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Debbie Kilroy

Members Behaving Badly: A History of Britain in 52 Parliamentary Rogues, by Debbie Kilroy

Members Behaving Badly: A History of Britain in 52 Parliamentary Rogues, by Debbie Kilroy

An exploration of British parliamentary history from 1603 to 1945 through the scandals, misconduct and crimes of rogue MPs.
Nicola Cornick

Members Behaving Badly by Debbie Kilroy is an alternative history of the nation as seen through the stories of fifty-two rogue MPs who served in the House of Commons between 1603 and 1945. It’s an interesting framework and a clever idea. Research suggests that trust...

Members Behaving Badly: A Conversation with Debbie Kilroy

Members Behaving Badly: A Conversation with Debbie Kilroy

The historian discusses historical cases of MPs' misconduct and considers political ethics, leadership, and accountability across past and present.
Debbie Kilroy

Hello Debbie. Members of Parliament behaving badly is a particularly fruitful topic these days! What was it that led you to write about these historical rogues? I was researching an academic paper looking at MPs in James I’s first English parliament, to see if you...

Henry Du Pré Labouchère: The Least Victorian of All Victorian Politicians?

Henry Du Pré Labouchère: The Least Victorian of All Victorian Politicians?

An account of the MP which contrasts an unconventional career with the self-interest and hypocrisy he shared with his Victorian contemporaries.
Debbie Kilroy

The Victorians were good at what we might call ‘spin’. En masse, they’ve been remembered as prudish, reserved, industrious, God-fearing. Their political leaders, William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli, seen as giants, fighting battles to modernise the state, to...