The Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of World War I was fought on May 31 - June 1, 1916 in the North Sea, near Jutland. Rather than commenting on it or asking Tory Historian to do so, I shall put up a brief discussion between two Conservative activists and amateur historians, who are very knowledgeable on the subject. David Herdson describes himself as a Conservative activist, political commentator ( a weekly column with politicalbetting.com,...
Tory Historian was idly looking at the BBC On This Day site and found a couple of interesting anniversaries that might indicate some development in this country's economic thinking.Sixty years ago (and five years after the war had ended) petrol rationing ended. Long queues have appeared at garages this evening and motorists have torn their ration books into confetti after the government announced an end to petrol rationing. The Minister of Fuel and Power, Philip Noel-Baker, told the House of Commons rationing would be abolished...
Tory Historian has been a little perturbed by the tug-of-war between the Leader of the Conservative Party and the 1922 Committee, which represents the party's backbenchers. Even more perturbing have been some of the arguments that supported the effective destruction of the Committee's independence from the leadership.There were many references to the crisis, factionalism, need to unite, putting country above petty considerations. Tory Historian cannot help thinking that conservatives and members of the Conservative Party should...
Tory Historian returns after a short absence (caused by technical difficulties, now resolved) with news of a great man's birthday. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writer, historian, and real-life detective was born on May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh, a city that, in many ways, shaped his thinking and imagination. Often the descriptions of London in the Sherlock Holmes stories seem to be a little too small for what was by then a teeming metropolis but...
One can get a great deal of enjoyment from that slim volume, Great Books, Bad Arguments by W. G. Runciman. How can one not enjoy a book that is dedicated entirely to the destruction of arguments by Plato, Hobbes and Marx? Of course, few of the counter-arguments are new and most of the evidence for the arguments in The Republic, Leviathan and The Communist Manifesto being unacceptable in first-year undergraduate essays many of us have read, heard and thought before. It is fun to see it all proven again, this time with sociological...
Tory Historian is covered with shame. This should have been posted yesteday, which was the seventieth anniversary of the formation of Churchill's government of national unity in 1940.It was also the anniversary of the German invasion of Western Euro...
The Scotsman in a suitably sober style announces the biggest news: end of the war in Europe with Germany's unconditional surrender. The news from the Far East is darker but no attention was paid to that in Britain as celebrations broke out across the country. Wikipedia gives a timeline of surrenders and deat...
A note about a couple of slim volumes that could be of interest to people interested in conservative history and its ramifications.One was in the post: an IEA publication, Ludwig von Mises – A Primer by Dr Eamonn Butler, Director of the Adam Smith Institute. The book is exactly what it says: a brief introduction to one of the modern world’s greatest economists, who, despite his brilliance and the fact of being often proved right, tends to be disregarded by main-stream economists, most of whom prefer mathematical formulae and...
