ABSTRACT
Benjamin Disraeli has been described as ‘the greatest leader of the opposition modern Britain has known’. As Disraeli mastered the black arts of near-permanent opposition, seeking to destabilize governments which themselves depended on the reconciliation of potentially warring factions, he also had to look to his own position. Disraeli had never discounted the importance of overseas possessions, but more for the power they would give the nation on the world stage than as ends in themselves. The ‘social reform’ measures were inherited from the previous government; or pushed by Cross, who was not a natural ally of Disraeli; or derived from the talent for agitation of a single MP, Samuel Plimsoll. Disraeli made room for it, and soon spotted the propaganda value that could be squeezed from it; but the programme was entirely compatible with Disraeli’s major pledge not to harass the electorate with unnecessary, divisive or expensive legislation.
