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The bill to reform the voting system is blocked in the Lords. For some, events begin to feel like a revolution. Read by Adrian Scarborough. From May 2013.

'The struggle for the Great Reform Bill of 1832 took place a the crossroads of English history.' - so says the author in her lively and insightful account of the political change that took take place during this period.

Times were in flux. The Industrial Revolution was underway. The reverberations of the French Revolution were still being felt. And the country would be ruled by a new monarch, William IV.

And political change, who and how we would vote, was now in the spotlight. Put there mainly by the
Whigs - led by Earl Grey.

Age-old corruption, rotten boroughs, even hereditary peers would feel these winds of change. But how would the Bill be made law? Bumpily and dramatically, as it turned out, and its path is followed in five episodes, which are abridged by Katrin Williams:

3. The bill to reform our voting system goes through the House of Commons but its
passage in the Lords is spectacularly blocked.

Reader Adrian Scarborough.

15 minutes

Credits

Role Contributor
Author Antonia Fraser
Producer Duncan Minshull
Reader Adrian Scarborough
Abridger Katrin Williams

Broadcasts

  • Wed 15 May 2013 09:45
  • Thu 16 May 2013 00:30
  • Wed 14 Mar 2018 14:45
  • Thu 15 Mar 2018 02:45

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