Lloyd George: The Great Outsider

Thursday 20 October 2011 at 6.30 pm

"Lloyd George: The Great Outsider"

About the lecture

David Lloyd George was the authentic radical of British history who rose from his 'cottage bred' origins to becomePrime Minister of Great Britain, acclaimed in 1918 as 'the man who won the war'. His career was built on charm, courage and energy. His contempt for the conventions of society made him 'The Great Outsider' who exploited the establishment but never wished to join it. As a young Liberal MP, he made his name with vitriolic attacks on his opponents and established his reputation as a man who pioneered old age pensions, sickness pay and unemployment benefit. Once the war was won, his attempts to maintain the coalition that he had created and convert it into a new party failed. After sixteen years in the cabinet, six of them as Prime Minister, he was out of office, destined to remain in the political wilderness.

This biography by Roy Hattersley comes at a timely moment: David Lloyd George was the first Prime Minister in modern times to have led a peacetime coalition Government – in his case between 1918 and 1922 – and throughout his career he attempted to create the kind of consensus politics which the Conservatives and their LibDem allies are attempting to reproduce in Westminster today.

About the speaker - Roy Hattersley

Roy Hattersley is a distinguished politician, historian and broadcaster.

For over fifty years, Roy Hattersley has had an active and highly significant career at the heart of British politics. From 1964 to 1992 he was a Labour Member of Parliament. He first entered Parliament as the Labour MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook in 1964, the first of nine elections victories in the constituency and also the election year when Labour narrowly returned to power under Harold Wilson after thirteen years in opposition. Roy Hattersley has remained closely identified with his multi-ethnic constituency in the Midlands which he represented until his retirement from the House of Commons in 1992.

He was born into a strong working class Labour family in Sheffield in 1932. With this northern working-class upbringing, Roy Hattersley gained a scholarship to the esteemed Sheffield City Grammar School and went to the University of Hull, where he read for a BSc in Economics and participated in student politics. After graduating he worked for a spell for a Sheffield steelworks and then for two years for the Workers' Educational Association. Roy spent some of his happiest years as Chairman of the Housing Committee when he was a member of the Sheffield City Council.

In the 1960s Roy Hattersley held ministerial posts in Harold Wilson's governments as Employment Minister and as deputy to Denis Healey in Defence. From 1974-6 he served under Harold Wilson again as Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. He was appointed a privy councillor in 1975. From 1976-79 he joined James Callaghan's Cabinet as Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection.While in opposition, Roy Hattersley has also held a large number of shadow portfolios, including Defence, Education and Science, and the Home Office. In particular from 1983-1992, while in opposition, he served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party during Neil Kinnock's period as party leader, an important period of party reform and changing attitudes as Labour undertook the long haul back to office.

Roy Hattersley was made a life peer in 1993 as Baron Hattersley of Sparkbrook in the County of West Midlands and continues to represent Labour in the House of Lords to this day.

For as many years, Roy Hattersley has also been a prolific and popular writer, journalist, book reviewer and broadcaster. He has always been in demand on BBC radio and television programmes, such as Question Time and Any Questions? As a senior statesman, he is a valued commentator- particularly at election time and during the party conference season.