RADICAL REFORM GROUP The has until recently been relatively neglected by historians of the Liberal Party. Graham Lippiatt gives an overview of the group’s formation and history, examines the material published by the group itself and reviews the published literature which covers it.

he Radical Reform its own, policies which will both the News Chronicle entitled ‘Left or Group (RRG) was a give effect to the principles [of Limbo?’. It called the earlier deci- social liberal pressure liberty and social justice] and gain sion to divorce from the party a group of the 1950s and wide acceptance from all shades mistake, criticising the RRG for 1960s. It was founded of political opinion.’10 The RRG’s having been dormant too long Tin 19521 by Desmond Banks2 and intention was to create an effective and looked forward to its renewed Peter Grafton.3 Concerned that, third force in British politics and activities on the left of centre, under the leadership of Clement looked for ways of forging links where it said ‘all good Liberals Davies, the Liberal Party was fall- with like-minded individuals in should be’.17 ing unduly under the sway of clas- other parties. Banks also gave as Thereafter the RRG contin- sical, free-market liberals and was a justification for the formation of ued its role as an internal social drifting to the right, they feared the RRG the need to strengthen liberal ginger group, supportive of the domination of the party by the Liberal Party as an alternative ’s electoral strategy of economic liberals such as Oliver for disillusioned electors against realignment. The marginalisation Smedley4 and ,5 the growth of extremist groups. or defection of leading economic who both later helped establish ‘If there were no Liberal Party,’ he liberals and the return of the the Institute of Economic Affairs, declared in a speech in Cornwall RRG helped to set the progres- the think tank that was to become in March 1956, ‘we might well be The RRG saw sive tone of Liberal politics during an engine of . One witnessing today the growth of the years of Grimond’s leadership, prominent Radical Reformer some dangerous movement akin their task as when the party tended to choose recalled that he joined because of to that of Monsieur Poujade11 in the social liberal and Keynesian worries that the party was so small France.12 promoting economic approach. and weak in the early 1950s that it In the spring of 1954, the RRG was in danger of being taken over decided to disaffiliate from the ‘social reform by people like Smedley and S. W. Liberal Party in an effort to attract without Material published by the Alexander6 who would be seen as members from the social demo- Radical Reform Group cranks who wanted to turn the cratic wing of the Labour Party. It ’ In all, the RRG published three party into an economic sect.7 hoped to exploit divisions in the pamphlets setting out the pur- The RRG saw their task as Labour Party between the sup- and sought pose and strategy of the group and promoting ‘social reform with- porters of Aneurin Bevan13 and detailing the policies that the Lib- out socialism’ and sought ways those of Hugh Gaitskell.14 Most ways in eral Party and the country ought to in which the institutions and RRG members remained card- adopt.18 The group also published policies of the welfare state and carrying members of the Liberal which the a regular newsletter which con- the managed economy could Party but one former Chairman, tained commentary on the political be improved and strengthened.8 E. F. Allison, defected to Labour15 institutions developments of the day, Liberal Looking back, one reformer set and one of its vice-presidents, the election prospects, essays on policy out the task of the RRG as ‘… former MP for Dundee, Din- and policies questions, and internal announce- mov[ing] the party as a whole to gle Foot, (who also later joined ments and notices. This author has adopt a programme, especially in Labour, in 1956) openly sup- of the wel- not been able to establish exactly industrial and economic affairs, ported Labour candidates in seats when the first newsletter was pub- which could become the platform not contested by Liberals in the fare state lished but the last one appears to for a new, radical force in poli- 1955 general election. The Labour have been the issue of September tics.’9 This emphasis on creating splits did not prove permanent and the man- 1964.19 Between November 1956 something new in British politics however, and the RRG strategy and September 1964, twenty-three was because the RRG recognised was not a success. Membership aged econ- newsletters were circulated to that there was something wrong declined and the media were not omy could RRG members.20 with a political and electoral sys- interested. At the Annual Gen- The earliest of the RRG tem which produced great oppos- eral Meeting of the group in the be improved pamphlets was a three-page ing, disciplined party blocs. In on 29 document, Radical Approach: A the preamble to its constitution, October 1955, members voted and Statement of Aims by the Radical the RRG stated that ‘no existing narrowly to revert to being an Reform Group, published in 1953. party, acting as such, is, in view of organisation wholly within the strength- In the introduction, the authors sectional background or histori- Liberal Party.16 This homecom- set out an essentially Liberal belief cal obsolescence, producing, on ing was welcomed by a leader in ened. in the supreme value of the human

Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 45 the radical reform group personality and the need to create problems and again according In the after- support for the United Nations the conditions of liberty in which a central place to the concept and multilateral disarmament. each personality can develop to of liberty and the liberal tradi- math of the These were not issues which the the full. They observe, however, tion as a framework for thought RRG discounted. The constitu- that liberty is a changing concept and action. That framework, it 1959 general tional agenda underpinned much and declare that the task in the is asserted, must ‘ensure to all of the RRG critique of Brit- twentieth century is to win eco- men an economic status compa- election, ish politics set out in the group’s nomic liberty at the same time as rable to the status demanded by unpublished constitution and the preserving and extending politi- the plea for liberty. As of right, with a third need for a radical alternative. And cal liberty. What was wanted was wealth and income must be more foreign policy questions came to a ‘synthesis of freedom and social equally shared …’. The docu- successive feature more prominently in the justice’. To achieve these aims ment makes some advanced rec- Labour later publication, Radical Chal- the state has a clear role to play ommendations in relation to the lenge (1960). In the early days of in specific fields. The first is the Third World. Albeit in language defeat, there the RRG, however, the domestic welfare state, in which ‘no one which today would be unaccept- agenda was its primary focus. through unemployment, sick- able, the authors recognise the seemed a The final RRG publication, ness or old age shall be destitute; ‘appalling aspect of our present Radical Challenge was a longer in which people with families to economic system [in] our treat- real oppor- work, running to ten pages. care for shall be helped to provide ment of backward peoples’ (sic). Radical Challenge was a child of its for them by those whose bur- They acknowledge the damage tunity for political times. In 1956, Jo Gri- dens are lighter; and in which the to ‘native peoples and native ways mond had become leader of the opportunity of a good start in life of life’ (sic) and state that ‘our progressive Liberal Party. In 1958 the party shall be available to all.’ The pam- attitude to backward areas must won the Torrington by-election, phlet recommends the payment be consistent with our highest forces to rea- the first Liberal gain in a by-elec- of a family allowance for the first beliefs; if men need freedom and tion since 1929. The economic child, an increase in old age pen- the economic conditions to give it lign around and political landscape seemed to sions and the principle of a free life, the need of all men is equally be moving, with the slow decline health service. The next field for real’. Finally, in an early exam- the Liberal of heavy industry and with more government action is full employ- ple of environmental conscious- of Britain’s population becoming ment, which the pamphlet asserts ness, the pamphlet acknowledges Party and affluent and aspiring to middle- is to be maintained broadly ‘along that humanity needs to be more class lifestyles. Post-Suez a new, the lines of Lord Beveridge’s responsible with and demonstrate break from a less traditional, outlook on for- proposals for what he called the humility towards the world’s Labour Party eign and Commonwealth affairs socialisation of demand’. Next material resources. It deplores appeared to be developing, more the pamphlet sets out its authors’ the profligacy with which the hidebound in tune with liberal thought. In belief in free trade, although free economy has treated natural the aftermath of the 1959 general with Britain taking the lead in resources such as coal, oil, forests by its historic election, with a third successive the creation of an international and ores, tacitly recognising that Labour defeat, there seemed a real rather than a unilateralist system. these resources are finite and must connections opportunity for progressive forces In agriculture, the maintenance be developed with more than the to realign around the Liberal of planned production through a profit motive as the sole criterion. to the trade Party and break from a Labour continuance of the policy of guar- Many of these approaches and Party hidebound by its historic anteed prices and assured markets policies found their way into the unions and connections to the trade unions for farmers is advocated. In indus- Liberal Party general election and Clause IV socialism. This try, it recommends co-ownership, manifesto for 1955.22 Particular Clause IV thinking echoed the early aspira- profit-sharing and anti-monopoly convergence was found in the tions of the RRG to create a fresh as the watchwords. In summary, approaches to colonial develop- socialism. and radical, yet non-socialist, the authors argue that they seek ment, industrial democracy and force in British politics. wholesale social reform, but not anti-monopoly, support for the So the introduction to Radical socialism as understood in Britain, welfare society, and provision Challenge stressed the threatened through the policy of nationalisa- for the old and the vulnerable. eclipse of Labour and acknowl- tion of the means of production, However, there was one notable edged those in the Labour Party distribution and exchange. clash with the RRG programme. (specifically naming Tony Cros- Radical Aims: A statement of Whereas Radical Approach had land23 and Roy Jenkins) who rec- policy by the Radical Reform Group, urged the need for guaranteed ognised the need for an overhaul which was published in 1953 prices and assured markets for to abandon nationalisation and or 1954, recalls the reaction to British farmers, the manifesto class-consciousness. The purpose Labour’s post-war socialism and pointed out that Britain was of the pamphlet was ‘to give a how that led in the Liberal Party spending £300 million annually clear lead to progressive-minded to the ‘increasing influence of a subsiding agriculture, which it men and women’, to offer a pro- school of “laissez-faire” apostles described as a short-sighted pol- spectus of radical goals as a ral- who but a few years ago were icy. Additionally, the manifesto lying point around which such regarded as a lunatic fringe’ seek- was strong on traditional Liberal progressives could realign. ing to revert to the philosophy of approaches to devolution and The first section, ‘Beyond Herbert Spencer.21 There follows electoral reform as well as advo- Independence’, calls for con- an essay raising particular human cating European unity and robust tinuing self-determination and

46 Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 the radical reform group independence for colonial peo- bureaucratic and centralised. An people to the dangers and equip ples and an end to minority rule advance towards unions repre- them for distinguishing the excel- in places like Algeria and South senting all the workers in a given lent as opposed to the shoddy. It Africa. It proposed a more inter- industry, to avoid demarcation identifies adult education and the dependent approach, foresee- disputes, is proposed, as is local control of advertising as two pos- ing that colonial successor-states negotiation of wage rates to keep sible approaches. It calls for good would struggle to be economi- down inflation. Unrealistically, town and country planning to cally viable and dependent upon however, these reforms were sup- avoid creeping ‘subtopia’ and calls aid. It looked forward to inter- posed to spring spontaneously for less emphasis on road building national assistance for develop- from within the union move- and more to resuscitate the rail- ing nations on the model of the ment. This was because it was felt way network. There is a last plea Marshall Plan. The next section, that their value would be vitiated for the arts to flourish but to avoid entitled ‘Unarmed Combat’, deals were they to bear the hallmarks the over-concentration of facili- with the Cold War, calling for of vindictive or repressive legis- ties in London. detente and disarmament, par- lation. There was also a call for ticularly of nuclear weapons and the correction of abuses in union other weapons of mass destruc- finances and elections. The Radical Reform Group in tion. It calls for an independent, The next section, ‘The Wards published literature international authority to con- of Society’, calls for a strengthen- Until an upsurge of interest in trol and inspect national arsenals. ing of the welfare state in rela- Liberal Party politics brought on Once the arms race is over, the tion to the elderly and especially by the formation of the SDP and pamphlet looks forward to a world an increase in old age pensions. It possibility of Liberal influence on where the duel between the liberal attacks the arbitrary imposition government, the standard works democracies and the Communist of an age of retirement at sixty or covering the history of the Lib- bloc transfers from the military to sixty-five years. It identifies the eral Party in the 1950s and 1960s the socio-economic plane. unfairness of a system which dis- were those by Roy Douglas24 and In ‘A New Deal for Industry’, criminates against women who Chris Cook,25 neither of which the pamphlet reiterates the poli- wish to return to work after their mentions the RRG at all. It does cies of industrial democracy and children are grown up. It is partic- get a passing reference in David employee shareholding, praising ularly scathing about the state of Dutton’s survey of Liberal his- the German model of ‘co-deter- mental hospitals (sic), where essen- tory published in 2004.26 How- mination’ whereby large firms tially sane people have been incar- ever Dutton refers to the group operate joint employer–worker cerated for years without redress as a direct successor to Radical boards. In the section dealing and where patients are institution- Action; yet, while they may have with ‘The Role of Government’, The purpose alised. It questions whether the been some overlap in member- the state is urged to intervene in contributory principle should be ship, there is no evidence that the aspects of the economy which of the pam- retained in the financing of pen- RRG sprang from the ashes of have traditionally been regarded sions and unemployment benefit the earlier organisation.27 Jorgen as the sphere of private enterprise phlet was or whether a new and comprehen- Scott Rasmussen’s study of the but not to engage in nationalisa- sive tax should supersede all exist- Liberal Party, published in the tion or to prolong artificially the ‘to give a ing methods of paying for social UK in 1965, does not deal with death throes of a sinking indus- services. internal pressure groups.28 There try. Rather, it is the government’s clear lead to The section ‘Education: The is no mention of the RRG in the role to indentify and encourage Open Door’ attacks the eleven- memoirs of prominent Liberals new industries which create new progressive- plus examination as predestining of the time, although it was Jer- goods or services for which there every child to social superiority or emy Thorpe who was most closely is a market, to assist with retrain- minded men inferiority on the basis of a single associated with the group and we ing and to give the lead to private assessment at too early an age. It await the publication of papers industry by establishing publicly and women’, calls for comprehensive education dealing with Thorpe’s career. owned and financed concerns in but on a human scale and accepts There have been entries in two these areas and by providing basic to offer a the continuation of public schools History Group publications, Dic- facilities such as cheap commu- in a free society, while looking tionary of Liberal Biography and nications. This section goes on prospectus of forward to a day when they will Dictionary of Liberal Thought which to champion the breaking up of fade away. add to the literature, the first a existing monopolies, the preven- radical goals The final section is called ‘The biography of Desmond Banks29, tion of new ones and the encour- as a rallying Defence of Standards’ and antici- the second an analysis of the his- agement of small-scale enterprises pates more contemporary argu- tory and thought of the RRG.30 in industry and agriculture point around ments about the decline in the The earliest detailed reference through government-funded quality of life at the same time as to the RRG in published literature low-interest loans. which such the growth of affluence. It worries is to be found in Alan Watkins’ The section on ‘Trade Union about over-commercialisation and book, The Liberal Dilemma,31 pub- Reform’ criticised the failure of progres- the primacy of the ‘values of the lished in 1966. Set within the chap- the unions to adapt to changing box-office and the sales-graph’. ter entitled ‘The Darkest Days’, this industrial conditions, and their sives could The section welcomes greater cul- gives a good flavour of the times in clinging on to outdated prac- tural and aesthetic opportunities which the RRG was born and the tices and becoming increasingly realign. but it calls for measures to alert social liberal rationale behind its

Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 47 the radical reform group formation. He sets the departure regional universities in Exeter One of the proposals at the 1960 from and reversion to the Liberal and Bristol.35 AGM was for there to be ‘one Party in a wider political context. The most recent contribution main effective party of the left’.39 Watkins queries the effectiveness to the literature on the RRG is Grimond seemed to think that of the group in providing a com- Mark Egan’s book, Coming into any work done on policy strands prehensive umbrella for all those in Focus,36 published in 2009 but that could lay the foundations of the party who broadly agreed with based on his Oxford doctoral the- the realignment of the left could its approach, citing one source sis awarded in 2000. The book be inhibited if he, as leader of the attacking the RRG as misunder- contains a section devoted the It remains party, carried on as chief officer of standing the traditional synthesis of RRG as part of the chapter about the RRG. political, social and economic lib- the Young Liberals (YL). It lists moot as It remains moot as to how far eralisms from which party policy the RRG as a YL ginger group, the RRG influenced Grimond or is derived. Watkins also questions along with and to how far whether he simply shared com- whether the Radical Reformers New Orbits, although it con- mon views with the group, but were just opposed to the doctri- cedes that the RRG was not led the RRG his connection with the RRG naire free-traders or whether they by YLs, just that a number of influenced and its key personnel was close wanted to replace the old guard prominent young Liberals were from almost the start of his lead- with a new, young leadership active in the group. Egan’s main Grimond ership and continued through the drawn from their own ranks. Wat- contention is that the RRG was period when his association with kins does, however, conclude that not an engine of new thinking or whether the strategy of realignment of the it is possible to see the RRG as the but a ginger group for what was left was at its height. The RRG precursor to the revolution that Jo essentially already party policy he simply also had close ties with Grimond’s Grimond put into effect. in the face of the lacklustre lead- successor as party leader, Jeremy The next most detailed men- ership on policy development by shared com- Thorpe. In the exchange of let- tion comes in Vernon Bogdanor’s and the threat of ters in which Thorpe accepted the Liberal Party Politics, published in laissez-faire liberals like Oliver mon views invitation to continue as a vice- 1983, with references in chapters Smedley. Such was the ‘rudderless president of the RRG for the year by William Wallace on ‘Survival nature of the party’, writes Egan, with the 1965–66, his association with the and Revival’ and by Andrew ‘that a separate ginger group had group was described as so long as Gamble on ‘Liberals and the to be established in order for the group, but to be virtually historical.40 After Economy’. Wallace associates the mainstream Liberal view to be Thorpe had won the leadership return of the RRG to the Lib- presented to the [Liberal] Assem- his connec- contest in 1967, he wrote to Peter eral Party and the leadership of bly.37 Egan rightly points out that, Grafton saying that his victory Jo Grimond as related elements once Grimond became leader of tion with the was ‘an RRG victory’ and warned in the revival of Liberal electoral the party, the need for the RRG that he needed and expected which he dates from the declined. Both in terms of strat- RRG and its group’s continued support.41 winter of 1955–56 and which are egy, i.e. realignment of the left, key person- How far do these published strongly boosted by anti-Con- and in robust policy development sources assist in coming to a con- servative feeling over Suez. These based on the social liberal tradi- nel was close clusion about the strength and factors, says Wallace, help the Lib- tion and economic intervention- membership of the RRG and eral Party begin ‘to rediscover a ism, the party revived and found from almost its influence on the strategy and sense of purpose and a place in the its political place under Grimond. policies of the Liberal Party in the political spectrum.’32 Gamble, in a As Egan notes, many of the Radi- the start of 1950s and 1960s? As early as 1954, single reference, concentrates on cal Reformers like Banks, Moore writing in the Liberal Party publi- the opposition of the RRG to the and, of course, his leader- cation Ahead, Timothy Joyce was economic liberals and concludes went on to hold important posi- referring to press speculation that by linking the RRG to Grimond’s tions in the party and to influence ship and the forthcoming Liberal Party views on the future of politics. policy formulation. However Assembly in Buxton would be a Some useful references to Egan states that Grimond was not continued battleground between the Radi- the RRG are also to be found connected with the RRG (albeit cal Reform Group and a free trade in Garry Tregidga’s regional he kept in touch with members through the group over the issues of agricul- study, The Liberal Party in South- of the group). In fact Grimond tural protection and industrial co- West Britain since 1918.33 Tregidga was President of the RRG in the period when ownership. Perhaps reflecting the charts a Liberal revival in the late 1950s. However, in a letter to fact that he was writing in an offi- south-west and places it within Peter Grafton dated 2 March 1960, his associa- cial organ, Joyce tried to down- a wider context, in which the he declined the invitation to con- play this conflict saying that the RRG played its part and with tinue in the role on the grounds tion with the average constituency association whom local figures, like Dingle that ‘it may give an odd impres- strategy of knew little about these ‘splits and Foot34 and Jeremy Thorpe, were sion if I am an Officer of a group splutterings’ and cared little for associated. Tregigda points out within the party’.38 He went on to realignment either group. He estimated both that the RRG, founded by young say that ‘much as I value the work factions had only a few dozen fol- parliamentary candidates, was being done by the group, I think of the left lowers each.42 This seems to be attracting support from the Lib- this may be all the more necessary borne out by the numbers attend- eral revival in the universities if you propose to have any really was at its ing the AGM of the RRG of 1955, and that Thorpe in particular was serious discussions about the sort at which it decided to come back spreading the RRG gospel at the of area of agreement of the Left’. height. into the Liberal Party, as the vote

48 Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 the radical reform group in favour of that resolution was The RRG was Clarendon Press, 1983), p.201. Macmillan, 1976). passed by sixteen votes to fifteen.43 9 Derick Mirfin, ‘The Liberal Party’s 26 David Dutton, A History of the Lib- However, the attendance sheet a key social Radical Reform Group’, Time and eral Party in the Twentieth Century for the AGM of 9 February 1957 Tide, 12 April 1962. (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, lists fifty-three members present liberal pres- 10 Constitution of the Radical 2004), pp. 180 and 189. and the membership list of the Reform Group, unpublished (prob- 27 Mark Egan, Coming Into Focus: The RRG for the year 1965 contains sure group ably 1952). Transformation of the Liberal Party, 184 names.44 It is uncertain how 11 Pierre Poujade (1920–2003) French 1945–64 (Saarbrucken: VDM Verlag many could be described as active, inside the populist politician, supporter of Dr Muller, 2009), p. 124. and the list includes honorary and Liberal Party Vichy France in 1940–42, who 28 Jorgen Scott Rasmussen, The Liberal former honorary members and articulated the grievances and Party: A Study of Retrenchment and officers, such as Jo Grimond and in the 1950s nationalism of shopkeepers and Revival (London: Constable, 1965). the radio personality and cricket other small business people. 29 Graham Lippiatt, ‘Desmond Banks’, commentator John Arlott.45 and 1960s, 12 Alan Watkins, The Liberal Dilemma in Duncan Brack et al. (eds.), Dic- Clearly, though, even at a time (London: MacGibbon & Kee, tionary of Liberal Biography (London: when the activities of the RRG influencing 1966), p. 80. Politico’s, 1998), pp. 26–27. were no longer expanding, there 13 Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan (1897–1960), 30 Graham Lippiatt, ‘The Radical was still a large pool of support- strategy Welsh Labour politician and gov- Reform Group’, in Duncan Brack ers of its aims and objectives. The ernment minister who introduced and Ed Randall (eds.), Dictionary of evidence of the publications of the and policy the National Health Service. The Liberal Thought (London: Politico’s, RRG, the references to it in the Labour Party withdrew the whip 2007), pp. 329–31. national and party media, its pro- and with from Bevan in 1955 over his leader- 31 Alan Watkins, op. cit., pp. 69ff and gramme of events, the publication ship of a revolt against party policy p. 80. of its newsletter over many years connections on the atom bomb. 32 Vernon Bogdanor (ed.), Liberal Party and the references to its influence 14 Hugh Gaitskell (1906–1963), leader Politics (Oxford University Press, in the party in some of the pub- to the very of the Labour Party, 1955–1963. 1983), p. 45. lished literature all point to the 15 The Times, 29 April 1955, p. 18. 33 Garry Tregidga, The Liberal Party in RRG as being a key social liberal top of the 16 Transcript report of the Annual South-West Britain since 1918: Political pressure group inside the Lib- General Meeting of the Radical Decline, Dormancy and Rebirth (Uni- eral Party in the 1950s and 1960s, organisation. Reform Group, held on 29 October versity of Exeter Press, 2000), pp. influencing strategy and policy 1955 at 3 p.m. in the Meston Room 146ff. and with connections to the very of the National Liberal Club – in 34 (1905–1978), Liberal top of the organisation. possession of the author. MP for Dundee 1931–45. 17 News Chronicle, 23 February 1956, 35 Tregidga, op. cit., pp. 148 and Graham Lippiatt is a contributing leader. 154–55. editor of the Journal of Liberal His- 18 These are the only publications 36 Mark Egan, Coming Into Focus: The tory, Secretary of the Liberal Demo- credited to the RRG in the cata- Transformation of the Liberal Party, crat History Group and author of the logue of the British Library. 1945–64 (Saarbrucken; VDM Verlag entry on the Radical Reform Group 19 Interview of 5 June 2007 with Dr Muller, 2009). in Dictionary of Liberal Thought Professor Alan Deyermond (1932– 37 Egan, op. cit., p. 126. (Brack & Randall (eds.) , Politico’s 2009), sometime editor of the RRG 38 Copy of a letter from Jo Grimond Publishing, 2007). newsletter. to Peter Grafton of 2 March 1960, 20 Copies of newsletters in possession from papers left to the author by 1 Peter Grafton, ‘The Radical of author from the papers of the late Lord Banks. Reform Group’, Ahead, October Professor Alan Deyermond. 39 From letter from Peter Grafton to 1953; The Times, 24 June 1954, p. 3. 21 Herbert Spencer (1820–1903), clas- Jo Grimond of 23 February 1960. 2 Desmond Banks, Lord Banks of sical liberal political theorist who 40 Letters between Jeremy Thorpe and Kenton (1918–1997). challenged socialism, Fabianism Peter Grafton, 6 and 10 December 3 Peter Grafton (b. 1916), chartered and the New Liberalism. 1965, in possession of the author. quantity surveyor; Liberal candi- 22 British political party post-war 41 Letter from Jeremy Thorpe to Peter date for Bromley in 1950. manifestos can be accessed on the Grafton, 27 January 1967, in posses- 4 (1911–1989), char- internet pages of politics resources sion of the author. tered accountant; Liberal candidate at http://www.politicsresources. 42 Ahead magazine (Liberal Party, 58 at Saffron Walden in 1950 and 1951. net/area/uk/man.htm. Victoria Street, SW1), April 1954, 5 Arthur Seldon (1916–2005), econo- 23 Anthony Crosland (1918–1977), p. 4. mist; active Liberal at the LSE and Labour minister and leading social 43 Transcript report of the Annual in the Orpington party. democratic thinker who influenced General Meeting of the Radical 6 S. W. Alexander (1895–1980), jour- the generation that founded the SDP. Reform Group, held on 29 October nalist; Liberal candidate for Ilford 24 Roy Douglas, The History of the Lib- 1955 at 3pm in the Meston Room of North in 1950 and sometime Chair- eral Party 1895–1970 (London: Sidg- the National Liberal Club – in pos- man of the London Liberal Party. wick & Jackson, 1971); updated in session of the author. 7 Interview with Richard Moore, 14 Liberals: A History of the Liberal and 44 Both documents included in papers May 2006. Liberal Democrat Parties (London: left to the author by Lord Banks. 8 Andrew Gamble, ‘Liberals and the Hambledon Continuum, 2005). 45 Leslie Thomas John Arlott OBE Economy’, in Vernon Bogdanor, 25 Chris Cook, A Short History of the (1914–1991), Liberal candidate for Liberal Party Politics (Oxford: Liberal Party 1900–1976 (Basingstoke: Epping 1955 and 1959.

Journal of Liberal History 67 Summer 2010 49