An incoming Labour government gets off to a difficult start, taking tough and unpopular decisions which they say are necessary because of the inheritance left by the Conservatives. It's not Keir Starmer in 2024, but Harold Wilson six decades ago. In this episode, we consider Wilson's tricky start as prime minister, how a controversial and sensational by-election crystallised the issues facing Britain and its government in the mid-1960s, and the ways Wilson tried to recover ahead of the 1966 election.

In this episode we discuss the following programmes, articles and books:

'Lucan' on BBC iPlayer. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m0024qb9/lucan

‘'Make The Equal Rights Amendment Part Of The Constitution' by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/15/opinion/trump-biden-legacy.html?searchResultPosition=4

'John Stonehouse: My Father' by Julia Stonehouse. Available at: https://amzn.to/41Rv9Mv

'Making the Weather' by Vernon Bogdanor. Available at: https://amzn.to/3ZVQrWH

Since Attlee & Churchill is the podcast all about post-war British political history, hosted by:

Lee David Evans is an historian of the Conservative Party and the John Ramsden Fellow at the Mile End Institute, Queen Mary, University of London. He is on social media @LeeDavidEvansUK.

Richard Johnson is a Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London, and among his other areas of expertise is an historian of the Labour Party. He tweets at @richardmarcj.

If you're British or live in a Commonwealth realm, the Sovereign's Christmas message is synonymous with Christmas. And it's one of those broadcasts that we're talking about in this festive special of 'Since Attlee & Churchill'. In particular, Richard and Lee ask whether, in her 2013 Christmas message, Elizabeth II made a covert reference to the illness of one of her former prime ministers.

In this episode, we mention the following books/articles:

'The Queen' by Ben Pimlott. Available here: https://amzn.to/41JdDKx

'The Way the Wind Blows' by Alec Douglas-Home. Available here: https://amzn.to/3VSrRVA

'Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries' by Gyles Brandreth. Available here: https://amzn.to/49VAyEE

'Harold Wilson and the "Big Six"' by Michael Lloyd-Jones. Available here: https://amzn.to/3VSrJFA

Since Attlee & Churchill is the podcast all about post-war British political history, hosted by:

Lee David Evans is an historian of the Conservative Party and the John Ramsden Fellow at the Mile End Institute, Queen Mary, University of London. He is on social media @LeeDavidEvansUK.

Richard Johnson is a Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London, and among his other areas of expertise is an historian of the Labour Party. He tweets at @richardmarcj.

Two-time Labour leadership candidate Peter Shore represented a version of left-wing politics that has mostly disappeared: constitutional socialism. He opposed Britain's entry into Europe and believed in the power of the House of Commons to deliver a radical socialist agenda. Yet by the time he left the Commons in 1997, the party he had represented for over three decades had abandoned many of his ideas. Why?

In this episode, we mention the following books/articles:

'A Constitutional Socialist' by Richard Johnson. Available at: https://tribunemag.co.uk/2020/06/a-constitutional-socialist

'Ed Miliband is our most consequential MP, I’m afraid' by Dominic Lawson. Available at: https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/ed-miliband-is-our-eras-most-consequential-politician-im-afraid-gm8pqk058

'Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric' by Mark Amory. Available at: https://amzn.to/41GClv1

'Uproar!' by Alice Loxton. Available at: https://amzn.to/3VINN5z

Since Attlee & Churchill is the podcast all about post-war British political history, hosted by:

Lee David Evans is an historian of the Conservative Party and the John Ramsden Fellow at the Mile End Institute, Queen Mary, University of London. He is on social media @LeeDavidEvansUK.

Richard Johnson is a Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London, and among his other areas of expertise is an historian of the Labour Party. He tweets at @richardmarcj.