Lecture programme
Lectures take place on Fridays, from 2–3.30pm GMT.
Friday 30 January 2026
Anthony Eden
Eden’s reputation has never recovered from the disastrous Suez adventure in 1956. In particular, the military action was halted by the furious Americans, whose Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, had preferred diplomacy as the response to Nasser’s nationalisation of the Suez Canal. With active collaboration from Macmillan, the Americans forced Eden from office just a few month later on the spurious grounds of ill health. Historians have struggled to rehabilitate Eden’s Suez policy, but recent scholarship has focused on his successes which Suez overshadowed. Eden presided over a strong economy with full employment and rising spending on the NHS and pensions. His European policy, while controversial, can been regarded as prescient. And his achievements as a three-time Foreign Secretary have attracted considerable respect.
Friday 6 February 2026
Alec Douglas-Home
Nobody was more surprised than Alec Douglas-Home himself by his elevation to the Premiership in 1963 on Harold Macmillan’s resignation. Only a year earlier, he had categorically ruled out any Prime Ministerial ambition in a media interview, admitting that economics left him baffled. But defying a reputation as a man of Munich, for his support for Chamberlain in 1938, Douglas-Home fought a relatively successful rear guard action between 1963 and his narrow election defeat a year later. The economy prospered, albeit aided by a Keynesian reflation, and the international situation was becalmed. Consumer choice was extended as Resale Price Maintenance was reformed. Wilson as expected duly won the 1964 election but Douglas Home’s political damage limitation exercise restricted Wilson to a majority of four.
Friday 13 February 2026
Edward Heath
Vowing a ‘Quiet Revolution’ of free market policies, especially to curb inflation, Ted Heath performed his famous U-turns embracing the policies of the predecessor Labour government. In came nationalisation, incomes policy, and industrial subsidies. Trade union reform was put on ice. Deficit financing and monetary expansion increased inflation from the 8% he inherited to 27%. Moreover, 1973 was the worse year for strikes since the 1926 General Strike, and twice Heath was humiliated by the miners, whose strikes were successful. Aside from the economy, Heath negotiated British entry to the EEC, for which he was much praised at the time, and supported the détente policies of the early 1970’s.
Friday 20 February 2026
Jim Callaghan
Formerly Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary, nobody was better qualified in terms of experience than Jim Callaghan. But his inheritance on entering No. 10 in 1976 was an economic crisis that led to the IMF bailout later that year. In vain had Callaghan tried informally to avoid the IMF by obtaining a loan from Helmut Schmidt the West German Chancellor. With inflation curbed and the IMF mandated policies apparently working, Callaghan was tempted to hold an election in 1978. Resisting the temptation exposed his government to the Winter of Discontent which swung public opinion in the direction of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives. Gracious in defeat, Callaghan said that it was a mark of social progress to have the first woman Prime Minister.
Friday 27 February 2026
Gordon Brown
Intellectual, moody, and with an uneven temper, Gordon Brown has been viewed as a successful Chancellor of the Exchequer but less successful as Prime Minister. Unwilling to take advantage of an extended honeymoon period, he failed to call an election which most commentators, and many of his colleagues, thought he would win.
Thereafter, the problems mounted. He failed to respond to the public’s anger over the MPs' expenses scandal, merely suggesting that the civil service should consider the matter at a later stage. When Chancellor Alistair Darling warned that the Credit Crunch would cause a recession, he appeared to deny the scale of the crisis. Backing the Americans over the Europeans he favoured bailing out the banks at considerable public expense. In the 2010 election campaign, although Labour lost, at least he had the satisfaction of denying David Cameron’s Conservatives a working majority.
Friday 6 March 2026
Theresa May
Nominally a supporter of Remain, her only notable contribution to the 2016 EU referendum campaign was a speech casting doubt on the economic claims of Prime Minister Cameron and Chancellor Osborne. Positioning herself as an acceptable compromise candidate to both sides, she obtained sufficient support once Boris Johnson and Michael Gove had destroyed each other’s chances. Vowing to be the Prime Minister capable of delivering Brexit, she found the task beyond her.
But were there mitigating circumstances? The loss of her parliamentary majority made it impossible to pass legislation on Brexit. And the EU, hoping that Brexit would be reversed, was obstructive of her diplomatic efforts, notably chief negotiator Michel Barnier. Removed by her colleagues, Theresa May’s tenure in No. 10 was brutally cut short.
How and when to watch
Each lecture will last approximately 1 hour, followed by questions.
Please join in good time before each lecture to ensure that you have no connection problems. We recommend joining 10-15 minutes before the start time.
