Ian Luff’s discussion of role-play and his many practical examples (Ian Luff (2000) in Issue 100) drew a huge and positive response from readers. Luff emphasised the simple and the realistic, and, at the same time, showed how to get maximum value from these winning activities through a tight learning focus. Geoff Lyon builds upon this with a detailed, clear account of a role-play that renders a complicated aspect of British political history interesting and important to pupils of all abilities. The versatility of the activity is evinced by Geoff’s success with groups as diverse as low-ability Year 8 and top-set GCSE. He emphasises the importance of using the activity as part of an explicit puzzle that will motivate pupils to enquire, and offers helpful advice on how to secure optimum learning through carefully planned debriefing. Education for citizenship is a central theme of the piece, and Geoff concludes with a version of the question on the lips of so many history teachers right now: how on earth can citizenship be successfully taught and learned without deep historical underpinning?