Text

E-book The Family Firm : Monarchy, Mass Media and the British Public, 1932-53

---

Penilaian

---

Addressing a gathering of delegates and journalists at the annual conference of the University of Nottingham’s Labour Federation on the evening of 6 January 1934, the barrister and MP for Bristol East, Sir Stafford Cripps, publicly bolstered his reputation as an outspoken radical who was committed to a programme of state-led socialism when he criticized what he saw as an obstructionist establishment, comprising bankers, peers and malign influences at court, which he believed would oppose the implementation of left-wing policies should the Labour party succeed in forming another government. His oblique allusion to the machinations of the royal household was political dynamite and ignited a national furore, with almost every major British newspaper reproducing his words alongside articles that questioned the speaker’s motives and denounced the way he had dragged the king’s name into politics. In the days that followed, Cripps’s political opponents added their voices to the chorus of criticism, while his Labour colleagues sought to distance themselves from the inflammatory speech. He was then forced publicly to clarify what he had meant when he referred to the palace and, in an attempt to explain away his earlier remarks, he told reporters that he had not been referring to George V but to the ‘officials and other people who surround the king’.2 He also went on to reassure his detractors that he had full confidence in Britain’s constitutional monarchy as an essentially fair political system and, at another public meeting, he toasted the sovereign’s good health in a very deliberate act of contrition. However, it was too late: Cripps’s about-face was derided by many journalists, who mocked his reference to the shadowy figures who lurked behind the throne in their descriptions of ‘royal bogeymen’ and scornfully accused him of wanting to overthrow Britain’s political system in order to set up a socialist dictatorship under his authority.3Cripps’s ‘Buckingham Palace speech’ (as it became known) and the media’s response to his words reveal four important things. First of all, it is clear from the outrage of the press and politicians that, for the opinion-formers and law-makers, the crown occupied a near-sacred place in national life in the mid 1930s. The media and political elite revered the monarchy as the institution that had anchored Britain’s evolution from feudalism to modern democracy, something which chimed with the ideas vigorously promoted by courtiers and allies of the throne that the crown stood above party politics and that the constitutional sovereign was the unifying symbol of the British people’s political freedoms.4 This mattered more than ever after 1918 because it was the year that witnessed the enfranchisement of all working-class voters for the first time following the passage of the Fourth Reform Act. In the new age of mass politics and social democracy, King George V was celebrated for his impartiality when he oversaw the formation of Britain’s first Labour government in 1924; and for the way he backed constitutional progress as the shape of the nation and empire was transformed by the secession of the Free Irish State in 1922 and the emergence of a Commonwealth comprising autonomous white dominions after 1931.

---

Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

-

No. Panggil

902 OWE t

Penerbit

London : University of London Press., 2019

Deskripsi Fisik

448 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781909646957

Klasifikasi

902

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

-

Subjek

Criminology

Info Detail Spesifik

-

Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

-

Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

Komentar

---

Anda harus masuk sebelum memberikan komentar