Jon Parry

V pleased to find these copies today! A short survey of British Liberalism from 1830 to now. Aims to show its coherence as a creed amongst political changes and contingencies. Emphasises a political not economic agenda - defending political activity, opposing vested interests

Very interesting polls for the 2026 Local Elections! 👀

@richardmarcj I agree with your critique, but there’s nothing ‘liberal’ about the opposing point of view - which is why no liberal government attacked the Lords in the way you suggest they should have done. As Chamberlain famously said, ‘why break a butterfly on a wheel?’

It is a classic 'liberal' approach to constitutional reform -- which prioritises theoretical rationality -- over a more empiricist tradition that was once dominant among British socialists.

The current government attacks the ‘dignified’ constitution, even if it threatens the power of the ‘efficient’ constitution. They have removed the hereditary peers, who cannot and would not stop socialist policies, but they praise the independent central bankers who can.

@LedgerLomasM @DrFrancisYoung In 1878 the governor of Bermuda professed to be terrified of a Russian attack. It allowed him to demand more money from the War Office for fortifications

@DrFrancisYoung Well it is certainly an orthodox Victorian belief!

As Disraeli warned, ‘a great, gigantic, colossal, growing Russia’ is Britain’s most formidable enemy, and that remains just as much the case today; the UK’s focus should remain resolutely on Russia and the threat it poses to us and other European nations.

It’s stirring to see two of my best ever research students go to war with each other…. What puzzles me about pieces like John Bew’s is how as a historian he thinks that a national renewal of this sort can actually be brought about. I hope the piece mentions allies somewhere?

A masterful and brutal column from @patrickkmaguire, a chronicler of the Starmer project who today sounds its death knell. Here are the closing lines.

@Richard08156270 @william_whyte Congratulations William! An excellent appointment - well done to all involved…

@william_whyte Very best of luck! Think I may be one of the longest surviving Assistant Editors, having helped look after sportsmen and sportswomen since Colin Matthew‘s day…

Some news: William Whyte appointed General Editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - Oxford University Press corp.oup.com/news/william-w…

A helpful update!

Great Northern’s excuses for failing to run a proper service get ever more bizarre

The Football Governance Act has done something that ministers from Rab Butler onwards dismissed as unthinkable - legislative regulation of soccer. Here is how we got here .... thelionandunicorn.com/2025/09/14/blo…

Out now: Institutions, Individuals and Modern British History edited by Jonathan Parry examines the place of Britain’s political and cultural institutions, and the impact of individuals in their formation and evolution. @JonParryHis buff.ly/56uEe9y

@LedgerLomasM They look more loke a vaudeville company

Sir Keir at Crathie Kirk looks almost presbyterian

@ShipleyWrites @JAHeale He was also a really good minister for the Crown dependencies. It’s very sad that he’s been replaced by yet another KC

@JAHeale Yeah he’s been very active on prisons issues, especially around HMP Wandsworth, for years.

One overlooked casualty of the reshuffle is Frederick Ponsonby, 4th Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede. He is likely be the last hereditary peer to ever serve in a Labour government

Just arrived! A Festschrift for David Cannadine edited by @JonParryHis — with pieces by Miles Taylor, ⁦@PaulBRamsbottom⁩ Sandy Nairne, Helen McCarthy, Charles Saumerez Smith, and many others including me on Noel Annan

Whenever Starmer tries to appear normal, he ends up sounding like a mixture of David Brent and the acid bath murderer spectator.co.uk/article/keir-s…

@LedgerLomasM ocean-science.net

Wishing I could get someone to let me write about this

@GeraintLThomas @william_whyte ‘Every Cambridge institution has gone wrong as soon as it loses sight of those three goals: discuss’

@william_whyte Pre-echoes of what HTR found (or perceived!) in the 1980s. 'Glutinous frustrations...'

“Oxford has so much more influence & power than Cambridge … their education gives them a much more dexterous & agreeable use of intellectual things. We here in Cambridge are sound in knowledge, provincial in interest, narrow in purpose…..We must stew in our own juice.”

@CamLibResearch You seem to have found the only flat bits…

A hot afternoon in Switzerland.

@Simoncando Quintessentially Thorpian in days gone by!

Quintessentially #Sark