More lessons from history

Scotland's first daily newspaper was the North British Daily Mail, launched in 1847. Dr Charles Cameron became editor in 1864, and managing proprietor in 1873. The next year he was elected as one of three MPs for Glasgow, serving until 1895. He pushed for temperance, the municipal franchise for women, and cremation.

Henry John "Harry" Cockayne-Cust, who was MP for Stamford from 1890 to 1895, met William Waldorf Astor in 1892, and accepted his invitation to edit The Pall Mall Gazette, despite having no background in journalism. Cust secured contributions from Rudyard Kipling and H G Wells, and the paper thrived, but he left the editor's chair in 1896 after a row with Astor. Cust may, or may not have been Mrs Thatcher's grandfather.

Samuel Storey was MP for Sunderland from 1881 to 1895. He started the Sunderland Echo, and, in partnership with Andrew Carnegie, ran the Wolverhampton Express and Star, the Hampshire Telegraph, the Portsmouth Evening News and the London Echo.

T.P. O'Connor, was an Irish Nationalist elected as MP for Liverpool Scotland in 1885. and represented the seat at Westminster until his death in 1929. He was the first editor of the (London) Star; the first editor of the first version of The Sun, in 1893, and wrote a nightly parliamentary sketch for the Pall Mall Gazette for most of his time as an MP.