ABSTRACT
Richard Austen Butler, often known by the acronym ‘FJVB’, was the nearly man of British politics, a Conservative politician who filled all the major offices of government save one — that of Prime Minister. Nevertheless, he became almost a household name, giving his name to the phrase ‘Butskellism’, a belief and commitment to a post-war economic and political consensus which many claim dominated British politics until 1979 and the ‘Thatcher’ era.
