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For the study of Liberal, SDP and Issue 71 / Summer 2011 / £6.00 Liberal Democrat history

Journal of LiberalHI ST O R Y

Liberal PMs in retirement Kevin Theakston The afterlives of former Liberal prime ministers Constance Rynder Sheelagh Murnaghan and the Martin Horwood MP ’s Liberal history A passionate and articulate exponent of Russell Deacon Welsh women Liberals It wasn’t only Lloyd George’s daughters Liberal Democrat History Group Liberal history news Summer 2011

Welsh Liberal History lecture and tribute to Livsey at the Hay Festival The Hay literature festival, Professor Deacon took the were touched upon: the Lloyd 1985 historic by-election win a favourite haunt of Liberal audience through the period Georges, David, Gwilym was the first post-war Welsh Democrats, this year featured from the Welsh party’s founda- and Megan, , Liberal gain and the only one a recollection of Welsh Liberal tion with the creation of the Reginald McKenna, Sir Alfred ever in a by-election. Roger history. On 26 May, Professor Welsh National Council on Mond, , Thomas Williams MP gave a summary Russell Deacon, the Welsh Lib- 7 October 1887 up until the Waterhouse, , of Lord Livsey’s attributes as eral historian, gave a 45-minute recent Welsh Assembly elec- Emlyn Hooson, Geraint (G.W) a leader of the Welsh party, a talk based on an exploration tion. The audience learnt how Madoc Jones, Roger Roberts, constituency MP, promoter of of the development of ’ different coalitions and pacts Martin Thomas, Winston Rod- devolution, political organ- oldest political party, some of altered the party’s name and dick, Mary Murphy (Thomas) iser and finally as a friend and its heroes and villains and how identity. They discovered the and Lord Ogmore. mentor to so many Liberal its more prominent members reason why Liberals created a The talk ended with a trib- Democrats. The talk was also have shaped Welsh and British North and a South Wales fed- ute to the late Richard Livsey attended by Lord Livsey’s history. There was also a spe- eration and why a Mid Wales ( Livsey of Talgarth). widow, Rene. cial reference made to the late federation never developed. His background in Welsh and The talk was based on Pro- Hay Festival Vice-President The has then Scottish politics, and the fessor Deacon’s forthcoming and President of the European produced plenty of national way that he rebuilt the Brecon book: The History of the Liberal Movement in Wales, Lord heroes and villains over its & Radnor constituency party and Liberal Democrat parties in Richard Livsey of Talgarth. existence, and many of these in the 1980s was explored. His Wales (Welsh Academic Press). Richard Wainwright, the Liberals and Liberal Democrats: UnfinishedB usiness by Matt Cole, published by Manchester University Press; foreword by MP

A study of Liberal Party history through the life of one of its parliamentarians, organisers and benefactors during its darkest days, this book examines how and why the Liberals and Liberalism survived from the 1930s to the 21st century. It sees, through Wainwright’s experience, the revival of the 1960s, the beginning and end of the Thorpe leadership, the Lib-Lab Pact, the Alliance and the merger; and it highlights the role of Liberal activism and Liberal principles in the party’s fate.

‘Compulsory reading for the next generation of Liberal Democrat Leaders.’ MP

‘Engrossing … reading Cole’s book, I found Wainwright’s life admirable and moving.’ Daniel Finkelstein,

‘This wonderful biography captures the essence of a remarkable man and his brand of radical liberalism.’ Baroness Helena Kennedy

Available to Journal of Liberal History readers at the special price of £30 (including P&P). Send cheques (payable to ‘Liberal Democrat History Group’) to LDHG, 134 Haunch Lane, Birmingham B13 0PY.

2 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 Journal of Liberal History Issue 71: Summer 2011 The Journal of Liberal History is published quarterly by the Liberal Democrat History Group. ISSN 1479-9642 Liberal history news 2 Editor: Duncan Brack Welsh Liberal history lecture and tribute to Lord Livsey at the Hay Festival. Deputy Editor: Tom Kiehl Assistant Editor: Siobhan Vitelli Biographies Editor: Robert Ingham The afterlives of former Liberal prime ministers 4 Reviews Editor: Dr Eugenio Biagini Kevin Theakston looks at the lives in retirement of Russell, Gladstone, Contributing Editors: Graham Lippiatt, Tony Little, Rosebery, Asquith and Lloyd George. Membery Sheelagh Murnaghan and the Ulster Liberal 14 Patrons Dr Eugenio Biagini; Professor Michael Freeden; Party Professor John Vincent The life and political career of the only Liberal to win a seat in the Northern parliament; by Constance Rynder. Editorial Board Dr Malcolm Baines; Dr Roy Douglas; Dr Barry Doyle; Letters to the Editor 21 Dr David Dutton; Professor David Gowland; Professor Mill and Morley (Patrick Jackson); Mill and equality (Dinti Batstone); Richard Grayson; Dr Michael Hart; Peter Hellyer; Dr J. Chamberlain’s relatives (); Liberal (Peter Hatton). Graham Jones; Dr Tudor Jones; Tony Little; Professor Ian Machin; Dr ; Dr Ian Packer; Dr John Powell; Ed Randall; Jaime Reynolds; Dr Andrew Russell; Iain Sharpe Cheltenham’s Liberal history 22 Martin Horwood MP examines the Liberal heritage of his home town. Editorial/Correspondence Contributions to the Journal – letters, articles, and Russell Johnston 28 book reviews – are invited. The Journal is a refereed Biography of this passionate and articulate exponent of Liberalism; by Ross publication; all articles submitted will be reviewed. Contributions should be sent to: Finnie.

Duncan Brack (Editor) 54 Midmoor Road, SW12 0EN Reports 35 email: [email protected] reform 1911–2011, with Lord Norton and Lord Marks; report by Mark Pack; Class of’81: who are the true heirs of the SDP? with Andrew Adonis, All articles copyright © Journal of Liberal History. MP and MP; report by Tom Frostick. Advertisements Welsh women Liberals 38 Full page £100; half page £60; quarter page £35. Discounts available for repeat ads or offers to readers It wasn’t only Lloyd George’s daughters; by Russell Deacon. (e.g. discounted book prices). To place ads, please contact the Editor. Reviews 44 Theakston, After Number 10: Former Prime Ministers in British Politics, reviewed Subscriptions/Membership by J. Graham Jones; Egan, Coming into Focus: The Transformation of the Liberal An annual subscription to the Journal of Liberal History Party 1945–1964, reviewed by Malcolm Baines; Cragoe and Readman (eds.), costs £20.00 (£12.50 unwaged rate). This includes The Land Question in Britain 1750–1950, reviewed by J. Graham Jones; Johns, membership of the History Group unless you inform Death of a Pirate: British Radio and the Making of the Information Age, reviewed us otherwise. Non-UK subscribers should add £5.00. by William Wallace; McKibbin, Parties and People 1914–1951, reviewed by The institutional rate is £50.00, which includes online Iain Sharpe. access. As well as printed copies, online subscribers are able to access online copies of current and all past Journals. Online subscriptions are also available to individuals at £40.00.

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Patrick Mitchell 6 Palfrey Place, London SW8 1PA; email: [email protected] Payment is also possible via our website, Liberal Democrat History Group www.liberalhistory.org.uk. The Liberal Democrat History Group promotes the discussion and research of topics relating to the histories of the Liberal Democrats, Liberal Party, and SDP, and of Liberalism. The Cover design concept: Group organises discussion meetings and produces the Journal of Liberal History and other Published by the Liberal Democrat History Group, occasional publications. c/o 54 Midmoor Road, London SW12 0EN For more information, including historical commentaries, details of publications, back issues Printed by Kall-Kwik, of the Journal, and archive and other research sources, see our website at: 18 Colville Road, London W3 8BL www.liberalhistory.org.uk. July 2011 Chair: Tony Little Honorary President: Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 3 Sooner or later, every prime minister becomes a former prime minister, and the ‘club’ of former prime ministers is a THE AFTERLIVES OF FORMER small and exclusive one. However, over the years, few of its members have left Number 10 Downing LIBERAL PRIME MINISTERS Street as happy, contented or fulfilled people, or at a time and in a manner of their own choosing. There has been (and there still is) no fixed or established role in public and political life for former prime ministers. What they do after they leave office depends very much on personal choices and on circumstances, including the reaction and attitudes of still- active politicians and of political parties to the former political and governmental leader. There is little in the way of a common pattern. Kevin Theakston looks at the afterlives of five former Liberal prime ministers: Russell, Gladstone, Rosebery, Asquith and Lloyd George.

4 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 THE AFTERLIVES OF FORMER LIBERAL PRIME MINISTERS

t one point, in the (Aberdeen and Palmerston), before they were retiring but, rather, still 1920s, there were, resuming the premiership in 1865. believed they had, and were per- remarkably, three Gladstone had withdrawn from the ceived to have, political futures. former Liberal prime party leadership after the Liber- When Rosebery resigned in ministers alive at the als’ electoral defeat in 1874 and for 1895 he was only forty-eight years sameA time: Lord Rosebery, Asquith a while disengaged from politics old – the youngest former prime and Lloyd George. Before that, (although he did not give up his par- minister there had been for sixty- Russell and Gladstone were Victo- liamentary seat). However, he then seven years, and there has not been rian members of the former Liberal resumed the leadership, becoming a younger former prime minister prime ministers’ ‘club’. Two other prime minister again in 1880, and since then. He lived nearly another Liberal premiers – Palmerston, who during his next period out of office, thirty-four years before he died in died in office (the last prime minister after 1886, he was clearly Leader of 1929; no one since Rosebery has to do so) in 1865 aged eighty-one, the Opposition. This article focuses had so long a post-premiership. and Sir Henry Campbell-Banner- only on former prime ministers Certainly for the first decade of that man, who died aged seventy-one after their final departures from the post-premiership, there was a wide- in 1908, only seventeen days after premiership. Leaving the premier- spread expectation that he would resigning office (the shortest post- ship need not mean relinquishing soon be back, heading another premiership of any prime minister) the party leadership. Gladstone government or otherwise in high – fall outside the scope of this arti- gave up both roles in 1894, but Rus- national office. He remained in that cle. Campbell-Bannerman is some- sell continued as Liberal leader in At one point, period a celebrity figure and a major times described as the last prime the Lords at any rate for two years presence on the political stage. But minister to die ‘on the premises’ but (1866–68), Rosebery remained in the 1920s, his star then pretty soon faded, he he is in fact the only prime minis- party leader for nearly sixteen dropped out of public life and he ter (or, more strictly, former prime months after quitting as prime there were, became a sad, isolated and reclusive minister) actually to die in Number minister, and Asquith was Liberal figure many years before he died. 10 itself. (None of the seven other leader for almost ten years after los- remarkably, Asquith was sixty-four when he British premiers who died while ing office. In contrast, Lloyd George lost power in 1916, but he did not still holding that post died in only became party leader four years three former want to give up office and resented Downing Street, but at other loca- after leaving the premiership. being forced out in a ‘palace coup’. tions.) Although no longer in office, Liberal prime He did not take a and it was simply out of the question for declined the Garter, thus signalling the dying Campbell-Bannerman Leaving Number 10 ministers that he did not intend to retire but to be moved from Number 10 after Two of the Liberal premiers left alive at the to stay in frontline politics. He lived Asquith took over. office as old men – Russell was for another twelve years, dying in Both Russell and Gladstone had seventy-four when he resigned in same time: 1928, but his glory days were all had previous departures from the 1866 and Gladstone was eighty-four behind him. topmost office before their final cur- when he finally quit the scene in Lord Rose- Lloyd George was only fifty- tain calls in 1866 and 1894 respec- 1894. Russell then lived for another nine years old, world famous, and tively. Russell had resigned as prime twelve years before dying in 1878, bery, Asquith still at the height of his powers minister in 1852 and then played a while Gladstone lived for only four when he was forced out in 1922. sometimes awkward role in front- years in retirement, dying in 1898. and Lloyd But no one believed that he would bench politics, serving in the Cabi- In contrast, the other three left at be out forever. The King, political nets of two other prime ministers ages when they did not feel that George. allies and enemies, advisers, friends

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 5 the afterlives of former liberal prime ministers and family members, and Lloyd Unlike life. He left £9,345 on his death thousands of acres, a yacht. At death George himself – all expected that (about £300,000 in today’s money). he left £1.5 million (equivalent to he would return to government, Asquith, As a younger son, Russell had over £50 million today), a sum that and fairly soon at that. No one spent most of his life at the finan- did not include extensive proper- suspected that, in the twenty-two Lloyd George cially hard-pressed end of the upper ties made over to his heir several more years he would live, he would classes, admitting at one point that years before. He poured money into never be in power again. left office he had never been in debt before horseracing, winning the Derby We are now familiar with becoming prime minister, feeling twice during his short premiership the televised exit from Number substantially the loss of a ministerial salary when and then for a third time in 1905. He 10 of the resigning or defeated out of office, and dependent on an once joked that ‘politics and racing prime minister – the brief farewell wealthier annuity from his brother (the were inconsistent which seemed a remarks, the posing in front of the than when of Bedford). He was unable to afford good reason to give up politics.’ cameras with spouse and family, a country house of his own befit- Unlike Asquith, Lloyd George and the brave waves before the offi- he entered it. ting his prime-ministerial status, left office substantially wealthier cial car speeds them out of Down- although his position was helped than when he entered it. He turned ing Street for the last time. Lloyd by inheriting an estate in Ireland down offers of City directorships George’s fall and exit from power (in 1861) and by but received an annuity of £2,000 in was actually the giving the Russells a house, Pem- a year from the American tycoon first to be captured on film in this broke Lodge in Richmond Park, and made seri- way. A short silent newsreel film for their lifetime use. His grandson, ous money from his writing and shows Conservative MPs spilling the philosopher , journalism, being paid one pound out of the meeting lived there as a child and recalled the per word by the Hearst Press of after the dramatic party debate and ex-prime minister as an old man: America for thousand-word arti- vote there which triggered his res- warm, kindly and affectionate in his cles on contemporary political and ignation, stilted footage of other family circle, being wheeled around international issues which were top politicians of the time and the his overgrown garden in a bath given world syndication. He has King, and – with the caption ‘I am chair and sitting in his room reading been described as the highest paid no longer Prime Minister’ – a top- .2 political journalist of his time, and hatted and smartly dressed Lloyd Most of Gladstone’s retirement he once admitted that in his first George, with his wife and daughter, years were spent at Hawarden, four years out of office his journal- stepping out of Number 10, being interspersed with a number of trips istic income was much greater than saluted by the police constable on in the winter months to Cannes the aggregate of his ministerial sala- duty, and pausing for the camera- in the South of France (wealthy ries during his seventeen years in men. The film ends with a caption friends picking up the bills and government. It cannot be said that ‘In the Wilderness but with one providing accommodation). By Lloyd George was personally cor- faithful friend at least’, showing a any reckoning Gladstone was a rupt but he did realise and exploit relaxed former prime minister, in rich man. The family’s Hawarden the fact that, as an ex-prime minis- the country with his dog, about to estate (which was not actually for- ter, he was ‘a valuable commercial go for a walk.1 mally owned by Gladstone him- property’, as Kenneth O. Morgan Some former prime ministers self) amounted to 7,000 acres and put it. In his first year out of office found the practicalities of adjust- produced an income of £10,000– (1923) he was able to cash in on his ing to life out of Number 10 easier 12,000 a year. He effectively gave reputation as a world statesman in a than others. The Asquiths had away most of his own money in the triumphant five-week lecture tour nowhere to live, as their old house 1890s, however, settling large capi- of America. He also controlled sub- had been let out and a friend had to tal sums on his children and giv- stantial political funds of his own put them up for a while until they ing £40,000 and 32,000 of his own (totalling several million pounds) could move back into it. Asquith books to set up St Deiniol’s Library – controversially built up from hon- himself sometimes just stagnated at Hawarden. (Many of the books ours sales and the purchase and then and slumped into an easy life with were moved to the new building profitable resale of theDaily Chroni- his books, his family and the social in a wheelbarrow, with Gladstone cle newspaper – used for organisa- round, playing bridge, enjoying himself helping out.) When he died tion, campaigning and propaganda, his young lady friends and drink- his will was proved at £57,000 and to support his energetic ideas- ing too much. Money was tight (around £3 million today). mongering (funding teams of advis- with the loss of the prime-ministe- Rosebery, who was enormously ers and experts).3 rial salary, as they had no savings wealthy, can scarcely have noticed but still maintained a substantial the loss of his prime-ministerial domestic staff and a free-spending salary. He had inherited his titles, Putting pen to paper lifestyle. Asquith had left office estates and an income of £30,000 a All of these former Liberal pre- much poorer than when he entered year when only twenty-one, going miers put pen to paper after they it and going back to the Bar was not on to marry a Rothschild heiress, left Number 10. For a practising an option. Eventually, his financial which increased his total income to politician, Russell wrote a lot over position became so bad that some £140,000 (something like £9 mil- his lifetime, including histories, of his friends organised an appeal lion a year today). He had grand biographies, and constitutional through The Times for a fund to houses at Mentmore, Berkeley studies and, as a young man, a novel pay his debts and give him a private Square, Dalmeny in , The and a play. However, his memoirs, pension for the last few years of his Durdans at Epsom, a villa at Naples, published in 1875, described as

6 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 the afterlives of former liberal prime ministers

‘disappointing’ and ‘sour’ by one with the top brass. It was a Lloyd before he could take his seat in the biographer, were written after his George-centric account of the war, , however. memory had begun to fail.4 much like Churchill’s later World Gladstone needed a cataract War II memoirs. operation in May 1894, which was reported with delight her mother’s Russell: the ex-prime minister not wholly successful and left him reaction: ‘I always knew that [Lloyd as nuisance virtually half-blind, so that read- George] had won the war but until Russell was not ready to retire ing and writing became more I read his Memoirs I did not know completely in the late-1860s and difficult. But he remained intel- that he had won it single-handed.’6 remained politically active in the lectually active in retirement, still Later on, he mused about possibly Lords, attacking the policies of the spending many hours at his desk in writing a character study of Glad- Conservative government that suc- the ‘Temple of Peace’, his library at stone or a book on Welsh preachers ceeded his own and opposing Der- Hawarden. He published in these (he was a connoisseur of sermons) or by’s reform bill. Looking ahead, he years his translation of Horace’s even a novel, and given his taste for tried in 1867–68 to set out an agenda Odes, some long journal articles on trashy ‘shilling-shockers’, one won- for the next Liberal government, theology, and two substantial vol- ders just what sort of novel he might publishing pamphlets proposing umes on the works of Bishop But- have produced! Irish church reform and introducing ler. He had received various offers resolutions in the House of Lords for his autobiography and Andrew calling for a minister of education Carnegie had offered in 1887 the Honours and improved education for the huge sum of £100,000 (roughly Gladstone always wanted to go working classes. He told Gladstone £5 million today), but Gladstone down in history as plain ‘Mr Glad- that he had pretty well made up his signed no contract. He did write stone’. He had refused a knighthood mind not to take office again, but some autobiographical fragments in 1859 and offers of a peerage in there were rumours that he wanted and leave papers on some particu- 1874 and 1885. He was not an egali- to be again if lar episodes but never got down to tarian and had great respect for rank the Liberals got back in. Knowing planning or working on a proper and the social hierarchy, but he how troublesome - volume of memoirs. always saw himself as a commoner. minded Russell could be, Gladstone Rosebery was a noted writer In 1894 Queen Victoria curtly said thought that it might be safer to and, having published a biography that she did not offer her retir- have him on the inside and when of William Pitt in 1891, he went ing prime minister a peerage only he became prime minister in 1868 on to write studies of Napoleon: because she knew he would (again) offered Russell a seat in the Cabi- The Last Phase (1900), Lord Ran- refuse it. He also encouraged his net without portfolio, but Russell dolph Churchill (1906) and Chatham: wife to decline the offer of a sepa- declined (and later complained his Early Life and Connections (1910), rate peerage in her own right. about what he had been offered). together with many shorter essays Rosebery had inherited his earl- He supported some of the Liberal and addresses, after leaving office. dom, while Russell had accepted government’s policies: the Education Professional historians tended to his in 1861, and both had been cre- Act, the Irish Land Act. He intro- be sniffy, but the books sold well ated Knights of the Garter while Lloyd George duced a proposal for life peers that enough. He turned down invita- still active in politics. Rosebery Gladstone backed. But he was often tions to write the biographies of added the had long unhelpful and a nuisance, criticis- Gladstone, Disraeli and Lord Kitch- when he resigned as prime min- ing the government or quibbling ener, however, and refused ever ister, Russell getting a GCMG. held the over the details of its measures in the to write his own memoirs or an Asquith finally accepted an earl- Lords or the press. He opposed the autobiography. dom and the KG in 1925. Lords in con- introduction of the secret ballot in Needing the money, Asquith Lloyd George had long held the elections, for instance, and, though wrote several impersonal and unre- Lords in contempt and once praised tempt and he favoured the abolition of the pur- vealing volumes of reminiscences Gladstone, Joe Chamberlain, Bright chase of commissions in the army, he and memoirs, which did not sell as and Cobden for never making the once praised opposed the way in which the gov- well as Margot Asquith’s more col- ‘mistake’ of taking an honour. He ernment went about it. He was often ourful and indiscreet autobiography remained an MP until near the end Gladstone, critical of Gladstone’s foreign policy, and other writings. The problem and became Father of the House. venting his dislike of his successor’s was that ‘he had no desire to tell But, fading rapidly and seriously ill Joe Chamber- attitude towards the colonies, the the world what really happened’, in 1944 it was obvious that he was in empire and the armed forces. as noted, ‘and he was no fit state to fight another general lain, Bright Gladstone handled the erratic insufficiently interested in himself.’5 election, and in any case his Caer- and Cobden and crotchety ex-prime minister Lloyd George wrote six fat vol- narvon seat was no longer look- as tactfully as he could, writing umes (totalling one million words) ing so safe. Hints were discreetly for never to keep him in touch, giving Rus- of War Memoirs, published between dropped with Churchill and, after sell credit for his achievements and 1933 and 1936, followed by two fur- some last minute agonising over the making the arguing that he was building on ther volumes, The Truth About the decision, Lloyd George accepted them, and claiming that he looked Peace Treaties, in 1938. Pugnacious, a hereditary peerage, the honour ‘mistake’ of upon him as his ‘oracle and master’ controversial and partisan, they sold being announced to widespread on constitutional questions. But he well. In them he took the chance amazement (and, in some quarters, taking an complained to Lord Granville about to vindicate his record, settle per- dismay) on 1 January 1945. The new Russell’s ‘petulant acts’ and about sonal scores and refight his battles Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor died honour. him ‘leading the mad’.7

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 7 the afterlives of former liberal prime ministers

Gladstone: overshadowing your successor Gladstone was an octogenarian dur- ing his last premiership: the oldest man ever to be appointed prime minister. He always felt that Wel- lington and Palmerston had made the mistake of clinging to office for too long, and he ultimately did so as well, most of his colleagues in the end being frankly glad to see the back of him. The Queen could scarcely conceal her glee at his departure. He had expected and wanted to be formally asked about his successor – and would have nominated Lord Spencer (the top Liberal in the Cabinet most committed to ). But the Queen did not consult him and sent instead for Lord Rosebery – a choice that dismayed him (he would have preferred even Harcourt over Rosebery). After Gladstone’s resigna- tion, Rosebery’s Liberal govern- ment lasted only fifteen months. The Grand Old Man did not think much of its performance or the new leadership. He disliked the way in which Rosebery abandoned Home Rule. He regretted having brought the ‘difficult’ Rosebery to the front and making him Foreign Secre- tary, where they had had policy clashes. ‘I cannot understand him – he remains a closed book to me’, Gladstone complained after resign- ing. ‘He never consults me.’ Later, in 1896, Gladstone said that ‘he gave Rosebery up altogether as a compe- tent man for Liberal leadership – for lack of judgment and even sense.’8 Nor did his successor’s regime please him in other ways. He dis- liked Harcourt’s budget and the new graduated death duties on land. He had reservations about aspects of the Welsh Church Disestablishment legislation, and ministers feared that he might intervene to speak out against it at the committee stage (it fell with the government). The problem was that Gladstone had become out of date and out of touch with the party and the new ideas coming into it. If he had stood aside earlier, the Liberals may have been better able to make the transi- Left: Lord John Russell (Prime Minister 1846–52, 1865– tion to a new and effective leadership 66); William Gladstone (Prime Minister 1868–74, 1880–85, and to adapt themselves to new social 1886, 1892–94); Lord Rosebery (Prime Minister 1894–95) forces and political challenges. Gladstone liked to refer to his Above: H. H. Asquith (Prime Minister 1908–16); David ‘political death’ in 1894. But, as Lloyd George (Prime Minister 1916–22) Feuchtwanger noted, his ‘author- ity was … still so great that any

8 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 the afterlives of former liberal prime ministers move on his part caused more than told friends, to free himself from Rosebery’s ultimate aims were a ripple in the muddied waters of the ‘Gladstonian chains’ that he had not always clear or consistent. He Liberal politics. Nobody could been bound by ever since he had appeared at some times to be want- be quite certain that he might not entered politics and was through ing to battle for the future of the sweep back into the arena as he had with the thankless role of acting as party (the Liberal League being done before.’ 9 Echoing the events of ‘Mr G’s political executor’. Rose- formed with him as president to twenty years earlier, it was his con- Rosebery’s bery believed that the Liberal Party press the Liberal Imperialist case troversial intervention on the issue needed to change, developing a new against the anti-war ‘Little Englan- of the Armenian massacres which dramatic programme and widening its elec- ders’ in the party). At other times he brought him back briefly onto the toral appeal, but he did not to want apparently wanted to provoke a for- political stage, meeting deputa- speech at to get involved in the hand-to-hand mal split in the party. His support- tions, writing to the press and mak- political fighting necessary to effect ers certainly schemed to undermine ing his last great public speeches. He Bodmin that change. He seemed almost to or displace Campbell-Bannerman as called for strong action and argued in Novem- want the party to change and then leader. And Rosebery also appeared that the Turkish empire should be by acclamation to welcome him to hanker after a political realign- wiped off the map. The more direct ber 1905, back as leader on his own terms.10 ment and a non-party or above- impact, however, was on his succes- Rosebery’s future was the subject party political and personal future sor and on the infighting within his denouncing of considerable speculation. He was (latching on to the fashionable own unhappy party. Shortly after still relatively young, had experi- ‘national efficiency’ ideas). Gladstone’s September 1896 speech Home Rule ence of the highest offices, and had During the infighting in the Lib- in , Rosebery – ill at ease real political star quality. He sent out eral Party at this time, Rosebery and miserable under his great pred- and insist- mixed and confusing signals, how- and his acolytes underestimated ecessor’s shadow, and looking for a ever, and his political intentions and Campbell-Bannerman (a tougher way out – resigned as party leader. ing that he plans seemed changeable, elusive and and shrewder figure than his detrac- mysterious even to himself, let alone tors thought) and overestimated could not his often-bewildered in their own strength and support. Rosebery: throwing away the party and the public. By the time Rosebery certainly showed his chances ‘serve under Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman mastery of publicity and ability to Thought still to have a brilliant was elected leader in 1898, Rose- command attention and headlines. future before him when he ceased that banner’, bery was more popular than he had But Campbell-Bannerman carried to be prime minister, Rosebery been as prime minister and many of with him the centre and the bulk of threw it away by his posturing, was an act of his supporters regarded Campbell- the party. Any prospect of either a grandstanding, disloyalty and dis- Bannerman as a second-rate figure, a Rosebery-led ‘national’ coalition or engagement from the disciplines of political self- stopgap who would just keep the seat a Roseberyite takeover of the Lib- organised party politics. destruction, warm until their hero was ready to eral Party faded as two-party par- When he left office in 1895, reclaim his rightful place. tisanship revived with the ending Rosebery had been prime minis- finally cut- In 1899 Rosebery was elected, at of the Boer War and controversies ter for just one year and 109 days. the top of the poll, to Epsom Dis- over the 1902 Education Act, and ‘There are two supreme pleasures ting him trict Council. He was unanimously were finally ended with Joe Cham- in life’, he later wrote. ‘One is ideal, voted chairman but characteristi- berlain’s launch of his protection- the other real. The ideal is when a off from his cally refused the post, though he ist crusade in 1903 and the Liberals man receives the seals of office from was an active member of the coun- uniting in defence of . As his Sovereign. The real pleasure erstwhile cil, scrupulously attending meet- events moved on, Rosebery was left comes when he hands them back.’ ings through the three years he stranded, his position weakened, Yet his defeat and failure as a prime supporters served. This was very worthy and looking increasingly marginalised. minister had been a shattering expe- indeed unique for a former prime Behind the scenes, the King had rience and Rosebery was haunted and ensuring minister, but not quite what those apparently tried to persuade him in by a sense of failure, for the rest of who wanted to see him back in 1901 to come back and resume the his life brooding on the traumas of that there political office had in mind. (He Liberal leadership and in 1905 again 1894–95 and often declaring that he had, of course, earlier been chair- appealed unsuccessfully to him wished he had never accepted office. would be no man of the London County Council to take office. But by 1904 it was When chances of a return occurred before becoming prime minister, in becoming widely understood that in the years ahead, part of him place for him 1889–90 and 1892.) the King would send for Campbell- always recoiled from them. The three or four years follow- Bannerman when the time came to Disillusioned and disenchanted in the Liberal ing the outbreak of the South Afri- change the government. with politics, Rosebery had wanted govern- can War in 1899 were the crucial Rosebery’s dramatic speech to quit the Liberal leadership and period in which Rosebery might at Bodmin in November 1905, retire from politics, for a time at any ment that have returned to a position of denouncing Home Rule and insist- rate, immediately after the disas- national or party leadership. But he ing that he could not ‘serve under trous 1895 general election. But he Campbell- lost the chance, partly through his that banner’, was an act of politi- continued nominally to head the own doubts, hesitations and mis- cal self-destruction, finally cutting party, while not giving it any real Bannerman takes and partly because of the way him off from his erstwhile support- lead, for more than a year after the the wider political situation devel- ers and ensuring that there would defeat until Gladstone provided him would soon oped and changed. be no place for him in the Liberal with the excuse he had been look- With the Liberal Party in argu- government that Campbell-Ban- ing for to jump ship. He wanted, he form. mentative disarray over the war, nerman would soon form. Once

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 9 the afterlives of former liberal prime ministers

Campbell-Bannerman became ‘Asquith cuts brought to the government, other George a ‘blank cheque’. His heart prime minister, appointed the than the public appeal of his name. was not in it and he expected to lose, leading to sen- no ice’, pro- In November 1917 tragedy struck but the outcome was worse than he ior positions and won a landslide when his younger son, Neil Prim- had thought likely. The coalition majority, Rosebery was effectively tested his old rose – who had been an MP and a swept the board while Asquith’s politically finished. promising junior minister – was Liberals won only twenty-eight He stayed on the political stage ally Edward killed in action while serving with seats, being overtaken by Labour, a few years longer, an increasingly the army in the Middle East. A year and Asquith lost his own seat. It isolated and irrelevant figure with Grey. ‘He is later, in November 1918, Rosebery might have been a good moment to virtually no personal followers, was felled by a massive stroke that quietly bow out. But with no obvi- sitting on the crossbenches in the using the left him partially paralysed. For the ous successor, Asquith chose to sol- Lords, a purely negative critic of the machine of a last ten years of his life before he died dier on as Liberal leader although Liberal government. It might have in 1929, aged eighty-two, he was he was really in a sort of political been better for his reputation if he great politi- a largely forgotten figure, living a limbo. In the first half of 1919 he had taken himself out of the way by lonely and melancholy invalid exist- received not one invitation to speak accepting the post of ambassador to cal brain to ence. For all his glamour, gifts and from any Liberal association in the the pressed on him brilliant early promise, it is difficult country. Taking on the job that year in November 1906 by Sir Edward re-arrange to avoid the conclusion that he had of chairing a Royal Commission on Grey and the King, but he refused been a political failure: an unhappy and Cambridge universities it. His alienation from the Liberals old ideas.’ and unsuccessful prime minister and was hardly the sort of assignment to now became even more pronounced then an unhappy and unsuccessful bring him back to the centre of the and his attitudes and views mark- ex-prime minister. political stage. edly Conservative. It was February 1920 before he Having opposed the introduc- returned to parliament via a by- tion of old age pensions, Rosebery Asquith: hanging on too long election. But the odds were stacked strongly attacked Lloyd George’s Asquith remained leader of the against a great political come back. 1909 ‘People’s Budget’ as ‘tyranni- Liberal Party after 1916 but found He was the leader of a small and cal and socialistic’ and heralding a being the leading opposition figure unhappy parliamentary force. ‘social and political revolution’, and in wartime an awkward, unwel- His own political position was he defended his fellow aristocratic come and constraining position. ambiguous, as he was rightly seen landowners as a ‘poor but honest Many of the senior Liberals had fol- as a Whiggish figure but was the class’. But when the crunch came, lowed him rather than serve under leader of the more radical part of he declared that he would not vote Lloyd George, but he did not want the divided Liberal Party. Fatally, against it, fearing that the Lords’ to widen the rift in the party ranks he had no real fight left in him and actions in defeating the budget could and temperamentally was always dismayed followers were soon com- imperil the very existence of the basically a ministerialist and not a plaining that he gave no strong lead. second chamber. Later, although man for to-the-sword opposition, Graham Stewart has put his fin- he strongly opposed the Liber- which he anyway felt would be ger on ‘Asquith’s inability to inject als’ reform of the Lords powers, he inappropriate in wartime. new thinking into Liberalism. He further damaged his reputation by On a number of occasions Lloyd offered nothing to suggest he had finally voting for the Parliament bill. George tried to lure him back into adjusted to a changed environment, He was now despised on both sides of government, despite some doubts but nor would he step aside for the political divide, Liberals view- about this in his close circle and someone who might carry forward ing him as a reactionary, Tories as a Lloyd George’s own sense that the party into the post-war world.’ coward. After 1911 he never again Asquith was ‘sterile’ when it came ‘Asquith cuts no ice’, protested his entered the House of Lords. to policy ideas. Various posts were old ally Edward Grey. ‘He is using At the age of sixty-four, Rose- dangled in front of him – Foreign the machine of a great political bery’s political career was over. He Secretary, Chancellor, Lord Chan- brain to re-arrange old ideas.’12 no longer had the necessary stand- cellor (with a tempting £10,000 Like a general fighting the wrong ing, influence, following or appetite salary and a £5,000 pension) – but battle, Asquith took pleasure from for office. ‘If I were to join the battle’, Asquith turned them all down. On the fact that in the 1922 general elec- he told one confidant, ‘I should find the only occasion when Asquith tion his wing of the Liberal Party did myself back again where I will not did try to turn the heat up on Lloyd slightly better than Lloyd George’s, be.’ He had come to hate and detest George during the war – when he although more significant was that politics – ‘this evil-smelling bog’, as led calls in 1918 for a select commit- Labour’s advance continued. In he called it, from which ‘I was always tee to be established to inquire into 1923 the two Liberal factions were trying to extricate myself’.11 whether Lloyd George had mislead brought together by Baldwin’s move When Lloyd George became parliament about troop levels avail- towards protectionism but the prime minister in 1916, in an effort able to the generals on the western was superficial and half-hearted. to bolster his administration, he front – it backfired on him and Asquith remained formally party offered Rosebery the post of Lord underlined the party split. leader but Lloyd George controlled Privy Seal – he would not have The 1918 ‘khaki election’ was a substantial independent funds and departmental duties but serve in disaster for Asquith. He had little provided the real dynamism and a ‘consultative capacity’ – but he in the way of a positive programme ideas, and tensions and bitter mis- refused the job. It is not clear what to offer and largely ended up sim- trust continued. After the Decem- Rosebery at this stage would have ply warning against giving Lloyd ber 1923 election produced a hung

10 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 the afterlives of former liberal prime ministers parliament, Asquith was the ‘king- schemes. Some of his impact was permitted, it was ultimately a cul- maker’, rejecting the idea of a coali- negative, in the sense that he was de-sac. He thought that his free- tion and opting to put in a minority a bogeyman to his rival political wheeling independence was an and inexperienced Labour govern- leaders, haunting their minds and asset, as John Campbell noted, but ment which he judged would not last their political calculations as they the absence of a strong party base long and the failure of which would manoeuvred to thwart him and actually left him isolated, cut off hopefully benefit the Liberals. It was keep him out. Much of the politics from the real road to power and, a major miscalculation, for when of the 1920s were a reaction against eventually, in the wilderness.15 Labour fell from office in October Lloyd George – his methods, Liberal reunion after 1923 was 1924 and another general election record, policies and personality. always rather cosmetic and Lloyd was held, which the Conservatives Ideas about new coalitions or George’s relations with Asquith won, the real casualties were the Lib- alliances, dividing or breaking were edgy and uneasy. Had Lloyd erals, who lost three-quarters of their up the established parties, seemed George won control of the Liberal seats. Asquith was again unhorsed, never far from his thoughts. Party sooner, he might have been losing Paisley. Options were kept open and feelers better able to rescue its position and He moved to the Lords and put out to left and right at various restore its fortunes. ‘When Lloyd remained overall party leader while times, hoping to attract moder- George came back to the party, ideas Lloyd George led in the Commons. ate Labour and progressive Con- came back to the party’, one Liberal This was an unstable arrangement servatives, and he looked to exploit politician said. What Lloyd George and an uneasy partnership that whatever opportunities came his tried to offer in the 1920s was a non- could never lost for long, and things way as the tectonic plates of the socialist radical alternative, a poli- came to a head in May 1926 when party system groaned and shifted, tics of creative ideas, attractive to they fell out over how to respond to with five elections in nine years moderate and progressive opinion. the General Strike (Asquith back- (1922–31) and two periods of minor- But while headlines were captured, ing the government). Asquith then ity Labour government (1924 and and the contrast with Baldwin’s had a stroke after which he resigned 1929–31). The underlying problem ‘Safety First’ and MacDonald’s call the leadership in October 1926. His was that his political space was more for ‘no monkeying’ was marked, post-premiership had been a pain- and more squeezed as the Liberals the electoral rewards (in 1929) were ful and protracted anti-climax and lost out to Labour and the Con- frustratingly scanty. political decline. ‘He had stayed servatives and as two-party politics Lloyd George and the Liberals too long in an impossible situation’, was restored. In 1924–29 and even were really on a hiding to noth- Jenkins concluded, his reasons for more so after 1931, large govern- ing in helping to prop up a minor- hanging on largely negative, and ment majorities effectively side- ity Labour government after 1929 offering the declining Liberal Party lined him. ‘Ideas and experts were but getting little in return. Divi- little that was positive.13 not enough’, as Kenneth O. Morgan sions within the Liberal Party were argued. ‘He needed also supporters, deepening while Lloyd George was organisation, a party base – above casting about for some formula to Lloyd George in the wilderness all, public trust. These were assets escape from the tightening third- Certainly up to 1931 (and to a lesser which Lloyd George, however fer- party squeeze that they were expe- extent after that), Lloyd George tile in ideas and initiatives, conspic- riencing. He toyed fruitlessly again remained a critical player and at the uously lacked.’14 with the idea of a Centre Party, very centre of British politics, and While the role of a ‘permanent talking with mavericks like Mosley he was one of the most creative and one-man opposition’ played to and Churchill and with dissident exciting politicians of the period, his strengths and was perhaps the young Tories like Macmillan. In brimming with ideas, plans and only one that circumstances really February 1931 George Lansbury, Liberal History 300 years of party history in 24 pages The Liberal Democrat History Group’s pamphlet, Liberal History: A concise history of the Liberal Party, SDP and Liberal Democrats, has been revised and updated to include the 2010 election and the formation of the coalition.

Liberal History is available to Journal of Liberal History subscribers for the special price of £2.00 (normal price £2.50) with free p&p. To order, please send a cheque for £2.00 (made out to ‘Liberal Democrat History Group’) to LDHG, 54 Midmoor Road, London SW12 0EN.

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 11 the afterlives of former liberal prime ministers on his own initiative, wrote to The authors in the hope of perhaps holding the would succeed and thought he Lloyd George urging him to join balance of power after an election. should hold himself back ‘in reserve’: the Labour Party, suggesting he of The Feder- But when the Conservative-domi- ‘I shall wait until Winston is bust’. could become its deputy leader. By nated ‘National’ government won Later, in December 1940, he also July 1931 he was closer to regaining alist Papers another huge majority in Novem- turned down the offer to become office and power than at any other ber 1935, the game was up. British ambassador to the United time between 1922 and 1940. The conjured up In September 1936 he made a States on health grounds.16 embattled MacDonald, it is sug- controversial visit to Germany, After that, Lloyd George went gested, was almost on the brink a memora- meeting Hitler. Unfortunately for into sharp physical and political of bringing Lloyd George and the the ex-prime minister’s reputation, decline. He was very jumpy, terri- Liberals into government, with ble image Lloyd George appeared to admire fied of German air raids, and had a secret talks going on and rumours of former and get on well with the Führer, deep and luxurious underground that Lloyd George would become the two men fascinating and flatter- shelter built at Churt in which he Leader of the House of Commons American ing each other. An article he wrote would sleep. He became very bitter and either Chancellor or Foreign about his visit in the Daily Express about Churchill and his conduct of Secretary. presidents was so enthusiastic and uncritical the war, seeming to take a perverse With cruel bad luck, however, it had to be toned down. However, delight when things went badly and Lloyd George was knocked out of ‘wandering if he had been taken in by Hitler there were setbacks. In February action at one of the crucial moments and was an appeaser in 1936 he was 1943 he cast his last vote in parlia- in inter-war British politics, falling among the certainly not two years later, con- ment, voting against the govern- seriously ill and needing a prostate demning the Munich settlement ment and with Labour rebels in operation just as the Labour govern- people like and criticising Neville Chamber- support of the Beveridge report. He ment collapsed in the great politi- lain’s government for its failures to last set foot in parliament to listen to cal-financial crisis of August 1931 discontented rearm and to stand up against the Churchill’s statement on the D-Day and a ‘National’ government was aggression of the dictators. landings on 6 June 1944. Soon after, formed. Other top Liberals (Samuel ghosts, and In 1916 Lloyd George had offered he moved back to Wales, where he and Reading) joined the Cabinet the energy and the will to win the died in March 1945. and Lloyd George’s son Gwilym sighing for a war. But in 1939–40, in his final sig- became a junior minister. But he nificant appearance on the politi- was against any lasting alliance place which cal stage, it was very different. He Discontented ghosts? between the Liberals and the Con- seemed in fact pretty pessimistic The authors of The Federalist Papers servatives (‘If I am to die, I would they were and defeatist, convinced that Brit- conjured up a memorable image of rather die fighting on the Left’, destined ain could not win the war and defeat former American presidents ‘wan- he declared) and detected a Tory Germany by itself, and that it might dering among the people like dis- plot to take party advantage of the never more actually lose the war. He believed contented ghosts, and sighing for national emergency in the decision a negotiated compromise peace a place which they were destined to hold an early election in Octo- to possess.’ was possible and would be better never more to possess.’17 The label ber 1931, breaking with Samuel and than another long and costly war. has a wider application and rele- Reading when they went along Some indeed saw Lloyd George as a vance. The Liberal prime ministers with it. But he was then completely potential British Pétain. considered here mostly found giv- and humiliatingly shipwrecked by He helped to bring Neville ing power up, or being brushed to the ‘National’ government’s land- Chamberlain down with his last one side, and then life after Number slide election victory. Estranged great parliamentary speech in May 10, difficult and frustrating in dif- from the Liberals, he was reduced 1940 – ‘the Prime Minister should ferent ways. The problems experi- to heading a small ‘family’ rump give an example of sacrifice … [and] enced by Asquith and Lloyd George group of just four MPs. sacrifice the seals of office’. For the in the 1920s reflected the wider In 1935 he stumped the country final time, it seemed that he was on difficulties of Liberal division and again and dominated the media the brink of a return to office. He decline, but their personal feud also with his ideas for a British ‘New might be good for only six hours contributed to the situation. Russell Deal’, campaigning for economic work a day, it was said, ‘but they and Gladstone showed that when reconstruction and public works would be six hours of pure radium’. old prime ministers and leaders do to cure unemployment, linked to One idea was that if he was not not go gently into that good night support for the League of Nations, capable of running a department, they can cause headaches and prob- international disarmament and he should become a sort of food or lems for their successors. Rosebery peace. MacDonald and Baldwin agriculture supremo, chairing a discovered that ex-prime ministers toyed with the idea of cooperation food production council. Churchill cannot have a constructive continu- with him and even of bringing him appeared to be anxious to have Lloyd ing role in British politics if they try into the Cabinet, but backed off George with him and, in discussions to ‘go it alone’. These Liberal prime when they realised the strength of in late-May/early June 1940, offered ministers’ experience is not unique Tory opposition to doing a deal. a post in the but Lloyd for many of their Conservative and He set up the non-party ‘Council George turned it down, unwill- Labour counterparts have also had of Action for Peace and Recon- ing to serve with Chamberlain. He problems in letting go, finding a struction’, working with the Free may also have felt that the call had new role, and settling into political Churches to try to tap Noncon- come too late and doubted his physi- and personal retirement. The role of formist radicalism, and pouring cal capacity and resilience. Perhaps, ex-prime minister is a tricky one to money into sponsoring candidates too, he doubted whether Churchill play and get right.

12 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 the afterlives of former liberal prime ministers

Kevin Theakston is Professor of 1967), pp. 19–20. (London: Ernest Benn, 1931), pp. of Loyalty (London: Weidenfeld British Government at the Univer- 3 Kenneth O. Morgan, Lloyd George 135–136. and Nicolson, 2007), pp. 336–337. sity of and author of After (London: Weidenfeld and Nicol- 9 E. J. Feuchtwanger, Gladstone 13 Jenkins, Asquith, p. 517. Number Ten: Former Prime son, 1974), pp. 178, 207–208. (London: Allen Lane, 1975), p. 14 Morgan, Lloyd George, p. 181. Ministers in British Politics 4 John Prest, Lord John Russell (Lon- 273. 15 John Campbell, Lloyd George: (London: Palgrave, 2010) – which is don: Macmillan, 1972), p. 420; 10 Robert Rhodes James, Rose- The Goat in the Wilderness reviewed in the issue of the Journal. Paul Scherer, Lord John Russell: A bery (London: Weidenfeld and 1922–1931(London: Cape, 1977), Biography (London: Associated Nicolson, 1963), pp. 386, 392, 402; pp. 9, 177; Charles Loch Mowat, 1 The film, ‘End of an era University Presses, 1999) p. 336. H. C. G. Matthew, The Liberal Lloyd George (London: Oxford for the “Welsh Wizard”’, 5 Roy Jenkins, Asquith (London: Imperialists (Oxford: Oxford Uni- University Press, 1964), p. 55. can be seen on YouTube at: Collins, 1978), p. 257. versity Press, 1973), pp. 23–24. 16 Paul Addison, ‘Lloyd George and http://www.youtube.com/ 6 Thomas Jones, A Diary With Let- 11 Leo McKinstry, Rosebery: States- Compromise Peace in the Second watch?v=GYeLTdW2b4c and ters 1931–1950 (Oxford: Oxford man in Turmoil (London: John World War’, in A. J. P. Taylor (ed.), on the Number 10 Downing University Press, 1954), p. 169. Murray, 2005), p. 509; Rhodes Lloyd George: Twelve Essays (Lon- Street website at: http://www. 7 Prest, Lord John Russell, p. 419. James, Rosebery, p. 474. don: Hamish Hamilton, 1971). number10.gov.uk/Page11749. 8 J. B. Conacher, ‘A Visit to the 12 Stephen Koss, Asquith (London: 17 Alexander Hamilton, James 2 Bertrand Russell, The Autobiogra- Gladstones in 1894’, Victorian Allen Lane, 1976), pp. 244, 249– Madison and John Jay, The Feder- phy of Bertrand Russell, vol. 1, 1872– Studies, vol. 2, no.2, 1958, p. 159; 255; Graham Stewart, Friendship alist Papers (London: Dent, Every- 1914 (London: Allen and Unwin, The Personal Papers of Lord Rendel & Betrayal: Ambition and the Limits man’s Library, 1970), pp. 370–71.

RESEARCH IN PROGRESS If you can help any of the individuals listed below with sources, contacts, or any other information — or if you know anyone who can — please pass on details to them. Details of other research projects in progress should be sent to the Editor (see page 3) for inclusion here.

Letters of Richard Cobden (1804–65) the national decline of the party with the reality of the situation on Knowledge of the whereabouts of any letters written by Cobden in the ground. The thesis will focus on three geographic regions (Home private hands, autograph collections, and obscure locations in the UK Counties, Midlands and the North West) in order to explore the situation and abroad for a complete edition of his letters. (For further details of the Liberals found themselves in nationally. Research for University of the Cobden Letters Project, please see www.uea.ac.uk/his/research/ Leicester. Supervisor: Dr Stuart Ball. Gavin Freeman ; [email protected]. projects/cobden). Dr Anthony Howe, School of History, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ; [email protected]. The Liberal Party in the West Midlands December 1916 – 1923 election Focusing on the fortunes of the party in Birmingham, Coventry, Walsall The political career of Edward Strutt, 1st and Wolverhampton. Looking to explore the effects of the party split Strutt was Whig/Liberal MP for Derby (1830-49), later Arundel and at local level. Also looking to uncover the steps towards temporary Nottingham; in 1856 he was created Lord Belper and built Kingston reunification for the 1923 general election.Neil Fisher, 42 Bowden Way, Hall (1842-46) in the village of Kingston-on-Soar, Notts. He was a Binley, Coventry CV3 2HU ; [email protected]. friend of Jeremy Bentham and a of free trade and reform, and held government office as Chancellor of the ‘’ and the Liberal (Democrat) Party, 1937–2004 and Commissioner of Railways. Any information, location of papers or A study of the role of ‘economic liberalism’ in the Liberal Party and the references welcome. Brian Smith; [email protected]. Liberal Democrats. Of particular interest would be any private papers relating to 1937’s Ownership For All report and the activities of the Liberal Unionists Unservile State Group. Oral history submissions also welcome. Matthew A study of the as a discrete political entity. Help Francis; [email protected]. with identifying party records before 1903 particularly welcome. Ian Cawood, Newman University Colllege, Birmingham; i.cawood@newman. The Liberal Party’s political communication, 1945–2002 ac.uk. Research on the Liberal party and Lib Dems’ political communication. Any information welcome (including testimonies) about electoral Liberal policy towards Austria-Hungary, 1905–16 campaigns and strategies. Cynthia Messeleka-Boyer, 12 bis chemin Vaysse, Andrew Gardner, 17 Upper Ramsey Walk, Canonbury, London N1 2RP; 81150 Terssac, France; +33 6 10 09 72 46; [email protected]. [email protected]. The political career of , Lord Steel of Aikwood Recruitment of Liberals into the Conservative Party, 1906–1935 David Steel was one of the longest-serving leaders of the Liberal Party Aims to suggest reasons for defections of individuals and develop an and an important figure in the realignment debate of the 1970s and ‘80s understanding of changes in electoral alignment. Sources include that led to the formation of the Liberal Democrats. Author would like to personal papers and newspapers; suggestions about how to get hold of hear from anyone with pertinent or entertaining anecdotes relating to the papers of more obscure Liberal defectors welcome. Cllr Nick Cott, 1a Steel’s life and times, particularly his leadership, or who can point me Henry Street, Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE3 1DQ; [email protected]. towards any relevant source material. David Torrance; davidtorrance@ hotmail.com . Beyond Westminster: Grassroots Liberalism 1910–1929 A study of the Liberal Party at its grassroots during the period in which it The Lib-Lab Pact went from being the party of government to the third party of politics. The period of political co-operation which took place in Britain between This research will use a wide range of sources, including surviving 1977 and 1978; PhD research project at University.Jonny Kirkup, 29 Liberal Party constituency minute books and local press to contextualise Mount Earl, Bridgend, Bridgend County CF31 3EY; [email protected].

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 13 Sheelagh Murnaghan and the Ulster Liberal Party

‘In politics, I don’t know which is the greatest obstacle: to be a woman, a Catholic or a Liberal. I am all three.’ Sheelagh Murnaghan, c. 1961.1 Constance Rynder examines the life and political career of the Ulster Liberal Party’s most successful office holder, the only Liberal to win a seat in the Northern Ireland parliament during its fifty-year existence, Sheelagh Mary Murnaghan (1924– 1993).

14 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 Sheelagh Murnaghan and the Ulster Liberal Party

ntil 1956 the Liberal where she continued to push the the Easter Rising of 1916. In mid- Party in Northern ULP’s programme of reform. 1916 an increasingly desperate IPP Ireland had lain vir- The Murnaghan family was leadership began negotiating with tually dormant since no stranger to Ulster politics. Britain’s Liberal-led coalition gov- the partition of Ire- Sheelagh’s grandfather George ernment over a plan to partition landU in 1921.2 That it re-emerged at Murnaghan, a ‘returned Yank’6 and Ireland as a mechanism for granting all, first as the Ulster Liberal Asso- successful dairy farmer in Omagh, Home Rule immediately.7 As Ulster ciation, owed much to the dynamic had represented Mid-Tyrone at Catholics and nationalists, the Mur- leadership of its co-founder, Albert Westminster from 1895 to 1910 as naghan family vehemently opposed McElroy. A non-subscribing Pres- the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) the exclusion of six northern coun- byterian clergyman3 and former MP. When the Local Government ties from a unified self-governing Northern Ireland Labour Party Act of 1898 finally empowered state. In Omagh, George’s solicitor (NILP) activist, in 1956 he met with the native Irish to elect their own son, George Jr, co-founded the Irish a small group of English Liberals county, urban and district councils, Nation League; he, his father and interested in expanding the Lib- Murnaghan also secured a seat on most of the large Murnaghan family eral revival into Ulster.4 The Ulster the Tyrone County Council from subsequently transferred their alle- Liberal Party’s (ULP) influence on which he wielded considerable giance to a newly reorganised Sinn developments in the early years of regional influence until 1921. Allied Fein Party.8 After the Government the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’, with the British Liberal Party on the of Ireland Act came into full force however, derived in large meas- issue of Home Rule, the IPP took in 1921, the Murnaghans initially ure from its most successful office a constitutional approach to Irish refused to recognise the new holder, Sheelagh Mary Murnaghan national aspirations. Passage of the regime. The Tyrone County Coun- (1924–1993). The only Liberal to third Home Rule Bill in 1912, and cil, as well as other boards and coun- win a seat in the Northern Ireland its anticipated implementation as cils on which George Sr sat, reported parliament (Stormont) during its of 1914, seemed to justify the IPP’s instead to the Dail Eireann in Dub- fifty-year existence, Murnaghan alliance with the Liberals at West- lin until their offices were raided regularly voiced the Liberal agenda minster. Both underestimated the by Belfast authorities.9 Like most there from 1961 to 1969. She hosted depth of opposition coming from Ulster Catholics, especially those visits by British Liberal Party lead- Ulster’s unionist majority; neither in the majority Catholic counties of ers and could anticipate the havoc wreaked Tyrone and Fermanagh, the Mur- and kept in close touch with devel- on Ireland’s political landscape by naghans never quite forgave David opments at Westminster.5 Follow- and its aftermath. Lloyd George and the Liberal Party ing the collapse of Stormont in Suspension of Home Rule for Sheelagh for abandoning them to a Protestant- 1972, Northern Ireland Secretary of the duration of the war led inexo- Murnaghan MP dominated separate state. State William Whitelaw appointed rably to open rebellion by physical with Rev. Albert Given her staunchly national- her to his Advisory Commission force nationalists, beginning with McElroy in 1963. ist heritage, Sheelagh Murnaghan

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 15 sheelagh murnaghan and the ulster seemed an unlikely candidate to experience as the lone practising On four Act. By the early 1960s, long-stand- become the primary standard- female barrister of her day and her ing minority grievances in the prov- bearer for the Ulster Liberal Party. earthy sense of humour ultimately separate ince had begun to draw persistent Yet, early in 1959 she eagerly joined won Murnaghan the respect of her protests from Catholic professionals Albert McElroy in building an ecu- male colleagues. She often joined occasions and social justice advocates. They menical alternative to the sectarian them in the Members’ Bar for cited widespread discrimination in politics of unionism and national- brandy and cigars, swapping yarns between private and public sector employ- ism. A Queen’s University, Belfast and building useful relationships. ment, housing allocations and the (QUB) graduate, practising barris- Ever the individualist, she rarely 1964 and justice system. In addition, ger- ter and former captain of the Irish stood on ceremony, regardless of rymandered electoral boundaries, Ladies’ Hockey Team, Murnaghan the circumstances. For example, as 1968, Mur- especially at the local level, deprived embodied much that typified a there were yet no ‘ladies’ facilities’ naghan the Catholic community of political younger generation of educated, on the business floors of Stormont, influence even in those parts of the middle-class Catholics in North- Murnaghan began using the men’s introduced province where they constituted a ern Ireland. She sought equal treat- loo, persuading the notoriously majority of the citizenry. Unionist ment within the existing state, rather stuffy Attorney General Basil Kelly human rights one-party rule had left the Catholic than an end to partition. In her first to stand guard for her.14 In Sheelagh minority at the mercy of a majoritar- foray into electoral politics, Murna- Murnaghan the ULP had acquired legislation at ian regime. Murnaghan devoted her ghan stood for South Belfast in the both a courageous and a colourful political career to trying to change 1959 Westminster general election. political operator. Stormont. this system, before it was too late to ‘Ulster Liberals’, she told voters, A firm opponent of capital pun- avert violence. ‘are pledged to maintain North- ishment, Murnaghan joined in an On four separate occasions ern Ireland’s constitutional posi- extensive floor debate on its mer- between 1964 and 1968, Murnaghan tion unless a majority of the people its only weeks after delivering her introduced human rights legisla- desire to revise it.’ In addition, the maiden speech at Stormont.15 At the tion at Stormont. In 1963 a mod- ULP supported English Liberal time, Prime Minister of Northern erate Unionist, Captain Terrence goals of greater economic integra- Ireland Lord Brookeborough and O’Neill, replaced the aging hard- tion with Europe, full employment, his government refused to accept in liner Brookeborough as Prime Min- profit-sharing and co-ownership any form the 1962 Nationalist bill ister of Northern Ireland. Reform in industry, and electoral reform.10 to abolish capital punishment. It now seemed possible. In June 1964 Although she garnered only 7.5 per was clear from the debate, however, Murnaghan submitted her first cent of the poll, the sight of a Pres- that several Unionist Human Rights Bill. Modelled on byterian minister out canvassing for resented not being allowed a free the law in Ontario (Canada), and votes along side a Catholic female vote on the bill.16 Murnaghan con- no doubt inspired in part by the candidate made news.11 sidered this an opportunity to gar- Civil Rights Bill recently passed A 1961 QUB by-election for the ner cross-party support for penal by the US Congress, it represented Northern Ireland parliament gave reform, including the abolition of the very first attempt at broad civil Murnaghan and the ULP their first the death penalty. In 1963 she intro- rights legislation within the UK. It electoral success. With its small, duced her own private member’s banned discrimination in employ- well-educated electorate, the QUB bill, hoping the Unionist govern- ment, housing and public facilities constituency afforded women and ment would eventually respond ‘on the basis of race, creed, colour newcomers their best venue for chal- with a proposal of its own. The or political belief.’ The bill rec- lenging entrenched party interests at Homicide and Criminal Responsi- ommended establishing a Human Stormont. Moreover, it was the only bility Bill dealt with various aspects Rights Commission for Northern electoral area to retain proportional of the murder statutes, but its main Ireland. Most Unionist and Nation- representation; Albert McElroy had focus was the elimination of capi- alist MPs boycotted the debate; nearly won one of its four seats in tal punishment.17 Several Unionists only the NI Labour Party showed 1958. Murnaghan’s victory over her spoke in favour of Murnaghan’s bill, much interest.18 Unionist opponent in a straight fight but, once again, the government In February of 1966 Murnaghan spurred the creation of new Liberal refused to allow a free vote. Two again brought essentially the same associations across the province.12 It years later, however, the govern- bill before the Northern Ireland also guaranteed the ULP a voice at ment did introduce similar legisla- House of Commons. Reflecting the centre of political power for over tion, retaining the death penalty the British Liberal Party platform a decade. Murnaghan held her seat mainly for the murder of a police as well as recent legislation in the easily through the next two general office or prison warden. Murna- United States, it also included a elections, losing it only through the ghan’s strategy of pressuring the clause on equal pay for women.19 A abolition of the university constitu- government to take action seemed Labour government held power at ency in 1969. to have paid off in this instance. Westminster, some of whose party Already accustomed to being While Murnaghan’s goals encom- members now actively supported a woman in a man’s world, Mur- passed most of the Liberal Party the struggle for minority rights in naghan did not hesitate to take agenda, the special circumstances of Northern Ireland. More Nation- the initiative with her Stormont Northern Ireland led her to concen- alist and Unionist MPs felt com- brethren. She brought to her par- trate most of her efforts on introduc- pelled to show up for this debate, liamentary debates the aggressive ing civil rights legislation, pressing including the Minister for Home no-nonsense style of a former Irish for electoral reform, and calling for Affairs, Brian McConnell. While Hockey International.13 Her legal repeal of the 1922 Special Powers no longer denying the existence

16 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 sheelagh murnaghan and the ulster liberal party of discrimination, he argued that constituency boundaries to guaran- form of PR in a multimember con- education was the remedy, and tee Unionist majorities on all but a stituency. ‘It ensures that the ordi- such ‘unnecessary legislation would handful of small district councils. 25 nary elector has a choice and an be largely unenforceable.’20 Solid All attempts to draw Westminster’s effective vote in any election.’27 PR/ Unionist opposition doomed the attention to this flagrant disregard STV still prevailed in the QUB Stor- bill to defeat, 26–9. Faced with the for the terms of the 1919 Act were mont constituency, and Murnaghan government’s apparent intransi- stymied by a Speaker’s ruling disal- was well aware of its potential for gence on this issue, Murnaghan lowing debate on any internal matter representing various minorities. threatened to seek a remedy directly in Northern Ireland. Since World War II, for example, from Westminster. After World War II Stormont QUB had returned four of only five Before bringing her bill forward created a new Northern Ireland newly elected female Stormont MPs: for a third time in February 1967, Housing Authority to build gov- two Independents, one of them the Murnaghan redrafted it, removing ernment houses whose allocation first Catholic woman MP; one Lib- criminal penalties for violations. they placed in the hands of local eral; and one Unionist. Elitist though Instead she placed more author- councils. By the late 1950s, civil the university franchise seemed, this ity with a five-member Human rights advocates, including Murna- electoral anomaly afforded female Rights Commission to investigate ghan, pointed to blatant discrimi- political practitioners their best vehi- and adjudicate a documented case nation by Protestant-controlled cle for breaking into the patriarchal of unjust discrimination.21 She had local housing authorities, especially power structure at Stormont. hopes that Prime Minister O’Neill those in the West. Unionist coun- Murnaghan got the govern- might accept some form of civil cillors regularly denied Catholics ment’s response to this suggested rights legislation this time. The access to these homes as a means reform in March 1966. O’Neill’s intensification of political and civil of maintaining exclusive politi- administration proposed to abol- unrest in Northern Ireland during cal control over majority-Catholic ish the QUB constituency, since the preceding year had increased areas. Allocation of council hous- it allowed QUB graduates a plu- Westminster’s scrutiny of O’Neill’s ing also meant allocation of voting ral vote. No mention was made of administration. Frustrated with the rights: only householders and busi- applying the same principle to the slow pace of reform, Labour Prime ness owners could exercise the local business and property vote in local Minister sum- franchise; all other adults – many or parliamentary elections, a system moned O’Neill to Downing Street living in overcrowded Catholic long abandoned elsewhere in the in January of 1967 and warned him ghettos – were excluded. From its UK but still prevailing in Ulster. of potential direct intervention.22 inception the ULP called for the She suspected that the motive was O’Neill’s modest attempts at rap- restoration of PR for local elections, not reform and a fairer distribution prochement with the Catholic com- universal adult suffrage at the age of of seats; rather, the Unionist Party munity, however, had produced a eighteen, and the centralisation of could no longer count on holding a backlash from Unionist backbench- public housing allocations based on majority of the four QUB seats. She ers as well as from the Rev. Ian Pais- a points system.26 did not necessarily oppose the aboli- ley and his ultra-loyalist followers. In concert with their British tion of her constituency, but unless Faced with a weakened grip on Liberal colleagues, the ULP and the government applied this policy the party leadership, he declined Murnaghan also advocated PR for to all levels of plural voting, ‘the to consider Murnaghan’s revised national elections. From the Liberal Government will stand indicted as a Human Rights Bill in any form, point of view, the first-past-the- Government which is not prepared and the House voted along party The ULP post approach in Britain had led to to implement democratic princi- lines (24–7).23 When she brought a virtual two-party parliamentary ples, except where it happens to be the bill to the House for a fourth monthly system, excluding smaller par- for the convenience of the ruling and final time in January 1968, the ties from any meaningful input on party.’28 Piecemeal ‘reform’ was no outcome was nearly the same (22– newsletter, government policy. In Northern substitute for the real thing. 8).24 It would be more than thirty Ireland the elimination of PR and In the March 1966 Westminster years before a Bill of Rights again Northern multi-member districts for Stor- election, Murnaghan carried the received such a thorough airing in mont elections in 1929 produced a ULP banner in North Down. She a Northern Ireland legislative body. Radical, permanent Unionist Party majori- entered the contest just two weeks Directly related to civil rights, tarian government. The biggest prior to polling day in order to pre- the issue of local and national gov- crowed that loser after 1929 turned out to be vent the seat from going unchal- ernment electoral reform loomed the NILP. Nevertheless, National- lenged. With no election address large on the ULP agenda. Under Murnaghan ist MPs saw it as more evidence that and a severe shortage of canvass- the terms of the 1919 Local Govern- got more they and their constituents had been ers, she nonetheless took 21.4 per ment (Ireland) Act, county, urban banished to the political wilderness. cent of the vote. The ULP monthly and district councils were elected by votes in The Unionist Party had, indeed, newsletter, Northern Radical, crowed PR. Under this system many local succeeded in blocking any future that Murnaghan got more votes in councils in the west of Northern North Down alliance between the Protestant and North Down than British party Ireland returned Nationalist majori- Catholic working classes, but in so leader Jo Grimond did in his Scot- ties in 1920, including those led by than British doing, perpetuated the bitter sectar- tish constituency.29 Sheelagh Murnaghan’s forebearers in ian divisions that plagued Northern Murnaghan and the ULP wel- Co. Tyrone. In response, the Union- party leader Ireland political life thereafter. comed the organisation of the civil ist government abolished PR for In particular, Murnaghan argued rights movement into the Northern local elections in 1922, and redrew Jo Grimond. for a Single Transferable Vote (STV) Ireland Civil Rights Association

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 17 sheelagh murnaghan and the ulster liberal party

(NICRA) in January of 1967. Its The Stormont that there was no evidence that either that threatened O’Neill’s hold on thirteen-member steering commit- Parliament was engaging in unlawful activities. political power. He called a snap tee included representation from the ‘The Minister in taking this step,’ election for 24 February 1969, hop- ULP, and its broad objectives mir- she told the House, ‘has been actu- ing to capitalise on popular sup- rored much of the ULP agenda.30 ated more by concern for the peace port outside the party rank and file. Initially, the NICRA embraced and good order of his own party Instead, it split the party into pro- a cause especially dear to Murna- than for the peace, order and good and anti-O’Neill factions across the ghan’s heart: the plight of itinerant government of Northern Ireland as province, and failed to provide the or ‘gypsy’ communities. She had a whole.’32 mandate he had hoped for. Her QUB already founded the cross-commu- Worse still in Murnaghan’s esti- seat now gone, Murnaghan con- nity Assisi Fellowship to combat mation was the provision in the tested the North Down seat, but lost abuse by local officials and to lobby Special Powers Act allowing for decisively to her Unionist opponent. for accommodations for itinerants. arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of Murnaghan’s career as an elected In speech after speech on the floor of individuals without trial or judicial official came to an end, but not her the Commons Murnaghan chided oversight. This, together with entry service to the ULP or to the strug- the Unionist Government for fail- into private homes without a war- gle to guarantee individual and civil ing to provide these families with rant, constituted ‘a direct infringe- rights to all of Ulster’s citizens. secure caravan sites, basic facilities ment on personal liberty’ that was In May 1969 James Chichester- and protection from harassment. ‘unjustifiable in any circumstances.’33 Clark replaced O’Neill as prime After leaving Stormont, she chaired The fact that historically the govern- minister. The summer ‘marching the Belfast Itinerant Settlement ment had applied the act exclusively season’ plunged dozens of Northern Committee formed in 1969, and to one segment of the population Ireland communities into uncon- helped to establish St Paul’s School only served to bring Northern trolled mob violence and the Wil- for travelling children.31 Ireland into disrepute. Indeed, as son government was forced to send Of immediate concern to Mur- recently as 1956–1961, then-Home in troops to restore order. Northern naghan, her QUB constituents and Affairs Minister Ireland had now clearly entered the NICRA, however, was the had used it to combat the IRA dur- a new phase of what came to be Unionist government’s use of the ing its so-called ‘border campaign’,34 known as the ‘Troubles’. To avoid Special Powers Act to curtail dis- and he continued to believe that further erosion of its prerogatives, sent. Created in 1922 as a tempo- internment, rather than lack of sup- Stormont hastily created a new rary weapon against the IRA, the port from the wider Catholic com- Ministry of Community Relations Special Powers Act became perma- munity, had ended that campaign. with the vague remit of reducing nent in 1933. It granted the Minister Against such a background, Murna- tensions between Protestant and of Home Affairs authority to ban ghan, the ULP and the British Lib- Catholic working-class neighbour- meetings, parades, publications and eral Party demanded the repeal of hoods. Murnaghan served on its organisations whenever he deemed the Special Powers Act.35 Community Relations Commis- it necessary. Sinn Fein had long been As the NICRA and the radical sion (CRC) from 1969 until the proscribed, but, beginning early in student movement at Queen’s Uni- collapse of Stormont in 1972. CRC 1967, O’Neill’s Home Affairs Min- versity grew more confrontational chair Maurice Hayes remembered ister, William Craig, also banned in their protests after 1967, the old her as ‘one of the few truly liberal all republican clubs. Like the ULP, Nationalist Party slowly disinte- voices around,’ and one of the best- republican clubs had representation grated, unable to find a viable alter- informed members of the com- on the NICRA steering commit- native to street level civil rights mission. ‘Had she been heeded to tee as well as at QUB. Murnaghan activism.36 Pressed by Paisley’s sec- at any time in the sixties,’ he later objected to the ban on both Sinn Fein tarian loyalists, the Unionist Party reflected, ‘most of the demands and republican clubs on the grounds underwent further internal dissent of the civil rights movement

18 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 sheelagh murnaghan and the ulster liberal party would have been anticipated and wholesale violation of human rights indicated a willingness to phase out dealt with, and much conflict and ran counter to everything Murna- internment once the power-sharing destruction and death might have ghan stood for, both as a Liberal and executive was established.42 been avoided.’37 as a practising barrister. In a small At the SDLP’s insistence, the Murnaghan continued to write personal gesture, she foreswore her plan also called for an ill-defined position statements for the Northern two favourite vices, brandy and ‘Irish Dimension’ in the form of a Radical, the ULP’s monthly newspa- cigars, for the duration.40 Over the North/South Council of Ireland. per. She spoke publicly against both next several months anti-intern- Details of its role were to be ham- paramilitary violence and Unionist ment rallies, many organised by mered out by the power-sharing government policies. Her ongoing the NICRA, brought increased executive headed by Brian Faulkner high profile made her a target: in confrontation with authorities. and SDLP leader , which February of 1970 her South Belfast The tragic climax came in Derry came together in the wake of home was bombed, a hole blasted in City on 30 January 1972 when Brit- the December 1973 Sunningdale the front wall and most of the win- ish paratroopers fired on a largely Agreement. The Council of Ireland dows shattered. The Royal Ulster peaceful group of protesters, killing provision reflected ULP President Constabulary (RUC) never identi- thirteen unarmed people. ‘Bloody McElroy’s long-cherished dream of fied the perpetrators. Murnaghan Sunday’ brought to an end the now a future united Ireland within the herself speculated that the attack largely dysfunctional Stormont British Commonwealth.43 Murna- could have been staged by either government. ghan, however, saw in it little more republican or loyalist paramili- After the imposition of direct than some possibilities for economic taries. In any case, she told report- rule from London in March 1972, and security coordination with the ers, ‘nobody is going to force me out William Whitelaw, the new North- Republic. She rightly feared that of my house.’38 ern Ireland Secretary, appointed raising the old border issue at this The election of a Conserva- Murnaghan to his Advisory Com- time could undermine unionist sup- tive government in Britain under mission. In many respects, this port for power sharing. She did not Edward in 1970 lessened presented her with her best oppor- Internment even mention it in her subsequent Westminster’s reform pressure tunity sell the ULP’s reform pro- campaign literature.44 on Stormont. At the same time, it gram. A Unionist government at outraged Meanwhile, elections for the inadvertently enabled the newly Stormont could – and did – reject new Northern Ireland Assembly organised Provisional Irish Repub- ULP recommendations out of hand; Murnaghan. took place in June 1973. Murnaghan lican Army (PIRA) to assert greater London dared not, if it hoped for contested one of the South Belfast control over the civil rights strug- a workable political solution to Reports, seats, but neither she nor the only gle. The following spring, hard- the Troubles and an expeditious other ULP candidate, Berkley Farr, liner Brian Faulkner succeeded exit from the province. Whitelaw later veri- fared well.45 By this time, much Chichester-Clark as Northern invited ideas from across the politi- fied, soon of their middle-class and liberal Ireland prime minister. Security cal spectrum. This included three unionist support had migrated to concerns now trumped political new political parties organised emerged of the APNI, which took eight seats reform as a solution to the escalat- in 1970–71 as well as the rump of in the 78-member Assembly.46 To ing violence. Backed by the Con- the UP. The Social Democrat and gross mis- all intents and purposes, the APNI servative government, Faulkner Labour Party (SDLP) in essence had replaced the ULP as the cross- imposed internment without trial, replaced the Nationalists and treatment of community, centrist party of choice beginning in August 1971. Rely- the NILP. The Alliance Party of in Northern Ireland. The collapse ing on flawed RUC intelligence, Northern Ireland (APNI), a cross- some detain- of the power-sharing executive the British army ‘lifted’ hundreds community centrist group, drew less than a year later rendered moot of suspected republican terrorists, initially from people with little pre- ees … Such even the role of the APNI for the many of them civil rights activists vious history of party affiliation, time being. It also dashed Murna- with no connection to the PIRA. except for long-time ULP member a wholesale ghan’s hopes for an early resolu- These included key members of .41 Ian Paisley’s ultra- tion to the Troubles. Her vision of the NICRA. Despite widespread loyalist Democratic Unionist Party violation of a just society in which Protestants loyalist paramilitary violence, no (DUP), however, refused to partici- and Catholics could live together Protestant was interned before 1973. pate. These new groupings signalled human rights in peace would not be realised in Near-total alienation of the Catho- a fundamental realignment of party her lifetime. Of her years as a ULP lic community predictably fol- politics in Northern Ireland. ran counter politician dedicated to constitu- lowed, as did increased recruitment Whitelaw’s government White tional reform, she later remarked: for the PIRA. Paper on Northern Ireland - to every- ‘Nobody could have a greater sense Internment outraged Murna- lished in March 1973 embodied thing Murna- of failure than I have.’47 ghan. Reports, later verified, soon much of what Murnaghan had lob- Murnaghan returned to her emerged of gross mistreatment bied for on the Commission and ghan stood career as a barrister. She went on of some detainees. In addition throughout the preceding decade: to chair the National Insurance to severe beatings, interrogators a standing Commission for Human for, both as a and Industrial Relations Tribunals. employed the so-called ‘five tech- Rights, and a Fair Employment Still an unabashed individualist, she niques’ to extract confessions and Agency; a PR/STV electoral sys- Liberal and regularly brought her mixed-breed information. They included wall tem for a broader provincial legis- dog Brandy to hearings, slipping standing, hooding, sleep depriva- lature, with an eighteen-year-old as a practis- him treats under the table to guar- tion, white noise and the with- voting age; and a power-sharing antee his silence. 48 In 1983 Murna- holding of food and drink.39 Such a executive. In addition, Whitelaw ing barrister. ghan adjudicated the very first case

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 19 sheelagh murnaghan and the ulster liberal party of sexual harassment heard in emigrated to the US at the age Unionism in the O’Neill Years, grandfather George. Seeing in the UK. Her decision in that of twenty, where he established 1960–9 (London: Macmillan, Devlin much potential, she tried landmark case set a precedent several successful businesses in St 2000), pp. 147–148. to persuade her to tone down her that other labour courts and Louis, Missouri and became a US 23 NIHC, vol. 65, col. 937 (7 Febru- militancy, clearly to no avail. tribunals in Ireland and the UK citizen. He returned to Ireland ary 1967). McGinley, DVD interview with would subsequently follow.49 with his young family in 1887, 24 Ibid., vol. 68, cols 573–592, passim Fr Reid. Meanwhile, she continued her making him part of a tiny cadre (30 January 1968). 37 Hayes, Minority Verdict, p. 81. crusade for the humane treat- of former Irish émigrés known 25 Thomas Hennessey, A History of 38 Newsletter, 10 February 1970; ment of itinerants. In 1988 she then as ‘returned Yanks’. Northern Ireland, 1920–1996 (Dub- author’s interview with Colette was awarded an OBE for her 7 Jonathan Bardon, A History of lin: Gill & Macmillan, 1997), pp. Murnaghan (Sheelagh’s sister), outstanding service to the peo- Ulster (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 44–50. 14 May 2006, London, U.K. ple of Northern Ireland. Sadly, 2005), p. 453. 26 Murnaghan letter to Electors of 39 In 1972 the Irish govern- Sheelagh Murnaghan died of 8 See the Ulster Herald, 5 and 19 South Belfast, 1959, ULP Papers, ment brought the issue before lung cancer in 1993, too soon to August, 9 September, 16 Septem- PRONI. See also NIHC for vari- the European Commission of witness the 1998 Peace Accord ber 1916; 16 September, 17 Octo- ous speeches on this subject. Human Rights. For an analy- that finally brought an end to ber 1917. 27 NIHC, vol. 62, col. 1499 (1 sis of the case and its outcome, the bloody mayhem she had 9 Ulster Herald, 10 and 17 Decem- March 1966). In this electoral see R. J. Spjut, ‘Torture Under fought so hard to prevent. ber 1921. system, voters rank the can- the European Convention on 10 Open letter to the Electors of didates in order of preference. Human Rights’, The Ameri- Constance Rynder is Professor of South Belfast, 1959, ULP Papers, When a candidate receives suf- can Journal of International Law, History (Emerita) at the University Public Record Office of North- ficient first-preference ballots to vol. 73, no. 2 (April 1979), pp. of Tampa. She specialises in Irish, ern Ireland (PRONI). win the first seat, any additional 267–272. British and women’s history. She is 11 Gillespie, McElroy, p. 19. votes for that candidate are trans- 40 Author’s interview with Anne currently examining the influence of 12 Ibid., p. 21. ferred to the voter’s second pref- Dickson, 10 July 2000, Greenis- ‘returned Yanks’ on early twenti- 13 Maurice Hayes, Minority Verdict: erence on a percentage basis, and land, Co. Antrim. eth-century Irish politics. Experiences of a Catholic Public a new round of counting is done. 41 Sydney Elliot and W. D. Flackes, Servant (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, This process continues until all Northern Ireland: A Political Direc- 1 Quoted by Jeremy Thorpe in his 1995), p. 81. seats are filled. tory (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, letter to the editor of The Times, 14 So relates Anne Dickson, Mur- 28 NIHC, vol. 62, col. 2019 (15 1999), pp. 156–157. Napier had 22 September 1993. naghan’s close friend and the March 1966). supported McElroy’s bid for a 2 In 1929 a briefly revived Liberal only female MP in the last 29 Northern Radical, March–April QUB seat in 1958, and joined Association put up candidates in Stormont parliament. See Con- 1966, ULP Papers, PRONI; Farr, the ULP shortly thereafter. See both the Westminster and Stor- stance B. Rynder, ‘Sheelagh ‘Liberalism’, p. 31. Oliver J. Napier to Albert McEl- mont elections, but faded from Murnaghan and the Struggle for 30 Bob Purdie, Politics in the Streets: roy, 12 March 1958, in McEl- view soon after. Berkley Farr, Human Rights in Northern Ire- The Origins of the Civil Rights roy Papers, PRONI. He led the ‘Liberalism in Unionist North- land’, Irish Studies Review, 14, no. Movement in Northern Ireland APNI 1972–1984. ern Ireland’, Journal of Liberal 4 (November 2006), esp. p. 457 (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1990), 42 Ian McAllister, ‘The Democrat History, 33 (Winter and n. 76. Ch. 4. Posted on the CAIN of Opposition: The Collapse 2001–2), pp. 29–30. 15 In keeping with tradition, Mur- (Conflict Archives on the Inter- of the 1974 Northern Ireland 3 Members of this Irish denomi- naghan gave her maiden speech net) Web Service: cain.ulst.ac.uk Executive’, Eire-Ireland, 12, no. 3 nation refuse to subscribe to the on a non-controversial subject: 31 According to fellow itinerant (Autumn 1977), p. 34. Westminster Confession of Faith, rate relief for amateur sports advocate Father Alex Reid, her 43 Gilllespie, McElroy, p. 18. and take a distinctly liberal and clubs. She had continued to play tireless lobbying forced local 44 Sheelagh Murnaghan, ‘The tolerant approach to Christianity. hockey until 1958 and thereafter authorities to begin addressing White Paper’, Northern Radi- 4 Gordon Gillespie, Albert McEl- refereed hockey matches when the problem. Nick McGinley cal, February 1973, ULP Papers, roy: The Radical Minister, 1915– time permitted. Hansard, North- (nephew of Sheelagh Murna- PRONI. 1975 (Albert McElroy Memorial ern Ireland House of Commons ghan), DVD interview with 45 Each garnered about 1 per cent of Fund, 1985), p. 17. McElroy led Debates (NIHC), vol. 50, col. Father Reid. No date. the vote. Farr, ‘Liberalism’, p. 32, the ULP until his death in 1975. 153–156 (7 December 1962). 32 NIHC, vol. 66, col. 184 (16 n. 26. 5 Both Grimond and Thorpe 16 NIHC, vol. 50, especially cols. March 1967). 46 35 per cent of the ULP mem- were stationed in Northern 1397–1416 (6 February 1962). 33 Ibid., vol. 64, cols. 72–73 (7 June bership was Catholic, and a few Ireland during their army serv- 17 Ibid., vol. 55, cols. 960–1006 (19 1966). of them may have joined the ice; Thorpe’s grandfather had November 1963). 34 Richard English, Armed Struggle: SDLP. However, an analysis been a Church of Ireland arch- 18 Ibid., vol. 57, cols. 1990–1996 (16 The History of the IRA (Oxford: of the transfer votes from the deacon and of Dundalk. June 1964). Oxford University Press, 2003), 1973 Assembly elections makes See Northern Radical (NI Young 19 Peter Barberis, ‘The 1964 Gen- p. 73. it clear that the bulk of former Liberal Newsletter), February eral Election and the Liberals’ 35 Belfast Telegraph, 7 February 1969; Liberal backers were now voting 1967, UPL Papers, Public Record False Dawn’, Contemporary British Newsletter, 17 February 1969. for the APNI. Northern Radical, Office of Northern Ireland History, vol. 21 (September 2007), 36 Among Murnaghan’s QUB June 1969, ULP Papers, PRONI; (PRONI). They visited North- p. 379. constituents was Bernadette Gillespie, McElroy, p. 35. ern Ireland during the 1960s, and 20 NIHC, vol. 62, col. 740 (8 Febru- Devlin, a NICRA activist and 47 McGinley, notes on his DVD. Murnaghan attended the annual ary 1966). co-founder of the leftist Peo- 48 Telegraph obituary, 14 September Liberal Party Conference in 21 Northern Radical, February 1967, ple’s Democracy. In an odd 1993. Britain. ULP Papers, PRONI. twist of fate, Devlin won a 1969 49 See Rynder, ‘Murnaghan’, pp. 6 Part of an impoverished County 22 Marc Mulholland, Northern by-election for the Westminster 454–457 for details of this prece- Down family, in 1867 George Ireland at the Crossroads: Ulster seat once held by Murnaghan’s dent-setting case.

20 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 letters

gender-balanced leadership to incapacitate him for the rest outperform those with male- of his life. He died in 1912 and Letters dominated leadership) was my grandfather married Mrs foreshadowed by Mill as long Chamberlain in 1915. They Mill and Morley ago as 1869: ‘In all things of moved to London because In his article, ‘John Stuart attachment’. Over a period of any difficulty and importance, he was appointed Canon and Mill and the Liberal Party’, months he wrote a series of those who can do them well are sub-Dean of Westminster and in the spring issue of the Jour- tributes, totalling over forty fewer than the need, even with Chaplain to the House of Com- nal of Liberal History, Eugenio thousand words, for the Fort- the most unrestricted latitude mons. They lived in 17 Deans Biagini reminds us that John nightly Review. For Morley, of choice: and any limitation of Yard, now, I believe, the home Morley, ‘one of Gladstone’s Mill’s distinctive vision was the field of selection deprives of the Headmaster of Westmin- most enthusiastic collaborators the union ‘of stern science with society of some chances of ster School, where Canon and and his greatest biographer’ infinite aspiration, of rigorous being served by the competent, the new Mrs Carnegie liked to was so closely associated with sense of what is real and practi- without ever saving it from the hold political dinner parties, Mill’s intellectual legacy that cable with bright and luminous incompetent’. but as far as I know, because of he was called ‘Mr Mill’s rep- hope’. He described On Liberty How much longer until pol- Joe’s change of allegiance from resentative on earth.’ This is as ‘one of the most aristocratic iticians in Mill’s former constit- Liberal to Liberal Unionist to cited as evidence of the close books ever written’, and quoted uency of Westminster catch up Tory, the guests were only ever link between Mill’s thinking from it Mill’s elitist belief that with their insightful forebear? Tory ministers or prime minis- and Gladstonian Liberalism in a successful democracy Dinti Batstone ters. However, my grandfather but it would surely be wrong ‘the Sovereign Many’ must was often criticised for some to put too much weight on a allow themselves to be guided of the left-of-centre views he joke (albeit a very funny one), by ‘a more highly gifted and Chamberlain’s relatives expressed in his sermons, par- clearly designed to ridicule the instructed One or by Few’. Paul Tilsley’s interesting article ticularly in the aftermath of the notorious agnosticism of both Morley saw his role as a writer about Birmingham (Journal of First World War. Mill and Morley. and editor as contributing to Liberal History 70, spring 2011), Sadly I never attended any There is of course no doubt this task of guidance. Only and the photograph of High- of those occasions. My grand- about the deep reverence that later did he feel the need to bury Hall, prompted a number father died in 1936, before I Morley felt for Mill, but it is play a more active part in par- of family memories. was born, and although my important to bear the timescale liamentary politics, finding in My family has well over step-grandmother remained in mind. Morley’s acquaintance Gladstone a father-figure who a century of links with Bir- remarkably spry and interest- with Mill covered only the last to some extent replaced Mill. mingham. For a start, anyone ing for another 21 years, I eight years of the older man’s Incidentally I wonder with the surname Chamber- never felt old enough to discuss life, up to his death at Avignon whether Sue Donnelly, whose lain, Slade, Beale or Kenrick is politics with her, although she in 1873. This was ten years article described the appall- likely to be related to us on my quite frequently used to refer before Morley was first elected ing way in which Mill’s papers father’s side and, as if that were to , calling to parliament as a Gladstonian were treated after his death, not enough, my grandfather him ‘Uncle Joe’ because of his Liberal, and thirty years before knows that offered on my mother’s side, himself a relationship to our family on he published his Life of Glad- to help Helen Taylor to edit widower with five daughters my father’s side. stone. The Morley whom Mill them, ‘to repay a trifle of the at the time, married Joseph As history relates only too knew was not a parliamentary debt I owe … to one whose Chamberlain’s widow, the third well, there were a number of politician but the radical young memory will always be as pre- Mrs Chamberlain. My grand- Chamberlains in politics in the editor of the Fortnightly Review, cious to me as to a son’. mother had died very young in Conservative Party over the in which he published articles Patrick Jackson 1905, leaving my grandfather years but, as far as I know, in by an impressive list of contrib- with five daughters. He was our unusually linked family not utors (including Frederic Har- a very tall, good-looking but a single active Liberal politi- rison, Leslie Stephen, and T.H. Mill and equality impoverished Protestant Irish cian between the original Lib- Huxley) as well as many articles Alan Butt Philip’s ‘John Stuart clergyman who came to Bir- eral Joseph Chamberlain and that the editor wrote himself. Mill as politician’ (Journal of mingham with his daughters myself. Nor has there been one Morley, then nearly 27, was Liberal History 70, spring 2011) in 1905 as rector of St Philip’s since. Not much of a political introduced to Mill at the end of rightly stresses Mill’s creden- Church, near Highbury. In dynasty, I am afraid, but a small 1865 and became a regular guest tials as a ‘thoroughly modern this capacity he got to know fragment of Liberal Democrat at the Blackheath dinner parties man’. Re-reading The Subjec- the Chamberlains well. The party history perhaps. where the philosopher enter- tion of Women last summer, I Chamberlains had married in Adrian Slade tained friends and disciples. was struck how Mill’s impas- 1887 when she was 23 and he Two years later, when Morley sioned arguments focused not was 51. Joe Chamberlain was a was about to visit the United only on equality, but also on wealthy man and Mary Endi- Liberal peerages States, Mill introduced him to efficiency, describing women’s cott, his third wife, was equally Reading in J. Graham Jones’ Emerson as ‘one of our best and subordination as ‘one of the comfortable in her own right excellent ‘Archie and Clem’ most rising periodical writers chief hindrances to human because she was the daughter of article (Journal of Liberal 70, on serious subjects’. improvement’. the Governor of Massachusetts. spring 2011) of Archie Sin- When Mill died in 1873 What is nowadays known They lived in style in Highbury clair’s long wait for a peerage Morley described him to his as the ‘business case’ for gender Hall. – Churchill was never likely sister as ‘the one living person balance (research by Catalyst, Soon after my grandfather to deny his companion in the for whom I have an absolutely McKinsey and others show- first met them Joe Chamberlain unalloyed veneration and ing that businesses with had the serious stroke that was – concluded on page 51

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 21 Cheltenham’s Liberal history

Cheltenham’s elegant spa reputation and Cotswold hinterland means that it is often assumed to be a natural Tory seat, the current run of five Liberal Democrat victories presumably something of an aberration. From a historical perspective, this is quite wrong. Always an essentially urban constituency,

Cheltenham has rarely he individuals who sat by-election contest ensued between been a safe Tory seat, on the green benches the ‘gallant sailor’ George Cran- for the town have been field Berkeley for the Whigs and the and the tally of MPs an extraordinary cast of Duke of Beaufort’s Tory candidate since 1832 is now characters, only occa- William Bromley Chester. £100,000 sionallyT involved in great affairs of is said to have been spent on sweet- nine Tories to nine in state but reflecting the changing ening the few thousand electors – a nature of politics and parliamen- staggering sum for the time. Ches- the Liberal tradition tary representation over the last two ter won 2,919 votes, narrowly beat- centuries. For the Journal, I have ing Berkeley who polled 2,873. But with one fascinating inevitably concentrated on the Lib- Berkeley succeeded before long. He independent. And eral MPs but a full profile of each was elected in 1783 and on a further member is available on my website seven occasions, one of the thirty many of the Tories at www.martinhorwood.net/past_ members of the family to represent MPs.html. Gloucestershire in parliament over were distinctly urban the centuries. in flavour with new The Berkeley family’s presence Berkeleys and Beauforts in Gloucestershire dates back to money and social Cheltenham Before 1832, Cheltenham had no MP Norman times with the original Promenade of its own but was represented by charter for Berkeley Castle and the reform cropping up showing the two county members for Gloucester- title of baron granted by Henry II as recurring themes. Boer War . Polls and party allegiances are in 1117 to the merchant Robert Fit- Memorial. first mentioned in the seventeenth zHarding, probably in return for Martin Horwood MP (Image © Ian Rob; century and the first recorded votes generous loans to the king. Robert’s licensed under the were in the 1776 by-election held son Maurice married Alice de Ber- examines Cheltenham’s Creative Commons in the turbulent reign of George III keley and their descendants still live Liberal history. Attribution-Share Alike after the Tory incumbent entered in the castle today. The family’s gift 2.0 Generic Licence) the House of Lords. A furious for politics helped them navigate

22 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 Cheltenham’s Liberal history

rebellions, civil wars and dynastic He certainly didn’t share Close’s unseat him on grounds of ‘bribing changes. The ninth Lord Berkeley disapproval of racing, theatre and and treating’. The evidence was not was given an earldom by Charles II drink and when Close called him difficult to gather and parliament’s and raised to the Privy Council by ‘an atheist, an infidel and a scoffer liberal majority voted to unseat him. James II but nevertheless emerged at religion’,1 Craven threatened to The subsequent by-election was won on the winning side in the Glorious sue him for slander. Close probably by Craven, but he was promptly Revolution. By the early nineteenth felt vindicated after Craven’s elec- unseated on petition for exactly the century, more than twenty Ber- tion when he proposed an amend- same reason as Jones. The two fought keleys had already been Glouces- ment to Sunday pub opening hours each other again in 1852 in what tershire MPs, including William which would have removed clos- must have been a particularly bit- ‘Fitz’ Berkeley who was elected in ing time. A passionate liberal, Cra- ter campaign. Craven won, but this 1810 but narrowly escaped being ven couched even his argument was to be his last election. He died in unseated on the grounds that he was for more drinking time in terms of Carlsbad in Germany in 1855, still an actually the high-living fifth Earl’s solidarity with working people and MP but aged just fifty. illegitimate son, his glamorous wife consistently supported extending When Craven was unseated on Mary having been an unmarried the franchise. Perhaps he always had petition in 1848, Berkeley Castle maidservant at the time of his birth. his own mother’s modest origins in suddenly needed a new candidate Cheltenham’s reputation as a the back of his mind. to keep the seat warm. Step forward fashionable spa resort was by this Craven was re-elected in 1835 cousin Grenville, who narrowly time well established, and the town against token opposition from a won the by-election and then gra- finally gained its own parliamen- Radical candidate. His election ciously stood aside for the return- tary representation in the Great campaigns were boisterous affairs ing Craven at the following general Reform Act of 1832. The very first involving entertainment, march- election in 1852, despite having election was unopposed, the seat ing bands decked out in his orange been appointed a whip in the mean- going to yet another member of and green colours, and several small time. He then secured his own elec- the ubiquitous Whig family: Fitz’s riots. He defeated serious Tory tion as MP for Evesham but, when younger (and unquestionably legiti- opponents in 1837 and 1841, but was Craven died, Grenville yet again mate) brother. defeated in 1847 by Sir Willoughby responded to the family’s call and Jones – the only Tory ever to beat resigned his Evesham seat to stand him at the polls – after tactlessly in Cheltenham. Whether in sympa- An atheist, an infidel and a drawing attention to the mortality thy for the family, through his own scoffer at religion rate in Cheltenham during a parlia- talents or simply by outspending his Craven Berkeley, Cheltenham’s first mentary debate on public health. It bank manager opponent, he secured MP, could politely be called a bit of was an important issue to raise but a whopping 81 per cent of the vote a character. The twelfth child of the potentially devastating for the spa at this second by-election. Hav- fifth Earl of Berkeley and his former town’s tourist trade. ing caused a third by-election, in maidservant Mary Cole, Craven Evesham, by resigning there, he sat reached the rank of captain in the for Cheltenham for less than a year Life Guards and was brother to four Passing rich and gloriously Craven before forcing yet another by-elec- previous Gloucestershire MPs. He drunk tion by accepting office was also accused of guarding the Jones interrupted an otherwise con- Berkeley, of Commissioner of Customs. door of a London bookshop while tinuous thirty-year run of Berkeley Chelten- Grenville was succeeded by his brother horsewhipped the Tory domination following an election his cousin Francis, a captain in the proprietor for publishing a bad ‘in which money was spent like no ham’s first Royal Horse Guards and nick- review of his book. He fought a duel other’ and ‘every man who had a named ‘the Giant’. Cheltenham’s against the Tory MP for Chippen- vote and was willing to sell it was MP, could third Berkeley MP was the son of ham but both missed twice. Before passing rich for many days after, one of Craven’s older but illegiti- he was even elected, Craven had not to say gloriously drunk also.’2 politely be mate brothers, Admiral Sir Mau- also crossed swords (metaphorically) Perhaps the Berkeleys were sore los- rice Berkeley, who was already MP with ‘the Pope of Cheltenham’, the ers, but no sooner had the Norfolk called a bit of for nearby Gloucester. Francis, by formidable evangelical Anglican been elected than he found now Colonel Berkeley, faced no and arch-Tory Dean Francis Close. himself fighting off a petition to a character. Tory opposition in the subsequent

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 23 cheltenham’s liberal history

1857 general election since they, in 1867. In 1886, he completed the fifty-four years, but his tenure was like him, supported Palmerston’s break with the political past by to be far from uninterrupted. aggressive China policy. accepting the presidency of Tewkes- bury . The loving cups wink right The fall of the house of joyously Berkeley Battle of the undergraduates As Gladstone stormed back into The Berkeleys got a shock in 1859 It must have been a real blow to the office in 1880, Agg-Gardner lost when another general election saw a local Conservatives that a man of Cheltenham to the flamboyant vigorous new Tory candidate called Schreiber’s political talents stood Liberal candidate Charles Conrad Charles Schreiber come within down at the next election. He said it Adolphus, Baron du Bois de Fer- twelve votes of defeating the colo- was to ‘abandon the quest of politics rières. De Ferrières was the grand- nel. A good organiser and ‘a forcible for that of porcelain’.3 That he and son of a Napoleonic general whose speaker’, Schreiber stood again in his wife eventually amassed one of family had settled in the Nether- 1865 and pitched his arguments well the finest collections of fine china in lands, where he was born in 1823. to his still-small, urban, property- Europe must have been little conso- The family moved to when owning electorate, railing against lation to the Tories. Charles was very young and settled both the aristocratic fox-hunting A new generation contested the in Cheltenham so, despite his exotic activities of the Berkeleys and the 1868 general election. The Tories roots, he was actually the Liberals’ threat of concessions to workers, selected a twenty-two-year-old most local candidate yet. In 1867 Catholics and Nonconformists. ‘Of Cambridge undergraduate called he was granted ‘letters of naturali- all the existing forms of govern- James Agg-Gardner, who launched sation’ without which he couldn’t ment, democracy is the lowest and his campaign with a rejection of the have stood for parliament. worst,’ he declared. ‘Shall England ‘hide-bound Toryism’ that opposed Although he had opposed the abandon her Protestant Faith, her all social reform. The Liberals chose establishment of Cheltenham’s Established Church, the blessing a twenty-three-year-old Oxford mayor and corporation in 1876, the she enjoys, for the evils offered to undergraduate, Henry Samuelson, handsome baron had joined the tri- her clothed in the specious garb the son of wealthy Banbury Liberal umphant Liberal majority in the first of Progressive Reform and Civil MP Sir Bernhard Samuelson. It was municipal elections that year and and Religious Liberty?’ Religious a good time to be the Liberal candi- succeeded fellow Liberal William opinion in the town swung strongly date, as Gladstone swept to a land- Nash Skillicorne as mayor in 1877. behind him. slide national victory on a platform ‘His mayoralty’ commented his rival Nationally the new ‘Liberal of reform. Samuelson campaigned Agg-Gardner ‘was marked by gen- Party’ had united Whigs and Radi- in particular for universal educa- erous hospitality. In the presence of cals, but in Cheltenham the colo- tion and turned the Tories’ narrow Tensions ran the Baron, maces and loving cups nel obviously failed to rally the majority into a Liberal one of 188. winked right joyously as knowing troops. Berkeley Castle’s influence Even the kindest friend would high at the who was their friend’. A great collec- was waning and, with religion such have to admit that his maiden speech tor of Dutch masters (which he even- an electoral issue, even Berkeley’s was hopeless. He chose a debate 1865 poll. tually donated to the town), he was attendance at the Grand Prix in Paris on the odd subject of the House of ‘a picturesque citizen and a sincere on a Sunday was used against him. Commons Ladies Gallery screen. Schreiber lover of Cheltenham’ and the obvi- Tensions ran high at the 1865 poll. According to the official record, he ous choice for the Liberal parliamen- Schreiber had to dodge rotten eggs dismissed the suggestion that remov- had to dodge tary candidacy in 1880. But the baron and dead cats at the hustings, but ing the screen would force ladies to only squeaked home in Cheltenham the violence got worse and a Liberal wear evening dress because ‘it was rotten eggs by twenty-one votes. He was an runner was shot dead by one of Sch- the custom in society for both sexes active MP, but it must have dismayed reiber’s supporters. Amidst riotous to appear in full dress or neither’. and dead the local party that he declined to scenes, the Tories squeaked victory Gales of laughter ensued but Henry defend his tiny majority five years by twenty-eight votes and promptly missed the joke. Within a couple of cats at the later. Agg-Gardner suggests he had had their windows broken by a years, he was putting in a much more ‘had enough of St.Stephen’s and of radical mob. Schreiber astutely left assured performance in favour of the hustings, but the rather insistent demands made the windows unrepaired for many revolutionary 1870 Education Act upon him’. With Gladstone’s popu- weeks. He then successfully fought for which he had campaigned and the violence larity waning, the return of the par- off accusations of bribery in the now which paved the way for universal liamentary seat to the Tories was customary election petition to take primary education for all. got worse pretty inevitable. his seat in the Commons. But the mood of the country – and a Liberal Agg-Gardner’s majority of The defeated colonel bitterly and the state of the economy – was 804 over radical Punch journalist complained that Cheltenham was changing. Disraeli’s Tories had runner was Rudolph Lehmann in the election of ‘very dear and more money is picked up the baton of social reform 1885 was a Cheltenham record. The spent on political matters than it is and, when the 1874 election offered shot dead Tories had obviously adapted suc- worth. I wish I had never seen the Agg-Gardner and Samuelson a cessfully to the now much-increased town of Cheltenham.’ Cheltenham rematch, it was the Conservative by one of electorate with improved organisa- returned the compliment. No Ber- who won. Agg-Gardner was to be tion, including the foundation of a keley ever stood for parliament here Cheltenham’s longest-serving MP Schreiber’s Conservative Club. again. Francis inherited his father’s by some distance, representing the Another election soon followed, title and seat in the House of Lords town over a staggering timespan of supporters. in 1886, over the critical issue of

24 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 cheltenham’s liberal history

Irish home rule. Although they ini- The new Lib- pensions, punishment for child a maiden speech and goes down in tially failed to get back into govern- neglect and banning many forms history as Cheltenham’s shortest- ment, the Conservatives won many eral govern- of child labour. Amongst these serving MP. seats – and Agg-Gardner held Chel- huge issues, Sears chose the spec- tenham with a majority that now ment waged tacularly boring subject of Inland topped 1,000. In 1892 the pendulum Revenue organisational reform for Four votes, eighty years, three swung back to Gladstone’s Liberals ‘implac- his maiden speech. He stood down parties yet again. Agg-Gardner’s majority from the London County Coun- Richard’s brother, Major L. J. was reduced, but this time he held able warfare cil in 1907 but never seems to have Mathias, contested the by-election on. At last his persistence had begun really established himself in Chel- caused by the expenses scandal in to make Cheltenham a safer seat for against tenham and stood down from the September 1911. The nervous local the Tories. poverty and parliamentary seat ‘for family and Tories had brought back the popu- personal reasons’ at the next general lar old warhorse Agg-Gardner yet squalidness’, election. He later made an unsuc- again, and the Liberals lost after Implacable warfare cessful bid to return to parliament, six recounts by just four votes. It Agg-Gardner chose the 1895 contest introducing contesting St Pancras in London for was surely the most extraordinary to stand down ‘for reasons uncon- Labour in 1935. comeback of Cheltenham political nected to politics’ but not explained free school history. And it was a fateful moment in his memoirs. Colonel Francis for the Liberals. The party would be Shirley Russell, an Aberdeenshire meals, old Expenses scandal bitterly divided by the coming war, landowner and soldier, was safely In the January 1910 election, domi- Agg-Gardner wouldn’t now relin- elected for the Conservatives in age pen- nated by the blocking of Lloyd- quish the seat until his death in 1928, Cheltenham, albeit with a reduced George’s radical People’s Budget and the Liberals would not regain it majority, seeing off both his offi- sions, pun- by the House of Lords, Cheltenham for more than eighty years. But it cial Liberal opponent and the first Tories could hardly have chosen a would not all be plain sailing for the independent labour candidate, Mr ishment for more aristocratic candidate. Vere Conservatives. Hillen, who polled just twenty- Brabazon Ponsonby was the son of In 1918 Agg-Gardner comfort- three votes. child neglect an Irish earl, Lord Bessborough, ably held the seat as the wartime The colonel was an active and and so himself Duncan- coalition candidate with a majority eloquent MP but already in his late and ban- non. The new Liberal candidate, of 3,285 over an Independent Lib- fifties, and when he announced his Richard Mathias, was the son of an eral. He went on to win the follow- retirement the local association lost ning many Aberystwyth steamship owner and ing elections of 1922, 1923 and 1924, no time in bringing Agg-Gardner forms of pursued careers as a barrister and although the Liberals shaved his back for the 1900 election. As it banker in London before returning majority back to 1,344 in the middle turned out, the Liberals were now child labour. to the family shipowning firm. He election. Made a privy counsellor deeply split over the Boer War and was a political radical, supporting for sheer longevity and affection- failed to find a candidate in Chel- Amongst votes for all women and men and a ately nicknamed ‘Minister for the tenham, handing Agg-Gardner the national minimum wage – just right Interior’ for his services to Com- first unopposed victory since Cra- these huge for the now firmly radical Chel- mons catering, the Right Honour- ven Berkeley’s original win in 1832. tenham Liberals. But the national able Sir James Tynte Agg-Gardner 1906 was another matter. The issues, Sears swing was against Mathias and, died in office in 1928. Unionist coalition, now under despite winning the largest Liberal Gardner’s successor, the Con- , split itself over chose the vote ever of 3,850, he lost to Dun- servative Sir Walter Preston, free trade, while Sir Henry Camp- cannon by 138 votes. resigned his Commons seat in 1937, bell-Bannerman now led a radical, spectacu- The chance of a rematch came leaving Cheltenham an apparently reforming and reunited Liberal in December 1910 when new Lib- safe Tory seat for the first time in Party. The Cheltenham Liberals larly boring eral Prime Minister Asquith went its history. Preston had soundly selected John Sears, a London archi- to the country again to win clearer defeated the Liberals in 1928 and tect and son of a Baptist minister, subject of public support for his attack on 1929 and when division had left as their candidate. Sears was still a entrenched aristocratic privilege them with no candidate in Chel- senior London county councillor Inland Rev- in the House of Lords. But in their tenham and only Labour contesting but promised to be a zealous radical desperation to unseat Duncannon, the seat in 1931 and 1935, Preston opponent for the old stager Agg- enue organi- Mathias’s campaign team over- trounced them too. The Tories had Gardner, who hadn’t actually won sational stepped some important marks. No now won nine successive victories. a contested election for fourteen sooner had they snatched victory Surely it was inconceivable that the years. Sears’ lack of a local con- reform for by just ninety-three votes, than his Conservative Party would lose the nection was overlooked as Camp- election expenses were challenged. subsequent by-election … bell-Bannerman’s party swept to a his maiden He took the oath of allegiance on 1 historic landslide victory at national February, but by the end of March level and the Liberals regained speech. his agent, Mr Kessel, had already The Jew has not so many Cheltenham for the first time in admitted that he had overspent, friends … twenty years. illegally paid for lifts to the polls In 1922, the sporting and military The new Liberal government and generally made a mess of the private school waged ‘implacable warfare against official election return. In court, decided that the time for their sepa- poverty and squalidness’, intro- Mathias’s lawyers made some effort rate Jewish boarding house was past. ducing free school meals, old age to clear his name, but he never made The incumbent housemaster Daniel

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 25 cheltenham’s liberal history

Lipson was also president, secretary simply because he was Jewish, the Nazism and, despite his support for and treasurer of the Cheltenham Tories picked Lieutenant-Colonel a Jewish homeland in Palestine, was Synagogue and in 1923 he set up an R. Tristram Harper instead. Show- prepared to support pro-Arab land independent Jewish school. It didn’t ing his independent streak again, regulations on the basis that ‘at this work out and closed in 1935. But Lipson stood anyway, and an asso- time, Great Britain’s interests are the the charismatic Lipson had already ciation was formed to support him interests of the Jew and the Jew has been elected as a county councillor as the ‘Independent Conservative’ not so many friends in the world to- in 1925 and a borough councillor in candidate. Lipson polled 10,533 day that he can afford to quarrel with 1929 and in 1935 he became mayor of votes, beating the official Conserva- his best friend’. Cheltenham. When Preston retired, tive by 339 votes. 1945 brought the defeat of Lipson’s name was discussed as an In parliament, Lipson proved a Churchill by Attlee’s Labour Party. obvious successor. Whether because gifted and frequent orator. He was at Labour’s vote in Cheltenham he wasn’t a kosher Conservative or his most passionate in condemning surged, too, but Lipson’s surged more. Standing as a National Inde- pendent, he romped home with a Sources and further reading majority of nearly 5,000 votes and knocked the official Conservative Adams, William Edwin, Memoirs of a Social Atom (Hutchinson, 1903, at www.gerald-massey.org.uk/ candidate, Major Hicks Beach, into adams/b_autobiog.htm; the website also contains an interesting article on Adams himself) a humiliating third place. Agg-Gardner, James, Some Parliamentary Recollections (Burrow, 1927)

Berkeley, Craven F., Slander, A Correspondence between The Rev. F. Close, Mr. C. Berkeley, Mr. P. Thompson, War, peace and Zion and Major Payn: With the Resolutions of Mr. Craven Berkeley’s Committee Thereon (Cunningham and Co., By 1950, it had all changed, and in 1831) that year’s election, the positions Brack, Duncan, Dictionary of Liberal Biography (Politico’s 1998) were almost perfectly reversed. Costley-White, Hope, Mary Cole, Countess of Berkeley (Harrap, 1973) Hicks Beach took the seat with a majority of nearly 5,000, while Lip- Craig FWS, British Parliamentary Election Results, four volumes, all published by Parliamentary Research son came third with just 25 per cent Services: 1832–1885 (2nd ed 1989), 1885–1918 (2nd ed 1989), 1918–1949 (3rd ed 1983) and 1950–1973 of the vote. Although there was a (2nd ed 1983) national swing to the Tories and Dodds-Parker, Douglas, Political Eunuch (Springwood, 1986) every other independent MP lost their seat as well, it seems likely that Hart, Gwen, A History of Cheltenham (Allan Sutton, 1981) other factors helped to end Lipson’s Jones, Anthea, Cheltenham: A New History (Carnegie, 2010) career. Britain’s role as mandated colonial administrator of Palestine Rallings, Collin, and Thrasher, Michael, British Parliamentary Election Results 1983–1997 (Ashgate had brought it into increasing con- Publishing Ltd, 1999) flict with the swelling Jewish popula- Roth, Andrew & Criddle, Byron 2001–05 Parliamentary Profiles E–K (Parliamentary Profiles Services, 2005, tion. In 1946, Zionist terrorists blew profile of Nigel Jones) up the King David Hotel, killing Rowbotham, Sue, and Walker, Jill, Cheltenham, A History (Fillimore, 2004) 100 people in the British army’s local headquarters. In 1947 there were Salsa, George Augustus, London Up to Date (Adam and Charles Black 1895, reproduced on http://www. reciprocal executions of Zionist ter- victorianlondon.org/publications/uptodate-19.htm) rorists and British military hostages. Scotland, Nigel (ed.), A Gloucestershire Gallery (Nigel Scotland, 1993) Anti-semitism in Britain increased, and anti-Jewish riots broke out in six Stenton, Michael, Who’s Who of British Members of Parliament Vol I 1832–1885, Harvester Press 1976 British cities as the situation in Pal- Stenton, Michael and Lees, Stephen, Who’s Who of British Members of Parliament, three volumes, all estine deteriorated. The next year, published by Harvester Press: 1886–1918 (1978), 1919–1945 (1979) and 1945–1979 (1981) was born straight into a war Torode, Brian, The Hebrew Community of Cheltenham (Brian Torode, 1999) with its Arab neighbours which Brit- ain nearly entered on the Arab side Williams, W. R., The Parliamentary History of the County of Gloucester (Jakeman and Carver, 1898) after Israel shot down three British Spitfires over the Egyptian border. Even the gifted, peace-loving Cheltenham Local History Society Journal issues 11 (1994/95), 23 (2007) and 24 (2008) Lipson, who treasured the Jew- Dod’s Parliamentary Companion for 1908 (Whittaker & Co, 1908) (entry on JE Sears) ish relationship with Britain, was going to struggle for re-election as Gloucestershire Echo, 10, 11 & 14 January 1950, 23 & 24 February 1950 a pro-Zionist MP after all this. He Hansard, various issues 1848-1992 continued to play an active role in The House Magazine, 10 July 1987 (profile of Charles Irving), 2 November 1992 (Nigel Jones) Cheltenham local politics after his defeat and was awarded the free- The Times, 29 June 1848 (Representation of Cheltenham), 2 April 1880 (profile of new members of dom of the borough in 1953, an parliament including Baron de Ferrières), 31 March 1911 (Cheltenham election petition), 7 November honour given to only Agg-Gardner 1942 (obituary of Richard Mathias) and 16 April 1963 (obituary of Daniel Lipson) and Baron de Ferrières amongst his Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, www.oxforddnb.com (article on Craven Fitzhardinge Berkeley) predecessors. Lipson’s victorious successor in Who’s Who 1910 (A&C Black 1910) (entry on JE Sears) 1950, Major Bill Hicks Beach, was in

26 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 cheltenham’s liberal history many ways the archetypal Tory MP: the opinion polls, but the Falklands For much of years of campaigning by Jones and an Eton and Cambridge-educated, war transformed Mrs Thatcher’s his predecessors finally came about. Gloucestershire landowner. His suc- image and paved the way for a land- its history, Nigel snatched the seat with a nar- cessor, Douglas Dodds-Parker, was slide victory in 1983. row majority of 1,668, the first Lib- more famous for his earlier exploits With Jones abroad, the Chel- Cheltenham eral to represent Cheltenham for in the Special Operations Executive’s tenham Liberals invited national more than eighty years. Taylor later daring wartime intelligence and party president Richard Holme to was the set- followed Richard Holme into the sabotage operations and for his dis- become probably the party’s most Lords as the Tories’ first black peer astrous spell as a minister defending heavyweight candidate since the ting for furi- but chose Warwick not Cheltenham Eden’s doomed Suez policy, than for Cheltenham seat’s creation. With as his territorial designation. His any subsequent achievement as MP the added credibility of the new ous contests political career ended in disgrace in for Cheltenham. Alliance, their vote surged to more between the the aftermath of the expenses scan- than 20,000, Labour’s nearly halved dal earlier this year. Media comment and so did Charles’ majority. Liberal and that Nigel had won the seat because The strange rebirth of Liberal of Taylor’s colour did a particular Cheltenham Conservative injustice both to years of Liberal Lipson’s defeat ushered in forty Victory, controversy and campaigning and to Nigel’s pro- years of consecutive Conserva- tragedy traditions, foundly anti-racist politics. He went tive victories, but the same era saw By the next election, in 1987, Mrs on to win two further victories with rapid growth in light industry and, Thatcher’s popularity was waning with his- comfortable majorities in 1997 and from the 1950s, of GCHQ’s highly again and Labour was reviving, but 2001 and took on a bewildering vari- qualified intelligence community, in Cheltenham the borough council toric upsets ety of spokesmanships for the party making it a less and less typical Tory had already fallen to the Alliance in parliament. His second term was county seat. and the anti-Tory vote united behind a-plenty. overshadowed by a sword attack by Labour nearly won the seat in Holme. Irving’s majority fell below a mentally ill constituent who hos- 1966 but, when Harold Wilson 5,000. That the parliamentary seat pitalised Nigel and killed his friend called an election in October 1974, was still even relatively safe was tes- and assistant Andy Pennington. it was the reviving Liberals who tament to his huge personal popular- posed a fresh threat to whoever ity, but his health was failing and he took up the Tory baton. Freddie stood down at the 1992 election. At Postscript Rodger was standing again with the national level, Mrs Thatcher had by Late in 2004, after repeated heart chance to squeeze Labour votes and then been ousted, and her replace- scares, Nigel accepted the inevita- close the gap on the Tories. The lat- ment was struggling to ble advice of family and doctors to ter played safe, and chose a veteran hold the government’s different fac- stand down as an MP. He became county and borough councillor and tions in check. The Liberals and now a working Liberal Democrat peer former mayor, Charles Irving, as Liberal Democrats had been edging after the 2005 general election, the their candidate. He was also, use- closer and closer to victory in Chel- first former Cheltenham MP to fully, a millionaire hotelier. In the tenham for twenty years and were enter the House of Lords since Lord event, votes nationally and locally now the dominant party in local Duncannon in 1937. The general swung back towards Labour and council elections. Richard Holme election wins that year and again drifted away from Thorpe’s Liberals had taken a shortcut to parliament this year mark the longest run of again. Harold Wilson was back in as Lord Holme of Cheltenham, so Liberal victories since the days of Number Ten, and Irving was safely both parties were looking for new the Berkeleys in the 1840s. elected with a majority of 8,454 candidates. Cheltenham was indeed a safe- over an almost equally divided After a close-fought selection looking seat for the Tories in the opposition. contest, the Lib Dems chose the early 1930s and again in the 1950s As the Labour government returning candidate from 1987, and 1970s, generally thanks to descended into chaos, the 1979 elec- Nigel Jones, now a councillor and divided opposition. But for much tion looked like a foregone con- proven local campaigner. Despite of its history, it was the setting for clusion, and Charles duly romped the obvious vulnerability of the furious contests between the Liberal home in Cheltenham with the big- seat, the Tories bravely picked and Conservative traditions, with gest Tory majority since 1935, beat- John Taylor, a Birmingham lawyer historic upsets a-plenty. ing Liberal Nigel Jones by 10,538. with no campaigning experience. But Jones’ determined community In one TV interview he tactlessly Martin Horwood MP was elected to politics campaign did resolve the described his choice of Cheltenham represent Cheltenham in 2005 and re- issue of who the challenger would as ‘just a box I ticked on a list’. More elected in 2010. He is currently co-chair be in future. He beat the Labour controversially, Taylor was also of the party’s parliamentary committee on candidate by nearly 6,000 votes. the party’s first black candidate for international affairs. The political geography was a winnable seat and racist remarks changing dramatically. While Mrs were attributed to members of his 1 Slander, A Correspondence between The Thatcher plumbed depths of unpop- own party during the campaign, a Rev. F. Close, Mr. C. Berkeley, Mr. P. ularity, Labour lurched further to doubtless unconscious echo of the Thompson, and Major Payn (Cunning- the left, with right-wing defectors prejudice against Lipson that may ham, 1831) forming the new SDP and immedi- have doomed their 1937 campaign. 2 James Agg-Gardner, Some Parliamen- ately allying with the Liberals. The The result that had looked tary Recollections (Burrow, 1927). new Alliance briefly commanded increasingly inevitable following 3 Ibid.

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 27 AR passionateusse andll artic uljateo exhponentnston of Liberalism

Lord Russell- Johnston, 1932–2008, was a passionate and articulate exponent of Liberalism who helped keep that cause alive in Scotland throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s and who throughout his political career expounded liberal values in the cause of home rule for Scotland, international human rights, and the creation of a federal Europe. Ross Finnie examines the contribution to Scottish, British and European Liberalism of Russell Johnston.

28 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 AR passionateusse andll artic uljateo exhponentnston of Liberalism

avid Russell John- and was sufficiently motivated to Johnston, on the other hand, ston, known affec- revive the University Liberal Club, secured a swing of 6.9 per cent to tionately as ‘Russell’ becoming its President. Given his defeat the sitting Tory MP Neil to friend and foe commitment to liberalism, his Mclean by 2,136 votes and become alike, was the son skills as a debater and public orator, the Member of Parliament for Dof David Knox Johnston, a cus- and his combination of an engag- Inverness. Johnston had not only toms officer serving on Skye, and ing personality and pawky sense of built on Bannerman’s work in terms Margaret Russell who gave birth humour, it was no surprise when of party membership and organi- in an hospital. He was he was adopted as the Liberal can- sation but also on the need for a brought up on Skye and educated at didate for Inverness in 1961. John- coherent campaign in the Scottish Carbost Public School and Portree ston’s potential had been spotted Highlands. This centred on the idea High School. After graduating MA by Jo Grimond, then the leader of of a Highland Development Board, (Hons) in history from the Univer- the party, who, in turn, informed which Johnston developed further sity of Edinburgh he did National the party’s winnable seats commit- in the pamphlet Highland Devel- Service, being commissioned into tee, chaired by Jeremy Thorpe MP. opment.3 The strategy elected not the Intelligence Corps and rising to The committee enabled Johnston to Johnston only Johnston in Inverness, but also become second-in-command of the concentrate on winning the elec- George Mackie in Caithness and British Intelligence Unit in Berlin. tion when in 1963 it organised the served at Sutherland and Alasdair Macken- After National Service he returned funding for a research post with the zie in Ross and Cromarty, making to Edinburgh to take a teaching enabling him Westminster Grimond no longer the sole Scottish degree at Moray House College to quit his teaching job.1 Liberal MP. of Education and became a his- Johnston’s predecessor in Inver- continuously Johnston served at Westminster tory teacher at Liberton secondary ness had been John Bannerman, continuously for thirty-three years, school near Edinburgh in 1961. the man he regarded as his political for thirty- successfully defending his seat in Johnston had a facility for lan- mentor. Bannerman had built up the eight consecutive elections. He guages being bilingual in English Inverness seat since 1950. In 1961, three years, served nineteen years for Inverness and Gaelic; he was later to become however, as chairman of the Scottish successfully and, after boundary changes which fluent in French and Italian. At party and one of its most charismatic saw the seat lose Johnston’s native both school and university, he dis- figures, Bannerman decided to fight defending Skye, fourteen years for Inver- played a talent for debating and was the Paisley by-election2 and took ness, Nairn and Lochaber (1964–87 a member of the teams that won the 41.4 per cent of the vote to come just his seat in as a Liberal; 1987–92 as a Liberal Scotsman debating prize in 1956 1,654 votes behind Labour. Hav- Democrat). Throughout, Johnston and 1957 and Mace in ing come so close, Bannerman then eight con- attended diligently to constituents’ 1961. Johnston joined the Liberal decided to fight Paisley again in the concerns and campaigned vigor- Party whilst at university, because 1964 general election, but a 7.5 per secutive ously against what he saw as the he agreed with the writings of the cent swing back to Labour kept him social and economic neglect of the Yorkshire Liberal Elliot Dodds, in second place. elections. Highlands. Increasingly, however,

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 29 russell johnston he paid less and less attention to as parliamentary representative for him, justice for the group, of the state of his local party and its the Royal National Institute for the which he is a part, will follow capacity to fight elections and, as Blind from 1977 to 1997. logically. While the converse is his attention turned more towards Johnston served on the execu- untrue. In this it is fundamen- Europe, he became vulnerable to tive of the Scottish Liberal Party and tally set apart from philosophies the charge made by his opponents: then the Scottish Liberal Democrats like Communism, Socialism and ‘Russell’s in Brussels’. The combi- for thirty-three years from 1961 Nationalism, which start from nation of these factors meant that, to1994. He became vice-chairman this converse, seek to better the with the exception of the election in 1965 and chairman in 1970. He group and believe that this will in 1983, when the Liberals and the was elected to the new position of lead, in time, to the improve- Social Democrat Party (‘SDP’) con- leader of the Scottish party in 1974 ment of the individual’s lot.5 tested the election as the Alliance, and was president from 1988 to 1994. It [Liberalism] is a philoso- Johnston’s share of the vote never He also sought and held office at a phy of distributivism, of decen- got above 40 per cent and in his last UK level. In 1976, on the resignation tralisation and devolution. In contest, in 1992, it dropped to only of Thorpe, who had been leader of Government, the Liberal looks 26 per cent, the lowest percentage the UK party since 1967, Johnston for solutions which, at one and share by a winning candidate in the sought the UK leadership, but only the same time, will facilitate co- election, leaving him with a major- , who was also stand- operation over the widest field ity of only 458 after three recounts. ing, was prepared to nominate him. – hence his enthusiasm for the The year after Johnston was Johnston then backed Pardoe against European Community and the first elected, he was joined at West- Steel who was elected. Following the – and at the same minster by David Steel, following merger with the SDP, Johnston was time involve individuals to the the latter’s by-election victory in elected unopposed as deputy leader fullest extent in regulating their Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles. of the Social and Liberal Democrats own communities by creating After Grimond stepped down as in each of the years 1988 to 1992. federal institutions which rec- leader in 1967, Johnston and Steel Having been attracted to the ognise national aspirations, by went on to dominate the party in Liberal Party by the writings of strengthening local government Scotland for the next three decades. Elliot Dodds, and being an accom- and decentralising the maximum Although they did not always agree, plished orator and lucid writer, degree of power possible to the and Steel went on to become leader Johnston spent much of his time smallest unit possible.6 of the party, both, in their different articulating the principles of Lib- ways, played a major part in devel- eralism in which he so passionately From before he was adopted as a oping the party in the UK from believed. In 1972 he wrote and parliamentary candidate through to being a disparate body of just ten published a pamphlet, To Be a Lib- the early 1980s, Johnston undertook MPs in 1965, to presenting a more eral,4 which stands comparison with Because a wide range of speaking engage- coherent political force, as the Lib- many excellent treatises on Liber- ments throughout the UK at which eral Democrats, with twenty-six alism published before and after. Liberalism he demonstrated his oratorical skills MPs, by the time they both retired For some time, the Scottish party and, invariably, moved his audi- from Parliament in 1997. sent a copy to anyone exhibiting is about the ence to understand why liberalism Whilst being part of a small par- an interest in liberalism, and many mattered. He also addressed public liamentary team almost guaranteed prominent members of the Scottish individual, meetings during general elections a portfolio, nevertheless Johnston’s party in the 1990s, such as Jim Wal- and by-elections, which was much talents were always recognised and lace (MP for and Shetland it makes the appreciated, by candidates, party he was a front-bench spokesper- 1983–2001, MSP for Orkney 1999– workers and the public. Johnston’s son throughout his parliamentary 2007, leader of the Scottish party assumption annual conference speeches were career. His first portfolio was edu- 1993–2005) attest to having joined inspirational (and, incidentally, cation (1964–66), and he then moved the party after reading Johnston’s that if we almost always contained a refer- on to Northern Ireland (1966–70), pamphlet. ence to his mentor Bannerman). foreign affairs (1970–75, 1979–85), The pamphlet sets out a broad concentrate Based on his elegantly crafted script Scottish affairs (1970–73, 1975–83, canvas of liberal thinking and its and delivered in classical oratori- 1985–88), defence (1983–88), and, for application and relevance to cur- on him, jus- cal style, they took on a legendary the Liberal Democrats, foreign and rent affairs. Many passages from the quality and became as eagerly commonwealth affairs (1988–94), pamphlet appear in Johnston’s later tice for the awaited at Federal assemblies (of the European community affairs (1988– speeches and writings but the fol- Scottish, English and Welsh par- 94), East–West relations (1992–94), lowing quotations on the primacy group, of ties) as at Scottish conferences. The and central and eastern Europe of the individual and on the need which he is a two published volumes of John- (1994–97). In addition, Johnston for government to occur at the most ston’s speeches are not only a splen- was a member of the Parliamen- appropriate level represent themes part, will fol- did commentary on contemporary tary Committee for Privileges from that recurred as he pursued not politics from a Scottish perspective 1988 to 1992. Throughout his par- only home rule, but also interna- low logically. but also a significant record of the liamentary career, Johnston took tional human rights and European Scottish contribution to Liberal a particular interest in the rights federalism. While the thinking and confirm Johnston’s of the blind, serving as parliamen- constancy of approach in an ever- tary spokesman for the Scottish Because Liberalism is about the converse is changing political landscape. Per- National Federation for the Welfare individual, it makes the assump- haps his best remembered quotation of the Blind from 1967 to 1997 and tion that if we concentrate on untrue. is the epithet with which he closed

30 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 russell johnston his 1971 conference speech: ‘To be a Johnston to work with others in the right to proportional representation. Liberal and to know it is enough.’7 circumstances.14 Despite the defeat of his bill, John- After the election of 1966, John- drew a Johnston was a passionate Scot. ston remained a consistent and ston’s clear understanding of Scot- He was a fluent Gaelic speaker persistent advocate for home rule tish affairs saw him appointed as a distinction who each year attended the pre- and, in 1972, he reaffirmed his con- member of the Royal Commission mier Gaelic festival, the Royal viction, adding proportional rep- on Local Government in Scotland between National Mod. He was an enthusi- resentation to his argument. ‘I am which reported in 1969.8 Compris- ast for shinty (a Scottish variation certain that the Scots, given a fair ing five out of the twelve members three con- of hurling) serving as vice chief electoral system and the oppor- of the parliamentary party, the of the sport’s governing body, the tunity to consider their future as Scots were a dominant force and cepts: the Camanachd Association, from 1987 a nation … would opt for a form their failure to agree on whether nation as to 1990. He wore his kilt with skean of self-government.’18 That state- or not to have an electoral pact dhu with pride on all major occa- ment was made in anticipation of with the Scottish Nationalists was the symbolic sions, including while delivering the publication of the Kilbrandon described by Steel as: ‘the running his maiden speech in the House of Commission’s proposals on the con- sore of the 1966–70 parliament.’9 community Commons, despite the rule for- stitution which reported in 1973.19 That running sore provided the bidding the carrying of offensive After a lengthy delay, the Labour second of two examples of John- which gives weapons, and, as leader, when deliv- government introduced in 1976 an ston never being afraid to speak his ering his annual speech to the Scot- unwieldy and complex bill which mind and never cavilling at tak- your feeling tish conference. But he was not a combined two different schemes for ing on the establishment. First, in nationalist. Scottish and Welsh Assemblies. It 1968, prior to the Federal assembly of identity; Johnston drew a distinction progressed very slowly through its in Edinburgh, Johnston denounced between three concepts: the nation committee stage and finally fell in Grimond as a ‘dilettante revolu- national- as the symbolic community which February 1977. tionary’ for questioning the role of gives your feeling of identity; Johnston showed his willing- democracy10 and later criticised him ism as an nationalism as an emotional com- ness to cooperate with other parties during his speech to the Assembly. mitment to the nation becoming a when, in March 1977, he supported As Grimond’s biographer, Michael emotional nation state; and the nation state as a Steel’s package of measures which McManus, observed: ‘to attack Gri- political formation which rules over was to form the basis of the agree- mond once might be regarded as a commitment a given territory defined by its bor- ment that became known as the mistake but to do so twice was wan- ders. He stated, for example: ‘The Lib–Lab pact. Johnston believed ton iconoclasm.’11 Second, Johnston to the nation recognition of national identity that, with the country facing a seri- clashed with Grimond again over becoming a is a basic part of the whole liberal ous economic crisis with inflation nationalism, and when, in 1969, ethos as spelt out by Gladstone and verging on 20 per cent, the nation Grimond called for cooperation nation state; Asquith and Sinclair and McCor- needed not only proposals for eco- with the Nationalists, this drew a mick and Bannerman.’15 And again: nomic recovery but also the will tart response from Johnston to the and the ‘My criticism of the SNP has … of political parties to cooperate.20 effect that nationalist parties are far concentrated on the concept and the He also supported the measures in from liberal.12 Johnston effectively nation state fact that I as a Liberal, pledged to a the package for direct elections to won that argument because, whilst person based philosophy, while able the European Parliament, and for cooperation with the Nationalists as a political not only to accept but advance dev- devolution for Scotland and Wales, was raised again, it never became a olutionary and federal structures, with the possibility of all of these serious proposition. Referring to formation found the exclusivity of nationalism elections being by proportional rep- his clashes with Grimond, at the unacceptable.’16 resentation. At the meeting of the Scottish conference in June 1976, which rules Two years after entering par- parliamentary party to discuss the Johnston paid Grimond a fulsome liament, and two years off the half continuation of the pact, following tribute adding mischievously: ‘You over a given century of the introduction of the the defeat of the proposal for pro- and I have not always agreed, but Bill for Scottish Self-Government portional representation for elec- then it’s not reasonable for you to territory by Asquith’s Liberal administra- tions to the European Parliament, expect to be right all the time!’13 tion in 1914, Johnston introduced, Johnston again supported Steel in Johnston, however, was not defined by its on Day 1966, a Scottish the vote, which Steel won by six opposed to all forms of coopera- Self-Government Bill.17 The bill votes to four with two abstentions tion between political parties: quite borders. proposed the devolution of powers and with one member absent.21 the reverse. He made this clear, for to a single-chamber parliament, to During the pact, Johnston was example, in 1970 at the meeting of be called the Scots Parliament, with appointed by Steel to lead the Liberal the parliamentary party to consider a Scottish Treasury and powers to team of negotiators on the drafting Prime Minister Ted Heath’s offer levy and collect all taxes in Scotland of a Scottish Assembly Bill. Johnston of a coalition. The majority not other than the duties of customs and was credited by Steel as having ‘done only rejected the offer but stated it excise. The bill fell when the gov- a very workmanlike reconstruction was quite wrong ever to consider ernment whips objected to it at sec- of the devolution package’22 that had collaboration of that kind with ond reading. been originally produced and stoutly another party. Johnston supported Given his frequent references defended by Labour’s John Smith. Grimond and Steel in the view to the unfairness of the UK’s first- The Scotland and Wales Bills that that it was nonsense for a party that past-the-post electoral system, followed became acts in 1978. The believed in proportional representa- the one glaring omission from acts provided for referenda to be tion not to be willing, in principle, Johnston’s bill was any reference held but with a threshold requiring

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 31 russell johnston

40 per cent of the registered elector- Although in Scotland and on 12 September His judgement, however, was not ate to vote in favour of the proposi- 1981 he moved the resolution for always sound. Following two vis- tion before it could be introduced. Johnston the formation on the Alliance in its to Greece in 1968 as a guest of In the referenda held on 1 March Scotland27 that presaged the pass- the military government to see the 1979, the Scots voted in favour by a went on to ing of a similar motion at the Fed- conditions in which political pris- narrow majority but it represented eral aassembly in Llandudno. The oners were held, he exonerated the only 33 per cent of those entitled to become one SDP then approved arrangements colonels, describing them as ‘officers vote, thus failing the 40 per cent test, for an Alliance and, by October, and gentlemen’, which infuriated whereas the Welsh voted against by of the most guidelines had been agreed for Amnesty International amongst 80 per cent. dividing up constituencies between others.31 Johnston continued to argue powerful the parties. Johnston led for the Johnston defended the resistance the case for home rule, but there advocates Liberals in Scotland but he found to Iran’s theocratic regime for three was no appetite for such a measure the SDP’s formulaic approach very decades having become deeply within the Conservative govern- for merger difficult as he believed the deter- concerned about the suppression ments led by mining factor should be: ‘who will of human rights and democracy and John Major. Johnston had laid with the SDP, achieve the best result for the Alli- in Iran following Ayatollah Kho- the ground, however, and in 1989, ance.’28 Despite this very different meini’s appointment as the coun- one year after he stepped down as when coop- approach, Johnston persevered and try’s religious and political leader Scottish leader, the Scottish Con- agreement was reached, but not in 1979. In 1982, along with six stitutional Convention was estab- eration with always in accordance with John- other Liberal MPs, he wrote a let- lished chaired jointly by Steel and ston’s preference. ter to Massoud Rajavi, president the former Labour Scottish Minis- the SDP was In the immediate aftermath of of the National Council of Resist- ter Lord Harry Ewing. The Con- Jenkins’s by-election victory in Hill- ance of Iran and leader of the Peo- vention, which reported in 1995, first mooted head in March 1982, Johnston spoke ple’s Mojahedin of Iran (‘PMOI’) produced the blueprint for a Scot- about the kind of approach and the to declare their support and that of tish Parliament, but, by the time he was kind of programme the Alliance their party for the Iranian’s peo- the Labour government passed the was putting before the electorate, ple’s resistance.32 In 2006, Johnston Scotland Act 1998, Johnston had left sceptical. He describing it as being within the joined Lord Alton of Liverpool and the House of Commons. framework of Liberalism and the others to mount an eventually suc- Although Johnston went on to had often Liberal Party because ‘the Alliance cessful legal challenge to the UK become one of the most power- was coming together with such a government over its ban on Iran’s ful advocates for merger with the commented minimum of ideological difficulty.’29 main democratic opposition group, SDP, when cooperation with the upon what Johnston campaigned with renewed the PMOI.33 SDP was first mooted he was scep- vigour in the 1983 general election Johnston was quietly sympa- tical. He had often commented he described in which the Alliance gained 25.4 thetic to the Palestinians and made upon what he described as the two per cent of the vote but managed to several visits to the Middle East, Labour parties: the social democrats as the two take only 3.5 per cent of the seats. including one in 1980, when, as for- and the tribunites glued together Following the election, Johnston eign affairs spokesman, he was part by the chance of office.23 Johnston Labour par- was amongst the first of the Liberal of Steel’s team that carried out an had also long seen merit in talking MPs to advocate a full merger with extensive visit to the region lasting to members of the social demo- ties: the the SDP but got little support from over a fortnight. The report of the crat wing of the Labour party such within the party and the new leader delegation had a material effect on as , whom he social demo- of the SDP, , had set his shifting the perception of the party described in 1979 as ‘a Liberal’,24 face against such a move. as being uninterested in the Arab and Roy Jenkins, to whom he gave crats and When Steel called for a merger side of the problem and an uncriti- fulsome praise for his contribu- between the two parties, shortly cal supporter of the state of Israel tion in securing a ‘Yes’ vote in the the tribu- after the 1987 general election, to a more balanced position sup- 1975 European referendum,25 but he Johnston swiftly and enthusiasti- porting the right of Israel to exist could not forget that, for the chance nites glued cally supported the call but with within internationally recognised of office, both had voted against the the caveat that the merged party and secure borders but as part of a legislation that allowed the UK to together by should be called the Liberal Demo- solution that involved the creation join the European Community in crat Party. Merger was agreed in of a Palestinian homeland.34 1972. Johnston, therefore, made his the chance of September and Steel summed up the Johnston’s acute antennae for position clear: ‘Of course, I’m in office. conference at Harrogate thus: ‘the foreign affairs often identified cru- favour of co-operation but I’m not Assembly voted overwhelmingly cial issues in advance of other MPs. selling the great Liberal tradition … for a new political party in a spirit One example was in 1991, when the for a mish-mash of unsalted social typified by an inspirational speech Yugoslav tanks were rolling into democratic porridge.’26 by Russell Johnston.’30 Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital. He Johnston’s concerns were Johnston was first given respon- already had questions on the order answered by Steel and Jenkins sibility for the foreign affairs port- paper to the Foreign Secretary, (leader of the SDP) making it folio in 1970 and, whilst he spoke , and was quickly able clear, at the outset, that any form knowledgeably on all aspects of to ask the government to assuage his of cooperation was to be on the international affairs, he took a par- fears on the trouble that lay ahead in basis of a statement of principles. ticular interest in promoting lib- the event of a possible break up of Johnston was therefore happy to erty, democracy, human rights, the Yugoslav federation.35 In 1992, lead the negotiations with the SDP and international cooperation. he accompanied ,

32 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 russell johnston then leader of the Liberal Demo- His disappointment in 1979 prior to its joining the Council in crats, throughout the Balkans and was nothing compared to the dev- 1995. With one of the conditions of was filmed at Manjaca a prison astation he felt in 1984 when he membership of the Council being camp, which was alleged to have was heavily defeated by Ewing respect for human rights, Johnston breached human rights, and where by 16,277 votes. By then, how- also took part in investigations emaciated victims were found.36 ever, Ewing had positioned her- into a number of allegations of In 1993, he beseeched Radovan self as Scotland’s voice in Europe possible breaches of human rights. Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader, and earned herself the sobriquet These included denial of freedom to accept the Cyrus Vance/David ‘Madame Ecosse’. Despite Johnston of expression in Greece in 1999; Owen settlement and warned Kara- declaring he would relinquish his progress towards the human rights dzic of the dire consequences if he Westminster seat, Highland voters of Croatian Serbs in 2001; and into refused. His warnings proved to be were clear: they had sent Johnston Chechen victims of human rights all too accurate.37 to represent them at Westminster in abuses in 2002. As part of the proc- Johnston’s enthusiasm for the 1983 with his biggest ever majority ess of members of the European devolution of power as expressed and, in 1984 with a swing of nearly 8 Council having to establish a plu- through self-government at home per cent to the Nationalists, mostly ralistic democracy, Johnston also was matched by his enthusiasm for from the Conservatives, they frequently acted as an observer of the development of cooperation returned Ewing to represent them the conduct of parliamentary elec- between the regions and nations of in Europe. tions such as in Albania in1997, Europe. ‘What the Liberal seeks is a There were a number of factors Armenia and the Russian Federa- sensitive and fair chain of govern- that contributed to Johnston’s sense tion in 2003 and Bosnia and Herze- ment from the individual up to the of devastation in defeat. There was a govina in 2006.41 broadest practical level, which one sense of hurt that, as a proud High- Within the Parliamentary day will be world government.’38 lander, he had again been rejected Assembly of the , Johnston believed that the solution by his ain folk. This was com- he led the Liberal Democratic to dealing with the remote and sensi- pounded by the fact that the win- and Reformers’ Group from 1994 tive parts of Europe might be: ‘in the ner was not a Highlander and was to 1999 and was chairman of the end a con-federal answer, indeed an a member of the Nationalist party Committee for Culture and Edu- answer perhaps through the Euro- that had campaigned for a ‘No’ vote cation from 1996 to 1999. Within pean Parliament based not on the in the 1975 European referendum. the Parliamentary Assembly of the existing states of Europe but on the Perhaps above all else, however, Western he was a regions and nations within them.’39 having become increasingly disillu- member of the Defence Commit- ‘Europe des Regions’, as he put it.40 sioned about his own and the party’s tee and was twice its vice chairman: After the UK’s accession to the prospects at Westminster, John- Johnston’s first from 1984 to1986 and again EU in 1973, Johnston volunteered ston had come to believe that his enthusi- from 2002 until his death. to become a member of the UK political future lay in the European In recognition of his outstanding Delegation to the European Assem- Parliament. asm for the contribution to its work for nearly bly from 1973–75 and, after a break Determined to pursue his inter- fifteen years, Johnston was elected of nine months, from 1976–79. He est in European affairs, Johnston devolution president of the Parliamentary was desperately keen to become a turned to the Parliamentary Assem- Assembly of the Council of Europe directly elected member of the Euro- blies of the Council of Europe and of power as from 1999 to 2002. The presidency pean Parliament and stood for the of the . was probably the pinnacle of his Highlands and Islands constituency Johnston found a particular reso- expressed political career. Johnston described in the 1979 election. He was hugely nance with the fact that the Council how, having had no opportunity disappointed when he lost by the of Europe had been established with through self- to serve in government he found narrow margin of 3,882 votes to the the express purpose of promoting being ‘projected on to an interna- Nationalist, Winnie Ewing who had human rights and democracy and government tional world where one represented come to prominence in 1967 with a achieving greater unity amongst its an Assembly – covering forty one famous by-election victory in Ham- members. Johnston became a mem- at home was states and 800 million people – an ilton, then the second safest Labour- ber of the UK delegation to both especially vivid and wonderful held seat in Scotland. During the assemblies in 1984–85 and again matched by experience.’42 election campaign, Johnston had from 1987 until his death. Johnston was made a Knight faced two major problems. First, his Johnston was a very active mem- his enthusi- Commander in 1985 and, when he passionate belief in a federal Europe ber of the Council of Europe. He retired from the House of Com- with members of the European par- was heavily engaged in the Coun- asm for the mons in 1997, he was created a life liament acting together on shared cil’s programmes of assistance to development peer changing his surname by deed political objectives rather than on states that were either former mem- poll to Russell-Johnston and tak- the basis of narrow nationalism was bers of the or part of of coopera- ing the title Lord Russell-Johnston not only ahead of its time but also it the former Yugoslavia. He was part of Minginish in Highland. John- did not resonate with the electorate. of numerous delegations and visits, tion between ston was also awarded Grand Cross Second, he was thought by his con- including to Poland, preparatory Orders by Austria, Romania and stituents to be overstretching himself to its full membership of the Euro- the regions San Marino and an and his failure to declare whether he pean Union in 2004, to Armenia from Albania. would relinquish his Westminster and Azerbaijan as they prepared and nations Johnston was regarded with great seat, if successful, was said to have for membership of the Council of affection by all those who came in counted against him. Europe in 2001, and to Macedonia of Europe. contact with him, especially those

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 33 russell johnston who worked for him in the party, at Johnston was first was organised by the Iranian From 1999 to 2011 Ross Finnie was Westminster and in Europe. He was Resistance movement at its head- the Liberal Democrat List Member of regarded as a genial colleague with regarded quarters in Paris and the second by the Scottish Parliament for the West a delightful sense of humour. He his family, friends and former con- of Scotland. He served as a Cabinet was always accessible, an engaging with great stituents in St Andrews Cathedral, Minister throughout the Liberal Demo- conversationalist who was keen to Inverness. In Paris, tributes were crat/Labour coalitions of 1999–2003 socialise, to share a measure (or more) affection led by Maryam Rajavi, president and 2003–07. He was a local council- of Scotch whisky or to join you for a elect of the national Council of lor in Inverclyde from 1977 to 1999 and meal accompanied by a glass of fine by all those Resistance of Iran. In her address was chair of the Scottish Liberal Party wine. Maryam Rajavi described Lord 1982–86. Johnston married Joan Gra- who came in Russell-Johnston as ‘a man fight- ham Menzies in 1967 and they had contact with ing for justice and a great ally … a 1 Jeremy Thorpe, In My Own Time three sons: Graham, David and symbol who represented (Britain’s) Reminiscences of a Liberal Leader (Politi- Andrew. When Johnston was - him, espe- enduring values.’44 In Inverness, his co’s Publishing, 1999), p. 100. ing speeches or articles he displayed friend and former parliamentary 2 Lord Bannerman of Kildonan, Ban- a consistently logical approach but cially those colleague and former party leader, nerman: the memoirs of Lord Bannerman this was in stark contrast to his per- David Steel concluded his warm of Kildonan, ed. John Fowler (Impulse sonal life where he conspired to lead who worked tribute by quoting from the Intro- Publications Ltd, 1972), p. 113. a totally chaotic life style: constantly duction to Johnston’s first volume 3 Russell Johnston, Highland Develop- travelling; generously agreeing to for him in of speeches. ment (Scottish Liberal Party, 1964). speaking engagements; and, as a 4 Russell Johnston, To be a Liberal (Scot- consequence, committing to near the party, Language can sometimes be tish Liberal Party, 1972). impossible schedules. His family life inadequate to represent feeling, 5 Ibid., p. 15. suffered greatly not just from this at Westmin- but for me Liberalism is a Posi- 6 Ibid. but also from his passionate and, at tive Balance. It is a centre in the 7 Russell Johnston, Scottish Liberal Party times, obsessive pursuit of European ster and in sense that people of Liberal dis- Conference Speeches 1971–1978 (Book- affairs, with the result that he had position are motivated always mag, 1979), p. 17. been estranged from his wife Joan Europe. to seek to bridge differences 8 Royal Commission on Local Govern- for over a decade prior to his death, between people, rather than ment in Scotland 1966–1969, Chair- although they remained close. He simply to pick and condemn one man The Rt Hon. Lord Wheatly, was an avid reader, a skilled pho- group outright for intransigence Cmnd 4150 HMSO, 1969. tographer and a compulsive writer or stupidity or malice. How to 9 David Steel, Against Goliath: David of postcards – to the delight of the reconcile free men and women Steel’s Story (George Weidenfeld and very many recipients who were kept with each other, without force, Nicolson Ltd, 1989), p. 59. abreast of his worldwide travels, but that is the aim of the Liberal. 10 Michael McManus, Jo Grimond: a scant consolation to his family. For How to build a society that is law Towards the Sound of Gunfire (Birlinn every post card he wrote, he retained abiding and caring, thrustful yet Limited, 2001), p. 303. a copy thus amassing a remarkable protective, creative yet respect- 11 Ibid., p. 305. record of his itinerant life style. ful, tolerant yet responsible, just 12 Ibid., p. 307. Johnston collapsed and died on yet kind, dispassionate yet com- 13 Johnston, Conference Speeches, p. 55. the eve of his seventy-sixth birth- passionate. In the translation of 14 Steel, Against Goliath, p. 80. day, in a street in Paris, which had the Latin, Liber: free and gener- 15 Johnston, Conference Speeches, p. 39. become his favourite city. He had ous. The perpetual search for 16 Sir Russell Johnston, Just Russell: The been diagnosed earlier in the year ways of reconciling order with collected speeches of Sir Russell Johnston with cancer of the bone marrow, for understanding, stricture with MP 1979–1986 (Scottish Liberal Party, which he was receiving chemother- sympathy, hope with reality. 1987), p. 9. apy, but had continued to work on It is a profoundly radical 17 Scottish Self-Government Bill [Bill human rights issues for the Coun- approach-going to the root of 145] HMSO 1966 cil of Europe. Following his death, all problems – in a society which 18 Johnston, To be a Liberal, p. 29. , leader of the Liberal regards kindness as boring, 19 Royal Commission on the Constitu- Democrats, paid this tribute: ‘Lord compassion as weak, fairness as tion 1969–1973, Chairman The Rt Russell-Johnston was an institution foolish. Hon. Lord Kilbrandon, Cmnd 5460 in his own right. A long-standing And it is difficult. And it is HMSO, 1973. MP in the Highlands, a liberal to his complicated. And it does not 20 Johnston, Conference Speeches, p. 66. fingertips … but above all a com- appeal to the self-interested or 21 Steel, Against Goliath, p. 137. mitted lifelong pro-European. Just the self-righteous or the simplis- 22 David Steel, A House Divided: The last week on the last occasion I saw tic or the militant. Lib–Lab Pact and the Future of Brit- him he was pressing me on the latest A credo with a valid claim to ish Politics (George Weidenfeld and European issues of the day. He will provide the basic rules for human Nicolson Ltd, 1980), p. 72. be sorely missed, not only by his society cannot be other than 23 Johnston, Just Russell, p. 5. friends, family and colleagues in the complex and full of is and buts 24 Ibid., p. 5. UK but by all those countless peo- and perhaps-es.45 25 Johnston, Conference Speeches, p. 43. ple whose lives he touched through- 26 Johnston, Just Russell, p. 20. out Europe.’43 Steel aptly and succinctly summed 27 Ibid., pp. 30–33. Two memorial services were up this quotation as: ‘Quintessen- 28 Ibid., p. 32. held in honour of Johnston. The tially Russell’. 29 Ibid., p. 38.

34 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 reports

30 Steel, Against Goliath, p. 287. 39 Johnston, To be a Liberal, p. 29. wave, it passes my comprehension 31 obituary, 29 July 2008. 40 Johnston, Conference Speeches, p. 49. to understand how a hereditary 32 Quoted from the text of the speech 41 Dates and records of membership of house like this [the Lords] can hold delivered by Maryam Rajavi on 4 delegations and visitations extracted its own’. August 2008. from the website of the Parliamentary The mounting difference 33 Proscribed Organisations Appeal Assembly of the Council of Europe. between an unelected Lords and a Commission – Appeal No. 42 Lord Russell-Johnston, Humankind Commons elected on an increas- PC/02/2006. Appellants: Lord Alton Has No Nationality, speeches as Presi- ingly broad franchise, compounded of Liverpool and others. Respond- dent of the Council of Europe Parlia- by the frequent rejection of Liberal ent: Secretary of state for the Home mentary Assembly 1999 (Council of measures by a Tory-dominated Department. Europe Publishing, 2000), p. 5. Lords, resulted in a Liberal resolu- 34 Steel, Against Goliath, p. 189. 43 Quoted from the text the statement tion to ‘mend or end’ the upper 35 Guardian obituary. issued by Nick Clegg, leader of the chamber. Lords reform featured in 36 Paddy Ashdown, The Ashdown Dia- Liberal Democrat Party, 28 July 2008. the Newcastle Programme of 1891, ries, Volume One 1988–1997 (Penguin, 44 Maryam Rajavi. and in 1907 a Cabinet committee 2000), p. 188. 45 Quoted from the text of the tribute was created by the Liberal govern- 37 Guardian obituary. delivered by The Rt Hon. the Lord ment to look at Lords reform. All 38 Johnston, Conference Speeches, p. 6. Steel of Aikwood on 11 August 2008. this predated the 1909 People’s Bud- get and so showed, Norton said, that the famous crisis it triggered was not the underlying reason for Lords reform. However, Norton did believe that nature of the immediate events of the 1909 crisis was important in shaping the Lords reform that took Reports place. Asquith initially favoured the notion that, if the Lords blocked legislation, this would be resolved by a conference (or conciliation Lords reform 1911–2011 committee) made up of all MPs and a smaller number of Lords. How- Conference fringe meeting, 11 March 2011, with Lord Norton In consid- ever, this was rejected, and instead and Lord Marks; chair: Baroness Scott the Lords were given the ability to ering the delay rather than reject – and then Report by Mark Pack solely for non-money bills and only nature of the for two parliamentary sessions. ne hundred years on from to current Lords reform debates. Norton also pointed out that the 1911 Parliament Act, He pointed out that, although the reform, the the Liberal Party’s failure to win Othe Liberal Democrat His- ostensible stimulus for the Parlia- a strong mandate in the two 1910 tory Group’s Sheffield conference ment Act was the rejection of the Liberal Cabi- elections in some ways assisted the meeting looked at the history of 1909 People’s Budget, this was in passage of Lords reform, because Lords reform – what has happened fact only an immediate trigger and net decided it made them dependent on Irish in the intervening 100 years and is that there were two causes rooted Nationalist MPs who – with memo- major reform now really just round more deeply in history. The first that it did ries of home rule legislation – were the corner? dated back to the days of Pitt the much keener on Lords reform than Ably chaired by former Liberal Younger, who secured the creation not wish to many Liberals. The Nationalists Democrat President Baroness Ros of a large number of new peers, giv- demanded Lords reform in return Scott, the meeting started with ing the chamber a Tory (and later change the for support for the Liberal Budget. her recounting how her own per- Conservative) majority. This gave In considering the nature of the sonal experiences of the House the Lords a partisan dominance that composition reform, the Liberal Cabinet decided of Lords were a reflection of how was a problem when there were that it did not wish to change the often Lords reform had been prom- Liberal prime ministers. Second, of the Lords, composition of the Lords, for fear ised imminently but never quite the Great Reform Act and then, that this would strengthen the arrived. When Baroness Scott more importantly, the 1867 Reform for fear that mandate of the Lords in any future was made a peer in 1999, Charles Act introduced a level of popular this would disputes (something with shades Kennedy – then Liberal Democrat involvement in elections that raised of later controversies). It was only leader – said to her that, since the an expectation that parliament over- strengthen in the second half of the twentieth Labour government was fully com- all should be elected by the public. century that Lords reform moved mitted to Lords reform, she would Norton quoted a prophetic warning the mandate from the issue of the powers of the not be there for long. Twelve years by Lord Shaftesbury, during the Lords to that of its composition, on, there she still is. 1867 Reform Act debates, who had of the Lords with the concomitant and con- Philip Norton (Lord Norton of said that it would have an impact on tinuing controversy over whether Louth), a Conservative peer and the Lords, because ‘in the presence in any future such reform would strengthen renowned constitutionalist, pro- of this great democratic power, and the Lords and therefore impede vided the historical background the advance of this great democratic disputes further reform. Hence it was a

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 35 reports

Conservative – Lord Salisbury – Marks the frontrunner for an alternative fellow speaker Norton, Marks said who was primarily responsible for to 100 per cent. In an 80 per cent the government has to make clear the introduction of life peerages in pointed out elected house, it would be possible, a willingness to use the Parliament 1958, which were opposed by the and still desirable in Marks’s view, Act so that people concentrate on Labour Party. that the for all the political members to be the options rather than attempting Norton’s view was that the 1958 elected, leaving the remaining 20 to delay reform altogether. reforms and the abolition of the tradition per cent to be spiritual members, During the questions at the end right of hereditary peers to have crossbenchers and possibly some of the session, Norton made the seats in the House, in 1999, had, of Lords particular former post holders, point that the swing voters in the indeed, ended up strengthening the such as Speakers and Chiefs of the Lords used to be the Liberal Demo- position of the Lords. The influx reform is for Defence Staff. Norton however crats, but a combination of the of new people following the 1958 temporary doubted that all 20 per cent in such Lib Dems going into government act revitalised the House of Lords, a situation would be left to non- and crossbenchers turning out in bringing in active members, as well reforms – politicians, thinking of people such greater numbers meant that signifi- as altering the political balance and as ex-Cabinet members. He also cant power had shifted to the latter. so giving the Lords more author- 1911 and then highlighted the issue of represent- The two speakers disagreed over ity and legitimacy – which in turn ing some religions in the Lords due how likely it was that filibustering gave its members greater confi- 1998 – to end to their non-hierarchical nature, would take place over Lords reform: dence in using its powers. making selecting any representa- Norton saying that it was only a Jonathan Marks (Lord Marks up becoming tives from them problematic. feasible tactic for the Parliamentary of Henley-on-Thames), a Liberal Despite this potentially very Voting System and Constituen- Democrat peer and lawyer, looked long-term. radical nature of this reform, Marks cies Bill because of the referendum at the contemporary situation, look- also said he did not necessarily deadline, but Marks doubting that ing at the prospects for the Coalition think that the current reforms there would be any shortage of Agreement’s commitment to Lords would be the final word on the mat- excuses found to filibuster reform. reform, creating a wholly or mainly ter. In addition, he talked of long Bearing this in mind and the way elected Lords on the basis of propor- terms of office that would most that recently enobled members tional representation. Marks high- likely mean elections by thirds from the Commons seemed to be lighted that the 1911 reform talked every five years, providing a natu- changing the culture of the Lords, of introducing elections, but not ral mechanism for a gradual, phased Marks thought changes in the busi- ‘immediately’; as he said, a century introduction of the reforms and ness procedures of the Lords was is a long time to have been relying replacement of existing members. likely. That two such knowledge- on a stop-gap measure. Marks also For the elections themselves, open able members of the Lords both had reminded the audience that heredi- lists and STV are the only likely different expectations and hopes tary peers, even in very reduced electoral options in Marks’s view. for the future of the Lords left the numbers, are still present in Lords In terms of both how the Lords meeting’s attendees in no doubt that and he raised the incongruity of the operates and ensuring that it con- there is much debate yet to come as election that was then underway to tinues to be seen as subsidiary to the the next stage in the history of the elect a replacement Commons, a voting system that did Lords is shaped. by the alternative vote following a not have a tight constituency link You can watch the meeting in recent death. would be preferable, he said. He full at http://vimeo.com/21522060. Marks pointed out that the also emphasised the opportunity tradition of Lords reform is for that such elections would offer for Mark Pack ran the Liberal Democrat temporary reforms – 1911 and then improving the diversity of Parlia- 2001 and 2005 internet general election 1998 – to end up becoming long- ment, even perhaps including job- campaign and is now Head of Digital term. Despite the long gestation share provisions. at MHP Communications. He also period, Marks said he expected pre- Given the number of opponents co- edits (www. legislative scrutiny of the govern- of Lords reform, including his LibDemVoice.org). ment’s Lords reform proposals to take around a year. He emphasised how little agreement there was over the future composition and pow- ers of the Lords, and expected that Class of ’81: who are the true heirs to the changes to its composition would require its powers to be reviewed. SDP? Marks said that, almost with- out exception, reformers believe Centre Forum meeting, 21 March 2011, with Andrew Adonis, that the Commons should have Chris Huhne MP and Greg Clark MP; chair: Roland Rudd supremacy over a reformed Lords. Report by Tom Frostick As a matter of principle, Marks believes in an 100 per cent elected upper house, but he thought this y parents first met while the time I was born – which, one point would be used by some to serving on the Hertsmere could argue, makes me a child of argue in favour of an 80 per cent Marea committee of the the SDP? However, if you ask my elected upper house, that being Social Democratic Party (SDP); parents who they think are the ‘true the number that has emerged as they were active members around heirs’ to their former party, you

36 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 reports are likely get two quite different Shirley Williams, and the family of the SDP–Liberal Alliance was the responses. After the dissolution of the late Roy Jenkins. David Owen long-awaited marriage between the SDP in 1988, one stuck with gave his apologies through a let- ‘the traditions that came out of the Liberal Democrats; the other, ter read out at the end by Roland the Liberal Party when it was a several years later, turned to New Rudd, who chaired the discussion. party of government and the bet- Labour. Why so? For no particular The timing of the event (21 March) ter traditions of the Labour Party’. reason except that one of them was may have confused editors at the So far, so good. So why did the in more of a hurry to see off John Guardian, which wrongly reported SDP fail to make a breakthrough? Major’s ageing, and increasingly that the Limehouse Declaration Agreed, the Falklands conflict in unpopular, Conservative govern- was made ‘thirty years ago today’. 1982 played its part, galvanising ment. This is what In fact, it was made on 25 January support for Thatcher at a critical promised, and, in 1997, this is what 1981. The ‘’ launched moment, as did the peculiarities of New Labour achieved. The Liberal the party over two months later on first-past-the-post. los- Democrats doubled their number 26 March. ing the Labour deputy leadership of parliamentary seats that year, Anyone who studies the history election was another factor, because but with a smaller percentage of the of the SDP will (or at least should) it meant that many would-be defec- vote than in 1992. feel satisfied that things are not tors remained loyal. But it seems To most former members of nearly as bad today as they were that some of the biggest obstacles the SDP, my parents included, three decades ago. At ‘Class of ’81’, facing the SDP were internal: the Labour’s 1997 landslide victory was Lord Adonis reminded audience rivalry between Owenites and a moment of relief. It marked the members of the ‘winter of discon- Jenkinsites and, above all, the end of the Conservatives’ eighteen- tent’, the ‘ungovernable state’ that party’s reluctance to take risks. ‘If year rule and the arrival of a new came close to disintegration, strike you are going to create a revolu- kind of politics which was broad action, mass unemployment, and tion, you have got to be bold’, said based and progress oriented. Poli- the widening gap between Mar- Lord Adonis, pointing at the fact cies that the SDP had once included garet Thatcher’s Conservatives Thirty years that none of the Labour MPs who in its manifestos finally stood a and a leftward-drifting Labour defected in 1981 resigned to fight chance of becoming reality. For, as movement. Chris Huhne, energy on from the by-elections. far as its stance on multilateralism, secretary in the present Coalition For various reasons then, the the EU and welfare was concerned, government, talked about the early Limehouse mould of British politics remained New Labour was SDP mark II – the years of Thatcher’s premiership unbroken; despite almost equalling more popular, more robust and when the ‘Tory wets’ were on the Declaration, Labour’s share of the vote in 1983, long-lasting version – a vehicle march and the governing party the Alliance suffered abysmally in for drifting social democrats. If dropped from first to third place former SDP consecutive general elections. Did the Lib Dems are what the SDP in the polls. It was also around members this failure matter? Yes, to those became, New Labour was what the this time that Labour was drafting involved at the time, though pos- SDP sought to be, argues ex-SDP its 1983 manifesto. ‘The longest occupy senior sibly less so in the grand scheme member and Labour peer Andrew suicide note in history’, as it came of things. According to the third Adonis. And why not? to be known, included two policy positions panellist at ‘Class of ’81’, Greg Of course, the story of the SDP commitments that drove people Clark, the significance of the SDP’s and its lasting legacy is by no means out of the Labour Party towards the in all three rise and fall would be greater were simple. Thirty years on from the newly formed SDP. The first was it not for the fact that the mod- Limehouse Declaration, former unilateral disarmament; the second main politi- ernisation of politics, the revival SDP members occupy senior posi- was a promise to withdraw Britain of the radical centre, was already tions in all three main political from the Common Market. Among cal parties, underway by the turn of the 1980s. parties, and the jury is very much Labour’s deserters, as Huhne The crucial period, in Clark’s view, out on whether and his recalled, partisans of David Owen and the was 1970–1974 when the Liberals colleagues truly earned themselves tended to be motivated by the issue began to regrow their support and the title ‘heirs’. As Polly Toynbee of unilateral disarmament, while jury is very shake off the ‘beard and sandals observes, ‘those who were part of partisans of Roy Jenkins were more image’. By the time the Alliance [the SDP] tend to rewrite the his- motivated by the Labour stance on much out was formalised in autumn 1981, the tory to suit whatever we did next’. Europe. The rest of SDP’s support, reconstructed Liberal Party under Indeed – and it is because of this he added, came from ‘one very on whether David Steel’s leadership shared tendency that CentreForum, the small group of conservatives’ and a more or less the same vision as the liberal think tank, invited Lord number of ‘high-minded political Tony Blair leadership of the SDP (minus David Adonis along with two other ex- virgins’. and his col- Owen) – and this wasn’t by coinci- SDP members, Chris Huhne and What united this amorphous dence, argues Clark. The union of Conservative decentralisation mass of support? Despair on the leagues Liberals and disaffected Labourites minister, Greg Clark, to address an one hand, but also a strong belief may have been inevitable as the audience at Portcullis House at the that politics could be done differ- truly earned space in the centre of politics grew end of March. Among the hundred ently. For Adonis, the SDP had the larger. or so who attended ‘Class of ’81: potential to be ‘the recreation of the themselves So what about the ‘heirs’ ques- who are the true heirs to the SDP?’ nineteenth-century Liberal Party tion: who today can claim to be were a number of familiar faces, that would be across class, across the title carrying forward the torch first including two members of the orig- community, a national force for inal ‘gang of four’, Bill Rodgers and progressive reform’. For Huhne, ‘heirs’. – concluded on page 51

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 37 It wasn’t only Lloyd George’s daughters

weProfessor Russell Deaconl providess a short historyh of some ofwo the more prominent Welshm female Liberal enpoliticians (1890–1988) liberals

y the time that the daughter of the leading Welsh Lib- and, in Victorian Liberal politics, Welsh Liberals became eral MP and later peer D. A. Tho- the main priority was to expand the Welsh Liberal Dem- mas, in her autobiography looked the franchise of men. Although the ocrats, in 1988, there had back on her childhood and noted: franchise was broadened, first to been well over a hundred urban males and then to rural males, BWelsh Liberal MPs – and they had ‘What,’ as a contemporary there always remained a strong garnered virtually every top politi- remarked, ‘is the use of college for voice, both within the Liberal Party cal position that British politics had a girl? You don’t want to become and outside it, against extending the to offer. These ranged from that Chancellor of the Exchequer!’ I vote to women. Even the Women’s of party leader to the government had no word to answer her with, Liberal Federation was split into posts of , Chancel- and I had no idea at the time why two in 1893 when the anti-suffrage lor and prime minister. In addition, the remark irritated me so much female Liberals formed the Wom- Liberal councillors at one time or … It never occurred to me that, en’s National Liberal Federation another had been the chairs of coun- or something akin to it, was – and the latter remained wholly cils and/or mayors of every county, exactly what, somewhere deep opposed to the universal franchise town and city in Wales. Even to Even the down inside me, I did want to and in particular the campaigning this day, their presence can be seen become.2 tactics of the militant .4 in statues, the names of parks, road Women’s The passing of the Second signs, public buildings and even In the Victorian and Edward- Reform Act of 1867, as well as the name of the occasional public Liberal Fed- ian period women were not only significantly increasing the urban house. But all of the names on these excluded from elected office but male electorate, also changed the visible reminders of Liberal history eration was were expected either to bow out way in which the political par- are male. What, therefore, of female of political activity entirely on ties were run.5 From that point Welsh Liberals? Do they also have a split into marriage or simply to endorse on, both general and local coun- place in history, albeit one that has the political party of their hus- cil elections would become more not been so publicly recognised? two in 1893 band. Victorian social thought competitive and organised along Lady was cer- placed great emphasis on what was more overtly political lines. This tainly the most visible and famous when the regarded as the ‘natural’ separation was due to the fact that parlia- woman in Welsh Liberal politics, of the spheres between the sexes. mentary and local government but she was not the only one. This anti-suffrage This in turn ensured a rigid sexual elections became more regularly short article will therefore seek to female Liber- division of labour.3 Education, reli- contested than before.6 Politically provide some short biographical gion and the role models set by their there was now a need to campaign information concerning some of the als formed mothers and fathers also reinforced on an almost permanent basis, and more notable female Welsh Liberals, this divide. Any political ambitions as a result permanent Liberal Asso- including, of course, Lady Megan. the Women’s that women did have were depend- ciations were established across ent upon the blessing of their hus- Wales in each constituency, rather National bands or fathers. As a result, political than the ad hoc election committees Welsh women Liberals, 1890– development for the Welsh women that had existed beforehand. These 19451 Liberal Liberals was nearly always tied up constituency associations then pro- Margaret Haig Mackworth, 2nd closely with what males and soci- vided a forum in female Liberals Viscountess Rhondda (1883–1958), Federation. ety at the time deemed acceptable; could be active.

38 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 It wasn’t only Lloyd George’s daughters

weProfessor Russell Deaconl providess a short historyh of some ofwo the more prominent Welshm female Liberal enpoliticians (1890–1988) liberals

The majority of local associa- Nora Phillips was a founder of the As well as cause.11 After Thomas was enno- tions were affiliated to the Women’s Women’s Institute, Pembrokeshire bled as Viscount Rhondda in 1910, Liberal Federation (WLF) and the president of the Welsh Industry wishing to Sybil became the first Viscountess Welsh Union of Women’s Lib- Association and Lady President Rhondda. As well as her suffrage eral Associations (WUWLA) or of the 1913 National Eisteddfod. extend the activities, she also later took on local branches of the Liberal Social Although she was English by birth, prominent roles as chairwoman of Councils which brought both men she later developed a great fondness franchise to the wartime government’s Wom- and women together for social for Welsh folk law and became an en’s Advisory Committee and of the events. At the regional level, the accomplished public speaker and women they National Savings Committee. South Wales and North Wales Lib- gave recitals of music and poetry Their only daughter Margaret eral Federations also had female across Wales.9 Phillips contributed were particu- also followed in the family’s politi- sections. By the mid-1890s the a regular column on women’s inter- larly keen on cal footsteps and was a keen Liberal WUWLA comprised some 9,000 ests in the Liberal Young Wales mag- until her marriage to her Conserva- members from fifty-seven con- azine. So prominent was Phillips furthering tive husband, Humphrey Mack- stituency associations.7 From 1891 in both Welsh and British Liberal worth, in 1908. Social convention they held an annual conference in Party business and campaigns that employment at the time meant that she had to Wales where they pursued their she would undoubtedly have been a resign from the Liberals and sup- own political agenda, which did Liberal MP in her own right if she rights for port the Conservatives; however not always coincide with that of the had had the opportunity. she didn’t support their cause for wider party. As well as wishing to The prominence that English- women. long, instead taking up the cause extend the franchise to women they born women, such as Phillips, held of female suffrage in the Women’s were particularly keen on further- in promoting the suffrage move- Social and Political Union (WSPU). ing employment rights for women. ment in Wales meant that Welsh Membership of the WSPU prohib- To this end, they campaigned that opponents of suffrage claimed that ited membership of political par- both no ‘limitations should be the movement was nothing more ties until after universal suffrage placed on the hours and conditions than an ‘alien English imposition’. was gained for women. Margaret of labour of women’ which was This argument was rebuffed, how- therefore threw herself into the not ‘also imposed on men’ and that ever, by the fact that there were heart of the protest movement, not female rather than male inspectors also plenty of Evanses, Davieses only taking part in protest marches, be employed to protect the welfare and Thomases on the list of the suf- but also jumping onto the run- of women in factories and other fragettes’ supporters.10 The most ning board of Liberal Prime Min- workplaces.8 prominent of the Liberal Welsh ister Herbert Asquith’s car in St In 1892, Mrs Nora Phillips, as names were Sybil and Margaret Andrews and setting fire to pillar president of the WUWLA, became Haig Thomas. Sybil was wife of boxes. These activities resulted in the first Welsh female Liberal politi- ‘D. A.’ Thomas – the Merthyr Tyd- her serving a period of time in Usk cian to come to public prominence. fil, and later Cardiff, Liberal MP prison. None of this campaigning, She was the first wife of Sir Wyn- and South Wales rival to David however, prevented Margaret, a ford Phillips, who was MP initially Lloyd George. Sybil, a passion- successful women in her own right, for Mid-Lanarkshire (1888–92) and ate Conservative before her mar- from becoming a politician. Upon later for Pembrokeshire (1898–1908). riage to ‘D. A.’ in 1882, had now the death of her father in 1918 she Amongst her many achievements, become an advocate of the Liberal was allowed by the King (through

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 39 welsh women liberals a Special ) to become a help women get elected to the West- The cam- elected, becoming the first female peeress in her own right – Baroness minster parliament because women Welsh councillor and, in 1912, the Rhondda of Llanwern. Margaret would not be able to stand as candi- paign for first female Welsh mayor, of Bre- was now one of the few peeresses dates until 1918. con17. These were two notable firsts; for whom the title could pass down Despite being barred from elec- universal suf- despite this promising start, how- through the female line, although in tion to parliament, Welsh female ever, Welsh female Liberals would the event she had no children, so the Liberals still played an active role frage, which make slow progress in gaining title ended with her. in politics. Outside the WLF and elected council office, and until the By the time of her ennoblement, WUWLA, there were women serv- dominated 1990s they would only ever appear Margaret had already taken over the ing on the committees of constitu- in ones or twos on most Welsh directorships of some thirty of her ency parties; in local government female Lib- councils. father’s companies, as a result of his most education committees had eral policy at The campaign for universal suf- joining the wartime government as female members co-opted onto frage, which dominated female food controller. She now became them; and at the same time, Liberal the start of Liberal policy at the start of the an even more prominent figure and lady mayoresses, wives of the may- twentieth century, was also sup- role model in the advancement of ors, always had a prominent role in the twenti- ported by . women’s political and employment public affairs. In addition, the con- Dame Margaret, the supportive rights. In 1922 she led an unsuccess- stituency Women’s Liberal groups eth century, wife of , ran ful campaign to allow women to sit acted as an important campaign- the households at both 11 and 10 in the House of Lords; they would ing force. Just a few weeks after the was also Downing Street with a distinct not be allowed to sit there until 1904 council elections in Cardiff, Welsh overtone: many of the staff 1958, the year of her death. In this for instance, Mrs Eva McLaren, supported employed there were from Wales campaign she was backed by many the Women’s Liberal Association and Welsh speaking. As well as sup- leading suffragettes including Mil- chairwoman, reminded their new by Marga- porting her wider political family, licent Garrett Fawcett, the former parliamentary candidate, Ivor Dame Margaret also actively sup- Liberal, and now Labour-support- Guest, that women members had ret Lloyd ported the Liberal cause in North ing, women’s rights campaigner. played a ‘vital role in canvassing Wales until her death in January Had she succeeded, Baroness Rhon- and educating the ignorant voter of George. 1941. On 28 April 1911, many of dda would have joined Viscountess the correct choice, we are fighting Margaret’s North Wales female St Davids, the second wife of the for a Liberal majority’.16 Although Welsh Liberals visited Lloyd George now ennobled Sir Wynford Phillips, Guest – a former Conservative MP to press him to vote in the second and also a peeress in her own right, and cousin of – reading of Sir G. Kemp’s bill on as two of the first Welsh women to acknowledged the role that women women’s suffrage, which he duly sit in the House of Lords.12 How- had played, outside elections he had committed himself to doing.18 ever, although she was never to sit little time for supporting women Despite Lloyd George’s sup- in the House of Lords, Margaret in their campaign for a franchise; port for suffrage, the Women’s did become the first female presi- indeed, in time he would prove to Social and Political Union (WSPU) dent of the Institute of Directors be a political enemy of McLaren’s. directed its members to disrupt in 1926, and in 1922 established and He went on to lead the Women’s public meetings of all Cabinet from then on edited the influential National Anti-Suffrage League, as members, and therefore in Wales weekly paper Time and Tide.13 its honorary treasurer. Despite the action was taken against both Lloyd In the period before Viscount- personal views of Guest and some George and the South Wales Liberal esses Rhondda and St Davids other Liberals, all candidates still MP and Home Secretary, Reginald became prominent on the British held separate election meetings for McKenna.19 In 1912, for instance, political scene, the WUWLA was women Liberal members where disturbances directed the key to expanding women’s the candidates were endorsed by against Lloyd George at his open- political activity. They held regular women from their local Liberal ing of the Llanystumdwy village constituency meetings and weekend associations. No candidate seeking institute caused the national press to schools, where they were addressed selection could avoid this, indi- focus its attention on North Wales; by MPs and other notable figures. cating that, although women still they also did the same when Lloyd Beyond the WUWLA there was could not vote, their political pres- George attended the widespread support for women’s ence was nevertheless significant. Eisteddfod in September 1912.20 rights throughout the wider Welsh The new Liberal government McKenna, as Home Secretary, was Liberal Party – particularly around of Campbell-Bannerman started directly involved in dealing with election times when the absence on the road to full female suffrage. the hunger strikes of women suf- of female candidates and voters The Qualification of Women Act, fragettes in prison and introduced was at its most apparent.14 On 18 passed in 1907, allowed women the so-called ‘Cat and Mouse Act’. April 1895, for instance, a National to be elected onto Welsh borough This allowed female prisoners out Convention of Wales (of all Welsh and county councils for the first of prison when they were close to Liberals) was held in Aberystwyth time. Women could now stand starvation and brought them back in under the president of the North anywhere for Welsh local gov- again once they had recovered. One Wales Federation, Thomas Gee. It ernment. As soon as the Act was of the mice let go by McKenna was committed the party in Wales to passed, local Liberals in Brecon the 2nd Viscountess Rhondda, who campaigning for equal rights for petitioned for a well-known and went on hunger strike while impris- women within the Liberal Federa- active Liberal, Gwenllian Morgan, oned at Usk Prison for a month for tion.15 It was not, however, able to to stand for election. She was duly refusing to pay a fine imposed for

40 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 welsh women liberals attempting to blow up Cardiff post seat in Sunderland in the 1929 elec- during the election campaign itself boxes. She was released after five tion.24 Similarly, Winifred Coombe Megan toured Britain supporting days but did not go back to prison Tennant, the leading South Wales other female candidates including because her fine was then paid. Liberal and art collector fought but Roberts in Caerphilly, despite her During this period of politi- failed to win the Forest of Dean seat Asquithian past. In addition Megan cal turmoil for women, two of in 1922. Disappointingly, despite became the voice of the Liberals in Wales’s most famous Liberal phi- the Welsh Liberal Federation sup- the special BBC broadcasts ‘by and lanthropists, Gwendoline and porting votes for all women in their for women’, which were tailored Margaret Davies, were following a conference address of 1921, they to the new female voters. How- more sedate path. They started to did nothing of a practical nature ever, only one of the two women develop the arts, music, education to ensure that any women from its – Megan Lloyd George – was a vic- and various Liberal causes through- own party were either selected or tor in these Welsh elections. At the out Wales. The sisters’ brother was elected in Wales.25 age of twenty-seven she was elected the Montgomeryshire Liberal MP, Despite the fact that Wales was to Anglesey by 5,618 votes (21 per David Davies. They had benefited quite clearly a patriarchal society cent). Megan became the first Welsh from a multi-million-pound inher- in terms of its politics, the Welsh female MP and one of only eight itance from their grandfather, the Liberal Women’s Organisation, Welsh women MPs in the House of Liberal MP railway and coal pio- until it disbanded in 1988, still con- Commons in the whole of the twen- neer David Davies senior. From the tinued to operate and push forward tieth century. Roberts failed to get 1900s onwards both sisters collected Most promi- the female political agenda. In the elected to Caerphilly and two years mainly Impressionist paintings and immediate post-war period, Megan later defected to the Labour Party. made various gifts and bequests that nent Welsh Lloyd George was the president of There she was later shortlisted for would later form the main picture the North Wales Liberal Women’s the Liberal stronghold of Cardigan collection of the National Museum Liberal Federation which continued to in 1932, but failed to get selected and of Wales.21 Importantly for Welsh attract support from leading male thus avoided standing against her Liberalism, they also supported it women were and female Welsh Liberals. Rosa former party. She never stood for and its many causes. Hovey, for instance, the princi- parliament again. On 21 November 1918, the Par- prevented pal of Penrhos College for Girls in Megan, on the other hand, liament (Qualification of Women) Colwyn Bay, was the vice president always enjoyed the support of her Act came into law and allowed from seek- of the Northern Federation in the famous family. Her father, brother women to sit in parliament as 1920s and 1930s.26 She was a promi- Gwilym and his brother-in-law elected MPs. Much of the resistance ing seats in nent educationalist from Den- (Major Goronwy Owen) were all to female suffrage had been reduced bighshire who projected a strong MPs, and her sister Olwen, although by the prominent role women had Wales by the presence for female Welsh Liberals. never an MP, nevertheless played an played in winning World War I. overwhelm- Similarly, Lillian Richards from important part in the smooth run- Acknowledging their wartime role, Cardiff was a prominent member on ning of during Lloyd George declared at West- ingly patriar- the Welsh National Liberal Council World War I. Fluent in both French minster in 1917 that the lack of a between 1923 and 1927. Unfortu- and German, Olwen was used as female franchise ‘is an outrage, it is chal nature nately, however, the decline of the her father’s personal translator and ungrateful, unjust, inequitable …’.22 Welsh Liberal Party consigned the in meetings of generals, presidents He was therefore able to ensure that, of Welsh memory of many key female Liber- and prime ministers was frequently as prime minister, he finally enacted als of the time to the forgotten and the only female present.27 The sole the legislation that enabled women constituen- frequently unrecorded shadows of presence of Olwen in key war meet- to vote, albeit it initially only at the the party’s history, of which only ings illustrated the fact not only that age of thirty, until it was equalised cies and the a few fragments have survived, this was still a very male-dominated with men at the age of twenty-one mainly in the National Library of society but at the same time that, a decade later. The year after the legacy of Wales Political Archives. if women had particular skills, 1918 act, the Sex Disqualification knowledge or family connections, (Removal) Act 1919 also allowed Victorian they could still find a position of women to sit on juries and be jus- Wales’s first and last female some use to the Liberal government tices of the peace. and Edward- Liberal MP – Megan Lloyd or party. Over the following decades, George Megan’s selection for the Angle- Welsh female Liberals would ian social Once women were allowed to stand sey seat, which was then one of the start to trickle into politics. Most for parliament, it would take over a safest in Wales for the Liberals, was prominent Welsh Liberal women values, and decade for a female Liberal to actu- not without controversy. The sit- were prevented from seeking seats as a result ally do so in Wales; and then just ting Liberal MP, Sir Robert Tho- in Wales by the overwhelmingly two female candidates were put mas, was a David Lloyd George patriarchal nature of Welsh con- they had to before the electorate in thirty-six loyalist who was stepping down due stituencies and the legacy of Victo- Welsh constituencies in the May to financial problems and he was rian and Edwardian social values, seek easier 1929 general election. These were more than happy to endorse another and as a result they had to seek easier Anne Grace Roberts in Caerphilly Lloyd George as his successor. avenues via English seats. Leading avenues and Megan Lloyd George (daugh- However, there were allegations lights such as Dr Betty Morgan, ter of David Lloyd George) in by the other Liberal candidates that a prominent Welsh Liberal and via English Anglesey. Although Roberts had Megan’s supporters had created new close friend of ,23 for previously been the organiser for branches in order to enhance her instance, unsuccessfully fought a seats. the Asquithian Liberals in Wales, chances and, most damagingly, the

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 41 welsh women liberals

Megan retained her Anglesey seat in the pre-war era, almost with- with a majority of 1,081 (4.4 per out exception they were women cent) over Labour. whose husbands or families were As a ‘Liberal Radical’, Lady also deeply involved in Liberal poli- Megan in the post-war period was tics or some aspect of Welsh politi- firmly on the left of the party and cal life. The two most prominent became ever closer to Labour dur- were Lady Olwen Carey-Evans ing this period. In an attempt to (David Lloyd George’s second old- appease her and her fellow Liberal est daughter who remained active Radical supporters, who talked in Welsh Liberal politics until her of having her as a potential party death in 1990) and Mrs Parry Brown leader, Clement Davies made her (wife of the party’s treasurer Major deputy leader of the British Liberal J. Parry Brown). Mrs Parry Brown Party in 1949.29 She remained a Lib- was instrumental in the running of eral until her defeat by Labour in the South Wales Federation. The 1951. In November 1952, however, assistant secretary of the Welsh Lady Megan refused an invitation to party’s council, Jennie Gibbs, was stand again as Liberal candidate for also one of the most influential fig- Anglesey. Her main reasons given at ures in the South Wales Federation. the time were that the Liberals were In the general election of 1966 she moving too far to the right.30 Lady stood as only the third Welsh female Megan resigned as deputy leader of Liberal candidate in history and the party at the same time. On 26 the first new Liberal parliamentary April 1955, amongst much publicity, candidate since 1929.32 Not only did she announced her conversion to she serve on a number of councils the Labour Party. This took her for- during the 1960s and 1970s, but she ever out of the list of ‘Welsh Liberal was also the conference organiser heroines’ and onto that of ‘Welsh behind the Welsh Liberal meeting Daily Mail published a story that she Megan Lloyd Liberal turncoats’. Just under two that took place in Builth Wells on had taken part in a ‘Pyjama bottle George (1902–66) years later, Megan stood for Labour 11 June 1966. Here the Liberal Party party’. For teetotal Nonconformist in 1929. in the Carmarthen by-election of Wales agreed to create a federal Anglesey voters this was shocking caused by the death of the Liberal state party in Wales and dissolve the behaviour and the story was only MP Sir . Her Welsh federations. laid to rest after a series of denials accomplished oratorical skills and This was a turning point in by Megan and statements of support Liberal background in a Liberal seat Welsh Liberal history and it was at from leading Liberals.28 Neverthe- helped her win by a 3,069 majority this same meeting that Councillor less, despite these problems, Megan over a weak male Liberal candidate. Mary Murphy, from Pontypridd, was selected for the seat and duly Lady Megan died a Labour MP in became the first chair of the Welsh elected for it. 1966; nevertheless, her three dec- party.33 Murphy, a Maths and PE Until her death in 1966 Megan ades at the forefront of both Welsh teacher and the former treasurer enjoyed a high profile, due not only and British Liberal politics means of the South Wales Liberal Federa- to her status as Lloyd’s George’s that she remains the most promi- tion, became one of the party’s most daughter and the only female MP in nent Welsh female Liberal to date.31 well-known figures in Welsh local Wales but also to her own abilities government. She was also a keen as a politician. She loyally followed supporter of Liberal leader Jeremy her father into what ever faction Women of the post-war Welsh Thorpe. In 1968 she became chair of of the Liberal Party he went in to, Liberal Party Pontypridd Urban District Council until his death in 1945. Her father’s After Lady Megan lost her Lib- where she was able to increase Lib- earldom in 1945 meant that from eral seat there were no more Welsh eral representation to a level which, then on she was referred to as Lady female Liberal MPs, let alone any when combined with the Independ- Megan Lloyd George. Consistently to match the national pedigree ents, was just one seat short of con- a pro-devolutionist, supporter of a and achievements of Lady Megan. trolling the council outright34 – an Welsh Secretary in the Cabinet and Nevertheless there were still some achievement that would remain later the chair of the Campaign for female politicians who played cen- the best post-war South Wales Lib- a Welsh Parliament, Lady Megan tral roles in the Welsh Liberal/SDP/ eral council result until the party constantly pursued the cause of Liberal Democrat parties. merged with the SDP in 1988, far Home Rule for Wales. In 1944, as The South Wales and North ahead of those in other South Wales chair of the Welsh Parliamentary Wales Federations dominated post- councils. Later on, as secretary of Party, she secured a ‘Welsh Day’ in war Welsh Liberal politics until the Welsh Liberal Party, which she the House of Commons. It was not the Welsh state party was formed ran from her own house in Pon- the Welsh parliament that Welsh in 1966; and the first prominent typridd, Murphy went around Liberals longed for, but it did mean female Welsh Liberals to emerge in Wales helping reform existing that, in future, parliament would the post-war era were those who branches and start new ones. This spend at least one day a year debat- held posts in the two federations ensured that she was well known ing Welsh issues, In the general elec- and in the numerous constituency across both the Welsh and the wider tion of 1945, after her father’s death, associations. As had been the case federal party.35

42 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 welsh women liberals

In the constituency associations In 2011 Randerson also became the discrimination and imposed social there were also other powerful first female Welsh Liberal to sit in values. The social values that lim- female figures. In Carmarthen, for the House of Lords. ited the role of married women in instance, Dorothy Trefor Thomas – The period that the SDP was politics to that simply of supporting chair of the Carmarthenshire Wom- active in Wales (1981–88) also their husbands did not lessen until en’s Association – became known as brought forward two other female the 1960s; as a result, the lifting of the ‘Queen of Carmarthen Town’ politicians who would later play legal and social discrimination came because of the power she wielded substantial roles in the emerging too late for many of those women over the local constituency associa- Welsh Liberal Democrat party. who would today have gone into tion. Even the sitting MP, Sir Rhys The first of these was Jacqui Gas- either the House of Commons, the Hopkin Morris, would have to son, a Surrey-born child protection Lords, the European Parliament or gain her approval on various con- officer who became a South Gla- the Welsh Assembly. stituency issues before proceeding morgan county councillor and later Before the 1960s, only single further.36 the Liberal Democrat group leader women or those with supportive Whereas the 1950s and 1960s on that council. In 2005 she also husbands could ever hope to engage had seen the rise of a number of became the Lord Mayor of Cardiff in Welsh Liberal politics. Even these prominent women, the 1970s saw in its centenary year, the first post- few women were restricted in their only a handful of new female Lib- war Liberal mayor in Wales’s capi- opportunities for advancement and eral politicians arrive on the Welsh tal city. In addition, Gasson held rarely contested parliamentary seats political scene. The psychiatrist posts on a number of Welsh Liberal in Wales. From 1931 to 1951, Megan Dr Jennifer Lloyd and the teacher Democrat committees. She devel- Lloyd George was the only Welsh Shiela Cutts joined Mary Murphy oped a formidable reputation for female Liberal candidate to stand in and Jennie Gibbs as Welsh Liberal both her policy expertise and her Wales. Between 1951 and 1966 there parliamentary candidates.37 None of successful, battling political style were no women Liberal candidates them, however, came close to start- against often overwhelming odds standing in parliamentary elections ing a political career at Westmin- both inside and outside the party. in Wales, which prevented any pos- ster. In Cardiganshire, however, The second prominent SDP mem- sibility of female Liberal MPs being Cecilia Barton was emerging as a ber was Councillor Robinia Feeley. elected. Similarly the restriction on Liberal figure of some distinction. She was a Glyndwr district council- women entering the House of Lords In the 1980s she became chair of the lor and held a place the SDP Welsh before 1958 prevented some notable Ceredigion district council and one executive. Feeley initially refused Welsh Liberal women from gaining of the first Welsh Liberals to wield to join the newly merged SDP and a place at Westminster by this route. any real power in government. As Liberal parties but did eventually It was therefore only in the 1960s, chair of the Welsh party during the come across and became one of the when the Welsh Liberal Party was 1980s, she was also instrumental leading North Wales Liberal Demo- a mere shadow of its pre-war glory in the merger of the Welsh Liber- crats. She later became the deputy years, that women started to fill als with the SDP. Another Welsh group Liberal Democrat leader on central roles in the party and to Liberal, further education lecturer Denbighshire county council and push forward electorally. However, Jenny Randerson, was also com- unsuccessfully stood for a number even though it was a slow process, ing to the forefront of the Welsh of Welsh parliamentary and Assem- it nonetheless paved the way for Liberal Party during the 1980s. bly seats – nevertheless becoming the significant leaps forward that A Cardiff City councillor from one of the best-known North Wales occurred between 1999 and 2005. 1983, she became president of the female Liberals. This period saw the election of four Welsh Liberals in 1988, then twice The 1980s also saw a number female Welsh Assembly members, stood unsuccessfully for the Car- of other women coming into the Before one female MP and one female diff Central constituency at West- Welsh party’s executive and hold- council leader. It provided more minster elections (in 1992 and 1997) ing a variety of portfolios, although the 1960s, political achievements for Welsh before gaining the seat in the Welsh none succeeded in gaining political Liberal Democrat women in six Assembly elections of 1999. Rand- office at Westminster. We should only single years than had been accomplished in erson went on to make political his- note, however, that even male Lib- the whole of the life of the old Lib- tory for Liberal women in a number eral electoral fortunes were limited women or eral Party (1868–1988). of ways. She served in the Lab-Lib to just two seats in Wales between Assembly 1956 and 1985 (Montgomeryshire those with Professor Russell Deacon currently of 2000–2003, which made her the and Cardigan), demonstrating that holds a chair in Welsh Political History first female Liberal Democrat gov- political opportunity for Liberals supportive and Governance at the University of ernment minister in history. She in Wales was limited almost every- husbands Wales Institute, Cardiff. He has written also served for a time as deputy first where, whether the candidate was numerous articles and books on Welsh minister, and on occasions as first male or female. could ever history and politics and his History of minister when was the Welsh Liberal Party is due out in either ill or overseas. This in turn hope to spring 2012. made her the first Liberal Democrat Conclusion leader of one of the United King- In the period when the Liber- engage in 1 The references for this article unless dom constituent nations (Wales) als were the dominant party of otherwise cited come from Russell and, after Margaret Thatcher, only Welsh politics, between 1868 and Welsh Liberal Deacon, A History of the Welsh Lib- the second woman to hold such a 1922, women were kept out of eral Party (Welsh Academic Press), senior post in the . politics by a combination of legal politics. forthcoming.

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 43 welsh women liberals

2 Viscountess Rhondda, This Was My 21 Oliver Fairclough, ‘Things of Beauty’: World (MacMillan: 1933), p. 92. What Two Sisters Did For Wales 3 Patricia Jannad, Women, Marriage and (National Museum Wales Books: Politics 1860–1914 (Clarendon Press: 2007). 1986), p. 7. 22 Robert Blackburn, The Electoral Sys- 4 Ibid., p. 233. tem in Britain (St Martins Press: 1995), 5 Kenneth. O Morgan, Wales In British p. 69. Politics 1868–1922 (University of Wales 23 Professor Ramsey Muir was a leading Press: 1980), p. 57. figure in the Liberal Summer School 6 Russell Deacon, ‘“Statues and news- movement and the National Liberal paper wars”: Cardiff town and city Federation. politics in Cardiff (1868–1908)’, Mor- 24 Daily News, 3 January 1930. ganwwg, 2010, vol. LIV, p. 2. 25 Dictionary of Welsh Biography 1941–1970, 7 Ursula Masson, ‘Liberalism, gender p. 23. and national memory’, University of 26 The Times, 19 October 1932, p. 16. Wales Institute Cardiff, Department 27 Olwen Carey Evans, Lloyd George Was of Humanities Open Seminar series, My Father (Gomer: 1985), p. 87. 3 May 2007. 28 Mervyn Jones, A Radical Life: The 8 The Western Mail, 14 March 1895. Biography of Megan Lloyd George 9 The Times, 31 March 1915, p. 10. (Hutchinson: 1991), p. 78. 10 Deidre Beddoe, Out of the Shadows: 29 Ibid., p.112 A History of Women in Twentieth Cen- 30 J. Graham Jones, ‘A breach in the fam- tury Wales (University of Wales Press: ily, the Lloyd Georges’, Journal of Lib- 2000), p. 45. eral History, 25, Winter 1999–2000 p. 11 Viscountess Rhondda, My World, p. 36. 142. 31 Russell Deacon, ‘Before Torrington 12 Nora Phillips had died in 1915. there was Carmarthen’, conference 13 The Dictionary of Welsh Biography paper at the LSE conference ‘Tor- 1941–1970 ( Society of rington ’58: Liberal survival and Cymmrodorion: 2001), p. 264. revival, 1945–1979’, 14 June 2008. 14 Morgan, Wales in British Politics, p. 32 Beti Jones, Welsh Elections, 1885–1997 252. (Yr Lolfa: 1999), p. 48 undertaken previously. As the 15 Liverpool Mercury, 19 April 1895, p. 7. 33 Ivor Thomas Rees, Welsh Hustings author rightly points out, there 16 South Wales Daily News, 25 November 1885–2004 (Dinefwr Publishers: 2005), has never been any defined role 1904. p. 215. for former British PMs, and there 17 Brycheiniog, vol. XII, 1966/67. 34 Steve Belzak, ‘Swinging in the Sixties have never been more than five of 18 The Times, 28 April 1911, p. 8. to the Liberals: Mary Murphy and them alive at any one time. When 19 Viscountess Rhondda, My World, p. Pontypridd Urban District Council’, Margaret Thatcher was first elected 148. Liberal History Journal, 68, Autumn in May 1979, there were indeed 20 J. Graham Jones, ‘Lloyd George and 2010, pp. 26–34. five such incumbents: Macmillan, the Suffragettes at Llanystumdwy’, 35 Ibid. Douglas-Home, Wilson, Heath Journal of Liberal Democrat History, 36 Lord Hooson to author, 4 February and Callaghan. How former 34/35, Spring/Summer 2002, pp. 2003. prime ministers have reacted and 3–10. 37 Rees, Welsh Hustings, p. 107. responded to the sudden loss of high office (and all its attendant prestige) and coped with the chal- lenge of retirement has varied enormously from one individual to another. This impressive tome goes right back to the first PM Sir , who resigned in February 1742. Reviews Relatively few of the figures carefully delineated in this book chose wholly voluntarily the pre- cise moment of their departure. Walpole to Blair in retirement The one exception certainly was in May 1937 who Kevin Theakston, After Number 10: Former Prime Ministers in reported ‘an enormous relief’ when British Politics (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) the time eventually came to cast aside the burdens of responsibil- Reviewed by Dr J. Graham Jones ity of high office. Baldwin is also reported to have decided ‘to make his is a most fascinating, no survey of the role of former no political speeches, neither to superbly readable book. It prime ministers in British public speak to the man at the wheel nor Tis indeed surprising that and political life has ever been to spit on the deck’ (pp. 2–3). To a 44 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 reviews large extent, he succeeded for the death bed (pp. 82–83). The sec- Like other revisionist histori- next decade, but few other former tion on W. E. Gladstone is also a ans, Theakston insists that LG prime ministers have displayed good read, pinpointing his most ‘remained a critical player and at equal charity and consideration belated retirement in March 1894 the centre of British politics’ at towards their successors. Even aged eighty-four, his exceptionally least until August 1931, ‘and to a fewer were able to return to high strained relationship with Queen less extent after that’ (p. 129). The office under their successors. The Victoria throughout, his distaste profound antipathy towards him most obvious exceptions were for the government of his succes- of three of his prime ministerial A. J. Balfour under Asquith, Lloyd sor Lord Rosebery in 1894–95, and successors – Baldwin, MacDon- George (in war time) and Baldwin, his general good health and vigour ald and Chamberlain – is rightly and, more recently, Douglas- during most of his last years. He pointed up, as indeed is Lloyd Home, who served with some dis- was indeed ‘someone iconic for the George’s key role in formulat- tinction as Foreign Secretary under century … a man who … had epit- ing new radical policy initiatives Ted Heath. omised, symbolised and provided a between 1924 and 1929. LG had There is very little that is background to an entire age’ (p. 99). certainly not been ‘fossilised’ by positively new or really original There is much interesting mate- continuous membership of the in this study. No archival research rial, too, on the exceptionally long Commons since April 1890 (p. has been undertaken in its prepa- time span which Rosebery lived 131). But, regrettably, there are one ration. But the author has read after resigning as prime minister in or two factual slips here. Major very widely a positive array of December 1898. Goronwy Owen, the Liberal MP biographies, memoirs and auto- A distinct air of sadness sur- for Caernarfonshire from 1923 biographies, political and general rounded the last days of Sir Henry until 1945, was the brother-in-law histories of the period, the entries Campbell-Bannerman, who sur- of Major Gwilym Lloyd-George, in the new Dictionary of National vived for no more than seventeen not of Lloyd George himself (p. Biography, newspaper columns days after standing down in April 132). Also, it is far from certain and websites. His apparent effort- 1908 and actually died ‘on the that Lloyd George ‘fathered a less mastery of the history of the premises’ at 10 Downing Street child with his long-term mistress period is most impressive. Also, – the only PM ever to do so. He (and later second wife) when aged Theakston has a good eye for rele- simply could not be moved from 66’ (p. 7). It is equally likely that vant comparisons, and can provide there after Asquith had taken over the father was Colonel Thomas F. helpful statistics which help guide because of the gravity of his condi- Tweed with whom Frances Ste- the reader through the study. How former tion. This was indeed the shortest venson had a passionate affair in Equally useful are his references ever post-premiership in British 1927–28. to contemporary equivalents of prime min- history (p. 7). His possible desire to There is much else of great sums of money. The impoverished isters have die ‘in harness’ had been thwarted interest here too. Theakston Herbert Asquith, we are told, by the selfish anxiety of King warmly commends Douglas- left just £9,345 upon his death in reacted and Edward VII not to have his holiday Home and Callaghan for settling February 1928, ‘about £300,000 at Biarritz interrupted by the death into the role of esteemed elder in today’s money’ (p. 124). Dur- responded to or resignation of a serving prime statesman following their resigna- ing the long 1930s, Lloyd George minister (p. 120). C-B’s successor tions in 1965 and 1980 respectively. pocketed a total of some £65,000 the sudden as prime minister, H. H. Asquith, The ‘long sulk’ of , from the advances, royalties and survived for rather longer after from which he never really recov- newspaper-serialisation earnings loss of high being unceremoniously ousted ered, is well chronicled, as is the from his six-volume mammoth from number 10 at the height of reluctance of his successor Mar- War Memoirs, a sum ‘equivalent to office (and all World War I in December 1916. garet Thatcher to accept that her £2.4 million today’ (p. 128). Theakston tells us that often there- ‘glory days’ were well and truly Of necessity, the earlier entries its attendant after, although remaining leader of over following her enforced res- are relatively brief – until we come the Liberal Party, he ‘just stagnated ignation in November 1990: ‘The to the Duke of Wellington. There prestige) and slumped into an easy life with telephone goes and immediately are some graphic descriptions in this his books, his family and the social you think, oh goodness me, the book, among them the depiction of and coped round’ (p. 121), his political career United Nations is sitting. Then Sir being thrown from cruelly interrupted by deeply you realise that it’s no longer you his horse, trampled, and then linger- with the humiliating shock electoral defeats any more’ (back cover). Harold ing in great agony until his death a at East in December 1918 (after Wilson, the victim of dementia, few days later (p. 78). challenge of representing it for fully thirty-two we are told, soon became ‘an Readers of this Journal will have retirement years) and later at Paisley in Octo- almost forgotten figure’ after his much to enthral them. Among the ber 1924. Sadly, his last years were decision to stand aside in March many entries certain to interest has varied dogged by ever-escalating money 1976, an apparently surprise move is that on Lord Palmerston, who worries. to many, but one upon which he died while still prime minister just enormously The section on Lloyd George’s had resolved two years earlier. two days short of his eighty-first long post-ministerial career, with In a final short chapter entitled birthday on 18 October 1865, active from one ‘the goat’ confined to ‘the wilder- ‘Comparative Perspectives’, the until the end, a serial womaniser, ness’ for more than twenty-two author surveys very briefly post- fully capable of eating, drinking individual to years, is truly masterly. As the prime-ministerial careers in other and following avidly the course last Liberal PM, Lloyd George countries. There is obviously much of political life even while on his another. deserves special consideration. more scope to expand this section

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 45 reviews significantly, which has a rather relevant sources, but the footnote organisations in place. This is very ‘potted history’ air about it. references are always full and much the focus of the book, which Perhaps the only real disap- genuinely helpful. deals in turn with constituency and pointment here is the failure to district organisations, the role of provide photographs of at least Dr J. Graham Jones is Senior Archivist the Young Liberals, the attitudes of some of the prime ministers and Head of the Welsh Political Archive the party’s activists and its represen- described in the volume. There at the National Library of Wales, tation in local government. is also no general bibliography of Aberystwyth. On local organisation, Egan looks at funding, candidate selec- tion, and decisions to contest elections and by-elections. He compares what happened on the ground – as reflected in the Lib- Survival and revival eral Association records he has reviewed and his interviews with Mark Egan, Coming into Focus: The transformation of the activists – to the theory of British Liberal Party 1945–1964 (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2009) political organisation as set out in the Robert MacKenzie’s clas- Reviewed by Malcolm Baines sic, British Political Parties, and to the results of the surveys carried iberal Party history dur- distribution of Liberal borough out contemporaneously by the ing the fallow years between councillors, how interviewees American political scientist Jorgen Lthe failure of Lloyd George’s joined the Liberal Party and sources Scott Rasmussen and used in his ‘last hurrah’ – the 1929 election of Liberal Association income, book, The Liberal Party: A Study of campaign – and the Orpington interspersed with commentary and Retrenchment and Revival, published by-election victory of March 1962, book-ended by short essays on the in 1965. Interestingly, Egan points has long been neglected by aca- historiographical background to towards the local district parties, demics and party members alike. Liberal survival and a review of often based in small towns, being What awareness there is largely how the 1945 party had changed the key building blocks of Liberal revolves around Beveridge, the by 1964. Egan has researched local organisation rather than constitu- split between Liberals and National Liberal records avidly and supple- ency parties themselves. He also Liberals and Churchill’s offer of mented these with interviews with emphasises the importance of the a Cabinet post in 1951 to the then some 140 Liberal activists from the Young Liberals and the Union of Liberal leader, Clement Davies. period and it is the use of this data University Liberal Students to the By contrast, Mark Egan’s book which gives weight to the book’s Liberal Party during that period, attempts to put some organisational argument. especially as a vehicle through flesh on the party’s grassroots dur- Coming into Focus begins with ing the post-war part of this period. the aftermath of the 1945 election He succeeds admirably, and anyone and points out that the party’s rep- interested in the party’s organisa- resentation of twelve MPs elected tion, youth groups and local gov- to Westminster was not matched ernment representation will find again for over twenty years. The much background not readily avail- party’s electoral weakness in the able elsewhere. post-war period is highlighted by Coming into Focus aims to provide the fact that the party came first or a different perspective on much second in only thirty-six seats in of what has been written on the 1945, as compared to eighty-three party’s history in the immediate at the previous general election in post-war period. Other historians 1935. Egan compares this with the and sociologists have looked at Lib- party’s improved position in 1964 eral Party survival in that period – highlighting in particular the in the context of either the high growth in local government rep- politics of its relationship with the resentation as well as the fact that Conservative Party or sociologi- all the party’s MPs were elected in cal explanations revolving around three-way contests – and asserts an antipathy to collectivism or the that 1964 did amount to a signifi- survival of an older form of society cant step on the road to revival. It in the Celtic fringe where Noncon- leaves hanging, however, the sig- formity remained strong and the nificance of the 1970 election in trade unions weak. Egan is unusual which only six MPs were elected to in concentrating on the party itself parliament, many with only wafer- in the constituencies across the UK. thin majorities. In style, it does come across as Egan goes on to make the the book of the D.Phil. thesis, with very powerful point that none lots of tables providing, for exam- of this would have been relevant ple, information about the regional without there being local Liberal

46 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 reviews which new members of the party The content 1960s were taking place without revolving around the personality of elite were recruited. any significant input by the party’s Grimond. Despite the rather pedes- One of the most interesting of Dr Egan’s MPs or parliamentary leadership. trian style, the content of Dr Egan’s sections reports on Egan’s research Indeed, Egan shows that there was book makes it essential reading for into the views and attitudes of the book makes no real connection between them, any academic study of the Liberal party’s activists during that period. arguing effectively that Grimond Party during this crucial period of Issues that he examined included it essential and Bonham-Carter did not show survival and the first, Orpington, why they joined the Liberal Party, any greater interest than Clem- period of revival. family and religious background, reading for ent Davies had in the local Liberal ideological factors and political associations or Liberal councillors After reading history at Selwyn Col- opinions. Many of those inter- any academic elected in the towns of Britain. To lege, Cambridge and the University of viewed were still active in the study of the a substantial extent, there were Lancaster, Malcolm Baines completed Liberal Party when I first became two parallel Liberal revivals in a D.Phil. at Exeter College, Oxford, involved in the early 1980s and Liberal Party this period – one in local govern- entitled ‘The survival of the British there is a real sense of the continu- ment, focused on the south-east Liberal Party 1932–1959’ in 1990. He ity of the party in this section. during this of England; the other in parlia- now works in taxation for a hotel and The local government part ment, the media and academia, property group. is also one of the highlights. crucial period Although Egan admits that the data is incomplete, he makes an attempt of survival to analyse the changing numbers of Liberal councillors during the and the first, period, including their regional The land question explored distribution. This shows that, Orpington, during the 1940s and 1950s, the Matthew Cragoe and Paul Readman (eds.), The Land period of party’s local government heartland Question in Britain, 1750–1950 (London: Palgrave Macmillan, was in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Indeed, by 1956, over two-thirds revival. 2010) of Liberal borough councillors in Reviewed by Dr J. Graham Jones England came from Lancashire, Cheshire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. From 1956 to 1963, his impressive collection of from Hertfordshire to take up the however, the number of Liberal essays, full of highly origi- position of Professor of Modern borough councillors from south- Tnal material, certainly fills a British History at the University east England exploded from eight distinct gap in our historiography. of Sussex), and Dr Paul Readman, in 1956 to 277 in 1963, presaging a The ownership of the land and presently senior lecturer in modern more significant shift in the party’s the use made of it was a political British history at King’s College, geographical base in later decades. hot potato in all four nations of London. All the contributors are Furthermore, after 1956 there were the British Isles from the mid- distinguished scholars, most hold- significant declines in representa- eighteenth century almost through ing senior university posts, many tion in such former local govern- to the mid-twentieth. According to considered expert historians in this ment strongholds as Rochdale, many radical Liberal politicians, the field of study. The individual essays Halifax and Huddersfield. Egan very concept of ‘landlordism’ was are arranged strictly chronologi- selects a number of case studies to in itself full of attendant evils, an cally within the volume. look at in more detail, including idea perpetuated by many socialists In the opening chapter, Ian Rugby, Southend and Liverpool. thereafter. Conversely, the landlord Waites uses mainly the evidence of Rugby, in particular, is highlighted class and the concept of political landscape paintings (supported by as one of the birthplaces of com- landlordism were defended by interesting images) and contem- munity politics, with innovations political Conservatives. porary literature to examine the such as grumble sheets and regular Curiously, comparatively little widespread impact of the enclosure report-back newsletters, but other attention has been paid to ‘the land movement upon the common pioneers such as Cyril Carr in question’ by modern historians. field landscape from about 1770 Church Ward, Liverpool, and the The one exception, Roy Douglas’s to the mid-nineteenth century. Liberal group in Greenock near Land, People & Politics: a history of the His conclusion (pp. 32–33) is that are also looked at in detail. land question in the United Kingdom, the effects of enclosure were rein- Coming into Focus is a valuable 1878–1952 (London: Allison and forced by the arrival of the railway contribution to the limited amount Busby, 1976), though still useful and modernity in general by the of literature on the Liberal Party and readable, is inevitably by now mid-nineteenth century. Kathryn in the immediate post-war years. somewhat dated. Beresford then discusses the role It provides a wealth of detailed This collection of essays is of the ‘yeoman’ during the early information about the party’s activ- basically the published proceed- nineteenth century, a period of far- ists in that period based on some ings of a conference convened at reaching social structural change excellent research. The conclu- the University of Hertfordshire throughout rural England. Her sion is that many of the changes back in 2005 and organised by the chapter examines how this distinc- and developments in the Liberal book’s editors, Professor Matthew tive yeoman class ‘formed a crucial Party in the late 1950s and early Cragoe (who has recently migrated element in the idealisation of the

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 47 reviews

Merioneth from 1886, and then gave the movement ‘an academic intruded powerfully into English pedigree’ (p. 162) which helped it politics from about 1880. Cragoe to increase both in numbers and examines the relationship between in influence until about 1914. The landlord and tenant in rural Wales, distinctive aspects of the land ques- making fruitful comparisons with tion engage the attention of Roland the far tenser situation in Ireland. Quinault as he examines the crucial He analyses landlord absentee- role of the London landlords, and ism in the two nations, patterns the political issues which formed of letting, insecurity of tenure, part of leases and rates. As Chancel- and the low levels of agriculture. lor of the Exchequer from 1908, He concludes that the land ques- Lloyd George predictably turned tion in late-nineteenth-century his fire on urban landlords, who Wales was fundamentally more of were, in his view, ‘parasites that a political issue than an economic grew rich on unearned increment one, and reflects on the work of created by the labour of others’ (p. the Select Committee on Small 174) in his famous 1909 ‘People’s Holdings and the more presti- Budget’. In 1912–14 both rural and gious Royal Commission on Land urban land attracted the attention in Wales, eventually yielded by of Lloyd George, who set up a Land Gladstone in 1892. Cragoe’s over- Enquiry Commission (as was to all conclusion is that the Welsh happen again between 1923 and land question disappeared from the 1927). limelight quickly because it was an Paul Readman, one of the essentially political question that volume’s co-editors, writes about lacked the sheer intensity of the the land question during the first contemporary Irish situation. decade of the twentieth century, Ewen Cameron then turns his contrasting the attitudes of the attention to Scotland, paying due Conservative and Liberal parties regard to the cultural diversity and pointing up the close associa- of the land question north of the tion between the land question and rural community that underpinned border, crystallised above all in ‘the politics of patriotism’ (p. 196). opposition to the radical critique of the crofters’ protests of the 1880s Ian Packer, a widely published landownership’ (p. 39). She exam- and the distinctive complaints of authority on the land question, ines rigorously the literature, songs the local mining communities. focuses specifically on the issue in and political polemic of this forma- He examines carefully the main an urban context, an aspect which tive period. points of the issue in the highlands commanded much attention dur- Malcolm Chase re-examines the (undoubtedly the most emphasised ing the Edwardian era when ‘the impact of the Chartist movement aspect of the land question in Scot- land question’ was often wedded between 1838 and 1848, focusing land), reflected in eviction, famine to the campaign to secure social upon the much-discussed Chartist and protest, then in the lowlands, reforms – unemployment, local ‘land plan’ – namely to settle its fol- where farming was generally more taxation and housing, now all lowers on cottage holdings extend- efficient and arable and livestock important within national politics. ing to about four acres apiece. To products of distinctly higher qual- The land market between 1880 and the Chartists, land reform was both ity, and finally in the Scottish urban 1925 forms the theme of the analy- a practical and a moral impera- centres. Ireland forms the theme of sis by John Beckett and Michael tive, an immediate precursor to the compelling essay by Philip Bull, Turner, particularly the period of a reformed parliament. Chartist worthy of close comparison with the so-called ‘Green Revolution’ ideology came to focus on small- the article by Matthew Cragoe. immediately following World War scale production and access to, Bull underlines the importance of I when major parts of the landed and control of the land rather than the Devon Commission set up in estates were broken up and sold ownership of it. The next essay, by the early 1840s to examine the Irish off. Although the authors are at Anthony Howe, progresses natu- land question, but which, regretta- pains to point that the extent of rally to the contemporary role of bly, failed to lead to legislation. The these sales was not really that ‘rev- the Anti-Corn Law League which analysis then focuses on successive olutionary’, much land was indeed placed at the heart of its philosophy pieces of legislation introduced by sold, often to the tenants of these a vehement attack on landlordism Gladstone’s administrations and landed estates – ‘a major transfer per se. looks at how the land question was not within the landed community It is gratifying to see Matthew influential in formulating ideas of but from the landowning aristoc- Cragoe devoting a substantial Irish nationality. racy to the tenant farmers’ (p. 233). chapter to examining the mani- Anthony Taylor discusses the Claire Griffiths presents a schol- fold aspects of the land question contribution of Richard Cobden, arly re-examination of how the in Victorian Wales which, having J. E. Thorold Rogers and Henry Labour Party emphasised public been born in about 1866, was later George to views on land reform ownership and control of the land spearheaded by Thomas Edward and agitation during the nineteenth in its various policy shifts from Ellis (1859–99), the Liberal MP for century. Their combined ideas 1918 until the 1950s – its attitudes

48 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 reviews towards land value taxation, land ineffective’, and closely bound trace the history of the BBC – nationalisation, and the centralised up with the decline of the Lib- which became the model for the planning of agriculture. The eral Party (p. 260). Subsequently, ‘public corporation’, the national cogent analysis ranges from the during the inter-war period, the monopoly promoting the public age of Keir Hardie to that of Hugh impact of successive financial and interest – and the struggle within Gaitskell. Finally, in a section enti- economic crises, mass unemploy- the postwar Liberal Party concern- tled ‘Epilogue’, another acknowl- ment and social deprivation all ing resistance to the extension of edged expert in this area, F. M. L. combined to dwarf the importance state power over the economy, Thompson, turns his sights on ‘the of the land question. welfare, information and culture. strange death’ of the land ques- Keynes, as well as Beveridge, was a tion in England after World War Dr J. Graham Jones is Senior Archivist supporter of the public corporation, I when the issues previously con- and Head of the Welsh Political Archive and of the use of public institutions sidered significant became ‘politi- at the National Library of Wales, to educate and improve popular cally irrelevant and electorally Aberystwyth. taste. Hayek, Arnold Plant, Lionel Robbins, Karl Popper, and other opponents of Beveridge within the London School of Econom- ics, saw these as similar to the state corporations of Fascism, building a Dissent over the airwaves ‘servile state’. The moral certainty of the BBC, which in the late 1930s Adrian Johns, Death of a Pirate: British Radio and the Making offered only religious programmes of the Information Age (W. W. Norton & Co., 2010). and classical music on Sundays, was authoritarian; it forced inde- Reviewed by William Wallace pendently minded people who owned good radio receivers to tudents of Liberal history government into acting to control tune into Radio Luxemburg for will not turn unprompted to it. Smedley shot one of his col- entertainment. Sthis wonderfully entertain- laborators in pirate radio, at close The post-1945 Liberal Party ing book, written by a British- range, when he stormed uninvited was a party of dissenters and liber- born professor of history at the into Smedley’s home. They were tarians, opposed to state control. University of Chicago. Yet it in dispute over the ownership of a Smedley, a successful businessman provides a fascinating insight radio station set up in an abandoned with an impressive war record, into British political and intel- World War II fort in the Thames threw himself into party activity: lectual culture between the 1930s estuary. Smedley was charged with twice a parliamentary candidate, and 1960s, and into the changing manslaughter, but after the court on the executive from 1953, a perspectives of Liberals and Social had heard about the extra-legal Democrats in the debate over activities of pirate radio and the the government monopoly over threats that had accompanied com- broadcasting and the control of petition for access to transmitters culture and information that this and advertisers – and the popular monopoly implied. This is intel- press had splashed the story across lectual history from an unusual its pages – he was acquitted. The angle, with Beveridge and Hayek Labour government, which had appearing on opposite sides. But until then hesitated to tackle the the central character is a man pirates who were catering to popu- who was at the same time a vice- lar tastes that the BBC considered president of the Liberal Party and beneath its mission to improve and the founder of the Institute of Eco- educate, responded by legislating nomic Affairs (IEA): Oliver Smed- to control offshore radio, but also ley. Walk-on parts in the story by pressing the BBC to pay more include S. W. Alexander, Scream- attention to what young people ing Lord Sutch, the young Jeremy wanted to hear. Radio One was Thorpe, Richard Hoggart, Tony launched in September 1967. The Blackburn (who started as a DJ majority of its DJs – including on a pirate radio station in which Tony Blackburn, John Peel, Kenny Smedley had an indirect interest), Everett and Mike Raven (who was and the Kray twins. But Smed- Smedley’s cousin) – had started out ley – whom older Liberals may broadcasting pop music from pirate remember as one of the leading stations. Although offshore radio protagonists in the chaotic 1958 was now outlawed, popular culture Assembly – is the central figure. had successfully invaded official The book opens with the inci- culture; the intellectual battle had dent in June 1966 that catapulted been won. the struggle over pirate radio onto Liberal historians will be most the front pages, and galvanised the interested in chapters 2–4, which

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 49 reviews

before World War I. Rather, McK- Liberal Democrat History Group on the web ibbin sees Edwardian politics as in a state of delicate equipoise, with Email an air of impermanence. This was Join our email mailing list for news of History Group meetings and publications – the fastest and earliest capable of being disturbed by a way to find out what we’re doing. To join the list, film in the form at:http://bit.ly/LDHGemail . what he terms ‘structure’ and ‘con- tingency’, the interplay of events Website and deeper social forces that is per- See www.liberalhistory.org.uk for details of History Group activities, records of all past Journals and haps the key theme of this book. past meetings, guides to archive sources, research in progress and other research resources, together In 1914, therefore, the Liberal with a growing number of pages on the history of the party, covering particular issues and periods in Party may not have been already more detail, including lists of party leaders, election results and cabinet ministers. doomed, but its position in British politics was fragile: it risked offend- page ing middle-class voters through its See us on Facebook for news of the latest meeting, and a discussion forum: welfare and social reforms without www.facebook.com/LibDemHistoryGroup doing quite enough to win the adherence of working-class vot- ers. The Liberals were dependent vice-president from 1956. But his different times with Radio City, for continued electoral success on uncompromising espousal of uni- Radio Caroline, and other shorter- the informal Progressive Alliance lateral free trade, bitterly opposing lived stations. with Labour. But Labour resented the proposal that Britain should Liberal Democrats today defend their junior role in the partnership, join the European Economic Com- the BBC against the dominance of and were keen to escape from the munity, provoked confrontation at commercial interests in broadcast- Liberals’ shadow. World War I pro- the 1958 Assembly, and he moved ing. Fifty years ago, however, the vided the opportunity. It split both away to found the Keep Britain BBC represented the ‘nanny state’ parties, but the Liberals more so, Out campaign. The last party con- in all its glory, excluding popular while Labour’s fundamental sense ference he attended was the first I culture from its airwaves – in spite of purpose as the party of the trade went to, at Edinburgh in the spring of the explosion of popular music in union movement held it together. of 1962; but he was by then a fringe the early 1960s. As the Labour gov- As McKibbin points out, how- figure. Meanwhile, the IEA (sub- ernment moved to ban pirate radio, ever, much of the discussion about stantially funded from the fortune a new generation of Young Liber- Labour’s rise and the Liberals’ fall is that Antony Fisher had made from als launched the ‘Save Pop Radio guesswork. introducing battery hens into the Campaign’, in autumn 1966. They What is clear, however, is that UK) had published a series of pam- announced their campaign a week once Labour had overtaken the phlets attacking state monopoly after Smedley’s acquittal. Liberals they were unlikely to offer in broadcasting. Ideological and them a hand up. McKibbin is far business interests combined to draw Lord Wallace of Saltaire is a Liberal from complimentary about the Smedley into pirate radio as the Democrat peer and government whip Labour Party during the 1920s, advent of transistor radios freed in the House of Lords. He is emeri- arguing that it failed to adopt a listeners from dependence on BBC tus professor at the London School of clear political strategy that would transmissions; he was involved at . give it a broad-enough basis of support to beat the Conservatives. As a result, in the 1929 general election, the Liberals appealed for votes on the basis of Lloyd George’s semi-Keynesian ‘We can conquer Strange death? unemployment’ policy. But the unemployed voted Labour, while Ross McKibbin, Parties and People 1914–1951 (Oxford Liberals gained votes from dis- University Press, 2010) gruntled Conservatives who didn’t believe in Lloyd George’s policy, Reviewed by Iain Sharpe but who defected in sufficient num- bers to leave Labour as the largest rofessor McKibbin’s work who have not followed his work party. Thus, as McKibbin writes: will be best known to Journal since then may be surprised to find Pof Liberal History readers for that his views have evolved, as he The 1929 election brought into his contributions to the ‘Strange states on the first page ofParties and office a party which owed its vic- Death of Liberal England’ debate, People: ‘I no longer see the Edward- tory largely to the intervention particularly through his 1974 book ian system as already disintegrat- of another party which fought The Evolution of the Labour Party ing.’ This does not mean that he has the election on a programme 1910–24. McKibbin argued that the been converted to the optimistic neither the majority of its voters growth of class politics, rather than assessement of the Liberal Party, nor its MPs believed in. World War I, was the main expla- associated with historians such as nation for the rise of Labour and the P. F. Clarke and Trevor Wilson, The author sees the crisis of 1931 as decline of the Liberal Party. Those that the party was in robust health bringing the party system back into

50 Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 reviews

hegemony. The failure of appease- political force for which social and ment discredited its Conservative welfare reform went hand-in-hand proponents completely, making with constitutional change and them seem, as McKibbin puts it: tackling privilege? But it is some- ‘not just incompetent, but in some thing that Labour simply would not way traitors’. It guaranteed that the have countenanced, and this book Conservatives would have lost any does not deal in such counterfac- election after 1940. The increased tual speculation. What it does do is role of the state during the war, offer a fascinating discussion of the and its further expansion envisaged key developments in British party by the Beveridge report, helped politics from just before World War to legitimise Labour’s view of the I to a few years after the second. It world, but was not the cause of is based on the author’s 2008 Ford their 1945 victory. Lectures at Oxford University, McKibbin is highly critical of and as a result has a more informal, the Attlee government, in particu- conversational tone than one usu- lar its identification of socialism ally finds in academic writing. with nationalisation at the expense McKibbin writes with a ready wit: of any interest in institutional and for example, rebutting the sugges- constitutional reform: of the House tion that people’s greater interest in of Lords, the public schools, the football than politics was a sign of ancient universities and the profes- apathy, he comments: ‘Hardly any- sions. The result, he concludes, was one leads a purely “political” exis- that for the second half of the twen- tence, and those who do are usually tieth century England became ‘a dangerous.’ This book can be read society with powerful democratic and enjoyed by the general reader as impulses but political structures well as the academic specialist, and and habits of mind which could not it is pleasing to see that it has been adequately contain them’. priced accordingly. All of which might leave read- ers of this journal wondering how Iain Sharpe recently completed a alignment with political reality. different British political history University of London PhD thesis on This was done by fusing a signifi- might have been had Labour in the ‘Herbert Gladstone and Liberal Party cant section of the Liberal Party 1920s tried to retain the progres- revival, 1899–1905’. He is leader of the (along with Ramsay MacDonald sive alliance in some form – could Liberal Democrat group on Watford and the few who followed him it have been possible to create a Borough Council. out of the Labour Party) with the Conservatives in an anti-socialist alliance. Although an independent Liberal Party remained, it was no longer a significant political force. But for those Liberals, led by Sir John Simon, who served through the 1930s in the National Govern- Letters Reports ment, it was not a simple case of continued from page 21 continued from page 37 capitulation to the Conservatives. The Tory party of Baldwin was trenches of World War I as well the lit by the SDP? ‘It is a question very different from the strident, cabinet room of World War II – to which there is no conclusive aggressive opposition of 1914. reminds me of something I was told answer’, warns Lord Adonis – but As McKibbin puts it, Baldwin’s in 1959. his choice is the modern Labour party was ‘primmer, calmer, more Jeremy Thorpe was about to Party. At ‘Class of ’81’, he recalled a even-tempered … less imperial’. take the Cambridge team helping lunchtime meeting with Tony Blair As a result it was an anti-socialist him in August to tea with Isaac in about 1993 at which the future alliance not a progressive one that Foot (‘no canvassing on a Sunday prime minister asked Adonis, who dominated 1930s politics. – unless you pretend to be Tories’). was then a journalist and card-car- As its title indicates, this book Jeremy told us how, Viscount rying Liberal Democrat, why it was is not just about the decline of the Thurso being ennobled, when so difficult for Labour to reach out Liberal Party, and its later chap- Clem Davies was asked for a Liberal to Middle England. Adonis sug- ters address the causes of the 1945 peer for the coronation honours, gested: ‘It’s the name Labour, it puts Labour landslide and the record of he nominated Isaac. According to people off.’ To which Blair replied: Attlee’s government through to its Jeremy, Churchill replied: ‘no, he ‘So what should we call ourselves?’ election defeat in 1951. If McKib- has sons, I want a token Liberal Adonis smiled and said: ‘How bin sees 1931 as a defining date in peer, not a Liberal dynasty’, so about Liberal Democrats?’ Two bringing anti-socialist forces into the future Lord Grantchester was years later, the name change came alignment, he argues that 1940 is agreed upon. – Blair opted for ‘New Labour’ the key date for the collapse of their Dr Peter Hatton – and so, too, did ideological

Journal of Liberal History 71 Summer 2011 51 Coming in September … Peace, Reform and Liberation A History of Liberal Politics in Britain, 1688–2011

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reconstruction. The transfor- the opposite side of the coali- that the ‘true heirs’ reside in image a decade or so later. As mation that Labour underwent tion. The audience particularly the party he ended up in. He the Independent’s Dominic Law- in 1995, rewriting Clause IV enjoyed Huhne’s remark about acknowledged that the SDP son recently commented, ‘It is and becoming a party for enter- a ‘radical’ rising through the can be credited with stop- one of the conceits of British prise as well as social justice, ranks of the Conservative ping the rise of the hard left, politics in the post-Thatcher enabled Blair to draw support Party only once every hundred undermining the Gaitskellite era that the political parties from voters in Middle England. years – to which Clark’s (less wing of the Labour Party, and pretend there is an unbridge- It was enough to persuade some well received) response was to eventually driving Labour to able gulf between each other; Liberal Democrats, including reel off a list of Conservative reorganise under Blair. But his when in fact only a hop would Lord Adonis, to defect. ex-SDP members who have ‘a conclusion at ‘Class of ’81’ was be required to cross the divide.’ There are, however, many taste for change’, himself and that the progress of the social Thanks in no small part to the people who refuse to recog- included. democratic movement after SDP, politicians in Britain’s nise New Labour as the SDP’s Those in the audience hoping to 1988 is linked to the success of three main parties today share successor party. Quite a few hear Clark offer an explanation the Liberal Democrats. It is a much more in common than attended ‘Class of ’81’, where it for joining the Conservatives view shared by Lord Rodgers they would have voters believe. seemed the audience was more would have left feeling disap- who, in the closing minutes of If you want proof of how far yellow than red. Chris Huhne, pointed. (But it is likely that the meeting, said that, while things have changed, you need leading the charge, argued that Labour’s failure to reinvent New Labour could be seen as look no further than the ‘Class Labour lost any claim it might itself sooner and the Lib Dems’ ‘step-heirs’ to the SDP, the of ’81’ panel. Would Greg Clark have had to the SDP inheritance pre-Orange Book suspicion of Liberal Democrats were always have been appointed a minister when the soft populism which economic liberalism were con- destined to be ‘true heirs’. The in Thatcher’s government? I characterised Blair’s first term tributory factors.) What Clark debate lingers on. think not. as prime minister was replaced did reveal before the end were Perhaps more important with something rather more his reasons for joining the SDP: than the ‘heirs’ question, in Tom Frostick is CentreForum’s brutish – and less liberal – after a teenager growing up in Mid- terms of where we are today, press officer and executive assis- 9/11. Who does Huhne think dlesbrough during the 1980s, he is the fact that the appearance tant. Previously, he worked for the are the true heirs to the SDP? wasn’t a socialist; he couldn’t be of the SDP helped create a less Department for Work and Pen- The Liberal Democrats, of a Tory; and so the SDP, with its polarised political culture. It sions, and as a constituency organ- course. And, in staking his par- modern branding and youthful mobilised middle-of-the-road iser for South West Hertfordshire ty’s claim before a sympathetic membership base, was an obvi- voters in the early 1980s, which Liberal Democrats. He holds under- audience, he could not resist ous refuge. led Labour to rebrand itself in graduate and postgraduate degrees having a pop at Greg Clark In contrast to Adonis and the mid-1990s, which in turn in history from the University of and other ex-SDP members on Huhne, Clark did not claim led the Tories to detoxify their Manchester.