Whilst we are all engaged in the debate as to whether Sir Fred Goodwin should be entitled to retain his pension and his knighthood, it is worth bearing in mind that when Gordon Brown is finally prised from power and the dust has settled, the former Prime Minister will in all likelihood drift into a knighthood (if not ennobled as Lord Brown of Kirkcaldy and/or Cowdenbeath) to enjoy his very ample gold plated pension.  Given the severe damage that Gordon Brown has inflicted upon the economy, should this be any less worthy of censure than the case of his former best mate, Sir Fred?

Said Huw Edwards in an article promoting the BBC programme “Gladstone and Disraeli: Clash of the Titans”,

“I have more than a few reasons to name William Gladstone as a hero of mine. He was an even greater hero to some of my ancestors. In the mid-19th Century, most of the Edwards family were tenant farmers in Cardiganshire. Refusing to vote for the local (Tory) landowner at election time was a very dangerous thing to do. In those days, voting was not a secret process. Employers or landowners could check up on how workers or tenants had voted. The “rebels” were promptly punished. One of my ancestors was thrown off his farm near Tregaron for daring to vote Liberal…….It was William Gladstone who put a stop to this obnoxious system by introducing the secret ballot in 1872.”

The subliminal message is that the Conservative Party of the past was not above underhand tactics to achieve electoral success.  However, the myths do not accord with the facts.  The Whigs and Tories of the nineteenth century were of the same social class and neither party nor their supporters, were wholly immune from the vice of seeking electoral advantage by less than fair means.  Thus, a tenant farmer who supported a Conservative candidate was just as likely to suffer the wrath of his Liberal supporting landlord. 

It is also important to look at the issue in context of the age. Whilst the Reform Act of 1832 extended the franchise to a limited degree, the Act that really began the process of “the working man” being enfranchised was the Reform Act of 1867. Thus, the opportunity for the great landowners to purportedly bully the “little people” into voting their way had only just arisen.  It is important to bear in mind also that the Reform Act 1867 was passed by a Conservative administration.  That administration lost power in 1868, only for the Conservatives to be returned to power in 1874 (after a secret ballot) with a large majority over Gladstone’s Liberals.

The secret ballot was a roaring success......but not for the Liberals.