When did Labour think judges were 'enemies of the people?'

In this week's Since Attlee & Churchill, Richard and Lee explore Labour's long and often fraught relationship with the judiciary. From the Tolpuddle Martyrs and the Taff Vale case to Michael Foot's criticisms of judges in the 1970s, why did the Labour movement so often see the courts as an instrument of the establishment, standing in the way of working-class progress? Richard explains how Labour's historic commitment to parliamentary sovereignty was shaped by the struggle to overcome judicial rulings. Lee, meanwhile, wonders whether Labour's hostility to judges was simply a reflection of the party's political impotence and/or incompetence. They finish by considering why and when Labour's view changed and how the party learned to love the British and European judiciaries.

In this episode, the following books are mentioned:

'The House of Commons: An Anthropology of MPs at Work' by Emma Crewe. Available at: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/16406/9781474234573

'The Oxford Handbook of Norwegian Politics'. Available at: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/16406/9780198888581

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Since Attlee & Churchill is a podcast about post-war British politics - since Attlee & Churchill - and is hosted by Lee David Evans, an historian of the Conservative Party, and Richard Johnson, an historian of the Labour Party.

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