What the Paper Said 1923

Week Ending 7 October 1923

In this episode Beveridge on overpopulation; trouble in Fascismo; Bismarck; a romantic count; and crookedness in the boxing ring.

Week Ending 21 October 1923

Churchill on Gallipoli (again).

Week Ending 14 October 1923

Churchill on Gallipoli

Week Ending 23 September 1923

In this episode: Booze stats | Disease stats | Mme Fahmy | Cabaret | KKK

Week Ending 30 September 1923

Martial Law in Germany | The snuff danger | The handrail danger | The Underground

Week Ending 16 September 1923

Mussolini according to a press baron; the Ulster border; a new German currency; a coup in Spain; a settlement in Corfu.

Week Ending 9 September 1923

Earthquake in Japan | Invaders in Corfu | The poor of Poplar (again) | Plans for the Holocaust | Ludendorff & The Nazis | Asquith & the War

Catch-up ending 2 September 1923

Taxation is theft | Road Safety

Week Ending 22 July 1923

In this episode: the Singapore Naval Base; Haig on Ukraine; the Marie Stopes libel case; the Sir Alfred Douglas libel case; Cambridge University and women; the status of the Bank of England; a German terrorist escapes.

Week Ending 29 July 1923

In this episode:  Peace with Turkey; the debate on disarmament; the Bank of the England expands; the President abroad, schoolboys and gambling and Nigerians and booze.

Week Ending 15 July 1923

Do we need passports?; modern whaling; the future of freedom; extreme weather; 18-year-olds and drink; the end of the 3lb loaf; the death of the Queen Mother's cousin and an air race. 

Week Ending 8 July 1923

In this episode: Interest rates are up; the new US immigration system; the Glossop murders; the dangers of aluminium cookware; attack on the Met Office; a train crash; a train bomb; Wimbledon and the success or otherwise of the Ruhr occupation.

Week Ending 1 July 1923

In this episode: The Versailles Treaty, Prohibition, the downside of Irish independence, the Parchim murder, banning the horse, flammable films, domestic service, prohibition and the Atlantic liner, Fascist violence, Harding goes west, Labour MPs in trouble.

Week Ending 24 June 1923

In this episode: London's transport problem; London’s noise problem; some sailors burn to death; some gates fall down; Sunday drinking in Ulster; how to put up the rent; miners’ pay; a tuberculosis statistic; Claude Rains; the duel and the German officer and a concentration camp.

EconTalk on Santiago's buses.

Week Ending 17 June 1923

Coup in Bulgaria; Britain's fastest train; General Grierson gets a biography; Dzerzhinsky thinks he can run a railway.

Week Ending 10 June 1923

The workers' paradise (again); Britain gets a new MP; the FBI gets royal approval.

Week Ending 27 May 1923

Hitler and his allies. Britain gets a new Prime Minister.

Week Ending 20 May 1923

The fall out from the Irish deportations; the limits of states' rights; the right size of underground trains; before the satellite dish. 

Week Ending 13 May 1923

In this week's episode: A socialist on Churchill; the perils of modern education; the Ulster Irish on the border; Austrian hyperinflation; the great pram race and someone throws an egg at a politician.

Week Ending 6 May 1923

In this episode - as well as headlines big and small: FA Cup Final chaos; a banker predicts the Great Depression; Churchill on communism; race relations in South Africa and America.

Week Ending 29 April 1923

In this episode; so, who is responsible for the BBC? The confusing Lord Curzon; the realities of hyperinflation.

Professor Barth's YouTube series on money.

Week Ending 22 April 1923

In this episode: The Prime Minister is fighting fit; what happens to you if you are found with a gun; the head of Oxford University flexes his muscles; Hitler is on a charge; Parliament defies the will of the people.

Week Ending 15 April 1923

In this episode the blessings - or otherwise - of socialism. Also in this episode, how Bulgaria deals with communists, Sunday trading and the slave trade... in Ethiopia

Week Ending 8 April 1923

In this episode: When will the robots take over? What is a jury of matrons? What is a bride-elect and do London bus drivers make good nurses?

Week Ending 1 April 1923

In this episode: Oscar Wilde's paramour goes bonkers. Also in this episode cycle safety, housing, immigration, air pollution, drugs and an ossuary. Oh, and Andrew Bonar Law is unwell.

Week ending 25 March 1923

In this week’s episode: the Debate on Capitalism. Also in this week’s episode: the man who started the Great Depression is in court; the BBC undermines national defence; is the University of London under attack by Ukraine?; the inventor of the supermarket makes a killing, or so he thinks; London luvvies are a bunch of racists, Top Gear gets trolled by the London General Omnibus Company and some people have gone to sleep.

Catch-up ending 18 March 1923

In this episode I catch up on what has been happening in the world since the last episode. 

Week ending 11 February 1922

 

In this episode: Overhead electrification; the legality of crystal sets; US immigration law; how hospitals raise money; the legality of the French occupation of the Ruhr and Churchill writes a book.

 

Week Ending 4 February 1922

In this episode: Nazis go on a demo; a policeman learns his fortune; Irish houses burn; and I learn that there were two Ku Klux Klans.

Episode dealing with Italian Fascism I refer to is here.

Week Ending 28 January 1923

In this episode: von Moltke’s thoughts, Croydon holds a referendum; Opium in China; Education in the Soviet Union; Hitler holds a demonstration and drink driving charges are dropped.

The Annika Mombauer book I mention is entitled Helmuth von Moltke and the Origins of the First World War

The Simon House book I mention is entitled Lost Opportunity: The Battle of the Ardennes 22 August 1914

Sorry to say it but I seem to have misremembered Beadle’s lecture on the Marne. I thought it was on YouTube but I suspect it was part of a Zoom event and never published. Shame. But as a consolation there is this lecture by Beadle on the origins of the Schlieffen Plan. 

Week Ending 21 January 1923

France can't win; Hitler speaks; William Robertson speaks; the Royal Engagement; Civil Service working hours and a drug user is jailed.

Ross Beadle on Sir William Robertson.

The 8 October Episode

 

Week Ending 14 January 1923

In this episode: France occupies the Ruhr; the FitzRoy case draws to a close; Henry Ford stands for President and The Times examines communist psychology

Week Ending 31 December 1922: Railway Grouping Special

Britain’s railways are to be forcibly merged into four groups. We learn about the aims of the scheme, what fares were like at the time and the prospects for electrification.

 

 

Week Ending 24 December 1922

In this episode my further musings on reparations; the President of Poland is assassinated; Another twist in the Fitzroy Affair; Christmas Day activities and the British army leaves Ireland.

Week Ending 17 December 1922

In this episode: Reparations. Yup, that's it. Not the normal format but back in 1922 there is a big conference on the horizon and The Times has several good articles on the issue so I thought, "Why not do a special?" And here it is.

Week Ending 10 December 1922

In this episode: Ulster joins the UK; a judge warns of the danger of press barons; The Crown Prince of Germany publishes his memoirs; Britain prepares for the next war; as does Germany; the Fitzroy case drags on; communists receive a lesson in etiquette; Bevan is convicted; the US murder rate is up.

Week Ending 3 December 1922

In this week’s episode: the march of the unemployed; Haig gets a biography; whither the battleship?; Prohibition doesn’t work; the Ku Klux Klan;  Greek commanders shot.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 26 November 1922

In this episode: a Communist addresses Parliament; Childers is executed; Warnings are issued about celebrity and whisky; the Ku Klux Klan get a mention and the Soviets set up Potemkin factories.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 19 November 1922

In this episode: the British find out who they voted for, an Irishman is put on trial for treason, an Ottoman Sultan decides that he would rather not be put on trial for treason, Mussolini tells them what he thinks and some people really, really don't get Poppy Day.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 12 November 1922

In this episode: Bonar Law says very little; the founder of the Welfare State has a go at the author of War of the Worlds; Mussolini ponders how he will make the trains run on time; Erskine Childers is captured and Britain prepares to mark Armistice Day.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 5 November 1922

In this episode: Mussolini's arrival in power, Britain's election, women on juries, the decline of the aristocracy, the death of Edwin A. Pratt and Soviet election practices.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 29 October 1922

In this episode things look grim for Italian democracy; Britain does lots of democracy and there is a little reminder of when Britons were refugees.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 22 October 1922

Lloyd George is no longer in trouble (because he is no longer in office); Sir Almeric Fitzroy faces justice; The BBC, or at least a BBC comes into existence; and some nonsense from Bavaria about some bloke called Hitler.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 15 October 1922

Lloyd George is in trouble, the perils of Hyde Park, real fascism, the unvaccinated of Kingston and communism and classical music.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 8 October 1922

In this episode one ex-Chancellor bashes the French, while another ex-Chancellor has some bad news on the reparations front. HMS Lion faces a grim fate as do Tibetan beggars. Finally, the Soviets identify the lurking danger that is Charles Dickens.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 24 September 1922

In this episode, Lloyd George makes a lot of enemies, the joys of rent control, cocaine and the legal profession and the Windsor train mystery.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 17 September 1922

In this episode I pick out articles on the Fall of Smyrna, the illicit trade in cocaine, the need to pasteurize milk and an extraordinary claim of corruption in the Soviet army.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 1 October 1922

In this episode I pick out articles on the continuing crisis in Turkey, the uses and abuses of film of sporting events, Lord Rothermere and the Daily Mail and the latest on London Underground.

What the Paper Said: Week Ending 10 September 1922

This is the first ever “What the Paper Said”. In this episode I pick out articles on German inflation, Soviet executions and a report into shell shock. 

Brian and I chat for the last time

This conversation was recorded on 5 October 2021 and Brian died 10 days later. It was the last time we spoke.

This was - not surprisingly - an odd conversation. It was dominated by Brian's knowledge that he was not long for this world. It was also dominated by all sorts of connectivity problems. And when all was said and done it wasn't all said and done because Brian called me back because there was a bit he'd forgotten.

Brian had something on his mind. Regular listeners will know that at the beginning of this year we recorded a conversation on the Industrial Revolution and that our most recent conversation whilst starting on the Middle Ages eventually moved on to the Industrial Revolution again. What Brian had on his mind was something to do with the works of Deirdre McCloskey and Emmanuel Todd. What that "something" was I didn't know and still don't. Brian could be a difficult man to follow especially if you're a dullard like me. If you have ever listened to a few of these conversations you will be familiar with my floundering in Brian's wake, not only not understanding what he has just said but not even being able to find the right questions to ask in order to get some clarification. So it is here. It was bad enough at the best of times. Anyone who knew Brian will know that he was very good at dominating a conversation. He was not an easy man to interrupt and that did not get any easier after he was diagnosed with cancer.

So, I failed to pin down just what it was that Brian wanted to say. Maybe it will be obvious to others who are more familiar with McCloskey and Todd or with Brian's own thinking. Maybe we'll have to leave it to some ideological cryptanalysts to decode Brian's remarks. At least there's something to decode.

We also talk about Brian's Last Friday (30:30) which was held on 3 September 2021 in central London. This meant an awful lot to him. 

We also talk about Tommy Robinson (38:00). This was something I wanted to talk about. Well, actually I didn’t but Brian was always most insistent that we should alternate when it came to introducing the subject. So it was to the end. 

And then we talk about Germany and the Industrial Revolution - the bit Brian had forgotten.

So, it was already pretty disjointed before the connectivity issues made it even more so. I have also kept a lot of stuff in that I would normally have edited out. Why? Because it feels like the right thing to do. I can’t express it better than that.

There ought to be another paragraph here in which I come to a conclusion. A concluding paragraph even. Something about what a joy and a privilege it has been to have had these conversations routinely over the last 5 years and intermittently for a lot longer. But I don't have the words. Brian was special.

If you have any comments to make on this please make them at Samizdata.

Brian Quotes

"The big history date of the last thousand years was the wealth explosion and it happened in Britain."

"Emmanuel Todd is quite open about his admiration for the Anglosphere."

"Todd has very interesting things to say about Homo Americanus which he thinks is very similar to original human nature."

"Liberty, equality and fraternity spread in Europe after Napoleon was defeated."

"McCloskey and Todd between them could have cracked this but in fact they needed the intervention of Micklethwait."

"I want to make it clear that I attach great importance to my own opinions about this."

"…and if they [McCloskey and Todd] both get their bits right then between them they have it all, they have the whole story. As it is the only one with the whole story is me."

"I am torn in half about whether America will shake itself loose of all this woke nonsense."

"What I find interesting about Tommy Robinson is that people succeed in creating this false idea of what he is and then if you disagree you are accused of supporting this false person."

Notes

1. The Todd podcast.
2. Battle of Acre.
3. The Battle of Acre book.
4. Lineages of Modernity; a review by Tyler Cowen.
5. Brian's blog post on the gap between the English Civil War and the Industrial Revolution. 
6. Try as I might I cannot find any reference - by Brian or otherwise - to the duke - or any other potentate - who wanted to imprison Beethoven but couldn’t.