Opinion Articles
H&P encourages historians to use their expertise to shed light on issues of the day. If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece for publication, please see our editorial guidelines. We currently have 342 Opinion Articles listed by date and they are all freely searchable by theme, author or keyword.
Paying for health: Lansley’s woes and pre-NHS healthcare
The Coalition has found few, if any, of its policies to be as controversial as the NHS reforms contained in the Health and Social Care Bill. The pressure has increased in recent weeks, with both British Medical Journal and public polls showing overwhelming opposition, another Lords defeat, reported cabinet concerns and speculation over the future […]
Read MoreEdinburgh v. Westminster: what about the rest of the UK?
David Cameron is adamant that the Westminster parliament has the legal right to play a role in the Scottish independence referendum. Why, then, should the wider Westminster electorate be denied a say in the outcome? There has long been a debate over the plausible separation of the United Kingdom, and the role Westminster should play […]
Read MoreDeprivation of Honours: a brief history
This week headlines have been filled with the news that the former Chief Executive of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Fred Goodwin, has been stripped of the knighthood he was awarded in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 2004 for 'services to banking'. Comment on the issue has varied from those arguing that this public disgrace […]
Read More‘Responsible capitalism’: a return to ‘moral economy’ in England?
Both Prime Minister David Cameron and Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband opened 2012 by calling for 'responsible capitalism'. In a speech on 'moral capitalism' delivered at New Zealand House, London on 19 January this year, Cameron envisaged a market 'fair as well as free', one in which 'the power of the market and the […]
Read MoreAll Aboard! Return of the royal yacht?
1997 saw the retirement of Britannia, and with it the end of a royal institution, the Royal Yacht. The decision to discontinue the monarchy's official floating residence was made by the Queen, with the advice of the Duke of Edinburgh. Thus Britannia was the last of 83 royal yachts, the first of which had been […]
Read MoreThe image of a modern monarchy, past and present
The recent BBC2 documentary George and Mary: the Royals who Rescued the Monarchy will undoubtedly be the first of many programmes about all things Royal as we have now entered the year of the Queen's 60th Jubilee. With the eyes of the world focused on the UK, thanks also to the Olympics, both the Government […]
Read MoreWhat are they up to? Cameron’s political strategy in historical perspective
The governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, reportedly warned that the winners of the 2010 general election would be out of power 'for a generation' because of the deep cuts to public spending they would have to implement following the financial crisis. It might therefore seem surprising that the Conservative Party's poll ratings […]
Read MoreCameron’s veto: a calamitous break with the past?
In 1960, the Conservative Chancellor Derek Heathcoat-Amory remarked that a British decision to seek membership of the European Economic Community was a 'political act, with economic consequences'. It was a prescient judgement: his observation has been the basis of Britain's relationship with the European Community/Union ever since. By refusing to participate in a new Treaty […]
Read MoreWere Victorian bankers really ‘good?’
Coinciding as it did with the Occupy protests, Ian Hislop's recent BBC documentary on the philanthropy of Victorian bankers, When Bankers Were Good, was certainly well timed. But although entertaining and informative, Hislop's programme could also serve as a warning against using history to advance a contemporary policy prescription on the basis of very thin […]
Read MoreThe Chancellor’s Autumn Statement: one step forward
Tuesday's Autumn Statement by the Chancellor contained many welcome measures, and shows he is tiptoeing away from some of his previous mistakes. There is to be more spending on Britain's ageing rail lines, roads and urban infrastructure. There is to be more help for family budgets, though the freezing of many tax credits will more […]
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