Major historical issues have been fully-aired in this year's Festival. Roy Hattersley discussed his book on the inter-war years Borrowed Time with John Miller, beginning with the Paris Peace Negotiations in 1919, whose decisions not only made the Second World War inevitable, but stored up future causes of conflict in both the Balkans and the Middle East.
Lord Hattersley talked of how his researches into the period had led him to revise his views on both Ramsay MacDonald and Stanley Baldwin.
He also had some trenchant criticisms of the errors of judgement made by both the politicians and the trade unions, particularly by the Miners' leaders who always seemed to choose a moment to strike that was doomed to fail, both in the 1920s and the 1980s.
He compared the way the Press Lords tried to undermine Baldwin, and their expressed admiration of Hitler, Mussolini and Oswald Mosley, with the overweening influence brought to bear on all British Governments by the Murdoch press. He also took a passing swipe at the Daily Mail's attitudes, both then and now, despite his being a regular columnist for that paper at present.
This was a salutary reminder of the failures of leadership in one of the most depressing and dangerous periods in our history.
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
Comment
