In 1931, who exercised “power without responsibility – the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages”?

The picture shows Stanley Baldwin (1867 – 1947), who was Prime Minister of the UK on three occasions during the period 1923 – 1937. He was born in Worcestershire, England, to Alfred and Louisa (MacDonald) Baldwin, and through his mother was a first cousin of the writer and poet Rudyard Kipling, with whom he was always close.

In 1931 he reacted angrily to a defamatory personal claim made in an a newspaper editorial. It prompted him to give a speech on 17 March 1931 praising the Press in general but criticising two powerful newspaper owners: “The papers conducted by Lord Rothermere and Lord Beaverbrook are not newspapers in the ordinary acceptance of the term. They are engines of propaganda for the constantly changing policies, desires, personal wishes, personal likes and dislikes of two men. What the proprietorship of these papers is aiming at is power, and power without responsibility—the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.”

The papers he was attacking were “The Daily Mail” and “The Daily Express,” still published today (2022) and still subject to similar criticism.

Stanley Baldwin had a little help with the text of his speech. His cousin Rudyard Kipling had assisted in crafting the colourful words that made the attack memorable.