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'Partly Made Politicians': the Youth Wings of the British Political Parties

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'Partly Made Politicians': the Youth Wings of the British Political Parties ‘PARTLY MADE POLITICIANS’: THE YOUTH WINGS OF THE BRITISH POLITICAL PARTIES, 1918-1939 The Complete Imp, The Imp, April 1931, p. 16. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of History PhD by Matthew David Seddon, Lancaster University, May 2020. Abstract This thesis is a comprehensive study of the youth wings of the major political parties between the wars. It examines the Conservative Party’s Junior Imperial League, the Labour Party’s League of Youth, the Liberal Party’s National League of Young Liberals, and the Communist Party of Great Britain’s Young Communist League. This thesis makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how the 1918 and 1928 Franchise Acts changed British political culture, and how young people were inducted into the British political system. The central premise of this thesis is that it is only by looking at these groups comparatively that we can get the full story of politicised youth. It will argue that, while their primary purpose was to recruit activists and party workers, these organisations were far more than insular, narrow interest groups. Rather than operating in isolation, these organisations learned from one another, adapted and reacted to each other’s activities, and actively sought to cast their recruiting nets as wide as possible to counter each other’s influence. Whereas studies of the class and gender dynamics of interwar politics abound, this thesis brings youth to the forefront of its examination of political culture between the wars. This thesis uses youth as a new lens through which to explore the themes of citizenship, the relationship between people and politicians, the blurring of the boundaries between public and private lives, and how mass democracy changed the practice of politics. By looking at youth in this way, this thesis paints a picture of a political culture which sought to integrate as many people as possible. Contents List of Figures 1 List of Abbreviations 2 Section 1: Introduction Chapter 1: Introduction 4 Chapter 2: A History of Youth 29 Section 2: Identity Chapter 3: A Sense of Belonging: Creating a Political Identity 51 Chapter 4: ‘Making Democracy Safe for the World’: Constructing and Educating the 97 Young Citizen Section 3: Activity Chapter 5: A Higher Evolution? The Character of Youth Politics: Political Culture 144 and Party Work Chapter 6: ‘Dishing up Disguised Politics’: Leisure Activity, Youth Culture, and the 174 Politicisation of Leisure Section 4: Conclusion Chapter 7: Conclusion 214 Bibliography 223 List of Figures 2.1 Timeline featuring the foundation of significant youth organisations, along with 31 world events 3.1 Junior Imperial and Constitutional League membership badges 72 3.2 LoY membership badge 73 3.3 NLYL membership crest and membership badge 75 3.4 New Nation masthead images 78 3.5 Advance masthead image 79 3.6 Junior Imperial League Gazette and The Imp masthead images 79 3.7 ‘Mr. and Mrs. Young Liberal’ cartoons 82 3.8 ‘The Complete Imp’ cartoon 85 4.1 Table of Ashridge courses by category 107 4.2 A selection of anti-Socialist cartoons from JIL periodicals 126 5.1 ‘The Higher Evolution of an Imp, or – How to add a cubit to your stature’ cartoon 144 6.1 Challenge front cover 186 6.2 National Service cartoons from Torchbearer 193 6.3 YCL periodical covers, League Organiser and Challenge 208 1 List of Abbreviations BUF British Union of Fascists BWSF British Workers’ Sports Federation BYPA British Youth Peace Assembly CCC Clarion Cycling Club CLC Central Labour College CPGB Communist Party of Great Britain EMB Empire Marketing Board GE General Election JIL Junior Imperial League JWT J. Walter Thompson KKK Ku Klux Klan LAC London Advisory Committee LNU League of Nations Union LoN League of Nations LoY League of Youth LSE London School of Economics NAC National Advisory Committee NCCL National Council of Civil Liberties NCLC National Council of Labour Colleges NEC National Executive Committee NLYL National League of Young Liberals NWSA National Workers’ Sports Association SDF Social Democratic Federation SSS Socialist Sunday School 2 UEP United Empire Party YHA Youth Hostel Association YMCA Young Men’s Christian Association 3 Section 1: Introduction Chapter 1: Introduction Young People Then and Now Throughout the course of my writing this thesis, generational politics has increasingly come under the spotlight. Some of Britain’s most pressing social issues appear increasingly to be divided along generational lines; meanwhile, the significance of winning over young people is understood by both the Labour and Conservative parties. The 2017 General Election saw the coining of the word ‘youthquake’ to describe the phenomenon of young people turning out in vast numbers to support the Labour Party, potentially snatching Theresa May’s majority.1 Since then there has been significant debate over whether the phenomenon existed at all; however, this did not stop Oxford Dictionaries naming ‘youthquake’ their word of the year, and the Conservative Party acknowledging that they needed to do more to appeal to young people.2 More recently, young Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has been making waves with impassioned speeches delivered directly to world leaders, and young people have organised ‘climate strikes’ to raise awareness of the issue. What has proven to be especially interesting to me, as a historian of youth, is not events themselves but rather the reaction to them from politicians and commentators. May criticised the climate strikes by accusing children of wasting lesson time.3 Thunberg has attracted even harsher criticism, bordering on revulsion and 1 Alan Travis, ‘”Youthquake” behind Labour election surge divides generations’, The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/20/youthquake-behind-labour-election-surge-divides- generations?CMP=twt_gu, [accessed 26 September 2019]. 2 The British Election Study Team, ‘The myth of the 2017 youthquake election’, British Election Study, https://www.britishelectionstudy.com/bes-impact/the-myth-of-the-2017-youthquake- election/#.XYyGUn97mUl, [accessed 26 September 2019]; Peter Kellner, ‘The British Election Study claims there was no “youthquake” last June. It’s wrong’, Prospect, https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/blogs/peter- kellner/the-british-election-study-claims-there-was-no-youthquake-last-june-its-wrong, [accessed 26 September 2019]; Oxford Dictionaries, ‘Word of the Year 2017 is…’, https://languages.oup.com/word-of-the- year/word-of-the-year-2017, [accessed 26 September 2019]. 3 Joe Watts, ‘Theresa May criticises schoolchildren protesting against looming climate disaster for wasting lesson time’, The Independent, [accessed 26 September 2019], https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-climate-change-school-pupils-protest-lesson- time-teachers-a8781046.html. 4 ridicule, whereby she has been accused of ‘brainwashing’, likened to a ‘cult leader’, MPs accused of ‘fawning over her’, and, in the most extreme cases, her autism mocked.4 When mass democracy arrived in Britain less than one hundred years ago, politicians were also faced with politically active youth; yet, the reaction was somewhat different. Young people were taken seriously, their views and concerns listened to, and a sincere attempt was made to mobilise them for politics. What stands as the greatest contrast is that while inter-war commentators saw potential weaknesses in the ability of young people to understand and practise politics, they did not conclude that young people should therefore be dismissed out of hand. Instead, young people needed to be inducted into the political system and their energies put towards useful political activities. It is with the integration of young people into the British political system which this thesis is concerned. Among its chief interests are exploring how young people were imagined by politicians, exploring how young people were constructed as citizens and what role was created for them in the political system, examining how young people’s ‘political identity’ was formed, and reconstructing their experiences as activists and party workers. All of this is wrapped up in the aim of considering what the effect of mass democracy was on British political culture; that being the set of rules and understandings which govern how politics is practised. Background Although Britain had long had a parliamentary system with elected representatives, this was not an equal system. It was only after 1928 that all citizens were granted a vote on equal terms. Following the 1918 Representation of the People Act the electorate in Britain was tripled. The Act removed the 4 Rebecca Speare-Cole, ‘Jeremy Corbyn’s brother Piers labels teen climate activist Greta Thunberg an “ignorant brainwashed child”’, Evening Standard, https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/jeremy-corbyn-s-brother-labels- teen-climate-activist-greta-thunberg-an-ignorant-brainwashed-child-a4125046.html, [accessed 26 September 2019]; Igor Ogorodnev, ‘”We don’t have a future”: Greta Thunberg used to offer salvation, now she prepares us for doomsday’, RT, https://www.rt.com/op-ed/457455-greta-thunberg-cult-british-parliament-doomsday/, [accessed 26 September 2019]; Lloyd Evans, ‘Why are our MPs fawning over Greta Thunberg?’, The Spectator, https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/04/why-are-our-mps-fawning-over-greta-thunberg/, [accessed 26 September 2019]. 5 last of the property requirements for men, introducing universal suffrage for men over the age of twenty-one; and enfranchised women over thirty, still subject to some property requirements. This was followed a decade later by a further Representation Act which meant that, in the 1929 General Election, women were able to vote on the same terms as men for the first time in British history and made up the majority of the electorate. This sudden and substantial expansion in the number of eligible voters meant that British politicians were faced with an electorate where the majority had never voted before, and although many had familial or class loyalties to one party or another, they lacked the personal connection of being a ‘Labour voter’ or ‘Conservative voter’.
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