Grave damage has been done, quite disgracefully, to the reputation of Ted Heath by Operation Conifer, the name given to the investigation by Wiltshire police of allegations of child sex abuse against the former Tory Prime Minister.
This article stems from a lecture which I gave at the Carlton Club in March. I have for long been deeply interested in the career of Neville Chamberlain, the man who founded the Conservative Research Department where I spent much of my career.
On 4 April, a report in The Daily Telegraph referred to a scheme being considered by the Victoria and Albert Museum under which Ethiopia would be allowed to loan some of the historic items brought from that country (then known as Abyssinia) 150 years ago after its defeat by British forces.
The Easter Act 1928 provides that Easter Day would always occur between 9 and 15 April, putting an end to the wide fluctuations in the date between late March and late April. There would be no more “early Easters”, of which this year provides an example.
On 27 March, the Lords debated and passed three Northern Ireland Bills which would have been dealt with by the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly if it had been sitting. Fifteen months have now passed since it last met and transacted business.
Nearly a third of MPs served in the First World War; 22 died. A new book, Led by Lions, summarises the careers of those who gave their lives. A review of this significant book by Alistair Lexden is attached.
Controversy has arisen over the impact of the new streamlined welfare payment, universal credit, on the provision of free school meals. Critics say that the number of children in poor families getting a good free meal at school will drop sharply.
Patrick Donner, a Second World War RAF pilot and Tory MP, wrote in his memoirs: “must not the final verdict be that Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill between them saved this country? Neither statesman would have achieved our salvation without the other”.
Contrary to widespread belief, independent schools have never disdained contact with their counterparts in the state sector. There has never been a “Berlin Wall” between them, as some politicians have alleged.
