Since Attlee & Churchill - Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

Since Attlee & Churchill

Lee David Evans & Richard Johnson

History

News

Frequency: 1 episode/4d. Total Eps: 151

The podcast about post-war British politics - since Attlee & Churchill. Hosted by Lee David Evans, an historian of the Conservative Party, and Richard Johnson, an historian of the Labour Party.

Enjoy ad-free listening, bonus episodes and show your support for the podcast by joining the Since Attlee & Churchill Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill

If you're a fan of the podcast, we would be very grateful if you could leave us a positive review to help other people find us. Thank you!

Since Attlee & Churchill is also available on YouTube. Listen and watch the show at: https://www.youtube.com/@sinceattleeandchurchill

Got a question or comment? Get in touch!

Richard: richard.johnson@qmul.ac.uk

Lee: lee@leedavidevans.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Read moreCollapse

Site

RSS

Apple

Data updated on 05/10/2026

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.

See all

https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/saac
93 shares
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/16406/9781350513655
3 shares
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/16406/9780008746575
3 shares

https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill
81 shares
https://www.patreon.com/cw/SinceAttleeAndChurchill
8 shares

RSS feed quality and score

Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.

See all

RSS feed quality

To improve

Score global : 64%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

Recent episodes with titles, durations, and descriptions.

See all

Why didn’t New Labour introduce electoral reform?

Sunday, October 4, 2026 • Duration 01:01:44

When Tony Blair’s New Labour government came to power in 1997, it promised a referendum on changing the voting system for the House of Commons. It then appointed the political grandee Roy Jenkins to work out what an alternative might look like. The Jenkins Commission reported its proposals for a new electoral system in 1998, but the referendum was never held.

With electoral reform once again high on the political agenda, in this episode Lee and Richard revisit the last time a Labour government seriously considered changing the way Britain elects its MPs. They look at the long history of the electoral reform debate, from attempts to change the voting system in the early 20th century to Labour’s growing interest in PR in the 1990s. And they examine the Jenkins Commission, Tony Blair’s scepticism about electoral reform, and the political calculations that ultimately saw New Labour quietly abandon its pledge of a referendum.

Enjoy ad-free listening, bonus episodes and show your support for the podcast by joining the Since Attlee & Churchill Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill

Buying books via the Since Attlee & Churchill Bookshop is a great way to support the podcast. Click here to visit the shop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/saac

Enjoy listening to the Since Attlee & Churchill podcast? If so, we would be very grateful if you could leave us a 5 star review!

***

Since Attlee & Churchill is a podcast about post-war British politics - since Attlee & Churchill - and is hosted by Lee David Evans, an historian of the Conservative Party, and Richard Johnson, an historian of the Labour Party.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Read moreCollapse

Matters of Interest: Burnham's Big Speech & Labour's Missing Working Class

Thursday, October 1, 2026 • Duration 48:26

This week, Lee and Richard discuss Andy Burnham’s speech to the Labour Party Conference. Did it actually represent a meaningful change in Labour’s policies and politics? Or do Burnham's words simply amount to a nebulous set of promises that his government cannot and will not deliver — at least this side of an election? They then turn to a topic that has been at the heart of Labour politics since the party's foundation. As Richard explains, Labour has been on a journey away from being a party of trade unionists and working-class people towards electing MPs and party officials from an increasingly narrow range of social and professional backgrounds. What does it mean for a party originally created to give working people political power to become a middle-class party that seeks to act charitably for the working class, rather than in partnership with the working class?

Enjoy ad-free listening, bonus episodes and show your support for the podcast by joining the Since Attlee & Churchill Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill

Buying books via the Since Attlee & Churchill Bookshop is a great way to support the podcast. Click here to visit the shop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/saac

Enjoy listening to the Since Attlee & Churchill podcast? If so, we would be very grateful if you could leave us a 5 star review!

***

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Read moreCollapse

Does the Labour Party really owe more to Methodism than to Marxism?

Sunday, September 27, 2026 • Duration 57:09

Labour General Secretary Morgan Phillips famously claimed that the Labour Party owed more to Methodism than to Marxism. But was he right? In this episode of Since Attlee & Churchill, Richard and Lee explore the Methodist tradition and its influence on the Labour movement - including the importance of Methodism in teaching working class people about political organisation and public speaking. Throughout the episode, Richard shares the stories of some of the remarkable Labour politicians whose lives were shaped - even transformed - by Methodism, before wondering whether the debate posed by Phillips’ statement is still relevant to Labour today.

In this episode, the following books are mentioned:

'Labour and the Free Churches, 1918-1939' by Peter Catterall.

'The New Dark Ages: The End of Reading and the Dawn of a Post-Literate Society' by James Marriott. Available at: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/16406/9781847929518

Enjoy ad-free listening, bonus episodes and show your support for the podcast by joining the Since Attlee & Churchill Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill

Buying books via the Since Attlee & Churchill Bookshop is a great way to support the podcast. Click here to visit the shop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/saac

Enjoy listening to the Since Attlee & Churchill podcast? If so, we would be very grateful if you could leave us a 5 star review!

***

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Read moreCollapse

Matters of Interest: The 'Special Relationship' & A Snap Election (in British Columbia)

Thursday, September 24, 2026 • Duration 45:36

This week, Lee and Richard discuss the changing nature of the US–UK relationship, from Churchill and Truman to Burnham and Trump. They ask: what exactly is the “special relationship” between Britain and America? And how does it play out in practice? And should it change? Next, Lee turns to the extraordinary snap election getting underway British Columbia. Why has the Premier called an election two years early, just as the opposition Conservatives are struggling to recover from a leadership crisis? And what does this election tell us about snap elections, constitutional conventions and the powers of the Crown at home and abroad?

Enjoy ad-free listening, bonus episodes and show your support for the podcast by joining the Since Attlee & Churchill Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill

Buying books via the Since Attlee & Churchill Bookshop is a great way to support the podcast. Click here to visit the shop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/saac

Enjoy listening to the Since Attlee & Churchill podcast? If so, we would be very grateful if you could leave us a 5 star review!

***

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Read moreCollapse

What made Betty Boothroyd such a successful Speaker?

Sunday, September 20, 2026 • Duration 01:05:57

Betty Boothroyd was the first woman to become Speaker of the House of Commons - and from the Speaker's chair became one of the most popular and recognisable figures in modern British politics. But what made her so successful in the role? In this episode, Richard and Lee look at Boothroyd’s journey from a working-class childhood in Dewsbury, through failed attempts to enter Parliament and an unlikely spell in American politics, to the Speakership. The episode explores her love of Parliament and its traditions, her battles with Militant, her relationship with New Labour, and why she believed the rough and tumble of the Commons was not something to be sanitised, but one of the great safeguards of British democracy.

In this episode, the following books are mentioned:

'The Labour Party and Constitutional Reform: A History of Constitutional Conservatism' by Peter Dorey. Available at: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/16406/9781349301966

'The Autobiography' by Betty Boothroyd. Available at: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/16406/9780099427049

Enjoy ad-free listening, bonus episodes and show your support for the podcast by joining the Since Attlee & Churchill Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill

Buying books via the Since Attlee & Churchill Bookshop is a great way to support the podcast. Click here to visit the shop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/saac

Enjoy listening to the Since Attlee & Churchill podcast? If so, we would be very grateful if you could leave us a 5 star review!

***

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matters of Interest: Burnham's Bishops & Canada's Conservatives

Thursday, September 17, 2026 • Duration 41:32

In this mid-week episode of Since Attlee & Churchill, Lee and Richard broadcast from Canada, where they've spent the week talking to politicos. Lee begins by considering what the Right in the UK, and throughout much of the West, could learn from the current travails of the Canadian Conservatives. Next, Richard considers why Andy Burnham is tackling the inability of Catholics to formally recommend the appointment of Anglican Bishops with the first Bill of his premiership. He asks why this technical change, which will only really affect the prime minister, is being prioritised.

Enjoy ad-free listening, bonus episodes and show your support for the podcast by joining the Since Attlee & Churchill Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill

Buying books via the Since Attlee & Churchill Bookshop is a great way to support the podcast. Click here to visit the shop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/saac

Enjoy listening to the Since Attlee & Churchill podcast? If so, we would be very grateful if you could leave us a 5 star review!

***

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Read moreCollapse

Where have our Prime Ministers chosen as their final resting place?

Sunday, September 13, 2026 • Duration 56:19

This week Since Attlee & Churchill takes a funereal turn as Lee and Richard trace where each of Britain's nine deceased post-war prime ministers chose to be buried. Featuring Clement Attlee's memorial in Westminster Abbey, Winston Churchill's return to Bladon, Anthony Eden's dramatic dash home from Florida to die in Wiltshire, Harold Wilson's beloved Scilly Isles - and more. What do these final locations tell us about the individual prime ministers and the changing nature of who holds the highest political office in our land?

In this episode, the following books are mentioned:

'The Rage of Party' by George Owers. Available at: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/16406/9781408719107

'Sunak at 10: The Last Conservative Prime Minister?' by Anthony Seldon & Tom Egerton. Available at: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/16406/9781805462170

Enjoy ad-free listening, bonus episodes and show your support for the podcast by joining the Since Attlee & Churchill Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill

Buying books via the Since Attlee & Churchill Bookshop is a great way to support the podcast. Click here to visit the shop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/saac

Enjoy listening to the Since Attlee & Churchill podcast? If so, we would be very grateful if you could leave us a 5 star review!

***

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Read moreCollapse

Matters of Interest: Council Tax's Fatal Flaws & The Cost-of-Living Paradox in America

Thursday, September 10, 2026 • Duration 47:29

In this mid week episode of Since Attlee & Churchill, recorded in the United States, Lee and Richard tackle two live debates spanning the Atlantic. First, Richard makes the case against Britain's council tax system — a tax still based on 1991 property valuations — and considers whether Andy Burnham was right to rule out replacing it with the sort of property tax used in America. What would be the pros, cons and the pitfalls of embracing such a reform? Then Lee turns to a trope doing the rounds online: "America rich, Britain poor." With US midterm campaigns dominated by cost-of-living anxiety, he asks how that squares with claims that Americans enjoy a wealth that Europeans find unimaginable. Could it be tourist selection bias? Or the people jet-setters mix with? And what about the trade-offs involved?

Enjoy ad-free listening, bonus episodes and show your support for the podcast by joining the Since Attlee & Churchill Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill

Buying books via the Since Attlee & Churchill Bookshop is a great way to support the podcast. Click here to visit the shop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/saac

Enjoy listening to the Since Attlee & Churchill podcast? If so, we would be very grateful if you could leave us a 5 star review!

***

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Read moreCollapse

Did John Freeman throw away a brilliant political career?

Sunday, September 6, 2026 • Duration 01:07:34

John Freeman was one of the brightest stars of the Labour Party’s post-war generation. Elected in the 1945 Labour landslide, he rapidly rose through Clement Attlee’s government and became a hero of the Labour left. Some even thought he could one day become Prime Minister. But after resigning from the government alongside Nye Bevan and Harold Wilson, he walked away from Parliament aged just 40. For the remainder of his life, Freeman never settled - he became a pioneering television interviewer, editor of the New Statesman, British High Commissioner to India, Ambassador to the United States, television executive and university professor. In this episode of 'Since Attlee & Churchill', Richard and Lee explore the extraordinary nine lives of one of the most fascinating, enigmatic and easily overlooked figures in modern British political history.

In this episode, the following books are mentioned:

'Bonar Law' by R.J.Q. Adams

'A Very Private Celebrity: The Nine Lives of John Freeman' by Hugh Purcell

Lee’s book, ‘Coronations & Defenestrations: Choosing (and losing) Tory Leaders’, is now available. Save 30% by using the code AGENDA30 on IndiePubs: https://indiepubs.co.uk/products/coronations-and-defenestrations-1760081414340

Enjoy ad-free listening, bonus episodes and show your support for the podcast by joining the Since Attlee & Churchill Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill

Buying books via the Since Attlee & Churchill Bookshop is a great way to support the podcast. Click here to visit the shop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/saac

Enjoy listening to the Since Attlee & Churchill podcast? If so, we would be very grateful if you could leave us a 5 star review!

***

Hosted on Acast. See for more information.

Matters of Interest: Starmer Walks Away & Sovereignty is Back in Fashion

Thursday, September 3, 2026 • Duration 44:08

In this week’s Matters of Interest, Lee and Richard discuss Starmer’s decision to resign as an MP – and look at how his departure is part of a much bigger change in the relationship between former prime ministers and Parliament. Will any future PM do as Arthur Balfour and Edward Heath did and stay in the Commons long after their time in Number 10 is over? Then, Richard turns to the recent debate on the trade-offs between sovereignty and free trade between Canada and the United States. Richard argues that some of the same commentators who diagnosed a 'sovereignty syndrome' in Britain during the Brexit negotiations seem to have done a 180 when it comes to Canada insisting on its right to set its own policies. Is that right? And what would a more consistent reasoned and consistent approach to sovereignty look like?

Enjoy ad-free listening, bonus episodes and show your support for the podcast by joining the Since Attlee & Churchill Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/SinceAttleeAndChurchill

Buying books via the Since Attlee & Churchill Bookshop is a great way to support the podcast. Click here to visit the shop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/saac

Enjoy listening to the Since Attlee & Churchill podcast? If so, we would be very grateful if you could leave us a 5 star review!

***

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Read moreCollapse

Since Attlee & Churchill - Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Since Attlee & Churchill - Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Bookshop80

Patreon2

Amazon73

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Bookshop80

Patreon2

Amazon73

Apple Podcasts

Spotify