Leader of the Opposition: Episode 2

Politics Unpacked

Anna Covell

News & Politics, Politics, News

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 27 December 2022

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last year, to mark 300 years since Robert Walpole became Prime Minister, Matt Chorley learnt about every PM through history each week. This year, Nigel Fletcher from the Centre for Opposition Studies has gone through every Leader of the Opposition and as a festive treat you'll be able to listen to each episode on the podcast.

In this episode you'll hear about John Spencer, Lord George Bentinck, Charles Manners, Marquess of Granby and John Charles Herries.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, this is the Webbox Podcast. I'm Matt Chauley bringing you a special festive delight.
0:05.7	Patrick McGarry will be back with daily episodes of the podcast from January 2nd. I'll be back
0:10.1	on the 9th. But until then, we're going to be dropping our Leader of the Opposition feature
0:14.9	in your timelapse every day. In 2021, we rounded up every Prime Minister with Andrew Jimson
0:20.8	and in 2022. Nigel Fletcher from the Centre for Opposition Studies has been telling us about
0:26.0	every leader of the Opposition who crucially never made it to number 10, from Charles James Fox
0:31.6	all the way through to Keir Starmer. So let's get on with it then. Hit the montage.
0:56.8	Right, this week's Leader of the Opposition is John Spencer, who was the heir to the Spencer
1:04.4	Eldon. He became later on the third Earl Spencer. But it was known in the period that we're
1:09.6	interested in as Vicount Allthorpe or Vicount Alltrop. As we know, the aristocracy delight in having
1:17.1	titles that catch the rest of us out in pronunciation. But I'm going to call it Allthorpe.
1:22.1	And he was Leader of the Opposition very briefly, really, between February and
1:31.6	November of 1830. But he's actually got an interesting character for his political journey.
1:41.2	As an aristocrat, he was as well as having something which I think is always to the good,
1:46.9	which is the same name as the actor who played Leo in the West Wing, which puts him in a good place
1:52.4	in my book to start with. So he was born at Spencer House, the family at home in London,
2:00.4	and was the eldest child of the second Earl Spencer. And his bloggers have noted that his upbringing
2:06.8	was rather blighted by quite a formidable mother, who frankly bullied her children, and they
2:14.8	suggest that harmed his self-confidence into adulthood. And certainly, he does seem to be a fairly
2:21.3	modest and unprepossessing man in his career. He wasn't particularly dominant in the way that
2:27.0	sort of some political figures were. Educated at Harrow, whilst he was there, he was a contemporary
2:33.9	of four future Prime Ministers. Wow. That's another reason to not get confidence. If four people
	...

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