Editing Lyon Playfair, 1st Baron Playfair (section)

==Political career==
In 1868, Playfair was elected [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] Member of Parliament for the [[Edinburgh and St Andrews Universities (UK Parliament constituency)|Universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews]], being sworn of the [[Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council|Privy Council]]<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=24045 |date=16 December 1873 |page=5869 }}</ref> and made [[United Kingdom Postmaster General|Postmaster General]] in [[William Ewart Gladstone|Gladstone's]] government in 1873. The Liberals lost power in early 1874 but on their return to office in 1880, Playfair was appointed [[Chairman of Ways and Means]] and Deputy [[Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)|Speaker of the House of Commons]], holding these posts until 1883, when he was created a [[Order of the Bath|Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath]]. He was subsequently President of the [[British Association]] in 1885. In February 1886 he returned to the government as [[Vice-President of the Committee on Education]] under Gladstone, a post he held until the government fell in July of the same year. He was made a member of the Council of the [[Duchy of Cornwall]] in 1889.

During the 1870s and early 1880s, anti-vaccination supporters sought to repeal UK government legislation for compulsory childhood vaccination against smallpox.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Blatchford |first=Ian |date=2021 |title=Vaccination and the Victorians; Lyon Playfair's battle for science |url=https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/vaccination-and-the-victorians-lyon-playfairs-battle-for-science/ |access-date=30 May 2022}}</ref>  Playfair's speech to parliament in 1883<ref>{{Cite book |last=Playfair |first=Lyon |url=https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/contagion/catalog/36-990061401500203941 |title=Facts about vaccination ; speeches in Parliament |last2=Dilke |first2=Chas |publisher=Jarrold & Sons |year=1883}}</ref> helped the government win a motion to keep compulsory vaccination by over 250 votes.<ref name=":0" />

In November 1887, a meeting of the [[National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations]] held in Oxford passed a resolution calling for [[Fair Trade League|Fair Trade]] (a form of [[protectionism]]).<ref>'Conservative Conference at Oxford', ''The Times'' (23 November 1887), p. 8.</ref> The following month, Playfair defended [[free trade]] in a speech in Leeds, which was published by the [[Cobden Club]] under the title "On Fair Trade and the Depression in Agriculture". He later claimed that this pamphlet sold around 100,000 copies.<ref>Reid, p. 367.</ref> The veteran free trade campaigner, [[John Bright]], wrote to Playfair and said his speech was "one of the best, if not the best, spoken on the question".<ref name="Reid, p. 368">Reid, p. 368.</ref>

Playfair delivered a speech to the City Liberal Club in London, where he claimed that economic depressions were not due to fiscal arrangements but were universal and synchronous in all industrialised nations. The advances in science, such as improved transport and the substitution of machine for manual labour, had lowered the value of labour of quantity and heightened the value of labour of quality. This, Playfair claimed, had dislocated labour.<ref name="Reid, p. 368"/> Playfair enlarged on this speech in an article for ''The Contemporary Review'' of March 1888.<ref>Reid, pp. 368–369.</ref> Afterwards, Playfair delivered a speech to the [[National Liberal Club]], which was published as "On Industrial Competition and Commercial Freedom" by the Cobden Club. The Liberal Party leader, [[William Ewart Gladstone]], wrote to Playfair to thank him for his "admirable tract; so comprehensive, clear, simple in statement, rich in illustration".<ref>Reid, p. 369.</ref>

Having represented [[Leeds South (UK Parliament constituency)|Leeds South]] since 1885, Playfair left the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] in 1892 and was ennobled as '''Baron Playfair''', of [[St Andrews]] in the County of Fife.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=26323 |date=6 September 1892 |page=5090 }}</ref> He served as a [[Lord in Waiting]] (government whip in the [[House of Lords]]) under Gladstone and then [[Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery|Lord Rosebery]] between 1892 and 1895. He was further honoured when he was made a [[Order of the Bath|Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]] in 1895 and awarded the Harben Gold Medal from the [[Royal Institute of Public Health]] in 1897. Playfair is also remembered for promoting a new cipher system invented by [[Charles Wheatstone]], now known as the [[Playfair cipher]].