A ‘Strange Death’ Foretold (or the Not So ‘Strange Death’ of Liberal Wales): Liberal Decline, the Labour Ascendancy and Electoral Politics in South Wales, 1922-1924

This essay revisits debates concerning the rapid decline of the historic and once powerful Liberal Party and its replacement by the Labour Party as the main anti-Conservative, progressive party of the state around the fulcrum of the First World War. The particular context and lens for the analysis are what have been termed the 'mining valleys' of South Wales, from Llanelli in the east to Pontypool in the west, where the startling transformation of British progressive politics was perhaps no more apparent. Discussion and debate over the precise reasons and departure point of unprecedented British party political change in this period have continued unabated, but the electoral and local political and social advances of Labour in the South Wales coalfield in the raft of elections between 1922 and 1924 facilitated, consolidated and embedded the longer process of progressive realignment

The oratory of James Callaghan

The chapter contributes to the neglected field of analysis of the use, purpose and impact of political oratory and rhetoric in Labour's post-war political history. Specifically, the chapter assesses the contribution of Jim Callaghan's Labour oratory across the spectrum of his political and public roles and experience, and evaluates his relative success in advancing his position or that of the Labour Party as evidenced by his party and wider public impact. It suggests that, with obvious notable exceptions, Callaghan demonstrated undoubted party and public communication skills, often in difficult circumstances during his prime ministerial tenure, and held it to be one of his core political strengths. Although perhaps not a natural orator in the classical sense, his relative frankness and identification with the ‘touch-stone of public opinion’, expression of the ‘personal touch’ and ability to communicate a message of calm and reassurance were regarded as the essence of his political method and appeal, even in the darkest days of his Labour government

Rethinking Revisionist Social Democracy: The Case of the Manifesto Group and Labour's 1970s 'Third Way'

The article examines the emergence of the revisionist social democratic Manifesto Group in the Labour Party after 1974 as a counterwieght to the rise of assertive left-wing factional activity in the period of Labour government between 1974-79. It argues that some of the wider economic themes and ideas pursued by the Manifesto Group provide a neglected link to later expressions of revisionist social democracy and a social democratic route map to 'New' Labour itself. In the latter respect, it challenges conventional interpretations of the Blairite project as either an exercise in Thatcherite neo-liberal consolidation or as the unmediated revival of historic 1950s Labour revisionism

A ‘Brooding Oppressive Shadow’? The Labour Alliance, the ‘Trade Union Question’, and the Trajectory of Revisionist Social Democracy, c. 1969–1975

Conventional accounts of the decision of a group of influential British Labour MPs to leave the party in 1981 to found the new Social Democratic Party (SDP) focus on more immediate intra-party constitutional reforms after 1979, or on party divisions over the single question of Britain’s membership of the European Economic Community (EEC). This article suggests that a wider array of longer-term factors informed the decision to seek an alternative vehicle of social democracy, particularly the critical response to the so-called ‘trade union question’ in British and Labour politics from the late 1960s in a wider ‘post-revisionist’ critique of traditional social democracy. It identifies the centrality and cumulative role of a new ‘post-revisionist’ social democratic critique of the privileged position and influence of an increasingly assertive (left-wing) trade unionism after the failure of Labour’s In Place of Strife legislation in 1969 in the later schism of British social democracy

Evaluating the Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Mutation D614G on Transmissibility and Pathogenicity.

Global dispersal and increasing frequency of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variant D614G are suggestive of a selective advantage but may also be due to a random founder effect. We investigate the hypothesis for positive selection of spike D614G in the United Kingdom using more than 25,000 whole genome SARS-CoV-2 sequences. Despite the availability of a large dataset, well represented by both spike 614 variants, not all approaches showed a conclusive signal of positive selection. Population genetic analysis indicates that 614G increases in frequency relative to 614D in a manner consistent with a selective advantage. We do not find any indication that patients infected with the spike 614G variant have higher COVID-19 mortality or clinical severity, but 614G is associated with higher viral load and younger age of patients. Significant differences in growth and size of 614G phylogenetic clusters indicate a need for continued study of this variant

Evaluating the Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Mutation D614G on Transmissibility and Pathogenicity

Global dispersal and increasing frequency of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variant D614G are suggestive of a selective advantage but may also be due to a random founder effect. We investigate the hypothesis for positive selection of spike D614G in the United Kingdom using more than 25,000 whole genome SARS-CoV-2 sequences. Despite the availability of a large dataset, well represented by both spike 614 variants, not all approaches showed a conclusive signal of positive selection. Population genetic analysis indicates that 614G increases in frequency relative to 614D in a manner consistent with a selective advantage. We do not find any indication that patients infected with the spike 614G variant have higher COVID-19 mortality or clinical severity, but 614G is associated with higher viral load and younger age of patients. Significant differences in growth and size of 614G phylogenetic clusters indicate a need for continued study of this variant

The Oratory of James Callaghan: 'We used to think that you could spend your way out of a recession...'

The chapter contributes to the neglected field of analysis of the use, purpose and impact of political oratory and rhetoric in Labour's post-war political history. Specifically, the chapter assesses the contribution of Jim Callaghan's Labour oratory across the spectrum of his political and public roles and experience, and evaluates his relative success in advancing his position or that of the Labour Party as evidenced by his party and wider public impact. It suggests that, with obvious notable exceptions, Callaghan demonstrated undoubted party and public communication skills, often in difficult circumstances during his prime ministerial tenure, and held it to be one of his core political strengths. Although perhaps not a natural orator in the classical sense, his relative frankness and identification with the ‘touch-stone of public opinion’, expression of the ‘personal touch’ and ability to communicate a message of calm and reassurance were regarded as the essence of his political method and appeal, even in the darkest days of his Labour government

James Callaghan, 1979-80

This chapter attempts to review and reasess Callaghan's turbulent stewardship of the Labour Party in the period immediately following election defeat in 1979 as Leader of the Opposition. It evaluates his leadership on dimensions of public communication; effectiveness in constructing public policy platforms; party management and emotional intelligence in coping with the demands of the role, but argues, in Callaghan's case, that intra-party and broader political developments and context were mightily important and, despite his wide experience and obvious skills, party trends and priorities were passing him by, at least temporarily. As such, his brief post-election leadership of the party exposed him as not so much a ‘caretaker’ or ‘night watchman’ as ‘lame duck’ Leader of the Opposition