Churchill's Surprising Career in Scotland

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2023

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Summary

Winston Churchill is possibly the most famous politician in British history. Throughout his career, he would hold numerous positions in government, including serving as the MP for 5 different constituencies. Perhaps the most unusual of these was his time representing the Scottish industrial city of Dundee - he would provoke the ire of a fascinating cast of characters, including the respected Dundonian and prohibitionist, Edwin Scrymgeour. But how did Churchill become MP for the Scottish city of Dundee? And why did he lose the 1922 by-election to Scrymgeour? Dan is joined by Andrew Liddle, historian and author of Cheers, Mr Churchill! Winston in Scotland, to learn about Churchill’s surprising career in Dundee and how he was beaten by a prohibitionist candidate.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit. Winston Churchill, you may have heard of him,
0:05.4	one of Britain's greatest Prime Ministers and Statesmen, but in this episode of this excellent
0:10.6	podcast we're going to look at a very different aspect of Churchill's political career.
0:14.3	The him as a constituency MP during the course of his parliamentary career he represented five
0:19.6	different constituencies, two in the Manchester area, two in southern England and one in Dundee
0:26.7	and the story of how he came to be an MP in Dundee and more importantly how he's stopping an
0:31.6	MP in Dundee is one of the classics of Churchill's career involving a real cast of characters you're
0:36.8	going to love it. In this episode I'm going to talk to you story in Andrew Little is just written a
0:40.5	book called Cheers Mr. Churchill about Churchill's Scotland and you're going to hear the story of how and
0:46.4	why Winston Churchill the sign of one of the greatest aristocratic families in Britain the grandson
0:54.0	of the Duke of Mulbra born in Blenham Palace in one of the most genteel and aristocratic
1:01.4	shires of southern England just outside Oxford how he ended up becoming an MP for the Scottish
1:07.2	industrial city of Dundee. We should say by the way Winston Churchill was no stranger to losing
1:12.2	elections he lost plenty in his time his first electoral experience was an 1899 in Oldham
1:18.3	he lost that he won it the following year narrowly becoming a very young MP at the age of 25 but in
1:24.5	1904 he crossed the aisle he joined the Liberal Party don't forget Winston Churchill that great
1:29.6	Liberal politician joined the Liberal Party and won a Liberal seat in Manchester Northwest in 1906
1:36.7	he was then promoted to the cabinet in 1908 becoming the one of the youngest cabinet ministers
1:41.8	for decades but in those days as you'll hear you to go back to your constituency and seek re-election
1:46.7	when you move from the back benches onto the front bench and he lost he lost Northwest Manchester by
1:52.4	just a couple of hundred votes the Liberal machinery kicked in and a new seat was found for him
1:58.7	in Dundee he went to Dundee where he fought no fewer than six elections and all the time
	...

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