Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
..I do not like the term heroes being banded around too loosely. To me real heroes are the lads on the front line in combat situations where they are going beyond the normal call of duty. But I am willing to accept looser definition as below specially as one true hero, the Duke of Wellington is among them.
The following list of Tory heroes was written by Stephen Parkinson of the Conservative History Group and appeared on ConHome today.
Some names and what they did may surprise some people who have a rather warped idea of what the Conservative Party is all about.
Labour and the LibDems(Liberals and Whigs before them) cannot produce a list of such distinction and with such great achievements.
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William Wilberforce (1759-1833) - the abolition of slavery
Although, like his great friend Pitt the Younger, he rejected a party label, Wilberforce was a man of deep conservative principles. An evangelical Christian convert, he waged a long campaign for the abolition of slavery. It led to the Slavery Abolition Act 1833; he died just three days after learning that it would become law.
1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) - victory at Waterloo and Catholic Emancipation
After a military career which brought him great fame - particularly following his victory against Napoleon at Waterloo - Wellington went into politics. As Prime Minister, he overcame vehement opposition to pass the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, granting almost full civil rights to Catholics in the United Kingdom.
Sir Robert Peel (1788-1850) - father of modern policing
As Home Secretary for most of the 1820s, Peel made a number of significant reforms in law and order. His greatest legacy was the Metropolitan Police Act 1829, which established the first modern police force - its officers known as 'bobbies' in his honour. By 1857, all cities in the UK were required to have their own police force.
7th Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-85) - social reformer
From his maiden speech supporting improvements to lunatic asylums, Anthony Ashley-Cooper devoted himself to social reform - earning the sobriquet 'the poor man's Earl'. Though he barely held office, he helped to enact a number of reforms - improving factory conditions, limiting the use of child labour, and outlawing the employment of women and children in coal mines.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-81) - bridged the gap between the 'two nations'
Disraeli identified 'two nations' - the rich and the poor - in his 1845 novel, Sybil, and committed the Conservative Party to 'elevat[ing] the condition of the people'. He gave the vote to working men in urban constituencies, and enacted many social reforms - including, in 1875 alone, the Artisans' Dwellings Act (enabling slum clearance), the Climbing Boys Act (banning juvenile chimney sweeps), a Public Health Act, and measures to allow peaceful picketing.
3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830-1903) - Villa Toryism
When Clement Attlee was asked to name the greatest Prime Minister of his lifetime, he replied: 'Salisbury'. Initially wary of mass democracy, Salisbury was in fact the most electorally successful Tory leader of the nineteenth century, winning new support among the suburban middle class and transforming the Conservatives into a popular, national party committed to the maintenance of the United Kingdom.
Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928) - founded the Women's Social and Political Union
After a left-wing youth, the famous leader of the suffragettes joined the Conservative Party under Stanley Baldwin in 1926 and was selected to contest the 1929 election in Stepney. However, weakened by periods of imprisonment, she died in 1928 - the year a Conservative Government gave women the vote on the same terms as men.
Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) - welfare reform after the Great Depression
Though his premiership was overshadowed by foreign policy, Chamberlain had a remarkable domestic record. His housing subsidies stimulated a building programme which swept away the slums and helped bring Britain out of depression. Rent controls were introduced to protect the less well-off, along with unemployment benefit, health insurance, and paid holidays for most families.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) - Second World War leader
From a lone voice in the wilderness to a triumphant wartime premier, Churchill's blood, toil, tears, sweat - and rhetoric - saw Britain through her darkest hour. His acceptance of the 1945 Labour landslide brought the Conservatives back to power within six years - with a rejuvenated Party organisation and its largest ever membership (nearly 3 million).
R.A. Butler (1902-82) - 1944 Education Act
The greatest achievement of his long and distinguished political career, Butler's 1944 Education Act extended free education to all. Grammar schools gave bright children from poor backgrounds the chance to rise up by merit, boosting social mobility and helping a generation to climb to the top of British society. Some of them, sadly, pulled the ladder up behind them.
Harold Macmillan (1894-1986) - built a property-owning democracy
As Housing Minister, Macmillan rashly pledged to build 300,000 new homes a year - but he delivered, and home ownership rose from under a third to nearly half by the end of his time as premier. The standard of living went up too (by 50 per cent), with earnings rising more than twice as quickly as prices.
Margaret Thatcher (1925-) - where there was despair, brought hope
Mrs. Thatcher smashed the post-war consensus to heal a country which had become the sick man of Europe. By 1990, Britain had had eight years of economic growth, 27 million people were in work - the highest ever figure - and the number of strikes was the lowest for half a century. Privatisation raised £27.5 billion for the public finances, nearly a quarter of the adult population owned shares, and more than a million council tenants were given the Right to Buy their own homes.
John Major (1943-) - cut crime; boosted growth; created the National Lottery
As well as initiating the Northern Ireland peace process and laying the foundations for Britain's longest period of continuous economic growth, Major established the National Lottery. It has already raised more than £21 billion for good causes, supporting nearly 90 per cent of the British athletes at London 2012. With the help of his Home Secretary, Michael Howard, he turned the tide on crime - which fell by 18 per cent 1992-7.
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There is just one bit I would differ with - John Major, - not my favourite leader on the Conservative Party at all. It is wrong to refer to the 'longest period of continuous growth' with any kind of sense of achievement. That period of growth was only sustained by an appalling mismanagement of the economy by his successor built on a bubble of debt for which we are now paying.
Guest 715- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 2,438
Oh Dear
Audere est facere.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Barry I think you will need your tin hat for this thread, as the 'other side' react.....
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i stopped reading after the 4th paragraph, anyone can cherry pick a list to suit their own propaganda.
the 4th paragraph states that other parties have nothing to offer in this way - i thought for 5 seconds and denis healey and paddy ashdown have active service records to beat anybody.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
There are also plenty of Tories of which only their mothers could be proud. Arthur Balfour, Stanley Baldwin, Anthony Eden, to name but three off the top of my head. Balfour's famous declaration was the main source of the Middle East problem, Baldwin's miscalculations failed to avert the General strike and made the Depression worse than necessary and Eden's intervention in Suez compounded Balfour's sins. Apart from Brown, Balls and Kinnock, Labour have much less to be ashamed of, not least because they achieved much less. And the Liberals have been spectators since the first world war.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
No wonder there is a hankering to get us back to the 18th century. Perhaps to begin again the long patient wait for the munificence of Conservatism to bestow anew upon the masses the flavour of the top-table feast.
Oh, how the sacrifice of dyspeptic dining outweighs the common vicissitudes of pestilence, war, famine and death.
Yes, John Major or no, the Blue-shift of the backward glance Vaselines the lens wonderfully.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
I actually agree with Peter in respect of those of whom we can be less than proud. To have success and to achieve great things, there will always be other lesser people. The only way to avoid failure is not to succeed in the first place and do nothing.
What is important are these great figures and what they have achieved for this country. That is the whole point of this list - not cherry picking, but identifying great figures who served the country as Conservatives.
It is no good left wing 'forumites' not bothering to read the list as if you can deny history by just ignoring it, simply because the facts do not agree with your myths.
Mind you - inconvenient facts are never a problem to the Labour supporters on here, they just ignore them.
Guest 714- Registered: 14 Apr 2011
- Posts: 2,594
What about Gordon Brown, he saved the world and now barely gets a mention.
We're an ungrateful bunch
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
Guest 671- Registered: 4 May 2008
- Posts: 2,095
BarryW.
Of course, I would go for Clement Attlee (1883 - 1967)
His was the most significant reforming administration of 20th century Britain. It introduced the National Health Service, nationalised one fifth of the British economy, and granted independence to India.
Of course I could produce a list; The Guardian ran a pole in 2008, it's very interesting.
But whose choice, for who deserves what, are just our own opinions and obviously mine would be quite different from yours, on the whole.
Personally I could agree with some of your choices but it's sad that you have to declare "Labour cannot produce a list of such distinction and with such great achievements"
That does not invite others to join in with your post in a friendly manner, it's just another of your one-sided political challenges that would be treated by you with disdain even if I were to formulate a list, so why bother?
"My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"
Guest 725- Registered: 7 Oct 2011
- Posts: 1,418
I'm sure Edwina Curry, erm, stuck up for John Major or is that quite the correct turn of phrase?
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
barry plays the usual card of calling people left wing if they do not blindly go along with the blue party line.
i think edwina did have something with john major philip, but she blew it in the end.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
Actually no Howard. The left is a broad group that includes the LibDems/Labour and others who believe in big government solutions and in that even some Conservatives can be included. I refer to Frederich Hayek's famous dedication in his great book, The Road to Serfdom, 'To The Socialists of All Parties'.
GaryC - this is not my list and, yes - I did set a challenge in which your nomination falls very short of the mark.
The NHS was devised by a Liberal, Beveridge and while Atlee implemented it, the system was ill-conceived and deeply flawed, did not meet its expectations and provides, by international standards, second rate healthcare. The Atlee government set the basis for the decline of much of British industry with its nationalisation and left office, kicked out in a financial crisis leading to 13 years of Conservative power. Sadly those were not the best 13 years for failing to reverse Atlee's economic vandalism.
Try again!
Guest 745- Registered: 27 Mar 2012
- Posts: 3,370
But the best politicians of all would be the ones that get us out of the EU.
They would be the savours of Briton, and worthy of being history's grate and good
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
philip.it was john majour that stuck it up edwina curry.:brave man though.grin:
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
I see that this chap Parkinson (no mention of Cecil?) has another list of 'conservative' Olympians.
Who could forget the sterling achievements of Jeffrey Archer, champion of chumpions.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Guest 671- Registered: 4 May 2008
- Posts: 2,095
BarryW.
Try again!
Not bothered thanks, totally pointless and puerile.
"My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"
Guest 696- Registered: 31 Mar 2010
- Posts: 8,115
Barry, unable to get past a few paragraphs of post 1, I tried with the copy and paste technique feeding it into a spread sheet, which was rejected, and a pie-chart was offered instead. It came out with a spin to it.
I then tried Google Earth, but Error 404 came up
Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
When a desperate posting goes down like a lead balloon....without Tory support ..except two closets...it is normally followed
by ....graphs....please don`t bother...
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
Reg - to use someone else' word, your post is puerile at best. #19
GaryC - that is just a total cop-out. #17
Keith(B) - I have considerable sympathy with that sentiment. #14