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History & The Arts
Election days: 1779 - Save Britain from crisis!
Following the death of MP Sir Simeon Stuart, 'Cato' circulated a flier imploring those who could vote to save Britain from what appeared to be terminal decline.
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History & The Arts
Election days: 1880 - Squabbling peers
The Peers of Scotland gather to select their representatives for the new Parliament of 1880. It's not a smooth process.
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Society, Politics & Law
Labour to the marrow: Exploring the party's ethos
Particular perspectives influence how individuals think about politics. But how do members and supporters of a single party create a collective perception of its ethos – what it stands for and where its future lies? Karl Pike examines these concepts in relation to the Labour Party, and explains how ethos can affect political direction.
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History & The Arts
Election days: 1868 - No vote, no verger
It wasn't just farmers coming under pressure to vote against their interests in 1868, as this letter from the Daily News suggests
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History & The Arts
Why the Duke of Edinburgh's retirement was a masterclass in media management
The announcement that Prince Philip was to stand down from public engagements showed that Buckingham Palace has learned how to play the media at its own game.
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History & The Arts
Election days: 1908 - Churchill challenged by the women
At the start of the 20th Century, it was expected that MPs granted a seat in cabinet would seek re-election before taking up the posts. Winston Churchill, offered the Presidency of the Board Of Trade, found himself fighting a by-election on behlaf of the Liberals in Manchester North West. His candidancy became a target for Suffragette action.
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History & The Arts
Election days: 1769 - when 296 votes beat 1148
The radical John Wilkes had been pursued by the courts following his publication of a semi-pornographic parody of the work of Alexander Pope. His supporters returned him to the Commons as MP for Middlesex, but on the grounds of his conviction, Parliament had expelled him in February 1769, twice; and then again in March. He was re-elected every ...
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History & The Arts
How the ZX Spectrum and ZX81 shaped Frank Sidebottom
Rhys James Jones traces the legendary Frank Sidebottom's roots back to the early days of home computing. (When "computing" was a thing you did, and doing it at home was especially noteworthy.)
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History & The Arts
Earth from above, 18th Century style
Hot air ballooning gave people the first chance to gaze down on the planet from the heavens - and quickly became a battleground between science and spectacle. Lily Ford gives an aerial view.
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Society, Politics & Law
An uncomfortable truth: How Britain has criminalised rough sleepers
You can judge a society by how it treats those most in needs. The last 200 years or so of criminalisation of the homeless doesn't reflect that well on the UK.
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Languages
Sylvia Plath and the linguistics of depression
Could the type of language people use reveal something about their state of mind? A close reading of Sylvia Plath's journals suggest it might be possible.
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Society, Politics & Law
Timeline: Marx, Nietzsche and Freud
Explore the lives and works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud with our interactive timeline.