By Richard Foreman, author of Raffles: A Perfect Wicket.
Before he became Prime Minister towards the end of the 19th Century a number of people argued that Lord Rosebery was one of the greatest Prime Ministers that the country had never had. Shortly after his brief tenure in office however many argued that Lord Rosebery was the worst Prime Ministers that Britain had ever had. Rather than straddling the political consensus it seemed the case that Rosebery - although often popular with the people - could not carve out a successful space in the Houses of Parliaments. The Tory Party attacked him for his progressive/radical views and the Liberal Party criticised its own leader for being too Conservative. Rather than straddle things, he often fell between two stalls.
I will not go into the details of Rosebery's career (I can recommend Leo McKinstry's excellent biography however should you be interested in his life and times), except to say that although Rosebery failed as a Prime Minister he was a great success in a number of other spheres. He famously predicted as a young man that he would own a winner of the Derby, marry an heiress and become Prime Minister. He made good on all of his predictions before the age of fifty. Rosebery was a political maverick - a great orator, loner, writer and conversationalist. He was as equally intelligent as stubborn (he famously sacrificed passing his exams at Oxford by refusing to give up a racehorse which he owned) and was often reluctant to pursue a political career. He had mixed fortunes in business and, for an aristocrat, he was a great advocate of social change. Despite being one of the most famous men in the country no one could claim to wholly know the contradictory Rosebery. In many ways he could out-Boris Johnson Boris Johnson himself.
I couldn't help but think of Rosebery the other day as I watched Peter Hennessey argue that it would be of benefit to the nation if more of our politicians had experience - and succeeded - in other spheres before embarking on their political careers. Many of our leading politicians have become the product almost of a modern day Course of Honours, akin to that of Ancient Rome. From public school they then attend Oxford or Cambridge, to then work as a policy adviser or aid - to then be parachuted into a safe seat. Such a homogenous career path, insulated from non-party concerns, produces homogeneous politicians. It takes some effort to make politics boring, but it sometimes feels that the government and the opposition are doing their best to make it happen. Ironically, it is the "Eton" set who seem to be more colourful in some respects - and possess the virtue of coming into politics with money, rather than going into politics to make money. Lord Rosebery was thankfully affluent enough not to spend his time in office feathering his nest in regards to being hired by US companies, or speaking tour programmes, when he stepped down.
Lord Rosebery attended Eton also, but I am not sure he would wholly approve still of the current crop of old boys. He would perhaps argue, adapting a quote from the great C. L. R. James to do so, that "he who knows only of politics knows nothing of politics."
Richard Foreman is the author of Raffles: A Perfect Wicket.