Poll tax riotsThe poll tax riots were a series of riots in British towns and cities during protests against the Community Charge (commonly known as the "poll tax"), introduced by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The largest protest occurred in central London on Saturday 31 March 1990, shortly before the tax was due to come into force in England and Wales. The advent of the poll tax was due to an effort to alter the way the tax system was used to fund local government in the UK.
Ed MilibandEdward Samuel Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliband was Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition between 2010 and 2015. Alongside his brother, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, he served in the Cabinet from 2007 to 2010 under Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Gordon BrownJames Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a Scottish politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Tony Blair from 1997 to 2007. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Dunfermline East from 1983 to 2005 and, following boundary changes, Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath from 2005 to 2015. Brown is the most recent Labour Party politician as well as the most recent Scottish politician to hold the office of prime minister.
Beveridge ReportThe Beveridge Report, officially entitled Social Insurance and Allied Services (Cmd. 6404), is a government report, published in November 1942, influential in the founding of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It was drafted by the Liberal economist William Beveridge – with research and publicity by his wife, mathematician Janet Beveridge – who proposed widespread reforms to the system of social welfare to address what he identified as "five giants on the road of reconstruction": "Want...
University of LiverpoolThe University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL; locally known as The Uni of) is a public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded as a college in 1881, it gained its Royal Charter in 1903 with the ability to award degrees, and is also known to be one of the six 'red brick' civic universities, the first to be referred to as The Original Red Brick. It comprises three faculties organised into 35 departments and schools. It is a founding member of the Russell Group, the N8 Group for research collaboration and the university management school is triple crown accredited.
Representation of the People Act 1918The Representation of the People Act 1918 was an Act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in Great Britain and Ireland. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act. The Act extended the franchise in parliamentary elections, also known as the right to vote, to men aged over 21, whether or not they owned property, and to women aged over 30 who resided in the constituency whilst occupying land or premises with a rateable value above £5, or whose husbands did.
Winter of DiscontentThe Winter of Discontent was the period between November 1978 and February 1979 in the United Kingdom characterised by widespread strikes by private, and later public, sector trade unions demanding pay rises greater than the limits Prime Minister James Callaghan and his Labour Party government had been imposing, against Trades Union Congress (TUC) opposition, to control inflation. Some of these industrial disputes caused great public inconvenience, exacerbated by the coldest winter in 16 years, in which severe storms isolated many remote areas of the country.
Deputy Prime Minister of the United KingdomThe Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the second highest ranking minister of the Crown and a member of the British Cabinet. The title is not always in use and prime ministers have been known to appoint informal deputies without the title of deputy prime minister. The incumbent deputy prime minister is Oliver Dowden. The position of deputy prime minister carries no salary and therefore it is necessary to appoint the holder to another position which entitles them to draw a salary under the Ministerial and other Salaries Act 1975.
Denis HealeyDenis Winston Healey, Baron Healey, (30 August 1917 – 3 October 2015) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979 and as Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970; he remains the longest-serving Defence Secretary to date. He was a Member of Parliament from 1952 to 1992, and was Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1980 to 1983. To the public at large, Healey became well known for his bushy eyebrows, his avuncular manner and his creative turns of phrase.
Post-war consensusThe post-war consensus, sometimes called the post-war compromise, was the economic order and social model of which the major political parties in post-war Britain shared a consensus supporting view, from the end of World War II in 1945 to the late-1970s. It ended during the governance of Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher. The consensus tolerated or encouraged nationalisation, strong trade unions, heavy regulation, high taxes, and an extensive welfare state.
