The Dictionary of Liberal Biography Ben Pimlott, Bill Rodgers and Graham Watson give their thoughts on the History Group’s first major publication.

The Liberal Democrat History Group produced its ministers since ; and byelection winners  since . first book in September . Published by Politico’s The Dictionary was launched at the History Publishing, and edited by Duncan Brack, with Group’s fringe meeting at the Liberal Demo- Malcolm Baines, Katie Hall, Graham Lippiatt, Tony crat conference in Brighton in September, and in Politico’s Political Bookstore in Westmin- Little, Mark Pack, Geoffrey Sell and Jen Tankard, the ster in November. We reprint here Professor Dictionary of Liberal Biography brings together in one Ben Pimlott’s foreword to the book, and a re- volume the biographies of over  individuals who port of the launch meeting in Brighton. have made major contributions to the Liberal Party, SDP or Liberal Democrats, or to the development of British Liberalism.

Significant new essays have been contributed by senior academics on some of Britain’s most important historical figures, including William Gladstone, David Lloyd George and Jo Grimond. Liberal thinkers, including Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill and John Maynard Keynes; Victorian statesmen, such as Lord Aberdeen and Viscount Palmerston; and post-war MPs, including Jeremy Thorpe, Cyril Smith and David Penhaligon, have also been criti- cally profiled. All the Liberal Democrat MPs elected in , including Paddy Ashdown, and leading Liberal Democrat peers, such as Shirley Williams and Roy Jenkins, are also in- cluded. Over  individuals, both academics and party ac- tivists, contributed. Appendi- ces include details of party leaders, leaders in the House of Lords, chief whips, and party presidents; cabinet

journal of liberal democrat history 21: winter 1998–99 7 the topic, biographers have gained ground against his position, rather Foreword than lost it. The genre is still very much with us, widely consumed, by Professor Ben Pimlott ever-more serious and scholarly, and constantly discussed. Whether or not There is a continuing debate about the validity of biography, biography is identical with history (and politics) it is often the best en- and how it should be categorised. Is it history? Is it politics? try route into both – as well as an Arguably, it is both or neither. Certainly there have been many essential building block. It is not just that, as Thomas Carlyle put it, ‘his- politicians and historians who have regarded it circumspectly. tory is the essence of innumerable Socialists have sometimes been wary of it, on the grounds biographies’ (in the end, every move- that it elevates star performers above the classes and movements ment and idea rests on participation, and frequently the inspiration and that really count. Aneurin Bevan once remarked that he leadership, of individuals). It is also preferred his fiction straight: after his death, he got it – in the that historical understanding be- form of a great, romantic, polemical biography of him, by his comes arid and two-dimensional, if people are left out of the picture. Liberal-turned-socialist friend Michael Foot, which brilliantly It is no accident that one of the captured the mood and spirit of its subject, while treating finest traditions in British biographi- inconvenient facts with cheerfully Olympian abandon. cal writing should be associated with liberalism and the Liberal Party, for Some regard biography as tory,’ he observed, ‘is characteristic of liberals have always placed particu- anecdotage, others as propaganda. It the primitive stages of historical con- lar emphasis on the uniqueness and was E. H. Carr – to some extent re- sciousness’. limitless potential of the individual. flecting a marxian view – who ad- That biography is primitive can If one of the great monuments of vanced what is still the negative or- scarcely be denied. It may even be the late nineteenth century bio- thodoxy, when he wrote in What Is the oldest form of literature – it long graphical scholarship (and hagiogra- History? about ‘the Bad King John predates the novel (the Christian re- phy) was Morley’s life of Gladstone, theory of history’ – namely, ‘the view ligion, it should be pointed out, is it was Bloomsbury – playground and that what matters in history is the based on four biographies). That in- cauldron of the liberal spirit – that character and behaviour of individu- dividual genius is not a creative force revolutionised biography in the als’, which he considered out of date. in history, however, is certainly open twentieth. Lytton Strachey’s Eminent ‘The desire to postulate individual to challenge, and thirty-seven years Victorians and Queen Victoria, in par- genius as the creative force in his- after Carr wrote so dismissively on ticular, poked disrespectful fun at their subjects, tearing to shreds the notion that biography was the art of glorification, and showing how it The Dictionary of Liberal could be used to explore the human soul in all its complexity. Biographi- Biography cal essays by Winston Churchill (himself then a Liberal, of sorts) were is available for £20.00 (plus £2.50 postage and packing for postal or written in such a spirit. So are the telephone orders) from: distinguished biographical writings of Roy Jenkins (always a Liberal at Monday – Friday 9.00am – 6.30pm heart), which have always used bi- Saturday 10.00am – 6.00pm Sunday 11.00am – 5.00pm ography as the most sensitive of dia- lectical tools – from his early biog- 8 Artillery Row, Westminster, London SW1P 1RZ raphies of Attlee, Asquith and Dilke Tel: 0171 828 0010 Fax: 0171 828 8111 through to his most recent collec- Email: politico’[email protected] tion, The Chancellors. Website: http://www.politicos.co.uk A dictionary of Liberal biogra- phy, therefore, can claim to celebrate many things. On the one hand, it is Britain’s Premier Political part of a proud literary heritage. On Bookstore the other, it is a vital contribution to history and to political thought,

8 journal of liberal democrat history 21: winter 1998–99 and a recognition of the textured considerably more than that. Taken in the Dictionary and asked the speak- nature of a liberal tradition that in- together, the essays by a range of ers to pick out their female heroes. cluded Keynes as well as Gladstone, leading authors provide fascinating Graham Watson chose Nancy Seear Mill and Lloyd George, and which jigsaw pieces for a rich and varied (who is in the book, pp. –) for – out of office even more than in it history of the – ever developing – whom a great wave of affectionate – had done so much to shape the liberal ideal. recollection came from the room. ideas and policies that exist in turn- He also remembered Lady Glen- of-the-millennium Britain and the Ben Pimlott is Warden of Goldsmith’s Coats who had been prospective wider world. This is a work of refer- College, London and author of biographies Liberal candidate for Orkney & ence, of value to politicians, histori- of Hugh Dalton, Harold Wilson and the Shetland in the late s and early ans and journalists, who want to Queen. ’s and who recommended Jo check up on the facts. But it is also Grimond as her successor. Interested by this reference, I did some reading about Lady Glen- Coats after the meeting. Grimond commented in his memoirs that No More Heroes Any More? without her support he would prob- ably never have become an MP at Fringe meeting, 20 September, all. She was also the patron of an- with Bill Rodgers and Graham Watson other young Liberal in the late s. John Junor, later editor of the less- Report by Graham Lippiatt than-Liberal Sunday Express and an ardent supporter of the even lesser- than-liberal Mrs Thatcher, was in- It was definitely standing room only for those not arriving vited by Glen-Coats in , along early in the Osborne Room in the Metropole Hotel in with the then President of Edin- Brighton, with an interested and eclectic crowd gathering burgh University Liberal Club, Ivor Davies, on a speaking and campaign- to hear speakers Bill Rodgers (Lord Rodgers of Quarry ing tour of Orkney & Shetland. Bank) and Graham Watson MEP (former aide to David Steel When a byelection vacancy arose in Kincardine & West Aberdeenshire in and one of the party’s first two Euro MPs). March , Glen-Coats gave Junor The meeting, smoothly and not that Gordon Lishman (pp. – her support and he was adopted as amusingly chaired by our Vice Presi- ) struggling to hear from the crowd candidate. Despite his anti-appease- dent Graham Tope (Lord Tope of at the rear? Was not that Michael ment stance at the time of Hitler’s Cheam) marked the launch of the Steed (pp. –) raising a point invasion of Czechoslovakia, Junor newly published Dictionary of Liberal from the floor? And how many shades lost. He fought the seat again in  Biography, and the speakers were in- of Liberals past were hovering over and failed to be elected by only  vited to consider what lessons today’s the copies of the Dictionary, straining votes. After the byelection Glen- Liberal Democrats have to learn to read their own entries? Coats asked Junor to become her from liberal or social democrat he- After the disappointment of Pro- private secretary, a post he held be- roes of the past. Who, we waited to fessor Ben Pimlott’s not being able fore he went back up to university. hear from our speakers, would they to be present as advertised, and a lit- Over the summer of , as war select as their heroes? Who, in their tle technical difficulty resulting in the approached, they visited Poland and estimation, had contributed most to proceedings from a neighbouring Germany and had to make a hur- the development of the party, or of room being piped through the ried exit from Europe, negotiating Liberalism? What were the common speaker system into our meeting was troop movements and war prepara- themes that bound the famous fig- overcome, Graham Tope got us un- tions. They arrived home on  Sep- ures of our parties’ past to the Lib- der way. He reminded us that, who- tember, the very day of the German eral Democrat supporters and activ- ever the speakers chose, or those of invasion of Poland and just  hours ists of today? us in the audience picked as our per- before Britain’s declaration of war. No doubt it added to the charm sonal heroes, in one sense, all mem- In his choices of female heroes, of the evening that a number of those bers (past and present) of the Lib- Bill Rodgers caused some wry present, not just the platform party, eral Democrat family are heroes. amusement by saying he was elimi- were the subject of entries in the Dic- In the question and comment nating the living. He too praised tionary. Was not that Tony Greaves (pp. session which followed the presen- Nancy Seear, recalling working with –) sprawled on the floor against tations, one participant regretted the her in the House of Lords where she the wall at the front of the room? Was small number of women represented commanded great respect, attending journal of liberal democrat history 21: winter 1998–99 9 at all hours, always speaking very make an attack on the government particular walks of life, celebrities in knowledgeably, usually without of the day, she refused to be told by their time – or heroes, as we would notes. His other choice (also in the Richard that she was not really well all define heroes to be – what do they Dictionary pp. –), was Laura enough. Her son had flunked the job do in their after years? So often, when Grimond. It has been the fate of of telling her, passing the buck to Ri- one reads obituaries, the subjects have some women to win a place in his- chard, who was working in the a short glorious period in their early tory as a result of their family con- Whips’ Office. He too was unable twenties and then they disappear, per- nections. Laura Grimond, notwith- to resist the unstoppable object that haps to be a Lord Lieutenant of a standing that Asquithian pedigree, was Lady Violet, who demanded, if county or to do sheep farming some- earned her entry in the Dictionary the worst came to the worst, to be where in the Scottish Highlands. And fully in her own right. carried to the Liberal benches by the so my interest in this book, in respect To end the evening, Richard bewigged flunkeys in attendance on of many of the names in it, is as a Moore entertained us with a terrific members of the House. book of obituaries, though newly anecdote about another outstanding Enjoy the text of Lord Rodgers’ written for this occasion. but, by the time of the story ailing, and Graham Watson’s speeches – But also I must confess, and I con- Liberal woman, Lady Violet those present at the meeting cer- fess on behalf of everybody who has Bonham-Carter. Insisting on being tainly did. lived their lives in politics and who present in the House of Lords to has found their names in the news- papers from time to time, that when you get a book, a book which per- haps is not a book of biography at all, the first thing you look up is the Of Obituaries and Great Men index. You do not look for the Lib- eral Democrats, you do not look for Bill Rodgers the Liberal Party, you do not look, in my case, for the Gang of Four, you look for your own name. And so, on Duncan Brack wrote to me in July asking me to speak at this occasion we can say, that again this meeting, and although those who have lived their lives about eighty people who are alive and in politics seldom ask themselves why, on this occasion I well to the best of our knowledge, will be picking that book up and the did so. Many years ago I published a short book of first name they will be looking for is biographical essays, but I cannot claim to be a biographer as their own. (I have to say I have not Ben Pimlott certainly is and (I will say something about yet been able to do it but if Graham were to open it at the right page I this at the end) I do not find it easy to have heroes. For might read it over his shoulder. In due these reasons it is perhaps a little unclear about why I am course I will look at the book and here at all. But I can say that I am an avid reader of obituaries. see what it has to say.) I think that we can say it is an Whereas there are eighty people in this book who will buy eclectic selection. It includes Adam it because they are in it, there are many others who will not Smith and it also includes Horatio Bottomley, two men more unalike, buy because they can no longer do so. And so I shall be one could not find. It also has a lot turning less to my contemporaries, I think, than to those of pre-Liberals. It has Charles James who have had their obituaries in my time. Fox, for example, who would not really fit into a definition of Liberal, I think obituaries are most inter- or Mesopotamia as it was then called. as I understand it. It has Palmerston, esting when they involve people I Those in the army spent the inter- a Whig rather than a Liberal, and a have never met, have never heard of war years on the North West Fron- lot of his instincts were very and who have lived lives very differ- tier, dealing in a similar fashion with unliberal by our measure. It has got ent from my own. I am particularly the Afghans. Now I find that very in- Bentham. It has got Tom Paine. It has fascinated by the obituaries of teresting because I have never had got David Ricardo. I should be very servicepeople found mainly in the anything to do with either Kurds or interested to know how they can be Daily Telegraph but also in The Times. Afghans. Equally I am always inter- linked; of course their ideas were im- A very large number of them, par- ested to know what happened when portant, but how they can be linked ticularly those who served with the these individuals stopped bombing to the chain of Liberals and social RAF, seem to have spent the inter- the Kurds and Afghans. Famous peo- democrats we have today? war years bombing the Kurds in Iraq, ple, people who make their names in It also includes some black sheep.

10 journal of liberal democrat history 21: winter 1998–99 I notice the name of Peter Bessell, troversial indeed. You are going to Grimond, whom I remember when though possibly he is dead, and the shake in your shoes at my point. he was in the House. Now Jo played name also of Wallace Lawler, a fairly There is Frank Owen – we all know a tremendous part in raising the notorious figure in his time and not Frank Owen – but not David Owen. morale of the Liberal Party after old very liberal (with a small l) although Now you may say there are very Clem Davies. And I think – and I he fought under the Liberal banner good reasons ... and yet, and yet, if notice that all Liberals old (and less in Birmingham at that stage. There we think of the history of Liberal old) pay tribute to him, and I would are even one or two, and I ask this Democracy we have to consider that not for a moment take that away – slightly nervously in an audience like David, for good or for ill – perhaps, but I wonder whether if one looks this – where are they now? Twenty not good – deserves a place in the at it in a very hard-headed fashion, or twenty-five years ago, when I was history of our times. whether Jo’s was not a silent, per- not able to call myself a Liberal Now, what about the role of great sonal, pilgrimage, which in the end Democrat, the name of Pratap Chitnis men? Some clearly greater than oth- achieved very little, for all his per- always came up on behalf of the Lib- ers but all of them prominent in some sonal qualities. When Jo became eral Party. Now I am looking forward way or another. How far can history Leader of the Liberal Party it had six to the book because the question I be read through their lives? Or is his- members of Parliament. When Jo asked about him – where is he now? tory an inexorable process, as Marx ceased to be Leader of the Liberal – this book will tell me. would have said, and, indeed the Party it had six members of Parlia- But there are some interesting Whig theory of history would main- ment. The proportion of votes won omissions, in my view. There is tain? The Victorians believed in by the Liberals in the election of Charles Kennedy but not Ludovic progress, they believed in change up-  was very much larger than in Kennedy; although Ludo has played ward and better all the time. How far  – but one has to ask, did Jo re- his part in the life of the Liberal did the great political figures listed in ally achieve that much because of the Party, fought a notable byelection this book make a real difference? I circumstances of his time? at Rochdale and has been loyal to think it is a very difficult question to I remember him well. It was a very us today. answer, particularly difficult for those difficult process. He would not be There is Sir Trevor Jones but not whose names appear in the book, called to speak in the House. You Sir Sidney Jones, Lord Mayor of Liv- because, of course, we all like to be- would have the main speakers in the erpool during the last war. So why lieve that history is at least a little bit Commons, the government speaker, one Jones, Trevor – ‘Jones the vote’ different for our having lived. the opposition speaker, but Jo would – but not another Jones, Sir Sidney Now men of ideas, Bentham, not be called in the way that Paddy Jones, a highly respected figure in the Paine, Hume, Ricardo, all influenced Ashdown very often is; and as we in city of Liverpool and perhaps the last thinking and did therefore influence the Lords always have the privilege great Liberal before the revival? In- the political climate of their time. I of being the next party to speak. Jo deed I would be fascinated if it think we can say the same of might be called at half past five; the would be possible in a future edi- Gladstone, of Asquith, of Lloyd press gallery was empty, and many tion to look at some of those Liber- George, of Churchill. All of you know, members of Parliament were having als who made a distinctive contri- of course, being well-informed about their first drink of the evening, or as bution in their own areas. I mention these things, that Churchill was a Lib- they would prefer to put it, signing Liverpool because I was born and eral in his early days and yet he found letters to their constituents. Jo would brought up there. So, I know a bit his way into the book – where David make his speech and then he would more about Liverpool than some of Owen does not – although his later leave the chamber in a slightly lonely you. There were the Rathbones, career was in another party. Now I way and make his way down the cor- there were the Roscoes and they had think the answer for Gladstone, for ridor with his head held slightly to three interesting characteristics. They Asquith, for Lloyd George and for one side; and I often felt I wanted to were mostly in the shipping indus- Churchill is that they did have their say something to him which would try. They were Unitarian in their re- chance on a large enough scale. They be a comfort and an encouragement ligion and they were Liberal in their all became Prime Minister. They all but I did not know what. And so, like politics. And they made an immense played, because of the circumstances others, I passed by on the other side. contribution to the civic life of that of their time, a major part in our lives. And so, when we look at Jo, and I great city in the nineteenth century. And I have to say, it is more difficult think he is a hero of many people and So, perhaps next time, if I might say for those, who may have been distin- I would not take that away, we have to Duncan, look at the Rathbones, guished in their ideas, in their inten- to say: what changes did he make? look at the Roscoes. They will not tions, in their personal lives in one And then, if you consider, and be able to buy the book but they are way or another but, at the same time, this is rather a different point, the well remembered in the city where did not have the opportunities for SDP and the Gang of Four, of whom they grew up and worked. government. I was one. There is a very interest- Here I am going to be very con- I think, for example, of Jo ing book by Patricia Sykes, an journal of liberal democrat history 21: winter 1998–99 11 American academic, called Losing First, of course, Asquith, because good one. And finally, David Lloyd from the Inside. She came to this of his great reforming government. George for reminding us of what country in about  and then Secondly, Charles Bradlaugh, be- you could once get away with, came back again for the  elec- cause of the way he fought to change which President Clinton cannot get tion. She was meant to write a the- the oath. Thirdly, Sir Edward Grey, away with today. sis about the deep-seated ideologi- for a phrase we all remember about Bill Rodgers (Lord Rodgers of Qarry cal differences between members of the lights going out all over Europe. Bank) was a member of the SDP ‘Gang the Gang of Four. She could not find If it had not been for Sir Edward of Four’, and is now leader of the Lib- any. She thought that if you took the Grey, we would not have had that eral Democrat peers. perspective of politics as a whole, description; and I think it is a rather there was not much difference be- tween us. And so, she felt, we lost from the inside, for personal reasons of one kind or another. Now, it is true that the  gen- Six Characters in Search of eral election was a huge disappoint- ment. So near for the Alliance, and an Author yet so far; .% against .% – a very narrow gap. It is true that was Graham Watson the case but I think, looking back, it was most importantly the Falklands War which changed the fate of the The Dictionary of Liberal Biography is the story of two great Alliance. Thinking in particular of families, Social Democrats and Liberals – one young and the SDP – and nobody has really thought hard about this, and perhaps vibrant, the other the scion of older stock; a marriage, I should have the most to say about perhaps, of new money with old? it – was the failure to win the Darlington byelection immediately It is a living history of our party. immediate predecessors. A decade after the Bermondsey byelection, just It sets in context individual effort has barely passed. The bird of liberty before the general election of . and achievement. Uniting figures of has soared, but a parrot left for dead So, for all the differences there were, the past with those of the present, it still occasionally flinches. between the Jenkinsites and the shows how ideology runs thicker And so I have chosen today Owenites (the Jenkinsites did not than blood. It traces what Lloyd three couples, each of which dem- feel it but the Owenites did) I think George called ‘the golden threads of onstrate different characteristics of the reasons why we did not do bet- reason and altruism which weave our party, its present and its past. I ter, why we did not win that extra unbroken through the history of hope they will allow us some re- .% of the vote in  cannot be mankind’s actions and aspirations’. flection on context. seen in terms of personality but of Yet it is not hagiography. It serves as My first couple is John events outside. a needle to puncture the vanity of Bannerman and Mark Bonham- And so, what about the question the living and recognise even the Carter, both, alas, deceased, but both which Duncan asked us: no more weaknesses of the deceased. succeeded, in daughters Ray Michie heroes any more? I think that very I am responsible for only one MP and recent party press officer Jane few people in politics are heroes to entry in this Dictionary: that for Lord Bonham-Carter, by active Liberal their contemporaries. They are re- Steel of Aikwood, the former leader Democrats. Their standards, which spected, they are admired, they are David Steel. I imagine when it was they bore most effectively in the most even loved. They may be momen- mooted that I should speak here that difficult of times for Liberals, the tary heroes, at the moment they win it was expected I should speak of s, have been kept flying. an election or do something great. David Steel. As we languish in the John Bannerman was a product But I do not think one can say more opinion polls at around %, there of Scotland’s establishment, just as than that. It needs the passage of time must be some hankering after the Mark Bonham-Carter represented and the verdict of history to really heady days of regular % poll rat- part of England’s. Mark was an decide. The living eighty of us do not ings and even, on one delusive oc- Asquith, with the self-confidence of know our fate. Only subsequent edi- casion, %. The boy David had a the English Victorian Liberal heyday tions will find them out. But because youthful appeal up against Michael behind him. John was as near as I am required to, I will pick now Foot and Margaret Thatcher which Scotland came to a Liberal tradition; from the list four heroes. Only four some might envy today. But I sus- the sharp, enquiring mind of an En- because I would perhaps pick some pect that our party is not quite ready lightenment-inspired education. more and go on too long. to evaluate the leading figures of our Mark was a dab hand at tennis,

12 journal of liberal democrat history 21: winter 1998–99 though a trained amateur. Johnnie to the Highlands and the plight of and campaigned strongly for a ‘yes’ was an accomplished rugby player, a Highland communities from which vote on st March . As so often Scottish international and the great- his own family had been driven dur- for Liberals, their efforts were not est Scottish forward of the s. ing the clearances. His enquiring immediately to bear fruit. And yet Though twenty years separated them mind set a wider context for his poli- they flinched not in their endeav- in age, both entered active politics tics than many of his SNP contem- ours. ‘A Liberal society’, as Russell just before the second world war. poraries; the failure of the self-gov- once said, ‘will not be built without Both had been scholars at Balliol and ernment crusade in those years is the bricks of effort and the mortar across the pond in New England. because there were so few like John of persistence’. Geraint was a bul- Johnnie came within a whisker of Bannerman. Professor Christopher wark against nationalism because of winning a byelection at Inverness in Harvie tells us that post-war Scot- his very Welshness. Russell was his ; Mark was returned in land produced no gods and precious counterpart north of the border. To rrington four years later. Each pre- few heroes. Since he died at , Perhaps more than John pared the political ground for an- barely eighteen months after his en- Bannerman or Mark Bonham- other Liberal to take and hold the noblement, I plead at least for sanc- Carter, Russell and Geraint were re- division soon after. tification for Lord Bannerman of assuring figures. Genial, astute, safe I have no idea whether they ever Kildonan. pairs of hands. Each coaxed, guided met, but I have no doubt their com- John Bannerman and Mark and motivated a generation of mon modesty would have resulted Bonham-Carter were both, in their younger Liberals (myself among in a quiet mutual respect, though way, individuals. If they never quite them). Neither looked particularly Johnnie may have grumbled into his figured as Leaders, they were youthful, even at a young age: an whisky glass about soft southern uncontestably leading figures. They advantage in politics since it suggests ways. Both men served as lieuten- led by example rather than by en- wisdom. Yet both reflected enduring ants to Jo Grimond in keeping alight couragement. Their education had Liberal values and applied them in- the flame of Liberalism, a task big- bred them to govern their fellow telligently to the present. Nor was ger even than a man of Jo’s stature. men and they did so with ease. Their either man, despite his peaceful Lord Bonham-Carter was, liter- Liberalism, though unusual in their Gaelic charm, a slacker. I doubt ally, a man of the world. He had a generation, was instinctive and self- whether Russell or Geraint, however perfect command of Italian, a coun- confident. It was the product of a far-flung their constituencies, would try of which he was immensely confident age. have failed to show up to vote on knowledgeable and where he spent My next couple, Lord Russell- the amendments to Northern Ire- lengthy holidays, and chaired for Johnston and Lord Geraint, bring us land Terrorism and Conspiracy Bill. many years the Anglo-Polish round in to the present, if only just. Towards Scotland , Wales . Geraint tables. As Chairman of the Race the end of their careers, both have a Howells’ years in the Commons are Relations Board, Governor of the proud history of contribution to our no match for Russell’s. Yet the Welsh- Royal Ballet and Vice Chairman of enterprise. man showed in Parliament the same the BBC he combined concern for Geraint Howells came from mod- unwavering commitment to the in- society with contempt for the Con- est farming stock in Ceredigion, terests of his farmers and small servative establishment – I recall his Russell Johnston from a slightly less businessesmen which he had main- remark at a Liberal International modest rural hinterland on Skye. Bat- tained for almost twenty years as a meeting in Oxford that while Mrs tered by the squalls of the Atlantic on county councillor. And Lord Geraint, Thatcher hated the BBC, most peo- the western reaches of our islands, a shrewd tactician, became Deputy ple outside this country thought both brought the cadences of the Speaker of the House of Lords. Lord rather more of the BBC than of Mrs Gaelic tongue to their wider English- Russell-Johnston, with a similar cu- Thatcher. As a Member of both speaking mission. Though not born rious desire to enter the upper house houses of parliament he was active great, fate had sown in each the seeds on first-name terms, took to the and incisive. His intellect was colos- of greatness; both were to engage, to Lords his long-standing commit- sal and his energy none the less so. inform, to inspire. Philosophers both, ment to international Liberalism. On A well travelled Englishman and they encapsulated and distilled, for a wider canvass however, as the first a stay-at-home Scot seem contrary their audiences to savour, the essence UK Liberal in the European Parlia- to popular mythology. Yet Lord of Liberalism in their respective coun- ment, a quarter of a century ago, he Bannerman, a sheep farmer, rarely tries. If Russell relished the rostrum, developed the taste for political tour- travelled outside his native Scotland. Geraint was the stronger at the other ism which has made him the cur- Nonetheless, he presided over the art in which both were gifted – a rent leader of the Liberal group on Scottish RFU, was Chairman of the keen ability to listen. the Council of Europe. National Forest Parks and president Steeped in the cultures of their Russell, the university graduate, of An Comunn Gaidhealach. He respective countries, Russell and has left more of his thoughts on pa- turned the government spotlight on Geraint were ardent devolutionists per, whether in printed form or in a journal of liberal democrat history 21: winter 1998–99 13 flowing hand in friends’ letterboxes, sextant even in the age of Global If these six characters were in than his Welsh hill-farming colleague. Positioning by Satellite, so neither of search of an author, they have found Just as he preached from the podium, these MPs needs a pollster or a spin one in this book. As a reference so has he prodded with the pen, and doctor to guide him through the work, as a bedtime dipper, the reader we are the wealthier for it. But if the shoals of public opinion. gains access to them here. It helps pen for Geraint was more a place to Coming from commerce, us to look backwards with pride as keep a welcome for sheep – he was, Ronnie and Brian believe in a busi- we look forwards with imagination. after all, President of the Royal Welsh nesslike approach to politics: an ef- I think it’s a good book despite what Show and a member of the Wool ficient operation with an emphasis it says about me. Marketing Board – he nonetheless on service quality for the customer. I am painfully aware that in this inspired through regular cultivation Self-made men, they are self-made short exercise I have chosen only a generation of Welsh Liberal activ- Members of Parliament. Each is men. It is a sad fact that this biogra- ists. Liberalism would not be the same motivated by an appreciation of and phy contains entries for ten times as in either country without them. respect for others that has made him many men as women. But it is a bi- My third and final pair were de- a local celebrity. Loyal and likeable, ography of the nineteenth and barely scribed by one of those I consulted they have stuck with the party in three-quarters of the twentieth cen- as ‘the odd couple’. Ronnie Fearn good times and bad, reaching out to tury. Let us strive to ensure that the and Brian Cotter, my correspond- those whose turn is yet to come. current and future generations of our ent thought, were from a different If Brian returned from London great party throw up a more equal mould. I disagree. Neither man is any to Bristol’s seaside resort, so Ronnie gender balance to grace future such less representative of Liberalism in his was born and bred in commuter land biographies. age and his constituency than any of for that other great port, Liverpool. I may have erred too in focusing the aforementioned. Both represent those first liberated too much on members of Parliament. Tr ue, both came to Parliament from the cities by the great car Much of history is really made by late in their careers. In territory not economy. Typical of our eight Eng- those around them. If too few of traditionally ours, each had to wait lish seaside-town constituency MPs, those are recognised in this biogra- until their electors were prepared to both know the problems of decay- phy, it is on account of their modesty honour their effort. Ronnie Fearn ing Victorian splendour and post- in not seeking the spotlight. (I have was elected in  after forty years modern squalor. Both are local as searched in vain, for example, for an in the wilderness, Brian Cotter a well as national politicians, intimately entry for Mr Duncan Brack.) Those decade later after fourteen. But both concerned with Liberal Democrat and such as those are often nonethe- had served previously (and Ronnie action in local government. less the real heroes of our history. does still) in local government. So Liberalism has spread from the Finally, let me enjoin you to re- With their education interrupted bonnie brae to the bed-and-break- joice. This book is a celebration. So by the war, neither grammar school fast. It’s a sign we’ve come a long way. as we would say in Scotland: ‘Here’s boy Ronnie Fearn nor privately Middle England now stretches out tae us; and wha’s like us!?’ educated Brian Cotter attended uni- ahead: row upon redbrick row of Graham Watson was aide to David Steel versity, but both have first class hon- terraced houses, where leaflets can when leader of the Liberal Party, and is ours from the university of life. Af- be left in an instant and residents’ now MEP for Somerset & Devon North. ter two years’ National Service, Cot- surveys rapidly recovered. ter spent twenty years distributing merchandise to shops and another twenty running a small plastics com- History Group Publications pany. His experience is of people, in their daily lives at work and at play. The History Group will be publishing more books in association with Politico’s Fearn worked as a bank clerk dur- – and readers of the Journal of Liberal Democrat History are invited to help. ing the day and as a Liberal or a thes- The Dictionary of Liberal Quotations is scheduled for autumn 1999, part of a pian in every free waking moment. set of three political quotations books. Quotations from, or about, any famous Each brings to Parliament a feeling (or obscure) Liberal, Social Democrat or Liberal Democrat are very welcome; for the people of England, bent on please include full details of the source. the anvil of experience, which evades most modern politicians. The second edition of the Dictionary of Liberal Biography is provisionally scheduled for 2002 or 2003 – but we would like to hear ideas now for the ‘Smile at us, pay us, pass us, but inclusion of major figures omitted from the first edition. Please also tell us do not quite forget; for we are the about any mistakes you spot in the current edition; errata will be included in people of England, who have not the History Group’s web site, and corrections made in the second edition. spoken yet’, wrote that great poet and Liberal MP G. K. Chesterton. As Please write with ideas to Duncan Brack, Flat 9, 6 Hopton Road, London the experienced helmsman prefers a SW16 2EQ; [email protected].

14 journal of liberal democrat history 21: winter 1998–99