‘Why I AM A LibEral’ THE DYNAStic LibEraliSM of MichaEL AND all thE FootS ‘I am Liberal first of all because of the unfaltering resistance which liberalism is pledged to offer to those twin dangers of fascism and war.’ The author then added some general reflections on British history. Liberalism, he wrote, was largely responsible for ‘the social and democratic institutions which this country already enjoys’.1 This ardent young Liberal was a twenty-year-old undergraduate at Wadham College, Oxford, called Michael Foot. Kenneth O. Morgan examines the dynastic Liberalism of Michael and all the Foots. 28 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 ‘Why I AM A LibEral’ THE DYNAStic LibEraliSM of MichaEL AND all thE FootS e was writing in Lloyd George, for whom he had a book Young Oxford and War, the News Chroni- campaigned in the 1929 general published later in 1934, to which cle, in an article election. Breakfast with L.G. at he had been asked to contribute commissioned by the Randolph Hotel in Oxford by an influential Indian active that Liberal news- in 1932 had been a highlight in Labour politics in London, Hpaper’s editor, Aylmer Vallance, of his undergraduate years: ‘it Krishna Menon, Foot’s near- and published in April 1934. His was superb’.2 As a star speaker pacifist argument identified party credentials as a young in the Oxford Union, elected Liberalism strongly with the Liberal were impeccable. He president in June 1933, Foot movement for disarmament and breathed the very air of tradi- took a strongly partisan Liberal a spirit of true internationalism. tional Liberal principles – free line in debates. In January 1933, Indeed only through liberalism, trade, free speech, the impor- on a motion that ‘This House broadly defined, could a peace- tance of Nonconformity, inter- believes that British Liberalism ful world order and an end to national peace. His bookish has before it a great future’, he international anarchy (a favour- teenage years were profoundly chose to thank God that, under ite term of Foot’s, drawn from G. influenced by reading classic the National Government, there Lowes Dickinson’s book of that Liberal historians like Macaulay, was still a party he could sup- title) be achieved. By contrast, George Otto Trevelyan and J. port.3 The previous October he Communists wanted to over- L. Hammond, by individualist had launched a fierce rhetorical throw capitalism by violence religious dissenters like William onslaught on the Tariff Boards and bloodshed. Conservatives Tyndale or John Bunyan, and created by the government, and enshrined the military virtues the grand old cause of constitu- the regime of protectionism and and blind obedience to the state. tional liberty successfully pre- imperial preference established Socialists (not dealt with so served (he believed) in the face at the conference at Ottawa, fiercely, perhaps) tended to look of royal tyranny by Cromwell, which overturned almost a inwards and to undermining the Milton and their brethren. century of free trade since the capitalist system at home rather Foot was the product of a repeal of the Corn Laws. He than working for a truly inter- political dynasty centred on ridiculed protected ‘Peter Pan national order.5 Plymouth whose influence industries which never grew up’. Foot had viewed with anxiety extended throughout Devon The Oxford Magazine reviewer his father Isaac’s taking office in and Cornwall. He was the son wryly observed that ‘this is the MacDonald’s National Govern- and younger brother of Liberal first speech in which Mr. Foot ment in October 1931 as Minis- MPs; he had stood successfully has not mentioned the name of ter for Mines. He chided Isaac as a Liberal as a fifteen year-old Mr. Lloyd George’.4 amiably in early 1932: in a mock election in Leighton As his News Chronicle article Park, the Quaker school, in indicated, Foot linked his Lib- Well, I hope you are feeling May 1929. In Oxford he had eralism strongly with the peace thoroughly uncomfortable in been a charismatic president movement so active amongst your present position. I hope of the University Liberal Club. Oxford undergraduates at that that the responsibility for a His political idol was the still time, and in which he had him- Left: Michael niggardly disarmament policy towering personality of David self been a prominent figure. In Foot in 1935 and blustering [?] dealing with Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 29 ‘why I AM A libEral’ Ireland rests on your shoulders. city when he briefly worked in When he The Liberalism of Michael I hope that you squirm in your Liverpool for a few months in Foot was ancestral and dynas- pronouncement of each tar- 1935 (and was particularly alien- returned tic. The historian John Vincent iff order. I hope you will vote ated by the right-wing views of to Britain has seen it as patrician and elit- with patriotic resignation for his employer, the former Liberal ist, derived from a ‘West Coun- the further cuts and a raising of MP, Richard Holt). Another, and con- try Hatfield’.12 The Foot family, the school leaving age.6 typically, appears to have been based previously in St Cleers, the influence of left-wing nov- templated overlooking the Cornish moors, He was enthusiastic when Isaac, elists, notably H. G. Wells and and then from 1927 in Isaac’s along with other mainstream Arnold Bennett, whose works he a future spacious, book-lined country Liberals under the leadership of read on Liverpool trams as they career, house in Pencrebar close to the Sir Herbert Samuel, resigned took him in leisurely fashion Devon-Cornwall border, was from the government follow- to his office on the waterfront. one of the powerful throughout the West ing the Ottawa conference and At any rate, he joined first the Country. Their seat of political the imposing of imperial prefer- Labour Party, then the Socialist projects that power was Plymouth, where ence and tariffs. He continued League (where he met the viva- Isaac (and later two of his sons) his enthusiastic evangelism for cious Barbara Betts, later Castle), appealed was senior partner in an impor- the Liberal cause after graduat- and actually stood as Labour to him was tant solicitor’s firm, Foot and ing from Oxford in the summer candidate for Monmouth at the Bowden. David Owen, another of 1934. On a debating tour of general election in 1935. There- writing the Plymouth-bred politician, told American universities in Novem- after he would be frequently the present author how aware ber and December, undertaken attacked for jettisoning his life of Charles he was of growing up within the with his close friend, John ancestral Liberalism in favour towering Liberal shadow of the Cripps, Michael Foot struck an of extremes of state control James Fox, Foots of Plymouth.13 Michael ardently Liberal note time and and centralisation which made the hallowed Foot’s grandfather, the elder again, notably in attacking US a mockery of his early enthusi- Isaac (1843–1927), was a notable isolationism in its foreign policy asm for individuality, freedom Whig cham- self-made man, a carpenter and and extreme protectionism in its and libertarianism. Barbara part-time undertaker by trade, trade policy.7 When he returned Castle noted in her memoirs pion of the an influential Methodist and to Britain and contemplated a that ‘the best way to infuriate teetotaller, who built a Mission future career, one of the projects Michael’ later on was to refer to democratic Hall and a hall for the Salvation that appealed to him was writing his youthful article ‘Why I am a ideals of Army in Plymouth city centre. the life of Charles James Fox, the Liberal’.10 Nevertheless, the Lib- But the Foot legend was hallowed Whig champion of the eralism of Michael Foot never the French really the work of his son, democratic ideals of the French disappeared. It is significant Michael’s astonishing father, Revolution. It was a cherished that his closest friend when he Revolution. Isaac Foot (1880–1960).14 Based ambition which, like his pro- started up as a journalist was the in his native Plymouth, he soon posed life of William Hazlitt, former Liberal MP for Hereford, became a Liberal patriarch and was endlessly deferred over the his buccaneering colleague in patron of immense and pugna- decades, though perhaps Foot’s editing the Evening Standard, cious impact. Briefly attracted presence, in his ninety-fourth Frank Owen.11 He shared to the to socialism as a young man, he year, at a ceremony to unveil a full Foot’s enthusiasm for David was passionately excited by the statue of Fox in Bloomsbury Lloyd George; he had been one Liberal landslide election of Jan- Square in early 2007 represented of the six Lloyd George Liberal uary 1906 (in which both Ply- a final genuflection to his life- candidates in the 1931 general mouth seats went Liberal) and by time hero.8 election and later wrote a (sadly the socially radical campaigns And yet, a few months later, inadequate) life of the great of Lloyd George, of whom Isaac the young Liberal Foot defected man, Tempestuous Journey (1954). was at first an intense disciple. for ever.9 No doubt his friend- Liberal instincts continued to He twice stood unsuccessfully ship with young socialists like influence key aspects of Foot’s for parliament in the 1910 elec- John Cripps, and meeting (and approach and style as editor of tions, in January for Totnes, in shortly working on a book Tribune, as a left-wing Labour December for Bodmin, where with) his father Sir Stafford, was dissenter, and even as a govern- he was only narrowly defeated.