RAB: The Life of R.A. ButlerRichard Austin Butler remains the great enigma of post-war British politics. Independent, indiscreet and never anything but irreverent, Butler commanded the respect of both sides of the Commons and would have been, on several occasions, the people's choice for premier. From his entry into politics in 1929 to his retirement from that arena in 1965, Butler's story is also that of British political life through almost four decades. Scarred by his association with the appeasers of Munich, he won the respect of the nation as the architect of the 1944 Education Act. From the viewpoint of these times of Tory wets and dries, Butler appears the victim of the age that divided gentlemen from players. In these pages, one of our most distinguished political journalists offers a revealing portrait of 'the best Prime Minister we never had'. |
Contents
The Road to Westminster | |
A ProBaldwin Backbencher | |
Apprenticed to India | |
High Noon at the Treasury | |
Leader in Limbo | |
The Years of PoohBah | |
The Second Leadership Struggle | |
The Foreign Office | |
Master of Trinity | |
The Man and the Legend | |
Notes and References | |
Appeasement and the Foreign Office | |
Churchill Comes to Power | |
Boarded to Education | |
Remaking the Tory Party | |
Bibliography Footnotes | |
A Note on the Author | |
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announced Anthony Anthony Eden appears appointment back-bench Bill Brabourne Britain British Butler Papers Cabinet Cambridge certainly Chairman Chancellor Church Churchill Churchill’s colleagues Committee Conservative MP Conservative Party Conservative Research Department constituency course Courtauld Created life peer debate decision diary entry dated diary note dated doubt Downing Street Eden’s Education election eventually fact father favour February Foreign Office Foreign Secretary Government Government’s Halifax Hansard Harold Macmillan Home Office House of Commons Iain Macleod Ibid interview January July June Labour later Leader Leadership least letter dated London Lord Macleod Maudling meeting Mollie months Monty Butler National never November October organisation Parliament parliamentary Party’s perhaps political President Prime Minister Prime Minister’s Private Secretary R. A. Butler Rab found Rab’s Reginald Maudling Report resignation Saffron Walden schools seems Selwyn Lloyd speech Stanstead summer Sunday Sydney Sydney’s took Treasury Trinity College Under-Secretary week Winston Woolton wrote