Talk:William Pitt the Younger
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Mintguy, why, do you feel, should "tasked" not be used? Andy Mabbett 12:06, 20 Dec 2003 (UTC)
[edit] Political Party
Random musings on a problem that I can't see a clear solution for:
I'm not sure that there isn't a better page to discuss this on, but do we want to accept the traditional party allocations for Pitt, and indeed most other Prime Ministers for the latter part of the 18th century, or address the matter better?
The main problem stems from a relative discontinuity between the eras of Queen Anne, George I and even George II when there's a clear Whig/Tory divide, and the early 19th century when a similar divide can be seen. But in the middle it's murkier and most groupings in the Commons are really based around either personalities or ex governments.
It's relatively clear that Pitt's followers became the Tory Party of the 19th century, and Fox's become the 19th century Whigs. But what is the thread that links any of Harley & Bolingbroke, Bute, North and Pitt?
Pitt himself was the son of a prominent Whig leader, initially aligned himself in Parliament to the followers of Shelburne (considered a Whig), opposed the government of Lord North consistently (considered Tory) and on many issues such as parliamentary reform and religious tolerance he would be considered to be ideologically a Whig. The 1784 election was a national campaign, a rare thing for the time, but was really the Pitt Ministry vs the Fox-North Coalition, not a "Tory vs Whig" contest (and what would that make North?). The first prominent politician to actually call himself a Tory was George Canning later on. Whilst calling Pitt himself a Whig is very confusing, is stating "Political Party: Tory" no less confusing? Timrollpickering 14:09, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Perhaps he could have an explanation of this, and add in a passage on the pittites.
== Arms ==--71.143.152.181
Someone has copied and added the arms of Pitt's father not his. He was a younger son so would (if he ever used arms at all) have born those arms with a mark for difference. Alci12 12:53, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
