Recorded on 24 March 2021

The History & Policy Trade Union & Employment Forum is launching an important new biography of this former giant of the Labour movement - Walter Citrine: Forgotten Statesman of the Trades Union Congress. The author, Dr Jim Moher, a former national trade union official and now historian, will be launching it in conjunction with the Institute of Historical Research, University of London and his colleagues in the History and Policy Trade Union & Employment Forum.

Lord John Monks, a distinguished former General Secretary of the TUC (and European TUC), who has a Foreword in the book, will interview Jim about Citrine. This will be followed by questions and a general discussion with full audience participation.

ONLINE SEMINAR

Thursday 21 May 2020, 6pm-8pm

Andrew Brady will introduce his recent book:

Unions and Employment in a Market Economy, Strategy, Influence and Power in Contemporary Britain (Routledge 2019)

Other speakers include Sir Ian McCartney and Tom Wilson.

The Seminar was chaired by Helen Hague

Andrew Brady was awarded his PhD from the University of Strathclyde in 2017. He has held various positions within Unite the Union and is currently based in Scotland in the union’s Political, Research & Campaigns Unit.

Sir Ian McCartney was Shadow Minister, Minister of State, and Cabinet Minister 1992–2007 and led the Labour Government’s work on employment and employment rights.

Tom Wilson was Director of Unionlearn at the TUC until 2017. He has also worked for the GMB, the Labour Party as Trade Union Liaison Officer, the AUT and Natfhe (now UCU).

Helen Hague is a journalist and has recently worked on a history of the Fire Brigades Union.