People: Charles, 2nd Earl Grey

Sometimes people ask 'can politics make a difference?' the answer is that politics seldom does but politicians often do. Without doubt the most effective politician the north east region has ever produced was Charles, 2nd Earl Grey who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1830 to 1834--by modern lengths of tenure in 10 Downing Street four years is not long, but it is not the years you put in but what you put into the years that counts. One of the great mistakes of prime ministers' is that they try to do too many things and in trying to do everything they end up doing nothing, Earl Grey was absolutely focused on a single issue--electoral reform. At the time the votes were overwhelmingly in the hands of landowners and tenants didn't have a voice, moreover the system was riddled with corruption most notably with the existence of 'Rotten Boroughs' and bribes for votes. The Great Reform Act of 1832 began the process of cleaning up politics and giving ordinary people in the growing cities a greater voice in the government of the country. Undoubtedly these Acts cleaned up politics, averted the prospect of a revolution (as had happened in France), underpinned the growth of the economy and formed the basis of social welfare and employee protection. Ear Grey is celebrated by a famous statue in Newcastle at the top of Grey Street (pictured) and his papers are deposited in Grey College, Durham University. What makes the constitutional aspect of Grey's time as prime minister so interesting is that the man who effected the greatest change in cleaning up politics and reforming the composition and representation of the House of Commons was in fact a member of the unelected House of Lords adding to the truism that it is not where you sit but where you see that is the final arbiter of effectiveness in politics.

(see additional comment on You Tube video from Howick Hall)