Edmund Burke was an Irish-born whig who was one of the stars of the House of Commons in a golden era of political and economic thinking. His contemporaries were Adam Smith, David Hume, Edward Gibbon and Samuel Johnson - but while those writers have enjoyed three hundred years of prestige, Burke has been no less influential.
Jesse Norman, an occasionally rebellious MP in the modern Conservative party, argues in his new biography, Edmund Burke: Philosopher, Politician, Prophet, that Burke has plenty to teach modern-day politicians.
Burke was among the earliest figures to warn of the effects of British rule in Ireland.
He argued for a lasting peace with the colonies in America and warned presciently of the extremism that would result from revolution in France. He was a loud campaigner against abuses of power wherever he found them and a strong advocate for religious freedom during the Enlightenment period where those brandishing reason and logic were striving for primacy.
But could a politician who operated before the birth of modern political parties, mass communication and the break up of Britain's empire really have any lessons for today's MPs?
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