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Centenary of the state pension Pat Thane The Old Age Pensions Act, 1908 Andrew Connell ‘The Strange Case of Mr Rigg’ Liberal victor in North Westmorland Report The Lib-Lab Pact David Steel, Tom McNally, Michael Steed ‘Why I Am A Liberal’ Kenneth O. Morgan The dynastic Liberalism of Michael and all the Foots Duncan Brack Campbell as Leader Interview with Menzies Campbell Liberal Democrat History Group 2 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 Journal of Liberal History Issue 60: Autumn 2008 The Journal of Liberal History is published quarterly by the Liberal Democrat History Group. ISSN 1479-9642 The Old Age Pensions Act, 1908 4 Editor: Duncan Brack Pat Thane analyses the introduction and implementation of the first state Deputy Editor: Tom Kiehl pensions, brought in one hundred years ago. Biographies Editor: Robert Ingham Reviews Editor: Dr Eugenio Biagini Contributing Editors: Graham Lippiatt, Tony Little, Letters to the Editor 13 York Membery Pensions and the working class (Martin Pugh); Hastings facts (Patrick Jackson and Paul Hunt); The Master of Elibank (Sandy Waugh); Liberal thinkers (Barry Patrons Stocker) Dr Eugenio Biagini; Professor Michael Freeden; Professor John Vincent ‘The Strange Case of Mr Rigg’ 14 The surprise Liberal victor in North Westmorland in the 1900 election proved to Editorial Board be something of a surprise himself; by Andrew Connell Dr Malcolm Baines; Dr Roy Douglas; Dr Barry Doyle; Dr David Dutton; Professor David Gowland; Dr Richard Grayson; Dr Michael Hart; Peter Hellyer; Ian Hunter; Dr Report: Working with others – the Lib-Lab Pact 23 J. Graham Jones; Tony Little; Professor Ian Machin; Dr With David Steel, Tom McNally and Michael Steed; report by Graham Lippiatt Mark Pack; Dr Ian Packer; Dr John Powell; Ed Randall; Jaime Reynolds; Dr Andrew Russell; Iain Sharpe ‘Why I Am A Liberal’ 28 The dynastic Liberalism of Michael and all the Foots; by Kenneth O. Morgan Editorial/Correspondence Contributions to the Journal – letters, articles, and book reviews – are invited. The Journal is a refereed Campbell as Leader 38 publication; all articles submitted will be reviewed. Duncan Brack interviews Menzies Campbell, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Contributions should be sent to: 2006–07, about his political career. Duncan Brack (Editor) 38 Salford Road, London SW2 4BQ Reviews 45 email: [email protected] Campbell, My Autobiography, reviewed by Duncan Brack; Morgan, Michael Foot, All articles copyright © Journal of Liberal History. A Life, reviewed by Bill Rodgers; Reeves, John Stuart Mill, Victorian Firebrand, reviewed by Eugenio Biagini; Brack, Grayson & Howarth (eds.), Reinventing the Advertisements State: Social Liberalism for the 21st Century, reviewed by Neil Stockley Full page £100; half page £60; quarter page £35. Discounts available for repeat ads or offers to readers (e.g. discounted book prices). To place ads, please contact the Editor.

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Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 3 The Old Age Pensions Act, 1908

A hundred years ago this year, H. H. Asquith’s Liberal government legislated to introduce state pensions. The Old Age Pensions Act, 1908, has rightly been seen as one of the foundation-stones of the modern British welfare state. It was just one of a series of remarkably enduring institutions initiated by the post-1906 Liberal governments, which created a decisive break between the deterrent and stigmatising Poor Law principles of state social welfare ld age pensions twenty-one should be compelled were continu- to contribute in order to provide and serious attempts ously debated in old age pensions for the lower- at more humane and Britain from 1878. paid.2 They were first Blackley had spent twenty- positive forms of placedO on the political agenda three years in rural parishes in by Canon William Blackley,1 southern England and discovered provision. Pat Thane who proposed, in an article in the extent of poverty in old age. examines the story of Nineteenth Century, that every- He noted that Friendly Societies, the 1908 Act. one aged between eighteen and the voluntary mutual savings

4 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 The Old Age Pensions Act, 1908

institutions, which supported Committee on National Provi- give rise to international debate most skilled urban workers in dent Insurance in 1885–87. and, in Britain, a succession of sickness and old age, provided This made clear that very many further official investigations less assistance in the countryside. younger people, especially which offered more evidence For this he blamed the financial women, did not earn enough of the scale of the problem. In instability of the societies. In to save, and also that prevailing 1889 Bismarck introduced in reality the greater problem was interest rates were unlikely to Germany the first-ever state the difficulty of low-paid rural yield the level of benefits Black- pensions. Blackley was con- workers and their wives afford- ley had envisaged, even when he vinced that he had inspired this ing the required regular con- cut back his proposals to include innovation, though there is no tributions. Blackley believed, pensions only. But evidence to evidence to support this. Bis- however, that the one stage of the Select Committee made marck’s scheme formed part of life at which all workers could clear that the problem of poverty a pioneering contributory social save was when they were young, in old age was real. The only insurance system which the Ger- in their first years of work before publicly funded ‘welfare’ avail- man government had initiated in they faced the costs of marriage able was the long-established 1884. In return for regular con- and parenthood. He also felt that Poor Law, which was structured tributions, workers were entitled young workers wasted money to stigmatise and deter appli- to a pension at age seventy, or that they should be encouraged cants. Those most likely to be sooner if they became incapaci- to save, citing ‘instances as I can deterred were those who had tated for work. The weakness of give from my personal knowl- led respectable, hard-working the system was that it covered edge, of young labourers by lives, avoiding the shame of poor only regularly and better-paid, the dozen, without a change of relief, but never earning enough mainly male, industrial work- decent clothes, continually and to save for old age. Most of them ers, thus excluding many of brutally drinking, living almost were women, who earned least those at greatest risk of poverty like savages while earning fully during working life but lived in old age: women and low-paid £1 a week’3. He proposed that longer than men. The Poor casual and agricultural work- all young people should contrib- Law insisted that children had ers. Bismarck was concerned to ute a maximum of £10 which an obligation to support their win the electoral support of the would accumulate in a savings ageing parents – but, at a time male trade unionists in the bet- fund, controlled and invested of high infant mortality, many ter-paid trades and to stimulate by the state. This would deliver older people had no surviving economic growth by increasing to all ‘wage-earners’ (as distinct children. Or they might have the security of workers in devel- from wage-payers and leisured migrated far away (perhaps to oping industries.5 In Britain, by and salary earners, who would Canada or Australia) in search contrast, the debate about pen- contribute but not benefit), a of security; or they might them- sions focused upon how best to weekly sickness payment until selves be too poor to help. There support the very poor, who had age seventy, and four shillings is every sign that close relatives fewest opportunities to save dur- per week pension thereafter. did help older people when they ing their working life. The type This elegantly logical pro- could.4 Left: one of the of better-paid worker who ben- posal was widely debated and The issue of aged poverty was original old age efited from the German scheme then investigated by a Select prominent enough at this time to pension books. was normally covered in Britain

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 5 the old age pensions act, 1908 for sickness and old age by vol- During the He had strong support for this in approached social policy cau- untary, mutual benefit socie- the growing labour movement, tiously during their first two ties: Friendly Societies and trade 1906 election but his proposal was widely years in office. One reason was unions.6 campaign criticised on grounds of cost. the large Conservative majority Nevertheless, from around Partly in consequence, he modi- in the House of Lords, which 1890, Joseph Chamberlain, fifty-nine fied his proposal, suggesting in threatened to reject ‘advanced’ who had been impressed by the 1899 a pension age of seventy, legislation and did reject an German scheme, became inter- per cent but a pension of seven shillings Education Bill in November ested in the issue and sought to per week, since his research 1906. At least as important was devise a ‘practical programme’ of Liberal now suggested that five shillings the problem the Liberals inher- of social reform, including pen- candidates would not provide enough for a ited from their predecessors, sions. For a while he took the pensioner to live on.7 that government revenue could lead in the public debate on the supported barely keep pace with grow- issue. He was reluctant to aban- ing government expenditure, don the contributory insur- pensions in The Liberals in office – still less fund new ventures, ance approach, on the grounds planning pensions despite cuts in defence spend- that fully tax-funded pensions their election The problem of helping the aged ing. An urgent task for Asquith, would encourage dependency addresses. poor continued to be investigated as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and discourage self-help. Yet he by commissions and commit- was to review the taxation sys- opposed compulsion and rec- tees established by Conservative tem in order to increase gov- ognised that the poorest people governments,8 though the costs ernment income. Liberal fiscal could not afford contributions, of the Boer War (1899–1902) policy was constrained by their yet still survived to old age. further diminished any likeli- opposition to tariffs and strong Chamberlain proposed a state- hood of an expensive pension commitment to free trade. Their subsidised voluntary insurance scheme.9 It was still an active, only realistic means to increase scheme for the low-paid, but unresolved issue by the time revenue was to increase direct came to recognise that this could of the general election of 1906. taxation, which was unlikely not help those in greatest need During the election campaign to be electorally popular and so in the foreseeable future. In the fifty-nine per cent of Liberal had to be approached with cau- 1890s he came to believe that candidates supported pensions tion. The social legislation of the only a non-contributory pen- in their election addresses. This Liberals’ first two years in office sion targeted at the respectable was less prominent than free was notable for either placing aged poor could begin to solve trade, which Liberals supported the burden of cost on local rate- the problem. Schemes of this almost universally, amendment payers (such as the introduction kind were introduced in Den- of the Education Act or reform of free school meals in 1906 and mark in 1891, New Zealand in of the government of Ireland, medical inspection in schools in 1898, New South Wales in 1900 but Liberal support was still sub- 1907) or for costing the taxpayer and Victoria in 1901. stantial. Eighty-one per cent of nothing (such as the Miners’ The businessman and poverty Labour Representation Com- Eight Hours Act, 1908).11 researcher Charles Booth reached mittee (LRC, the forerunner Nevertheless, within a year similar conclusions. His research of the Labour Party) candidates of the election, Asquith asked a on poverty in London and else- pledged themselves to pensions, Treasury civil servant, Roderick where helped to expose the which came a close fourth in Meiklejohn, to investigate the extent of poverty in old age and their preferences after increased practicability of a state pension convinced him that the poorest working-class representation, scheme. It was highly unusual could not afford contributions. reform of the trade union law for the Treasury, which regarded He was also convinced that tar- and provision for the unem- its role as control of departmen- geted, means-tested schemes ployed. Among Conservative tal spending, to initiate new would not help, because respect- candidates, pensions and Poor expenditure in this way.12 It is able old people in need would Law reform were the most pop- unclear why Asquith took up the identify them with the demean- ular social reforms, supported by issue, though he was under per- ing Poor Law destitution test and twenty-two per cent.10 sistent pressure from the labour refuse to apply. They would also Once in office, having movement and from Liberal be costly to administer. In 1891 achieved a landslide victory in social reformers. he proposed, instead, a univer- the election, the Liberal leaders Meiklejohn surveyed existing sal pension of five shillings per were under pressure from Labour pension provision and propos- week to be paid to everyone at and from the vocal reform- als. Asquith read, and carefully age sixty-five, which would be ing wing of their own party annotated, a detailed report on simpler to administer and which to introduce pensions, among the German scheme. In Decem- the rich would repay in taxation. other social measures. But they ber 1906 the Cabinet discussed a

6 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 the old age pensions act, 1908

Treasury memorandum which speech promised pensions for the report of 1942, Social Insurance focused on poverty in old age following year. In the spirit of and Allied Services, which influ- as a major and possibly grow- Gladstone’s determination that enced Labour’s post-war welfare ing problem. The memorandum the costs of state action should state. He agreed with Booth that pointed out that trade unions fall equally upon all classes, means-tested benefits were both and Friendly Societies could not Asquith announced: ‘If we are inefficient at detecting need and assist low and irregular earners. ready to have social reform we administratively wasteful. He It rejected an insurance scheme must be ready to pay for it … commented, not entirely seri- because it also could not include I mean the whole nation, the ously, that if pensions were to the lower paid. It acknowledged working and consuming classes be limited there was much to the attraction of a universal non- as well as the wealthier class of be said for confining them to contributory pension, but ‘the direct taxpayers.’14 Hence he women; the grounds for quali- difficulty is one of money; all retained the additional taxes on fication were unmistakable and other objections to the scheme tea, sugar and cocoa which had the need undeniable. He was fall into comparative unimpor- been introduced to pay for the attracted to the German system tance beside this one’.13 Hence Boer War, of which working of invalidity pensions which the only possibility was a lim- people paid a high proportion, ‘gave not pensions at a fixed age, ited non‑contributory scheme, and announced that the yield but pensions whenever invalid- similar to one proposed by the would be used to finance pen- ity began’. In 1907 most German Conservative leader Arthur Bal- sions. The Budget was mildly Asquith’s pensioners qualified under this four in 1899. The memorandum redistributive, within the work- heading.16 emphasised the importance of ing class as well as between rich priority was Asquith was impressed by dissociating pensions from the and poor. to find new Beveridge’s well-founded criti- Poor Law. This evidently genu- cism of means‑tests, but was ine desire no longer to stigmatise sources of dissuaded by Meiklejohn from and punish the poorest was a real Drafting the Bill taking the social insurance route change from the discourse on Asquith delegated the drafting revenue to on the grounds, above all, of the poverty which had dominated of the pensions bill to Regi- cost of administration. Detailed the nineteenth century. The nald McKenna, President of the pay for pen- drafting of the bill was referred to aim was to target pensions on Board of Education. He was not sions … his a Cabinet committee consisting the poorest older people without the obvious choice, but Asquith of Asquith, McKenna and John stigmatising them and deterring trusted him and was determined favoured Burns, the former trade union- them from applying. to keep the bill out of the hands ist, now President of the LGB The Cabinet approved the of the Local Government Board alternative and the first working man to sit memorandum, and Asquith (LGB), which he believed was in a British Cabinet. Its main began to prepare his second too closely associated with the was to move task was to fit a pension scheme Budget. His priority was to find Poor Law, which it adminis- from the within the strict budgetar y limits new sources of revenue to pay for tered, and would taint the pen- laid down by the Treasury. They pensions, among other things. sion with the Poor Law stigma. established decided on a five-shilling pen- As already pointed out, the Lib- The Treasury put a strict limit sion (despite Booth’s warning eral commitment to free trade of seven million pounds per year single rate that this would be inadequate) ruled out the option of seeking a on the cost of the pensions.15 to be paid to those with incomes new source of revenue by impos- The likelihood that the gov- of income below ten shillings per week. ing tariffs on imports. Asquith’s ernment was shortly to intro- tax on all The chief saving was achieved favoured alternative was to move duce limited non-contributory by placing the pensionable age from the established single rate pensions brought criticism from, incomes to at seventy, rather than sixty-five, of income tax on all incomes to among others, the young Lib- as had been expected; sixty-five a graduated tax, which would eral correspondent on social a gradu- was generally thought to cor- increase the tax contribution of questions for the Conservative respond with the age at which higher earners. He succeeded Morning Post, William Bev- ated tax, most workers found it difficult in overcoming Treasury resist- eridge. Beveridge was a resident which would to support themselves. They ance to this, but had to move at the East London Settlement, also recommended a reduced cautiously to win parliamentary Toynbee Hall, and already increase pension of seven shillings and and voter acceptance. His 1907 immersed in social work and sixpence per week for married Budget proposed to differentiate social research. A visit to Ger- the tax con- couples. The LGB was anxious for the first time between earned many early in 1907 to investi- to include a test of ‘character’ (or and unearned income (the lat- gate their system of employment tribution respectability) and it was decided ter to be more heavily taxed) exchanges aroused his interest of higher to exclude all who received poor and between incomes below and in national insurance, foreshad- relief after 1 January 1908, and above £2,000 a year. The Budget owing his famous government earners. all those unable to provide proof

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 7 the old age pensions act, 1908 of ‘thrift’ during working life. pension at seventy is too remote The response (workers and employers directly The committee did not suggest to create any very lively feel- through regular contributions, how thrift was to be defined. ings, and so far where it has been was predict- taxpayers indirectly through the ’Criminals, lunatics and aliens’ mentioned at public meetings ably mixed. state’s contribution) contributed were also excluded. ‘Aliens’ were it has been received with ironi- for the good not only of the very all residents who did not possess cal cheers.’17 The Liberal Nation ‘Well begun, poor and of working people but British nationality; the largest and The Economist welcomed the of all of society. Society gained group at the time were Jewish announcement. half done’ in stability and productivity refugee immigrants from east- In the Morning Post, Bev- when workers had stable, secure ern and central Europe. eridge pointed out, quite cor- commented lives and felt that the state sup- The scheme would be admin- rectly, that there was no sign that Frederick ported them. At the same time, istered by voluntary local com- the government had planned for an insurance scheme would ena- mittees, composed of people the future costs of a potentially Rogers, ble working people to continue with relevant experience, assisted expensive system, especially as to practice self-help as well as by a paid clerk. At the Treasury’s the proportion of old people in former chair helping others. Beveridge dis- insistence, the responsibilities the population was expected missed the problems of integrat- of the local inspectors of Cus- to increase. He argued that of the LRC ing the poorly and irregularly toms & Excise were extended to an insurance system, however and cam- paid into an insurance system, include supervision of the local costly in the short run, would commenting: ‘surely they waste pension administration, ena- be more efficient and more paigner for more than two pence a week on bling the Treasury to control the cost-effective in the long run, drink, let them contribute that administration at no additional since it would be self‑financing. universal … how can a man better prove cost. John Burns was furious at Beveridge was critical of the ad that he needs and deserves a pen- the appointment of these Treas- hoc nature of the Liberal social non-con- sion than by paying for it?’19 His ury watchdogs. Claims were reforms. He conceived of pen- tributory approach was, however, much to be made and pensions paid sions as the first instalment of a influenced by his assumption through the Post Office, the wider ranging programme of pensions. that ‘their whole working life is only government department remedies for the major causes of one which will not be allowed with offices in every district. need. He was shortly to become to continue permanently in a This scheme was approved by Churchill’s adviser at the Board well-organised state’.20 He was the Cabinet. Through this use of of Trade and the initiator of to devote the next decade, as existing institutions costs were labour exchanges, in 1909, and adviser at the Board of Trade, to kept to a minimum. unemployment insurance, in the reduction of low-paid casual In April 1908 Campbell- 1911. Beveridge’s preference for labour. But a major weakness Bannerman resigned due to social insurance was consistent of his approach was that he had ill‑health and was succeeded as with his wider social and politi- nothing to say about the poverty Prime Minister by Asquith. He cal vision. He wrote: of older women, who had not appointed David Lloyd George necessarily been in paid work to succeed him as Chancellor. A non-contributory scheme throughout their adult lives and, Winston Churchill took his first sets up the state in the eyes even when employed, had often Cabinet post as President of the of the individual as a source been very low paid and could Board of Trade. Nevertheless, of free gifts. A contributory not easily fit into an insurance Asquith presented the Budget scheme sets up the state as a system – especially if they were which he had prepared and took comprehensive organism to unmarried, as many were.21 the opportunity to outline the which the individual belongs coming Pensions Bill. and in which he, under com- pulsion if need be, plays his Pensions in Parliament part. Each view involves aban- The Old Age Pensions Bill The critics donment of traditional lais- received its second reading in The response was predictably sez-faire. The first, however, the House of Commons on 15 mixed. ‘Well begun, half done’ represents a change for the June 1908. It was introduced commented Frederick Rog- worse which it will be hard to by Lloyd George, who ever ers, former chair of the LRC remove. The second is a natu- after was to receive the credit and campaigner for universal ral recognition of the growing for the scheme actually devised non-contributory pensions. The complexity and interdepend- by Asquith. The pension even LRC pressed on with demands ence of industrial life.18 came to be known popularly as for an age limit of sixty-five ‘the Lloyd George’. It became and a higher means limit, sup- Social insurance, he believed, clear in parliament that claim- ported by the TUC. The Times could assist social integration ants would potentially undergo commented: ‘The promise of a because all sections of society investigation hardly less rigorous

8 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 the old age pensions act, 1908 than under the Poor Law. Their weakened the moral fibre of rest of whether they will land on income would be assessed. The the country by a system and a solid ground or quagmire’.27 disqualifying ‘character defects’ policy of which this is only the The Bill survived strong were now defined as ‘habitual beginning, then a statesman Conservative opposition in the failure to work according to his who had mentioned this miser- House of Lords, where some ability, opportunity or need, for able backsliding from the fine Conservative peers were evi- his own maintenance or that of statesmanship of Empire would dently rehearsing the revolt his legal relatives’. Receipt of have something to answer for.25 which was to come against poor relief after 1 January 1908 the Budget of 1909. The Lords disqualified, as did imprison- The Labour Party approved the passed a number of amendments, ment for crime without option bill ‘as a beginning’, but pressed which were deleted when the bill of fine or conviction for drunk- for a universal scheme and returned to the lower house, on enness, within ten years of the strongly opposed the disquali- grounds of having contravened claim. ‘Aliens and wives of fication of paupers. Labour suc- Commons privilege by inter- aliens’ were excluded. This was ceeded in winning a review of vening in a financial measure. to prove a shock to many non- this after two years (it was abol- In response the Lords passed an Jewish women who had mar- ished from 31 December 1910, unprecedented measure of cen- ried Jewish immigrants who had when the widows of ‘aliens’ sure against the Commons. The not taken British citizenship. who had themselves been born ageing Lord Rosebery expressed Obtaining citizenship, which as British subjects were also his regret about the ways that had previously been a relatively allowed to qualify for the pen- society and Liberalism were cheap and simple process, was sion, following vigorous protests changing. He thought this ‘the becoming more difficult in this on their behalf26). Conservative most important Bill … in the period of rising anti-Semitism.22 backbenchers won a modifica- forty years I have sat here’ more One advance on Poor Law prin- tion of the means test to incor- important in its implications ciples in the proposed legislation porate a sliding scale. Old people even than the parliamentary was that pensioners were not to with incomes of up to twenty- reform bills, for, he believed, it be deprived ‘of any franchise, one pounds per year would was a: right or privilege’, though at a receive the full pension; thereaf- time when all women and many Lloyd ter the pension was reduced by … pauperising bill, symbolis- men who were not independent one shilling per week for each ing the final passing of family householders lacked the vote this George’s shilling per week of income pride in caring for their elderly was of limited value. between twenty-one pounds and … it is, of course, socialism Lloyd George’s opening opening a ceiling of thirty-one pounds pure and simple … but … we speech was described in the speech was and ten shillings per year. The have advanced to that period Spectator as ‘halting in tone and minimum pension was one shil- of socialism where some such apologetic in manner’.23 As the described in ling. Those with incomes as low measure as this is required … debate went on, he became ever as twenty-six pounds per year it is part of the almost daily more uneasy about the deficien- the Spectator would receive only three shil- transfer of burdens from the cies of the scheme. He stressed lings a week. In fact, in the first individual to the state … it repeatedly that it was ‘only a as ‘halting ten years of the pension, the per- will absorb money which in beginning … the scheme is nec- in tone and centage of pensioners receiving the past has gone to charity essarily incomplete … this is a less than five shillings never rose … it is the beginning of a long great experiment … we say it is apologetic in above seven. process which will culminate a beginning, but a real begin- The government imposed a in the handing over of hospi- ning.’24 He made clear that the manner’. As closure to avoid further costly tals to the state.28 five-shilling pension was not amendments. In particular, intended to provide an income the debate this prevented debate on the As indeed it was. Rosebery did adequate to live on, but to sup- contentious issue of the age not, however, advise the Lords to plement and encourage sav- went on, he limit. As the bill completed its vote against his fellow Liberals. ing and support from relatives became ever progress through the Commons, and others. The Conservatives The Times, with some justice, had decided not to oppose the more uneasy attacked ‘the vagueness of the Pensions implemented bill in the Commons, though a conceptions underlying the Bill The Bill received the Royal small right-wing group, led by about the and the haphazard way in which Assent on 1 August 1908. It gave Lord Robert Cecil, did so. Cecil its proposals have been flung a pension, which was not on its warned: deficien- together with no coherent the- own enough to live on, prima- cies of the ory or aim … the government rily to the very old, the very War might be approaching, are taking a leap in the dark with poor and the most respectable, and if the government had scheme. no more real knowledge than the provided that they were also

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 9 the old age pensions act, 1908

British subjects. In effect it was after the removal of the pauper administration. The ‘character an amendment of the Poor Law disqualification in March 1911. clause’ seems to have proved and operated on similar princi- The LGB had estimated 572,000 almost unworkable and hardly ples. Yet it was not the Poor Law. pensioners in the first year. The ever to have been applied. The government and its admin- undercount was greatest in Ire- The process of claiming a istrators were careful to protect land (by 70,000 compared with pension began with completing a pensioners from the language 10,000 on the mainland); the form at the post office. This was of opprobrium which had char- government appears to have sent to the local pension officer, acterised the poor relief system underestimated the extent of who investigated the claim. He since 1834 – successfully, it seems, rural poverty, though there may reported to the local committee, in view of the much larger num- also have been some audacious which made a decision and noti- bers of impoverished old people claims, in view of the difficulty fied both the claimant and the who were prepared to apply for of proving the age of older peo- pension officer. The voluntary the pension than for poor relief, ple in Ireland, since compulsory local pension committees were and of their reactions to it, as we registration of births had been made up members of Friendly will see. Also, entitlement and introduced only in 1865, and also Societies, trade unions, clergy- administration were uniform perhaps a temptation for nation- men and others with relevant throughout the country, which alists to extract some illicit ben- experience or interest in social had never been true of poor efit from the English Treasury.32 issues. Where the officer and relief. For the first time, the state In consequence, Lloyd George the committee disagreed, there gave a cash payment to a group had to request an additional could be a further investigation in need as a right (if they met the £900,000 to finance the first and a hearing which both officer criteria), without deterrent pen- year of the scheme. and claimant might attend. If alties.29 The dockers’ leader, Ben On 1 March 1906 about disagreement persisted, each Tillett, greeted it joyfully as ‘the 168,100 people age seventy and had a right of appeal to the LGB. first piece of socialism Britain over were receiving outdoor Claimants seem, on the whole, has entered upon’.30 However, he relief. This fell in 1910 to 138,200 to have been well treated. The soon changed his mind and sup- with the abolition of pauper dis- system seems to have worked ported a resolution at the annual qualification and to only 9,500 harmoniously, with few appeals conference of the TUC shortly in 1912. Increasingly also, Poor and generally good relations afterwards, that: Law guardians granted five shil- between pensions committees Yet it was not lings a week to paupers believed and officials. The Act will not be satisfactory to be ‘old’ whether they were Where a pension was until amended so as to provide the Poor Law. above or below the age of sev- approved, the pension was pay- for a minimum pension of five The govern- enty. The numbers of people able each Friday at the local shillings per week, without aged seventy or above in work- post office. Grateful pensioners condition, to men and women ment and its houses were much less affected. were said to have offered flow- of sixty; in the case of persons These mainly housed people ers, apples, and even rashers of who by reason of their afflic- administra- who needed residential care or bacon to the postmasters and tion by blindness are rendered who could not survive outside -mistresses who handed them incapable of earning their liv- tors were on the minimal pension. The their first pension. For years ing, the age limit to be entirely careful to total of aged workhouse inmates they showered their gratitude removed.31 on 1 March 1906 was 61,400; in on Lloyd George who had done protect pen- 1910, 57,700; in 1912, 49,300.33 no more than to steer the legis- A similar resolution was passed In the first years, about 40 lation doubtfully through the annually for the next sixteen sioners from per cent of the over-seventy age Commons.35 years. group qualified for the strin- For all its inadequacy, the The first old age pensions the language gently means-tested pension, impact of the pension upon the were paid to 490,000 people on whereas only about 24.5 per immense poverty of Edwardian 1 January 1909, the great major- of oppro- cent of the same age group had Britain should not be underesti- ity at the maximum rate. Most brium which received poor relief in 1906.34 mated. As John Burns reported of the pensioners were women; This suggests the extent of the to Asquith after the first pen- 37.4 per cent were men. At the had charac- severe need which had been sions were paid: time of the 1911 census men going unmet before the intro- accounted for 41.4 per cent of terised the duction of the pension; and I visited the shopping places the over-seventy population, poor relief also that the pension may have where most of the poor do con- but were only 36.7 per cent of been less plagued by the prob- gregate. After chats with the pensioners. The total number system since lem of non-take-up than later butcher, the cheesemonger and of pensioners rose to 650,000 means-tested schemes, per- the police the general view was in March 1909 and to 1,070,626 1834. haps due to sympathetic local that the five shillings to one

10 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 the old age pensions act, 1908

was a boon, but where a cou- more humane and positive forms The Old Age workers, intended to contribute ple received the joint pension it of provision. These included the to reduction of the high rates of meant a great deal to the hon- Education (Provision of Meals) Pensions Act infant mortality by improving est and provident poor. So far Act, 1906, which enabled local was just one the resources of working-class there was no evidence of waste authorities to provide free meals mothers. After a campaign by or spending on drink and from for under-nourished schoolchil- of a series of women, the benefit was paid many sources there were really dren; this was made compulsory directly to the mothers rather grateful thanks for those who for all local authorities, with remarkably than, as originally intended, to had brought this boon to the an Exchequer subsidy in 1914. the insured men. deserving poor. In 1907 local authorities were enduring At least as important as the required to inspect the health of institutions social legislation, which gradu- Lloyd George commented to children in state schools and to ally increased social expenditure Parliament in 1909, in the course provide for their medical care; initiated by under the Liberals, were the tax of defending the additional cost in 1912 this work also received changes which made the spend- of pensions: a subsidy from the Exchequer. the post-1906 ing possible. The introduction by The Children Act, 1908, estab- Asquith of a graduated income Pensions officers and pensions lished a separate system of justice Liberal gov- tax was taken further by Lloyd committees … have all told me for minors under age sixteen, ernments, George in the controversial 1909 the same story of people facing withdrawing them from adult Budget, finally passed in 1910, poverty and privation for years courts and prisons, and shifted which cre- which increased tax on earned with resignation, with forti- much responsibility for the care income, introduced a super-tax tude and with uncomplaining of children in need from the ated a deci- on incomes above £5000 per patience; they all ask the same Poor Law to local authorities. year, increased death duties and, question and they ask it in In 1909 the modern proba- sive break for the first time, introduced tax vain – how on earth these poor tion service was introduced between the relief for each child of taxpayers people could have managed to as an alternative to prison for earning £500 per year or less. keep body and soul together offenders, aimed at rehabilita- deterrent This was a remarkable series on such slender resources. It is tion. In the same year the Trade of changes in a short time. not that they have understated Boards Act introduced an effec- and stigma- Equally remarkable is how long their resources; on the contrary tive minimum wage for women many of them have lasted. The there are cases where they have in some of the worst-paid tising Poor principles established in the 1908 overstated them with a sort of trades, and Beveridge’s labour Law princi- Old Age Pensions Act have cer- pride … what strikes you is exchanges began to be estab- tainly long survived, for good their horror of the Poor Law lished throughout the coun- ples of state and ill. British state pensions … this Pension Act has dis- try, funded by the Treasury, remained wholly non-contrib- closed the presence amongst us designed to reduce unemploy- social wel- utory, with minor amendments of over 600,000 people, the vast ment by matching unemployed to the scheme, until 1925. In majority of whom were living workers to jobs by gathering and fare and seri- 1925 the Old Age, Widows and in circumstances of great pov- disseminating information about ous attempts Orphans Contributory Pensions erty, yet disclaimed the charity vacancies. Then the National Act introduced pensions at age of the public … it has cost more Insurance Act, 1911, introduced at more 65 for contributors to National than was anticipated, but the social insurance to Britain. Part Health Insurance and to the greatness of the cost shows the 1 of the Act, masterminded humane widows and orphans of male depth of the need.36 by Lloyd George, introduced contributors, in return for addi- National Health Insurance; Part and positive tional contributions. The non- 2, the work of Beveridge and forms of contributory pension continued Churchill, concerned unem- to be paid at age seventy to those Conclusion ployment insurance. This was provision. who did not qualify for National The Old Age Pensions Act, designed, unlike pensions but Insurance. The rate of pen- 1908, has rightly been seen as like the German scheme, to sion (now ten shillings , but still one of the foundation-stones provide security and health care inadequate for survival with- of the modern British welfare for regularly employed man- out a supplement) was the same state. It was just one of a series ual workers (white-collar and, for both forms of pension. The of remarkably enduring institu- also, agricultural workers were change was a response to wide- tions initiated by the post-1906 excluded) rather than to relieve spread conviction that too many Liberal governments, which cre- poverty. The great majority of needy people became incapaci- ated a decisive break between the beneficiaries were male. How- tated, or died, before the age of deterrent and stigmatising Poor ever the scheme did include a seventy and to the particularly Law principles of state social maternity benefit for insured high rates of unemployment welfare and serious attempts at women and wives of insured among older workers during the

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 11 the old age pensions act, 1908 depression of the inter-war years. average live longer than men, Pensions and the Aged Poor – a Pro- Resistance to the cost of a more contribute further to the relative posal (London, 1899). inclusive non-contributory pen- poverty of older women.37 Many 8 Report of the Royal Commission on the sion remained strong. of the problems that were identi- Aged Poor (1898); Report of the Select The pension system was more fied one hundred years ago have Committee on the Aged Deserving Poor substantially reformed by the not disappeared. (1899); Report of the Departmental post-war Labour government The Old Age Pensions Act, Committee on Financial Aspects of the in 1946, inspired by Beveridge’s 1908, was an important founda- Proposals made by the Select Committee 1942 report, though Labour tion-stone in the building of the of the House of Commons of 1899 about modified his recommendations British welfare state, embodying the Aged Deserving Poor (1900). in important respects. In partic- some of its weaknesses as well as 9 Thane, Old Age, pp. 177–212. ular the basic state pension still its strengths. 10 A. K. Russell, Liberal Landslide: The did not provide a living income. General Election of 1906 (David & Despite Beveridge’s desire to Dr Pat Thane has been Profes- Charles, 1973), p. 64. avoid the means tests he had sor of Contemporary British His- 11 For details of social legislation at always opposed, from the begin- tory at the Institute of Historical this time see Pat Thane, The Foun- ning, large numbers of the poor- Research, University of London, dations of the Welfare State (Long- est pensioners had to supplement since 2001. Her publications include man, 2nd ed., 1996), pp. 6–48. the pension with means-tested The Foundations of the Wel- 12 George Peden, The Treasury and National Assistance: 648,000 of fare State (Longman, 1982; 2nd British Public Policy, 1900–59 (OUP, them in 1948, almost a million ed., 1996); Old Age from Antiq- 2000), Ch. 2. by 1951. It has continued to be uity to Post-Modernity (co-ed. 13 TNA CAB 37/85 1906 Memorandum the case, to the present, that the with Paul Johnson; Routledge, on Old Age Pensions, 14 Dec. 1906. basic state pension is inadequate 1998); Old Age in England. 14 Hansard (4th series) House of Com- for survival. Pensioners have Past Experiences, Present Issues mons, vol.172, col.1195. been required to supplement it (OUP, 2000); Women and Age- 15 For details of the background to the with occupational pensions, pri- ing in Britain since 1500 (co-ed. legislation, see Thane, Old Age, pp. vate savings or, in the case of the with Lynne Botelho; Longman, 217–22. poorest, means-tested state wel- 2001);The Long History of Old 16 On Beveridge, see Jose Harris, fare, currently known as Pension Age (ed.; Thames and Hudson, William Beveridge. A Biography’ Credit. Throughout this time a 2005); Britain’s Pensions Crisis: (OUP, 2 nd ed., 1997). On German high proportion of the poorest History and Policy (co-ed. with pensions see E. P. Hennock British pensioners have failed to apply Hugh Pemberton and Noel White- Social Reform and German Precedents, for the supplement for which side; OUP/British Academy, 1880–1914 (OUP,1987), and The Ori- they would qualify (currently up The Old Age 2005). She is a convenor of History gin of the Welfare State in England and to 30 per cent of eligible pension- and Policy (www.historyandpolicy. Germany. ers), due either to pride or igno- Pensions Act, org) which seeks to raise the quality 17 The Times, 12 May 1908. rance. The concerns of Booth of contemporary policy-making and 18 Hennock British Social Reform, p. and Beveridge about the exclu- 1908, was an understanding of important issues 136. sionary effects of means-testing by communicating relevant work by 19 Morning Post , 11 May 1908. have proved justified. Most of important historians into the public arena. 20 Ibid. these poorest pensioners are foundation- 21 Harris, Beveridge, pp. 138–95. female for the same reasons that 1 Pat Thane ‘Blackley, Willliam Lew- 22 D. Feldman, Englishmen and Jews: women were most of the aged stone in the ery (1830–1902) Oxford Dictionary of Social Relations and Political Culture, poor in 1908: women do not fit National Biography (OUP 2004–08). 1840–1914 (Yale University Press, comfortably into a pension sys- building 2 W. L. Blackley ‘National Provi- 1994), pp. 268ff. tem based upon contributory dent Insurance’, Nineteenth Century, 23 Spectator, 20 June 1908. state insurance, income-related of the Brit- November 1878, pp. 834–57. 24 Hansard (4th series), House of Com- occupational pensions and pri- ish welfare 3 Ibid., p. 850. mons, Vol. 190, col. 585. vate saving because so many of 4 Ibid., pp. 287–307. 25 Ibid., col. 624. them have interrupted work state, 5 E. P. Hennock, The Origin of the 26 Feldman, Englishmen and Jews, p. records due to caring respon- Welfare State in England and Ger- 376. P. Thane, ‘The British Impe- sibilities, and when they work embodying many, 1850–1914 (CUP, 2007). rial State and the Construction of they earn less than men and so 6 Paul Johnson Spending and Saving. National Identities’ in B. Melman qualify for lower pensions and some of its The Working Class Economy in Brit- (ed.), Borderlines: Gender and Identities have less opportunity to save. weaknesses ain, 1870–1939 (OUP, 1985). in War and Peace, 1870–1930 (London High rates of partnership break- 7 C. Booth Pauperism – a Picture, and and New York, 1998), pp. 38-41. up, like high rates of widowhood as well as its Endowment of Old Age, an Argument 27 The Times, 8 July 1908. in the late nineteenth century, (London, 1892); The Aged Poor – 28 Hansard (4th series), House of Lords, and the fact that women on strengths Condition (London, 1896); Old Age Vol. 192 (20 July 1908), col. 1383.

12 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 29 See Martin Pugh ‘Working col. 1174. Class Experience and State 33 Thane, Old Age, pp. 226–31. GREAT LIBERAL DOCUMENTS Social Welfare, 1908–1914: Old 34 K. Williams, From Pauperism to Included free with this issue of the Journal of Liberal History is our latest Age Pensions Reconsidered’ Poverty (London, 1981), p. 207. pamphlet , Great Liberal Documents. Historical Journal, 45, 4 (2002), 35 The Times, 2 January 1909. This is a guide to key texts by British and foreign authors which pp. 775–96, for a discussion of 36 Hansard (5th series), House of have informed, influenced and inspired British liberal thought and the impact of pensions. How- Commons, 1909 Vol. 1 col. politics. The earliest of these documents is from 1644, John Milton’s Areopagitica, his great polemic against censorship and in favour of ever, Pugh (p. 791) overstates 1174, 1 March. free speech. The newest is Make It Happen, the latest statement of the the proportion of over-70 year 37 Pat Thane ‘The “Scandal” of vision and values of the Liberal Democrats, the first under Nick Clegg’s olds receiving the pension, per- Women’s Pensions in Britain: leadership. haps due to misunderstanding How Did it Come About?’, Through these documents readers can gain access to fundamental the sources cited (fn 83), which Jay Ginn ‘Gender Inequali- liberal ideas, theories and policy programmes as they were originally do not support his estimate. ties: Sidelines in British Pen- written. The guide provides a brief contextualisation of each one and 30 F. Rogers, Labour, Life and Lit- sion Policy’ in H. Pemberton, indicates where it can be found. erature (London, 1913), p. 140. P. Thane, N. Whiteside (eds.), Additional copies of Great Liberal Documents can be purchased at a 31 TUC Annual Conference Report Britain’s Pensions Crisis: History cost of £1.50 for Journal subscribers, or £2 for anyone else, either from (1908), 57, 194. and Policy (OUP/British Acad- the History Group’s stand at the Bournemouth Lib Dem conference 32 Hansard (5th series), House of emy, 2005), pp. 77–111. (see back page) or from LDHG, 38 Salford Road, London SW2 4BQ Commons, vol. 1 (1 Mar. 1909), (cheques should be made out to ‘Liberal Democrat History Group’; add 50p postage per copy (UK)).

Hastings facts (1) In his article on the 1908 had been involved in both Hastings by-election ( Jour- the 1906 general election Letters nal 59, summer 2008), Ian and the 1908 by-election. Ivatt incorrectly refers to the He would sometimes sing Pensions and the working young Liberal candidate, the 1906 song in support of class Robert Vernon Harcourt, Freeman Freeman-Thomas, Barry Doyle (‘The rank and scheme. The Post Office as ‘Sir Robert’; and does not the sitting Liberal MP file and the Liberal govern- was an economical means mention the interesting fact (1900–06) and against du ment crisis of 1912’, Journal of administering the reform that, later in the same year, Cros, the Tory candidate: 59, summer 1908) may be and, by freeing the elderly the thirty-year-old candidate correct in claiming that our from the humiliations of went on to succeed John Vote, vote, vote for Free- understanding of the impact the Poor Law system, it pro- Morley as Liberal Member man Thomas, of Edwardian social welfare moted a high take-up rate. for the Montrose Burghs, a Throw old du Cros in the reform has been limited It is in fact easy to under- seat which he held until 1918. sea. by evidence dominated by stand popular responses by Robert’s half-brother, Du Cros, he is no good, middle-class responses, but studying local newspapers, Lewis Vernon Harcourt, his He’ll want to tax your this is largely because his- which reported freely on senior by about fifteen years, food, torians have not properly what the new pensioners said was a colleague of Morley’s Freeman Thomas is the exploited the resources that on collecting their first pen- in the Liberal cabinet, and it one for you and me! throw light on the reac- sions and on how they coped would have been interesting tions and experiences of the with the system, and to fol- to be told whether he played Readers of the Journal might working-class beneficiaries. low the interaction between any part in the Hastings by- also be interested to learn His example of a letter by a the recipients and the system election campaign. that the by-election scenes middle-class physician only in the Post Office archives at Patrick Jackson in The Ragged-Trousered Phi- reinforces the conventional Mount Pleasant in London lanthropists, Robert Tressell’s inadequate perspective. and in the Scottish National great novel of working-class The crucial case of the Archives (better known as Hastings facts (2) life (recently dramatised on 1908 old age pensions, for the Scottish Record Office) I much enjoyed Ian Ivatt’s BBC Radio 4), are drawn example, is very revealing in Edinburgh. For details, article analysing the Hast- from the 1908 Hastings of the immense popularity see my article, ‘Working- ings by-election of 1908. by-election. The only dif- of some of the innovations, Class Experience and State From 1981 to 1986 I was ference is that in the novel and of the shrewdness and Social Welfare, 1908–1914: the constituency agent for the newly elected MP for humanity of the Liberal gov- Old Age Pensions Reconsid- the Hastings & Rye Liberal Mugsborough (Hastings) is a ernment in using the Post ered’, The Historical Journal, Association, and we had Liberal. The changed result Office as the key element in 45, 2002, 775–96. a member (a Mr Daniel the implementation of the Martin Pugh Pilcher), then aged 100, who continued on page 55

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 13 In the October 1900 ‘khaki election’, Liberals barely improved on their disastrous 1895 ‘The Strange Case of Mr Rigg’ performance. Facing the Unionists’ ruthless playing of the patriotic card,1 the party could not even find a candidate in 139 English constituencies and only in Wales did its share of the vote increase. A few formerly safe seats like Derby and Lancaster were regained in close fights, but the net gain was a mere six, and the party remained hopelessly outgunned in both Houses of Parliament. But through the gloom shone one utterly unexpected shaft of Liberal sunlight: the capture of North Westmorland, a rural fastness of valleys, fells, lakes and sheep, which had known only Tory n the old county town of Coming early among the MPs since Napoleonic Appleby the sitting Con- English county declarations, times. Yet the new servative3 suffered the what The Times deemed a ‘rather humiliation of seeing his remarkable victory’ caused ‘great MP did not behave as 17.4 per cent majority dis- excitement’.5 In remote Langdale Isolve into a losing margin of 11.4 the arrival of the result by tel- expected. Andrew per cent,4 a defeat all the more egraph from Appleby aroused Connell tells ‘the embarrassing for being at the ‘consternation and dismay, exor- hands of a youthful Liberal can- bitant joy and humiliating grief’, strange story of Mr didate selected barely a month the Conservative Westmorland Rigg’. 2 before polling day. Gazette reported, adding: ‘As a

14 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 ‘The Strange Case of Mr Rigg’

political omen North Westmor- challenge of James Whitehead by and the circumstances of the land proves absolutely nothing.’6 just 10 votes in the new single- 1900 election might have been This assessment seemed amply member constituency of North expected further to boost his borne out both by the outcome Westmorland. A decade later the vote in a locality with a strong of the 1900 general election, seat looked much less marginal. military tradition, well repre- and by Westmorland’s rever- Gladstone’s commitment to Irish sented among the servicemen in sion within a decade to another home rule was a vote-loser in an South Africa. But ‘in vain did century of Toryism. But I shall area in which Roman Catholi- the Tory leaders invoke the aid argue that this was no mere freak cism was regarded as alien and of Khaki, claiming Bobs, Buller result; North Westmorland Lib- sinister, and owner-occupier and B.-P. as their own particu- erals had stumbled on the ideal farmers, who outnumbered lar possessions’;11 Sir Joseph was candidate who, but for a mys- tenants,9 were suspicious of the sensationally unseated. terious aberration, might have merest hint of compulsory land The explanation, the York- served as a role model for a type purchase. By 1895, with 5,023 shire Post lamented, lay in ‘petty, of Liberal MP equipped to resist votes cast in the usual high turn- personal and local questions’,12 the almost total annexation of out, the Conservative majority issues of probity no more than rural England by the Conserva- had swollen to 873. delicately alluded to on Liberal tives from 1910 onwards. The winner did not even bear platforms, but ‘discussed among the customary name. In 1891 farmers and tradesmen in the ~ William Lowther had surprised freer intercourse of the market his constituency party by telling or tavern’. Some looked askance For two centuries Westmorland them he would not stand again, at their MP’s involvement in elections were dominated by the and with no other family mem- two protracted court cases, county’s largest landowners, the ber available,10 the Conservatives one concerning a quarry near Lowther family; through them adopted Sir Joseph Savory, a car- Kirkby Stephen, the other the local Conservatism acquired its petbagger London goldsmith City Electric Light Company in distinctive pale yellow favours and former Lord Mayor. Rotund London; but the really damag- while Liberals wore blue. From and balding, a dull speaker ing allegation was that he was 1774 until 1892 the county seat with limited local connec- enriching himself by robbing was represented in every parlia- tions, Savory was an eminently local farmers. Near Appleby ment by at least one Lowther, and undistinguished figure whose Left: The lies Brackenber Moor, a large from 1832 to 1880 no election increased majorities in 1892 and bridegroom area of common upland pasture was even contested.7 But Non- 1895 demonstrated the extent and the bride: which was – and still is – used conformity was strong among to which Westmorland men of Richard and for military manoeuvres. Com- local voters newly enfranchised modest property were deserting Gertrude Rigg; pensation from the War Office by the 1884 Reform Act,8 and in Liberalism. He seemed destined Kendal Mercury, was due to all with common 16 September October 1885 the Hon. William to remain backbench lobby rights, but rumour persisted that 1904 Lowther beat off the Liberal fodder for as long as he chose, Sir Joseph, who had sought to

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 15 ‘the strange case of mr rigg’

boost his local standing by buy- The Lib- member, his niece recorded, dark-moustached young hero ing up land and manorial lord- the Rigg family were ‘pillars charmed meeting after meeting ships, had pocketed most of it. eral press of Conservatism’;16 certainly in with his ‘courtesy, amiability His protestations that this was exulted as 1892 the Misses Rigg of Winder- and effective speeches … His ‘absolutely false’, that the money mere adorned a Primrose League very youth, coupled with his had all gone to a committee of their hand- gathering,17 and in the 1895 elec- marvellous grasp of political commoners, and ‘not one penny tion John Rigg supplied coaches principles and facility for their has passed through my hands’,13 some, dark- to convey Conservative voters eloquent and popular expres- were greeted with scepticism. on polling day.18 The timing of sion, render him infinitely more North Westmorland Conserva- moustached and reasons for his son’s conver- qualified to represent the needs tives braced themselves for a young hero sion to Liberalism, apparently of a constituency like North reduced majority; but in the with parental blessing, remain Westmorland than a goody- prevailing patriotic climate it charmed obscure. Lady Carlisle would goody and fossilised antedilu- was inconceivable that the seat subsequently tell her biographer vian like Sir Joseph Savory.’25 would fall to an inexperienced meeting son-in-law that Richard saw the From the platform Rigg, who opponent with threadbare Lib- light while up at Oxford;19 but had volunteered for service in eral credentials. after meet- in fact he went to Gonville & South Africa but was not called The shock victor, Richard ing with his Caius, a Cambridge college not up because of his parliamen- Rigg, thirty-four years younger renowned for radicalism. And tary candidacy, denounced not than Savory, was a native of ‘courtesy, although local press reports in the war itself but the way it was Windermere, where the family September 1900 stated he had being managed. Patricia Lynch had a coaching business and his amiability left university in 1898, Caius’ has suggested that Liberals in father John owned the handsome records show that he matricu- 1900 ‘who adopted a moder- hotel that overlooks the railway and effective lated in 1897, passed two parts of ate imperialist stance … ran station. Educated across the lake speeches …’ the Law tripos in 1898 and 1899 the risk of appearing to neglect at Hawkshead Grammar School, and took his degree the follow- the party’s traditions of social he passed his Cambridge Locals ing year.20 reform’, these being ‘mutually before he was fourteen14 and in By 1900 he had been called exclusive alternatives’.26 Not January 1892 transferred to the to the Bar of the Inner Tem- so for Rigg, whose ‘vigorous nearest public school, Sedbergh, ple, though he was never to exposition of advanced Lib- but stayed only one term. The practise,21 and was an instruc- eral views’ The Times remarked school register, generally explicit tor in musketry in the Volun- on;27 he supported state pensions, about departures under a cloud, teers, with the rank of captain. Lords reform, one man one vote, simply records Rigg as hav- Like other socially conscien- and greater public control over ing been ‘withdrawn’; plausible tious middle-class men, he pat- voluntary schools. The simple explanations are the outbreak ronised Friendly Societies, his message of his posters was: ‘Vote of scarlet fever in the school most durable connection being for Rigg, the local candidate: and the coincidental prolonged with the Oddfellows, for whom Unity of Empire and Old Age absence through ill-health of the he acted as treasurer.22 With an Pensions.’ celebrated headmaster Henry evident predilection for com- ‘To say that Mr Rigg has Hart, whose muscular Chris- mittees, he was also president taken the electorate by storm tianity had transformed Sed- of a cycling club, captain of a is to put it mildly’, remarked bergh’s reputation, though not Boys’ Brigade battalion, mem- the normally apolitical Lakes its sanitary arrangements.15 How ber of the Westmorland Foot- Herald on polling day. The Rigg spent the next five years, ball Association, Conservator of Westmorland Gazette published other than in part-time soldiery the River Kent Fishery District, an anxious appeal to its Con- as a commissioned officer in the an enthusiastic freemason23 and servative readers. The Liberals Second Volunteer Battalion of churchwarden in his home par- were a divided party, not to be the Border Regiment, which he ish of St Mary’s Applethwaite. trusted with the ‘destinies of the joined in 1896, is unclear. There His faith was evangelical, and he Empire’; and voters must realise is no evidence of extensive was an impassioned teetotaller. that they could not ‘choose their travelling. Possibly he assisted Early in September 1900, a member because of his quali- his uncle in the running of the few days after his twenty-third ties, or because they like him, hotel, his father having retired birthday, Richard Rigg was without giving power to the to devote more time to hunting announced as Liberal candi- party he supports’.28 The count and freemasonry; but the path date for North Westmorland. in Appleby confirmed the Con- before him was that of a gentle- Of his immediate impact on a servatives’ worst fears. Though man of means. demoralised local party24 there most of the crowd waiting in the When Sir Joseph Savory was no doubt. The Liberal rain wore yellow favours, they became North Westmorland’s press exulted as their handsome, cheered heartily the declaration

16 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 ‘the strange case of mr rigg’

that Rigg had won with a major- a cause he remained faithful to Penrith; there were several hun- ity of 579. A shocked Sir Joseph it. As ‘Brother Rigg’ he told the dred guests, many of whom Savory pulled himself together Oddfellows that ‘Friendly Socie- had arrived by special train, sufficiently to make a gracious ties are the creation of the work- ‘crowded to a most uncomfort- speech of congratulation before ing classes of this country … the able degree’ in the nave, while disappearing on the next train backbone of the land in health, the galleries were thronged by south. Richard Rigg, mean- thrift and self-denial’.34 As Presi- the public.38 while, was borne shoulder-high dent of the Vale of Eden Band Rigg’s instant impact on the through the crowded streets of of Hope, he admonished 3,000 Liberal Party nationally was Appleby, took the train to Kirkby children in their great annual attested to by his election in Stephen to repeat the process demonstration in Appleby: ‘You February 1901 to the Execu- and thence to Tebay where rail- should never forget that in fight- tive Committee of the Eighty way workers, reported to have ing drink you are fighting for the Club, over which no less a figure voted solidly Liberal, sounded a gospel of Christ. If you want a than the party leader, Sir Henry volley of foghorns. His odyssey Christian countr y you must have Campbell-Bannerman, presided; ended at Windermere station, a sober country, for drink is the at a club ‘at home’ in July he pro- where, through darkness and fruitful mother of every social posed the vote of thanks to the heavy rain, a band escorted his ill.’35 Godliness, temperance and speaker, Sir William Harcourt.39 carriage down the hill to Bow- state education were his recur- But in the later claim that ‘his ness on the lakeside and all the rent themes in halls, chapels and early speeches at Westminster way to Ambleside.29 Liberal Clubs. ‘The greatness earned him a high place in the While the Conservative of England depends upon the party’, 40 there was more than a Manchester Chronicle consoled morality of its home life and the little journalistic licence. Han- its readers with the comment temperance of its people … Our sard’s columns reveal that he was that the Appleby result showed children must be brought up to true to Westmorland parliamen- ‘the overwhelming strength of become God-fearing and God- tary custom in rarely address- Imperialist feeling in the coun- serving men and women … The ing the Commons. He did not tr y’,30 the Liberal Carlisle Journal child of poor parents will by his deliver his maiden speech until rejoiced that ‘the Tories and perseverance be enabled to fight November 1902, when moving aristocracy of North Westmor- his way to the ancient universi- an amendment to the Education land, with the Earl of Lonsdale ties of Oxford and Cambridge.’36 Bill. Consistent with his previ- at their head’, had received ‘the Priggish though all this may ously expressed view that schools most staggering blow which has sound to the modern ear, it should be more answerable to ever been dealt to them’. They helped confirm the popularity the public’s elected representa- might blame ‘petty pique and of the virtuous young Liberal tives, he argued that council- narrow local topics’, but this MP, evident at the 1900 Liberal lors should be in the majority was a victory of Liberal policies Boxing Night party in Appleby, on education committees and appealing to the ‘sturdy elec- a ten-hour marathon of tea, din- free, without interference from tors’.31 By happy coincidence ner and dance, with 350 guests. Not resting the Board of Education, to co- Richard Rigg was the same age The cheering which began on opt additional members quali- as the Younger Pitt when he was his rising was only interrupted on his lau- fied by educational expertise returned for the old rotten bor- by the singing again of ‘for he’s rather than representation of ough of Appleby in 1781. Per- a jolly good fellow’, followed by rels, Apple- some vested interest. Second- haps he was destined for similar renewed shouting and clapping by’s youthful ing, Alfred Emmott of Oldham greatness? Even the Daily Mail of hands. The hon. gentleman congratulated his hon. friend on approved: ‘The baby of the at last had to begin his remarks and ener- ‘having at last successfully broken house, he seems to be made of to the chairman in order to stop the silence he has so long main- the right stuff.’32 the cheering.37 getic new tained’. Lloyd George also spoke Not resting on his laurels, Equally at home at a Primi- in support, but the amendment Appleby’s youthful and energetic tive Methodist bazaar or a MP ‘nursed was soon withdrawn,41 and for new MP ‘nursed the constitu- Masonic dinner, his place in the constitu- the next two years Rigg did not ency as it has never been nursed county society was further con- speak again in the House. before or since’.33 Unfailingly firmed by appointment as a JP ency as it Nevertheless Appleby Liberals conscientious and courteous, and promotion to the rank of speculated that their MP might he rarely refused invitations to major in the Volunteers. In Sep- has never be a future Prime Minister, fol- attend functions and deliver tember 1904 the press reported lowing in the footsteps of former earnest, well-crafted speeches, in exhaustive detail his mar- been nursed members for the borough, Pitt confident in the knowledge that riage, by the Bishop of Barrow, before or and Lord Liverpool;42 and the every word would appear in the to Miss Gertrude Anderson in Yorkshire Post, describing Rigg local press. And having taken up her parish church of St Andrew, since’. as ‘associated with an ambitious

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 17 ‘the strange case of mr rigg’

band of young Liberals’, claimed string of by-election victories as And gallantly went the whole that ‘his Parliamentary status is well as the acquisition of Win- pig. not to be measured by his lack ston Churchill. The approaching of assertiveness’.43 He tabled election landslide was casting Some speculated that his new occasional written questions, its shadow, and Richard Rigg’s bride had changed her hus- seconded a motion without political future seemed as secure band’s politics;55 but when a speaking, and in August 1904, as the Lakeland fells overlooking pre-arranged and now dis- appropriately for the Treasurer his newly acquired marital home tinctly awkward Liberal Ladies’ of the Anti-Tobacco Society, in Windermere. At Home was held in Winder- presented the first reading of a So it was with utter astonish- mere a few days after the storm Bill ‘to provide for the preven- ment that Herbert Coutts, presi- broke, it was the MP’s wife tion of Juvenile Smoking’.44 dent of the North Westmorland who played hostess while his Though the local Conserva- Liberal Association, read on 16 mother absented herself. Rigg’s tive press poked occasional fun November 1904 a letter from his insistence that it was ‘absolutely at such ‘fads’,45 Rigg was not an MP offering his resignation. To impossible’ for him to support easy target. In the aftermath of Richard Rigg’s ‘painful regret’ the Liberal leadership may have victory he had praised Sir Joseph there had gradually been borne been provoked by some West- Savory for being ‘honourable, on him ‘the conviction that my minster quarrel, but the press manly and straightforward’, views and opinions upon some offers no clues; on behalf of the adding ‘Whether you agree or of the most important questions Parliamentary Party, Herbert disagree with me politically, I of the day are not in accord with Samuel56 was content to point hope the day is far distant when those of the leaders of the Lib- out that Rigg had voted without I shall forfeit the love and affec- eral Party’.51 He listed the issues demur on all the points he now tion of both parties in North that particularly concerned him, raised. Perhaps as he became Westmorland.’46 He made a point later expounded more fully to more and more a figure in the of joining Captain Joscelyne the press. He believed that, for county establishment he was Bagot, Conservative MP for the sake of imperial prosperity, absorbing the attitudes of his South Westmorland, in a bipar- the government was right to sup- social circle; perhaps, as a fastidi- tisan demand that Poor Law port the use of Chinese labour in ous man, he found the rhetoric Guardians should be forbidden South Africa; he approved of the of ‘New Liberalism’ vulgar;57 by law to reduce the amount of Aliens Act because his experi- again, evidence is lacking. Like outdoor relief awarded to people ences at an East End mission had his fellow-Anglican Gladstone, who were in receipt of Friendly convinced him of the need to Rigg admired the Nonconform- Society allowances;47 and his keep the ‘lowest class of Europe- It was with ist conscience, and the answer moralising speeches not only ans’ out of Britain; he supported may lie solely with his inmost rarely criticised political oppo- the principles of the Education utter aston- thoughts: ‘I have the satisfaction nents but even commended the Act; and though not a protec- ishment of feeling that what I have done hapless Prime Minister Bal- tionist he believed that impe- was conscientious and right.’58 four.48 ‘I have talked with men of rial preference merited serious that Herbert The veteran Liberal Sir Wil- all political shades in the county,’ consideration.52 frid Lawson remarked, ‘It’s a first said Appleby Liberals’ chairman, What prompted this bizarre Coutts, principle of Liberalism that a ‘and I can safely say that person- conversion? Lady Carlisle would man has the right to change his ally Mr Rigg has not a single later claim that Rigg wanted a president of mind. He has been three years enemy’. 49 knighthood as a reward for his the North a Liberal; let him be a Tory for To oppose him at the next sensational election success in three years and then come back election North Westmorland 1900 and deserted the Liberals Westmor- and be a Liberal again.’59 Rigg’s Conservatives chose Major when it did not materialise.53 local party took a less sanguine George Noble of Newcastle, a There is no contemporary sup- land Liberal view. They accepted his prof- Lloyd’s underwriter with a gal- porting evidence other than fered resignation, but puzzle- lant military record but no elec- Punch’s limerick, whose hint at Association, ment turned to fury when the toral experience. Their hopes personal ambition may owe more read on 16 MP, having initially said that he of regaining the seat were not to the need for a rhyme than to would stand in the by-election improved by the Unionist rift the actual circumstances:54 November as an independent, then met between Balfour and Cham- with the Conservative candidate berlain over tariff reform. Rigg There was a young member 1904 a letter and announced that they were toured the constituency early name RIGG from his MP in agreement on most matters. in 1904 with a series of speeches Who grew weary of being a The Times wondered whether extolling the virtues of free Whig. offering his Major Noble might step aside for trade,50 and the Parliamentary So, thirsting for glory, Rigg, who was quoted as saying Liberal Party made hay with a He emerged as a Tory resignation. that ‘he would doubtless be a

18 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 ‘the strange case of mr rigg’

to leave my house in the dead of triumphant when he told his night under police protection to supporters that there was now escape Radical ruffianism.’ La ‘Blue Sky over Westmorland’. Petite Republique embroidered Richard Rigg took no part in the tale: ‘M. Rigg … has been either election.66 Politely declin- compelled to fly … and take ing invitations to stand as a Con- refuge in London, the police servative in such unpromising having declared that they can- seats as Burnley and Barnard not answer for his life.’62 He let Castle, he restricted his politi- it be known that his health had cal activity to appearing on a broken down under the strain, platform in Cockermouth to and on doctor’s orders he and support Sir John Randles, who his wife would spend Christmas lost to Sir Wilfrid Lawson, but on the continent. Meanwhile a regained the seat six months Liberal reporter in Windermere later, after the old radical’s death. claimed that the ‘overwrought’ Rigg attended the funeral on Rigg’s allegations of violence behalf of the Church of Eng- and intimidation were mere land Temperance Society, and ‘Illusions, Hallucinations and Sir Wilfrid’s prediction that he Delusions’. His dramatic flight would be no more than three from the town had in reality years a Tory was looking ever amounted to boarding the last more prescient. Addressing a train of the evening on a station meeting of the UK Alliance67 on platform deserted apart from his Blackpool sands, Rigg told his father and one policeman.63 audience that ‘they must deplore Though Rigg did not for- the fact that the Unionist party mally apply for the Chiltern was so liquor-ridden, and when Hundreds until February 1905, it made itself so subservient to the by-election campaign to the drink trade it deserved to succeed him began at once. be beaten’; and CB was the ‘best On the advice of Lady Carlisle, temperance Prime Minister the Parliamentary candidate again’. ‘That great North Westmorland Liberals country had ever known’.68 To By now the press was claim- Christian selected her personal secretary, the Oddfellows he reaffirmed ing that the defection had been statesman, Sir Leif Jones, a fluent writer and his support for old age pen- ‘whispered for weeks past’ and Henry Campbell- temperance orator from a dis- sions, though he believed they there had been ‘informal nego- Bannerman’ tinguished Welsh Nonconform- would be unnecessary if there tiations with Conservatives’. – Leader of the ist family, and an experienced, were comprehensive temper- Liberal Party Rigg was adamant that he had though as yet unsuccessful, elec- ance reform; and he expressed 1899–1908 ‘acted absolutely on his own ini- tion campaigner.64 The poll took the ambition ‘some day to go to tiative’ with ‘no collusion’,60 but place early in March and, for the House of Commons again to he attended the next meeting of all his eloquent exploitation of represent the interests of friendly Windermere Conservatives and Conservative disarray over tar- societies.’69 was enrolled as a member. iff reform, Jones saw the Liberal By 1907 Rigg was telling Portraits of ‘Dicky Rigg’ majority fall from 579 to 220.65 audiences that the defeat of the were reportedly being stamped In the January 1906 general elec- Liberal Education Bill by the on in the homes of Liberals out- tion he faced a new challenger Lords would be ‘nothing short raged that a temperance warrior in the Earl of Kerry, an amiable of a national calamity’, and ‘the could join the party responsible Etonian army officer actively men who insist on denomina- for the Licensing Act.61 A tact- supported by the fifth Earl of tional instruction are driving ful decision to return some wed- Lonsdale, Hugh Lowther, tak- the Bible out of schools’. He ding presents did not prevent ing time out from his round himself was an ‘evangelical his servants, so the MP claimed, of pleasures. The Conserva- Christian’ and he deplored the from being insulted in the streets tive campaign beat the Impe- ‘Church going to the brewer’. of Windermere, while he him- rial drum against the ‘pro-Boer’ It was shameful that churches self was ‘literally inundated with Jones, and despite the national administered alcoholic com- threatening and abusive letters’ landslide which won them the munion wine, for ‘many young and even struck in the face on his neighbouring Kendal seat, the men got their fondness for drink mother’s doorstep by a muffled Liberals held on in Appleby by there’. The duty of the Church assailant. Early in December he a majority of just three. Leif was to assist ‘that Christian wrote from London: ‘I have had Jones was as much relieved as statesman Sir Henry Campbell-

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 19 ‘the strange case of mr rigg’

Bannerman’ in fighting the liq- did not reflect that he could Westmorland would continue uor trade; and he recalled that have held the seat. to be represented by Conserva- when he was in the Commons Two months later, in full flow tives until 2005, when the Lib- those members with a finan- at Penrith Liberal Club’s annual eral Democrat Tim Farron won cial interest in drink ‘were rich social, he denounced opponents Westmorland & Lonsdale. This enough to buy up all the rest’.70 of Lloyd George’s budget, whose constituency does not include The Conservative Party ‘speeches were one long advo- most of the old North Westmor- was not the obvious home cacy of their own selfish inter- land seat, which is now part of for a man proud to be called ests … land, land, land, property, Penrith & the Border, still one a ‘fanatic’ in his opposition to property, property, dividends, of the safest Conservative seats strong drink and tobacco; and dividends, dividends’.75 Look- in Britain. at the 1907 Christmas din- ing forward to the end of plural Arguing for recognition of the ner of Kirkby Stephen Liberal voting, often blamed by Liber- value of local studies in inform- Club Rigg’s return to the fold als for defeats in county seats, ing analysis of the development was announced, along with an he assured his audience that ‘a of political cultures, Jon Law- assurance that he was ‘practically brighter dawn was coming rence rightly stresses the ‘need pledged to fight for the Liberals for Liberalism when they saw for extensive new research into at the next general election in a Home Rule for every county the ‘politics of locality’ which neighbouring constituency’.71 A and no invasion of alien voters’. recognises … the peculiarities prompt Conservative response A speaker from the floor point- of place’.78 North Westmorland, to this desertion came at the edly remarked that they would and especially the Eden Val- Primrose League New Year’s all like to see Mr Rigg back in ley, was – and still is – home to Day meeting in Appleby. Mix- parliament. A further general a relatively static society which ing his biblical references, the election was expected as a quasi- not only valued candidates with chairman derided the ‘coat of plebiscite on the Parliament Act, genuine local credentials and many colours’ of the ‘wandering and in May 1910 North West- unimpeachable morality, but sheep’, who had strayed in search morland Liberals were reported also, in a manner Patricia Lynch of support for his ‘temperance to be in the brink of selecting a suggests was typical of rural propaganda’.72 candidate to replace Leif Jones, constituencies, took at face value Although Rigg addressed who had said his goodbyes and claims to place the good of the meetings of Oddfellows, tem- was seeking a safe seat else- community above party consid- perance organisations and the where.76 In June Richard Rigg Growing up erations;79 of such virtues Rich- Cumberland and Westmor- made an open-air speech to ard Rigg was a paradigm. land Association in London in the largest ever Band of Hope in a social To the peculiarities of place the course of 1908, he was not rally in Appleby; in October he we might add those of person- seen on Liberal platforms and addressed Penrith Liberal Club, milieu ality. Growing up in a social barely mentioned in the North whose president he now was, for becoming milieu becoming increasingly Westmorland Liberal Monthly, an hour. But when the North Conservative, Rigg abruptly which commenced in June.73 In Westmorland Liberal candidate increasingly embraced a Liberalism that January 1909 he was reported was finally announced in late was simultaneously Imperialist to have sent his two-guineas November it was not Rigg but Conserva- and in its social aspects ‘New’. subscription and an ‘interesting another ex-MP, Philip Whitwell Though his time in the House letter’ to Penrith Liberal Club, Wilson, scion of a well-known tive, Rigg seems to have been an anti-cli- but any more active political Kendal Liberal family, who had abruptly max after the instant fame he involvement was precluded by sat for St Pancras. In the fort- achieved in getting there, four his appointment in March as night before polling day he did embraced a years was hardly long enough High Sheriff of Westmorland. It his best, but the margin of Con- to determine how far he might was in this capacity that in the servative victory increased. Liberalism rise in Parliament; he was only January 1910 general election North Westmorland saw one 27 when he resigned. At the very Richard Rigg had to announce more election, in October 1915, that was least, given his Westmorland from the steps of Appleby Shire when Henry Cecil Lowther, son simultane- roots and widespread popular- Hall the 3,335 votes cast for of the former MP, was unop- ity, he could have emulated Lancelot Sanderson (Conserva- posed.77 In 1918 North and South ously Impe- previous county MPs by occu- tive) and 2,868 for Leif Jones Westmorland were merged into pying his seat until retirement, (Liberal). Out of just five Eng- one seat, held for the Conserva- rialist and ennoblement or death, had his lish county seats held by the tives by John Wakefield Wes- conscience not prompted him Liberals in 1900 that were now ton, whose parliamentary career in its social to desert his party just as it was Unionist, North Westmorland from 1913 to 1924 consisted of aspects poised to sweep the country. registered the greatest swing.74 four uncontested elections and Richard Rigg had an appar- It is hard to imagine that Rigg a single speech. Every inch of ‘New’. ent taste for swimming against

20 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 ‘the strange case of mr rigg’ the tide, and it is quite conceiv- There were comprehensive school in Appleby neighbouring Mid-Cumberland able that as a born-again Liberal and an elected member of the Gen- (Penrith), and a distant cousin, also he would in December 1910 no children eral Teaching Council for England. James, for Thanet. have recaptured his former seat. and, in the His work on Westmorland parlia- 11 [Mid-Cumberland & North Westmor- He chose instead to devote the mentary politics has also appeared land] Herald, an avowedly Radical last three decades of his life to absence of in Northern History and Trans- (by local standards) paper, 13 Octo- an extraordinary range of activi- actions of the Cumberland & ber 1900. ties, described by The Times as ‘A any surviv- Westmorland Antiquarian & 12 Gazette, 13 October 1900; the local Career of Public Service’.80 Dur- Archaeological Society. press often quoted controversial ing the 1914–18 war he received ing personal points from other provincial news- the Territorial Decoration, was a papers, no 1 Paul Readman’s ‘The Conserva- papers rather than taking responsi- Commissioner for National War tive Party, Patriotism, and British bility for them. Savings, chaired the Ministry of clues as to Politics: The Case of the General 13 Letter from Sir Joseph Savory to the Labour panel for Employment Election of 1900’ in Journal of Brit- Conservative [Penrith] Observer 2 of ex-Officers and in 1918 was whether ish Studies 40 (2001), convincingly October 1900. awarded the OBE. For a man reinstates the view that the Boer 14 I am grateful to David Shaw for praised for patience and good he had any War was the dominant issue that in information from the admissions humour, a prodigious memory regrets as most constituencies cost the Liber- register. We can assume that Rigg for facts and faces and a fluent, als working-class votes boarded by the week at Hawkshead. incisive tongue, this was just to what he 2 Headline to the editorial leader in 15 I am grateful to Sedbergh’s archivist, a beginning. A quick glance at the [Kendal] Mercury, 2 December Elspeth Griffiths, for access to the the spectrum of his responsibili- himself, 1904. admissions register. The Sedberghian ties takes in chairmanship of the 3 In North Westmorland the term of March 1892 reports on the scarlet Trained Nurses Annuity Fund; his native ‘Unionist’ was rarely used by either fever epidemic, and the unrelated presidency of the Chartered county, his side. illness of Hart, who would also Institute of Secretaries; presi- 4 Contemporary election result have been Rigg’s housemaster, as dency of the National Temper- party and reports did not calculate percent- he was placed in the School House. ance Hospital, a ward of which ages; see F. W. S.Craig, British Par- It took a succession of epidemics to was named after him; mastery his country liamentary Election Results 1885–1918 persuade the Governors in 1906 to of the Glovers Company; may- (London, 1972), p. 412. Craig appoint a school medical officer. oralty of the City of Westmin- might have supposed that Rigg subsequently 16 Undated Memoir of Sir Joseph ster; and many more. Political lost when he became a Liberal Unionist, but, as Savory, possibly written in 1921, activity is hinted at only by the we shall see, this is an error, albeit the year of his death, by his niece vice-chairmanship of the Abbey turned his understandable. Helen P. Savory. There is a copy in Constitutional (usually a euphe- 5 The Times, 8 October 1900. Kendal Record Office. mism for Conservative) Asso- back on a life 6 [Westmorland] Gazette, 13 October 17 Gazette, 25 June 1892. ciation; perhaps he ultimately 1900. 18 Gazette, 27 July 1895. returned to his roots. He cer- in politics. 7 Before 1832 there was one two- 19 Charles Roberts, Radical Countess tainly acquired a vast circle of member borough, Appleby, split (Carlisle, 1962), p. 80. friends in the course of public between Lowther and Tufton 20 I am grateful to James Cox, archivist life, and, though a lifelong tee- nominees. The great Reform Bill at Caius. The report in the Amble- totaller, mellowed to the extent disfranchised Appleby, and created side Herald & Lakes News, 28 Sep- of readily standing his round if a a single-member borough of Ken- tember 1900, may just be another social occasion required it.81 dal. The Lowthers had no influence case of the press getting it wrong, Early in World War II Rich- there and it returned Liberals until or it may be that J. C. Shepherd, ard and Gertrude Rigg retired it was subsumed into South West- Rigg’s Ambleside agent, wanted to Hove. In 1942 they died morland in 1885. to obscure his man’s inexperience. within months of each other. 8 See James Burgess, History of Cum- Local papers also spoke of Rigg’s There were no children and, in brian Methodism (Kendal, 1980) and ‘brilliance’ at Cambridge; in fact he the absence of any surviving the same author’s monumental and took an ordinary degree and won personal papers, no clues as to unpublished Sheffield University no prizes. whether he had any regrets as PhD thesis, A Religious History of 21 See The Times obituary of Rigg, 1 to what he himself, his native Cumbria (1984). Sept 1942. county, his party and his country 9 See C. E. Searle’s unpublished Uni- 22 The local press carried frequent might have lost when he turned versity of Essex PhD thesis, This reports of Rigg’s speeches to gath- his back on a life in politics. Odd Corner of England (1984), pp. erings of Oddfellows; and Penrith 328, 384 and M. E. Shepherd, ‘The Buffaloes thought well enough of Andrew Connell, whose tutors Small Owner in Cumbria’ in North- him to name a lodge in his honour. at Oxford included Kenneth O. ern History xxxv (1999). 23 A fairly comprehensive list of pub- Morgan, is a history teacher at the 10 One son, James, already sat for lic bodies to which Rigg belonged

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 21 ‘the strange case of mr rigg’

appears in Who Was Who, Rigg came fifth out of twenty- Rigg’s subsequent support for 69 Herald, 18 August and 22 Sep- 1941–50. seven candidates for the ten- the anti-Semitic Aliens Bill tember 1906. 24 The state of the local Liberal man Executive, with 117 votes. raises intriguing, but so far 70 Herald, 5 January 1907. Party can be inferred from the 40 Ibid. unanswered, questions as to 71 Mercury, 27 December 1907. absence in the columns of the 41 Parliamentary Debates 4th Series the relationship between the Rigg’s belated apologies for Mercury or the Herald of reports vol. cxv (28 November 1902) two. absence were conveyed by of any activity earlier in 1900. col. 749–51. 57 Dr Jon Lawrence, in corre- veteran local activist Dr T. H. Prior to Rigg’s selection he 42 Herald, 2 January 1904. spondence with the author, has Gibson, who also assured the is not mentioned, nor are any 43 Yorkshire Post, 22 November speculated that Rigg may have meeting that Mrs Rigg was a other names trailed. 1904, quoted in Observer, 29 been uncomfortable with ‘the keen Liberal and had played 25 Herald, 1 September 1900. November 1904. Conservative emerging populist style of the no part in her husband’s earlier 26 Patricia Lynch, The Liberal papers stressed the significance New Liberal politics’ and its break with the party. Party in Rural England 1885–1910 of Rigg’s defection from the ‘vulgar exploitation’ of issues 72 Observer, 7 January 1907. (Oxford, 2003), p. 156. Liberals. like Chinese slavery. 73 The British Library holds a 27 The Times, 8 October 1900. 44 Parliamentary Debates 4th Series 58 Herald, 11 February 1905. complete set of this publication, From a different perspective vol cxxxv (4 August 1904) 59 Observer, 29 November 1904. which folded in the summer of he was ‘an advocate of every col. 1002. Many of its provi- 60 The Times, 26 November 1904. 1910. exploded fad’ (Observer, 25 Sep- sions were eventually included 61 Observer, 29 November 1904. 74 See Craig, Election Results. The tember 1900). within the 1908 ‘Children’s 62 Quoted in The Sedberghian vol others were Saffron Walden, 28 Gazette, 6 October 1900. Charter’. xxv, no. 6 (1905). Petite Repub- Louth, Rugby and Cricklade. 29 The events of polling day were 45 Gazette, 5 November 1904. lique added: ‘this abnormal state Henry Pelling, Social Geogra- reported at length by e.g. the 46 Observer, 31 December 1900. of things has been created by phy of British Elections 1885–1910 Observer, 9 October 1900. 47 Mercury, 1 July 1904. the policy of M. Chamberlain.’ (London, 1967) discusses each 30 Quoted in the Gazette, 13 48 Observer, 8 November 1904. 63 See A. N. Connell, ‘Blue Sky seat, but there is no discernible October 1900. However, a 49 Herald, 2 January 1904. over Westmorland’, pp. 200–09 common thread. Even Homer correspondent in the Liberal 50 Although Joseph Chamberlain in Transactions of the Cumberland nods, however, and what he Manchester Guardian, 10 Octo- sought to marry tariff reform & Westmorland Archaeological & says about Rigg is inaccurate ber 1900, insisted that Rigg’s and Empire, there was a sound Antiquarion Society 3rd series, vol. (p. 340). domestic radicalism had Liberal Imperialist argument VI (2006). 75 Herald, 19 March 1910. appealed to his audiences more for free trade. See Paul Read- 64 Roberts, Radical Countess pp. 76 He had three further spells than his imperialism. man, ‘The Liberal Party and 81–87. See also article by David in the Commons, sitting for 31 Carlisle Journal, 9 October 1900. Patriotism in Early Twentieth M. Fahey on Leif Jones in Bio- Rushcliffe and Camborne 32 Herald, 13 October 1900, car- Century’ in Twentieth Century graphical Dictionary of British before becoming Lord Rhaya- ried comments from the pro- British History vol. 12, no. 3 Radicals, ed. J. O. Baylea and N. der in 1931. See his Times obit- vincial and national press on (2001), pp. 282–85. J. Gossman (New York, 1988), uary 27 September 1939. Rigg’s victory. 51 The correspondence was which comments on the degree 77 Sanderson had taken up a judi- 33 Observer, 1 September 1942, fol- reproduced in the Mercury, 25 of intimacy between the Coun- cial appointment in India. It lowing his death on 29 August; November 1904, and in The tess and her secretary. was considered patriotic not to The Times’ obituary also Times on the same day. 65 J. A. Spender’s Life of the Right contest wartime by-elections appeared on the 1st, the Herald 52 Herald, 26 November 1904. Hon. Sir Henry Campbell-Ban- and a Liberal candidate was and the Gazette on the 5th. 53 See note 17 above. nerman (London 1923), vol. ii, never mooted. 34 Penrith Observer, 22 January 54 Punch, 30 November 1904. That p. 164, misleadingly presents 78 Jon Lawrence, Speaking for the 1901. He was speaking from the this was simply headed ‘Lines the 1905 North Westmorland People (Cambridge, 1998) p. 6. Chair to Appleby Oddfellows. from North Westmorland’ by-election as a Liberal capture 79 Lynch, Liberal Party in Rural 35 Penrith Observer, 18 June 1901. without further explanation from the government; Rigg England pp. 98–102. She is dis- 36 Speech at Appleby Lib- indicates that Rigg’s defection never sat in the House as a cussing elections for local gov- eral Club’s Christmas Party, was by then a national news Conservative. ernment, but this holds good reported in Penrith Observer, 30 item. 66 According to the Lady Carlisle, for parliamentary ones, too. December 1901. 55 See note 62 below. Richard’s parents campaigned 80 The Times, 1 September 1942. 37 Observer, 31 December 1900. 56 The long-awaited entry of for the Conservative in the 81 Westmorland Gazette, 5 Sep- This traditionally Conserva- Samuel, seven years older than by-election ‘to prevent any tember 1942: the longest and tive paper gave Rigg generous Rigg, into the Commons was Liberal winning what he had most affectionate tribute was coverage. delayed by repeated failure to relinquished’ (Roberts, Radical from the former Conservative 38 Kendal Mercury, 16 September capture South Oxon; he was Countess, p.86). standard-bearer. The Mercury 1904. eventually returned for the 67 The Alliance was a national had long ceased publication, 39 Eighty Club Yearbook 1901 et seq. safe seat of Cleveland in a by- temperance organisation and the Herald’s Liberalism was For a brief outline of the ori- election in 1902. In June 1903 whose president was Rigg’s a distant memory. gin and purposes of the Eighty Rigg and Samuel, rising Lib- successor as Appleby’s MP, Leif Club, see H. C. G. Matthew, eral stars, were stewards at an Jones. Gladstone (Oxford, 1997) p. 361. Eighty Club House Dinner. 68 Herald, 25 August 1906.

22 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 although the soundings taken report by Geoff Tordoff (Chairman of the Liberal Party 1976–79) at David Steel’s request indicated that the party in the country Working with others: the Lib-Lab Pact was prepared to fight one if no suitable arrangement could be Evening meeting, 14 July 2008 with David Steel, Tom reached. Looking back over the Pact, McNally and Michael Steed; Chair: Geoff Tordoff Steel felt it had achieved its Report by Graham Lippiatt primary purpose of combat- ing inflation. At the start of the Pact inflation was at 20 per rom March 1977 to either be an election or a long- cent and by the end it has been October 1978, the Lib- term agreement between par- reduced to about 8 per cent. As Feral Party kept Jim Cal- ties. This formula impressed to enacting Liberal policy, there laghan’s Labour government itself on Steel and when simi- was only really one success, a in power through the Lib-Lab lar Parliamentary arithmetic tax incentive for firms which Pact, and ministers consulted occurred in 1976 he adopted it. introduced schemes of profit- systematically with Liberal MPs Callaghan’s government lost sharing – a modest scheme on policy. Thirty years on, key its majority in November 1976. but one which was built on by participants from both sides The leader of the opposition, future Chancellors. The great discussed the history of the Pact Mrs Thatcher, typically failed disappointment was the failure and its impact. to consult with other parties to achieve proportional repre- David Steel (Leader of the about the new Parliamentary sentation for direct elections to Liberal Party 1976-88) argued situation. At what she thought the European Parliament. The that the origins of the Pact was an appropriate moment in party had its eyes on this prize were located as far back as March 1977 she tabled a motion and when it was not secured September 1965 when the then of no confidence. Before the there was dissension among Speaker of the House of Com- vote, Bill Rodgers,5 with whom both MPs and in the party in mons, Sir Harry Hylton-Fos- David Steel had worked on the the country. When Steel faced ter,1 died. As Harold Wilson’s 1975 European referendum opposition in the Parliamentary government was teetering on campaign, asked what the posi- party on the issue, it was Jo Gri- the verge of losing its majority, tion of the Liberal Party would mond who came to his rescue, Wilson was keen for a Liberal be. With the formative episode describing as ‘bonkers’ the idea to take Hylton-Foster’s place. of 1965 in mind, Steel told that you could pull out and go Peter Bessell2 went on radio Rodgers that either there would David Steel to the country in a general elec- saying that Jo Grimond3 would have to be a long-term arrange- tion on the question of PR for make an excellent Speaker. ment between the Labour and argued that Europe. However, Steel admit- This angered Grimond and Liberal parties to sustain the ted that he had miscalculated the Parliamentary Liberal administration or that the Lib- the origins on this issue, naively believing Party quickly decided to erals, as members of the opposi- that it would gain the support reject to Wilson’s ploy. How- tion, would be voting against of the Pact of up to 100 Conservatives who ever this collective decision the government. That led to were located had voted for PR in the Scot- was undermined by a direct conversations with Cledwyn land and Wales Bills and against approach by the government to Hughes6 and meetings with the as far back as the background of strong Roderic Bowen,4 who agreed Prime Minister. The Parlia- campaigning by Conservative to become Deputy Speaker, mentary Liberal Party agreed September Action for Electoral Reform. preserving the government’s to enter an arrangement and In the end the Tories refused majority. Bowen had not dis- this was endorsed by the Labour 1965 when to back any measure being closed to his Parliamentary Cabinet (with four dissenting the then brought forward under the colleagues that he intended to voices7). For Steel the issue at detested Lib-Lab agreement. take the Deputy Speakership; if the heart of the agreement was Speaker of The Pact also made the Liberal he had, they would have urged the need to fight inflation and Party face up to political reali- him to go for the Speaker’s pursue economic recovery. Of the House of ties in a way which it had not chair. Grimond’s reaction to course there were other, politi- been obliged to do for years, this episode was that, in a posi- cal, considerations. The govern- Commons, Sir and to associate itself with the tion where the government was ment wished to remain in office Harry Hylton- hard decisions which needed in danger of losing its major- and the Liberals did not particu- to be taken as part of political ity in Parliament, there should larly want a general election, Foster, died. influence.

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 23 report: working with others – the lib-lab pact

Callaghan’s decision not to and the lifting of censorship background. During the period call an election in October 1978 regulations, so it was time of of the Pact every economic led to the Winter of Discontent. great social, political and eco- indicator – inflation, unemploy- The electorate apportioned nomic turmoil. ment, productivity, and exports some blame to the Liberal Party In opposition between – improved. This restored for this, even though the Pact 1970 and 1974, Labour had confidence in the ability of the was over long before the 1979 pieced together a fragile unity democratic political system to general election. Some years based on the ‘social contract’ work; talk about Britain being later Steel asked Callaghan designed to repair the dam- ‘ungovernable’ receded. why he had refused to call an age to the relations between In terms of party advantage autumn election in 1978. Cal- the party and the trade unions McNally thought it possible that laghan replied that he had caused by Barbara Castle’s8 the Liberals could have pressed received advice that he might In Place of Strife plans which, the case for individual policies not win an overall majority ironically, Callaghan had done harder, using the threat of a and Steel responded by asking so much to destroy, and on general election, but it had to be ‘What was wrong with that? We the promise to renegotiate the remembered that a significant were doing quite well with our terms of entry to the Common cadre of left-wing Labour MPs, agreement.’ Some years Market. The February 1974 led by Tony Benn,9 actually Tom McNally (Head of election was a fluke. Heath believed that it would be bet- the Prime Minister’s Office, later Steel mistimed calling it. Had he ter to fight and lose an election 1976–79) opened by quoting gone a couple of weeks earlier in order to capture the party in Jim Callaghan from his mem- asked Calla- he might have won, but by opposition and impose more oirs: ‘Beneath his quiet exterior, ghan why he delaying he looked indecisive, extreme policies – the alterna- David Steel is a determined man unable to deal with the indus- tive economic strategy. They and one whom I found scrupu- had refused trial crisis. The combination believed that Labour failed lous in his dealings with me.’ of an unpopular government because it was not socialist This characterisation was not a to call an and a mistrusted opposition, enough, so a Liberal threat to creation of Callaghan’s for the together with a slick campaign bring down the government history books; it was a genuine autumn by Jeremy Thorpe, gave the might not have had as much feeling of the Prime Minister’s election in Liberals their best election force as it appeared. which he made clear in public result for years, in terms of McNally identified a and private at the time. This 1978. Calla- votes if not seats. number of barriers to the effec- was important because at the Labour confidently expected tive operation of the Pact. heart of the agreement was the ghan replied the slim plurality they obtained There was the lack of experi- relationship between Callaghan in February 1974 to increase at ence of parties in Parliament and Steel and the Pact stood or that he had the October general election in working together in such fell by it. received but in fact their majority was an arrangement; there was Britain was undergoing only three seats. The European no equivalent of the Cook- massive change in the 1970s, a advice that referendum campaign in 1975 Maclennan collaborations of transformation from the great was important because for the the late 1990s, or of working industrial and manufacturing he might not first time there was cross-party together on local authorities base of previous centuries into cooperation; politicians got (and devolved administrations) the service-based economy win an over- used to working with each which is today commonplace. which exists today; the decline all majority other where they shared beliefs, There was also the imbalance of heavy industry and the social losing some of their party trib- between the Labour Party – consequences it created had to and Steel alism. However, by 1977 the the party of government, with be managed against the back- general political atmosphere was 300 seats in Parliament, backed ground of a massive oil shock. responded by bleak. There was a real sense, by the civil service – and the Labour felt it had failed on the certainly on the right and in ele- Liberals, with just 14 MPs and economy during its 1964–70 asking ‘What ments of the press, that Britain two research assistants. There government, but both Con- was wrong was becoming ungovernable. were opponents of the Pact in servative and Labour govern- The ability of the Parliamen- both parties destabilising from ments in the 1970s found the with that? tary system to meet the social within. However, one constant economic situation immensely and economic challenges of the supporter of the Pact, whose difficult. Progressive change We were day, especially hyper-inflation, role has perhaps been over- was also in the air, particularly was seriously questioned and looked, was Michael Foot,10 the social reforms of the 1964– doing quite there were even preparations ‘that old Plymouth Liberal’ 70 Labour government in areas well with our by some for a coup d’état. So it who used to justify staying in such as homosexual and abor- is right to judge the success of office with the phrase: ‘We tion law reform, race relations agreement.’ the Lib-Lab Pact against that must be there when the North

24 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 report: working with others – the lib-lab pact Lib-Lab Pact chronology and election analysis (Michael Steed) Date Event Commentary 1974 October 1974 Overall Labour majority of three in the Commons 13 Liberal MPs 1975 May 1975 Very limited (Met DCs) local elections Modest Liberal losses 5/6/75 67% vote in favour of British membership of EEC 26/6/75 Conservatives gain West Woolwich, only 1975 by-election Lib % –9.0 1976 January–May 1976 Jeremy Thorpe’s leadership increasingly under challenge March 1976 Three by-elections Lib % –3.1 5/4/76 James Callaghan becomes Prime Minister May 1976 Comprehensive district elections Substantial Liberal losses 10/5/76 Jeremy Thorpe resigns Summer 1976 Two by-elections Lib % –6.6 7/7/76 David Steel elected Liberal leader (indirect membership ballot) 4/11/76 Walsall and Workington by-elections Labour’s overall majority wiped out 1977 Autumn 1976/Feb 1977 Newcastle Central and three other by-elections Lib % +17.3 in Newcastle Central but –5.9 in other three Pre-pact by-election % loss-rate 5.5, excluding Newcastle; 3.2 including. 22/2/77 Government defeated on guillotine motion Thursday 17/3/77 Government loses adjournment vote by not contesting it Friday 18/3/77 Margaret Thatcher announces motion of no confidence Weekend 19–20/3 Consultation–speculation–WW TV interview Wednesday 23/3/77 Lib-Lab Pact announced Government wins confidence vote 31/3/77 Birmingham Stechford by-election Fourth-place Lib % –6.6 April 1977 Two by-elections Lib % –9.9 5/5/77 Comprehensive county council elections Disastrous (three-quarters) loss of Liberal seats 7/7/77 Saffron Walden by-election Second place held but Lib % –5.1 July 1977 David Steel extends Pact with agreement of most Liberal MPs 18/8/77 Birmingham Ladywood by-election Lib % –8.5 24/11/77 Bournemouth East by-election Lib % –11.8 13/12/77 Commons rejects PR for European Parliament 1978 21/1/78 Special Liberal assembly in Blackpool Conditionally endorses Lib-Lab Pact March-April 1978 Four by-elections Epsom second place lost; Lib % –11.2 May 1978 Limited district elections Further Liberal losses but votes better than in May 1977 25/5/78 David Steel announces forthcoming termination of the Pact Pact by-election % loss-rate 10.1. Summer 1978 Three by-elections Lib % –3.3 4/8/78 Jeremy Thorpe accused of conspiracy to murder; Minehead hearings follow October 1978/March 1979 Four by-elections Lib % –8.0 1979 1/3/79 Devolution referendums in Scotland and Wales Scotland fails to meet turnout hurdle, Wales badly lost 28/3/79 Government loses confidence vote 311–310 29/3/79 Liberal gain Liverpool Edgehill by-election Lib % +36.8 Post-pact by-election % loss-rate 6.0, excluding Liverpool 3/5/79 General election Liberal seats reduced to 11: Margaret Thatcher in power – Liberal general election loss-rate 4.4% Note: Lib % figures are means of the change in % vote in the group or period concerned.

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 25 report: working with others – the lib-lab pact

Sea oil comes’. In fact not a was outraged, regarding the Why was it so bad? The press drop of North Sea oil did come Pact as a dreadful conspiracy to was appalling, with political ashore under the Labour gov- deprive the Conservatives of cartoonists hammering away ernment, and not a penny of their rightful place in office, an at two immensely damaging revenue was received from it. attitude typical of Conservative themes: first, that Liberal MPs Whether hanging on for the politicians and the Conserva- were scared of a general elec- oil would have saved the gov- tive press which consistently tion and looking after their own ernment is questionable; like and systematically attacked the skins; second, that David Steel Attlee’s government in 1951, Pact. was weak compared to Jim Cal- the Labour party in 1978–79 The psephological story laghan. These themes embed- was burnt out, lacking in flex- of the Pact is very clear. The ded themselves in the public ibility, internally divided and county council elections mind. Probably the only way to out of ideas. of May 1975, soon after the have deflected these attacks was In conclusion, McNally announcement of the Pact, to have prepared the ground thought the success of the Pact were unequivocally the worst for a cross-party arrangement was undoubtedly the stability nationwide electoral perform- with public debate and explana- it gave to bring about an eco- ance by the Liberal Party in tion for six months or so before nomic turn-around, and the the last thirty-five years, apart agreeing a Pact. The Parliamen- groundwork it lay in loosening from the Euro elections of tary arithmetic made it likely the cement of the old two-party 1989 (when the Liberal Demo- that the government would lose system and improving the pros- crats came fourth behind the its overall majority in the House pects for cross-party coopera- Greens). Three-quarters of the of Commons at some point in tion. It gave the social democrat seats being defended were lost. McNally 1976, but there was no public wing of the Labour Party a The parliamentary by-election debate or even any serious dis- place to go when this was later record confirms the Pact’s thought the cussion within the Liberal Party needed. unpopularity. In the first part about what would then happen. Michael Steed (President of of the Parliament the party was success of Nor was there much debate the Liberal Party 1978–79 and losing about one in four of the after November 1976 until the an academic psephologist) pro- voters who had supported it the Pact was agreement was concluded in duced a chronology and pse- in October 1974. During the undoubtedly March 1977. The Liberal Party phological analysis of the Pact period of the Pact this rose to as a whole was therefore to and referred to sources includ- one in two, and after it ended the stability blame in wasting that crucial ing David Steel’s books, Against the decline reverted to a rate of four months, failing to mount a Goliath (Weidenfeld and Nicol- one in four. This series of elec- it gave to national debate about the real- son, 1989) and A House Divided: toral hammer blows explains ity of a hung Parliament, unable The Lib-Lab Pact and the Future the difficulties David Steel bring about to educate the public and the of British Politics (Weidenfeld experienced inside the party an economic media about what the options and Nicolson, 1980), together in relation to the Pact. Lots of were and so avoiding the accu- with The Pact: The Inside Story excellent councillors lost their turn-around, sation that the party’s MPs were of the Lib-Lab Government, seats for no other reason than running for cover, scared of los- 1977–78 (Quartet Books, 1978) what David Steel was doing and the ing their seats. by Simon Hoggart and Alistair at Westminster – and how the Responding to the point Michie. This last account con- Tory press was presenting it. groundwork made by David Steel and Tom tains what Steed and David In the medium term, the Pact it lay in loos- McNally that the Pact provided Steel described as ‘purple pas- could be identified as a factor in stable government, Steed argued sages’ and the authors’ style is, the slow increase in the concept ening the there was an alternative route unsurprisingly, journalistic, but of tactical voting, but this was to stability – a general election Steed felt it was broadly accu- happening anyway. There was cement of resulting in a government with rate, although other speakers little tactical voting in the 1979 a working majority. There was disagreed. general election; it was par- the old two- economic improvement dur- Turning to his own role, ticularly frustrating that so few party system ing the period of the Pact but Steed said that he was not much Labour voters could be per- is there reason to believe this involved in the early stages, suaded to vote tactically, except and improv- would not have happened under being involved in work to draft in a couple of constituencies. In a newly elected majority admin- the manifesto for the European the long term, tactical voting ing the istration? The Pact did, how- election campaign. The first has become the basis of Liberal ever, give stability in the last six politician with whom he had a Democrat strength in Parlia- prospects for months of the Parliament when discussion about the Pact was ment and there is an arguable cross-party the Callaghan government car- Sir Geoffrey Rippon,11 when case that the Pact laid the foun- ried on in a minority and there they met in Rome. Rippon dation for this position. cooperation. was uncertainty about the date

26 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 report: working with others – the lib-lab pact of the next election and about There could survived with Nationalist and 1 Sir Harry Hylton-Foster (1905–65), the continuation of policy. UUP support. Conservative MP for the City On 22 February 1977 the have been an In response David Steel of York, 1950–59 and Cities of government lost a guillotine opportunity agreed there was not enough London & Westminster, 1959–65; motion on devolution. Before discussion about what to do Speaker of the House of Commons, then Callaghan could count to use an in the event of a hung Parlia- 1959–65. on the support of the Scottish ment. After the February 1974 2 Peter Bessel (1921–85), Liberal MP and Welsh Nationalists; after- autumn elec- general election there was no for Bodmin 1964–70. wards the government could real prospect of a Conservative– 3 Jo Grimond (1913–93), Liberal MP not be sure of a majority. Had tion in 1978 Liberal coalition, because the for Orkney & Shetland 1950–83, the Parliamentary Liberal Party to talk up two parties combined would Leader of the Liberal Party 1956– indicated that they would vote not have had a majority; in any 67; created Baron Grimond, 1983. against the government in the Pact and case the mood of the party and 4 Roderic Bowen (1913–2001), Lib- Mrs Thatcher’s motion of no the country was against keeping eral MP for Cardiganshire 1945–66. confidence it is possible that the positive in office a Prime Minister who 5 Bill Rodgers (b.1928), Labour MP Callaghan could have cobbled had just been rejected by the for Stockton on Tees, 1962–83, together a deal with the Ulster outcomes electorate. But there was also a member of the Gang of Four and Unionists. There was what associated general mood of hostility to the founder member of the SDP; cre- Steed called a hidden arrange- very idea of coalition. There ated Baron Rodgers of Quarry ment, even as early as the time with it for could have been an opportunity Bank, 1992; Leader of the Liberal of the Lib-Lab Pact, and since to use an autumn election in Democrats in the House of Lords revealed by Bernard Donou- the economy 1978 to talk up the Pact and the 1997–2001. ghue,12 whereby the UUP positive outcomes associated 6 Cledwyn Hughes, Labour MP for would support the govern- to try and with it for the economy to try Anglesey 1951–79 and Cabinet ment in return for a Speaker’s persuade and persuade the public that the Minister 1966–70, Chair of Parlia- Conference on the number of Liberal Party had acted respon- mentary Labour Party at the time Westminster seats for Northern the public sibly in providing stability to of the Pact; created Baron Cledwyn Ireland. Even if David Steel the government at a difficult of Penrhos, 1979. had been a tougher negotiator that the time. Unfortunately Callaghan 7 Peter Shore, Tony Benn, Stan on issues like PR for Europe it chose to postpone the election Orme and Bruce Millan. is unlikely that he would have Liberal Party and that opportunity disap- 8 Barbara Castle (1910–2002), Labour achieved more. had acted peared in the very different MP for Blackburn 1945–79; Sec- The next important period circumstances of May 1979. On retary of State for Employment was July 1977, when the Pact responsibly a possible renegotiation, David and Productivity 1968–70; British was extended with the sup- Steel said this was simply not on Labour MEP 1979–89; created port of most Liberal MPs. The in providing the Parliamentary Party’s radar. Baroness Castle of Blackburn 1990. unpopularity of the Pact was They took the view that the 9 Tony Benn (b.1925) Labour MP now beginning to hit home, stability to question was merely whether for Bristol South East 1950–61 and and dissent was growing. Steed the govern- the arrangement should con- 1963–83, MP for Chesterfield 1984– believed that here was the tinue. Perhaps they were too 2001; Secretary of State for Energy opportunity to renegotiate the ment at a dif- close to the day-to-day business 1975–79. terms of the Pact, demonstrate of the Pact in Parliament to have 10 Michael Foot (b.1913) son of Isaac greater toughness and get more ficult time. the necessary perspective to Foot, Liberal MP for Bodmin; from the government, perhaps re-think the whole basis of the Labour MP for Plymouth Devon- extending the process into the agreement. port 1945–55 and Ebbw Vale1960– autumn and using the Liberal While each speaker found 92; Leader of the Labour Party Assembly as leverage. This some positive outcomes for 1980–83, Lord President of the would have given the lie to the the Pact and agreed that it had Council and Leader of the House cartoonists’ and other critics’ laid the foundation for more of Commons 1976–79. version of events that David cooperative forms of politics 11 Geoffrey Rippon (1924–97), Con- Steel was always weak in rela- in the years ahead, the meet- servative MP for Norwich South, tion to Callaghan. Even if no ing was left with some fasci- 1955–64 and Hexham 1966–87; more could have been extracted nating ‘might-have-beens’ Cabinet Minister 1970–74; created from the government and the – perhaps meriting a chapter Baron Rippon of Hexham 1987. Liberal Party had withdrawn in a future volume of political 12 Bernard Donoughue (b.1934), from the Pact, there was lit- counterfactuals. economist, academic, senior policy tle danger of the government’s adviser to the prime minister 1974– falling because devolution was Graham Lippiatt is Secretary of the 79; created Baron Donoughue, back on track and it could have Liberal Demnocrat History Group. 1985.

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 27 ‘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. 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

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

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 India, 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 United States 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 defection 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, Dingle Foot 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 the Emergency Powers Act 42 per cent of the vote, and in Boothby, David Grenfell 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 Clement Davies, the actual ment Radical Action (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 Neville Chamberlain 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 Emrys Roberts.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 Harold Wilson 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 Cyprus 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 James Hanratty, Helen Smith, Northern Ireland. Certainly, over Rhodesia. 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 United Nations in 1964 and of Enoch Powell, even in his the common law, his Liberal he remained there for nearly six served was reporting for Private Eye, 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 Barbara Castle 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 Jeremy Thorpe 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 John Foot, 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, Tony Benn. 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 Ebbw Vale from 1960, however at home he might be Iscariot’. The National Liberals leader of CND and impresario on the march or on the platform.

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

His journalism of exposure, cer- to free speech and free thought free spirit’, although one whose tainly Guilty Men, 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 Wales. (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 Denis Healey, 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 David Steel 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 Shirley Williams to CND. expression of Djilas and other same voice and the same terms: Militant Tendency 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 Tony Blair 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 British left. 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 William Hague, 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 Paul Foot, 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 Nuclear Disarmament, 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.

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 37 Campbell as Leader

In October 2007, Menzies Campbell resigned as Leader of the Liberal Democrats after just nineteen months in the post. On page 45 we carry a review of his autobiography. In July of this year Journal Editor Duncan Brack interviewed him with a view to supplementing the story told in the book.

38 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 Campbell as Leader

Q: Your autobiography has relatively both socialists. So I suppose it school when he was fourteen; little to say about why you became was a series of factors: being his first job was as an office boy and remain a Liberal, apart from more politically aware, being in a tea import company. That being attracted by Jo Grimond and attracted by Jo Grimond, seeing was thought by his parents not the Liberal position on Suez. Can what some thought might be a to be a very stable existence, you say more about why you joined Liberal renaissance, reading John so he went and he served his the party? Stuart Mill, and not wanting to apprenticeship as a joiner, and he MC: My parents were both do what might be expected of worked on one of the ships that Labour – neither of them were me – none of these was of itself was built on Clydeside as part of activists, I think their member- the compelling factor, but taken the effort to deal with the worst ships had probably lapsed by the together I joined the Liberals. of the recession. His brother was time I was a teenager, but they Political debating was the a great ladies’ man and used to did talk a lot about politics. And thing at university. There was go to the dance halls, but my the first thing I was conscious of a kind of progression: first-year father went to night school; was Suez in 1956; I remember students had to make their mark, and eventually he had his own thinking, because there were then you had to try and become business. As for my mother, her National Servicemen at Suez Treasurer of the political club, friends and contemporaries say and I was fifteen, that three years and then Secretary, and then you she could have played hockey for later and it could have been me. would lead it in your fourth year. Scotland: she was a very good That was a seminal moment for And so I got on to that treadmill sportswoman. So when I was British politics: this was the lion – although I was the only politi- growing up, there was a feeling pretending to roar but having cally active student who was on that they were doing their best no claws and sounding rather the running track as much as I for me; there was a sense of duty hoarse; and of course it brought was in the debating chamber, about making the most of it. the end of Anthony Eden. For and from time to time the two So that’s what I think a Liberal Britain it was the end of the were not entirely in sync. So, society should provide: it should immediate post-war era, some- that’s why … and I just felt natu- offer opportunity for those who thing of a watershed. And lo and rally sympathetic and at home; are lucky enough to have the tal- behold, bestriding all this was Jo I sometimes refer to it as gut ent, and it should offer support Grimond who, it seemed to me, Liberalism. for those who need it. And the was the person who spoke out Q: How would you describe that overall arching cement that binds most effectively and charismati- if someone asked you to sum it up in it all together should be freedom, cally. There was the Torrington a sentence? What are the values of individual liberty and human by-election, too; I remember gut Liberalism? rights – and internationalism. schoolboys shouting ‘remember MC: Individual freedom; per- Q: Although they’re not as wide Torrington!’ It did seem that sonal liberty; opportunity. This as journalists pretend, there are some under Jo, Liberalism was going is the way I put it in the book: ‘I differences between the so-called ‘eco- to have a renaissance. Then I count myself to have had a privi- Left: Menzies nomic liberals’ and ‘social liberals’ in went to university, and politics leged life in which opportunity Campbell during the Lib Dems. Where would you was the fashionable activity for has always played a significant his leader’s put yourself in the party now? students at the time. I used to part. I see my life as one of expe- speech at the MC: I tried to argue dur- say that my first serious act of rience and not of achievement.’ Liberal Democrat ing my leadership that this was rebellion was to join the Liberal Those two sentences have to conference an artificial distinction. I mean, autumn 2006 Party, because my parents were be read together. My father left there’s no intrinsic merit in

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 39 campbell as leader taxation, any more than there’s part of the suits. And I was a sup- So, there you stood for the leadership in 1999? intrinsic merit in nuclear weap- porter of David Steel’s, of course, After all, although Charles Kennedy ons; it’s what the consequences who would have been regarded are: strong looked unbeatable at the start of the are that is important. Taxation as being on the right of the party on defence, campaign, Simon Hughes’s campaign is only justified to the extent in some respects. But remember, almost caught him, and might have that it’s necessary to provide the he was Chairman of the Anti- strong on overtaken him if it had started earlier. quality of public services, par- Apartheid Movement, Presi- MC: I’d been ver y closely asso- ticularly health and education, dent of Shelter, and author of the civil liberties, ciated with the so-called ‘Project’; that a civilised society should Abortion Act of 1967. So, I’m I was one of the small group of embrace. Now I don’t know if answering your question by say- no taxation people to whom Paddy would that’s left- or right-wing; but it’s ing that I do not think it is easy for taxation’s talk before he went to meet Blair certainly always been my view to characterise people within our and to whom he would come that there is no point taxing for party as necessarily left and right. sake. back and report. And it seemed taxing’s sake. On individual free- Q: You don’t say much about to me that although the party dom, on the British spectrum I your period as Chair of the Scottish may not have known just how suppose I would be regarded Liberal Party, from 1975 to 1977, far these discussions had gone on, as being strongly on the left – apart from stabilising its finances. nonetheless by 1999 they knew though within our own party What do you think you achieved in more or less what had been hap- the spectrum may not be exactly this period? pening and they were ready for the same. I was also robust on MC: It happened because something else. And it didn’t defence. I supported David Steel there was a palace revolution. In seem to me that someone who in all his trials and tribulations 1974, we’d fought almost every- had been so close as I had could over nuclear weapons. And actu- thing – 68, I think, out of the 71 provide that something else. ally, going back to Jo, the policy seats in Scotland, as part of the Also, the clear impression in Jo’s time was for a nuclear Thorpe strategy in the second was that Charles was way out deterrent, but a NATO nuclear election of ’74 – and we didn’t in front. I always assumed that deterrent to which the UK have the resources to do it. There his campaign was ready to run. would subscribe; and of course were people in tears because they He’d become President, he’d that’s in effect what has hap- never got what they were prom- been round the country, he was pened, because British nuclear ised from headquarters. So there well known, and very good on weapons are effectively assigned was a Young – or Middle-Aged the box. It seemed to me that he to NATO. So, I was always a – Turks’ revolution, of which I was unassailable. Don Foster and Grimondite, I always accepted was part. You ask me what I did Nick Harvey and I met several the utility of nuclear weapons. then. It’s a good question. I kept times under the chairmanship But that is not inconsistent with the ship afloat. It does seem to of Archy Kirkwood to deter- disarmament. I’m signed up to me that I have often been the mine whether one of us should the ‘Toward a Nuclear-Free coxswain in the lifeboat! We had stand, but in the end all three of World’ initiative put forward practically no money; we were us, for different reasons, decided by Shultz, Perry, Kissinger and bust until we developed an early that we wouldn’t and we then all Nunn, which Margaret Beck- form of the lottery. What I was gave our support to Charles. ett also supported, trying to put doing was holding the damn Also, because David and then some bite into the whole notion thing together – with a very Paddy had become such close of multilateral disarmament. So, good man as Treasurer called friends of mine, I knew what the there you are: strong on defence, John Lawrie, who was an actu- frustrations of leadership were. strong on civil liberties, no taxa- ary, terribly precise. So – sur- I know it cost both of them in tion for taxation’s sake. vival. It was also the beginning terms of family life and personal I suppose I was always of a serious debate about home life; although there was one regarded as being on the right rule, devolution; Labour was thing which they didn’t have to because my jacket and my trou- frightened to death by the suc- contend with to the same extent sers always matched … what’s cess of the SNP in October 1974. as we all do now, and that is the very interesting is the difference Since we had very few MPs, as 24-hour-a-day constant news in the party now. I remember Chairman I did a lot of televi- agenda. I talked to Elspeth, and the first party assembly I went to sion and radio. We tried to put we wrote down the pros, we – 1961 in Edinburgh – and there some meat on the bones of the wrote down the cons. The cons were lots of suits about; but then federalist case. included not being able to keep the party changed quite dramati- on doing any legal work, which cally thereafter and there weren’t was quite important to my quite so many suits! Now there’s Ashdown resigns financial responsibilities. The a proper mixture. But I suppose Q: Looking back, do you still think cons outnumbered the pros very I was always regarded as being it was the right decision not to have considerably.

40 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 campbell as leader

Q: Do you still think that was The Kennedy leadership Iraq would most certainly have the right decision? Q: If you had been elected leader in been the end of it. MC: Yes. People do say, as 1999 instead of Charles Kennedy, Q: You opposed Charles speaking you pointed out in your ques- what would you have done at the big anti-war demonstration in tion, look at how close Simon differently? February 2003 (though backed him Hughes got – but remember, MC: I think I would have when he decided to speak). Why? he was coming from a differ- tried to keep open a dialogue MC: If you remember, on that ent wing of the party from me. with Labour – though I’m not platform there were a lot of not- And then (the things we wish sure that it would necessarily very-liberal people, and there we’d never said!) I was asked have taken the form of the JCC, was a lot of visceral anti-Amer- about it and I said, ‘Well, for ten nor that it would have lasted icanism. Now, as you know, I minutes a day I think I made very long. My analysis of Blair is spent a year in California; one a mistake, and then common that he went on a journey almost of my best friends is Jeff Bin- sense kicks in.’ Of course eve- from the moment he became gaman, who is US Senator for ryone quotes the first half of the Prime Minister; he turned into New Mexico – he voted against sentence and not the second. I this quite extraordinary authori- Iraq. There were lots of Ameri- never regretted the decision not tarian figure. We would not cans who were on the same side to stand. I knew in my heart have been able to live with him of the argument as us, and my that for sound, sensible reasons on tuition fees, or Europe. We feeling was that to be associated it wasn’t for me; standing was would have been disappointed with such fundamentalist anti- a romantic kind of speculation at the failure to give full-blown Americanism was really not a which soon vanished in the cold freedom of information. I was good thing at all. light of reality. particularly disappointed by his But what happened was that Q: Do you think Paddy was right insistence on a referendum on Charles went to lunch at The not to groom a successor? Because it home rule. In fact I threatened Guardian, and they gave him a meant that his whole agenda – the to vote against the bill, because very hard time. (I went to one ‘Project’ – disappeared after he we had campaigned for devo- of their lunches in the autumn stepped down. lution, it was in our manifesto; of 2005; there were about eight MC: David Steel didn’t groom there was absolutely no reason or ten people around the table, a successor, and neither did Jo why the legislation shouldn’t be and I never got to eat my sand- Grimond. And it was the British introduced without a referen- wich! It was unlimited inbound people that made Paddy’s agenda dum. The heavies were put on fire for an hour and a half or so, disappear when they gave Blair me; Roy [Jenkins] was detailed really hard pounding.) When he a majority of 160. Although, to ring me up and say, ‘You may came back, not surprisingly he right up until November 1998, not like this, but sometimes in took some account of that and when Paddy decided to step politics you’ve got to do things then decided he would go on the down, Blair was still talking in you don’t like, and the rela- march. When he rang me up to terms of replacing Gavin Strang tionship between us and the say, ‘Look, I’m going to do this’, and David Clark [ministers in Labour Party is very important then I said, ‘Well, I wouldn’t Blair’s first Cabinet] with Lib- to the ultimate achievement of have done it, but if that’s your eral Democrats – I heard some of the home rule legislation, and decision then it’s got to be the this from David Clark, who’s a you would be being extremely right decision.’ I wasn’t the only friend of mine. They got wind unhelpful if you were to vote person to feel concerned about of it and there was a real mobi- It was in against.’ Roy could always move the anti-American nature of lisation against it in the Labour me in the direction he thought I thing; I believe Shirley [Wil- Party, to the extent that Blair foreign should go. liams] was concerned as well. would have found it impossi- So, whoever had been leader, Q: You generally express your ble to do. This was against the affairs that I think there would inevita- view of Charles’s leadership in terms backdrop of the Joint Cabinet bly have been a parting of the of sympathy for his drink problem. Committee. Robin Cook and I we made the ways. And of course Iraq was But were you not frustrated by his became firm friends, we got on Joint Cabinet the determining issue, the straw inertia and variable performance? like a house on fire – stemming that would have broken the MC: Well, I say that in the from the Scott Inquiry into arms Committee camel’s back. So, if it had been book. I think I say that he irri- to Iraq in 1996, when Robin my responsibility then I would tated me, and I have no doubt and I had combined our forces work per- have attempted to have kept the that I irritated him. It was a great because we were covering it for non-doctrinaire, centre-left alli- contrast to Paddy. But if he were our respective parties. It was in haps better ance together – but I believe that here, he would say, ‘But look at foreign affairs that we made the than any- Blair’s political movement across the results’ – the progress made in JCC work perhaps better than the spectrum would have made 2001 and then again in 2005. The anywhere else. where else. that increasingly difficult, and figures speak for themselves.

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 41 campbell as leader

Q: Do you think he might have the job. But that was not how understandable determination to resigned or been forced out if it hadn’t The Guardian interpreted it. give the impression that Charles been for the Iraq war? It is possible to Q: In the book, you quote Sue was right on top of things. argue that the war saved his leader- Lawley, when you were on Desert Q: You describe the 2005 elec- ship, because it gave him an agenda Island Discs later in 2004, as claim- tion as a missed opportunity. Do you to follow without him having to come ing that you had suggested that you think it was the manifesto launch up with one himself. should be installed as leader without that poisoned everything? MC: The Iraq war did give a contest if Charles should resign. MC: That’s a strong state- Charles a platform, and it gave MC: She asked me whether it ment, but there’s no doubt it had the party definition and dis- was true, as the newspapers had an effect. tinctiveness. Could we have said, that I’d been asked to act as Q: In the book you mention expected to continue to make a caretaker leader after Charles’s Labour and the Lib Dems coordinat- the sort of progress we did in stomach problem during the ing attacks on the Conservatives in 2005 if there hadn’t been an Budget statement – well, that the 2005 election. It was fairly com- Iraq war? Probably not – but we wasn’t true. There was a huge mon knowledge that that happened can’t be sure. Also, the thing to amount of gossip at the time, but in 1997 and 2001, but more surpris- remember is that the affection I never thought that if Charles ing, I think, that it was still going with which the public regarded stepped down at any stage there on in 2005. Can you say any more Charles was more than mirrored wouldn’t be a contest, because about this? in the party. it was clear to me, whatever MC: It wasn’t as close as it had Q: Do you think Charles should the circumstances, that Simon been in 2001, and certainly not have gone ahead with his abortive Hughes would be running – he as close as it had been in 1997. It press conference in 2003 and stood felt he had come close the previ- was more of a non-aggression down in order to seek treatment for ous time. pact rather than an alliance; that alcoholism? Q: What do you think caused the was my understanding. MC: It must have been very, problems at the manifesto launch in Q: So that brings us to Charles’s very difficult for him. He had April 2005, when Kennedy struggled resignation in January 2006. You clearly crossed a psychologi- to explain the details of the party’s say that you watched his statement cal barrier, but then drew back. policy on local income tax? on 5th January (when he stood down, It’s easy to be critical after the MC: It was on the Monday of but stated that he intended to be a event, but he was wrestling that week when Sarah [Charles’s candidate for the leadership, to clear with demons. As I understood I never wife] went into labour. I can’t the air) with ‘quiet admiration’. Did it, what he was going to say was: remember where Charles was, you not think, however, that call- ‘Look, I’ve got this problem; six thought that but I was put on standby, and I ing a leadership election when he months off to sort it out; Ming was immediately told: you’re knew that his main rivals – you and Campbell, he’ll be in charge; if Charles ‘Charles’ for tomorrow – that Simon Hughes – had already said but after six months I’ll be back, stepped was Tuesday – and also for they would not stand against him sharp as a tack.’ It could have Wednesday. And I went to Bris- was dishonest? worked. down at any tol, to help Stephen [Williams, MC: I just thought to myself, Q: You say you were quoted by the successful candidate for Bris- this is not going to work. We The Guardian after the Southport stage there tol West], and then up to help are going to be back in the same conference in spring 2004 as ‘ruling Tim Farron [successful candidate difficulty. nothing in and nothing out’. Is that wouldn’t be for Westmorland & Lonsdale]. Q: Charles said in the same what you said? If so, what did you a contest, The decision was taken that the statement that he had resolved his mean by it? manifesto launch, which had drink problem. Did you really think MC: This was after the lobby because it been arranged for the Wednes- he had at the time? lunch. We’d had the Budget day, clearly had to be cancelled. MC: I heard what he said. and PMQs [which Charles was clear to Now the question was: did you had missed], and I was being me, what- do it on the Thursday or the Fri- hounded; I felt I had to say day? If you did it on Friday, then Leadership something. If it was serious and ever the cir- you got the Saturday papers, Q: Why did you decide to stand Charles was going to go, then which were not as good for press for the leadership, having not stood where was the leadership going cumstances, coverage. If you waited until the seven years earlier? to be? It’s a kind of a stock phrase following Monday, then nearly a MC: A lot of these young which people use on all sorts of that Simon week had elapsed and we would people, the new MPs, had been occasions, and I thought it would be well behind the other two biting my ear ever since Novem- do enough to make it clear that Hughes parties. And so, the decision ber 2005. I was concerned about if there was a problem we could would be was taken to do it on the Thurs- them because they were full of deal with it, but not so strong as day. In the end that was really hope and expectation and deter- to suggest that I was gunning for running. the only day; and there was an mination. They had fought like

42 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 campbell as leader hell to win their seats, and I felt way. Lib Dem policy-making is Q: What did written about that up until that a kind of obligation towards like an oil tanker: it takes you point. Can you explain? them. I was criticised, I know, a while to stop it and get it to you think you MC: There was a constant for my response [after Charles turn. I did run with the envi- could offer? refrain about age; you will resigned] in saying ‘I’m going to ronmental stuff as hard as I pos- remember the cartoons. I’d be a candidate’, but it seemed to sibly could, but I had largely MC: Stabil- begun to get the measure of me that someone had to – there inherited a policy agenda. And Prime Minister’s Questions, had to be some continuum. I it had within it a series of major ity, and though I had had some sticky was nervous at the idea that a changes. I went straight into moments at the beginning. But vacancy had arisen and no one the post offices issue; then we continuity. there was this constant refrain, was going to say that they were had dropping the 50p top tax and it was not helped by careless going to be running to fill that rate in September 2006, and talk among Liberal Democrat vacancy on a permanent basis. then we had Trident at the fol- colleagues in both the Lords and There are those who say I should lowing spring conference, and the Commons. And that’s as far have waited, but you have to then we followed that up with as I’m going to go on that, for make these judgments based on the big tax stuff last September. the moment. what you feel; I thought it was My job, in the beginning, was Q: Do you think there was a the right thing to do. to see through the policy ini- consistent attempt to undermine you Q: What did you think you could tiatives which had begun under from within the party? offer? Charles’s leadership. Once that MC: My position was not M C: S t a b i l i t y, a n d was done I would have created helped by ill-judged comments continuity. an agenda of my own. from colleagues in both the Q: What were the main themes Q: Dropping the commitment to Commons and the Lords. of your leadership campaign? What the 50 pence top tax rate was a major Q: Do you think the criticisms of did you try to put over? change. Why do you think it was you over your age were really cover MC: The environment was right to do that? for criticisms of other aspects of your enormously important – so I MC: It was against aspiration, leadership? gave up my Jaguar! Taxation. it discouraged ambition – and MC: Stories have a natural Opportunity – using myself as it didn’t produce huge sums of life; if the story doesn’t move an illustration; you know, the money. I was at a lunch the other on, then it dies – but if someone fact that I’d had three lives and day with some businessmen, and is foolish enough to open their been lucky to do so. Liberal- one of them was asking me about mouth, then they simply give ism internationally as much as tax and claimed we were a high the story legs and it does not domestically. tax party. I said, ‘Under my lead- die. The relationship between Q: In the book, you describe the ership we dropped the 50p rate.’ the party and the leader is now tasks you set yourself after the local And there was a kind of ripple much, much more in the public’s elections in 2006: ‘First, I had to put around the table. I thought 50p eye than it ever was before. the party back on an even keel after had served its purpose, and from Q: Your resignation seemed to the traumas of Charles’s resignation my point of view, it was a break come very suddenly, but in the book and the leadership election; second, I with the past. you say you’d been thinking about it had to make the party more profes- What was fascinating was the for some time. When did you start sional in its outlook; and, third, to way the party took to it. I was thinking about it? ensure we would be ready for a gen- worried about the conference MC: As soon as Brown said: eral election whenever it might come.’ debate, because the 50p com- ‘No election’. When we heard These are all essentially organisa- mitment was iconic to some. the news, Elspeth said immedi- tional – did you have any aims as I thought that people would ately: can you take it for another regards the policy or ideology of the feel determined to hold on to two years? That was the point at party? it whatever the circumstances. which I said to myself, ‘Well, if MC: I had inherited a policy But, to my surprise, we won the she’s begun to ask that question, agenda under way, of course – debate very convincingly. Dur- then other people are going to remember, Charles had estab- ing the debate Paddy came up ask that question.’ lished the Tax Commission. I to me and said, ‘I’ve sat here on Q: Your resignation statement inherited the issue of the post many, many occasions, quaking mentioned the need for radical revi- offices [part-privatisation of at the outcome of some debate sion of the party’s internal structures. Royal Mail], which we dealt or other, and I can tell you now, What did you mean by that? with in Harrogate [the spring you’re going to win this.’ MC: I was really trying to Lib Dem conference in March Q: Moving on to March 2007, lay a trail for whoever came 2006], two days after I was in the book you mention Elspeth after me. I spent a lot of time at elected. The ‘Meeting the saying to Tony Blair that you were the Policy Committee. Archy Challenge’ exercise was under going through hell. You hadn’t really [Kirkwood] used to say to me

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 43 campbell as leader it was time well invested, but I by Asquith, so there was a kind of obsessions about appearance began to feel that the Lib Dem of a symmetry about leading and style and all the rest of it, the leader is like the opposite of the the party from the constitu- camera angle for the Lib Dem harlot, with responsibility but ency from which Asquith led the leader is really rotten; it makes without power. You carry the party. I just wish that one or two you look as if you are squint. can for everything, but you don’t people were still around. My Q: Michael White wrote in his have the authority to deal with parents would have been proud review of your book in The Guard- everything. Now, I know these of that. I would have valued Roy ian that you lacked the ‘killer might be thought to be illiberal Jenkins’s advice, and I think he instinct that makes the difference at reactions, but the process does would have been instrumen- the very top’. Do you think that’s a not need to be obsessively liberal tal in dealing with some of the fair assessment? in order to achieve liberal objec- more loquacious elements in the MC: No, I don’t. I’ve said this tives. People used liberalism party. before but it’s true, all the things as a shield for indiscipline; you Q: What did you try to achieve I’ve ever done in my life involve would go to these meetings and but failed to? And what do you wish winning or losing: you win people would say, ‘I didn’t join you had done but didn’t? your race or you lose it, you win this party to …’, and your heart MC: We are in a period of your case or you lose it, you win would sink. And yet, I have to enormous change, which I don’t your seat or you lose it. I have a be fair about this, on the issues I think people understand. We competitive edge, and, well, let wanted to make my own – like have a group of highly talented, me put it this way, if by killer the 50p rate, environmental tax- highly motivated new Mem- instinct he means lack of scru- ation, Trident – I got my own bers of Parliament who’ve never ple, then that’s not something to way, but it did take an awful lot really known anything but suc- which I would aspire. of effort. I used to say, ‘People cess since 1997. But some of the Q: In the author’s note in your in this party would rather beat rest of us were around in the days autobiography, you say that you the platform at the conference when the party was down to six count your life ‘as one of experience than beat the Tories at the bal- MPs – I remember 1970, when not achievement’. That seems an lot box.’ David Steel nearly lost his seat – odd statement given what you have Q: What were your main achieve- and in 1992, we got only twenty. achieved – can you say what you ments in your career as leader? I began to The tide comes in and the tide meant by it? MC: Well, I think I did the goes out, and the trick is to be MC: I’ve been enormously things I was expected to do. I feel that able to survive both – not to be lucky. There’s a little bit at the steadied the ship after Charles’s swept away by the tide com- end of the book, after I resigned resignation. And if you remem- the Lib Dem ing in, and certainly not to be which sums it up: ber, the leadership campaign leader is like dragged under by the tide going itself was rather more colourful out. It’s two years away, the next My principal emotions were than one might have expected, the oppo- election; things could change frustration and irritation. The and we had to get through that. completely before then. three tasks I had set myself I did start the process, I think, site of the I got Prime Minister’s Ques- when I became leader had all of asking the party to smarten tions right in the end, because been achieved but the post- itself up: meetings started on harlot, with we did a huge amount of work ponement of the election had time, we reached conclusions; at responsibil- at it. It was hard to do that from robbed me of the chance to the Shadow Cabinet I would let the beginning; we were pitch- show just how far I had taken everyone speak, but we’d reach a ity but with- forked straight in. What people the party. I also felt a sense of conclusion at the end of it. And forget – and I noticed someone perspective: I had run in an we were ready for the general out power. making the point on behalf of Olympic final, pleased a case election. That was the one thing Nick [Clegg] the other day – is as a QC in the House of Lords, that we had to get sorted, and we You carry that first of all you get only two become an MP after an eleven- did. We were ready for it, and the can for questions, so recovery, if you year campaign, overcome can- if it had been called, my own get one not quite right, is much cer, been knighted for services programme was already 80 per everything, more difficult than if you get six to parliament, and led the party cent written. The manifesto was [like the Leader of the Opposi- of Asquith and Lloyd George. agreed – I did eight hours in the but you don’t tion]. Second, there’s nowhere It was indeed a long way from chair that day! – and we came out to put anything, and if you 19 Park Road, Glasgow. with a manifesto upon which we have the notice, if you look straight at could have legitimately fought Cameron, he reads; he reads an So that’s really what I feel – I just the election. So, I would regard authority enormous amount [resting his feel I’ve been enormously lucky; that as an achievement. to deal with notes on the despatch box]. Also I can think of all sorts of people And then, personally – part the camera angle doesn’t help – more talented than me who’ve of my seat had been represented everything. it’s a small thing, but in this age never had the opportunity.

44 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 British records for the 100m and reviews 100 yards. Athletics gave way to the law, and a career as a bar- rister, hoping one day to be a judge; as he commented on his Leader out of time fortieth birthday, ‘I was a lawyer first, politician second’ (p. 91). Menzies Campbell: My Autobiography (Hodder & This section of the book also deals with his early involvement Stoughton, 2008) in politics, primarily at univer- Reviewed by Duncan Brack sity, where he joined the Liberal Club, motivated mainly by Suez and Jo Grimond (like many of t seems to be an iron law Clegg’s first as leader), is an his generation) and something of politics that when the interesting and enjoyable read, of a desire to rebel against his Ichance comes, political par- important for anyone wanting parents, who were socialists. ties pick leaders as different as to understand the recent his- After university, however, he possible from their predecessors. tory of the Liberal Democrats. had no involvement in politics Just as the laid-back (at times It is well written and in places until 1973, when a by-election inert) Charles Kennedy was a moving – as in the story of in the seat in which he lived, total contrast to the hyperac- Campbell’s fight against cancer Edinburgh North, drew him tive Paddy Ashdown, so the in 2002–03, told mostly through back in. He fought Greenock upright and duty-driven Men- diary entries. But what it isn’t is in both 1974 elections, became zies Campbell came as a huge revealing – either about Camp- friends with David Steel, served difference to the chaos of the bell’s innermost beliefs and as Chairman of the Scottish last few months of the Kennedy feelings, or about what he really Liberal Party from 1975 to 1977, leadership. And in one other thought of his colleagues in the and was selected for North-East important respect, too, the Liberal Democrats, particularly Fife, which he won on the third second and third leaders of the of Charles Kennedy and his per- Campbell’s attempt in 1987. Why he did Liberal Democrats were wholly formance as leader, and of the autobiog- any of this is not terribly clear, different: whereas Kennedy was un-named MPs and peers who as other reviewers of the book consistently lucky (not least in mounted a deliberate effort to raphy is an have observed, and as he himself the outbreak of the war in Iraq, destabilise his own leadership in commented (‘Why I decided to which, as I argued in my review 2007. Campbell is too much the interesting pick up politics again in autumn of Greg Hurst’s biography gentleman to want to cause any 1973 after three years of mar- ( Journal 53, winter 2006–07), rifts in the party’s re-established and enjoy- riage is now a mystery to me’ gave him the agenda he would harmony after the successive able read, (p. 81)), but, I suspect, has much otherwise have lacked for his leadership crises of 2005–07, and to do with the way in which leadership from 2003 onwards), too much the intensely private important active involvement in a smallish Campbell was pretty consist- man to want to lay his soul bare party can simply sweep a com- ently unlucky. To pick a few to his readers. As you can see for anyone petent individual on to a series examples, he was unlucky in his from pages 38–44, the interview of positions unless a determined choice of a question in the first we conducted with him in an wanting to effort is made to stop, combined Prime Minister’s Questions of attempt to fill in some of the understand with the strong sense of duty his acting leadership, in the mis- gaps in the book was only partly that Campbell evidently feels briefing given by the party’s successful. the recent towards all his obligations. press officer after Campbell’s In many ways Campbell was The second quarter of the leader’s speech in the March like a leader from an earlier history of the book covers Campbell’s efforts 2007 conference, which dam- era. Unlike Kennedy, or Cam- to win North-East Fife, and aged the image of what was oth- eron, he had a life before and Liberal Dem- his experiences in the parlia- erwise a successful conference, outside politics, and the first ocrats. It is mentary party under the Steel and, in the end, in Gordon quarter of the book deals with and Ashdown leaderships. He Brown’s failure to call an elec- it: most famously, his record as well written enjoyed a relatively close rela- tion in September 2007, which an athlete, competing in the tionship with many Scottish sounded the death-knell for his Olympics in 1964 (including and in places Labour figures, particularly own continuing leadership. the final of the 4x100m relay, John Smith (one chapter is Campbell’s autobiography, where the team broke the Brit- moving. But entitled ‘My friend John’) and which was carefully timed to ish record but still finished last), what it isn’t Donald Dewar (both were at come out just after the spring and less well known, beating O. Glasgow University at the same 2008 Lib Dem conference (Nick J. Simpson in 1967, and setting is revealing. time as Campbell), and Robin

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 45 reviews

levelled at Campbell is his fail- was stepping down temporar- ure to stand for the leadership ily to seek treatment. But there after Ashdown’s resignation. were two problems, as Campbell As the book makes clear, he recognised: thought about it at some length, and started to gather expres- Partly, it was natural reluc- sions of support, including from tance to challenge him over Roy Jenkins and Tom McNally, something so private and who would otherwise have partly because his reputation been expected to have backed and popularity in the country Kennedy, and from Ashdown and in the party at least had himself. But parliamentary never been higher. It was the party support was not wide- big conundrum: those of us spread enough, and, as dealt who knew about Charles’s with in the interview earlier in drinking were concerned, but the Journal, Campbell’s assess- those who didn’t saw Charles ment was that he simply would as a leader of a party that was not win – a reasonable conclu- strong and strengthening in sion in the circumstances. the polls. (p. 209). Campbell has been accused of including too much in the In fact, a confrontation did book about Kennedy, but this take place, in March 2004, after is nonsense: this period covered Kennedy had missed the Budget both his own deputy leader- statement the week before and ship (2003–06) and Kennedy’s had appeared pale and ill during dramatic resignation, which his leader’s speech at the spring propelled Campbell himself into party conference; as Greg Hurst the leadership; of course he was reveals, Kennedy then admitted, Cook; he believed that the going to write about Kennedy at for the first time, that he was an cooperation he developed with some length. In fact from a histo- alcoholic, to a delegation that Cook over the Scott Report rian’s point of view the book has included Campbell. on arms to Iraq helped to bring disappointingly little to reveal The trouble was that other Labour MPs closer to about the real inside story of the Kennedy kept on claiming the Lib Dems, bolstering the Kennedy leadership, including either that he was about to sort Ashdown–Blair ‘project’. The the extraordinary efforts his himself out or that he had just dangers of a Lib Dem backlash office and some of his colleagues done so; and the nearer the against the ‘project’ if the full went to to cover up his binge election approached, the more extent of the Ashdown–Blair drinking and deny that he was difficult any more determined talks became known, however, in any way compromised by confrontation became. It took paradoxically led to his being alcohol. I suspect there is much until winter 2005, after the elec- kept out of some of the key more that Campbell could have tion, for his colleagues’ forbear- meetings – as he was seen as a said – for example, about the ance finally to crack. Campbell potential replacement for Ash- details of his conversation with tried again, in December 2005, down should the latter have to Anna Werrin, head of Kennedy’s suggesting resignation, but resign. But there was no ques- office, when she revealed to him Kennedy effectively called tion that he was a supporter in summer 2003 the full extent his bluff at the parliamentary of the Ashdown approach; he of the cover-up operation (p. party meeting that afternoon, turned down the offer of a Scot- 205). Ever the gentleman, how- demanding, and receiving, tish Supreme Court judgeship ever, he refrains – and in fact expressions of loyalty; Camp- in 1996 just in case the 1997 throughout the book goes out of bell, and probably many other election might lead to a coali- his way to express his admiration MPs, felt inhibited from speak- tion (after seeking advice from for the more positive aspects of ing out publicly (‘the only thing Roy Jenkins, who observed that Kennedy’s leadership. I had to say had already been he’d become Home Secretary Should Campbell have con- said to him in confidence’ (p. eighteen months after turn- fronted Kennedy about his drink 236)). Loyally, Campbell then ing down the editorship of The problems earlier? He ponders the took no part in the final push, Economist). question in the book, particu- led by Ed Davey and Sarah The third quarter covers the larly after Kennedy cancelled Teather, to persuade Kennedy Kennedy leadership, from 1999 the press conference called, in to stand down, though he to 2006. One criticism often July 2003, to announce that he reveals that had Kennedy gone

46 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 reviews ahead with his first intention, to any fundamental organisational PMQs improved substantially call a leadership election to clear reforms, the party organisation and his leader’s speech to his last the air, he would not have been that Nick Clegg inherited in party conference, in September a candidate but neither would December 2007 was in far better 2007, was one of the best, of he have served under Kennedy shape than that which Campbell any leader’s, that I’ve heard. But in the shadow cabinet. picked up in March 2006. that all came too late; in today’s The final quarter covers, In terms of policy, Campbell media-intensive world, initial of course, the leadership cam- admits himself in the interview images are set very quickly and paign, from January to March that he largely simply adopted are very difficult to dislodge 2006, and Campbell’s own the agenda begun under once formed. leadership, from March 2006 to Kennedy’s notional leadership Second, he was innately cau- October 2007. Unsurprisingly, after the election – significant tious (he mentions this in the this is the least analytical section changes in taxation policy and book from time to time, for of the book (it’s not the easiest a new approach to the British example over participation in thing to analyse your own lead- nuclear deterrent – rather than the Butler inquiry), too much ership), and it ends abruptly and developing one of his own. This so for the leader of the third without any conclusion. With- is true – yet he fought for these party. On a number of occa- out knowing any of the wider policy changes in a way that sions, he took his time reach- background, from reading the Kennedy never would have, ing decisions, only to find that book alone there is not much including in particular his inter- the ground had shifted under to explain why he felt it neces- vention in the debate on Trident his feet, often because of leaks sary to resign just a year and a in the spring 2007 conference, to the media, before he could half after his election. We pick which clearly swung the vote announce them (his measured up some of these points in the (the book correctly recalls my response to Gordon Brown’s interview, which I hope helps own assessment, as chair of the mischievous attempt to recruit to reach an assessment of the debate, that he was going to Lib Dems into his Cabinet Campbell leadership: what did lose and should stay out of it; I ended up looking like duplic- he achieve, and why he did go? completely underestimated his ity and weakness). His prefer- As he saw it himself, his main ability to turn it round). ence for consultation before achievements were, first, to sta- So in many ways Campbell’s he reached decisions – in itself bilise the party and, second, to record was not a bad one. Why, an admirable trait in a leader – professionalise it. To a consider- then, did his leadership end sometimes stopped him making able extent he achieved both. so abruptly? There are several the snap decision that might For those not involved at the reasons, most of which are not have served better. centre of the party (as I was, at fully addressed in the book. Third, he lacked solid sup- least up to a point, as Chair of His age was a problem, but port in the parliamentary party. the Federal Conference Com- not the simple fact that he was His closest advisor, Archy mittee) it is difficult to appre- sixty-four when he was elected Kirkwood, had stepped down ciate just how bad things had leader; rather, he looked old, from the Commons in 2005 become by late 2005: with no older than his years (the can- and was a relatively new peer. clear leadership, party commit- cer treatment may have been Although the vast majority of tees were drifting, the parlia- partly to blame) and acted old, the MPs supported him in the mentary party was demoralised, with an old-fashioned turn of In today’s leadership election, there was there was a feeling (expressed at phrase. Simple soundbites did media- no real inner circle commit- the autumn conference and by not come easily to him – he had ted to the Campbell leadership; outside commentators), that the too much respect for intellectual intensive as an obvious caretaker leader party had missed its best chance arguments – and, famously, he never likely to do more than for a generation at the 2005 found it difficult to adjust to the world, initial one election, most of them were election – and yet there was yah-boo style of Prime Min- looking ahead to his succes- no sense at all that the leader ister’s questions (‘it’s theatre, images are sor. After the local elections in had any plans for how to deal not debate. I’m uncomfortable set very 2007 this began to turn into an with this, or even that he was with that kind of politics.’ (p. systematic attempt to destabilise aware of it. With Campbell in 258)). None of this would have quickly and him, with a number of MPs charge, this began to change; mattered until quite recently – and peers briefing the press he took the party organisation Campbell would have been a are very dif- against him. The gradual slide seriously and made sure that fine party leader in the early or downwards of the party in the it was ready to fight the elec- mid twentieth century – and ficult to dis- opinion polls throughout 2007 tion that could have happened in fact he worked hard at all of lodge once began to trigger panic amongst in October 2007. Although he these things and was getting those unfamiliar with hard was not there long enough for much better; his performance at formed. times, the party having been on

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 47 reviews a fairly constant upward trend have expected to have been in policy agenda. Sadly these quali- since about 1995; and some the post for much more than ties proved to be not enough supporters of other potential three years stretch it out to four? for leading a third party lacking candidates began to try and In the end, he didn’t hesitate. a clear national message in an trigger a new leadership elec- Menzies Campbell is a decent, increasingly media-intensive tion. The Parliamentary Party honourable and thoughtful age. in the Lords was a particular man, driven by a sense of duty problem; he alienated many of and responsibility underpinned Duncan Brack is Editor of the them by supporting a referen- by an instinctive, slightly old- Journal of Liberal History. He dum on the European constitu- fashioned liberalism, rather has chaired the Liberal Democrats’ tion (Lib Dem peers, for many than by any clear ideological or Conference Committee since 2003. of whom the European question was a defining issue of their time in politics in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, tend to be a good deal more pro-EU than their The Left Foot counterparts in the Commons), and mentions a prickly meeting Kenneth O. Morgan: Michael Foot, A Life (HarperPress, 2007 with a Lords delegation in July (hbk); Harper Perennial, 2008 (pbk)) 2007. The final thirty-six hours before Campbell’s resignation Reviewed by Bill Rodgers saw both the Party President, Simon Hughes, and the Deputy Leader, Vince Cable, make n the day Michael Foot friends, and the historical per- markedly unhelpful comments: was elected Labour spective can be distorted. But Hughes said Campbell had to Oleader, on 10 Novem- ten years ago, Kenneth Morgan ‘raise his game’, Cable that the ber 1980, I met Ian Aitken, the negotiated a persuasive ‘Life’ leader’s position was ‘under Guardian’s political editor, an of James Callaghan and he has discussion’. In the end, as he old friend since my Oxford days repeated his success in his ‘Life’ observes in the book, even his and an unreconstructed Bev- of Michael Foot. own office didn’t try very hard anite. He was over the moon. When I knew he was work- to dissuade him from going. ‘It’s marvellous’, he said, then ing on his new book, I was And, as I mentioned before, pausing, ‘although it will be a uneasy. The historian, A.J.P. he was notably unlucky. The disaster’. This seemed to sum up Taylor (who taught me), wrote a local elections of 2007, which the romanticism of what I then book called The Trouble Makers; began to drive the nails into the called Labour’s ‘legitimate left’, and Taylor and Foot performed coffin of his leadership, were Menzies now more often described as the together in successful televi- not actually all that bad; 26 per ‘soft left’. sion debates in the 1950s. Until cent of the vote, only one point Campbell is a The Winter of Discontent the penultimate stage of Foot’s lower than the year before, and 1978–79 had wrecked the last career, when he was in the Cab- 246 seats lost, against the party’s decent, hon- chance of survival for the Calla- inet, he too had been above all a own internal expectations of ghan government. The Militant trouble-maker. Could Morgan up to 600 losses; furthermore, ourable and Tendency, ugly and threaten- get inside the skin of his subject the defeats were highly con- thoughtful ing, was on the march, the trade when Callaghan had been a centrated, with large numbers unions were lacking responsible very different man? of losses (of district council man, driven leadership and Labour MPs Michael was one of the seven seats with small electorates) in were demoralised and scared. children of Isaac Foot, the patri- a handful of areas accounting by a sense As the Gang of Four was mov- arch of a well-established and for the bulk of them. Neverthe- ing towards the SDP, Michael well-respected West Country less, it looked bad. And then, of of duty and Foot should have recognised the professional family, Noncon- course, Brown failed to call the responsibility crisis that was facing his party. formist in religion, Liberal in election in the autumn. Had the But he failed and Labour fought politics and steeped in litera- election been called for autumn underpinned the 1983 election on a manifesto ture and music. (See Kenneth 2007, Campbell could well have described as ‘the longest suicide Morgan’s article earlier in this ended up leading the party that by an instinc- note in history’. The party had Journal.) The first chapter of the held the balance of power in the reached its nadir. book – perhaps the only one Commons; he could have made tive, slightly It is difficult to publish an – leaves me with unqualified a very able cabinet minister. But old-fashioned honest biography while the warmth towards Michael as he in its absence, could a caretaker subject is still alive. There are grows up in the far-off world of leader who cannot realistically liberalism. pressures from the family and the interwar years. I admit that

48 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 reviews

I underestimated the strength of Above all, he was a radical It was Neil Kinnock, Foot’s his passion for Swift, Hazlitt and libertarian. protégé, who broke the spell Byron, equal to his passion for He was an opponent of in the Labour conference of polities. party discipline in the Com- 1985 by denouncing Liverpool’s But in the second chapter, mons and played an major role Derek Hatton and his allies. and the second half of the 1930s, in the 1960s – in harness with At last, the legitimate left – we find Michael a left-wing Enoch Powell – in defeating including the unreconstructed socialist in Liverpool, becom- the Labour government’s bill Bevanites – were ready to join ing a journalist in London and to reform the House of Lords, together to save the party as meeting Aneurin Bevan, a fiery because it might have enhance it was squeezed between Mrs young Welsh MP, and Lord the second chamber’s influence. Thatcher and the SDP/Liberal Beaverbook, the newspaper He believed in the traditional Alliance. magnate and much besides. cut and thrust of debate in the Michael Foot is now seen as a Both became his heroes; Bevan chamber and disliked cross- loveable elderly gentleman with deeply influenced the whole of party select committees. And a dog and a walking stick. I wish his life. in the 1970s, when we were I could share this simple affec- At the 1945 election, four both in the Cabinet, he strongly tion, as Kenneth Morgan has members of the Foot family opposed compulsory seat belts written an excellent, perceptive were Parliamentary candi- – on libertarian grounds – and ‘Life’. But for me the dominant dates, but only Michael stood effectively killed my own pro- image will remain the Michael for Labour and he alone was posals despite the fact that I had Foot in the photograph on the elected. Henceforth, for forty won a Cabinet majority. jacket of the book, angry and years he was a significant fig- Michael Foot, now aged over unforgiving. ure in the politics of the left, as sixty, arrived in the Cabinet in MP for Plymouth for ten years 1974 as ‘an incorrigible rebel’ Bill Rodgers (Lord Rodgers of and then, after a short gap, for with no previous experience Quarry Bank) was a member of Ebbw Vale. of government. Harold Wil- James Callaghan’s Cabinet, one of Through much of the 1950s, son appointed him to balance the SDP’s Gang of Four and leader the Labour Party was in tur- the predominantly right-wing of the Liberal Democrats in the moil, uncertain where to go and membership and to please the House of Lords 1997–2001. how to change following the trade unions. wartime coalition and Clem- Kenneth Morgan recog- ent Attlee’s successful post-war nises the dangerous growth of administration. Hugh Gaitskell the power of the unions in the became Attlee’s successor, but 1970s, and calls one of his own Bevan was the charismatic chapters ‘Union Man’, doubling leader of the left. As much as up his description of Foot’s Michael Foot loved Bevan, he chosen role and the title of the could not abide Gaitskell and it autobiography of Jack Jones. But conditioned his political dispo- he is much too gentle in treating sition long after their death. He the cosy relationship between could not, for example, forgive Foot and Jones that gave the my role in campaigning in sup- unions almost all they wanted. port of Gaitskell and against In early January 1981, unilateral disarmament at a Michael Foot called on me at critical time in 1960–61. my home in Kentish Town. The Bevanites were a mixed He had decided to make a bag both inside Parliament and last attempt to persuade me out, held together by the weekly to stay in the Labour Party of newspaper Tribune. Some were which I had been a member fellow-travellers, close to the for thirty-two years. I have Communist Party during the no idea whether his attempt Cold War; others were bloody- was genuine, but there was no minded, or natural campaign- meeting of minds. He did not ers, enjoying the political grasp the serious consequences battle and uneasy about the of an imminent split because responsibility of office. Michael for most of his life he had pre- Foot was very much part of the ferred be associated with the far eclectic left-wing show, but was left than with the Fabian social never a hard-line ideologue. democrats.

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 49 reviews

Greatest of the Liberal philosophers his thought and whole mind- set. Liberty was at the root of Richard Reeves: John Stuart Mill, Victorian Firebrand (Atlantic his attitude both to democracy Books, 2007) and gender equality and to the ‘socialism’ with which he Reviewed by Eugenio Biagini toyed throughout his career. As Reeves argues:

his is the first full-length authority is frequently invoked [It] was Mill’s liberalism that biography of the great by libertarian Conservatives and shaped his response to social- TVictorian philosopher Fabian socialists as much as by ism … He was vehemently since the publication of Michael Liberal Democrats. How can we opposed to centralised state St John Packe’s work more than account for such a dramatic and control of the economy, but fifty years ago.1 In the mean long-lasting impact? was a strong supporter of time Mill has inspired hundreds Mill was a political and con- socialism in the form of collec- of publications by some of the stitutional theorist, logician, tive ownership of individual world’s leading scholars in dis- economist, civil rights cam- enterprises, competing in a ciplines ranging from logic and paigner, social reformer, impe- market economy. In the final political theory to economics rial administrator and an MP for analysis, the best system was and social history. Almost every the constituency of Westminster the one which provided for the single aspect of his life and work (1865–68), then one of the few ‘greatest amount of human lib- has attracted not only special- ‘democratic’ boroughs in the erty and spontaneity’ … Mill ist attention, but also debate, country. His hobbies included was a liberal, a democrat and a greatly stimulated by the publi- botany, which turned him socialist – in that order. (p.7) cation of the monumental Col- into a keen environmentalist lected Works.2 and a champion of biodiver- Here we find a further reason The task of producing a sity (pp. 234–35). But what is why Mill continues to exert a major reassessment of Mill’s life truly exceptional about him is powerful fascination on mod- and work in the twenty-first not that he took such an active ern Liberals, especially in this century was therefore a daunt- interest in so many different country and the rest of Europe, ing prospect for any single disciplines and fields of political where ‘liberty’ is closely linked writer. It is symptomatic of activity, but that he excelled in all to a degree of social democracy. the topicality and relevance of of them, to the extent of setting Mill’s ideas for the wider public new standards among academ- that such a task was attempted ics while also reshaping popular not by a professional historian or opinion. Thus his Principles of philosopher, but by a journalist Political Economy (first published and former government advisor in 1848, then widely revised in on welfare reform. This is also successive editions until 1873), very appropriate: for journal- became and remained a main ism and advising on (and indeed textbook in British and Irish making) public policy were two universities for a whole genera- of the many ways in which Mill tion. Its abridged popular edi- exercised his influence during a tion sold tens of thousands of career which spanned the cen- copies, and inspired the publica- tral decades of the nineteenth tion of similar works by some century and was only inter- of Mill’s disciples (including rupted by his sudden death in Henry and Millicent Fawcett), 1873. By then he was regarded which in turn fired the reform- as the greatest Liberal of his age. ing zeal of late-Victorian labour A hundred and thirty-four years leaders. later he was voted ‘the greatest Of course, of all of his works, Liberal’ in a poll sponsored by it is On Liberty (1859) which has the present Journal. Moreover, been and continues to be the although many of his views one most widely read. This is were controversial during his not surprising, not only because own lifetime, most of them have of the intrinsic value of this since become accepted features ‘little book’ (as Mill called it), of the way we understand dem- but also because liberalism was ocratic life, to the extent that his certainly the key dimension of

50 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 reviews

This link, which came to Reeves has who constantly stimulated and and economic thought to dominate Liberal politics in the encouraged him to explore social and political history and days of Beveridge and Keynes, produced new ideas and venture into gender studies – Reeves has was first identified by Mill, for a lucid and uncharted and difficult territo- produced a lucid and percep- whom finding the right bal- ries, even when this involved tive synthesis, which pays equal ance between individualism perceptive standing up to public opinion attention to Mill’s life and the and social responsibility was a and challenging contemporary development of his ideas. The moral imperative as well as the synthesis, political correctness. book has a predominantly main question in modern social One of the areas in which chronological structure, but engineering. which pays Mill was a resolute ‘noncon- each chapter has also a strong Reeves brings to life this equal atten- formist’ was in his attitude to thematic focus, which enables extraordinary figure in a sym- racial prejudice. In a famous the author to study the various pathetic but critical biography, tion to Mill’s revisionist account, Mehta has dimensions and developments a comprehensive study which criticised Mill for his ‘Oriental- of Mill’s thought and career in reveals – ‘warts and all’ – the life and the ist’ attitudes to India.3 An Ori- their historical and biographi- multifaceted personality of this entalist he may have been, but cal context. The result is a great philosopher-man of action. development without any consistent sense of historical biography, which the It must be said that there are of his ideas. imperial superiority; in fact he general reader will find riveting not many ‘warts’, but Mill was was often critical and dismissive and the professional academic no saint, let alone ‘the Saint of the claims and pretensions of indispensable. of Rationalism’ as Gladstone the European powers, arguing, dubbed him – at least not in the for example, that ‘the character- Eugenio F. Biagini is a Lecturer in sense of being only motivated istic of Germany is knowledge History at Sidney Sussex College by some cool utilitarian calcu- without thought; of France, Cambridge, and Reviews Editor of lus of costs and benefits. On the thought without knowledge; the Journal of Liberal History. contrary, he was passionate to of England, neither knowledge an excess, often allowing his nor thought’ (cit. pp.220–21). In 1 M. St J. Packe, The Life of John Stu- emotions to drive him beyond his days he was in fact criticised art Mill (Seker & Warburg, 1954); prudence. His personal auster- for his racial egalitarianism, an but see also the recent short biogra- ity and principled approach to attitude which was perceived as phy by W. Stafford,John Stuart Mill public affairs were somehow out of step not only with public (Macmillan, 1998). ‘saintly’, but Reeves puts them opinion, but also with what the 2 John Robson et al (eds.), The Col- in context and shows how Mill majority regarded as ‘a fact’ – lected Works of John Stuart Mill (33 could also be extremely prickly namely, the notion of a cultural volumes, University of Toronto and unforgiving, especially (or even biological) superiority Press and Routledge & Kegan Paul, when it came to what he per- of the ‘white man’ over the rest 1965ñ91). ceived as affronts to his beloved of the human species. 3 U. Singh Mehta, Liberalism and friend, intellectual partner and Mastering a bibliography Empire (University of Chicago (eventually) wife, Harriet Tay- which is not only vast but also Press, 1999). See also Lynn Zas- lor. It did not help that she was multidisciplinary – ranging toupil, John Stuart Mill and India also touchy and self-centred. from the history of political (Stanford University Press, 1994). Reeves offers a persuasive reassessment of their relation- ship and her influence on him. This is an area which has attracted considerable debate, Social Liberalism largely because Mill was always extravagantly generous in his Duncan Brack, Richard S. Grayson and David Howarth (eds.): praise of Harriet’s gifts and Reinventing the State: Social Liberalism for the 21st Century contribution to his intellectual development. Weighing care- (Politico’s, 2007) fully the evidence, Reeves Reviewed by Neil Stockley suggests that she should not be regarded as either the insti- gator of Mill’s most radical views (for example on gender ei n v en t i ng t h e State Its then leader, Sir Menzies equality and ‘socialism’), or as appeared on the eve of the Campbell, was achieving little a boastful mediocrity. Instead, RLiberal Democrats’ 2007 traction with the public and the Harriet was for him primarily autumn conference. This was Liberal Democrats were lan- an intellectual companion, a difficult time for the party. guishing in the opinion polls.

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 51 reviews

Within weeks, the party was adopted by the party in autumn accept. Duncan Brack makes looking for a new leader, its 2006, reiterated the Liberal a powerful argument that the third in as many years. Democrats’ commitment to current level of social inequal- With the party in an uncer- ‘a fairer … much less unequal ity in Britain undermines tain situation, its social liber- society’, with ‘decisions taken individuals’ personal freedom als sought to assert themselves near to those they affect’ and – their ability to participate anew. The Guardian claimed ‘public services that … involve fully in society – along with the that the Liberal Democrats’ ‘left those that use them … and well-being of the community. wing’ had published Reinvent- make full use of the talents and Ed Randall argues that unfet- ing the State as the start of an imagination of their staff’. The tered market action will lead to attempt to ‘take on the domi- party also renewed its commit- greater environmental degrada- nant pro-market Orange Book ment to protecting the environ- tion. Tim Farron MP contends faction’ and ‘wrest control of the ment as ‘an urgent priority’. All that rural communities have party’.1 That was a case of over- the candidates for the leadership been deprived of opportunities spin. The Orange Book received a in 2006 and 2007 promised in housing and employment and cool reception from most of the that social justice, reforming local farmers left exposed to the party when it was published in the state and safeguarding the power of monopolies. 2004, and its most contentious environment would be their The authors contend that recommendation, to reshape the priorities. a mixture of state and collec- NHS using a social insurance Still, Dr Richard Grayson, tive responses must be taken if model, was widely criticised. one of the editors of Reinventing such market failures are to be Social liberalism has always the State and a former Liberal addressed. The pivotal issue is been the dominant strand in the Democrat Director of Policy, the forms that such responses Liberal Democrats’ philosophy. was quoted as saying that the should take. The contribu- The party’s continued support publication sought ‘to influ- tors differ from the ‘economic for an activist state and its poli- ence the manifesto, so it will liberals’ in arguing that the cies on taxation and redistribu- put issues such as social justice best way to promote economic tion of income, public services, and the environment at its heart equality is to radically reform and the environment are all and will be an avowedly centre- the state, rather than to reduce testament to that.2 The policy left manifesto’. He added: ‘I it in size or rely on market- review paper Trust in People, think we are pushing at an open based policy solutions. They are door’.3 sceptical about the market and If social liberalism is predom- its tendency to erode personal inant in the Liberal Democrats, freedoms (in their broadest and Dr Grayson was correct, sense) and community cohesion. it follows that the analysis and Paul Holmes MP, for instance, prescriptions presented in Rein- argues strenuously that markets venting the State are of central are an imperfect tool for deliv- importance for the future of the ering social policy objectives. party. So what do the ‘social ‘Social liberals’ are, however, liberals’ have to say? just as suspicious of the central- The core idea of the ised state and its propensity to twenty-two contributions is, be coercive, bureaucratic and in the words of the editors, out of touch with peoples’ needs ‘reinvent[ing] the British state and concerns. This is where so that it delivers social justice they part company with the and environmental sustainabil- ‘social democrats’. ity through a decentralised and The ‘social liberals’’ main participatory democracy’. solution to social and economic ‘Social liberals’, as repre- inequality is ‘localism’. This is sented here, perceive that, for forcefully articulated by Chris some twenty years, British Huhne MP, who defines it as political debate has focused ‘the decentralisation not just on promoting the values and of management decisions but virtues of the market. In con- of political responsibility to a trast to the ‘economic liberals’, human scale where voters can they argue that such a reli- once again identify – and com- ance on markets has led – or, plain to, or praise, or boot out if unchecked, could lead – to – decision makers in their com- outcomes that liberals cannot munity’. In a compelling piece,

52 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 reviews

Huhne builds a democratic, individuals real control over In an incisive manifesto. One of the reasons liberal case for localism, argu- their lives that we can create was, apparently, that party ing that it will help to revive opportunities for all’.4 In March essay, David strategists sought to position confidence and participation in 2008, the party adopted a new Howarth MP the Liberal Democrats as being politics. He shows that increased health policy that embraced more concerned with deliver- spending on public services elements of the ‘localist’ describes the ing quality and capacity in under Labour has not led to a approaches. It also took up, in a public services distinctively in commensurate increase in qual- very cautious way, some ‘mar- core values the political debate. Another ity of service. ket-based’ policy proposals.5 was their perception that the Huhne discusses two ways The social liberals seem to of ‘social lib- Huhne framework lacked forward. One is the introduc- have prevailed. But many ‘eco- eralism’ as a specific attractive promises, tion of markets or quasi-markets nomic liberals’ are also content suitable for use in an election in the public services. The with this turn of events. That commitment campaign. It is also possible other is to introduce more local, should not be too much of a sur- that some leading ‘social liber- democratic decision-making. prise. In an incisive essay, David to the redis- als’ feared that allowing local He says, correctly, that the two Howarth MP describes the core flowers to bloom could serve to are not necessarily mutually values of ‘social liberalism’ as tribution exacerbate social and economic exclusive, but there are impor- a commitment to the redistri- of wealth inequalities. tant differences. Huhne argues bution of wealth and power, Recent policy developments that markets or quasi-markets alongside a belief that demo- and power, notwithstanding, the Liberal may lead to reduced services cratic decision-making must be Democrats have some way to (the reduction of choice) for deepened. He casts consider- alongside a go before they can claim to be a those left behind when people able doubt on the validity of truly ‘localist’ party of the type choose another option. They the comic-book clash between belief that contemplated by many of the may also lead to reduced flex- ‘social liberals’ and ‘economic democratic contributors to Reinventing the ibility or, worse, undermine liberals’, as sometimes pre- State. Moreover, the party has the potential for innovating and sented by sections of the media. decision- yet to demonstrate a functional adapting public services to local Howarth argues that in the Brit- link between its existing policy needs and circumstancs. Huhne ish context, ‘economic liberals’ making proposals for increased local contends that the problem with really have the same end goals accountability and its declared Britain’s public services is the as ‘social liberals’. Any disagree- must be goals of promoting economic lack of local accountability and ment will really be over means deepened. equality and enhancing social control; centralisation has sti- rather than ends: specifically, mobility. This highlights a fled creativity and initiative. He how different sorts of social lib- major challenge for ‘maximalist also uses international data to eral perceive the role and limita- social liberals’; they can (and, rebut the argument that allow- tions of market mechanisms to usually, they do) triumph in ing local flowers to bloom in achieve their goals. More perti- the party’s intellectual debates, the public services will lead to nently, Howarth argues, the dif- but may not always be so suc- greater social inequality, and ference is really about ‘how far cessful in political or tactical shows that there is no neces- government policy should pro- arguments. sary connection between the mote economic equality beyond Other developments since two. John Howson and Richard the point strictly required by the the publication of Reinventing Grayson then describe how goal of safeguarding personal the State further illustrate this these principles can be applied, freedom’: between ‘maximal- point, and how important the in education and the NHS ist’ and ‘minimalist’ social differences between the types of respectively. liberalism. ‘social liberal’ can be. By most The Liberal Democrats have The ‘social liberals’ (or, as of the definitions set out in this clearly embraced ‘localism’ David Howarth might say, book, Nick Clegg surely quali- as a guiding principle. Their ‘maximalist’ socal liberals) still fies as a ‘social liberal’. The most leader, Nick Clegg, has written seem to have their work cut significant policy shift under his that Labour’s ‘activist’ model out. Chris Huhne’s version of leadership to date has been the of ‘central state’ has failed to ‘localism’ can be traced back promise to ‘look for ways to cut enhance social mobility or to to the public services policy Britain’s overall tax burden, so tackle wealth inequalities. He commission that he chaired ordinary families have more of wants to see in its place ‘the lib- in 2001–02. Its report was their money to spend for them- eral model of delivering social adopted by the party but very selves’.6 The editors and other justice’, based on ‘localising our few of its specific proposals, contributors to Reinventing the public services and in commu- especially those relating to user State want to slim down and nity control [which] is grounded choice, were finally reflected constrain central government, in our belief that it is by giving in the 2005 general election giving as many of its powers as

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 53 reviews possible to elected local institu- Reinventing This is not to say that, envi- economic policy than there has tions. Some may perceive that ronmental matters aside, the been for some twenty years. In the new taxation pledge could the State is an ‘social liberals’ are ignorant some areas, such as the banking reduce the community’s col- important, about economic policy. One sector, the Liberal Democrats lective ability to redistribute of the most impressive essays have proposed more effective wealth and enhance individual vital set of is David Hall-Matthews’ regulation. ‘Social liberals’ opportunities. Moreover, politi- thoughtful analysis of economic may need to consider whether cal analysts have suggested that essays. The globalisation. He does not try they are content with those the new taxation pledge was to argue that national govern- suggestions. made in part for electoral pur- collection ments should try to stand in the Reinventing the State is an poses: fending off Conservative conveys in path of free trade; rather, they important, vital set of essays. challenges in some seats and should not use globalisation The collection conveys in attracting low- and middle- some inter- as an excuse for evading their some interesting and compel- income voters in others. If that responsibilities to their citizens. ling ways what it means to be is correct, ‘maximalist social esting and Hall-Matthews finds that most a Liberal Democrat and, more liberals’ will need to come to concerns about globalisation particularly, how social liberals terms with the political realities compelling amount to concerns about the in Britain approach contem- and dilemmas facing the Liberal ways what fate of national governments porary political questions. In Democrats or, better still, pro- and that these are to some many ways, the essence – the vide their own specific sugges- it means to extent understandable, espe- ‘heart and soul’ – of the party tions as to how they might be cially to liberals, who instinc- can be found in these pages. addressed. be a Liberal tively resist any concentration The collection’s readers, editors As noted above, the con- of power. Hall-Matthews con- and authors may reflect, how- tributors discuss other areas Democrat cludes that, contrary to some ever, that the party also needs a of market failure, besides eco- and, more myths, nation-states (suitably ‘head’ and that it occasionally nomic inequality. Remedies for reformed) can – and should – comes to different conclusions protecting the environment or, particularly, take action to ameliorate the to those reached in Reinventing more precisely, addressing cli- most negative impacts on their the State. In practice, the ‘social mate change and decarbonising how social own citizens. Surely no lib- liberalism’ so well elucidated the economy, are set out clearly eral could object to that. One in this book is synthesised with by Chris Huhne MP, who was liberals suggestion is that such action other versions of liberalism and, the party’s shadow environ- in Britain should take the form of reinvig- perhaps as importantly, political ment secretary at the time of orating local communities. This considerations will win out in writing. This framework uses approach is somewhat vague, however, the end. As a result, the party market-based instruments that and how this would be done and may sometimes tack in direc- provide incentives to lower car- contempo- who would bear the costs is not tions that are different to those bon emissions from energy and made clear in the collection. provided in this collection. transport, green taxes to pro- rary political If there is an important omis- mote environmentally friendly questions. sion from this book, it concerns Neil Stockley is director of a public behaviour and regulation where what sort of economic policy affairs company and a frequent con- price signals cannot produce the ‘maximalist’ social liberals tributor to the Journal of Liberal desired outcomes. It is consist- propose and how much it may History. ent with the ‘liberal environ- differ from the party’s existing mentalism’ described by Ed economic thinking which, since 1 ‘Lib Dem left attempts to wrest Randall. The policy measures the early 1990s, has taken on a control of the party’, The Guardian, are designed to ensure that the more ‘market-driven’ approach. 6 September 2007. poorest members of society are The question is important for 2 See ‘Social Liberalism’ in Duncan not adversely affected. the obvious reason that a strong, Brack and Ed Randall (eds.), Dic- A similar clarity of liberal sustainable economy is essential tionary of Liberal Thought (Politico’s, thought and policy practice is to support and underpin policies 2007). not always so evident elsewhere of redistribution and innova- 3 ‘Lib Dem left attempts to wrest in the book, however. Sev- tion in social policy. Moreover, control of the party’, The Guardian, eral contributors discuss other the questions around economic 6 September 2007. important areas in which mar- policy have become even more 4 Nick Clegg, ‘A home for progres- kets are deficient (for instance, relevant; since the essays were sives’, The Guardian, 1 July 2008. their impact on local communi- written, the US’s ‘credit crunch’ 5 Liberal Democrats, Policy Paper ties) but rather less is said about has occurred and started to 84, Empowerment, Fairness and Qual- these might be addressed or have impacts on Britain. There ity in Health Care (2008). how the positive outcomes of is more questioning now of 6 Liberal Democrats, Make It Happen markets best secured. the prevailing orthodoxy in (2008).

54 Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 letters

Letters British philosopher writing anticipates Mill in his con- by voters for the greatest continued from page 13 political theory inspired by cern for national action on British Liberal in com- Kant and Hegel; Bernard social issues. The American parison with some other is not due to any Liberal Bosanquet is another obvi- political theorist Samuel thinkers of at least equal sympathies on the part of ous example. Green, there- Fleischacker has done a par- stature – including Jeremy Tressell; rather, he believed fore, was not the only source ticularly notable job of plac- Bentham, the great utilitar- that Liberals and Tories were that the New Liberals could ing Smith in the Republican ian philosopher and political basically the same, and that draw on for a communal tradition alongside Kant. reformer; James Harrington, neither would advance the basis to political theory. While arguing for Green the seventeenth-century cause of the poor. There has been a return as the prophet of the New Republican thinker who Paul Hunt to Kant and Hegel in politi- Liberalism, Philip MacDou- was an influence on both the cal thought since the 1970s. gall omits the strong streak Glorious Revolution and the Hegel has been influential in of social conservatism in American Revolution; and The Master of Elibank the communitarian model Green, in which he is like Tom Paine, the author of Dr Graham Jones, in his taken up by various liberal some contemporary com- important texts on popular article on Eliot Crawshay- and social democratic think- munitarians. Green was a sovereignty and rational- Williams ( Journal 59, sum- ers, including the Canadian prohibitionist with regard to ism, and one of the inspi- mer 2008) stated that the Charles Taylor, who wrote alcohol, and contemplated rations for the American Master of Elibank (The a book on Hegel; Kant has criminalising adultery in Revolution. Though Kant Hon. Alexander W.C.O. been influential in Repub- Principles of Political Obliga- and Hegel themselves were Murray) was Liberal Chief lican and Third Liberty tion, deciding against – but not British, it is well worth Whip in April 1908. In fact, theories which emphasise only just. studying them; they help in he was then Scottish Liberal the role of active citizen- While I am all in favour understanding some of the Whip (as MP for Peebles & ship as a fundamental aspect of more people learn- best contemporary politi- Selkirk) and did not become of human liberty. Green ing about Green, it is hard cal thought in the English Chief Whip (as MP for Mid- has been little mentioned to see why he should be language. lothian) until February 1910. in all of this, though there regarded as harshly treated Barry Stocker Dr Alexander (Sandy) S. has been a modest revival of Waugh Green scholarship, as there has been for British Idealism in general. LIBERAL DEMOCRAT HISTORY: Liberal thinkers Philip MacDougall It’s always good to see claims that Green intro- WHAT MATTERS TO YOU? informed discussion of lib- duced various ideas of social • Which historical figures inspire you? eral thinkers of the past in reform and state action into • What is your favourite history book? the Journal of Liberal History, British liberalism. However, • Do you think of yourself as part of a political tradition? but Dr Philip MacDougall all the concepts he men- • Are Liberal Democrat politics rooted in a sense of history? somewhat overstates the tions can be found in Mill, I am working on a PhD about the history and traditions of British case for T.H. Green ( Journal through a careful reading political parties and would very much like to hear from you. 59, summer 2008). Green is of On Liberty; indeed, Mill I am trying to find out how Liberal Democrat members and supporters certainly worth reading, but is sometimes mentioned feel about the history of the party. I would also like to hear from unlike Mill, he is really only as part of the Republican members and supporters of the Liberal Democrat History Group, a second-division thinker. tradition referred to above. including those who are not involved with the party. Green’s work is very Unfortunately Philip Mac- A short questionnaire is enclosed with this issue of the Journal of derivative of German Ideal- Dougall exaggerates the Liberal History. I would be very grateful if you could complete it and ism, particularly Kant and extent to which ‘classical return it to me at the address below, by 15th October. If you would Hegel. His major work on liberals’ were opposed to prefer to complete it electronically, I would be very happy to send it political thought, Lectures state and collective social by email. I would also be grateful if you could pass on the details to on the Principles of Political policies, and a general sense anyone else you think might be interested. Obligation (freely available of common welfare. In The questionnaire can be completed anonymously, although if you at http://socserv2.mcmas- doing this, he gives away are willing to give your details it would be very helpful as I am keen to ter.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/ the liberal heritage to the be able to contact some of the respondents for follow-up interviews. green/obligation.pdf), gives ‘libertarians’ who claim to All this information will be used for my thesis and the results of the survey will also be published in the Journal of Liberal History. a valuable and clear sum- follow classical liberalism mary of Kant and Hegel, but who are mostly political Please let me know if you have any questions or if you would like together with earlier politi- conservatives. Mill does not further copies of the questionnaire. cal thought, and also makes fit into this stereotype, and I look forward to hearing from you! clear where his political the- was strongly condemned on Emily Robinson ory originates. He was not these grounds by Hayek and Dept of Politics, Goldsmiths College, University of London, SE14 6NW the only nineteenth-century Mises. Adam Smith himself ([email protected])

Journal of Liberal History 60 Autumn 2008 55 A Liberal Democrat History Group fringe meeting founding the welfare state A hundred years ago, in 1908, H. H. Asquith’s government introduced the Old Age Pensions Bill. This was just the beginning of a comprehensive Liberal programme of social reform, including national insurance, minimum wages, labour exchanges and compulsory school meals, among much else. Did this programme really represent a decisive break with nineteenth-century notions of a minimal state, or was it simply an attempt to counter the challenge of the emerging Labour movement? Debate the issue in this centenary year of the Pensions Act.

Speakers: Dr Ian Packer, Lincoln University; author of Liberal Government and Politics, 1905–15, and Joe Harris, General Secretary of the National Pensioners Convention. Chair: Lady Jane Bonham Carter, Asquith’s great-granddaughter.

8.00pm, Sunday 14 September Bay View 2, Bournemouth International Conference Centre

Important Liberal Democrat History Group notice: email at Lib Dem conference mailing list We have recently changed the Visit the History Group’s stand in the exhibition mailing system through which in the Bournemouth Conference Centre – stand we send out email notices of History Group meetings, latest 94 in the Solent Hall (just opposite the Lib Dem publications, special book Image stand). There you can: offers forJournal members, etc. If you have already signed up to • Take part in our Liberal history quiz. Exciting the mailing list, you should be automatically transferred to the prizes to be won! new system. However, we have • Buy a copy of our latest book, the Dictionary of been experiencing problems Liberal Thought: £28 to Journal subscribers, £35 recently, and it is possible that you may not be. to everyone else. If you received an email from • Buy a copy of Richard Reeves’s John Stuart Mill: us between 29 August and 5 Victorian Firebrand (reviewed in this issue – see September, advertising our conference fringe meeting (see p. 50): £22 to Journal subscribers, £30 to every- above), then you are on the list, one else. and no further action is needed. • Renew your Journal subscription – all subs are If you did not, then you are not now due for renewal (unless you subscribe by on the list. To join the list, send a blank email to liberalhistory- standing order). [email protected]. • Buy our pamphlet, Liberal History: a concise his- uk. You will be asked to confirm your email address, to avoid tory of the Liberal Party, SDP and Liberal Demo- spam. Our apologies for any crats. 300 years of party history in 24 pages inconvenience. – £1.50 to Journal subscribers, £2 to others.