Gisela Stuart on Joseph Chamberlain
Great Lives
BBC
4.2 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 25 January 2018
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Gisela Stuart, former MP for Birmingham Edgbaston champions Joseph Chamberlain to be nominated as her great life.
But can she really make the case for this former industrialist who made it to the cabinet, but had a knack for splitting political parties and switching allegiances?
Jo Chamberlain was first a Liberal then a Liberal Unionist and finally formed an alliance with the Conservative party but fell out with them too.
Gisela argues he was a man who wasn't afraid to take action, a radical who shouldn't simply be remembered for his failures but as "the man who made the weather" and for making Birmingham the best governed city in the world.
The expert witness is Peter Marsh, Honorary Professor of History at the University of Birmingham and author of 'Joseph Chamberlain, Entrepreneur in Politics.'
Presented by Matthew Parris.
Producer: Perminder Khatkar.
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2018.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Doleepa, and I'm at your service. |
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| 0:26.0 | Julie, at your service. |
| 0:28.0 | Listen to all episodes on BBC Sales. |
| 0:31.0 | Today's Great Life was the first industrialist to make his way to the cabinet, but far from a universally |
| 0:37.0 | respected sober figure was seen by some as a liar and a cad, his monocles, cigars, orchids, abrasive speech and flamboyant bordering |
| 0:46.2 | on the vulgar tastes in dress, his houses, his food, his entertainment, all marked him down in many ways as, in some eyes, not quite a gentleman, but his |
| 0:57.2 | aims were lofty and his ideals sincere and his achievements substantial. |
| 1:03.0 | Joseph Chamberlain is today's great life |
| 1:06.0 | and making the case for him is a former Labour MP |
| 1:09.0 | and keen Brexit campaigner Giesler Stewart, |
| 1:12.0 | who was until May of this year the Member of Parliament |
| 1:15.3 | for Birmingham Edge Bastin. Giesler, you've gone for a great life forever associated with |
| 1:21.6 | Birmingham, a city you know and love. |
| 1:24.0 | What does Chamberlain mean to you personally? |
| 1:27.0 | He means to me the man who made Birmingham great, |
| 1:31.0 | and he means to me a politician who should be remembered for the fact that he |
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