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Brian Leahy

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About Brian Leahy

  • Birthday 10/17/1936

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Oxfordshire England
  • Interests
    British political history 1900 onwards.

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  1. I am looking for the quote where Aneurin Bevan taunted the Tory Opposition by equating them not with the constituency they represented but an industry such as banking. He said something like, When I look at the members opposite I don't see a member for Oxford but a member for stocks and shares.
  2. I would like to read a good biography off John Wilkes and wonder if anyone would care to offer a suggestion.
  3. Can anyone say what the labour force of the various newspapers were prior to and following the defeat of the print Trade Unions by Murdoch/Thatcher?
  4. I have known more than one Trade Union activist who went to university late in life following a career in industry as a path into a white collar job and could never make my mind up as to whether they had sold out. I would welcome views on this subject.
  5. I'm a trifle uncertain just how analytical Autobiography is and anyway I have been unable to find a copy of, "Ben Tillett. Memories and Reflections, an autobiography 1931" Can anyone recommend an objective biography of him?
  6. I have no idea what is meant by, "Stop the bs" but I would like to know. I have spend two days looking for an answer to the question I asked with no success but in that search I did come across the http://www.socialism.../45/labour.html and the best that they could offer was the following. “One hundred years ago, on 27 February, 1900, a conference of trade unionists and socialist organisations met to establish the Labour Representation Committee.” I think that it’s pretty important in building an understanding of the development of the Labour Party to know just who was at that conference so I will keep looking.
  7. I asked for the Precise make up of the Labour Representation Committee and your reply did not offer an answer to that question. No wonder that you have over 10,000 mentions with answers such as that.
  8. It is often claimed that the Labour Representation Committee was formed by the British Trade Unions but there were of course 70 or more organisations at the inaugural meeting. I have been looking all over for an actual list of those organisations without success. Can anyone help me?
  9. I have never seriously read any Irish history and would like to start now with something on those whose names I at least know such as Parnell, Larking, Collins, DeValera, William Murphy. There may be other ways to approach this subject and I'm happy to listen to advice.
  10. I am writing a few words on the effcets of the bombing in Britain in the Second World War and I thought that there was no point in just saying that during the Second World War Britain was bombed I wanted to be able to give some statistics such as how many civilians died as a result of bombing in Britain. How many houses were destroyed and how many damaged. Can anyone point me towards some data?
  11. My name is Brian Leahy and I was born in Brighton in the county of Sussex, England in October 1936. The Second World War broke out in September 1939 and a year or so later I and my sister were evacuated to a village in Oxfordshire which meant that we were separated from our parents who were working in London until 1944 when the bombing had practically stopped. Our parents settled in Oxford which is where I grew up and I left school in 1952 with no qualifications whether that was because I was just thick or the experience of the war I do not know. I completed an apprenticeship as a bricklayer which I did not enjoy and I joined the Regular Army as soon as I could. When I finished my term in the Army I worked in a car factory for 12 years and in 1970 I started an external degree which I so enjoyed I applied for a place at Balliol College Oxford which was granted and I left university in 1976 to find that there was a certain difficulty in getting a job. For some strange reason the car factory was suspicious of anyone with a higher education and the professions were not interested in one time car workers even if they did have two degrees. Eventually I got a job working in what is now known as, “Human Resource Management” and I worked for Canadian aluminium company then the Financial Times eventually making the mistake of taking a job with an American company called Baxter Healthcare where after three reorganisations in three years I was made redundant. That is now water under the bridge and I spend my time fishing, shooting with black powder pistols and writing letter to our local newspapers when something annoys me such as incompetent local Government. The life that my grandchildren lead is so different to the life that I lead as a child that a year or so ago I decided to write a few words about my life for my grandchildren but the more I wrote the more holes in my knowledge I discovered. I thought that there was no point in just saying that during the Second World War Britain was bombed I wanted to be able to give some statistics such as how many civilians died as a result of bombing in Britain and indeed Germany. How many houses were destroyed in Britain and Germany as a result of bombing? How many British ships lost to enemy action and how many seamen went down with them? What was the effect of food rationing, what amounts of food were allowed and when did it end in Britain? I am having a problem in finding answers too many of the questions that I have and I hope that I may get some help in this forum.
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