WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.680 Welcome back. I'm so glad you're joining us for 00:00:02.680 --> 00:00:04.440 today's deep dive. Yeah, it's a great one today. 00:00:04.620 --> 00:00:06.780 It really is. And if you could see the video 00:00:06.780 --> 00:00:09.039 feed across from me right now, you would see 00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:12.560 we are setting a very specific, incredibly atmospheric 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:15.359 mood today. I went all out for this. You really 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:17.460 did. You've got this fantastic backdrop. It's 00:00:17.460 --> 00:00:20.940 these vintage, early 20th century maps of Liverpool. 00:00:21.660 --> 00:00:25.280 And they're heavily overlaid with these sepia 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:29.690 -toned images of old shipping docks. look like 00:00:29.690 --> 00:00:32.789 intensely crowded political rallies exactly it 00:00:32.789 --> 00:00:35.530 perfectly sets the stage for our mission today 00:00:35.530 --> 00:00:38.109 we are looking at a very specific time a very 00:00:38.109 --> 00:00:40.969 specific place and an atmosphere that was essentially 00:00:40.969 --> 00:00:43.590 well it was a powder keg waiting for a match 00:00:43.590 --> 00:00:45.969 yeah today we are pulling from a fascinating 00:00:45.969 --> 00:00:48.869 stack of historical sources to examine a highly 00:00:48.869 --> 00:00:51.810 specific and honestly an often entirely overlooked 00:00:51.810 --> 00:00:54.700 piece of british political history right We are 00:00:54.700 --> 00:00:57.759 tracing the 70 year rise and fall of the Liverpool 00:00:57.759 --> 00:01:00.439 Protestant Party. Which is a story that genuinely 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:02.759 has a little bit of everything. I mean, you have 00:01:02.759 --> 00:01:05.340 religious tension. You have bureaucratic spite. 00:01:05.599 --> 00:01:08.200 Lots of spite. So much spite. You have prison 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:11.359 sentences and you have some incredibly savvy 00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:13.980 political marketing. It's a phenomenal narrative. 00:01:14.700 --> 00:01:17.140 And for you listening, here is why this matters. 00:01:17.379 --> 00:01:21.140 This is an absolute masterclass in how hyper 00:01:21.140 --> 00:01:24.219 local grievances, massive demographic shifts 00:01:24.219 --> 00:01:26.620 and, you know, deep seated community tensions 00:01:26.620 --> 00:01:30.680 can accidentally birth a formidable political 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:33.819 machine. A completely unintended machine. Right. 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:36.180 A machine that not only reshapes a major city, 00:01:36.260 --> 00:01:39.040 but completely outlasts its own founders. OK. 00:01:39.390 --> 00:01:41.950 Let's unpack this. Where exactly does our story 00:01:41.950 --> 00:01:44.650 begin? Because to understand the Liverpool Protestant 00:01:44.650 --> 00:01:46.549 Party, we really have to understand the ground 00:01:46.549 --> 00:01:48.700 they were standing on. Yeah. To really understand 00:01:48.700 --> 00:01:50.239 the boiling point, we have to look at the big 00:01:50.239 --> 00:01:53.000 picture context of Liverpool in the late 19th 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:55.200 and early 20th centuries. Right. The landscape 00:01:55.200 --> 00:01:57.340 of the city was experiencing an absolute earthquake 00:01:57.340 --> 00:02:00.260 in terms of demographic shifts. Huge changes. 00:02:00.500 --> 00:02:02.799 Massive. Specifically, there's a massive surge 00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:05.560 in Irish migration into Liverpool. And predominantly, 00:02:05.579 --> 00:02:08.699 this was an influx of Irish Catholics. This fundamentally 00:02:08.699 --> 00:02:11.240 changed the cultural and political makeup of 00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:14.219 the city. And as that Roman Catholic population 00:02:14.219 --> 00:02:17.560 in Liverpool greatly increased, the militant 00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:20.039 Protestants and the Orange Lodge members who 00:02:20.039 --> 00:02:21.919 had traditionally wielded a lot of influence 00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:25.599 there started getting incredibly anxious. Yeah, 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:28.400 they were terrified of losing their grip on the 00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:31.340 city's culture. They felt their influence slipping 00:02:31.340 --> 00:02:34.500 away. Traditionally, the organized Protestant 00:02:34.500 --> 00:02:36.810 voting bloc which is often referred to as the 00:02:36.810 --> 00:02:40.330 orange vote, was staunchly loyal to the conservative 00:02:40.330 --> 00:02:43.090 and unionist party. That was their standard alignment. 00:02:43.229 --> 00:02:45.210 That was the natural home for their political 00:02:45.210 --> 00:02:48.669 alignment. Exactly. But that loyalty was really 00:02:48.669 --> 00:02:51.389 beginning to fracture under the weight of these 00:02:51.389 --> 00:02:53.710 demographic changes. The militant Protestants 00:02:53.710 --> 00:02:55.889 were getting deeply frustrated with the dominant 00:02:55.889 --> 00:02:59.090 conservatives. Yep. And our sources show that 00:02:59.090 --> 00:03:02.569 this frustration boiled down to three incredibly 00:03:02.569 --> 00:03:06.080 specific. Highly localized grievances. Let's 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:08.659 look at those because these weren't broad, sweeping 00:03:08.659 --> 00:03:10.919 philosophical differences at first. No, not at 00:03:10.919 --> 00:03:13.419 all. They were highly targeted legislative complaints. 00:03:13.740 --> 00:03:17.500 Very targeted. So the first major grievance was 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:20.240 about convent laundries. Right. The conservative 00:03:20.240 --> 00:03:22.719 party had actually used their parliamentary whip. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:25.599 which is essentially enforcing strict party discipline 00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:28.860 to ensure their members vote a certain way to 00:03:28.860 --> 00:03:31.580 oppose the extension of standard factory inspections 00:03:31.580 --> 00:03:34.599 to laundries run by Catholic convents. And you 00:03:34.599 --> 00:03:36.560 can see why that struck a nerve. Oh, absolutely. 00:03:36.900 --> 00:03:39.719 The militant Protestants viewed this as the conservatives 00:03:39.719 --> 00:03:43.199 giving blatant preferential treatment to Catholic 00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:46.699 institutions. In their eyes, the conservatives 00:03:46.699 --> 00:03:49.400 were exempting these convents from the rigorous 00:03:49.400 --> 00:03:52.280 labor and safety laws that every other business. 00:03:52.300 --> 00:03:55.039 in the city had to follow. It felt like a two 00:03:55.039 --> 00:03:57.439 -tiered system of justice. A total double standard. 00:03:57.560 --> 00:04:00.479 And that sense of unequal treatment bleeds perfectly 00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:02.860 into their second grievance, which was the Education 00:04:02.860 --> 00:04:06.240 Act of 1902. Oh, this is a big one. Huge. This 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:09.020 act essentially made local public money available 00:04:09.020 --> 00:04:11.919 to Catholic schools. And the Protestant opposition 00:04:11.919 --> 00:04:14.659 gave this grievance a brilliantly catchy, if 00:04:14.659 --> 00:04:17.379 incredibly divisive, piece of political branding. 00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:19.360 Yeah, they called it Rome on the rates. Rome 00:04:19.360 --> 00:04:21.899 on the rates. It's a phenomenal piece of political 00:04:21.899 --> 00:04:26.310 messaging. Rates being the local property taxes 00:04:26.310 --> 00:04:28.410 that citizens paid to the municipal government. 00:04:28.610 --> 00:04:32.389 Right. So by calling it Rome on the rates, the 00:04:32.389 --> 00:04:34.910 rallying cry was essentially telling the Protestant 00:04:34.910 --> 00:04:37.790 working class that their hard earned tax money 00:04:37.790 --> 00:04:40.389 was directly funding the Vatican's interests. 00:04:40.709 --> 00:04:44.250 Wow. It's a very visceral way to weaponize local 00:04:44.250 --> 00:04:47.970 tax policy. It really is. Now, the third grievance 00:04:47.970 --> 00:04:51.149 is a bit of a pivot because it was entirely internal 00:04:51.149 --> 00:04:54.110 to the Church of England itself. Yes. The militant 00:04:54.110 --> 00:04:56.569 Protestants were furious over the failure of 00:04:56.569 --> 00:04:58.709 the conservative government to either enact a 00:04:58.709 --> 00:05:01.389 new church discipline act or amend the old one. 00:05:01.509 --> 00:05:03.889 They wanted a crackdown. They did. They wanted 00:05:03.889 --> 00:05:06.750 a much more effective, legally binding counter 00:05:06.750 --> 00:05:09.370 to what they called extreme ritualism creeping 00:05:09.370 --> 00:05:11.629 into the Church of England. Right. They felt 00:05:11.629 --> 00:05:13.550 their own church was becoming too Catholic in 00:05:13.550 --> 00:05:15.769 its aesthetics and practices, and they blamed 00:05:15.769 --> 00:05:17.970 the conservatives for not legislating a stop 00:05:17.970 --> 00:05:19.930 to it. What's fascinating here is that we have 00:05:19.930 --> 00:05:22.529 to remember this wasn't just an isolated incident 00:05:22.529 --> 00:05:24.709 happening in a vacuum in Liverpool. Good point. 00:05:24.829 --> 00:05:28.509 This localized tension was part of a much larger 00:05:28.509 --> 00:05:31.110 ideological fracture happening across the region. 00:05:31.420 --> 00:05:34.399 If you look at the broader timeline, just a few 00:05:34.399 --> 00:05:38.620 years earlier in 1898, John Kensett. Oh, right. 00:05:38.740 --> 00:05:40.920 The Protestant Truth Society guy. Exactly. The 00:05:40.920 --> 00:05:43.199 leader of the Protestant Truth Society. He actually 00:05:43.199 --> 00:05:46.019 stood for election to the House of Commons all 00:05:46.019 --> 00:05:48.879 the way down in Brighton. specifically to secure 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:51.560 independent Protestant representation. So the 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:54.180 appetite for a breakaway Protestant political 00:05:54.180 --> 00:05:56.459 identity was already simmering across the country. 00:05:56.720 --> 00:05:58.620 Precisely. And we see it across the Irish Sea, 00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:02.740 too. By 1902, this exact same unease manifested 00:06:02.740 --> 00:06:04.839 in the creation of the independent Orange Order 00:06:04.839 --> 00:06:08.300 in Belfast, over in Ulster. Wow. So Liverpool 00:06:08.300 --> 00:06:10.600 is sitting right in the middle of this broader 00:06:10.600 --> 00:06:13.430 cultural and political fault line. The National 00:06:13.430 --> 00:06:15.350 Conservative Party was trying to hold together 00:06:15.350 --> 00:06:18.430 a very broad coalition, and these hyper -local, 00:06:18.430 --> 00:06:20.250 single -issue factions were starting to break 00:06:20.250 --> 00:06:23.009 off. Which brings us to the actual spark that 00:06:23.009 --> 00:06:25.470 lights the powder keg in Liverpool. We've got 00:06:25.470 --> 00:06:27.769 the tension, but now we need the catalyst. And 00:06:27.769 --> 00:06:30.930 that catalyst is a man named George Wise. George 00:06:30.930 --> 00:06:33.509 Wise is a prominent local Protestant leader, 00:06:33.649 --> 00:06:35.790 and he serves as the pastor of the Protestant 00:06:35.790 --> 00:06:38.730 Reformers Church. He was a firebrand. Total firebrand. 00:06:38.970 --> 00:06:41.790 And he had quite the dedicated, mobilized following. 00:06:42.269 --> 00:06:44.649 His adherents included large numbers of members 00:06:44.649 --> 00:06:47.089 from the Orange Order, as well as his own massive 00:06:47.089 --> 00:06:51.230 congregation. But Wise runs into a major logistical 00:06:51.230 --> 00:06:53.589 problem with the conservative -controlled Liverpool 00:06:53.589 --> 00:06:56.069 Corporation. Yeah, the local government. Right. 00:06:56.189 --> 00:06:58.970 The corporation outright refuses to allocate 00:06:58.970 --> 00:07:02.670 any public open space specifically for outdoor 00:07:02.670 --> 00:07:05.189 meetings. I want to pause on that because it 00:07:05.189 --> 00:07:07.310 might seem minor today. It sounds like a zoning 00:07:07.310 --> 00:07:09.259 issue. Right, but if you don't have a public 00:07:09.259 --> 00:07:12.100 square in the early 1900s, you don't have a voice. 00:07:12.459 --> 00:07:15.980 The public park was the internet of 1903. It 00:07:15.980 --> 00:07:18.100 was where you rallied your base, shared your 00:07:18.100 --> 00:07:20.279 message, and organized your political power. 00:07:20.439 --> 00:07:22.519 That makes total sense. Denying that space was 00:07:22.519 --> 00:07:24.800 an existential threat to Wise's movement. So 00:07:24.800 --> 00:07:27.100 without authorized space, disturbances naturally 00:07:27.100 --> 00:07:29.579 start breaking out at impromptu meetings held 00:07:29.579 --> 00:07:31.720 in public squares and gardens across the city. 00:07:32.120 --> 00:07:35.259 It gets chaotic. Very. And George Wise is right 00:07:35.259 --> 00:07:37.959 in the middle of these clashes. The authorities 00:07:37.959 --> 00:07:41.360 demand he be bound over to keep the peace, which 00:07:41.360 --> 00:07:43.779 is essentially a legal promise to stop causing 00:07:43.779 --> 00:07:46.160 trouble or face the consequences. Right. Wise 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:49.339 flat out refuses. A very calculated, very theatrical 00:07:49.339 --> 00:07:51.959 political move. Oh, totally. He knew exactly 00:07:51.959 --> 00:07:54.040 what the consequence of refusing would be. He 00:07:54.040 --> 00:07:57.000 practically invited it. For refusing to be bound 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:59.540 over, he gets thrown into Walton Jail, the local 00:07:59.540 --> 00:08:02.579 prison. It's a dramatic escalation. You now have 00:08:02.579 --> 00:08:05.819 a prominent religious and community leader locked 00:08:05.819 --> 00:08:09.279 up by the state over public park access. Here's 00:08:09.279 --> 00:08:11.060 where it gets really interesting. George Wise 00:08:11.060 --> 00:08:15.040 is released from Walton jail on June 6, 1903. 00:08:15.300 --> 00:08:17.839 And he is not deterred. Not at all. Instead of 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:20.220 being cowed, instead of backing down or falling 00:08:20.220 --> 00:08:22.339 back in line with the conservatives, he decides 00:08:22.339 --> 00:08:24.939 to completely hijack the traditional orange vote. 00:08:25.079 --> 00:08:27.920 He goes up rogue. He formally creates the Liverpool 00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:31.519 Protestant Party, the LPP, as a distinct independent 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:33.779 political party to fight for seats on the city 00:08:33.779 --> 00:08:37.039 council. And the immediate impact is staggering. 00:08:37.580 --> 00:08:40.200 You have to imagine being a conservative leader 00:08:40.200 --> 00:08:42.799 in Liverpool at that time, expecting these Protestant 00:08:42.799 --> 00:08:45.480 votes to just roll in automatically as they always 00:08:45.480 --> 00:08:47.559 had. Taking them completely for granted. Exactly. 00:08:48.019 --> 00:08:51.519 Instead, in the 1903 municipal elections, this 00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:56.080 newly formed LPP contests four seats and they 00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:59.419 win three of them, including a major, highly 00:08:59.419 --> 00:09:02.259 symbolic victory in the Kirkdale Ward. They didn't 00:09:02.259 --> 00:09:04.570 just stop at the city council either. No. They 00:09:04.570 --> 00:09:06.690 also secured representation on the West Derby 00:09:06.690 --> 00:09:09.190 Board of Guardians. And tell us about those boards 00:09:09.190 --> 00:09:11.629 because they were a big deal. They were incredibly 00:09:11.629 --> 00:09:14.269 powerful local bodies back then. They weren't 00:09:14.269 --> 00:09:17.190 just advisory boards. The West Derby Board actively 00:09:17.190 --> 00:09:20.909 supervised health care. workhouses, and poor 00:09:20.909 --> 00:09:23.009 relief for the entire north and east of the city. 00:09:23.470 --> 00:09:25.769 So the LPP wasn't just winning symbolic moral 00:09:25.769 --> 00:09:28.350 victories. They were immediately taking control 00:09:28.350 --> 00:09:30.809 of the actual levers of public health, welfare, 00:09:31.029 --> 00:09:33.549 and local resources. I have to ask, how did the 00:09:33.549 --> 00:09:35.870 conservative leadership react to this? Because 00:09:35.870 --> 00:09:38.350 this had to be incredibly complicating for the 00:09:38.350 --> 00:09:40.610 conservative leader in the city, Alderman Archibald 00:09:40.610 --> 00:09:43.309 Salvage. Oh, he was not happy. He must have absolutely 00:09:43.309 --> 00:09:45.669 hated the idea of an independent Protestant party 00:09:45.669 --> 00:09:48.889 cutting into his guaranteed power base. Salvage 00:09:48.889 --> 00:09:52.870 detested it. But early 1900s politics made for 00:09:52.870 --> 00:09:55.710 strange bedfellows. Because even though Salvage 00:09:55.710 --> 00:09:58.789 actively opposed them in local elections, the 00:09:58.789 --> 00:10:01.769 conservatives and the LPP actually had to form 00:10:01.769 --> 00:10:05.190 a brief rapprochement. A truce. A working, pragmatic 00:10:05.190 --> 00:10:08.730 cooperation right before World War I. The threat 00:10:08.730 --> 00:10:11.250 of the Irish Home Rule Bill at the national level 00:10:11.250 --> 00:10:14.250 was so severe to both of their interests that 00:10:14.250 --> 00:10:16.710 they had to... temporarily team up to fight it. 00:10:16.750 --> 00:10:19.250 It's incredible. It just shows how pragmatic 00:10:19.250 --> 00:10:22.570 and sometimes deeply hypocritical local politics 00:10:22.570 --> 00:10:24.889 had to be to survive. That fragile, pragmatic 00:10:24.889 --> 00:10:27.289 truth did not last, though. By the time we hit 00:10:27.289 --> 00:10:29.730 the 1920s, the alliance completely shatters. 00:10:29.830 --> 00:10:31.970 The breaking point is monumental. The Conservative 00:10:31.970 --> 00:10:34.289 Party at the national level makes a geopolitical 00:10:34.289 --> 00:10:36.850 decision. They decide to support the establishment 00:10:36.850 --> 00:10:39.029 of the Irish Free State. And for the Liverpool 00:10:39.029 --> 00:10:42.450 Protestant Party, this is the ultimate unforgivable 00:10:42.450 --> 00:10:45.230 betrayal absolutely unforgivable they view the 00:10:45.230 --> 00:10:48.129 irish free state not as a permanent peaceful 00:10:48.129 --> 00:10:51.230 settlement but merely as a strategic stepping 00:10:51.230 --> 00:10:54.690 stone to a full irish republic right the outrage 00:10:54.690 --> 00:10:57.190 on the ground in liverpool is so severe that 00:10:57.190 --> 00:11:00.409 it causes a mass exodus of members walking right 00:11:00.409 --> 00:11:02.669 out of the conservative working men's association 00:11:03.309 --> 00:11:06.110 The LPP realizes they can't just rely on outrage 00:11:06.110 --> 00:11:08.669 anymore. They need to get highly organized. Right. 00:11:08.789 --> 00:11:10.649 They need a new playbook to consolidate their 00:11:10.649 --> 00:11:13.230 power. Exactly. This leads to the formation of 00:11:13.230 --> 00:11:15.529 the National Protestant Electoral Federation, 00:11:15.750 --> 00:11:20.049 or the NPEF. And our sources outline four very 00:11:20.049 --> 00:11:22.669 strict, very uncompromising aims for this new 00:11:22.669 --> 00:11:24.669 federation. These are fascinating to look at. 00:11:24.730 --> 00:11:26.269 Let's walk through them. First, the promotion 00:11:26.269 --> 00:11:29.110 of the study of Protestantism. Second, the maintenance 00:11:29.110 --> 00:11:31.690 of the Protestant succession to the throne, which 00:11:31.690 --> 00:11:34.570 specifically The act of settlement from 1701. 00:11:34.789 --> 00:11:36.870 That second aim is wild when you think about 00:11:36.870 --> 00:11:39.450 it. Right. They are reaching back over two centuries 00:11:39.450 --> 00:11:42.809 to a historic royal succession law to justify 00:11:42.809 --> 00:11:45.990 their modern local political stance in the 1920s. 00:11:46.210 --> 00:11:50.009 It grounds their modern movement in deep historical 00:11:50.009 --> 00:11:53.929 constitutional legitimacy. Brilliant move. Third, 00:11:54.149 --> 00:11:57.529 they aim to assist the return of robust Protestants 00:11:57.529 --> 00:12:00.710 as representatives on public bodies, irrespective 00:12:00.710 --> 00:12:03.370 of their actual party affiliation. Keep an eye 00:12:03.370 --> 00:12:06.250 on that one. Yes. And fourth, to protect the 00:12:06.250 --> 00:12:08.610 interests of Protestant workers in trade unions. 00:12:08.789 --> 00:12:11.389 Let's look closely at that third aim, getting 00:12:11.389 --> 00:12:14.470 robust Protestants elected irrespective of party, 00:12:14.610 --> 00:12:17.370 because that led to an absolute stroke of tactical 00:12:17.370 --> 00:12:21.330 genius in the 1922 elections for the boards of 00:12:21.330 --> 00:12:24.259 guardians. What did they do? The MPF didn't just 00:12:24.259 --> 00:12:27.279 run their own LPP candidates. They simply endorsed 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:29.620 any candidate who was willing to add the word 00:12:29.620 --> 00:12:31.899 Protestant to their party name on the actual 00:12:31.899 --> 00:12:34.360 ballot. It's essentially an early 20th century 00:12:34.360 --> 00:12:36.919 branding hack. Exactly what it is. It's like 00:12:36.919 --> 00:12:39.480 search engine optimization before the Internet 00:12:39.480 --> 00:12:41.919 existed. You add the keyword to your brand and 00:12:41.919 --> 00:12:44.139 you capture all the organic traffic from that 00:12:44.139 --> 00:12:46.860 voting bloc. It is pure political marketing and 00:12:46.860 --> 00:12:49.870 it worked flawlessly. By just adding that branding, 00:12:49.950 --> 00:12:52.789 two Protestant Party candidates and two Protestant 00:12:52.789 --> 00:12:55.169 and Unionist candidates were elected to the boards 00:12:55.169 --> 00:12:57.269 of guardians. Just from a word change? Yeah, 00:12:57.330 --> 00:13:02.210 bringing in a combined 25 ,787 votes. They figured 00:13:02.210 --> 00:13:05.330 out how to consolidate an entire fragmented demographic 00:13:05.330 --> 00:13:10.090 through a single word on a ballot. That newfound 00:13:10.090 --> 00:13:12.710 consolidated power was about to be tested in 00:13:12.710 --> 00:13:15.470 a massive way, though, because of a massive bureaucratic 00:13:15.470 --> 00:13:19.330 shakeup. Right. In 1929. In 1929, the Local Government 00:13:19.330 --> 00:13:21.929 Act abolishes those powerful boards of guardians 00:13:21.929 --> 00:13:24.850 entirely, handing all their sweeping responsibilities 00:13:24.850 --> 00:13:27.350 directly over to the local city authorities. 00:13:27.629 --> 00:13:30.830 Big shift in power. Huge. The Liverpool Corporation 00:13:30.830 --> 00:13:34.149 suddenly takes over three distinct boards. West 00:13:34.149 --> 00:13:36.850 Derby for the north and east. Liverpool for the 00:13:36.850 --> 00:13:39.299 city center. and Toxteth Park for the South. 00:13:39.419 --> 00:13:41.080 Which means all of a sudden the city council 00:13:41.080 --> 00:13:43.279 is sitting on a lot of redundant property that 00:13:43.279 --> 00:13:45.580 used to belong to these boards. Including a massive 00:13:45.580 --> 00:13:48.379 nine -acre facility at Brownlow Hill. Yeah. We 00:13:48.379 --> 00:13:51.080 are talking about 36 ,000 square meters of prime 00:13:51.080 --> 00:13:53.879 real estate. The city council looks at this redundant 00:13:53.879 --> 00:13:56.399 land and decides they're going to sell it. The 00:13:56.399 --> 00:13:59.460 buyer, the Archdiocese of Liverpool, who wants 00:13:59.460 --> 00:14:01.779 to use the space to build a brand new Catholic 00:14:01.779 --> 00:14:05.179 cathedral. Now, remember the history here. The 00:14:05.179 --> 00:14:08.230 LPP... fiercely opposed the construction of a 00:14:08.230 --> 00:14:10.830 catholic cathedral in the city very fiercely 00:14:10.830 --> 00:14:13.070 for years their protestant representatives on 00:14:13.070 --> 00:14:15.389 the boards of guardians had successfully blocked 00:14:15.389 --> 00:14:17.730 any sales of redundant land to catholic interests 00:14:17.730 --> 00:14:21.620 they held the line but now The boards are gone. 00:14:21.779 --> 00:14:24.440 The safety net is gone. Yep. The city council 00:14:24.440 --> 00:14:26.460 is in charge. And with conservative approval, 00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:29.019 the sale of the nine -acre Brownlow Hill site 00:14:29.019 --> 00:14:31.440 goes ahead. And the LPP is absolutely furious. 00:14:31.559 --> 00:14:34.659 This is their worst nightmare realized, facilitated 00:14:34.659 --> 00:14:37.080 by their former conservative allies. So they 00:14:37.080 --> 00:14:39.320 decide to retaliate where it hurts the most, 00:14:39.419 --> 00:14:42.639 the ballot box. Yep. In the November 1930 City 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:44.919 Council elections, the Protestant Party goes 00:14:44.919 --> 00:14:47.679 on a massive offensive. Now, their leader at 00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:50.139 the time, Harry Dixon Longbottom, is the only 00:14:50.139 --> 00:14:52.639 one who outright wins his seat in the St. Domingo 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:55.720 Ward. But his single victory is not the real 00:14:55.720 --> 00:14:58.299 story of that election. No. The real damage is 00:14:58.299 --> 00:15:00.500 what the LPP does to the conservative voting 00:15:00.500 --> 00:15:02.700 bloc. In several other wards, the LPP purposely 00:15:02.700 --> 00:15:05.539 runs candidates not to win, but just to siphon 00:15:05.539 --> 00:15:07.700 votes away from the conservatives. A spite. They 00:15:07.700 --> 00:15:11.019 split the ticket so badly that they accidentally, 00:15:11.100 --> 00:15:14.500 but willingly, hand several municipal victories 00:15:14.500 --> 00:15:17.659 straight over to the Labor Party. They were willing 00:15:17.659 --> 00:15:20.799 to let their ideological opposites win just to 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:22.840 punish the conservatives. Which is incredible 00:15:22.840 --> 00:15:25.639 when you look at the LPP's actual political platform 00:15:25.639 --> 00:15:27.820 during this era. And we really need to pause 00:15:27.820 --> 00:15:30.320 here for a second just to be completely clear 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:32.779 with you listening. Yeah, absolutely. Because... 00:15:33.639 --> 00:15:36.000 Looking at their platform in the 1930s, we have 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:38.279 to step back and just view this objectively as 00:15:38.279 --> 00:15:41.740 historians. Our goal here isn't to validate or 00:15:41.740 --> 00:15:43.840 condemn their politics, whether left or right, 00:15:43.940 --> 00:15:47.200 but to decode how they operated and what they 00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:49.460 actually stood for so we can understand the historical 00:15:49.460 --> 00:15:51.840 context. Exactly. We are just neutrally reporting 00:15:51.840 --> 00:15:54.039 what the historical sources say. Right. And objectively 00:15:54.039 --> 00:15:56.960 speaking, the LPP's playbook was fiercely right 00:15:56.960 --> 00:15:59.480 wing. They were vehemently opposed to the emerging 00:15:59.480 --> 00:16:01.799 socialist politics of the labor movement, which 00:16:01.799 --> 00:16:04.379 is why handing them. seats in 1930 was such a 00:16:04.379 --> 00:16:07.419 drastic, spiteful, retaliatory move. It was a 00:16:07.419 --> 00:16:09.799 massive compromise of their own values. Totally. 00:16:10.139 --> 00:16:13.279 Furthermore, the LPP explicitly blamed Irish 00:16:13.279 --> 00:16:15.779 immigrants for unemployment, core housing conditions 00:16:15.779 --> 00:16:19.240 and high local tax rates. They also actively 00:16:19.240 --> 00:16:21.799 demanded legislative curbs on immigration into 00:16:21.799 --> 00:16:24.100 Great Britain from Roman Catholic areas of Ireland. 00:16:24.340 --> 00:16:27.120 They were taking very real economic anxieties 00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:30.279 of the 1930s, fears about housing shortages, 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:33.919 job scarcity. rising taxes and directing all 00:16:33.919 --> 00:16:37.039 of that frustration squarely at a specific religious 00:16:37.039 --> 00:16:39.860 and ethnic immigrant group. Classic scapegoating. 00:16:39.960 --> 00:16:42.299 Exactly. And while they primarily fought for 00:16:42.299 --> 00:16:44.299 local government seats, this platform resonated 00:16:44.299 --> 00:16:46.879 enough with a segment of the population to push 00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:49.659 them onto the national stage. Reverend H .D. 00:16:49.659 --> 00:16:52.159 Longbottom actually stood for the Liverpool -Kirkdale 00:16:52.159 --> 00:16:54.860 seat in Westminster parliamentary elections from 00:16:54.860 --> 00:16:59.080 1931 all the way until 1945. Wow. At his peak 00:16:59.080 --> 00:17:01.960 influence in 1931, Longbottom captured a massive 00:17:01.960 --> 00:17:04.500 25 % of the votes cast for that national parliamentary 00:17:04.500 --> 00:17:07.259 seat. A hyper -local, single -issue party born 00:17:07.259 --> 00:17:09.720 out of a dispute over public park space taking 00:17:09.720 --> 00:17:11.819 a quarter of the vote for a national parliamentary 00:17:11.819 --> 00:17:15.099 seat. It's wild. But as we move past those peak 00:17:15.099 --> 00:17:17.720 years and into the post -World War II era... 00:17:18.349 --> 00:17:22.069 The LPP enters a very strange, very quiet new 00:17:22.069 --> 00:17:24.750 phase of institutionalization. The statistics 00:17:24.750 --> 00:17:27.809 from this post -war period are astonishing. Between 00:17:27.809 --> 00:17:31.250 1945 and 1970, with the single exception of the 00:17:31.250 --> 00:17:34.789 year 1963, the Liverpool Protestant Party was 00:17:34.789 --> 00:17:37.230 the third largest party on the entire city council 00:17:37.230 --> 00:17:40.009 in terms of seat share. That is incredible longevity. 00:17:40.309 --> 00:17:42.509 For a quarter of a century, this hyper -niche 00:17:42.509 --> 00:17:45.349 localized party held immense structural power 00:17:45.349 --> 00:17:47.660 within the city's government. So what does this 00:17:47.660 --> 00:17:50.099 all mean? How does a radical fringe party maintain 00:17:50.099 --> 00:17:53.480 that kind of stability for 25 years without continuing 00:17:53.480 --> 00:17:55.700 to burn the city down politically? They made 00:17:55.700 --> 00:17:57.839 a deal. They did. The answer is they got comfortable. 00:17:57.900 --> 00:18:00.859 They formed a geographical truce, a classic backroom 00:18:00.859 --> 00:18:04.220 deal. The LPP essentially agreed to stay in their 00:18:04.220 --> 00:18:06.299 lane. They tended to stand only in the northern 00:18:06.299 --> 00:18:08.819 St. Domingo and Netherfield wards. Right. In 00:18:08.819 --> 00:18:11.220 exchange, the conservatives agreed not to oppose 00:18:11.220 --> 00:18:14.039 them in those specific strongholds. It's a textbook 00:18:14.039 --> 00:18:17.039 non -aggression pact. You keep your territory, 00:18:17.259 --> 00:18:19.839 we keep ours, and we stop splitting the vote 00:18:19.839 --> 00:18:22.160 to labor's advantage. And the second part of 00:18:22.160 --> 00:18:24.579 the deal was that the LPP representatives would 00:18:24.579 --> 00:18:26.799 then vote alongside the conservatives on most 00:18:26.799 --> 00:18:29.779 issues inside the council chamber. They traded 00:18:29.779 --> 00:18:32.259 their firebrand rebellion for a guaranteed seat 00:18:32.259 --> 00:18:34.740 at the table. They even managed to hold on to 00:18:34.740 --> 00:18:36.859 an aldermanic seat, giving them a guaranteed, 00:18:36.980 --> 00:18:39.619 unelected senior voice on the council for over 00:18:39.619 --> 00:18:44.109 a decade, from 1945 to 1957. But as any historian 00:18:44.109 --> 00:18:46.690 will tell you, you cannot outrun demographic 00:18:46.690 --> 00:18:50.289 changes forever. As we get into the 1960s and 00:18:50.289 --> 00:18:52.670 70s, under later leaders like Ronald F. Henderson 00:18:52.670 --> 00:18:56.569 in 1962 and Roy Hughes around 1970, the energy 00:18:56.569 --> 00:18:59.549 is just fading. The traditional orange vote in 00:18:59.549 --> 00:19:01.849 Liverpool is subsiding in influence as newer 00:19:01.849 --> 00:19:04.670 generations integrate and older sectarian divides 00:19:04.670 --> 00:19:07.990 soften. The LPP is finding it harder and harder 00:19:07.990 --> 00:19:10.690 to justify its existence to a changing electorate. 00:19:10.940 --> 00:19:13.019 They managed to win their very last municipal 00:19:13.019 --> 00:19:16.259 seat in 1973. But the final nail in the coffin 00:19:16.259 --> 00:19:18.240 wasn't just a loss of voters. It was a fundamental 00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:20.579 change in the rules of the game. Yeah, the map 00:19:20.579 --> 00:19:23.480 changed. The Local Government Act of 1972 forced 00:19:23.480 --> 00:19:26.000 a massive ward redistribution across the Liverpool 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:29.059 City Council. The literal map was redrawn out 00:19:29.059 --> 00:19:32.079 from under them. The subisicic borders that protected 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:34.839 their geographical truths were erased. With their 00:19:34.839 --> 00:19:37.740 carefully protected wards reconfigured, the party 00:19:37.740 --> 00:19:42.390 had nowhere left to hide. In 1974, 71 years after 00:19:42.390 --> 00:19:45.109 George Wise defiantly walked out of Walton Jail 00:19:45.109 --> 00:19:47.589 to start a political revolution, the Liverpool 00:19:47.589 --> 00:19:50.630 Protestant Party officially disbanded. End of 00:19:50.630 --> 00:19:53.150 an era. The vast majority of their remaining 00:19:53.150 --> 00:19:55.750 members simply folded their tents and merged 00:19:55.750 --> 00:19:58.789 back into the Conservative Party. Though it is 00:19:58.789 --> 00:20:01.430 worth noting that specific threat of political 00:20:01.430 --> 00:20:03.849 identity didn't completely vanish into thin air. 00:20:03.970 --> 00:20:06.549 Yeah. The legacy of that mobilized orange vote 00:20:06.549 --> 00:20:08.890 lingered in the political memory of the region. 00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:11.480 Years later, the Democratic Unionist Party, the 00:20:11.480 --> 00:20:14.359 DUP, actually looked into the possibility of 00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:16.779 establishing a brand new branch right there in 00:20:16.779 --> 00:20:19.420 Liverpool, potentially even standing local government 00:20:19.420 --> 00:20:21.759 candidates. Really? Yeah. And according to our 00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:24.480 source, former members of the LPP were directly 00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:26.819 involved with that attempt to resurrect that 00:20:26.819 --> 00:20:29.019 specific political alignment. It is incredible 00:20:29.019 --> 00:20:32.660 to synthesize this whole 70 -year timeline. When 00:20:32.660 --> 00:20:36.319 you zoom out, you have a situation in 1903 where 00:20:36.319 --> 00:20:39.500 a local government simply refuses to grant public 00:20:39.500 --> 00:20:42.720 park space to a fiery pastor. Right. And that 00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:46.000 one bureaucratic refusal accidentally creates 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:48.180 a political movement that shapes city infrastructure, 00:20:48.519 --> 00:20:51.420 influences national elections and completely 00:20:51.420 --> 00:20:54.420 alters the balance of power in one of Britain's 00:20:54.420 --> 00:20:56.980 most important port cities for generations. If 00:20:56.980 --> 00:20:58.960 we connect this to the bigger picture, it is 00:20:58.960 --> 00:21:01.539 a brilliant case study in how local government. 00:21:01.869 --> 00:21:04.589 Logistics can, things that seem totally mundane, 00:21:04.849 --> 00:21:07.569 like the bureaucratic sale of a redundant nine 00:21:07.569 --> 00:21:10.589 acre plot of land on Brownlow Hill, can drastically 00:21:10.589 --> 00:21:12.750 and permanently alter national party loyalties. 00:21:12.910 --> 00:21:14.869 Definitely. People in Liverpool didn't abandon 00:21:14.869 --> 00:21:17.049 the conservatives over abstract political theory. 00:21:17.170 --> 00:21:19.789 They abandoned them over a plot of land, a cathedral, 00:21:19.910 --> 00:21:22.269 and a sense of localized betrayal. Which is such 00:21:22.269 --> 00:21:24.470 a powerful takeaway for anyone studying political 00:21:24.470 --> 00:21:26.970 history. It is. And this raises an important 00:21:26.970 --> 00:21:29.369 question for you to mull over as we wrap up today's 00:21:29.369 --> 00:21:32.480 deep dive. When we look at our own modern political 00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:35.319 loyalties, how many of them are actually rooted 00:21:35.319 --> 00:21:38.299 in forgotten, hyper -local disputes? Oh, that's 00:21:38.299 --> 00:21:40.640 a great question. If you trace your own political 00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:43.640 or community alignments back far enough, what 00:21:43.640 --> 00:21:46.259 nine -acre plot or public park grievance might 00:21:46.259 --> 00:21:48.440 be sitting at the very foundation of what you 00:21:48.440 --> 00:21:51.140 believe today? That is a phenomenal thought to 00:21:51.140 --> 00:21:53.700 leave on. The mechanics of power are always shifting, 00:21:53.759 --> 00:21:56.400 but the human reactions remain surprisingly consistent. 00:21:57.240 --> 00:21:59.420 Thank you so much for joining us on this deep 00:21:59.420 --> 00:22:02.039 dive into the Liverpool Protestant Party. We 00:22:02.039 --> 00:22:03.819 hope you discovered a few aha moments along the 00:22:03.819 --> 00:22:06.039 way and gained a new lens on how local politics 00:22:06.039 --> 00:22:08.940 can shade history. Until next time, keep questioning 00:22:08.940 --> 00:22:11.779 the map and keep diving deep. Take care, everyone.