Book review: Crossing the floor: Reg Prentice and the crisis of British social democracy

"Crossing the Floor: Reg Prentice and the Crisis of British Social Democracy." Geoff Horn. Manchester University Press. June 2013.. --- Reg Prentice remains the most high-profile politician to cross the floor of the House of Commons in the post-war period. His defection reflected an important sea change in British politics: the end of the post-war consensus and the beginnings of the Thatcher era. This book seeks to examine the key events surrounding Prentice’s transition from a front-line Labour politician to a Conservative minister in the first Thatcher government. Recommended reading for anyone interested in modern British political history, writes James Farror

British politics and the post-war development of human rights

In this thesis I explore the attitudes, arguments, and actions of British political elites in connection with the development of human rights law in Europe and the UK. I do this by examining British input into five key episodes for the development of European supranational rights and their incorporation into domestic legal orders (namely the drafting of the European Convention on Human Rights 1950, the drafting of the European Social Charter 1961, the acceptance of individual petition in 1966, the failed 1970s Bill of Rights debate, the passing of the Human Rights Act 1998, and recent developments such as the UK ‘opt-out’ to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, and the emergence of a new ‘British Bill of Rights’ debate). Casting light on British involvement in less examined periods in European rights development, I challenge existing, isolated, explanations for the more focal episodes (such as Simpson’s rational-choice post-colonial thesis for individual petition acceptance, and ideological accounts for New Labour’s post-1997 constitutional reform). Responding to the most recent literature in the area, central to my analysis is the question of how rights progress relates to inter-party conflict. By considering continuities and discontinuities in elite political discussion of rights I argue that while conflict is a significant underlying feature of every major episode of rights progress during the last sixty years, and is less evident in less progressive periods, other factors have had a greater influence over the form, timing, and extent of rights progress. Most significant amongst these is the constitutional ideological development of the Labour party and the critical connection between Labour’s elevation of the Convention within the UK constitutional space and revisionist shifts in party thinking.This thesis is not currently available in OR

Familial Dysalbuminaemic Hyperthyroxinaemia and Other Causes of Euthyroid Hyperthyroxinaemia

Clinical and biochemical studies on a family in which 3 members have familial dysalbuminaemic hyperthyroxinaemia (FDH) are presented. They were clinically euthyroid with elevated serum thyroxine (T4) and free T4 indices but normal free T4 by equilibrium dialysis and normal serum triiodothyronine (total and free). All thyroid function tests on the remaining family members were normal. The inheritance is consistent with autosomal dominance. Also presented are data on 4 unrelated patients with FDH and two patients with T4 autoantibodies. The methods for detecting FDH, T4 antibodies and other causes of euthyroid hyperthyroxinaemia are now freely available. Since these anomalies may be more common than previously supposed, clinical awareness of the conditions is necessary to protect patients from the consequences of incorrect diagnosis of thyrotoxicosis. </jats:p