A series of after-dinner chats between Oxbridge academics about British General Elections through time, from 1868 to present day.
EPISODE 4: 'JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN & THE NEW DEMOCRACY'
Dr. Luke Blaxill (Hertford College, Oxford) and Mr. Taym Saleh (Queen's College, Cambridge) discus the 1885 General Election, which was the first election to be held after the landmark 1883-85 electoral reforms which reshaped the British system to something approaching a mass democracy.
Step forwards two new titans of late Victorian politics, Joseph Chamberlain - the 'new man' who sought to harness the new democracy to power his vision of municipal socialism. And Lord Salisbury - the old aristocrat who had mastered the modern arts to meet the challenge thrown down by the radical gauntlet.
Dr. Blaxill and Mr. Saleh discuss the role of corrupt practice in elections (and the attempt to eliminate it) and the massive contemporary question of extending the franchise to the rustic and unsophisticated agricultural labourers. They then turn to Chamberlain's 'Unauthorised Programme' of 1885 and its associated red-hot radical contents: wealth and land tax, free education, land reform, and the Disestablishment of the Church of England.
Dr. Blaxill and Mr. Saleh are amongst the most eminent historians of British Electoral Politics in the world, having authored more than twenty books and articles on the subject, and having been featured on TV and Radio.
Follow Dr. Blaxill on Twitter @BlaxillLuke Visit Dr. Blaxill's Website: www.lukeblaxill.com/ Follow Mr. Saleh on Twitter: @TaymSaleh