I know from comments made to me by readers, as well as from the blog data, that the quiz questions are very popular. I have visions of the blog being read by many who devise pub quizzes – if it is, then excellent.
I thought I would pose a quick question. I have no doubt that it won’t take long for someone to provide the answer. Here are the clues:
1. I am a member of the House of Lords
2. I sit on the cross-benches
3. My grandfather served as Prime Minister
Who am I?
Earl Baldwin of Bewdley.
There are a number of Earls in the House whose ancestors were prime ministers, e.g. Earl Attlee, Earl Peel. Now that hereditary peers don’t sit in the Lords, is granting an Earldom to former prime ministers a tradition we could return to? (Earl of Sedgefield, anyone?)
Dear Lord Norton,
I am Viscount Tenby.
Howridiculous.
One for you, Lord Norton:
What links:
Old Faithful
Former captain of British Davis Cup Team
New Zealander who won in final world title in 1979
I guess others will already have suggested answers but I would submit that it is Earl Baldwin of Bewdley. One of many examples in the Houses that political allegience doesn’t run in families.
Edward Baldwin, 4th Earl Baldwin of Bewdley
Finding this Answer, illustrates just how powerful the world wide web can be for helping to find such information:
1) http://TheyWorkForYou.com
2) Click on “UK” heading
3) Click on “Lords” heading to list all the Peers in the House of Lords.
4) Click on “Party” heading to sort the list by party
5) scroll down to the “Cross Bench”
6) Spot “Baldwin” as a very likely candidate and click for the individual entry.
7) Follow the link in the right had column to the Wikipedia biography:
8) Edward Baldwin, 4th Earl Baldwin of Bewdley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Baldwin,_4th_Earl_Baldwin_of_Bewdley
“Lord Baldwin of Bewdley was the co-editor of Baldwin Papers: A Conservative Statesman, 1908-1947, released in 2004, which covers the political career of his grandfather Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, three-time Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.”
Total time – less than 30 seconds i.e. much quicker than writing this blog comment has taken.
I must confess, this is one answer I did know without resorting to Wikipedia!
The answer couldn’t be Earl Attlee, as he’s a Conservative: as handj says, political allegiance doesn’t always run in families, Clement Attlee having been a Labour Prime Minister.
I don’t really see the point in googling the answer! If you don’t know it, then there is no harm in waiting!
As you may have worked out from the responses, it was a trick question. There are two peers who qualify: one who, as Watching Them, Watching Us demonstrates, is easy to track down: the other giveaway is that the peer, Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, has the same title as that given to his grandfather, Stanley Baldwin!
The other is the more difficult, as far as I am aware the Google-proof, one. He is Viscount Tenby, the grandson of Lloyd George. He does not have the title of his grandfather, but that of his father, the 1st Viscount Tenby (Gwilym Lloyd George, who was the second son of Lloyd George and sat as a Conservative Cabinet Minister; he was Home Secretary 1954-57).
Full marks therefore to How ridiculous for getting Viscount Tenby.
We do have another peer who is the grandson of a prime minister, the Earl Attlee, but he – as Jonthan mentions – sits on the Conservative benches. Indeed, as readers of my debate last month on improving communication between Parliament and the public may have noticed, it was Lord Attlee who replied on behalf of the Opposition to the debate.