Undoubtedly, it can be clearly argued that Disraeli was the most significant driving force for the Second Reform Act. A mixture of political skill, ambition and opportunism created a potent combination which made the inevitability of reform a reality. Walton strongly agrees with this view, stating that the “key enigma” to reform was “political skills and personal attributes of Disraeli”. Disraeli was very aware that his party had been out of office for a generation and needed to change to regain power. He realised that to change things for the Conservatives and that they needed to get more votes. The party needed to appeal to a broader electorate and focus on an issue that people cared about. Indeed, Walton points out that the Conservatives could not “afford to sit back passively”, showing how it was necessary to act quickly. Disraeli wanted to outflank the Liberals to get into office, thus gaining success for not just his party, but for himself as well. He introduced a more drastic reform bill than what the Liberals had put forward, which was particularly striking as before this, the Conservatives had always been strongly against reform. The recognition that he would gain would be immense, and he would be able to lead the party which would fulfil his life-long personal ambition. From a speech made by Disraeli in Edinburgh in November 1867, it is apparent that he had a lot of self belief and thought that people should be aware that he had somewhat masterminded the reform, in his eyes anyway. He says that he “had to prepare the mind of Parliament and the country”. This primary source is useful to historians to get a sense of how he wanted such recognition and that he was also paramount to the success of the Second Reform Act, but one must bear in mind that he is addressing a crowd and may be gilding the lily in order to impress his audience so may not be overly reliable as a source. It is clear that Disraeli can be regarded as the key figure in the creation of the Second Reform Act as he used his political skill to desire to gain power of his party and Parliament, particularly due to how he introduced a more radical reform bill which gained the Conservatives the much needed votes to get into power. If Disraeli had not been so ambitious, then perhaps he would not have put forward such a radical bill as he would not have agreed with it. Furthermore, if the Conservatives would have not been in such a bad position, they would not have felt the need to introduce a bill that had previously been extremely against their principles...
-That, my dear friends, is a paragraph from a piece of my History coursework, which I managed to complete from nothing on the day it was due in, taking me about 3 and a half hours, and was exactly as the word count of 2000words. It made me think, this is going to be my life this time next year... I will be at university, studying History, everyday, struggling to complete deadlines, getting things in JUST in time, all in a bit of a rush. Quite worrying really.
On the university front, I've had offers from Cardiff, Winchester and Chichester, and have been rejected from Warwick. Yet to hear from Exeter, although I'm not particularly hopeful. I'm quite pleased about the 3 offers, Exeter is my first choice though, but I really like Winchester, and I'm looking into the other two more. Warwick can "go fuck themselves", as said by Huggens ;)
Love life is shit. Family life is shit. Personal well-being, happiness and self-confidence is probably as low as my lowest times in my life. So really, most things are pretty terrible at the moment. I went to the doctors, I'm getting help, but its all still far too much to handle at the moment. Hopefully things will improve asap though.
I do have some absolutely amazing people in my life though, I really must point that out, and how much I appreciate and love them, how they keep me going. I am so greatful to have so many of you in my life. I'm sorry I'm such a miserable fuck at the moment, I will endeavor to cheer up soon.
Au revoir pour le moment.
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