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‘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 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 . 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 , 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 , 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 whose influence industries which never grew up’. Foot had viewed with anxiety extended throughout The Oxford Magazine reviewer his father Isaac’s taking office in and . 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 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. , 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 , 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. (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 , former Liberal MP for , 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 , cious impact. Briefly attracted presence, in his ninety-fourth .11 He shared to the to 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. one major factor. Another was ment minister. It remained, and He was elected to the Plymouth a trip to Palestine to visit his remains, as a significant thread borough council in 1907 and by brother, Hugh, where he met in the warp and woof of the 1920 had become deputy mayor, a number of persuasive Jewish British progressive left at the in good time to celebrate the socialists. A more direct one dawn of a new millennium, and tercentenary of the sailing of the was his first experience of pov- is well worth re-examination good ship Mayflower from Ply- erty and despair in an industrial here. mouth Hoe. He was to become

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mayor at the end of the Second Mines. He played a particularly branch, as it were.17 Yet in many World War. His Liberalism, like notable part in debates on , ways it was Michael who seemed that of his Cornish wife, was a and was influential in rebutting to be the most natural of Isaac’s product of sense and sensibility. the imperialist extremism of heirs, the most dedicated in his It was rooted in West Country Churchill in debates on the 1935 love of books and learning, the Methodism (in later life Isaac Government of India Act. He most outspoken and pugnacious became president of the Meth- met with further electoral disap- champion of free speech and lib- odist conference), in strict tee- pointments, losing his Bodmin eral dissent. Nothing gave Isaac totalism, and in what Isaac saw seat in 1935, losing again at St more pleasure in his later life as the radical, anti-royalist tra- Ives in a by-election in 1937 and than the appearance in 1957 of ditions of the West Country in yet again at Tavistock in 1945. Michael’s book The Pen and the general and Plymouth in par- But his Liberalism remained Sword, a vivid account of Dean ticular. He cherished Freedom unflinching. Swift’s journalistic triumph in Fields in the middle of the city, Nothing was a more pow- laying low the mighty Marl- which commemorated the tri- erful testimony to this than borough during the reign of umph of Plymouth’s parliamen- Isaac’s famous library, of per- Queen Anne. The two did not tarians in withstanding a lengthy haps 70,000 volumes, crammed agree on everything. Isaac never royalist siege during the Civil somehow into every avail- really shared Michael’s passion War, and was to become a pas- able cranny of Pencrebar.16 It for Byron (as opposed to Words- sionate champion of Cromwell, reflected the capacious mind worth or Shelley). Michael never and effectively the founder of of an Edwardian man of broad felt his father’s enthusiasm for the Cromwell Association in but unquenchably Liberal cul- the in general and the late 1930s. One of Isaac’s ture, with thousands of volumes Abraham Lincoln in particular. more famous pronouncements commemorating, or celebrating, Nevertheless, in key respects, was that the way to judge a man early Protestantism, the work of the most important quality of was to know on which side he John Milton, the debates of the Michael Foot, socialist pam- would have fought at the battle Civil War, the French Revolu- phleteer, editor and parliamen- of Marston Moor in 1644.15 An tion and the American Civil tarian extraordinary, was that he opponent of capital punishment, The Foot War. His holdings of religious was Isaac’s son. he seems to have viewed the legend and patristic literature included Michael was born in 1913, the execution of Charles I without no less than 240 early bibles, fifth oldest child, the fourth of regret. His son Michael inher- was really notably the 1536 New Testament five brothers, with two sisters, ited this conviction. of William Tyndale, ‘apostle of and enjoyed warm relations During the First World War, the work England’, a Protestant martyr with all of them. Membership of Isaac Foot was alienated by his for the faith during the reign the family was no doubt a taxing hero Lloyd George’s advocacy of of his son, of Henry VIII, and innumer- experience – keeping up with military conscription and alli- Michael’s able works by Luther, Calvin, the gifted disputatious Foots ance with the Tories. He stood as Melanchthon, Richard Baxter, was no mean task, and indeed an an Asquithian Liberal for Bod- astonishing and the early Quakers (over 200 impossible one for the females of min in December 1918, and then volumes) amongst a cast of tens the family. Still, it was a remark- in a by-election in Plymouth father, Isaac of thousands. While Isaac’s bib- ably close unit, with all of them in 1919 where the victor, Lady liomania extended generously to enjoying private jokes in fam- Astor, a fellow teetotaller with Foot (1880– medieval Catholic incunabula, ily gatherings and codes of whom he became extremely 1960). Based to Shakespeare, Swift, Words- behaviour including an endur- friendly, was the first woman to worth, Hardy and even (remark- ing passion for Cromwell and take her seat in parliament. Isaac in his native ably) to Oscar Wilde and the for Plymouth Argyle football then stood for Bodmin again in sonnets of his homosexual lover, club. Correspondence between a by-election in 1922, success- Plymouth, he Lord Alfred Douglas, Pencrebar them would feature the fam- fully this time, making fierce was above all a shrine to Liberal ily phrase, ‘pit and rock’, a ref- criticisms of the Lloyd George soon became Protestantism, and the ideals of a erence to the famous passage government’s policies in Ireland a Liberal free democratic republic. in Isaiah about never forget- and in foreign policy. He held Michael’s from the ting ‘the rock whence you are the seat in the general elections patriarch and family faith to join the Labour hewn and the pit whence you of 1922 and 1923, lost in 1924, Party in 1935 was a shock to are digged’. Three of Michael’s but succeeded again (this time patron of Isaac, and perhaps even more brothers, Dingle, Hugh and as an admirer of Lloyd George to his resolutely orthodox wife John, were active apostles of the once more) in 1929 and 1931. immense and Eva. A Cornish pasty sent by family Liberalism. After this, as mentioned above, pugnacious Eva to Michael on the eve of the Dingle, the eldest, born in he served in the National Gov- poll in 1945 was a delayed signal 1905, seemed from the very start ernment briefly, as Minister for impact. of forgiveness, an edible olive destined to follow in Isaac’s

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 31 ‘why i am a liberal’

Liberal footsteps.18 He went to From left: without Conservative opposi- seems to have had a high regard Bembridge School on the Isle Dingle, Hugh, tion in what was effectively an for one he called ‘my Foot’.20 of Wight, where he was taught Isaac, John, anti-Labour front. But of his After the calamitous Liberal by J. H. Whitehouse, a former Michael and firm, even radical, Liberalism performance in the 1945 elec- pacifist Liberal MP who had Christopher Foot there was no doubt, and he was tion, spent much opposed the First World War. In at Pencrebar in fierce in his condemnation of of his considerable energy on the late 1940s Oxford he became president of Simon’s followers, whom he his legal career, mainly in the the Liberal Club, and later presi- later called ‘the Vichy Liber- Commonwealth, where he dent of the Union. He put in a als’. In the early months of the often acted with much cour- strong performance in standing war in late 1939, he was promi- age. He was expelled from for Tiverton in the 1929 general nent, along with the Conserva- Nigeria in 1962 after challeng- election, where he gained over tives Leo Amery and Robert ing Powers Act 42 per cent of the vote, and in Boothby, from there. In domestic politics, he 1931 was elected for Dundee, Labour, the past and future Lib- had had links with the move- taking one of its two seats in eral , the actual ment (originally harness with the Conservative, Liberal Graham White, and the formed during the war in 1941 Florence Horsburgh. By now Independent Eleanor Rathbone, and including Sir William Bev- he had entered chambers and its convener, in the all-party eridge, Tom Horabin and Ver- was to build up a considerable ‘Parliamentary Action’ group non Bartlett, among others) to international reputation, with popularly known as ‘the Vigi- keep his party as a force on the a prominent legal practice in lantes’. Indirectly, it played a progressive left. After 1945 he Commonwealth countries in key sub rosa role in undermining was vocal and active in resist- Africa and south-east Asia. He as Prime ing Clement Davies’s alarm- remained member for Dundee Minister in May 1940,19 and ing drift to the right. Dingle’s until the 1945 election, where Dingle served as junior minister close ally in all this was Megan he lost to Labour. Michael under Hugh Dalton at the Min- Lloyd George, of whom he was tended to gloss over the fact istry of Economic Warfare in certainly an intimate friend and that Dingle stood for Dundee Churchill’s government. Dalton (some suspected) lover. At any

32 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 ‘why i am a liberal’

rate, he treated Megan with far too found the family Liberalism remember he’s no longer a civil more sensitivity and loyalty than a compelling influence, with all servant’ in early discussions over did her long-term lover, Philip the books and the innumerable the Rhodesian UDI in 1965.24 Noel-Baker, who grievously let household portraits and busts But he soon struck a firm and Megan down when she might of Oliver Cromwell. He was to commanding note, especially in have reasonably hoped to marry name his two sons appropriately dealings over the Palestine ques- him; Dingle, unlike Noel-Baker, – Paul, after the favourite family tion. Foot was the major author did attend Megan’s funeral.21 saint, Oliver, after the ances- of resolution 242, that unavail- Dingle found other allies tral hero. Hugh attended the ing monument to international among the Liberal MPs, includ- Quaker Leighton Park School, as pressure on Israel after the ille- ing such pro-Labour figures Michael was to do, and became gal occupation of the West Bank, as Edgar Granville, Wilfrid president of the Liberal Club at and became a strong champion Roberts and .22 Cambridge, before the almost of the Palestinian cause. After The first two of these eventu- predictable presidency of the he died, perhaps on the orders ally joined the Labour Party, as Cambridge Union and a far less of his son Paul, Palestinian flags did Megan Lloyd George at the predictable enthusiasm for row- were draped on his coffin at the time of the 1955 election. So, ing (football and cricket were funeral service.25 too, did Dingle, and he entered the Foot games). Michael some- There is no doubt that the the House as Labour member what unfairly wrote of Hugh as career of Hugh, too, was a mon- for Ipswich after a by-election ‘never the brightest of the brood’ ument to Liberalism. He noted in 1957. When and something of a ‘hearty’, but with pride that every colony in became Prime Minister in 1964, he seems to have taken this in which he served was soon to he appointed Dingle Foot his good part, and indeed in 1939 gain its independence. His fun- Solicitor-General, and he was was briefly Michael’s landlord in damental ideals of international then heavily involved in policy London where he took a relaxed reconciliation and self-determi- towards Africa, especially in and genial view of the tenant’s nation were a product of the cul- legal moves designed to coun- payment of rent.23 ture of Pencrebar. His memoirs ter the unilateral declaration of Hugh went into the Colonial spoke of the impact upon him of independence in Southern Rho- Service, starting in Palestine in his father, and he fondly recalled desia led by Ian Smith after the 1929 (where, as has been seen, Isaac giving him a volume of break-up of the old Central Afri- Michael visited him in 1934), Edmund Burke’s speeches on can Federation. However, Din- then moving on to Transjordan, American independence, with gle Foot never seemed wholly Nigeria, Jamaica (where he was their precepts on ‘magnanimity attuned to membership of the Governor) and finally in 1957–60 in politics’ and ‘participation in Labour Party, and his ances- in as Governor during a freedom’. tral Liberalism always exerted dangerous state of emergency. There is no Hugh’s two sons, in their a powerful contrary pull. He Here, he played a distinguished doubt that contrasting ways, also testified resigned from the government part in reducing tension in that to this vivid Liberal heritage.26 over its handling of the illegal violent island, re-establishing the career of Paul, the elder, became a famous Rhodesian regime in 1967 and diplomatic and personal rela- crusading left-wing journal- was thereafter a critic, includ- tions with Archbishop Maka- Hugh, too, ist. His long-term membership ing over policy towards Biafra rios and finally achieving an end of the Socialist Workers’ Party, and also Commonwealth immi- to violence with the granting was a monu- with its singularly illiberal creed, gration. Dingle was defeated in of independence to the island – ment to Lib- led nowhere and may be seen as Ipswich in 1970 and his remain- something which a recent Con- yet another instance of the Foot ing years until his death in 1978 servative Minister of State for eralism. He family eccentricity. However, were not happy, with a gloomy the Colonies, Henry Hopkinson, as an exponent of the politics of lapse into near-alcoholism. He had declared would ‘never’ hap- noted with exposure of corruption and dis- was now largely occupied with pen. Hugh Foot then served on honesty in high places, of police legal and constitutional work the UN Trusteeship Council but pride that inadequacies or blunders in the in the Commonwealth and also clashed with the Conservatives every colony , Helen Smith, . Certainly, over . Harold Wilson Carl Bridgwater and Colin Wal- especially in his legal career and brought him in as Ambassador to in which he lace cases, or the racist rhetoric as a courageous practitioner of the in 1964 and of , even in his the common law, his Liberal he remained there for nearly six served was reporting for , Paul heritage was an inescapable part years. There were some who felt Foot was a noble specimen of of him down to the end. that at first Hugh was somewhat soon to gain the dissidence of dissent. His Hugh Foot, the second too passive as a former Colonial its independ- later monograph, The Vote, is a brother, born in 1907, was less Office man; Dingle Foot told passionate and moving plea for party political than Dingle. He that ‘Hugh can’t ence. popular democracy, from the

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 33 ‘why i am a liberal’

Levellers at Putney to the suf- – the ‘Vichy Liberals’ as Dingle It is impor- at a host of left-wing marches, fragettes and beyond. It is also called them – were always a spe- ‘demos’ and protests, close ally the continuation of long family cial Foot family target; during tant to the of Jack Jones and the unions, arguments, with Uncle Michael his campaign in Bodmin in 1945, understand- cabinet minister during the era about parliament, with Aunt John voiced his profound hope of the ‘social contract’ in the Jill over the Pankhurst daugh- that Hore-Belisha and other ing both 1970s and finally, in an ultimate ters, and, most startling perhaps, Simonite renegades would be disastrous period, Leader of the with grandpa Isaac over the anti- annihilated, as by and large they of Michael Labour Party in 1980–83. His democratic politics of the great were. abiding mentor now was no tra- Oliver Cromwell.27 It is a very Thereafter John focused on his Foot’s career ditional Liberal, but Nye Bevan, Foot book. career as a solicitor in Plymouth, and of the the class warrior who fought the Oliver, Paul’s younger but he remained politically capitalist enemy, viewed the old brother, found another outlet for active as a supporter of CND as history of the Liberals with something near Foot Liberalism with his work zealous as Michael (according contempt, and saw socialism in for the arts and for the Christian to his brother),30 in work for the twentieth- terms of centralisation, nation- charity Orbis International; his Immigrant Advisory Service, as alisation and the celebration of death in early 2008 was greatly a close friend of century the collectivist cause to promote mourned.28 Another admira- in West-Country Liberalism, Labour Party national minimum standards bly dissident Foot descendant is and finally as a Liberal peer, from Tonypandy to Tunbridge Paul’s son, Matthew, a criminal Baron Foot of Buckland Mona- more widely Wells. Michael Foot, his disciple lawyer and vigorous campaigner chorum. Lord Tordoff recalled and ardent biographer, echoed for civil liberties, especially , when president of the to see that his master at every stage. active as a critic of ASBOs. Liberal Party, presenting all his Of course, Michael Foot The third brother, John, successors with the Foot family Liberalism remained for the rest of his Baron Foot, born in 1909, was volume of Milton’s Areopagitica, remained of career remote from the Liberal the one who remained impec- with a slip inside for all of them Party and its creed which pro- cably Liberal throughout.29 He to sign.31 Of all the Foot brothers, importance vided him with his early inspira- went to Bembridge School, it was John with whom Michael tion. He was above all else the like Dingle, and he too became seems to have had the closest for him, as Labour propagandist and parti- president of the Oxford Liberal rapport, starting with a cheerful san. And yet, it is important to Club, and then of the Oxford fraternal trip to Paris in search of perhaps less the understanding both of his Union as well. He was always a French culture and French girls obviously career and of the history of the sparkling and witty orator, the back in 1934. twentieth-century Labour Party best of them all in Michael’s Sadly, Michael’s younger it did for more widely to see that Liberal- view, and embodied all the Foot brother, Christopher, had a ism remained of importance for enthusiasms, for Cromwell espe- somewhat unhappy life as a another son him, as perhaps less obviously it cially. He stood for parliament solicitor managing the fam- did for another son of Edward- as Liberal candidate for Basing- ily firm, while the two daugh- of Edwardian ian Liberalism, . Foot stoke in 1934 (in a by-election) ters, Jennifer and Sally, were Liberalism, shared this quality with many of and 1935, and then for Bodmin not encouraged to develop their those who made the transition in 1945 and 1950. In the 1945 abilities, a major reproach to Tony Benn. from Liberalism to Labour, from election he joined in the family the progressive instincts of the Christopher Addison in the campaign against Leslie Hore- family. early 1920s onwards.32 As a back- Belisha, Michael’s opponent in This, then, was Michael bencher in 1945–55, and again in Devonport, and a former Liberal Foot’s powerful Liberal herit- 1960–70, he was especially active who was felt to have behaved age. From the time of his joining in pursuit of the rights of minor- dishonourably in traducing his the Labour Party in 1935 it was ities, freedom of speech, liberty former ally Isaac at a by-election a tradition held at arms’ length. of conscience, and the reform of in St Ives in 1937 (when Walter Thereafter, his career followed parliament. His booklet, Parlia- Runciman, another National its own individual, even eccen- ment in Danger (1959), was a pas- Liberal defector, stood down). tric, course – elected Labour MP sionate plea for the freedom of After his defeat by just 210 votes, for Plymouth, Devonport, in backbenchers and a relaxation of Isaac had bitterly quoted from 1945, backbench critic and per- the stifling control of the party Lord Alfred Douglas’s poem manent dissenter and ‘Bevan- whips. He cited the powerful of betrayal, ‘The Broken Cov- ite’ down to his electoral defeat authority of Edmund Burke in enant’, against the traitorous in 1955, editor of the left-wing his support.33 Unlike others on Simonite Liberals, Hore-Belisha Tribune and radical pamphleteer the left, Michael Foot was always and Runciman: ‘I shall know par excellence, heir to Nye Bevan manifestly a parliamentarian, his soul shall lie in the bosom of as MP for from 1960, however at home he might be Iscariot’. The National Liberals leader of CND and impresario on the march or on the platform.

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His journalism of exposure, cer- to free speech and free thought free spirit’, although one whose tainly , written with had been less conspicuous than personality was constrained by Frank Owen and the more con- his own. office.39 It was entirely appropri- servative Peter Howard, at the Nevertheless, a judge as lib- ate that, rejecting his old Bevan- time of Dunkirk, is the work of eral in spirit as Lord Scarman ite legacy, he should take up the a radical rather than a socialist. could see in Foot’s trade union cause of devolution for Scotland His political hero in many ways legislation of 1974–76 a valuable and . (It should be added remained Lloyd George (who, updating of Campbell-Banner- that Jim Callaghan, himself no indeed, gets off very lightly in man’s Liberal trade union leg- devolutionist, took a somewhat Guilty Men) while such econom- islation back in 1906.36 It could more sceptical view of Foot’s ics as he could command took well be argued that the unions views here.40) Michael Foot was their stand on the writings of had been a major gap in the also a major champion of the Keynes he had encountered in Liberal Party’s policies ever Lib-Lab Pact of March 1977, for tutorials in Wadham from Rus- since the working-class ‘Lib- which he was sharply criticised sell Bretherton.34 Labs’ left them after 1918. The by Tony Benn. The pact, of His Liberalism was especially Labour government had made course, was essentially a tacti- to the fore in his pursuit of free- the 1906 ‘Magna Carta’ that cal device to keep the minority dom of the press. He insisted much more protective of work- Labour government in office. that this was one of his domi- ers’ rights, and, for the moment, But clearly Foot, unlike Benn nant goals in his trade union moderate Conservatives like and perhaps , felt legislation of 1975, including the Prior and Pym went along with quite at ease in allowing scope promotion of the closed shop for it. Otherwise, colleagues of his for consensual discussion with journalists. He pointed to his in Cabinet in 1974–79 recalled and the Liberals on sympathy for conscientious dis- Foot as being on the libertarian such matters as Europe and con- senters who should not be com- side of ministerial arguments. stitutional reform, and regretted pelled to join a union, although One instance was the introduc- the Liberals’ later decision to end critics complained that his Lib- tion of seat-belts in cars, which the pact. He was a driving force eral sympathies disappeared Foot (who had ceased to be a throughout in keeping it alive.41 when he insisted on closed shops ‘As they grow driver long since) viewed as an Foot’s Liberalism, equated for all writers in newspapers older, these unacceptable intrusion into per- with a defence of a free parlia- and periodicals, whether jour- sonal liberty.37 Barbara Castle ment, also came out strongly nalists by trade or not. It was a Foot broth- was struck by how rational and when he became Labour debatable argument either way. conciliatory Foot would be in leader. He increasingly saw the Foot undoubtedly felt that the ers all merge discussing the conducting of a approach of the Bennites and National Union of Journalists referendum on membership of hard left as at basic variance (of which he was an active mem- into one Europe in May 1975: with the pluralism which should ber) was a legitimate agent for a collective govern the internal processes free press and liberty of expres- As I listen to Mike these days of the Labour Party. To Foot, sion, well in the tradition of Foot type: the more conscious I am that, the Labour Party should aim at Milton’s Areopagitica, of which as they grow older, these Foot being a progressive broad church he had been taught by his father, rational, brothers all merge into one in the way that the Liberal Party 35 Isaac. He had pursued much radical and collective Foot type: rational, of yore had been; it should strad- the same line, as a left socialist, radical and eminently reason- dle a rich variety of viewpoints, in defending the rights of free eminently able. They even speak in the from to CND. expression of Djilas and other same voice and the same terms: offended his dissidents in eastern Europe. reasonable. they are natural Liberals. deepest instincts because it was Others, including many Labour anti-parliamentary and illib- journalists, wondered whether They even She added, ‘No wonder Paul eral. The Bevanites, he believed, enforced membership of a union Foot has rebelled against his had always worked within the was really any kind of guarantee speak in elders!’38 bounds of legitimate constitu- of freedom of expression. One the same Shirley Williams told the tional dissent; they were a ‘legit- of those who took this view, present writer that she saw in imate left’. apparently, was his brother Din- voice and Michael a ministerial colleague, The anti-parliamentarism gle, who had fought for freedom with whom she worked closely of Militant which so disturbed of the press in African and Asian the same in 1975–76, as a man who was him emerged again, in what he countries. Michael Foot was not a natural champion of an believed to be the threat from on firmer ground in meeting terms: they over-mighty central state appa- the European Common Mar- the miscellaneous arguments of are natural ratus at all, but rather a natural ket. He campaigned against right-wing newspaper publish- champion of decentralism and Britain’s remaining in the EEC ers, some of whose commitment Liberals.’ devolution. He was essentially ‘a in 1975 not as a socialist but as

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 35 ‘why i am a liberal’

a democrat. Sovereign par- The auda- in Spain during the time of the pantheon could be classified as liamentary authority, pain- Popular Front. Two Hours from socialists: the cartoonist Vicky fully acquired since the time of cious Lib- London, Jill’s film, which shows and the authors H. N. Brailsford Cromwell, was being fundamen- eralism of Michael Foot appealing to the and Ignazio Silone. Even here, tally challenged by an unelected world conscience from the bat- in the case of Brailsford, the bureaucracy located overseas, Michael Foot tlements of old Dubrovnik emphasis is placed on his writ- with scant parliamentary redress. above the harbour, is deeply ings on the seventeenth-century As it happened, Foot was to – embracing moving, despite efforts by the Levellers, on Shelley and God- change his view about Europe BBC to curtail or even ignore win during the French Revo- over time, largely because of the the party Lib- it.44 It calls to mind another lutionary wars, and Brailsford’s encouragement from centre-left eralism of his brave octogenarian’s crusade work in the women’s movement. social democrats in continental against savage aggression – the Journalists were derisive when countries, like Gonzales, Soares heritage and endeavours of Gladstone in his reading that had seen and Papandreou. His links with eighty-sixth year in 1896 to in Foot’s book in 1982 a more Francois Mitterrand, another his family – rouse the conscience of the civi- attractive route to ethical social- intellectual socialist, may also lised world over Turkish atroci- ism. But this was unfair. It is not have been a factor.42 After all, is at least as ties in Armenia. Michael Foot’s at all surprising that a young an author who wrote so sympa- important as Liberal inheritance was never man like Blair, with an idealistic thetically on international free more thoroughly vindicated. heart but no aptitude for politi- spirits like Montaigne, Hazlitt, the socialism The audacious Liberalism of cal theory, should find appealing Byron, Heine, Stendhal and Michael Foot – embracing the a tradition that was non-Marxist Silone, was not obviously one of of Nye Bevan party Liberalism of his herit- and non-coercive but altruistic, nature’s Eurosceptics or xeno- age and his family – is at least warm and humane.46 phobes. Throughout his retire- in making as important as the socialism Apart from his book on ment he wrote on irrepressible him what he of Nye Bevan in making him Bevan – admittedly, a very con- liberal figures like these. His what he was. Foot was an emo- siderable exception – Foot did historical reading focussed on was. tional, instinctive and principled not write on the history of the Michelet, Macaulay and Trev- politician. He believed that the labour movement. He encour- elyan, as it had done in his youth, essence of politics emerged in aged the writing of works on not to mention that epitome of the market of free ideas. One of Hardie, Lansbury or Maxton transnational enlightenment and his particular heroes was John by others, but he focussed him- reason, Edward Gibbon. Stuart Mill – not the intellectu- self on pre-industrial radicalism. In his final years as an active ally tortured Mill who feared This is not to say that socialism politician, in the mid-1990s, he ‘the tyranny of the majority’, but was not important to him, but it took up another grand old Lib- the champion of a kind of femi- was a socialism that was always eral cause, that of defending the nism who wrote the somewhat libertarian and literary–roman- national freedoms of Croatia bloodless Subjection of Women.45 tic, drawn from an instinct for in the face of Serb aggression. Michael Foot’s most charac- humanity rather than an analysis There were those, including Paul teristic and revealing book is of class. Perhaps that adds to his Foot, who chided his uncle with not his two-decker biography stature. Michael Foot was one ignoring the distinctly illiberal of Bevan, stirring though it is, of the great prophets and com- and racialist elements of Croatia but his volume Debts of Honour, municators of the . in its neo-fascist Ustasha past published around the time he He was influential throughout under Pavelich and its present became Leader of the Labour the world in proclaiming what reality under President Franjo Party in late 1980. It is a volume it meant to be a socialist as he Tudjman. 43 But for Michael Foot of essays, each of them a study understood it. Always underpin- it was a case of clear aggression of personalities, and an eclectic ning it was an instinctive Liberal upon a smallish nation ‘rightly and even eccentric collection it imperative. Michael has quoted struggling to be free’ as the old is, too. It includes mavericks like his father, Isaac, contemplating Yugoslavia crumbled. He and Beaverbrook, whose friendship his world in simple moral terms his wife Jill, both in their eight- Foot cherished. But above all it after a bitter by-election defeat ies, travelled to their beloved is a catalogue of predominantly at St Ives in 1937: Dubrovnik, almost helpless liberal (or Liberal) dissenters, before Serb and Montenegrin ‘trouble-makers’ in Alan Taylor’s The purpose of liberalism is shellfire and rockets, to tell the inspired phrase – Hazlitt, Dis- to defeat fear and bring hope. world of the atrocities that were raeli (a real radical to Michael), Wordsworth once gave the def- being committed, while Brit- Russell, Paine, Defoe, Swift and, inition of a liberal. He spoke ish Tory foreign secretaries like above all, father Isaac, a portrait of ‘a man of hope and forward- Hurd and Rifkind stood aside drawn with deep insight as well looking mind’. That is a defini- as their predecessors had done as affection. Only three of Foot’s tion of a liberal and the triumph

36 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 ‘why i am a liberal’

of liberalism means the 8 Interviews with Michael Foot, 307–09. 34 Morgan, Michael Foot, pp. conquest of fear.47 2002–06. At the launch party 20 Ben Pimlott, Hugh Dalton 26–27. for my book on 21 March 2007, (London, 1985), p. 284. 35 Ibid., pp. 307–12; Foot’s mem- It is not the most inappro- there was a fascinating discus- 21 Mervyn Jones, A Radical Life orandum, ‘Freedom of the priate of epitaphs for the sion on Fox between Michael (London, 1991), p. 185. The Press’, 3 December 1974 (CAB son of Isaac. Perhaps the Foot and , biography of Noel- Baker 129/180/3); Cabinet conclu- last evidence may be taken author of a recent biographer of (David J. Whitaker, Fighter for sions, 6 November 1975 (CAB from two of Michael Foot’s the Younger Pitt. Peace: Philip Noel-Baker 1889– 128/57), National Archives, closest comrades from the 9 For a fuller discussion, see Ken- 1982 (York, 1989)) makes no ref- Kew. epicentre of Welsh valleys neth O. Morgan, Michael Foot: erence at all to this relationship. 36 See Lord Wedderburn, The socialism. There was Aneu- A Life (London, paperback edn., 22 Clement Davies to Lady Violet Worker and the Law (3rd edn, rin Bevan during the CND 2008), pp. 40–43. Bonham-Carter, 15 November London, 1986), pp. 586ff. controversies in 1959 tell- 10 Barbara Castle, Fighting all the 1950 (Clement Davies papers, Also see Paul Davis and Mark ing a friend privately, ‘deep Way (London, 1993), p. 77. National Library of Wales, Freedland, Legislation and Public down, Michael is still a Lib- 11 Michael Foot wrote a highly Aberystwyth, J/3/45); Wyburn- Policy: A Contemporary History eral’. 48 And, nearly half a sympathetic account of Frank Powell, Clement Davies, pp. 171 (Oxford, 1993), and Brian Bri- century later, there was Neil Owen in the Dictionary of ff. vati, Lord Goodman (London, Kinnock’s considered view – National Biography. There is 23 Hugh Foot, A Start in Freedom 1999), pp. 229 ff. ‘Michael belongs to the Lib- a brief but lively account of (London, 1964), pp. 22–23, 61. 37 Information from Lord Rodg- eral-Republican pantheon, Owen’s life in Gron Williams, Michael’s comments on his ers, 14 November 1995. not the Socialist one’.49 Firebrand: the Frank Owen Story brother appeared in the Evening 38 Barbara Castle, The Castle Dia- (Square One Publications, Standard in 1961. ries, 1974–76 (London, 1980), p. Kenneth O. Morgan is Fellow Worcester, 1993). I am much 24 Barbara Castle, The Castle Dia- 347, entry of 20 March 1975. of the British Academy, honor- indebted to the author for draw- ries 1964–70 (London, 1984), pp. 39 Interview with Baroness Wil- ary fellow of The Queen’s and ing my attention to this work. 22–23, entry of 23 March 1965. liams, 1 November 2004. Oriel Colleges, Oxford, and a 12 Morgan, Michael Foot: A Life, p. 25 I owe this information to Pro- 40 Conversations with the late Labour peer. He is the author of 13. fessor Wm. Roger Louis, of the Lord Callaghan. 28 books on modern history, most 13 Interview with Lord Owen, 25 University of Texas at Austin. 41 Tony Benn, Conflicts of Inter- recently Michael Foot: a Life March 2004. 26 Hugh Foot, A Start in Freedom, est, Diaries 1977–80 (London, (HarperCollins) which appeared 14 See the fascinating volume, p. 34. 1990), pp. 85 ff., entries of in paperback in March 2008 (and Michael Foot and Alison 27 , The Vote (London, 23–27 March 1977; I am much is reviewed in this issue of the Highet, Isaac Foot: A West- 2005), esp. pp. 25 ff. indebted for interviews with Journal). He is now working on country Boy – Apostle of England 28 Obituary of Oliver Foot, The Lord Steel of Aikwood, 20 a book on the public memory in (London, 2006). Guardian, 12 February 2008. July 2004, and Lord McNally, 20th century Britain. 15 Isaac Foot’s name is inscribed 29 Obituary of Lord Foot, The 17 January 2006 and for their on the monument put up in Independent, 12 October 1999. I observations at the Liberal 1 News Chronicle, 4 April 1934. 1939 at the site of the battle of am indebted to reminiscences Democrat History Group 2 Michael Foot to Isaac Foot, Marston Moor, between Leeds of him from Lord Tordoff and meeting on the Lib-Lab Pact, ‘Friday’ 1932 (Isaac Foot papers, and York. Lord Livsey. 14 July 2008 (see report in this private possession); D. F. Kar- 16 Theodore G. Grieder, ‘The 30 Information from Michael Journal). aka, The Pulse of Oxford (Lon- Isaac Foot Library: a Report to Foot. 42 Interviews with Michael Foot, don, 1933). Foot was to write the University’, 1964: Online 31 Information from Lord 2002–06. a passionate tribute to Lloyd Archive of California (http:// Tordoff. 43 Paul Foot to Michael Foot George on news of his death, www.oae.cdlib.org.findaid. 32 See Kenneth and Jane Mor- (Michael Foot, private papers); Daily Herald, 5 April 1945 ark). Isaac Foot’s library was gan, Portrait of a Progressive: The conversations with Ms Vesna 3 Oxford Magazine, 26 January sold after his death to the Uni- Political Career of Christopher, Gamulin in Dubrovnik. 1933. versity of California, Santa Viscount Addison (Oxford, 1980). 44 For a fuller account, see Mor- 4 Ibid., 26 October 1932. Barbara, for the remarkably There is an absorbing discus- gan, Michael Foot, pp. 455ff. 5 Michael Foot’s chapter in V. small sum of £50,000. sion of some of the underlying 45 Conversations with Michael Krishna Menon (ed.), Young 17 Interviews with Michael Foot, issues in Michael Freeden, Lib- Foot. Oxford and War (London, 1934), 2002–06. eralism Divided (Oxford, 1986), 46 Tony Blair to Michael Foot, 28 pp. 39ff. and 59ff. 18 Dingle Foot’s rather sparse pp. 294ff. July 1982, and undated (? 1996) 6 Michael Foot to Isaac Foot, papers are in Churchill Col- 33 This pamphlet was published by (Foot private papers). ‘Friday’ 1932 (Isaac Foot papers, lege, Cambridge. Pall Mall Press. Foot was much 47 Isaac Foot, quoted in M. Foot private possession). 19 Alun Wyburn-Powell, Clem- influenced at this time by his and A. Highet, Isaac Foot, p. 7 Report of debates at Yale, 19 ent Davies, Liberal Leader (Lon- leading role in the Campaign 212. November and La Rochelle, don, 2003), pp. 91ff.; Susan for , 48 Interview with Geoffrey New York, 26 November 1934 Pedersen, Eleanor Rathbone and which attracted the support of Goodman, 23 March 2004. (Michael Foot papers, private the Politics of Conscience (New many Liberals, including his 49 Interview with Lord Kinnock, possession). Haven, Connecticut, 2004), pp. brother John. 30 January 2005.

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