How Queen Victoria hounded her Prime Ministers Wednesday, 17 April, 2024 She gave them no peace. A marvellous new book gives the details of her tempestuous relations with them. Alistair Lexden reviewed it in Parliament’s magazine The House on 15 April. Queen Victoria and Her Prime Ministers: A Personal History By Anne Somerset Published by William Collins Books Queen Victoria began her long reign as an ardent Whig and ended it a diehard Tory. Her Hanoverian... Articles
China and Japan in the First World War 2nd March 2017 The centenary of the First World War is being commemorated on a considerable scale, but virtually nothing has been said about China and Japan. That omission has... Articles
Seven days in the Lords 2nd March 2017 Writing in Parliament’s House Magazine on March 3, Alistair Lexden touched both light-heartedly and more seriously on some of his activities in the Lords at an... Articles
Tackling illiteracy in prisons 23rd February 2017 Some 60 per cent of prisoners are functionally illiterate. An inability to read inevitably hinders the rehabilitation of thousands of prisoners, particularly... Speeches
The Commons Speaker and contested elections 15th February 2017 Highly controversial comments by John Bercow in early February about President Trump and Brexit led many to criticise his failure to uphold the traditions and... Articles
Schools together 10th February 2017 Alistair Lexden is a strong supporter of partnership between state and independent schools. On 9 February, he introduced a short debate in the Grand Committee... Speeches
Prize presentation 8th February 2017 On February 7, Alistair Lexden presented the Whitbread prize, which is awarded annually to the student judged to be the most outstanding—on grounds of academic... Recent News
Reclaiming lost titles 3rd February 2017 Two German princes who were also British dukes—as relatives of our Royal Family—were stripped of their British titles during the First World War. There are some... Articles
Stanley Baldwin's sesquicentennial 2nd February 2017 This year marks the 150th anniversary (or sesquicentennial) of the birth of Stanley Baldwin who led the Conservative Party for fourteen years(1923-37), serving... Articles
Canterbury Entertainments 2nd February 2017 The celebrations that followed a great Tory triumph in Canterbury at the 1841 general election led to the creation of an annual cricket festival and to what is... Articles