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The journal of the Conservative History Group | Autumn 2005 | £7.50 Conservative History Journal HARSHAN KUMARASINGHAM “HOME SWEET HOME”: THE PROBLEMATIC LEADERSHIP OF ALEC DOUGLASHOME

SCOTT KELLY ‘ OF ’ AND THE 1945 ELECTION

IAN PENDLINGHAM “PUT UP OR SHUT UP”: THE 1995 LEADERSHIP CONTEST SIR 1916–2005 John Barnes, Ronald Porter and Helen Szamuely examine the legacy of a controversial Conservative leader

Plus: Nicholas Hillman reviews The State We’re In; Mark Garnett reviews ’s 1980–2001; Ronald Porter reviews Reggie: The Life of Contents

Conservative History Journal The Conservative History Journal is published twice Contents yearly by the Conservative History Group

ISSN 14798026 Editorial 1 Helen Szamuely Advertisements To advertise in the next issue A Conservative historian speaks: John Charmley 2 call Helen Szamuely on 07733 018999 Helen Szamuely

Editorial/Correspondence So what are we to make of Edward Heath? 7 Contributions to the Journal – letters, articles and Helen Szamuely book reviews are invited. The Journal is a refereed publication; all articles submitted will be reviewed Heath should have got a life and never hung around the green room 9 and publication is not guaranteed. Contributions Ronald Porter should be emailed or posted to the addresses below. All articles remain copyright © their authors Edward Heath: a personal recollection and appraisal 11 John Barnes Subscriptions/Membership An annual subscription to the Conservative History “Home Sweet Home”: the problematic leadership of Alec Douglas Home 13 Group costs £15. Copies of the Journal are included Harshan Kumarasingham in the membership fee. “Put up or shut up” 16 The Conservative History Group Ian Pendlington Chairman: Keith Simpson MP Deputy Chairman: Professor John Charmley ‘The Ghost of Neville Chamberlain’: Guilty Men and the 1945 Election 18 Director: Iain Dale Scott Kelly Treasurer: John Strafford Secretary: Martin Ball Membership Secretary: Just Journal Editors: John Barnes & Helen Szamuely Book reviews The We’re In by James Bartholomes 25 Committee: reviewed by Nicholas Hillman Christina Dykes Lord Norton of Louth Diaries 1980–2001 by Giles Radice 26 Lord Brooke reviewed by Mark Garnett Jonathan Collett Simon Gordon Reggie by Lewis Baston 27 Mark Garnett reviewed by Ronald Porter Ian Pendlington MP MP William Dorman Graham Smith Jeremy Savage Lord Henley William McDougall Tricia Gurnett

Conservative History Group PO Box 42119 SW8 1WJ Telephone: 07768 254690 Email: [email protected] Website: www.conservativehistory.org.uk Editorial Helen Szamuely

s the Conservative Party gathers for a ered remarkably quickly. The article details an inter- Conference in the aftermath of another esting early example of Labour Party “” in its electoral defeat and in the throes of usage of the “guilty men” theme, assigning nothing another leadership election, this issue but guilt to the pre-war Conservative Party. It also A looks at past precedents. shows an early example of Conservative reluctance to We look at the career of Edward Heath, who died fight against that spin by refusing to discuss the earlier this year, through three very different contri- Labour Party’s own less than glorious record on the butions. Central to Mr Heath’s political views was his subject of re-armament. overwhelming conviction that Britain had to be part of Our book reviews look at one would-be Prime a united European state (as he acknowledged belated- Minister, Reginald Maudling, as well as the argu- Helen Szamuely is the ly during the arguments about the ). Conservative ments about that great shibboleth of the twentieth co-editor of the Conservative Prime Ministers have had to deal with the issue of century, the welfare state and the diaries of Giles History Journal. Email her on [email protected]. Europe ever since, none more so than John , Radice, Labour politician, peer of the realm but, in whose surprise resignation and expected re-election is reality, a Social-Democrat rather than a Socialist. This chronicled by Ian Pendlington. is our first departure from strictly Conservative poli- This issue of the Journal is, thus, devoted largely to tics with the aim of taking a look at some political the subject of Conservative Prime Ministers, success- debates from the outside. ful and, mostly, unsuccessful. Harshan As ever, we remain grateful to our contributors and Kumarasingham writes about Sir Alec Douglas even more grateful to our patient readers. We are hop- Home, Edward Heath’s predecessor and a much ing to focus the next issue on Conservative foreign underrated politician and Stuart Kelly provides a fas- policy, widening the theme to include eighteenth and cinating insight into the 1945 election, another great nineteenth century politics. And, guess what? We are defeat for the Conservative Party from which it recov- looking for contributions.

The Conservative History Group As the Conservative Party regroups after three election defeats, learning from history is perhaps more vital than ever, We formed the Conservative History Group in the Autumn of 2002 to promote the discussion and debate of all aspects of Conservative history. We have organised a wide-ranging programme of meetings in our first year and with the bi-annual publication of the Conservative History Journal, we hope to provide a forum for serious and indepth articles on Conservative history, biographies of leading and more obscure Conservative figures, as well as book reviews and profiles. For an annual subscription of only £15 you will receive invites to all our events as well as complimentary copies of the Conservative History Journal twice a year. We very much hope you will want to join us and become part of one of the Conservative Party’s most vibrant discussion groups.

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Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 | 1 HS: John, thank you very much for agreeing to give this interview to the Conservative History Journal. It is A Conservative not the first interview, but you are still by way of being a guinea pig. With this series of interviews we are trying to explore the idea of what it is to be a conservative historian and historian whether there is such a thing as con- servative history. Now you are, of course, an historian, with many pub- lications to your name and an active speaks . . . member of the Conservative Party. But would you consider yourself to be a conservative historian?

Continuing the series of of interviews with JC: Yes, I think I would, in two sens- es: the obvious one that you have just Conservative historians Helen Szamuely listed, that I am a Conservative who writes history and, while I think that meets John Charmley. any historian worth his salt, tries to recognize his own biases and to over- come them, but the biases that I have to fight with are conservative biases. But I am a conservative historian in a different sense as well, in the sense John Charmley is the Professor of party, parallel to the better known that the type of history I write is very Modern History at the University of Churchillian one. He is also an active traditional history. I am not much East Anglia, where he is building up a member of the Conservative Party. concerned with theories of discourse, school of history, whose work, Here John Charmley gives his views masculinities, feminism, or any of according to him, will change our on the study of history and how it the other modish things that have perception of Conservative foreign affects our perception of politics, come along in the last twenty-five policy in the nineteenth century and adding a few trenchant comments on years with the vocabulary of the its tradition that has remained in the both, to Helen Szamuely. building site, the deconstruction, reconstruction – mystification most of it is. I write, I hope, reasonably clear, old-fashioned diplomatic and political history. So in that sense, I think that I am probably a very con- servative sort of historian.

HS: That is very interesting. Going on from there, is that how you would define conservative history? In fact, would you say there is such a thing as conservative history in the way most of us would be able to define whig history?

JC: Yes, I think there is in certain assumptions that underlie what one is writing. In my case, one of my deep- est beliefs as an historian is in the importance of the contingent. I don’t see things as moving down tramlines towards some predetermined future. All those trends of the 1940s and

2| Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 John Charmley

1950s that were all leading us in one whose work, I think, shows us what vatism that millions of people have direction, have, oddly enough, can be done by very serious attention been slaughtered. It’s always been in petered out. The last remnant of this to detail and, of course, that vital the name of some grand utopian kind of teleology in our history is the thing that all conservative historians ideal, the paradise of the workers, EU; the one road down which we are have – all historians ought to have it, whatever. There’s always been some still being led is the EU and it will be but I think conservative ones do in a wonderful rhetoric, which even some interesting to see in fifty years’ time larger measure – and that is scepti- of those espousing it believed. So, I whether those tramlines will have to cism. And, if you like, a nose for think, on the whole, one of the les- be redefined. So yes, I think conser- humbug, and Maurice’s nose for sons I’ve drawn from history and one vative historians believe in the impor- humbug is, I think, one of the best of the reasons I think politicians tance of the contingent and the acci- there is. So, I think, if I had to say ought to study it, is that it teaches dental. They don’t ignore deep under- which conservative historian I admire them the limits of what politics can lying forces but nor do they, I think, most, it would be Maurice Cowling. actually do, which is very little good fetishize them; they don’t necessarily but it can do a great deal of harm. believe that they are there for some And, as I say, it just strikes me that ideological reason. “I think all the way along the line, what the twentieth century, which I think, The other thing is that they believe people do, the way they behave makes on the whole, ought really to have put in the importance of the personal. a total halt to the idea of progress – People make a difference and, there- an enormous difference on history well, one can believe in progress in fore, in the history I write there is a . . . I think, those are things conservative dentistry and medicine, perhaps, concentration on people. I don’t think although some people would have it is just big things like “would it have historians have in common. their doubts about that – but how you made a difference if Churchill had not “ can believe in progress in political existed in ”. I think any fool ways, looking at the twentieth centu- can see that it would have made an HS: I shall not ask about the present ry, I cannot understand. But you enormous difference if Winston ones. Going on to another subject: know, from Hitlet to Stalin, to Mao Churchill had not existed in May 1940. one of the things that anyone who has Tse-tung, to Pol Pot, these were all I think all the way along the line, what studied and written history would visionaries and I think the most dan- people do, the way they behave makes have been asked why do you do it; gerous politician is the politician an enormous difference on history. So, why does it matter, it all happened a with a vision. I think, those are things conservative long time ago. And I assume there historians have in common. was a time when you were asked this HS: You have written a lot about the There is also an attention to detail, question by various people. What is it twentieth century, but now work on which means eschewing broad-brush that made you decide, no, I still want the nineteenth. Was there a reason for generalizations: the government to look at what people did who are the change or was it a natural pro- thought, the Labour party thought. It now dead and gone though it was all gression? actually means getting your hands a long time ago? grubby, going into archives, doing JC: I think it was a natural progres- some serious work and actually try- JC: I think of all the main great dis- sion, although I think in a way a lot of ing to get behind the generalizations ciplines, history is the one that the ideas in my more controversial – I suppose if one wanted to be mod- encompasses most of what it is to be books, I thought needed more expla- ish one could call it deconstruction. It human. We’re all, whatever we think nation. And the explanations do lie in is one of the wonderful things about is going to happen to us next, we’re the nineteenth century. I think it is post-modernism that what is new in it all passing through here and the only not possible – and this is a very good is not interesting and what is interest- indicators we have as to the road conservative thought, I guess – I ing in it, is not new. ahead, is actually what people did in don’t think it is possible to under- the past. And I think that history stand fully where Chamberlain and HS: If one looks at the conservative ought to be compulsory study for Churchill come from in 1938 and historical tradition, there are presum- politicians because one of the things 1939 without actually knowing ably people whom you would be able it really does warn you against is the something about the longer conser- to fit into that tradition. Every con- consequences of utopianism. vative traditions in British foreign servative historian has a different list Whatever else you could say about policy. In some of my earlier books of conservative historians. Who conservative political systems – and like Chamberlain and the Lost Peace, would be your choice? you could, no doubt, say a lot of published in 1989, there are little bits unpleasant things about them as of this sticking up above the surface, JC: The conservative historian I most about any political system – it has which, on the whole, the reviewers admire is probably Maurice Cowling, never been in the name of conser- missed, as reviewers will. They sim-

Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 | 3 John Charmley ply thought that in the first Churchill esting”. On the other hand, history pened in the past and I think academ- book, Churchill and the End of in the shape of books and, even tele- ic historians who get very snobbish Glory, that I was simply provocative vision programmes, is immensely about this are very, very foolish. I for the sake of it. popular. Are these two related in any think the idea that the only form of There was, however, a much larg- way and is one the consequence of historical discourse that is worth ana- er body of work that it all rested on the other? lyzing is that conducted in obscure but much of it had not been written learned articles is dreadful arro- up. So, I decided I had to go back JC: I am sure they are. I think there gance. Of course, it is one form of into the nineteenth century and the is an innate desire in most of us to historical discussion that is worth more I have spent back there, the know more about those who trod having. But let’s face it, if you look clearer it has become to me, that this earth before we did. It’s the only around the country, there are an trends in history over the last thirty thing we can really know. I think awful lot of historians sitting where I years have, I think, had a deleterious there is a spiritual hunger in every- am sitting, being paid salaries by the effect on our understanding of the one and one way of satisfying that is state, to do what? Well, one of the nineteenth century. There has been to know more about the people who things we are doing, I hope, is incul- more work done, for example, on were here before we were. Except in cating an interest in history amongst British railway workers in the nine- really strange communist societies the young and teaching the young teenth century than has been on the we don’t actually believe that we are some history. But the other thing we foreign policy of most of the the first people. I know it is a delu- are also trying to do is to write the Conservative governments of the sion of western liberalism that we history of whatever we are an expert nineteenth century. It’s simply that are smarter than anyone who came in. And I think the very least we can historical trends have moved away before us, but even western liberal- do is to try and write that history in a from what some of my colleagues ism recognizes that we are not the manner that makes it accessible to would regard as old-fashioned polit- first ones here, we may just be the the widest number of people. This is ical and diplomatic history. cockiest ones here. And I think that’s very unconservative but one of the I think, we’ve tended to concen- one of the reasons that, despite what things that doesn’t make me a total trate on the domestic. Also I think happens in schools, I think there is a pessimist about the future is that peo- one of the consequences of our lot of catch-up work done in univer- ple are genuinely interested. As Mrs decline from power has been this sities. Here we try very hard. In their Thatcher said, you can’t buck the belief that you can leave things to first year students actually have to market. Nobody is forcing anybody supranational bodies, the United do the whole of British and to buy these history books. Nobody Nations or, latterly, the EU. It’s as European history. It doesn’t count is forcing students to come to univer- though we no longer have a major towards their degree because it’s sity to read history. And yet, students role to play. And also I think one of catching up time. We do make sure, continue to come in large numbers to the problems with post-1945 liberal at the very least, if they really do spend quite a large sum of their consensus is that you’re supposed to insist on specializing in the Third money or their parents’ money on define your nation’s aims in all the Reich in their second and third doing history. And when they leave, grandiose but vague terms. And, of years, they will know what the first they carry on buying books and course, one of the great things about two reichs were. watching TV programmes. I think it foreign policy, particularly the con- is all rather encouraging that, despite servative view on foreign policy, is The success of people like David the best efforts on the part of the that actually asks some hard ques- “ media, people actually insist on tions: what are your real interests? Starkey, I think, clearly shows that there is knowing something about the past. a wider lay hunger to know about what HS: Another problem is that we have HS: As a matter of interest, does a a rather ambivalent attitude to histo- happened in the past and I think academic conservative historian have to be pes- ry at the moment. On the one hand historians who get very snobbish about simistic? there seems ever less teaching of this are very, very foolish history in schools, which, inevitably ” JC: I don’t know. I have always impacts on the universities. And thought that, on the whole, certainly when they do teach history, it’s all in They don’t mind that. They come the type of I espouse is bits and pieces. I hear people say “I here knowing that they don’t know probably rather pessimistic, but only don’t find history interesting much history but having an interest in the sense that I don’t believe in because we did a course on industri- in finding out more. The success of progress. I think progress is an illu- al reform and another course on people like , I think, sion. I don’t see that mankind has something else and then it doesn’t clearly shows that there is a wider progressed spiritually very much in hang together and it’s not very inter- lay hunger to know about what hap- the twentieth century. I’ll be prepared

4| Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 John Charmley to entertain the idea that mankind on ernment is a Conservative one. es required to study history at univer- the whole has regressed in the twen- sity level do seem to be rather useful tieth century. JC: Ah, deep fantasy. in turning out people who can run things. One of the things we desper- HS: Probably more people are worse HS: Well, yes. And let us say a week ately need in this country is people off than they were. or so after he has been to see the who can run things. In that sense it Queen, the Prime Minister comes to seems to me to serve a function not JC: I think so, I think so. And I think you and says Professor Charmley or unanalogous to that the Classics again that the only judgement, the John, we really need to do something served in the nineteenth century. only calculator of whether people are about education. Give me three good well off is a material one is another reasons why history must be made HS: That’s what I was told by my sad indicator of the way in which we, compulsory in schools. father when I went to study history. as a society, have lost our bearings. He was an historian, too. As an histo- Yes, of course, if you are starving in JC: Well, I think the first reason is rian who specializes to a great extent the gutter it’s rather difficult to con- that if we want an educated popula- in foreign policy, you must have been centrate on your soul, no doubt. But tion, they need a memory and history rather thrilled when, so to speak, the that’s a false antithesis. The fact is is, in effect, society’s memory. And I twentieth century was wrapped up that in the society we are in, we are think that from an historian’s point of and put aside, and, of course, it start- immensely rich materially but I am view one of the great things about ed in Sarajevo and ended in Sarajevo, not sure we are all that rich spiritual- history in our society is that it is a and suddenly we had headlines about ly. That’s where I find my cause for free market. It is not simply the case places we thought would never rise pessimism. Which is why it cheers of a few state-employed historians again, like Bosnia-Herzegovina. I do me up to see that people are rather trotting out a line. One of the won- remember going home one day in interested in finding out what hap- derful things about Britain and early 2002 and seeing a huge head- pened in the past because that’s an America is that you just can’t get line in the Standard, which I actually indication that people still have a away with that. The market is so big, bought because I loved the headline: hunger, even if the established church so many people read history, that yes, “KABUL FALLS”. And to those of in this country appears to be quite you can write a left-leaning history of us who studied the nineteenth centu- incapable of administering to it. the but it is not ry – and I wrote my thesis on British going to be enshrined on tablets of attitudes to Russia – the idea that stone because someone else will there should be a headline in the One of the things we can see is that “ write a very different view. twenty-first century of “Kabul falls” the processes required to study history I think the second reason for study- is absolutely wonderful. This must ing history is again a non-utilitarian have cheered your soul. at university level do seem to be rather one. It is not just that we would have useful in turning out people who can a better educated population, better JC: Oh very much so. Very much so. run things able to make judgements, I think we I can remember twenty-five years ” would have a more rounded popula- ago, when I first started lecturing on tion. If we want to to live in a civi- the Eastern Question, you not only HS: Well, this is not unusual, histori- lized, tolerant society, I think that a had to spell Bosnia-Herzegovina on cally. knowledge of what has happened in the blackboard to students, you had to the past is a vital aid towards that. It’s bring in maps to show exactly where JC: In a sense, as an Anglican, that is a vital tool for individuals to grasp it was and they still couldn’t grasp the what depresses me most. I don’t, on the idea that there are forces bigger point anyway. Again, back to this the whole, share the current mode for than they are. We are simply part of a point of history being a wonderful dismissing the current Archbishop of continuing story and one of the natu- controller of hubris, there we all Canterbury but, my goodness, he has ral tendencies of the human being is were, or there were a lot of people, a mountain and a half to climb. And I towards hubris. And I think one of the anyway, thinking that all this nine- think the transformation of the things a study of history does is it teenth century stuff, nationalism and Church of into a sort of helps at least to counteract that. all these little nationalities, it was all branch of the social work services Nothing will stop it but I think any- being superseded. We had Yugoslavia has been, on the whole, deleterious thing that helps to counteract that ten- now. Wonderful. You didn’t need to both for the social work services and dency is a good thing. worry about Balkan nationalism. Tito the Church of England. And I think the third reason is that and Communism had solved it. Well, in terms of why history should be we know about Communism solving HS: Let us fantasise for a moment taught in universities, one of the things. and let us imagine that the next gov- things we can see is that the process-

Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 | 5 John Charmley

HS: The peace of the graveyard. can look at certain events in the nine- , which I enjoyed writing teenth century and what people write hugely. JC: Absolutely. So, yes, it has been and say: “no, I know from my own wonderful, because one of the things experience that things are not quite HS: Is that because you enjoyed Duff we now see quite clearly is so much like that”. Cooper’s personality? of what is going on not just in the Middle East and the Far East can JC: I think that of all the things that JC: Duff and Diana and John Julius actually now be only explained by is constantly driven home to one is Norwich had a lot to do with it. They historians. There is no point in being simply the fact that the past isn’t as were absolutely wonderful. You an IR analyst from the Brookings neatly parcelled as politicians and couldn’t, as a tyro historian, have Institute, who knows everything historians would like us to believe. better subjects to deal with. One of about Kremlinology. Now there is a The thing that no-one has quite the big problems every biographer dead subject if ever there was one. recreated probably because it would has to deal with is the “widow”, be monumentally boring to do it, but which doesn’t just include the actual HS: Although it has now become a nevertheless we need to have it in widow or widower but includes the word to use about many other things. mind is that when, say, the Marquess children, all looking over your of is dealing with British shoulder and wanting a hagiographi- JC: I can remember one of my col- foreign policy (and I take Salisbury cal version of papa’s or mama’s life leagues, a professor in International because he really is doing it in his in which they are portrayed as a Relations, giving her inaugural lec- study at Hatfield so, in that sense, he plaster saint. Both of them were ture, and the way good academics do is the closest you are going to get to absolutely no interference at all. when they are lecturing, although she an intellectual approach to foreign Diana Cooper was marvellously had a script, her mind was asking policy) but he doesn’t have the luxu- indiscreet. Abslutely no attempt to interesting questions. One of the ry of simply sitting down and look- hide the fact that Duff was a serial questions that came out was “You ing at a bunch of position papers, womanizer and a serial drinker. might well ask if you want to be crit- deciding that this is what we are What that enabled one to do is to put ical of the discipline of International going to do and doing it. All the time all that stuff into perspective. As a Relations, what is the point of it if he is reading whatever is before him, very young historian on his first none of its practitioners prophesied other stuff is constantly coming in. book, it would have been very easy, the fall of the .”. And the At the same time he has, if you like, if they had wished to conceal this, to problem was that clearly this idea had his day job as a landowner and think that this really mattered, the just come to her and she did not have leader of the Conservative party to fact that he was spending a good an answer. do and stuff is coming in there. So, deal of time chasing women and what hits me as an historian is the drinking. Well, of course, in one messiness of the past. And I am very sense it did matter but not for the I am very conscious as an historian “ conscious as an historian that, reasons that the prurient public that, inevitably, we sanitize and we tidy inevitably, we sanitize and we tidy would think but because it enabled up. I think what one can do is to try and up. I think what one can do is to try some of his less gifted contempo- and bear in mind and try to get one’s raries to write him off as a light- bear in mind and try to get one’s reader reader to bear in mind the messiness. weight, which always happens, par- to bear in mind the messiness Again, that’s what is interesting but ticularly in British politics. ” hardly new in post-modernism is Palmerston, I think, is one of the that we tidy up, of course, we tidy very few, along with Lloyd George, HS: I remember reading Marc up. Any sort of writing about the top class lechers to get away with Bloch’s The Historian’s Craft, (obvi- past is tidying up a mess. And the having a prolonged career in British ously not a conservative historian but idea that there is some ineffable politics. still an interesting one) in which he virtue in writing history from the So it did enable one to concentrate writes about the way the past helps us bottom up rather than from the top on other aspects of Duff Cooper’s to understand the present but he then down, I think, is simply inverted character and to concentrate on his has a chapter about the way the pres- snobbery. achievements. And I think I enjoyed ent helps us to understand the past. that one the most even if it, in some And the example he gives is of him- HS: John, one last question. Which of ways, posed less of a challenge than self understanding certain events in your books did you enjoy writing some of my later books. mediaeval history a great deal better most? after he had been part of the colossal HS: Well, it’s a very enjoyable book. debacle of the French army falling JC: Probably, the very first if my John, thank you very much for spar- apart in 1940. Do you find that you books, which was a biography of ing the time.

6| Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 So what are we to make of EDWARD HEATH? Helen Szamuely co-editor of the Conservative History Journal

ell, at least he did that membership of the EU is the not outlive his answer to her problems now, of “nemesis”, whom course, remains a mystery. he had managed Edward Heath himself was a pas- W outsit in the sionate believer in the whole idea. , . She, in her is very important. He genuinely inimitable way, produced a “eulogy” thought it was the best thing for that was about as backhanded as it can Western Europe and the best thing for be: this country. The obituary in : not much to celebrate? Ted Heath was a political giant. He summed up the problem of Edward was also, in every sense, the first Heath and his failure well: modern Conservative leader – by his cratically elected and accountable humble background, his grammar … the “Grocer” was pilloried as a politicians. school education and by the fact of heartless automaton, contemptuous of One can probably isolate several his democratic election. the poor and unemployed. In reality, formative influences. First and fore- As prime minister, he was confront- his administration twisted and turned most there was the fact, noted by ed by the enormous problems of post- because the kind of Conservatism Thatcher, that he was the son of a war Britain. which Heath espoused – and which manual worker (a carpenter), who If those problems eventually defeat- appealed to his instincts far more made it to , became an ed him, he had shown in the 1970 than did the prescriptions of the mar- in the socially exclusive Honourable manifesto how they, in turn, would ket-place – was corporatist rather Company and rose in eventually be defeated. than political, dirigiste rather than the Conservative Party at a time, when For that, and much else besides, democratic. family background mattered a great we are all in his debt. deal. Clearly, a man with that sort of out- He was, thus, something of an out- The reason, I venture to suggest, why look would rather approve of the con- sider who had made good through his there is so much description and cepts outlined by Monnet and own remarkable but somewhat pedes- analysis of other aspects of his policy, Schumann, concepts that he actually trian talents. not the Common Market, is because it understood better than almost anyone However, and this is important, he was all the rest that was important at in Britain. But the idea that manageri- was not really outstanding. He was not the time. alism rather than messy politics is the a star, or, at least not one of the first His obituaries, alas, brought back answer was the mantra of the sixties magnitude. (One might say that this the full horror of his unsuccessful pre- and seventies. reflects in his music-making – always miership, and showed clearly why so Indeed, it has not disappeared from scrupulous and pernickety but with no many people thought at the time that public life. This government, in partic- heart or feeling. He is supposed to membership of the Common Market ular, is adept at setting up various have conducted like a metronome.) may well be the answer to Britain’s groups of “experts” to tackle problems Getting to a good school and problems. Why anyone should think that ought to be the province of demo- Oxford from his background was

Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 | 7 Edward Heath admirable but he did not get that cov- the understanding that political and Despite the fact that the two 1974 eted scholarship (though, eventually, social structures cannot function if elections produced very respectable he got an Organ Scholarship). He left they lose their contacts with the results in terms of popular vote, the with a Second Class degree – very human members of it, became wide- truth remained that he had lost them. respectable, indeed, in those days but spread, though not actually put into In fact, he had lost three of the four hardly brilliant. action. elections he fought, a fact that he, He was a good administrator, a rea- As one thinks of Heath’s premier- rather incomprehensibly, never sonable but never a good, let ship, one remembers the bright prom- acknowledged, apparently even to alone great politician. That must have ise: the Selsdon Park meeting adopted himself. hurt, particularly as his hated succes- a number of policies that might, if It all became much worse after sor became such a shining star. pushed through relentlessly, have 1975. His “great sulk” against Mrs The other formative influences solved some of Britain’s problems. Thatcher meant that he effectively were his precocious understanding of They were ditched at the first difficul- tried to sabotage a number of her poli- the reality and threat of Nazi ty with the unions, partly because cies and rejoiced with unseemly and his view of Europe at the end of Heath lacked the necessary ruthless- delight when she was finally forced to the War. At Oxford Heath was an anti- ness but partly because he did not real- resign. appeaser and campaigned for ly believe in them. His joyous support for all aspects of A.D.Lindsay against the official His premiership also began with the European integration, even as it Conservative candidate, Quintin expulsion of 94 Soviet agents, a wel- became more and more obvious that Hogg, who supported . come relief after the determined flirta- the effects on this country were not He visited Franco’s Spain and tion with the Soviet Union that had precisely positive grated more and Hitler’s Germany. Astonishingly, for a characterized ’s atti- more. young man in his early twenties he tude. Worst of all was his ever more obvi- grasped the significance of the Nazi- But it collapsed into failure. The ous power mania. The man who began Soviet Pact and immediately started to battle with the unions seemed relent- his government by expelling all those make his way back to England, return- less and catastrophic; the country Soviet agents, now spent a great deal ing before the declaration of war. endured annual power cuts, three-day of time cosying up to the Chinese He had what used to be called “a weeks, legislation that was supposed leadership, even accepting various good war”, saw a good deal of active to curb wage demands but never consusltancies. service, was mentioned in dispatches worked; disintegrat- He publicly justified the and given a wartime MBE. Again, that ed. Tiananmen Square massacre and meant something in 1946. As his regi- In the midst of it all came the con- showed his “statesmanship” by ment rolled across Europe in 1944-5 tinuing negotiations for Common defending after the he witnessed what had become of the Market membership and the battle to invasion of . The man who, as places he had visited in 1939. Many of push through the European an undergraduate, campaigned against those who saw the same thing accept- Communities Act. There is no ques- , went off to “negotiate” ed the need for European unification tion that Heath played the politician with the Iraqi tyrant, explaining that to avoid such a catastrophe again. about the realities of the Common the latter regretted his rather precipi- His other great belief, also the result Market and the agreements he had tate action in Kuwait. Eventually, I of his essentially managerial attitude made. expect, he did regret it. to politics, was in size. Units had to be In particular, he lied about the One has to assume that he was big to survive and thrive. Again, this agreements on the fisheries and the rather a lonely man and yet many peo- was a mantra of those years. lies were subsequently repeated by ple who knew him speak highly of his Size was one of the arguments used Harold Wilson. The truth about the kindness. He was re-elected until in favour of the comprehensivization betrayal of the fishermen was not 2001 when he decided to step down of English and Scottish education, a revealed till many years later. because he was a good and popular process that was started under Wilson Heath was economical with the constituency MP. He was often a and continued relentlessly under truth about his understanding that a funny and entertaining speaker. Heath. single currency was being planned. He was also rude and brusque and Size was the reason for the destruc- But the terms of the managed to antagonize most of his tion of the old counties and London and of the European Community Act colleagues, the entire corps of jour- boroughs. Local government had to be were publicly available. The no cam- nalists and many other people who conducted in large units. paigners in 1975 referred to the first came across him. His self-deception Size was the reason for the similar document continuously. If their warn- was on a grand scale. Did he see in destruction of the old police forces. ings were not taken into account, that the last few years and months of his It was not till well into the eighties was a serious oversight on the part of life that the EU, the idea he loved so that the words “small is beautiful” and the electorate and the politicians. much, was beginning to fray some-

8| Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 Heath should have got a life and never hung around the green room

Ronald Porter Ronald Porter is a man of letters and a frequent contributor to the Conservative History Journal

acmillan’s advice were plenty of obvious examples to Instead, Heath decided to continue to retired states- hand. Alec Douglas – Home still to be the Proud Member for . man was that, bravely continued in public life And he hung around the Green Room after leaving when he gave up the leadership in so much that he became a bit of a M office, they should 1965. There is the earlier and excel- pest and a bore. He busied himself abandon any attempt to return to the lent example of , an with triffling matters. He was well political stage or maintain close links ex- Tory leader and Prime Minister, known for attending, at the top hotels with the world they have left. ‘Old who went on to become Foreign in London, all the generous National actors,’ he once famously quipped,’ Secretary. Day Receptions of most of the Arab should never hang around the Green Heath should have Swallowed his countries. He would indulge himself Room. ‘ It is a pity that Heath ignored Pride – there was quite a lot of it – in buying pictures with the help of this good advice. His trouble was and taken up the offer from Maggie Roy Miles and always made a point that he never really mapped out pre- of some sort of front bench role. of attending Roy’s wonderfully lav- cisely what he was going to do after When the Tories won in 1979, the ish and generous parties. He being defeated by Maggie in the lead- Foreign Office would have been his was a frequent user of the Berkeley ership contest of 1975. He allowed for the taking. Alternatively, he Hotel, even though he lived close by. his public life to end effectively in should have accepted Maggie’s offer And he was a regular attender and 1975 but he still hung around the of the British Embassy in speaker at Foyles Literary Green Room of British politics, Washington. That job would have Luncheons. doing very little, until he died earlier suited him and could have been his He spent an enormous amount of this year. for many year. He would have played time and energy in supervising the What he should have done was a crucial role in the Falklands Crisis. doing – up of his Georgian house, this. Instead of crying and sulking in He could have had a decisive role in , opposite the Cathedral, in his tent, he should have sat down with shaping Anglo – American relations the Square, at Salisbury. A beautiful a pen and a piece of paper and and have helped prevent the Tories house, albeit rather too obviously sketched out some sort of new career veering towards Euro – Scepticism. done up by interior decorators. And for himself. He should have done a Halifax, from 1940–45, proved the his autograph collection of signed bit of stock taking. He could have re- point that there can be a Useful Life pictures of Heads of State was branded himself as an Elder after political Death, as did Richard almost, but not quite, as good as my Statesman Not Yet Retired. There Nixon. own. But none of this really amount-

Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 | 9 Edward Heath

Sir Edward Heath: “A complete and utter waste of the last thirty years of his life”

ed to a row of beans. Yes, ‘Honourable Guest Number Garrick who listen to directors Morning Cloud, that it gravely Churchill built walls at One’. And there were grumpy or producers brag about their weakened her marriage. The writ , fed goldfish and appearances on the Today pro- latest film or play and then was later withdrawn. Many years painted some good pictures. But gramme and Breakfast with secretly hope – without asking later, when the able journalist if you asked him what he would Frost; his annual jaunt to the [Pride Comes Before A Fall ] – Bob Hamilton referred to the rather be doing, the answer Music Festival, where ‘oh, is there a part for me writ in an article in Punch, would always be ‘holding an he had the near fatal heart here?’. Heath threatened to sue and put important Office of State, and attack about two years ago; Perhaps things would have pressure on Punch to apologise. preferably the Premiership’. The occasional chats with his finan- been different if Heath had mar- One wonders whether, as he same is true of Heath. cial advisors, to see how well ried or had ‘a partner ‘ of some surveyed the view from Of course, there would be the his investment portfolio had sort. But here again, Heath Arundalls, Heath ever thought of occasional, bitchy speeches in grown, and how rich he was appeared to be close to nobody, these lines by another misogy- the House, running down his despite being a Member of male or female. About 35 years nist. A. E. Housman: own side and praising Labour. Lloyds. But that was about it, ago, in the days of contested And there would be visits really. A complete and utter divorces, he was cited by the . . . Little is the luck I ‘ve had abroad to countries like waste of the last thirty years of wife of a husband, who she And oh tis comfort small, where he was treated, in true his life. He was like one of alleged was spending so much To think that many another lad Charlie Chan style, as those old, retired actors at the time with Heath on his yacht Has had no luck at all . . .

10 | Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 Edward Heath A personal recollection and appraisal

John Barnes co-editor of the Conservative History Journal

hen the Conser- Conservative student conferences in In enforced retirement, he relaxed vative party was the early and who inspired us and the speeches became more mem- in opposition bet- with his patent enthusiasm for a unit- orable. I can remember that when he ween 1964 and ed Europe. came to speak to the students at LSE, W 1970, I was invol- he was genuinely funny and had his ved in two of the policy groups that Gone forever, or so it seemed, was almost literally rolling in formed part of his major policy exer- “ the aisles. cise and I also was part of a small much more relaxed figure, who had Ted was stubborn and a proud group led by working on charmed many of us as we discussed the man. In an attempt to kick start his parliamentary reform. My meetings long-awaited memoirs, Anthony with Heath were occasional but mem- current state of politics with him in the Seldon persuaded him with great orable. You could never be certain bar at High Leigh at Conservative student difficulty to speak about his just how he was going to greet you. Government at an ICBH On occasion it was, ‘Here comes the conferences in the early 1960s and who Conference, I think at the People’s Professor’ with a great chuckle and inspired us with his patent enthusiasm for Palace hard by Queen Mary College. much heaving of shoulders, but at a united Europe There were few revelations, but an other moments, he was curt, almost ” uncompromising defence of his as if he had never met you before. Government’s record. It fell to me Briefing him was surprisingly diffi- Ted could speak with real and afterwards to escort him across the cult because he would sit impassive- unscripted eloquence, usually with- main road to the pub where he ly, never offering any comment or out notes, as he did at Tim Bligh’s insisted he wanted to have a drink. interjection or indeed a reaction of memorial service and again when Seemingly oblivious to the traffic, any kind. I only once saw him angry speaking at the dinner to celebrate he crossed halfway and then com- and that was at a policy weekend at Baldwin’s centenary. Bligh was a pleted a perilous journey, almost as Swinton where a number of us were close friend, but the tribute to if defying the cars to take him on. In arguing over a drink in the bar that Baldwin was more unexpected and the pub over a pint he was relaxed, the time had come when it would be surprisingly moving as a result. And friendly, good with the young – but right to float the pound. Ted got very he generously came to launch the not with his self-appointed biogra- red in the face and exploded that it biography of Baldwin that Keith pher, John Campbell, whom he cut would mean devaluation and he was Middlemas and I had written, at the dead. There was perhaps a half apol- having nothing of it. We quickly 1969 Party Conference. It was a short ogy subsequently in his memoirs changed the subject. Edward Boyle speech, but one marked with real when he mentioned Campbell as told me, however, that he was incan- insight. But for the most part in the helpful in rebutting the charges descent about ’s ‘rivers bigger set piece speeches Heath was made by the Referendum campaign of blood’ speech. wooden, although we cheered them to in 1997 that he had misled the coun- Gone forever, or so it seemed, was the echo at Conference, sometimes try over the nature of the European the much more relaxed figure, who for seven or eight minutes, hoping to project. had charmed many of us as we dis- buoy him up and to convey to the It was not in his nature to do so, cussed the current state of politics public something of the real quality and paradoxically his own opponent with him in the bar at High Leigh at of the man. in that campaign, Brian Reading,

Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 | 11 Edward Heath rebutted the charge. He had, of vine, the CPRS did not disappear Macmillan and Wilson rather than course, worked for Heath in No 10. until 1983 and arguably has been Butler and Gaitskell) it first came Both in public as well as in private much missed. But the more signifi- under strong challenge at the hands Heath had always made it clear that cant point to note is the extent to of Heath and Macleod. Today we European union was a political proj- which the Government’s measures tend to recall Heath’s government ect and he expressly said in 1971 advanced an agenda that was to be for its u-turns on industrial and that economic and monetary union much revisited subsequently. regional policy and for the return to was a cause which Britain would The reforms with a compulsory prices and incomes support. Heath’s reputation for which he was particularly associated policy that it was pledged to eschew. statesmanship and foresight will be were clearly flawed (although the It is tempting, but mistaken, to put inextricably linked to the continuing story might have been different had this down to a loss of nerve on story of European union and the unions not stumbled upon non- Heath’s part. Others see it as a prag- Britain’s part in it. But, whatever the registration as the weapon to render matic response to an unacceptable future, the successful negotiation of them ineffective), but the debate rise in unemployment, an explana- Britain’s entry into the European which they provoked and the way in tion to which Heath’s memoirs lend Community will remain his greatest which the unions compelled the some credence. But the most plausi- achievement and one which has Wilson government to obliterate ble explanation is the disappoint- made an indelible impact on the them contributed greatly to the cli- ment of the Prime Minister at the country over the past three decades. mate in which Mrs Thatcher was failure of British industry to invest able to pursue her own programme; despite the incentives offered them and once the law had been invoked, in terms of the reconstruction of the “It is often said that the policy it would no longer be possible to tax system and the perceived need programme that he masterminded in treat industrial relations as an area for British industry to be put in order beyond the law. The Sunningdale before entry into the EEC. opposition came to nothing: the agreement, although rapidly under- As always with Heath it came Government’s policy legacy was swept mined, signalled the only way for- back to Europe, the one major poli- ward in Northern Ireland. Similarly cy about which he spoke with real aside or reversed by its Labour successor. subsidising the tenant rather than the conviction, and the need to ready his This is only partly true house later became the norm and the country for entry into a community ” steps the Heath Government took to that by the end of the decade would, push the sale of council houses were if Heath had his way, have in place It is often said that the policy pro- the forerunner to one of Mrs economic and monetary union. gramme that he masterminded in Thatcher’s central policies. Hence the Industry Act and the opposition came to nothing: the Selectivity in relation to social secu- renewed dash for economic growth, Government’s policy legacy was rity, the legitimation of occupational a repeat in vastly changed circum- swept aside or reversed by its pensions, and the attempt to weld stances of the policies pursued by Labour successor. This is only part- together the tax and benefit system the Macmillan Government a decade ly true. When I joined a Regional are further examples of the way in earlier. They were to be tested to Health Authority in 1983, the struc- which the Heath Government set the destruction by a Prime Minister who ture was recognisably that put in longer-term agenda in terms both of had no trust in any alternative ideol- place by the Heath Government, problems and possible solutions. ogy to Keynesianism and who would although one tier of management have found few allies, intellectual or had gone. The planning and budget- political, if he had sought an alterna- ing process dated to the early ‘70s “As always with Heath it came back to tive. and the managerial emphasis that Europe, the one major policy about which It can be argued that Heath was had sought to instil unlucky, that were out of was about to be reinforced by the he spoke with real conviction, and the joint for such policies to succeed; Griffiths report. need to ready his country for entry into a and it is clear that neither the Similarly the local government Labour Government which preced- structure, although considerably community that by the end of the decade ed his administration nor the modified, owes much to the 1972 would, if Heath had his way, have in place Labour Government which fol- Act. At the centre the creation of the lowed, fared any better. The tides of economic and monetary union Department of the Environment was ” history had turned against the far sighted and the ‘giant’ depart- Keynesians and it was Heath’s mis- ments tend to be re-instated if bro- Insofar as the postwar consensus fortune that, albeit unconsciously, ken up. If the policy analysis and existed (and I would argue that it he was cast in the mythical role of review machinery withered on the was essentially the creation of Eden, King Canute.

12 | Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 hen Macmillan gle of life’. And yet the ‘unexpect- retired in ed leader’, once the melancholic Butler agreed to serve in Home’s “Home Cabinet, accepted the Queen’s W proclaimed that commission to become the first the ‘Time for a change in peer to be Prime Minister since the Conservative leadership had venerable 3rd Marquess of sweet come’. The Conservative Party Salisbury, who had served under needed a new leader capable of another Queen at the end of the ‘imbuing the public with a vision nineteenth century. The left-wing of the Conservatives’ missionary Labour MP (heir to the zeal for the new age’ that could Viscountcy of Stansgate) had Home ” ‘steal Mr Wilson’s battle pennants unwittingly helped Home become from him’. The unlikely figure Prime Minister by spearheading a that was charged with this formi- law change in 1963 that allowed The problematic dable mandate was Alexander hereditary peers to renounce their leadership of Frederick Douglas-Home, four- titles and stand for the Commons. teenth of Home, of the This fundamental change enabled Sir Alec DouglasHome Most Ancient and Most Noble Home to surrender his coronet to Order of the Thistle. Lord Home allow his candidacy for the had “emerged” after very uncus- Conservative leadership. tomary processes as leader of the Home was hoped to be a third Harshan Kumarasingham Conservative Party. Blackpool and uniting candidate like Bonar proved to be more redolent of Law to Hailsham’s Walter Long Harshan Kumarasingham has recently spent time as a Visiting Juvenal’s Satires than the normally and Butler’s . Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Affairs, University of sycophantic and disciplined Yet the circumstances were rather London and Intern at the Constitution Unit, UCL Conservative Party conferences. different over fifty years on, as The gladiatorial joust for power were the effects. The 1960s, even had discredited the Conservatives for the Conservatives, were not a and the leadership selection time where it was happily accepted process. This rather flawed proce- that a dignified cabal was allowed dure gave Home the problematic to select the leader, especially commission of modernising and when that leader was not even uniting the Conservatives of the from the Commons. However 1960s after the ashes of Blackpool. high the credentials of this respect- Though the selection details of ed and unelected peer, the fact that Home’s emergence over the other he was chosen made it look like no Illingworth’s view of the 1964 contenders are not part of the focus member of the elected Commons general Election. Alec Douglas Home gets a helping hand from of this article, since the focal point was considered fit to lead, which is on his leadership, the effects on handicapped his ability to unite the the Conservatives from Blackpool Party and immediately put his are highly relevant to Home’s leadership into question. resulting leadership of the Two tribunes of the progressive Conservative Party. wing of the Party, Enoch Powell Home, like his two immediate and refused to serve predecessors was an Etonian and under Home, and others remained was famously described by a con- only at Butler’s insistence to avoid temporary as a kind of ‘sleepy boy the cardinal sin of splitting their who is showered with favours and great Conservative Party. crowned with all the laurels, who is However, Butler’s selfless heroics liked by the masters and admired for the sake of unity on being by the boys without any apparent passed for premiership once again exertion on his part… In the eigh- were not enough to mitigate con- teenth century he would have clusively the distaste within and become prime minister before he towards the Conservatives. was thirty: as it was, he appeared Macleod, now editor of the honourably ineligible for the strug- Spectator and himself contender

Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 | 13 Alec DouglasHome for the succession, wrote a devas- first appearance at the Box in the leader’s reliance on Butler and also tal alacrity and wit of Wilson. The tating polemic in January 1964 Chamber was nearly my last. I was the youthful domestic duumvirate experienced political commentator calling the events of October 1963 quite unprepared for the sheer of Maudling and Heath. and American Ambassador, David manipulations of a ‘magic circle of impact of noise after the quiet and Douglas-Home, the ‘amiable Bruce, noted that Douglas-Home’s old Etonians’ that had not only civilised proceedings of the House Lord’, as Attlee once described Commons performance was ‘sub- marred the Party’s electoral of Lords; and if it had not been for him, had inherited a poisoned chal- jected to loud and long heckling by prospects but obliterated its image the solid table between me and the ice that meant the odds were Labour , producing a of modernisation. The ‘Magic Opposition I should have been against him, especially when his ‘strained’ delivery and ‘giving Circle’ joined the Conservative seen to be shaking at the knees’. 363 day administration was really impression of not being thorough- lexicon as a term of derision that This was hardly the ideal of a a twelve month election campaign ly at home in domestic section’, was a deeply damaging and mem- leader that needed to strike fear in to convince the British public that a comparing ‘poorly’ with Wilson’s orable phrase, which continued to the Opposition and give succour to modern Conservative Party should ‘command of subject, polish and haunt the entire life of Home’s the Conservative benches. be re-elected for the fourth consec- fluency’. ministry. Home was portrayed as a Home faced the daunting and utive time. Maudling pointed out, Importantly as Peter Clarke relatively unknown Scottish peer, imperative task of not only reviv- accurately, that Douglas-Home remarks the ‘twelve month pre- Old Etonian, Oxonian, tweedy, ing Conservative confidence and ‘inspired an extraordinary affec- miership of Sir Alec Douglas- castle-owning aristocrat who had unity, as Macmillan did after Suez, tion among the rank and file of the Home in 1963-64 was dominated spent his government time almost but also competing successfully Tory Party who regarded him as by Harold Wilson. No previous completely away from domestic with the Wilson phenomenon. The the sort of man they would like to Leader of the Opposition, without and economic affairs and who discontent and damage to the Party be themselves: a good athlete, not the authority of being an ex- Prime enjoyed the pheasant shoots on his had been done since the contest. brilliant but intelligent; a man of Minister himself, has enjoyed such grouse moors. This hardly engen- Anonymous articles were written charm, integrity and balance’. ascendancy’. The polls showed dered a progressive accessible in The Times attacking the However, it would not be enough that the Prime Minister though image for the 1960s or the Party. Government and its leadership, to convert the converted. Behind attracting affection was well The appointment of Home, the and a Gallup poll in January 1964, the genuine respect for Sir Alec’s behind Wilson, while the Party was lithe Scottish aristocrat, opened the reported that 48 per cent of electors courtesy and charm among behind Labour always – though floodgates for satirists. Butler thought the Conservatives were Conservatives lay the harsh politi- often close. Wilson ridiculed believed a peer ‘spoilt the image of more divided than Labour, and cal realisation of possible defeat Douglas-Home as the modernisation’ while only 22 per cent saw Labour as that was personified by the loom- ‘Matchsticks Premier’ due to the published an obituary notice on the more divided. This was a signifi- ing spectre of Harold Wilson. Conservative leader admitting that 18th October of the Conservative cant perception that dissipated the Wilson battled the Conservative he used matchsticks to help com- Party which had been ‘suffering usual Conservative boasts of loyal- “Edwardian establishment mental- prehend economics. Even more from severe Macmillan for the last ty and unity. ity” personified by the grouse- damaging for the Prime Minister seven years and although this has Douglas-Home entered the moor owning Douglas-Home with was referring to pensions as “dona- finally cleared up, its condition Premiership already hamstrung, as relish. Wilson was a consummate tions” while answering an inter- was so debilitated as a result that a there was considerable resentment politician who was dominating the view. As his latest biographer sudden attack of Lord Home amongst senior Cabinet colleagues electoral vista while Douglas- records it was ‘probably the worst caused its immediate demise’. like Butler, Hailsham, Heath and Home appeared amateurish and ill mistake of his premiership’ and Many Conservatives found it diffi- Maudling over not achieving the at ease with the media and the all- allowed Labour the unfettered cult to parry successfully Wilson’s leadership. Since he was far from important television made him opportunity of pointing to the jibe that ‘after a century of demo- being the likely leader, he was look cadaverous and uncomfort- remark as evidence of the cratic advance, the whole process dependent on his Cabinet col- able. Unlike Macmillan and Conservatives’ patronising attitude has ground to a halt with a four- leagues to an inordinate degree for Wilson, Douglas-Home privately and illustrated the distance the teenth Earl’. a Conservative leader, and did not exclaimed that ‘I fear that I could leadership had from real issues. Home renounced his ancient have the capability or charisma to not conceal my distaste for the Televised images of the Prime title and became Sir Alec Douglas- dominate his festering equals. conception that the political leader Minister being made inaudible and Home and waited for a by-election Comments were circulated like had also to be an actor on the completely unable to deal with as the country had to face the fact Hailsham’s during Blackpool that screen’. Douglas-Home’s prefer- hecklers in in that their Prime Minister was a ‘if Alec takes the job it will be a ence for tours, though impressive October was a devastating and member of neither House of disaster’ or Butler telling a jour- to those that he met, was not humiliating 1964 election image. Parliament. For Douglas-Home nalist that the Prime Minister was enough for the media conscious The election brought an end to the November by-election meant ‘an amiable enough creature [but] sixties. the Conservative hegemony, but that he faced for the first time in I’m afraid he doesn’t, you know, Ridiculed as “Dull Alec” was an extremely close count giv- thirteen years the partisan rigours understand economics or even against “Smart Alec”, Douglas- ing Labour only a majority of of the Commons after the calm education at all’. This obvious Home could do little to inspire the four that would fall further. So serenity of the Upper House. lack of Conservative traditional confidence of Conservative MPs close according to one study, that Home described the occasion: ‘My public deference exposed the in the Commons against the men- if four hundred votes were cor-

14 | Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 Alec DouglasHome rectly redistributed in the lobby, the Conservative leader centre in the Scottish borders. In shocked and surprised by the Conservatives’ favour in certain could not facilitate a following that an attempt to quell disquiet, the weight of feeling in favour of a marginal seats, the Conservative would enable his continuance. In Conservative leader announced in new man that had been revealed Government would have returned this environment Heath had con- June that there would be no leader- inside the Executive Committee to power. Yet such indulgent stantly to deny rumours that he was ship election in 1965. However, and, by implication, within the counterfactuals in psephology mounting a coup, and such specu- the statement was soon devalued parliamentary rank and file’. So could not change the result. lation only further eroded the pre- once Wilson had stated that an even Douglas-Home like all Slogans like “Thirteen Wasted carious position of a leader who election would not be held in 1965. Conservative leaders was ‘sur- Years” and “Time for Change” was widely seen as merely a stop- The Conservatives could move prised’ at the movement against proved hard to combat. Despite gap. more cogently towards espousing him, but he at least realised early being so close the Conservatives Douglas-Home bowed to pres- discontent without fear of a leader- the futility in fighting against it had lost safe seats and were sure from Conservative MPs, like ship fight, which Wilson could without the means. An exhausted unable to gain new voters. Berkley, in February capitalise on during an election and proud Douglas-Home did not Naturally the suitability of the 1965 to end the fissiparous and campaign. have the strength, the confidence leadership was questioned in the chaotic era of “emergence” with a The media now centred in on or the sufficient support to fight event of defeat. The new formalised leadership proce- the impermanence of Douglas- for his leadership, which he had Conservatives had lost more than dure that would give the Home’s position. The Sunday so messily inherited. 1.7 million voters and despite Parliamentary Party power to elect Express reported in late June that Douglas-Home was a decent, Douglas-Home’s genuine effort the next leader. The adoption of around one hundred MPs, hinted honest statesman who gained and decency the election defeat these modern procedures as Heath supporters, were respect and admiration rather than was pertinent evidence of deeper inevitably hastened further specu- involved in a ‘bid to oust Sir Alec’. seeking to be dominant and con- problems for the Conservatives lation about when Douglas- The former Prime Minister was trolling. Yet it could not displace that were beyond the leader’s abil- Home’s leadership would be test- not accustomed to lobbying for the fact that he was incapable of ity to remedy. The Party’s post- ed. Competition between Heath support and was not capable or “modernising” the image of the mortem believed that there was and Maudling took on the appear- ruthless enough to stymie his Party, nor could he succeed in the not enough adversarial politics ance of a badly concealed electoral potential successors’ claims. On arduous task of maintaining Tory conducted and sought to rectify campaign. Unlike his leader, July 5 the passed rule after thirteen years with an the policy sterility and upper Heath as Shadow Chancellor gave a resolution that twenty-five back- electorate that had grown tired of class image. Constituency asso- Conservative MPs something to benchers had signed requesting a the Conservatives. The Party had ciations were now venting con- cheer as he harassed and impeded debate on the leadership and it was shown that despite its high regard siderable dissatisfaction. Jim Callaghan’s Budget. Heath as only because the chairman, Sir for Douglas-Home’s service and Lichfield and Tamworth felt that Chairman of the Advisory William Anstruther-Gray, insisted decency they had little hesitation in Sir Alec Douglas-Home had not Committee on Policy formed that he report the disquiet person- engineering his removal. As Alan reflected the modern age as well numerous committees that ally to Douglas-Home that a Clark notes, after the leader had as Mr. Harold Wilson’. After involved huge amounts of MPs potentially embarrassing vote did announced his resignation a ‘small years of power the Conservatives that worked on a huge range of not occur. and embarrassed group gathered and Sir Alec had the unenviable subjects and gained their respect Douglas-Home, though want- round to say how sorry they were, task of being in Opposition. for his policy directions that fos- ing to carry on, decided with the including and unsurprisingly, those Opposition required an unwel- tered key contacts with their mounting criticism from within who had been conspiring to bring come psychological and obvious involvement. This was in direct the Party, vitriolic attacks in the this about’. Douglas-Home’s change for a party long used to the contrast to Douglas-Home’s press, low opinion polls and no departure marked an end of an era patronage and power of office. “Baldwinesque” Opposition style core support, to step down as when patricians had long led the Leadership of Her Majesty’s Loyal of relaxed moderateness with a leader. A drawn Douglas-Home, Conservatives. Yet for all his hier- Opposition required Douglas- genteel distance from active policy with clear restraint, stated imme- archical credentials this brief Home to take on an adversarial involvement. diately after resigning at a 1922 leader of the Party was to bequeath platform and to annoy and disrupt Perhaps due to the respect that Committee meeting in July that a significant democratic renova- the young Labour Government Douglas-Home was held, the cam- ‘no one suggested to me that I tion on the leader’s relationship to with its slim majority. At a time paign against him was even more should go. But I know that there the Party. Douglas-Home assented when Labour had hardly had a covert than in most other compara- are those who, perfectly properly, and assisted in the implementation honeymoon, the Party demanded ble circumstances, but nonetheless felt that a change of leadership of the ‘Douglas-Home Rules’, these aggressive characteristics active. Nevertheless, serious ques- might be right’. The Times which established a leadership from its leader. In Heath and tions were raised in the Party after reported that ‘the attempted election so that the haunting Maudling were ready leaders that David Steel, future leader of the putsch…inside the Executive process of ‘emergence’ could not would happily relieve the Liberal Party, won the formerly Committee of the 1922 happen again. His rules and his Opposition demands from their safe Conservative seat of Committee clinched Sir Alec’s leadership would forever have por- reluctant leader. Denied the emol- Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles, decision to stay no longer at the tents for the Conservative Party lient of patronage and too proud to right at Douglas-Home’s political top. Sir Alec appears to have been and its leader.

Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 | 15 “Put up or shut up” Ian Pendlington

Ian Pendlington is a member of and author of various articles and scripts

ack in the days tion two years away, Major last to be told, by Michael standing against Major but came when Conservative feared a challenge to his leader- Howard, following Prime to the conclusion that only a Party leadership ship in the autumn was Minister’s Questions. “real candidate” could unseat contests were still inevitable and so moved to wres- The clandestine approach him and such a candidate would B relatively infre- tle the gauntlet from the hands of worked and two hours after only be found in Cabinet. quent events, prom- his critics before they had oppor- Prime Minister’s Questions, with Lamont recalls he telephoned ised, just as he had taken the tunity to throw it at his feet. By no hint of the drama that was to in an attempt to political establishment by sur- chance, on the Sunday before follow, the Prime Minister persuade him to challenge prise through his succession as Major’s resignation, the Sunday announced he was resigning to a Major. Portillo declined, but leader of the Conservative Party, Times published an editorial hastily assembled media congre- Major noted in his memoirs that so he would also take the politi- entitled “Put Up Or Shut Up”, gation and confirmed he would Portillo did not immediately cal world by surprise through his challenging Major to face his be a candidate in the forthcom- return calls to confirm his sup- resignation. Major kept his word port. Then there were the forty on this point and, in the summer telephone lines installed at of 1995, attempted to “lance a Two hours after Prime Minister’s Questions, with Portillo’s office in readiness for boil” that was disfiguring the “ an anticipated challenge; “the Party and undermining his no hint of the drama that was to follow, the Prime speed at which these matters can authority as leader. Minister announced he was resigning to a hastily be done is a tribute to privatisa- Returned to power in April tion,” Major retorted when 1992 with a modest majority, the assembled media congregation and confirmed he teased about this at Prime Conservative Party’s fourth con- would be a candidate in the forthcoming contest Minister’s Questions. Although secutive term in government saw ” Portillo did back Major, it was a it beset by financial and personal reluctant endorsement from a scandals and worn down by sheer critics or resign. They had little ing contest. He ended his dra- candidate in waiting. longevity of office. But it was knowledge he was proposing to matic statement by repeating the By Sunday, all the Cabinet Europe that would ultimately do that very thing four days later. headline of , had expressed support for the eclipse Major’s premiership. An In an attempt to maintain the “It’s time to put up or shut up”. Prime Minister, save for one. open wound that had irritated the advantage of surprise, Major With Major’s dramatic had seemingly party for years, Europe threatened kept news of his plans secret announcement there was gone to ground and was refusing to plunge it into full civil war. The from all but a handful of col- inevitable speculation as to who, to return calls from Major’s cam- battle over Maastricht saw Major leagues. and Ken if anyone, might run against him. paign team. It seemed Redwood forced to threaten his own govern- Clarke were the first to be told, Immediate attention focused on felt offended at being the last to ment with dissolution and with- on the flight back from a G7 , former know about Major’s plans and draw (then restore) the Whip meeting in Canada. Ian Lang and Chancellor of the Exchequer who, being told by a colleague rather from eight Euro-sceptics who Robert Cranborne were told on having run Major’s leadership than Major himself. voted against the government on a Wednesday and became key election in 1990, found his rela- His silence over the weekend motion of confidence. This and a players of Major’s re-election tionship with the Prime Minister was ominous and on Monday section of Thatcher loyalists who team. Cranborne became cam- irrevocably soured over the events morning Redwood briefly spoke could not forgive nor forget her paign manager and Lang of and to Major to confirm his resigna- downfall combined to bring spokesman. Other members of Lamont’s subsequent dismissal as tion from Cabinet and intention Major’s leadership to crisis point, Major’s team, Tony Newton, Chancellor in 1994. Their diverg- to stand for the leadership. to the extent that the Party, to use Richard Ryder and David Hunt ing views on Europe and other However, his campaign launch the words of Norman Lamont in disseminated the news to other aspects of party policy only exac- that afternoon was a publicity his , “seemed Cabinet ministers on Thursday. erbated this damaging division. disaster and, in the words of to be in office, but not in power”. The for , Lamont concedes in his mem- Major in his memoirs, “managed By 1995, with a general elec- John Redwood was one of the oirs that he did contemplate to attract every oddball in the

16 | Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 John Major

Party”. Awkwardly positioned gone against the Prime received 218, three more than likely beneficiaries had Major between Theresa Gorman’s Minister’s name. the benchmark he had set him- fallen, but Portillo’s hesitation at bosom and Tony Marlow’s There was little doubt Major self. However, 22 MPs, over one the crucial moment allowed striped summer jacket, Redwood would secure more votes than third of the Parliamentary Party Redwood to leapfrog him as the said he was “devastated” by Redwood, the main question had abstained or spoilt their bal- ideological leader of the Right. Major’s resignation and the party turned to how many votes would lot paper – stark evidence that As Portillo became the most required firm “but understand- be enough. Although the election whilst the battle for the leader- notable casualty of the 1997 ing” leadership. The campaign under the old leadership rules ship was over, the war for the election, Redwood successfully launch was widely derided and required a clear majority plus direction of the Party was still raised his own profile to the came up with the fifteen per cent of the total vote, raging. Major commented in his extent that he was confident memorable phrase “the barmy Major revealed in his memoirs memoirs that the result was, enough to run again for leader army” to describe Redwood’s that he wrote “215” on a scrap of “Not enough really, but three after the 1997 election, securing supporters. The policies paper and sealed it in an enve- votes too many to allow me to more votes than his ideological Redwood proposed were a curi- lope. This was the minimum walk away”. soul mates, and ous mixture of uncosted tax cuts number of votes he set himself Major’s re-election had impli- . Meanwhile, combined with annual cuts in for victory, anything less and he cations for the careers of two of Heseltine accepted, with the public expenditure, a firm opt- would resign as Prime Minister. the Party’s most noteworthy min- leadership issue settled until the out from the single currency and At 5.15 in the afternoon, Sir isters. It saw the end of Michael election, his last chance of even a commitment to save the , Chairman of the Heseltine’s long standing becoming Prime Minister had Royal Yacht Britannia. 1922 Backbench Committee, prospects of becoming Prime passed by. He contented himself However, Redwood’s cam- telephoned the candidates with Minister and the strangulation of with the post of Deputy Prime paign did not gather significant the results. Redwood had Michael Portillo’s promising Minister in Major’s reshuffle, momentum, possibly due to its secured 89 votes and Major had one. Heseltine and Portillo were which saw Lang promoted to disastrous launch and vague President of the Board of Trade, policies. Although Redwood Cranborne appointed Leader of possessed one of the fiercest “Over one third of the Parliamentary Party had the Lords. In one of politics curi- intellects in the party he lacked abstained or spoilt their ballot paper – stark ous ironies, Redwood’s succes- the character, gravitas and com- sor at the Welsh Office was mon touch that had been suc- evidence that whilst the battle for the leadership , who would suc- cessful for Major. Redwood was was over, the war for the direction of the Party ceed Major as leader two years unable to secure the support of later. significant figures in the was still raging A decade on, how can we Commons and as the date of the ” judge Major’s doughty act? His election drew closer, it became re-election achieved its goal of clear a Redwood attack was removing the imminent threat of never in danger of killing the a leadership challenge, enabling Major premiership, although it Major to lead the Party into the retained potential to mortally general election. However, it wound it. did nothing to stifle critics on Voting took place throughout both sides of a European debate the day on July 4th in Committee that had caused a division too Room 12 of the Commons. deep within the party to be Whispers of Machiavellian plots resolved with a change of abounded, mainly concerning leader. Nor did it remove the , who had stain of defeat, division, and cri- spent a large portion of the sis management that had cov- morning in discussions with the ered the party over the years. Prime Minister leading to specu- Ultimately, it was a hollow vic- lation he was negotiating a more tory which could do nothing to senior role in return for his sup- stave off the party’s worst elec- port and that of his supporters. tion result for a century. As Major and Heseltine consistently Major returned to work follow- deny any deals were struck and, ing his re-election, he may have when he went to cast his vote, to contemplated the words of the demonstrate his loyalty Duke of Wellington, next to a Heseltine felt obliged to hold his battle lost, the greatest misery is vote aloft to prove his cross had a battle gained.

Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 | 17 ‘The Ghost of Neville Chamberlain’ Guilty Men and the 1945 election Scott Kelly

Dr Scott Kelly worked in the Conservative Party's Policy Unit during the 2005 electoral campaign

'It was not Churchill who lost the coalition government ushered in a motives of all politicians.’3 1945 election; it was the ghost of new age of political consensus Although Fielding argues that disil- Neville Chamberlain.’ based around a managed economy lusionment with the Conservatives Harold Macmillan: and an expanded welfare state.2 was a major factor in explaining Tides of Fortune, 1945-1955. Labour’s victory in 1945, he con- tends that this was primarily the I. “ What both sides in the debate about result of the Conservatives prevari- Most historical debate concerning the post 1945 inheritance have in cation over the . the election of the Attlee Fielding downplays the importance Government in 1945 has centered common is a belief that Labour was of other issues, in particular he con- on whether or not Labour squan- elected on a wave of popular radicalism. cludes that foreign policy ‘never dered the opportunity presented by However this contention has been generated much interest’ during the its landslide victory. In The People’s election campaign: ‘the identity of War, published in 1969, Angus challenged by more recent contributions the ‘guilty men’ was never much of 4 Calder argued the Attlee adminis- to the historiography of the period an issue.’ tration failed to capitalise on the ” In fact, the foreign policy record groundswell of radical opinion cre- of the pre-war Government was an ated by the experience of total war. What both sides in the debate issue during the 1945 election. Calder quotes with approval about the post 1945 inheritance More significantly, the perceived Anthony Howard’s contention that have in common is a belief that failures of the Government had been ‘the overwhelming Labour victory Labour was elected on a wave of a key factor in shaping public opin- of 1945 brought about the greatest popular radicalism. However this ion in the period immediately fol- restoration of traditional social val- contention has been challenged by lowing the retreat from Dunkirk. A ues since 1660.’1 This critical view more recent contributions to the his- version of events was quickly estab- of the post-1945 inheritance was toriography of the period. In partic- lished that was to prove disastrous challenged by Paul Addison in The ular, Steven Fielding has argued that for the electoral prospects of the Road to 1945, published in 1975. ‘instead of promoting pro-Labour Conservative Party. At the heart of For Addison the war did radicalise sentiment it seems that the conflict this process was a highly influential, public opinion but this shift was left many members of the public left wing denouncement of the pre- complemented by a change within disengaged from the political war Government published under the political elite. The experience of process and cynical about the the title Guilty Men. The book’s cen-

18 | Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 ‘The Ghost of Neville Chamberlain’ tral argument, that a Government of immediate impact of the retreat was support Mr Chamberlain’s the ‘old guard’ had led an ill to generate an atmosphere of Administration through thick and equipped country to the brink of recrimination that turned the public thin - who confess now that it must disaster, became the established against the pre-war Government and have been guilty either of culpable view. That , the swung the electoral pendulum deci- negligence or a complete misunder- main critic of appeasement, became sively against the Conservative standing of Germany’s strength and Prime Minister on 1940, Party. The press quickly picked up intentions both before and since the paradoxically, only helped to rein- on the retreating army’s sense of war began. Either fault, they say, force this view. betrayal, which centred on the lack should be punished.’ Given the damage the ‘Guilty of RAF cover. Ministers who had As Lord President, Chamberlain Men’ thesis did to the Conservative been part of the pre-war administra- remained a key Minister in Party it is not surprising that tion were held responsible. The Churchill’s new administration. Churchill was to prove the Party’s News Chronicle carried an editorial However, the press campaign main political asset during the 1945 on June 5, which urged Churchill to against him destroyed what was left election campaign. Rather than ‘drop the failures. Every B.E.F. of his popularity. A survey conduct- harming the Party’s electoral solider returned from Flanders… ed by Mass-Observation found that prospects during the campaign, as is complains bitterly of one thing - 56% of people wanted Chamberlain often argued, Churchill’s entry in to lack of aeroplanes to support him out of the Cabinet.7 Chamberlain’s the political fray revived and tackle the Nazi bomber. As this tormentors blamed Conservative Conservative fortunes. The ‘guilty criticism spreads among his rela- MPs for protecting him and ensur- men’ issue was a useful way for the tives and friends anger is rising ing that he remained in the Labour Party to counter Churchill’s against the former Government Government. In Tribune Aneurin popularity. Conservatives could not whose sloth and muddle put the Bevan argued that Chamberlain fully respond, a detailed defence of under this unfair remained in Government because the party’s pre-war foreign policy strain.’ Other newspapers contained ‘as long as he is in the Government record being impossible as long as similar criticism, the large numbers of sulky Tories will Churchill was party leader. pleaded with Churchill to ‘please give grudging support to Mr Emphasising the ‘guilty men’ kick them out’. Churchill’s Administration, and that issue also helped Labour to ensure if he and his old colleagues are that popular support for Churchill removed they will break out into did not necessarily translate into an “ As Lord President, Chamberlain open revolt.’ In the intention to vote Conservative. In remained a key Minister in Churchill’s it was stated, on July 6, that ‘Mr. fact, it was widely believed that Churchill is clearly determined to Churchill would remain Prime new administration. However, the press resist all demands for Cabinet Minister whichever party won the campaign against him destroyed what changes, and he can argue that if election. The Conservatives had lit- Mr. Chamberlain has become a was left of his popularity. A survey tle time to convince the electorate symbol of disaster for the Left and that this was not the case. Given a conducted by MassObservation found in the U.S.A., he is equally a symbol longer campaign, opinion poll that 56% of people wanted Chamberlain of national unity for the trends suggest that the Conservative Party.’8 Such an opin- Conservatives may well have been out of the Cabinet ion was not unfounded, the majority returned to power. However, an ” of Conservative backbenchers con- election held so soon after the end The vociferousness of the cam- tinued to support Chamberlain. 180 of hostilities ensured that the paign against members of the pre- Conservative backbenchers packed Conservatives were still identified war administration may well have an all-party meeting, assembled on with the pre-war administration. been intensified by a belief that July 3 to discuss changes in Thus the ghost of Neville action against them was imminent. Government personnel, and Chamberlain continued to haunt the wrote in his on expressed support for Chamberlain Conservative Party long after his June 5 that he felt Clement Davis in no uncertain terms.9 body had been laid to rest. must have inspired some of the pres- It was in this atmosphere of sure from the press.6 On June 6 the reprisal that the polemic Guilty Men II. News Chronicle carried a story on came to be written. It was the work The birth of the ‘Dunkirk spirit’ and its front page under the headline of three Beaverbrook journalists, a new sense of social solidarity are ‘resignations of Ministers are Peter Howard, and usually considered to have been the expected.’ The papers political cor- , who published it main political consequences of the respondent went on to report that he anonymously under the name retreat from Dunkirk.5 However, the had met ‘many MPs - they used to ‘Cato’. Foot later recalled that the

Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 | 19 ‘The Ghost of Neville Chamberlain’ idea came when the three discussed the firm would have normally never script to an article in the Political the first batches of reports coming agreed to. As a result, ‘people saw Quarterly entitled ‘Who’ll Win?’ from the returning troops.10 They something unprecedented in the his- that ‘if any Tory wants a shaking go decided to co-author a short polem- tory of publishing - a book being and see the new Ronnie Waldman ical book designed to drive the sold at street-kerbs throughout film “Guess What”, and hear what Chamberlainites from the new London and the provinces’.13 The happens when Baldwin appears in Cabinet. question of the book’s authorship the Coronation procession.’19 also aroused interest. When he was The only counter to the Gollancz asked how he survived on a books was provided by Quintin “ Although Howard, Foot and Owen Minister’s salary, Beaverbrook Hogg in his own polemic The Left were responding to the anger of the replied ‘Ah, but I’ve always got my Was Never Right, published in June royalties from Guilty Men.’ 14 All this 1945. Hogg later wrote that he took troops retreating from Dunkirk, they extra publicity added to the popular- the view that the Gollancz books were also responsible for articulating a ity of the book, it quickly sold were ‘morally wicked, unpatriotic version of events which ensured that 200,000 copies and was reprinted at and factually incorrect. The Left Was least seven times in July 1940, its Never Right was an attempt to set this anger was directed solely against first month in print.15 the record straight and to establish the Conservative Party and the prewar that unpreparedness before the war III. was largely the consequence of the Government Rather than being quickly forgotten policies of the parties of the Left.’20 ” after Dunkirk, the attack on pre-war In his polemic Hogg argued that the Although Howard, Foot and Conservative foreign and defence ‘Victory’ series had an explicit party Owen were responding to the anger policy continued unabated through- political agenda: ‘If there be such a of the troops retreating from out the war. Guilty Men was only the thing as a High Command among Dunkirk, they were also responsible first of a series of books published the Left, it is evident that the order for articulating a version of events by Victor Gollancz as part of the has gone forth that the word which ensured that this anger was ‘Victory’ series. Michael Foot, writ- “Munich” should become a legend, directed solely against the ing as ‘Cassius’, contributed The a battlecry, or scalping knife for Conservative Party and the pre-war Trial of Mussolini in 1943. Foot Tories, anything but a subject for Government. The second chapter of argued that the appeasers shared sober reflection… If the people do the book began by stating ‘This war Mussolini’s guilt. The book sold not want Socialism they must be broke out in 1939, but the genesis of almost 150,000 copies and was misled into voting Socialist by a our military misfortune must be dramatised for political groups and side issue - and the side issue select- dated at 1929.’11 Then followed the dramatic societies to stage.16 ed is the series of events which had story of appeasement and the fail- Another successful addition to the their culmination in the last days of ure to rearm. The principal guilty series was ’s Your September and he first days of men identified were Chamberlain, MP, a ferocious attack on the … To be a member of Baldwin and Macdonald. Halifax, appeasement voting record of the party of Churchill and Eden is to Sir Samuel Hoare, Sir John Simon Conservative and National Liberal be a Man of Munich, and to be a and Sir were also members of Parliament. The book Man of Munich is to commit politi- prominently featured. The effect of caused the greatest furore since cal suicide.’21 the book was almost instantaneous Guilty Men itself and sold over Although, as Hogg later recalled, and the public mood became even 200,000 within a few weeks of its The Left Was Never Right was ‘a more set against Chamberlain. In publication.17 One of the MPs men- success’, he concluded that ‘it was July 1940 Mass Observation found tioned made an angry attack against too little too late to counteract the that 62% now wanted Chamberlain it at a constituency meeting, as a impression made by the earlier sacked from the Government while member of a public reported to Gollancz publications.’22 The a B.I.P.O. survey found that 77% Gollancz, ‘he said it was a pack of Conservative MP and Evening thought he should go.12 lies, half truths, misstatements, and Standard critic Beverly Baxter, in a The circumstances surrounding could prove so by Hansards (sic.), review of Hogg’s book, expressed Guilty Men’s publication ensured and he also called Mr Victor the same view at the time. Baxter that it achieved greater prominence Gollancz a traitor and a jail bird, and had himself been the subject of the than most left-wing polemics. It would like to know where he gets all Gollancz book Brendan and was originally banned by the main the paper to print his books’.18 Beverly. In his review, Baxter also London wholesalers and Victor The Gollancz books certainly revealed the reluctance of Gollancz was forced to distribute it achieved their desired effect. In Conservatives to provide a defence ‘on sale or return’ a practice which 1944 Tom Harrison wrote in a post- of the Party’s pre-war foreign and

20 | Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 Chamberlain: guilty man? defence policy record: ‘Quintin armies. He is assisted by Lord Croft, the Daily Herald Michael Foot also Hogg did not want to write this friend of Franco… and by Major attacked the new members of the book. On more than one occasion a Petherick, another of Chamberlain’s Government including Leslie Hore- number of us discussed the necessi- “friends” who stood by him and Belisha, the new Minister for ty of a reply to the Gollancz series voted for Munich and against the for- National Insurance and Foot’s oppo- and each felt disinclined. In the end mation of the National Government nent in the constituency of a reply had to be made and Quintin under Churchill in the crisis of Plymouth Davenport. Foot argued took on the task.’23 1940… Another revealing appoint- that those who had nearly led ment is that of the Lord Dunglass as Britain to disaster now ‘emerge Under-Secretary to Mr Eden… waving Chamberlain’s banner of IV. Dunglass was Chamberlain’s “Business as Usual”… Mr Hore- Accounts of the 1945 election have Parliamentary Private Secretary dur- Belisha with his medal from played down the importance of the ing the Munich appeasement period Mussolini pinned to his breast; Mr ‘Guilty Men’ charge during the and the subsequent period of “wait Ernest Brown who voted for every campaign. However, an analysis of and see” which came to an abrupt end infamy from Muken to Munich; Sir the press, party literature and that of in 1940. Dunglass voted for his chief John Anderson, Chamberlain’s individual candidates reveals that with touching loyalty.’ choice; Simon, Hirohito’s apologist; the Conservative pre-war foreign these and all the others.’ and defence policy was actually a Press attacks were not confined Press attacks were not confined to major issue. “ to Labour supporting papers. The The collapse of the wartime coali- Labour supporting papers. The News News Chronicle, a Liberal paper, tion and the formation of Churchill’s Chronicle, a Liberal paper, also attacked also attacked the Conservative caretaker Government gave fresh Party’s pre-war record. On Election impetus to the ‘Guilty Men’ attack as the Conservative Party’s prewar record. Day itself the paper’s editorial many of the ‘old guard’ were brought On Election Day itself the paper’s sought to demonstrate that a vote back into Government. Tribune did for the Conservative Party was still not have any difficulty in finding new editorial sought to demonstrate that a a vote for Chamberlain. ‘The bulk members of the Government whose vote for the Conservative Party was still of the Government consists of men record was open to ridicule. ‘The War who loyally supported the disas- a vote for Chamberlain Office’ it mused ‘provides the starry- ” trous policies of the Chamberlain eyed wonder of the new administra- Government right up to the very tion. Sir remains as out Tribune was not alone on picking end. They included men who were of touch as ever with the popular up on the record of new members of notorious in their opposition to Mr mood and the needs of modern the administration. In the pages of Churchill himself when he was

Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 | 21 ‘The Ghost of Neville Chamberlain’ striving to arouse the country to its evade the blame for the parlous state the back page: ‘the responsibility mortal peril.’ of our national defences before the must rest with those who have the Throughout the war the Labour war. They have guilty consciences. undisputed control of our political leadership avoided the ‘Guilty Men’ Their negligence left the country affairs. They neither prevented issue. During a Commons debate in without adequate arms and without Germany from rearming not did July 1941 stated that strong allies.’ The Conservatives they rearm themselves in time.’ ‘I do not think it is any good crying responded with a pamphlet of their Another common theme was for about the past or blaming anybody. own entitled Guilty Men? It fol- Labour candidates to point to their For instance, if anybody asks me lowed the same line as Quintin Conservative opponents’ support for who was responsible for the British Hogg’s book in attacking Labour’s Chamberlain’s Premiership. For pre-war record and listed examples example, in Hull North-East, of Labour MP voting against rear- R.W.G. Mackay’s Address stated “ In some cases candidates directly mament measures culminating in that ‘by voting Conservative… you accused the Conservatives of being pro Attlee’s opposition to the are not voting for Mr Churchill (he Bill of . is the Tory candidate for Woodford); fascist before the war. In BradfordNorth The Election Addresses issued by you are voting for the Conservative the Labour candidate, Mrs M.E. Nichol’s individual Labour candidates also candidate, Sir , who Address argued that ‘leading indicate the importance of the as a Conservative solidly supported ‘Guilty Men’ issue to the Labour Mr Chamberlain right up to May Conservatives found it convenient to be Party during the election campaign. 1940, and was opposed to the policy most friendly to the Fascist Governments Although, candidates often used a of Mr Churchill during the years common source for these addresses, 1935 to 1939.’ Related to this point of Germany, Italy and Spain they still varied enough to give a was the suggestion that the ” good idea of the importance individ- Conservatives might get rid of policy leading up to the war, I will, ual candidates attached to issues. Churchill as soon as the election as a Labour man myself, make a Given the fact that Election was won so the ‘old guard’ could confession as say “all of us.”’24 Addresses tend to concentrate on a gain control. For example, on the However, once the Wartime coali- party’s programme for office, it is Isle of Wight, William tion was dismantled Bevin changed even more surprising that such a James Miller’s Address argued that his tune. Mass-Observation reports high proportion of Labour addresses ‘the Tories have not changed. They from the election campaign show touch on the ‘Guilty Men’ issue. exploit Churchill today; they will that the Labour leadership had In some cases candidates directly throw him overboard tomorrow.’ jumped on the ‘Guilty Men’ band- accused the Conservatives of being Of the 371 Election Address of wagon. In a speech at Fulham Town pro-fascist before the war. In Labour Candidates issued during Hall on June 19, Bevin had much to Bradford-North the Labour candi- the 1945 election campaign held in say about the Conservatives pre-war date, Mrs M.E. Nichol’s Address the Archive of the British Library of record. An observer noted Bevin’s argued that ‘leading Conservatives Political and Economic Science, argument that ‘we waited till found it convenient to be most 149 (40.2%) mention the failure of Germany was in a position to rearm friendly to the Fascist Governments pre-war Conservative foreign and/or and defy the whole lot of us. We of Germany, Italy and Spain… Sir defence policy, compared to 222 gave Hitler better terms than we Thomas Moore (Tory MP for Aye (59.8%) which did not. However, ever gave to the Weimar Republic - Boroughs)… on April 25th 1934, most Addresses that do not mention an unforgivable thing. We held signed a newspaper article entitled the ‘Guilty Men’ issue were con- Russia at bay for more than twenty “The Blackshirts have what the cerned solely with Labour’s pro- years. Raided Arcos and did every- Conservatives need.”’ In Warwick, gramme for office. Candidates often thing to make that great county sus- the Labour Candidate Donald dealt with other issues in other pub- picious. We sent a Foreign Chestworth made an even more lications such as tabloid newspaper Secretary to see Ribbentrop and a direct attack. ‘Too many of the style newsletters, many of which Foreign Office clerk to see Joseph Conservative Party’, his Address mentioned ‘Guilty Men.’25 Stalin! (cry of shame from all over stated, ‘made the annual pilgrimage Many historians have concluded hall.) (sic.) The same thing will to the Nazi Party Conference at that the negative tone Churchill happen again if the vested interests Nuremberg, and encouraged the adopted during the 1945 election get back in power.’ growth of Fascism.’ campaign damaged the During the campaign the Labour A common tactic of candidates Conservative Party’s prospects.26 Party issued a pamphlet entitled The was to quote Churchill against his However, the evidence suggests that Guilty Party. It began by arguing own party. Many Addresses bore the Churchill was the only real electoral that ‘the Tories are wriggling to same quotation from Churchill on asset that Party possessed and his

22 | Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 ‘The Ghost of Neville Chamberlain’ entry into the political fray had an final election broadcast to explain- Jowitt, the MP for Ashton-Under- immediate positive impact on their ing that people had to vote Lyne, only had to piece together a prospects. In his first election Conservative is they wanted number of phrases in order to sum- broadcast on June 4 Churchill used Churchill to continue as Prime mon up a picture of the pre-war the arguments of F.A. Hayek’s book Minister. years: ‘recall the awful pre-war The Road to Serfdom as the basis of mess the Tories had made of an attack on Labour’s programme. Conclusion things… Think of “Munich”; He declared that ‘a socialist policy The result of the 1945 election came appeasement of Hitler; shortage of is abhorrent to the British ideas of as a surprise to many, even in the war weapons; hatred of Russia…’ freedom. Although it is now put for- Labour leadership. Both Attlee and That the Conservatives pre-war ward in the main by people who Morrison thought the best the Party record remained a political issue have a good grounding in the could do was reduce the throughout the war years is of sig- Liberalism and Radicalism of the Conservative majority to about 40 nificance beyond the part it played early part of this century, there can seats.29 In the event, Labour won a in the 1945 election result. If the be no doubt that Socialism is insep- landslide victory, winning 393 vote in 1945 was more anti- arably interwoven with seats, with 47.8% of the vote while Conservative than pro-Labour this Totalitarianism and the abject wor- the Conservatives won just 213 may be a factor in explaining why ship of the state. It is not alone that seats with 39.8% of the vote. In fact Labour’s huge electoral majority property, in all its forms, is struck the Conservatives had done much was swept away in just six years. at, but that liberty, in all its forms, is better than pollsters were predicting While many historians have argued challenged by the fundamental con- only a couple of months before the that the Conservative Party had to ceptions of Socialism… No election. Churchill’s entry into the reconcile itself with the ‘Attlee Socialist Government conducting political fray effectively saved the Settlement’ in order to return to the entire life and industry of the party from annihilation. In truth the government, others have increasing- country could afford to allow free, Conservatives had lost the election ly questioned the view that Labour’s sharp, or violently worded expres- as early as the summer of 1940. The election in 1945 initiated a period of sions of public discontent. They retreat from Dunkirk was as disas- consensus on economic and social would have to fall back on some trous to the reputation of the policy.30 form of Gestapo.’27 Conservative Party as the expulsion That Conservative support Although there is evidence from of the pound from the European revived during the 1945 campaign Mass Observation that voters were Exchange Rate Mechanism was to itself suggests that identification of shocked by Churchill’s argument, prove 52 years later. The years that the party with Churchill was an polls taken after the speech show a followed the publication of Guilty important factor in restoring the marked improvement in Men consolidated the view that the party’s electoral fortunes. The Conservative support. Before the foreign and defence policy of the party’s electoral strategy after 1945 broadcast, on May 26, a Gallup poll Chamberlain Government had led focused on winning over floating gave Labour a lead of 16%; on June Britain to the brink of disaster. middle-class voters in the South and 18 Gallup found this lead had been South-East by attacking the Labour reduced to 9%. A Gallup poll on Government policies on the grounds July 4 found Labour’s lead had been That Conservative support revived that they led to austerity, waste and “ 31 reduced to 6%. Mass Observation during the 1945 campaign itself government control. Internal party found loyalty to Churchill to be the research suggested that the profile most frequently stated reason for suggests that identification of the party of these floating voters was very voting Conservative.28 Yet as with Churchill was an important factor similar to Liberal ones. As E.H.H. Churchill had been the most consis- Green has argued, this encouraged tent opponent of appeasement and in restoring the party’s electoral the Conservatives to attempt to had lead a coalition Government fortunes reassemble the ‘anti-Socialist’ since becoming Prime Minister, he ” coalition that had been the basis of was not fully identified with the Baldwin’s pre-war electoral suc- Conservative Party in the public How firmly this view of the cess.32 Indeed, the explicitly ideo- mind. It is clear that the electorate Chamberlain Government had been logical content of Conservative was not yet ready for a return to nor- embedded into the national con- rhetoric continued after the 1945 mal peacetime party politics and sciousness can be seen by the way defeat and figured in the 1951 cam- that many believed Churchill would only simple allusions to it had to be paign that returned the remain Prime Minister whatever the made by 1945 in order to summon Conservatives to power.33 As Green election result. The Conservatives up a set view of the past. The notes ‘it is essential to remember felt it necessary to dedicate their Election Address of Sir William that the Conservative leitmotif in

Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 | 23 ‘The Ghost of Neville Chamberlain’

The Historical Journal, Vol.35, No.3, 1992, 22 Lord Hailsham: Op Cit. 1950-1 was “Set the People Free”, pp.62339. 23 The , 1/6/1945. not the welfare state and the mixed 4 Ibid. 24 House of Commons Debates, 29/7/1941, Vol. 34 economy are safe in our hands.’ 5 Steven Fielding, Peter Thompson and Nick 373, col. 1362. That fundamental ideological Tiratsoo: England Arise! The Labour Party and 25 Election Affimira/1945, Archive, British Library divisions remained after 1945 and popular politics in 1940s Britain, 1995. of Political and Economic Science. continued to form the basis of elec- 6 John Barnes and D. Nicholson (eds.): The 26 See, for example, Kevin Jefferys: The Churchill Empire at Bay: The Leo Amery Diaries 1929 coalition and wartime politics, 19401945, 1990. toral competition may well be in 1945. 27 Quoted in The Times, 5/6/1945. part because the result of the 1945 7 The New Statesman and Nation, 13/7/1940. 28 Paul Addison: Op Cit., p.266. election was not as conclusive as 8 Ibid., 6/7/1940. 29 Kevin Jefferys: Op Cit. has been suggested. It was as much 9 Paul Addison: The Road to 1945. 30 For the case for Conservatives aligning them a defeat for the ghost of Neville 10 Michael Foot: Debts of Honour, Davis Poynter selves with the ‘Attlee Settlement see, for Limited, London, 1980, p.96. example: John Ramsden: An Appetite for Chamberlain as it was a victory for 11 ‘Cato’: Guilty Men, Victor Gollancz, London, Power: A History of the Conservative Party radical change. 1940, p. 17. since 1830, 1998; see also Addison: Op Cit. 12 Paul Addison: Op Cit. For the case against see : ‘The 13 Sheila Hodges: Gollancz: The Story of a Myth of Consensus’; Harriet Jones and Michael 1 Angus Calder: The People’s War: Britain 1939 Publishing House 19281978. Kandiah: The Myth of Consensus: new views on 45, 1971; see also Ralph Miliband: 14 Michael Foot: Op Cit., p.97. British history 19451964, 1996. Parliamentary Socialism: A study in the politics 15 Paul Addison: Op Cit., p.110. 31 Ina ZweinigerBargielowska: Austerity in Britain: of Labour, 1961. 16 Shiela Hodges: Op Cit. Rationing, Controls, and Consumption, 1939 2 Paul Addison: The Road to 1945: British poli 17 bid. 1955, 2000 tics and the Second World War, revised edition, Below: As 18 bid. 32 E.H.H. Green: Ideologies of Conservatism, 1994; see also, for example, : Labour leader, 19 Tom Harrison; ‘Who’ll Win’, Political Quarterly, 2002. Never Again: Britain 194551, 1992. Michael Foot paid 1944. 33 Scott Kelly: The Myth of Mr Butskell: The poli tribute to those who 20 Lord Hailsham: A Sparrows Flight. tics of British economic policy, 195155, 2002. 3 Steven Fielding: “What did ‘The People’ want?: died in the war in his The meaning of the 1945 General Election”, donkey jacket. 21 Quintin Hogg: The Left Was Never Right, 1945. 34 E.H.H. Green: Op Cit. p. 220.

24 | Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 Book reviews

Back to 1834 Nicholas Hillman, a Research Fellow of , reviews The Welfare State We’re In by James Bartholomew

The Welfare This new book by a former Daily Bartholomew’s book is based on and ’s tax credits, State We’re In Mail leader writer offers a right- a similar analysis, but it implies just as there is between the criti- James Bartholomew wing, polemical history of mod- that the damage started long cisms of Speenhamland in the ern state-sponsored social serv- before Beveridge and that the 1834 report from the Royal Politico’s ices. Its overall conclusion is a ratchet has yet to be reversed in Commission on the Poor Law ISBN 1 84275 063 1 simple one: ‘The welfare state any meaningful way. and Bartholomew’s attack on £18.99 has caused tens of thousands of Among the most rewarding modern tax credits. people to live deprived and even aspects of the book are the his- It is also difficult to fault the depraved lives, and has under- torical reminders on issues such contemporary evidence in the mined the very decency and as the past role of friendly soci- book, even if some of the kindness which first inspired it.’ eties, which undoubtedly kept sources are second-hand news- There are chapters on all the closer tabs and were more paper accounts. Few would main features of the modern responsive than a national, doubt that healthcare is better in welfare state, including the monolithic benefits system ever many other advanced countries NHS, universal schooling and could be. The sections on the than in Britain, that the state housing. Each argues that earlier NHS and state education simi- education system is currently private provision, especially dur- larly stress the rapid, but all too overburdened with red tape and ing the nineteenth century, was easily forgotten, improvements that family breakdown has better than is generally realised in non-state services during the served young people badly. and that services today would be nineteenth century. And the But there are problems with much better still – and the coun- chapter on taxation recalls the the accompanying analysis. In try as a whole much richer – had way in which large numbers of many respects, the text resem- the state avoided the temptation people on lower incomes, bles a newspaper leader of the to take over. The NHS is blamed including those living below sort Bartholomew used to write: for Britain’s falling position in standard measurements of it is authoritative in tone, spirited international healthcare compar- poverty, have been sucked and factually accurate, but also isons and the benefits system is relentlessly into paying income incomplete, unsatisfying and blamed for the decline in tradi- tax. best taken with a pinch of salt. tional family structures and a Historical information of this When reading the book, I was rise in unemployment. Even the type usefully illustrates the way reminded of Viz magazine’s iron- state pension does not escape: in which so many social policy ic take on people who think the pensioners and society in gener- debates are cyclical, rather than grass was always greener in the al would, it is argued, ‘be better linear. Issues such as the effects past – they are said to have pub- off today if the state pension had of large-scale means testing, the lished a cover which claimed the never been created’. impact on the labour market of magazine was ‘More expensive Keith Joseph used to criticise in-work benefits and whether and not as funny as it used to the ratchet effect in post-war poverty is best defined in an be’. It could be that politics. He said that real absolute or a relative way are old Bartholomew wholeheartedly progress would come only when ones and the balance of opinion believes every word that he has Conservative Governments shifts endlessly. For example, written, but many readers are stopped consolidating the wel- there is a clear connection likely to be left wondering fare state and started to provide a between the Speenhamland sys- whether the truth is really quite genuine alternative to the post- tem (a form of in-work benefit so black and white. There are war consensus. James begun in the eighteenth century) three areas in particular where

Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 | 25 Book reviews the book would have benefited the means testing of private serv- allowed more grammar schools grammes that politicians need to from more detail. ices which occurred before the to be turned into comprehen- win power. First, it is highly doubtful Second World War is more sives during her time as The difficulty of reform is whether the services that existed acceptable than modern means Secretary of State for hinted at in the book’s final before the modern welfare state testing by the state. Education and Science than chapter but, to be truly persua- were anywhere near as compre- Bartholomew writes approvingly anyone else; and Keith Joseph sive, there needs to be more hensive as is implied. As of the way in which doctors established the world’s first information on exactly how Nicholas Timmins recounts in often provided their services for modern in-work benefit, the services could be privatised and The Five Giants, a great many free to poorer families and the Family Income Supplement. how benefits could be slashed. people fell through the gaps in way in which some schools Even after the Conservative It is one thing to say that the provision. Timmins quotes one charged more to richer families, victory in 1979, no major state pension should never have doctor working in the NHS in its but he is highly critical of more aspect of the welfare state was been invented, but quite another early days who found a ‘colossal modern means tests. Such a completely reversed. A more to say that the millions of peo- amount of very real unmet need position is not indefensible, but convincing wholesale attack ple with accrued rights to state- that just poured in needing treat- little attempt is made to explain would explain why this was so. funded contributory pension ment. … There were women it. The biggest flaw, however, is schemes should lose them. with prolapsed uteruses literally Thirdly, Bartholomew is that it remains unclear how Similarly, it is easy to hold wobbling down between their silent on why even the most Britain could move from where up as a paragon of legs … You would have men right-wing leading politicians it is to where Bartholomew virtue for keeping its public walking around with trusses of the latter half of the twenti- wants it to be. Even though it is sector small, but they have not holding these colossal hernias in. eth century willingly expanded 360 pages long, the book sits had to dismantle an enormous And they were all like that the welfare state. Enoch Powell rather uneasily between the sort public sector established by because they couldn’t afford to presided over a massive pro- of blue-sky thinking that charac- successive democratic govern- have it done.’ gramme of building new NHS terises many think-tank pam- ments in order to get to where Secondly, it is not clear why hospitals; Mrs Thatcher phlets and the more detailed pro- they are.

The diaries of a social democrat Mark Garnett, a regular contributor to the Conservative History Journal reviews Giles Radice’s Diaries 1980–2001: From Political Disaster to Election Triumph.

Diaries The publication of a new politi- Chairman. These formal roles the first rank of its genre, either 1980–2001 cal diary is usually a cause for made him at least a semi-insider. in content or style. There are Giles Radice celebration among historians. But his main contribution to very few memorable moments. These books can provide a sec- political life in the period cov- The best passage is a personal Weidenfeld & Nicholson ond draft of history – an inter- ered by the diaries was his role reflection, on hearing of his ISBN 0 29784 900 X mediate stage between the par- in the emergence of ‘New’ father’s death. ‘I smell again the £25.00 tial information of journalists Labour. With justice, he can starch in my father’s shirt as he and the sacred testimony of offi- claim to have been a Blairite took me in his arms when I was cial documents. With rare excep- before Blair, having argued for a small boy in India’, Radice tions, they are much more useful ‘modernisation’ in his party ever writes. But the prose hardly ever than political memoirs. Even since its disastrous 1983 defeat. approaches this height. Indeed, diarists who fell short of cabinet While many observers recog- the wonder is that such an agree- rank, like Clark, Currie and nised the early promise of Tony able man could have made him- Brandreth, can infuse the recent Blair, Radice was an important self appear so wooden. This past with life and colour. When champion of the future leader, effect is enhanced by his irritat- an ‘insider’ like Richard who was elected in 1983 for a ing habit of referring to himself Crossman spares time to record neighbouring constituency. in the third person, but it is also his daily activities, the memory These ingredients should have unfortunate that he adopts the of ministerial misdeeds is swept been enough to make this diary a present tense throughout. As a away in a rush of gratitude for crucial primary source for result, the style is that of a gos- his indiscretion. Labour’s transformation, even if sip-columnist trying to write a Giles (now Lord) Radice was Radice had not been an accom- leading article for . a front-bench Labour spokesman plished writer. But while the fin- The real value of Radice’s in the 1980s, and later a long- ished product is undoubtedly diary is almost certainly unin- serving select committee important, it does not belong in tended by its author. Before he

26 | Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 Book reviews leaves the Commons for the it is an ingrained personal char- the party should devise policies Radice of the diary is difficult to Lords at the 2001 general elec- acteristic. to appease its natural enemies in distinguish in a meaningful way tion, his misgivings about the If Radice’s portrait of Blair is the Home Counties. The impres- from a pro-European ‘New’ Labour project are easily unconsciously repellent, his sion that, at heart, Radice Conservative with vague ‘One discerned. He even starts refer- account of the ‘modernisation’ belongs with such people rather Nation’ inclinations on domestic ring to his old friend as ‘Tony drive is no more appealing. Like than with his former constituents policy. Like Blair, his dislike of Blair’. This coded coldness was Blair, Radice chose to join in Durham is reinforced by his the Conservative Party is institu- no more than the prime minister Labour rather than being born salivating accounts of dinner tional, rather than ideological; deserved at Radice’s hands. Like into the movement. Blair’s parties and official banquets. their shared mission is not to the Ashdown diary, this account choice is difficult to understand, The claim that socialists should destroy something called underlines the extent to which though initially his personal be self-denying is one of the ‘Conservatism’, but to make that Blair allows any delight in spon- ambition was probably matched cheapest of political jibes, but party irrelevant. The difference taneous human association to be by a vague desire to make the Radice’s regular helpings of between the respective positions smothered by brutal calculation. world a better place. Radice has haute cuisine almost give it new of Labour and the Conservatives He quickly realised that he could retained enough of his idealism substance. today is that the former has made count on Radice’s loyalty in the to pass occasional comment on Of course, the word ‘socialist’ a deliberate choice to reject the lobbies, even when casual prom- Blair’s empty rhetoric. But his was never elastic enough to whole of its history; the latter ises of ministerial office were own drive for modernisation was include someone like Giles only has to reach back to its pre- betrayed without a murmur of dominated by tribal considera- Radice. He still regards himself Thatcherite past. As a result, if regret. With Blair, the desire to tions. Unlike his friend John as a social democratic follower the Conservative Party ever court enemies and take friends Smith, he wanted Labour to get of , and manages to overcome its unfor- for granted is not an enforced back into office regardless of the implies that he only rejected the tunate image, the first-hand tactical trait; the diaries of cost. He was an early champion SDP because of concern for his accounts should be more animat- friends and foes alike show that of the focus group, believing that parliamentary seat. But the ed than the testimony of any

The rise and fall of Reginald Maudling Ronald Porter, reviews Reggie by Lewis Baston

Reggie Poor old Reggie. His political Lewis Baston makes clear in his ry, it is not surprising that Lewis Baston career, for most of the time, was excellent biography, Reggie, Our Baston would, at some point, a huge success. Both Churchill Hero conformed to the bump right into the tall and Sutton Publishing and Eden thought highly of him. Shakespearean idea of tragedy jovial figure of Reggie. After all, ISBN 0 7509 2924 3 On two occasions he nearly as set out by the late Professor Sleaze and Maudling were very £25.00 ended up Leader of the A.G. Bradley. It can be summed close allies for many years. And Conservative Party. He had a up as the rise of a man from as Baston points out in his happy family life and an ador- obscurity to great heights, yet meticulously well-researched ing, pushy and attractive wife . ultimately brought down by a book on Maudling, Our Hero He was a very popular figure on serious fault in his own charac- had been fiddling and diddling all sides in the House . He had ter. Unfortunately, in Reggie’s from an early age. tremendous personal charm and case, there was not one fault but Of course, Baston gets a cou- very few political enemies . And several. ple of things wrong with yet .....Well, the Final Curtain, Lewis Baston is relatively Maudling. But very few. The when it came down, was pitiful young. He was not around when main thrust of his story is bril- and painful to behold. He died Maudling was a leading figure liantly told and fascinating to in a Public Ward of a strike – on the political stage in the read. He goes into considerable beleagured National Health fifties and sixties. He came detail in the public life of Hospital, in relative poverty across Maudling when doing Reggie. He also peeps behind and obscurity at the early age of research for his first book, the curtains and brings us tasty 61. He was a shaking, sham- appropriately entitled, because morsels about Reggie’s personal bling, doubly incontinent, of the Maudling connection, and financial affairs. Nothing is played out, worn out, chronic Sleaze: The State of Britain. As left unexamined by our dazzling alcoholic of the first order, com- that book deals admirably with Detective Chief Superintendent, pletely and utterly deserted by political, financial and sexual Lewis Baston. the Great and the Good and most corruption in public life in the Reginald Maudling [1917- of his so-called friends. As latter part of the twentieth centu- 1979] was born in London and

Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 | 27 Book reviews was the son of an actuary. He behind every failed man there is prove ‘a god-send ‘ when interests when they take office, was DEFINITELY NOT, as usually a woman. Beryl was the Reggie was hard up in Maudling completely ignored Baston foolishly claims in the Mrs Motivator of her day as far Opposition a decade later. this when, at the Board of Trade, book, from an Upper Middle as Maudling was concerned. Poulson realised that Maudling he continued to be a Member of Class background. That is one of They both liked the high life. had a thirst for money and Lloyds . the few errors which Baston Both were selfish. Both were at booze. Maudling needed cash to From 1964 Maudling started makes in the book. No, times bone idle. Both were finace his drinking and the high the downhill spiral. He was one Maudling did not come from the amazingly poor parents. And life with Beryl – both were of the runner-ups to Home in the grand and moneyed world of the both were absolute out and out James Bond fans. They would Leadership Stakes in 1963. Two Forsytes or the Macmillans. He buggers for the bottle. Towards add lustre to Poulson’s enterpris- years later, he stood again and was from the rung immediately the end of her life she would give es by opening doors and clothing lost against Heath. Amazingly, below them, the professional Reggie a good kicking when the him in respectability. Heath made him middle class though not as low poor drunken old thing could no Then other con artists and for two years before he resigned down as his lower – middle class longer proivide for her. crooks also saw Reggie as a sit- over the Poulson Scandal in 1972. arch enemy, Maggie Thatcher. During the war Maudling ting target and someone useful to Later, Thatcher tried to rehabili- But he was by no means from the served in the RAF, at a number them. So, Sir Eric Miller came tate him as her Shadow Foreign top of the middle class, either. of important desk jobs because along from Peachey Properties, Secretary when she was Leader Maudling went to a very good of poor eyesight. After the war offering him a leaseback agree- of the Opposition . But it was all public school, Merchant he joined the Conservative ment on Bedwell Lodge. And a too late. She soon sacked him for Taylors. But it was never looked Research Department and mysterious Mr Hoffmann from his drunken idleness and his on as a really ‘top’ Clarendon became a trusted and highly the Real Estate Fund Of America unchanging belief in the old, School like Eton, Harrow or thought of friend to such lumi- also turned up offering to make middle of the road policies at . It seems an unlikely naries as Enoch Powell, Rab Reggie a multi – millionaire home and abroad. He swore at her choice of school for a supposed Butler and Iain Macleod. He was overnight, if only he would violently when he left her room Forsyte. And Stoke Newington a much sought after speech – endorse his scam, which Reggie at the Commons after the sack- was an equally odd choice, by writer for Churchill and Eden. duly did. ing. Good Old Reggie. Nice One. Maudling Senior, for the matri- There seemed no stopping him. As Baston makes clear, the The police could never nail monial home. A short while after entering best years of Reggie’s life were him for his skullduggery with From Merchant Taylors, Parliament, he became a minis- the years of Tory Power from Poulson and other business Reggie went to Merton College, ter. But then he also started tak- 1951 to 1964. He was a good and ‘associates’. The House of Oxford. He got a First in philos- ing a few wrong turns. His basic efficient minister; a bit lazy and Commons severely criticised ophy. It was about that time that fault was that, as in the case of a bit too over indulgent perhaps; him for not declaring a financial he started on the slippery slopes Beryl The Peril, he was a very but very clever. And a quick interest in Poulson’s hospital of wrong- doing with the odd poor judge of character. For worker. He was extremely care- project in , when it came bit of fiddling with his grants instance, he chose Frederick ful, unlike Macleod and Butler, up in a debate. That was all . The and scholarships, both at Oxford Bennett as his Parliamentary not to make enemies in his own Inland Revenue were also after and later on as a student at the Private Secretary. Normally, a party . He was also good at spot- him for a while. But like Bar. Worse was to follow. In the PPS is a rising star in his own ting political elephant traps. All Macavity The Mystery Cat, latter part of the he met right. But this was never the case this explains why Macmillan Maudling was mysteriously and fell in love with Beryl with Bennett. Yet because promoted him again and again ‘never there’ at crucial times. He Laverick, a bit part actress and Bennett was from the Kleinwort until, in 1962, he was made rarely wrote letters and frequent- dancer. On reading Baston’s – Benson merchant banking Chancellor of the Exchequer. A ly managed ‘like Macavity’ to book, I am convinced she was dynasty he had endless City con- free house went with the job and cover his tracks and deny all. the wrong sort of woman for tacts who were helpful to this pleased the Maudlings no Beryl wanted to die with him Reggie. And I take comfort from Maudling as he never had much end. They loved the glamour and when he did in 1979 but this was the fact that his mother thought in the way of cash. And the free perks. I am puzzled as to not to be. She lingered on for so, too. She never spoke to him Maudling loved City luncheons how Maudling got away with so several years before she joined again. Beryl The Peril was a which his PPS provided in much as a minister. For instance, him in the same year that one of snobbish, vain and grasping spades. Sir , in his own their sons also died . About fif- woman who spurred Reggie on Worse was to follow when autobiography, Two Lives, states teen years later, another to temporary wealth, fame and Maudling met Poulson at a polit- that as a minister he faced huge Maudling son, Martin, drug ultimately the scrap heap. Of ical gathering in the 1950s . The problems with officials when he addict drop-out killed himself course he was himself quite tal- Maudlings and the Poulsons got wanted to take his wife with him by jumping from the balcony of ented. He was laid back and on so well together that fatal on official visits abroad. a block of council flats. He land- charming, well read and very night, that they all ended up at Maudling faced none. As for the ed near – how typical for a clever. But behind every great the Dorchester with Poulson proposition that ministers should council estate – an unemptied man there is a woman. And footing the entire bill. He was to divest themselves of financial wheeley bin.

28 | Conservative History Journal | issue 5 | Autumn 2005 What were they saying . . . ? The Salisbury Review The quarterly magazine of conservative thought £4.50

The Salisbury Review has been publishing the very best in conservative thought for Read the Thatcher–Reagan correspondence and twenty years. With transcripts at margaretthatcher.org – the largest contributors like Roger contemporary history site of its kind Scruton, Sir , and Antony Flew, we can guarantee an entertaining, informative ‘A unique & indispensable resource’ and controversial read. John Campbell, Thatcher biographer You can buy the Salisbury Review from good bookshops or from 33 Canonbury Park South, London N1 2JW tel: 020 7226 7791 www.margaretthatcher.org Or to find out more, please visit our website the website of the Thatcher Foundation www.salisbury-review.co.uk

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Maggie: Her Fatal Legacy Porridge and Passion John Sergeant Paperback Hardback £8.99 £18.99 The former ITN Politcal Editor’s The sequel to the bestseller Pride and analysis of Thatcher’s life and career, Perjury,Aitken’s describes his journey bringing to bear his trademark wit from sentencing at the Old Bailey, and deep understanding of the through his incarceration at Belmarsh political arena. to his eventual release and the beginnings of a new life

Smell The Coffee: Margaret Thatcher: A Tribute A Wake-up Call for the in Words and Pictures Conservative Party edited by Iain Dale Hardback Paperback £20.00 £10.oo (October) Published to coincide with the former Lord Ashcroft uses extensive polling Prime Minister’s 80th birthday, this is a data to explain why the Conservatives beautifully produced book of anecdotes failed to gain more seats at the 2005 and memories from friends and General Election. colleagues.

An Act of Peace The Duff Cooper Not in Our Back Yard Diaries Anthony Jay Hardback, £14.99 edited by John Julius Norwich Paperback £7.99 A sequel to the bestselling Hardback £20 How to run a sucessful local An Act of Treachery from the Revealing diaries from a man at campaign and save your former Shadom Home the heart of the establishment in neigbourhood. Secretary. the first half of the 20th century.

The Flat Tax Paradoxes of Power Too Nice to Be a Tory Revolution Sir Alfred Sherman Jo-Anne Nadler ed Steve Forbes Hardback £17.95 Paperback £10.00 Hardback, £24.95 A critical look at Margaret The Conservative Party’s answer The case for a simple tax system Thatcher’s administrations by to John O’Farrell’s Things Can from US business guru Steve one of her intellectual mentors. only Get Better. Hillarious and Forbes. beautifully observed.

The Times Guide to the Direct Democracy Be Your Own House of Commons Paperback £7.99 Spin Doctor Hardback £50.00 Twenty-three of the Paul Richards Indispensible guide to the make Conservative Party’s brightest Paperback £10.99 up of the new House of young politicians launch a new agenda for Conservative politics. Superb guide to using the media Commons. for your own ends.

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