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For the study of Liberal, SDP and Issue 80 / Autumn 2013 / £6.00 Liberal Democrat history

Journal of LiberalHI ST O R Y

Remembering Jo Grimond 1913–1993 Centenary lecture Graham Lippiatt Jo Grimond: The Legacy Meeting report Martin Pugh and national identity The Victorian achievement Jaime Reynolds and Peter Wrigley Liberal roots The Liberal Party in a West Yorkshire constituency, 1920s–1970s David Boyle Three acres and a cow Jesse Collings and the Smallholdings and Allotments Act Liberal Democrat History Group 2 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 Journal of Liberal History Issue 80: Autumn 2013 The Journal of Liberal History is published quarterly by the Liberal Democrat History Group. ISSN 1479-9642 Liberal history news 4 Editor: Duncan Brack Jo Grimond centenary – weekend, 18–19 May; Viscount Bryce blue Deputy Editor: Tom Kiehl plaque unveiled in Belfast; On Liberties: Victorian Liberals and their legacies; Assistant Editor: Siobhan Vitelli Liberal Democrat History Group website Biographies Editor: Robert Ingham Reviews Editor: Dr Eugenio Biagini Contributing Editors: Graham Lippiatt, Tony Little, Jo Grimond 1913 – 1993 8 York Membery David Steel’s commemoration lecture, given at Firth Kirk, , Orkney, 18 May 2013 Patrons Dr Eugenio Biagini; Professor Michael Freeden; Report 14 Professor John Vincent Jo Grimond: The Legacy, with Peter Sloman, Harry Cowie and Michael Meadowcroft; report by Graham Lippiatt Editorial Board Dr Malcolm Baines; Dr Ian Cawood; Dr Matt Cole; Dr Roy Douglas; Dr David Dutton; Prof. David Gowland; Letters to the Editor 18 Prof. Richard Grayson; Dr Michael Hart; Peter Hellyer; Honor Balfour (Mark Egan); 1963 Dumfries by-election (David Steel); Aubrey Dr Alison Holmes; Dr J. Graham Jones; Dr Tudor Jones; Herbert (Lionel King); Liberals and Ireland (Sandy Waugh); Women leaders Tony Little; Prof. Ian Machin; Dr ; Dr Ian (Anthony Hook) Packer; Dr John Powell; Jaime Reynolds; Dr Andrew Russell; Dr Iain Sharpe Liberalism and national identity 20 Editorial/Correspondence The Victorian achievement; by Martin Pugh Contributions to the Journal – letters, articles, and book reviews – are invited. The Journal is a refereed Liberal roots 26 publication; all articles submitted will be reviewed. The Liberal Party in a West Yorkshire constituency, 1920s – 1970s; by Jaime Contributions should be sent to: Reynolds and Peter Wrigley Duncan Brack (Editor) 54 Midmoor Road, SW12 0EN Three acres and a cow 38 email: [email protected] David Boyle on Jesse Collings and the Smallholdings and Allotments Act 1908 All articles copyright © Journal of Liberal History. All rights reserved. Reviews 43 Advertisements Lentin, Banker, Traitor, Scapegoat, Spy? The Troublesome Case of Sir Edgar Speyer, reviewed by David Dutton; Cawood, The : A History, Full page £100; half page £60; quarter page £35. Discounts available for repeat ads or offers to readers reviewed by Tony Little; Gaunt, Sir Robert Peel: The Life and Legacy, reviewed (e.g. discounted book prices). To place ads, please by Matthias Oppermann; Aitken, The Prime Minister’s Son: Stephen Gladstone, contact the Editor. of Hawarden, reviewed by Ian Cawood; Meadowcroft, A Guide to the Works of Art at the , London, reviewed by Eugenio F. Biagini Subscriptions/Membership An annual subscription to the Journal of Liberal History costs £20.00 (£12.50 unwaged rate). This includes membership of the History Group unless you inform us otherwise. Non-UK subscribers should add £10.00.

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Patrick Mitchell 6 Palfrey Place, London SW8 1PA; email: [email protected] Liberal Democrat History Group Payment is also possible via our website, www.liberalhistory.org.uk. The Liberal Democrat History Group promotes the discussion and research of topics relating to the histories of the Liberal Democrats, Liberal Party, and SDP, and of Liberalism. The Cover design concept: Lynne Featherstone Group organises discussion meetings and produces the Journal of Liberal History and other Published by the Liberal Democrat History Group, occasional publications. c/o 54 Midmoor Road, London SW12 0EN For more information, including historical commentaries, details of publications, back issues Printed by Kall-Kwik, of the Journal, and archive and other research sources, see our website at: 18 Colville Road, London W3 8BL www.liberalhistory.org.uk. September 2013 Chair: Tony Little Honorary President: Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 3 Liberal history news Autumn 2013

Jo Grimond centenary: Orkney weekend, 18–19 May 2013 Mike Falchikov reports on a dinner, when fifty locals sat down was followed by a lively panel dis- weekend several months in the with seventy from the rest of the cussion, chaired by Liam McArthur planning. In the autumn of 2012 UK, including twenty from Edin- MSP and involving David Steel, some members of the Scottish Lib- burgh. Amongst those making the (Lord) Jim Wallace, Willie Rennie eral Club in (mostly vet- long journey was Catherine Fisher, MSP and Baroness Jane Bonham erans of the Grimond generation) Jo’s long-serving secretary at West- Carter, with plenty of contribu- wondered how the Club might minster, who, at 93, took part in all tions from the floor. contribute to commemorating the the weekend’s activities. The evening dinner was in centenary of Jo’s s birth (29 July The official part of the week- , followed by speeches 2013). Our suggestion was for a lec- end began in Finstown, close to the from MP and ture or short conference to be held Grimond family home, on the Sat- the principal guest, Deputy Prime in Orkney the following summer. urday afternoon. Lord Steel of Aik- Minister . In his speech, Contact was made with the three wood delivered a superb address Nick stressed the continuity of the parliamentarians, all (reproduced on pages 8–14), outlin- party from Grimond to the present of whom welcomed the initiative, ing Jo’s life and career in politics day and also powerfully reminded whilst advising that the busy sched- and his significance for our party us that the Lib Dems are and will ule of events on the islands made a today. David suggested five lega- remain a European party. The din- May date preferable to that of the cies which Jo Grimond left us – his ner was also attended by Jo’s three actual centenary. The next con- devotion to his constituency, his surviving children, Johnny, Mag- tact was the local party who were success in dragging the Liberal nus and Gelda. delighted with the suggestion and Party back from the brink of obliv- For the Sunday – a second day of their constituency organiser, Ruth ion, his rejection of post-war Brit- sunshine and blue skies – there was Williams, got things moving very ish imperialism in favour of a more a coach tour of the Orkney Main- rapidly. modern form of politics, his unwa- Guests outside land, including a stop at Skara Brae, Both the organisation of the vering support for Scottish home the Old Manse followed by a visit to the Grimond events and the welcome to a horde rule and, finally, his own engaging (Nick Clegg house, the Old Manse above Fins- of visitors from the mainland could personality. The address – often centre, in front of town, where we were entertained not have been bettered. The week- moving, sometimes humorous window; David to drinks and snacks and a tour of end had been well publicised in in recalling anecdotes about Jo – Steel second the house and garden by the Gri- party circles and an indication of reminded many participants of why from right) mond family. The weekend came the success of the venture was the they had come together in Orkney, (photo: Nigel to an official close with a lunch at attendance at the Saturday evening and reinforced their beliefs. This Lindsay) another Old Manse – at Evie, the

4 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 liberal history news

the harshest critics of British repres- of Nations and in 1921 published a sive policy against Boer civilians in book that was critical of post-war the South African War, condemn- democracy; specifically, he strongly ing the systematic burning of farms opposed the new right of women and the imprisonment of old peo- to vote. ple, women and children in British In earlier life he was a nota- concentration camps. ble mountain climber, ascend- In 1907 Bryce was appointed ing Mount Ararat in 1876. ‘Mount British Ambassador to the United Bryce’ in the Canadian Rockies States of America, where he served was named in his honour in 1898 until 1913, successfully strengthen- and he was president of the Alpine ing the Anglo-American friend- Club in 1899–1901. ship. As an author, Bryce became In 1907, King Edward VII made well known in America for his 1888 Bryce a Member of the Order of work, The American Commonwealth. Merit. He became a fellow of the The book thoroughly examined Royal Society in 1894 and was also home of Alistair Carmichael, the David Steel the institutions of the United States President of the British Academy piece de resistance being a gigantic delivering the from the point of view of a histo- from 1913 to 1917. Bryce died on 22 fish pie, cooked by the MP himself. lecture (photo: rian and constitutional lawyer, and January 1922 in Sidmouth, Devon Nigel Lindsay) it became a classic. and was cremated at Golders Green On his return to Great Britain Crematorium. The viscountcy died Viscount Bryce blue plaque he was raised to the peerage as Vis- with him. unveiled In Belfast count Bryce, of Dechmont in 1914. A fuller account of Bryce and It is not every day that notable Lib- Following the outbreak of the First the unveiling ceremony of the blue erals are commemorated in Belfast, World War, he was commissioned plaque appears on the Ulster His- but 10 May 2013 was an exception, by Prime Minister, H.H. Asquith, tory Circle website: www.ulster- as Berkley Farr reports. It was the to prepare the official Bryce Report history.co.uk 175th anniversary of the birth, in on alleged German atrocities in 40 Arthur Street, Belfast, of James Belgium. The report was published Bryce in 1838. An Ulster History in 1915, and was damning of Ger- On Liberties: Victorian Liber- Circle plaque was unveiled by Ian man behaviour against civilians. als and their legacies Crozier, CEO of the Ulster Scots Bryce also strongly condemned the The first weekend of July (3–5 July Agency. Armenian genocide that took place 2013) saw an eclectic mix of doc- Bryce might well be described in the Ottoman Empire and later, toral students, early career scholars, as a great polymath – author, clas- with the assistance of the historian and permanent postholders, from a sicist, historian, jurist, politician, Arnold J. Toynbee, produced a doc- range of institutions across the UK diplomat, traveller and mountain- umentary record of the massacres, and the USA, converge on Glad- eer. He attended High published by the British govern- stone’s Library in Hawarden, North School and Belfast Academy before The James Bryce ment in 1916 as the Blue Book. Wales to discuss ‘Victorian Liberals going to Glasgow University and plaque in Upper During the last years of his life, and their Legacies’. Report by Alex Trinity College, Oxford, where he Arthur Street. Bryce served at the International Middleton. graduated in 1862. He was called Belfast (photo: Court at The Hague. He supported The conference sought to to the bar but soon returned to Berkley Farr) the establishment of the League bridge literature and history, and Oxford as Regius Professor of Civil Law, in 1870. His reputation as an historian had been made as early as 1864 by his work on the Holy Roman Empire. Along with Lord Acton, he founded the English His- torical Review in 1885. In 1880 Bryce was elected Lib- eral MP for Tower Hamlets and from 1885 to 1907 represented South . He served as Under-Secretary of State for For- eign Affairs (1886), Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1892), Pres- ident of the Board of Trade (1894– 95) and Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1905 to 1907. In 1897, after a visit to South Africa, Bryce published a volume of impressions of that country, which had considerable weight in Liberal circles when the Second Boer War was being discussed. He was one of

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 5 liberal history news the nineteenth and twentieth cen- atmosphere of intellectual openness on ‘Legacies’ considered how far turies, so as to arrive at a better and general conviviality. E.M. Forster was responding and/ understanding of what ‘Liberal- The number of papers delivered or contributing to debates over the ism’ might have been, how it might over the next two days, combined ‘New Liberal’ (i.e. proto-collectiv- have originated, how it might have with the fact that many of them ist) politics of the Edwardian era, been transmitted, and what con- were arranged in parallel sessions, while the final paper of the confer- sequences it might have had. This makes it impossible here to do any- ence looked at the representation was, clearly, an ambitious agenda thing but pick out certain themes of the Victorian eccentric Henry for three days. Luckily the sun and highlights. The panel on ‘Lib- Ashbee in two novels published in shone throughout, and if we cannot erals, Slaves, and Aliens’ offered a the last eleven years. In these pan- now claim to have all the answers fascinating set of papers on how lib- els we were confronted with a huge to these questions, all the attendees eralism dealt (or failed to deal) with variety of approaches to ‘liberal- at least came away with important problems of race, exclusion, and ism’ and ‘liberty’, from the ‘liber- new questions to ask. unfree labour, approaching these ties’ taken with the representation The conference began with a issues through the very different of Ashbee, to Arnold’s contextu- panel on the grand theme of ‘Lib- lenses of the high political debate ally specific arguments about the eralism: Definitions and Mech- over the forcible suppression of the extent to which religious liberal- anisms’. In the event this was slave trade in early-Victorian Brit- ism could be allowed to run, to the composed of three political histori- ain, literary responses to the Aliens (implied) relationship between the ans, who usefully opened up some Act of 1905, and South African Brownings’ liberal social contract key themes in nineteenth-century imperial romance novels. Liber- and Robert Browning’s political Liberalism. David Craig’s paper on als, it emerged, found it extremely poetry. Nobody could have come the emergence of the languages of difficult to agree on where the away from these diverse panels and ‘liberalism’ and ‘liberality’ around boundaries of the political com- papers without being forced to con- the turn of the nineteenth century, munity ought to be drawn. The front and reconsider their assump- in particular, set the conference on methodological tensions evident tions about what makes a ‘liberal’, its feet with a vigorous and com- in this panel between the historian or about the unity and historicity pelling dissection of what people and the students of literature were of the attached ‘ism’. In this respect actually meant by the term ‘liberal’ even more pronounced in the panel the juxtaposition of historians and before it began to be understood in on ‘Commons Ground’, where literary scholars, while often chal- a primarily political sense. Emily two highly theoretical close read- lenging for at least some representa- Jones, discussing Liberal attitudes ings of Anthony Trollope’s politi- tives of the former group, was one towards Edmund Burke around cal novels ran up against a much of the most intellectually produc- the time of the home rule crisis more straightforwardly historical tive aspects of the conference. of the 1880s, took the discussion analysis of the same, alongside a Each of the keynote lectures of these important issues of chro- thorough biographical treatment added important ingredients to nology a stage further, suggest- of James Stansfeld MP, one of the this pleasantly simmering broth. ing that the search after political leading lights in the late-Victorian Michael Wheeler’s opening address ‘isms’ and abstract political ideol- campaigns against the Conta- on ‘Religion and Science in the ogy was an innovation of the later gious Diseases Acts. The discussion 1830s and 1860s’ offered an orien- nineteenth century. The first ques- that emerged, of the relationship tating conspectus of some of the tion period, moreover, established between liberal politics and ‘lib- major intellectual contexts from the tone of inquisitiveness, open- eralism’ as an approach to literary which nineteenth-century Liberal- ness, and engagement which was to style, was a particularly stimulating ism took its shape; one-time deputy characterise post-panel discussions one. The final panels focused more leader of the Liberal Democrats throughout the conference. The narrowly on literature: that on ‘Lit- provided an insider’s first dinner, and the subsequent trip erary Liberalism’ threw together view of the ‘legacies’ of political to the impressively well-appointed the Brownings, Thomas Arnold, Liberalism, discussing the costs village pub, only cemented this and Ralph Waldo Emerson; that and benefits of possessing a ‘creed’ for political parties in general (and for the Liberal Democrats in par- ticular), while providing a range – a one-day conference of incidental insights into the con- The Birmingham and Midland Institute (BMI), together with The Lloyd George Society, are organising a temporary politics of coalition; and one-day conference to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of David Lloyd George (1863–1945). The Regenia Gagnier, in what must be event will be held at the BMI, 9 Margaret Street, Birmingham, B3 3BS on Saturday 23 November 2013 seen as a high point of the confer- between 10am and 4pm. ence, spoke compellingly on ‘The The speakers will be Professor Russell Deacon, Chairman of the Lloyd George Society, on Lloyd George Global Circulation of the Litera- and Welsh Liberalism; Professor Emeritus Roger Ward, Birmingham City University, on Lloyd George tures of Liberalization’, fusing phi- and Austen Chamberlain; Professor Richard Toye, University of Exeter, comparing Lloyd George and losophy, psychology, history, and as war leaders; and Professor Lord Kenneth Morgan, concluding with an overview of literature, in a compelling demon- LG’s career and his legacy. stration of interdisciplinarity done right. The cost of the day will be £28, to include lunch and refreshments at registration and in the afternoon. For all the intellectual stimula- Bookings may be made to Philip Fisher, Administrator, Birmingham & Midland Institute, 9 Margaret tion on offer from the conference Street, Birmingham, B3 3BS by post; or email: [email protected]; or telephone: 0121 236 3591. proper, however, this attendee

6 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 liberal history news drew most of all from the inscribed to the statesman and to the Library staff for updating its content and in due opportunities it presented to ‘from the author’. Here was their unfailing friendliness and course – finances allowing! – its leaf through Gladstone’s per- confirmation, perhaps, of the efficiency. design. sonal library. It was extraor- wisdom – and the necessity – Any Journal readers with dinary, after so many years of of the conference’s efforts to views on the existing con- reading about the man, to be bridge the gap between litera- Liberal Democrat History tent, structure, navigation and confronted with the massed ture and politics. Many thanks Group website look of the website are very physical evidence of his vorac- are due to Matthew Bradley The History Group is begin- welcome to let us have them. ity; and, in particular, to pull and Louisa Yates for organising ning the process of overhauling Please email our web coordina- down a volume of Mill from such a splendid conference in our website (www.liberal- tor, Chris Millington, at chris- the shelves, only to find it such exceptional surroundings, history.org.uk), revising and [email protected]. RESEARCH IN PROGRESS If you can help any of the individuals listed below with sources, contacts, or any other information — or if you know anyone who can — please pass on details to them. Details of other research projects in progress should be sent to the Editor (see page 3) for inclusion here.

Letters of Richard Cobden (1804–65) Recruitment of Liberals into the Conservative Party, 1906–1935 Knowledge of the whereabouts of any letters written by Cobden in Aims to suggest reasons for defections of individuals and develop an private hands, autograph collections, and obscure locations in the UK understanding of changes in electoral alignment. Sources include and abroad for a complete edition of his letters. (For further details of personal papers and newspapers; suggestions about how to get hold of the Cobden Letters Project, please see www.uea.ac.uk/his/research/ the papers of more obscure Liberal defectors welcome. Cllr Nick Cott, 1a cobdenproject). Dr Anthony Howe, School of History, University of East Henry Street, Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE3 1DQ; [email protected]. Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ; [email protected]. Four nations history of the Irish Home Rule crisis Dadabhai Naoroji A four nations history of the Irish Home Rule crisis, attempting to Dadabhai Naoroji (1825–1917) was an Indian nationalist and Liberal rebalance the existing Anglo-centric focus. Considering Scottish and member for Central Finsbury, 1892–95 – the first Asian to be elected Welsh reactions and the development of parallel Home Rule movements, to the House of Commons. This research for a PhD at Harvard aims along with how the crisis impacted on political parties across the UK. to produce both a biography of Naoroji and a volume of his selected Sources include newspapers, private papers, Hansard. Naomi Lloyd-Jones; correspondence, to be published by OUP India in 2013. The current [email protected]. phase concentrates on Naoroji’s links with a range of British progressive organisations and individuals, particularly in his later career. Suggestions Beyond Westminster: Grassroots Liberalism 1910–1929 for archival sources very welcome. Dinyar Patel; [email protected] A study of the Liberal Party at its grassroots during the period in which it or 07775 753 724. went from being the party of government to the third party of politics. This research will use a wide range of sources, including surviving The political career of Edward Strutt, 1st Baron Belper Liberal Party constituency minute books and local press to contextualise Strutt was Whig/Liberal MP for Derby (1830-49), later Arundel and the national decline of the party with the reality of the situation on Nottingham; in 1856 he was created Lord Belper and built Kingston the ground. The thesis will focus on three geographic regions (Home Hall (1842-46) in the village of Kingston-on-Soar, Notts. He was a Counties, Midlands and the North West) in order to explore the situation friend of Jeremy Bentham and a supporter of free trade and reform, the Liberals found themselves in nationally. Research for University of and held government office as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Leicester. Supervisor: Dr Stuart Ball. Gavin Freeman ; [email protected]. and Commissioner of Railways. Any information, location of papers or references welcome. Brian Smith; [email protected]. The Liberal Party’s political communication, 1945–2002 Research on the Liberal party and Lib Dems’ political communication. The emergence of the ‘public service ethos’ Any information welcome (including testimonies) about electoral Aims to analyse how self-interest and patronage was challenged by the campaigns and strategies. Cynthia Boyer, CUFR Champollion, Place de advent of impartial inspectorates, public servants and local authorities Verdun, 81 000 Albi, France; +33 5 63 48 19 77; [email protected]. in provincial Britain in the mid 19th century. Much work has been done on the emergence of a ‘liberal culture’ in the central civil service in The Liberal Party in Wales, 1966–1988 Whitehall, but much work needs to be done on the motives, behaviour Aims to follow the development of the party from the general election and mentalities of the newly reformed guardians of the poor, sanitary of 1966 to the time of the merger with the SDP. PhD research at Cardiff inspectors, factory and mines inspectors, education authorities, prison University. Nick Alderton; [email protected]. warders and the police. Ian Cawood, Newman University Colllege, Birmingham; [email protected]. Policy position and leadership strategy within the Liberal Democrats This thesis will be a study of the political positioning and leadership The life of Professor Reginald W Revans, 1907–2003 strategy of the Liberal Democrats. Consideration of the role of Any information anyone has on Revans’ Liberal Party involvement would equidistance; development of policy from the point of merger; the be most welcome. We are particularly keen to know when he joined the influence and leadership strategies of each leader from Ashdown to party and any involvement he may have had in campaigning issues. We Clegg; and electoral strategy from 1988 to 2015 will form the basis of the know he was very interested in pacifism. Any information, oral history work. Any material relating to leadership election campaigns, election submissions, location of papers or references most welcome. Dr Yury campaigns, internal party groups (for example the ) Boshyk, [email protected]; or Dr Cheryl Brook, [email protected]. or policy documents from 1987 and merger talks onwards would be greatly welcomed. Personal insights and recollections also sought. Samuel Barratt; [email protected].

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 7 Jo Grimond 1913 – 1993 Joseph (Jo) Grimond was born 100 years ago, on 29 July 1913. As leader of the Liberal Party from 1956 to 1967, Grimond made a difference not just to the fortunes of his party but to British politics, helping to end the two-party mould into which Britain had seemed to settle. He made the most substantial contribution to Liberal politics of any post-war politician, taking over an ailing party and transforming it into a formidable force. His idealism, his imagination, his ability to communicate, his freshness, made him ‘the personification and the hope of post-war Liberalism’. Here we reprint David Steel’s lecture to mark the 100th anniversary of Grimond’s birth, given at Firth Kirk, Finstown, Orkney, on 18 May 2013.

8 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 Jo Grimond 1913 – 1993

t is a trite, commonplace cli- later as rector at Aberdeen and should do so. I insisted that I was ché for a politician to open a chancellor at Kent, he loved to put only there to take the collection Idiscourse such as this by saying together generous dinner parties to cover the costs, and he spoke what a pleasure it is to be here and of a dozen or so for convivial dis- for about three minutes. Then Jo doing so. In this case, the moment cussion, and at one of these he sat wowed the audience. Unfortu- I received the invitation I replied me next to a fellow law student nately I had decided we would saying that genuinely it would give whom I knew but slightly, called have questions, and of course Jo me enormous pleasure. So before I Judy MacGregor. I offered her a answered superbly. Then a man delve into Jo Grimond’s life let me lift back to her flat afterwards. We in a loud tweed suit with a pukka explain why I owe him such a huge celebrated our golden wedding last voice – obviously up for the grouse personal debt on two levels. year. shooting – got up at the back and In 1961 when I had been presi- My second reason for my insisted on addressing his ques- dent of the Liberal Club at Edin- indebtedness to him occurred two tion to the candidate: ‘What is the burgh University I persuaded Jo years later by which time I was pro- Liberal Party policy on defence?’ Grimond to stand for the office of spective candidate for Edinburgh I looked at Jo. Jo looked at me. rector and he was indeed elected. Pentlands – a seat not fought by the We both looked at Alasdair, and The secretary of the club, George party for many years and where my I could see my sparkling career Inglis, and I went on a camping ambition was to save my deposit. in the party about to disappear. holiday in the Highlands in my old I was, on graduating, offered and Alasdair got very slowly to his motor car and had the temerity to accepted the full-time job of assis- feet, cleared his throat noisily, travel over to Orkney to land our- tant secretary of the Scottish Lib- and said very slowly: ‘The Liber- selves on the Grimonds for free eral Party. One of my tasks in al Par-ty will de-fend Brit-ain, bed and breakfast at the Old Manse that august role was to organise a the common-wealth and the free of Firth, and similarly lodge with pre-election tour for the Leader in world’. He sat down to tumultu- the former rector James Rob- the summer of 1964. So I was Jo’s ous applause, and went on to win ertson-Justice on our way back bag carrier (as we call them in the the seat and be an excellent MP. It south at Spinningdale. Jo’s recto- trade) as we travelled from hall to was a model answer. rial address was entitled ‘In praise hall. All went well in Inverness and Some of you may remember my of politics’ and in it he declared: ‘I Caithness & Sutherland where we boss, the secretary of the Scottish urge all of you to become politi- knew and George party, Arthur Purdom, whose reac- cians, Liberals preferably, but if Mackie had good chances of win- tion to the good second places at you can’t manage that even Labour ning, but in Stornoway and espe- by-elections we had polled in East or Conservative politics are bet- cially Ross & Cromarty things Aberdeenshire, Galloway, and Kin- ter than none. I urge you because were different. Neither Jo nor I ross was ‘we need fewer brilliant politics are important, because knew the newly adopted candidate second places and a few more medi- politics are rewarding, but, most Alasdair Mackenzie. Gaelic was his ocre firsts!’ of all, because politics are one of first language and he was already Well one constituency where we the greatest, most natural and most into his sixties, was an expert on had always been in well-entrenched enjoyable of human activities’. sheep but not thought to be so on second place, and indeed fleetingly Now Jo Grimond was notori- politics. – before the boundary changes ously mean when it came to small The town hall in Dingwall was turned it into a safe Tory seat – the amounts of money, preferring to packed to the rafters, and Alasdair Jo Grimond Liberals had won it in 1950 (the eat in one of the Commons caf- who had never addressed more (1913–1993), same year Jo won here), was Rox- eterias rather than pay for din- than a local NFU meeting pan- Leader of the burgh, Selkirk & Peebles, but an ner in the Members’ dining room, icked and said he could not make Liberal Party active Labour candidate called Tam but for students at Edinburgh and the supporting speech, and that I 1956–1967 Dalyell had nearly pushed us down

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 9 jo grimond 1913 – 1993 to third place at the 1959 general agent. ‘Indeed’, was the response, Conventional Council and operating directly for election. ‘for which party?’ example to rescue and preserve the The prospective Liberal candi- He and Laura revived the some- canvass- little row of houses beside St Mag- date was a distant Asquithian rela- what moribund Liberal organisa- nus Cathedral which are her monu- tive of – the Hon. tion and he lost by just 329 votes. ing was not ment today. James Tennant of the Glen. He fell We won no seats at all in Scotland, I enjoyed many visits to his con- out with the local party and they five in England and seven in Wales. his forte, stituency, not least on the weekend parted company. In the autumn of But he soldiered on as prospec- when he told me not to go over- 1963 with no candidate there and tive candidate whilst being the and he was board when addressing the evening – we thought – a general election full-time secretary of the National Orkney supper because he intended looming, Jo Grimond came into the Trust for Scotland, and won the suspicious to tell our colleagues next week of Edinburgh HQ and rightly insisted seat at the next election in 1950. of outside his intention to retire as leader. Our that the seat must be fought at all From then on until and indeed son Graeme was four months old, costs, and if nobody else was availa- after his retirement as MP in 1983, interference, and on Sunday morning we left ble ‘young Steel you will have to go it was a fully requited love affair him sitting in a plastic chair with and do it’. And so to cut a long story between these islands and the Gri- promising Jo as baby sitter while we went to short I did. monds. Conventional canvassing church with Laura. Jo was terrified, Alec Douglas-Home became was not his forte, and he was suspi- that if mate- and when we returned he said: ‘it prime minister and delayed the cious of outside interference, prom- made some noises but I didn’t know election for another year. With ising that if material was sent from rial was sent what to do’. the help of many student friends I Liberal HQ he would ensure that all His commitment to his constitu- reduced the Tory majority in the Liberal literature would be ‘seized from Liberal ency was something I tried to emu- 1964 election, and when the MP at the ports’. late in my beloved Borders with the suddenly died just a few weeks His devotion to the islands shone HQ he would result that we were both less than later, I was elected at the subsequent through many of his speeches in the enthusiastic about the policy of the by-election in March 1965 bring- Commons and produced tangible ensure that party on electoral reform – STV in ing the total number of Liberal MPs results getting an amendment into multi-member seats did not appeal back into double figures – ten. the Scotland Bill; and securing the all Liberal to us, and we would still I believe So you can see why both in my twelve-mile fishery limit instead have been better to disinter the 1930 private and public life I owe Jo Gri- of the six-mile one elsewhere when literature Speaker’s Conference recommen- mond the most extraordinary debt we joined the EEC. In 1973 he dation for multi-member seats in and why I rejoice in this opportu- piloted through the Zetland Bill in would be the cities, but AV in the rural areas nity to mark the 100th anniversary cooperation with the Council to ‘seized at the and single burghs. of his birth. secure a share of oil revenues, and Jo’s determination to put Ork- Today I want to suggest that as far back as 1960 he was lamenting ports’. ney and Shetland first often clashed Jo Grimond left us and the nation in a speech on the Crofters Bill the with the party strategists who nat- five distinct legacies. First was his lack of proper development of the urally wanted him to spend more deep devotion to life as a constitu- Highlands and Islands: ‘There is no time touring the country, and ency MP. It might never have hap- other part of this country in which indeed it must have been very dif- pened. Having been born into a more stable doors have been locked ficult and tiring to combine service well-to-do Dundee jute manu- after the horses have gone than in to the islands with party leader- facturing family in the Highlands and Islands. I do not ship. One peculiarity of his life was and educated at Eton and Oxford, say that these horses have bolted: that he never spent money on cars, then serving during the war in the nothing as dramatic as that. They preferring to travel by tube and and Forfar Yeomanry, he had have ambled out of the stable while train. Such vehicles as he did pos- moved in Liberal circles through successive secretaries of state have sess always seemed rather down at his friendship with the Bonham- leaned against the doorpost chew- heel, so much so that he regularly Carters and the Sinclairs. So in ing straws’. made the same remark when driv- 1940 when Lady Glen-Coats the I recall vividly the time he was ing with me – ‘very smart car’ even prospective candidate for Orkney interviewed on television and if it wasn’t particularly. and Shetland decided to resign she accused of just representing the Laura used to drive their car back recommended Jo Grimond as her Celtic fringes. With a rare show of from Orkney to London at the end successor. He thought it too dif- anger he turned on the interviewer of the summer recesses and, finding ficult and remote, and expressed and berated him telling him that the Borders a halfway point on the interest in standing in Banff, which the entire nation’s newfound wealth road to London, either stayed with I doubt if he would ever have won, depended on his constituency. us or her great aunt Baroness Kay but was prevailed upon to tackle Young Magnus Grimond once, Elliot. On more than one occasion Orkney and Shetland, with its sub- when asked what his father did, she did this in an incredibly decay- stantial Liberal traditions. famously replied: ‘he jist gangs ing mini. Jo himself used to turn up I remember him on one visit to aboot’. But that he did with great in the Commons after time at the Shetland taking me to the solici- effect, making a point of visiting Old Manse with his fleshy hands tor’s office in Lerwick where he had even the smallest inhabited island covered in scratches from his atten- arrived in 1945, announced him- at least once every two years. Nor tion to the garden. He held the seat self as Major Grimond intending should we forget the input of Laura in ten general elections and was a to fight the election and asked if – not just guarding the fort at elec- perfect example of the first-class Mr Goodlad would agree to be his tion times but actively on Orkney constituency MP.

10 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 jo grimond 1913 – 1993

Jo Grimond’s second legacy was with policies more attuned to the Burnet who was presenting the quite simply the Liberal Party. It realities of the second half of the ITV all-night results programme of is difficult for a younger genera- twentieth century. The American the first European Parliament elec- tion to realise how close the party Secretary of State Dean Acheson tions in 1979, at the end of which came to extinction, having been in was frequently quoted as saying he told the remaining viewers: the nineteenth and early twentieth that Britain had lost an empire but ‘Thirty-five years ago the people century the great reforming party not yet found a role. Jo was among of Europe from the Shetlands to of government. Yet extinct as the the early fighters against imperial Sicily were at war: today the peo- dinosaur it nearly became. nostalgia. He spoke against rac- ple of Europe from the Shetlands In the 1951 election the once ism at home, and against the con- to Sicily have elected a parliament. great party of government polled duct of the colonial administration Goodnight.’ It is noteworthy that only 2.5 per cent of the popular vote in Kenya at the time of the Hola David (now Lord) Hannay, who partly because we could fight only Camp massacre. was Prime Minister Ted Heath’s a minority of the seats, and in that On South Africa he said of the chief negotiator on our belated short parliament of 1950–51, when Sharpeville massacre in 1960: ‘I entry, wrote in his recent book that Jo was a new MP, the small Lib- When he believe something happened which Britain’s problems with the Com- eral band had only four times out has made a dividing line in history mon Agriculture Policy and espe- of twelve major divisions voted in became such as we sometimes see. I do not cially the Common Fisheries Policy unison – in other words they were think things will ever be quite the were because of our lack of vision just a handful of disunited hango- Leader in same again. … The prime cause – our failure to enter at the start as a vers from historic days and by 1956 of all this is the attempt to impose founding member – as the Liberals were reduced to just five MPs – 1956, he a wholly unworkable and repug- alone had advocated. with Jo being the only one elected nant system – a system of race Jo Grimond showed the same against both Conservative and began to superiority’. attitude to imperial pretensions on Labour candidates. Two actually But perhaps the most contro- the issue of Britain acquiring an had formal pacts with the Tories in proclaim the versial and uniquely Liberal com- independent nuclear deterrent. He Bolton and Huddersfield which we mitment was his espousal of entry was opposed to the Polaris project in due course lost when the pacts need for a into the European Economic Com- and later the Trident one believing ended. So that is why I say that the munity and opposition to the them to be ‘unnecessary, dangerous party was nearly over. realignment creation of the so-called independ- and expensive’ and argued that they When he became Leader in 1956, ent nuclear deterrents of Polaris made little additional contribution he began to proclaim the need for of the left, and Trident. In those days he did to that of the West as a whole and a realignment of the left, bearing not wait for policy debates at the that they were maintained for ‘out in mind that the Labour Party had bearing in annual assembly – together with of date reasons of national prestige’. begun as the Labour Representa- mind that a small group (usually consisting In the 1959 election he set out the tion Committee within the Lib- of , Mark Bonham- policy: ‘We of the Liberal Party eral Party but had now become the Labour Carter, and Donald say that Britain should not make its too subservient to the powerful Wade) he would simply pronounce own nuclear deterrent. We believe and reactionary trades unions. So Party had new ideas in the Liberal News to the the nuclear deterrent should be held it was natural that when I started astonishment of us humble readers by the West on behalf of the West to argue in 1979/80 for an alliance begun as the of that much-missed paper. as a whole and not by individual with the breakaway SDP, Jo was When the UK government countries.’ He was not a unilateral- a leading supporter, so much so Labour Rep- stayed out of the talks leading to ist but wanted to limit our nuclear that I decided to play the Grimond the Treaty of Rome the six Liberal participation to co-operation card and on the eve of our annual resentation MPs divided the House, criticising within NATO, not attempting to assembly at Llandudno in 1981 per- the failure to join the EEC, and I run our own independent deter- suaded him to come out of retire- Committee think they were joined only by two rent: ‘Must we not abandon many ment and address what turned out or three others against the united of our ideas about sovereignty and to be a huge and emotional fringe within the forces of the Tories and Labour. pool much of our resources and our meeting with me and Shirley Wil- Jo wanted us to take the lead role arms?’ he asked. liams on the eve of our critical vote Liberal Party in a new united Europe instead For that reason he was fully sup- as a party when only 112 delegates of constantly – as today – being portive when David Owen and out of 1,600 voted against the for- but had now out-manoeuvred by the original I went to discuss with President mation of the Alliance. ‘I beg of powerful members. He described Mitterand and Mr Chirac the pos- you to seize this chance,’ he said, become too its creation as ‘the disappearance sibility of reducing our deterrent ‘do not get bogged down in the subservient of the cloud which has lain over jointly with that of the French, niceties of innumerable policies. I Europe for a thousand years – the and he would have been doubtful spent my life fighting against too to the pow- plague of Western European wars about our present attempts to find a much policy in the Liberal Party’. – which has been so completely cheaper independent deterrent than So Jo Grimond not only revived erful and expunged that new generations Trident. Indeed this week’s report the old Liberal Party he played a do not even appreciate the boon of of the Public Accounts Commit- crucial role in the events leading reaction- its dispersal; it is alone worth any tee questioning the capability of to the formation of today’s Liberal petty tribulations that the EEC the Ministry of Defence budget on Democrats. ary trades may inflict’. equipment underscores the huge His third legacy was to shake That sentiment was echoed savings we could have made over Britain out of its imperial past unions. by the late and great Sir Alastair the decades if the Grimond policy

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 11 jo grimond 1913 – 1993 had been pursued at the outset, and of a much-restricted West- copied. We therefore had to hold a and we had confined our deterrent minster Parliament. special assembly to draft the new role to providing bases for NATO constitution amendments and Jo operations. I suggest that today his credo prob- was persuaded to return as acting My fourth suggested Grimond ably sums up the view of most Scots leader whilst we did so. John Par- legacy was Scottish home rule as against the overblown, vague and doe gave him the bad news that we used to call it. Jo devoted part of unrealistic rhetoric of the inde- apparently the only available venue his maiden speech in the Commons pendence lobby. for the assembly at such short notice to the subject and it was always a My fifth and final suggested was Bellevue zoo in Manchester major part of his election addresses, legacy is much more imprecise – it – highly unsuitable. ‘On the con- though he always warned that is the personality of Jo Grimond trary’, responded Jo, ‘in the cir- his island constituents would be itself. For a start he was the most cumstances there could hardly be ‘against any parliament run by engaging politician I have ever anywhere more appropriate’. a combination of Glasgow trade met – fantastically good company As he grew older he suffered unionists and Edinburgh lawyers!’ always. It has also to be admit- from deafness, and indeed he told He would have been very pleased at ted that at times he was delight- me that was one of the reasons he the birth of the Scottish Parliament fully imprecise and occasionally wanted to retire as leader, and I and indeed he at one point when He was the downright self-contradictory. The recall a dinner party at his home ex-leader, and somewhat contro- Economist likened his style to a man in Kew where he obviously could versially within the party, favoured most engag- thinking aloud in the company of not follow the conversation round an electoral pact with the SNP in friends. One of his attributes was a the table. Only in his later years did some seats to help bring it about. ing politician lively sense of humour with which he admit to infirmities, telling one But his view of the devolution he peppered his speeches. Away journalist in 1984: ‘I am a little deaf, settlement would have chimed I have ever back in 1933, in his home town of so I’ll talk anyway and let’s just with our party attitude today to St Andrews, he attended his first hope I answer the question I think the upcoming referendum. He was met – fan- political meeting during a by-elec- you asked me’. On another occasion not in favour of independence, but tion in East Fife being addressed when we were recording a party stressed the sovereignty of the Scot- tastically by the Scottish Nationalist candi- political broadcast I was becoming tish people and therefore would date, (who was later exasperated by his failure to stick have advocated not the top-down good com- in Orkney to become a friend and to the script to which he retorted: Westminster devolution we have, supporter). This is what he wrote ‘David, you should know that I but rather the devo-plus alternative pany always. about it: ‘It was in a temperance can’t read the autocue – that’s what to which we should be moving once hall which had obviously taken a gives my TV talks that unmistak- the referendum is out of the way. It has also good deal of trouble to live up to its able air of sincerity.’ This is how he put it in his 1983 to be admit- name, for it was as dark and cheer- Speaking at a pre-election book A Personal Manifesto: less as cold tea. Eric Linklater bat- rally in the Barbican in 1987, just ted that at tled valiantly against that chilly after the hero of Orpington, Lord I do not like the word devolu- hall, but I fear that the hall won.’ Avebury, had announced that he tion as it has come to be called. times he was When he was frustrated at the intended to leave his body to the It implies that power rests at poor transport links to his con- Battersea Cat and Dog home, Jo Westminster, from which cen- delightfully stituency he underlined the point said in his speech: ‘my only worry tre some may be graciously by filling in a bureaucratic form is that the Alliance might have lost devolved. I would rather begin imprecise for the Commons authorities nam- the votes of animal lovers now that by assuming that power should ing his nearest railway station as they know that the dogs of Bat- rest with the people who entrust and occa- Bergen – which for Shetland was tersea are going to have to eat Eric it to their representatives to true. He also tried unsuccessfully Lubbock’. discharge the essential tasks of sionally to persuade them to permit him to But it was not just his humour government. Once we accept travel to the islands by plane via that endeared him to so many. His that the Scots and the Welsh are downright Copenhagen. first general election campaign as nations, then we must accord In 1962 during the arguments leader in 1959 attracted a whole new them parliaments which have all self-contra- about the terms for entry into the generation of Liberals especially the normal powers of govern- EEC he remarked that the preoc- amongst university students. It was ment, except for those that they dictory. The cupation about the detailed terms the first election in which television delegate to the United Kingdom ‘would be as if at the Reformation was really important and the Tories government or the EEC. Economist someone had said they were unable and Labour had impressive budgets I find it difficult to see how, likened his to make up their minds until they for their party political broadcasts. if the case for Scottish and Welsh knew what price the monasteries The Liberals did not, and simply self-government is accepted at style to a were likely to fetch’. put Jo live in front of the camera. all, any powers can be reserved You will recall that when Jer- The veteran American commenta- to the UK government except man think- emy Thorpe resigned as leader tor Ed Murrow gave his broadcast foreign affairs, defence, and the the party had not yet put in place top marks against the expensive wider issues of economic policy ing aloud in the new democratic procedure for ones describing it ‘as effective as linked to a common currency electing a new party leader by the anything presented during the and common trade policies. So the company members instead of just the MPs campaign’. when we consider Parliament we – something which incidentally Jo was also a well-rounded must think of three Parliaments of friends. we pioneered and the other parties and cultured individual with a

12 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 jo grimond 1913 – 1993 particular interest in the arts – who found that 33 per cent of the ‘We carve defence of the Leader’s right to a often to be seen carting his latest UK population suffers from mul- veto over items in the manifesto, a picture purchase on the plane to tiple deprivation, by the standards out a niche gloriously undemocratic but use- Orkney. His period as secretary set by the public, compared to 14 ful proviso which we lost in the of the National Trust also had its per cent in the same survey thirty for ourselves merger process, and which might effect. When Edinburgh University years ago, and notes that 1930s-style have been used to save us that cam- set about in the late fifties destroy- soup kitchens have returned to our left of centre paigning embarrassment at the last ing most of George Square to build towns and cities. election. He would have been dubi- new tower blocks he was scathing In the same year, 1958, he first in the sense ous about the AV referendum and, in a speech in the Scottish Grand advocated what he called ‘a rea- given his utterances on the plethora Committee: lignment of the left’ stating his that we of detailed policies, he would have long-term objective ‘to become stand for per- been sceptical about the laundry I hope that an indestructible the progressive wing of politics in lists of supposed achievements ferro-concrete monument will this country, sweeping not only sonal free- (such as amendments to the Health be put up on which will be Liberals but liberal socialists and Bill) regularly trotted out by party carved the names, not only of liberal Tories, and make it a great dom against headquarters but which seem not the Secretary of State, but of the movement for the shaping of a Lib- to impress the public one bit. Why Principal of the university and eral society’. That is why despite author- do I say that? Because again his own the whole of the university court some misgivings he personally and words in 1964: ‘Some time we will commemorating the deed. Pre- actively supported my leadership ity, in the have to change the electoral sys- sumably they are proud of pull- during the Lib–Lab pact and espe- tem, but not immediately, the most ing down George Square, and so cially the Liberal–SDP Alliance and sense that important thing to face is the eco- they should be associated with subsequent merger. nomic situation’. its destruction. But my answer to the question we believe He would also argue that we would he have approved of the coa- should concentrate on and pro- Jo’s political style was totally lition is decidedly ‘yes’. How can there is still mote Liberal principles and values. hands on. He had only one member I be so sure? Because I recall our How do I know that? Because he of staff – his indefatigable secretary fourteen MPs’ intense discussion too much made exactly that point publicly Kate Fisher. When he was being round the table in committee room during the Lib–Lab pact. What prevailed upon to have a political J in the Commons basement imme- poverty, too had he in mind? First and foremost assistant – what nowadays would diately after the February 1974 elec- co-determination in industry. He be called a Spad, a special adviser tion – when Ted Heath had gone many slums was deeply interested in that, hav- – he was firmly resistant: ‘I don’t to the country early on a ‘who and too much ing studied Yugoslav cooperatives want anybody with bees in their rules Britain’ basis and the people even within a communist system, bonnet – I have quite enough of my had decided it should not be him. cruelty, in and the Mondragon cooperative in own’. He was eventually persuaded Jo, Frank Byers and I had already the Basque region of Spain, which to take on Christopher Layton. He damped down ’s the sense he described as ‘socialism with- had been recommended as some- fleeting attraction to Heath’s sug- out the state’. He believed fully one ‘who would have lots of bright gestion of a coalition, and the that we want in co-ownership of shares and stimulating ideas for your speeches’ parliamentary party was clearly worker representatives on boards. to which Jo’s response was ‘I have equally unimpressed by the sug- and mean to Our German Liberal colleagues six bright stimulating ideas before gestion. But Jo intervened to say he used to joke with his approval breakfast – what I want is some- was worried by the tone of some of have a wide that after the war we the occupy- one who will get me from A to B the arguments – that although the ing powers insisted on a new Ger- on time’. And Jo could be remark- conditions were not right (a Con– dispersal of man constitution which contained ably vague – memorably turning Lib coalition would still not have a decentralised federal system of up without his passport and thus had a majority) we should not as a property and government, proportional repre- missing the chartered plane taking party rule out coalition in princi- sentation, and industrial democ- the party leaders to President Ken- ple even with the Tories, especially power’ racy, ‘and you are so generous you nedy’s funeral. as we advocated proportional rep- British you took not one of these So what would he have made of resentation. He would have been three for yourselves!’ our situation today? Would he have astonished but tickled if you had Another Liberal fundamental approved of the coalition? Jo was told him that his two successors as would be a land tax or site value unmistakably a politician of the MP Jim Wallace and Alistair Car- rating to free up land hoarded for left, writing this in 1958: ‘We carve michael would both be members speculation and undeveloped, still out a niche for ourselves left of cen- of a coalition government though as relevant today as it was in his. tre in the sense that we stand for he would have been mischievously I want to end with Jo’s own personal freedom against author- sarcastic about both of them. words from his last book to illus- ity, in the sense that we believe That is not to say that he would trate what he meant by Liberal there is still too much poverty, too have approved of all that the coali- values: many slums and too much cruelty, tion has done. He would certainly in the sense that we want and mean have opposed the about-turn on The ancient Greek ideals of to have a wide dispersal of prop- student fees with its inevitable loss restraint, of economy, of serious erty and power’. He would have of trust in our party among the application to the cultivation been alarmed by this year’s report electorate, though I recall that in of the mind and the Christian from Poverty and Social Exclusion 1983 he and Laura both came to my teaching of poverty, charity in

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 13 jo grimond 1913 – 1993

all its senses, of self-sacrifice, have given way in the West to the ideals of the barbarians. The individual is sacrificed to the report rulers. Ostentation, unending demands, the glorification of material success have ousted to a great extent the older philoso- Jo Grimond: The Legacy phies. Those Greek and Chris- tian ideals were never realised, Evening meeting, 10 June 2013, National Liberal Club, with but it is only comparatively Peter Sloman, Harry Cowie, and Michael Meadowcroft; recently that they have been rejected even as ideals and that chair: Tony Greaves whole nations have come to ape Report by Graham Lippiatt the barbarians.

Jo Grimond’s politics stemmed o Grimond continues to hold Grimond’s ability to expand Lib- from the heart and mind, not from Ja particularly affectionate place eralism as a philosophy or political focus groups and market research. in the collective memory of Lib- creed. Grimond wrote four major At his overcrowded funeral in eral Democrats. His charisma, books setting out his vision in addi- St Magnus Cathedral one of his charm, good looks, political cour- tion to pamphlets, speeches and a constituents read a poem she had age, intellect and inherent liber- volume of memoirs. In addition written: alism inspired many new people his political career spanned much to join the Liberal Party in the of the twentieth century, from his Lord Grimond of Firth they ca’ late 1950s and 1960s. He gained a Oxford days, when he apparently him. reputation as someone who could admired Stanley Baldwin, through ’Tis right that should be so, give politics a good name, which his entry to the House of Commons but here in the isles where we has endured to the present day. To in 1950 when Attlee was prime loved him mark one hundred years since his minister, to his stepping down he’ll aye be known as Jo. birth in 1913, the meeting sought in 1983 during the Thatcher era. to examine Jo Grimond’s legacy to Inevitably, therefore, his thought Jo Grimond was one of the last the modern Liberal Democrats and developed over time, but there real orators in our country. It was more widely to British politics and were important consistencies in the job of the leader to inspire and political ideas. Grimond’s understanding of what fire up his annual party audience The meeting was chaired by Liberalism was and its implications to go out to greater endeavours. (Lord) Tony Greaves. Tony, who for policy. Dr Sloman proposed to Nowadays all the party leaders first joined the Liberal Party when explore Grimond’s thought under are made to behave like perform- Grimond was leader, had kindly four headings: his philosophical ing seals ambling around an empty agreed to step in to replace William position, his attitude to socialism space chatting to their audience. In Wallace (Lord Wallace of Saltaire), and the state, his vision of a liberal 1963 when the party was at a par- who had been press assistant to Jo society and his view of Britain’s ticularly low ebb he thunderously Grimond during the 1966 general role in the world. addressed the pre-election assembly election, but who had been called Grimond’s conception of Lib- in Brighton with his most famous away on government business. eralism was at root a philosophical quote: one. He understood Liberalism to be a humanitarian creed, grounded In bygone days the commanders Ideas in men and women’s experience in were taught that when in doubt Our first speaker was Dr Peter Slo- the world and dedicated to amelio- they should march their troops Jo Grimond’s man, of New College, Oxford, rating their problems; a creed based towards the sound of gunfire who was asked to explore Jo Gri- on the individual and innately sus- – I intend to march my troops politics mond’s ideas, with a focus on his picious of deities and dogma. At towards the sound of gunfire. thinking around the role of the Balliol, where he read PPE, Gri- stemmed state and free market. Dr Sloman mond had come under two influ- And so he did, and those of us who started by saying that Grimond was ences: the legacy of T. H. Green, followed him and, even more, had from the one of a rare category of politicians, with an emphasis on self-devel- the privilege of knowing him and heart and those whose legacy was mainly opment, civic participation and counting him as a friend will be associated with their political the common good; and also early- forever grateful. mind, not thought. While Grimond was not twentieth-century ideas reacting an original political theorist he was against idealism, hence his empha- The Rt Hon. Lord (David) Steel of from focus certainly an ideas man and was per- sis on experience and the individ- Aikwood KT KBE was MP for Rox- haps the best political communica- ual. This background came to give burgh, Selkirk & Peebles, later Tweed- groups and tor that British Liberalism has had his thought its balance and vital- dale, Ettrick & Lauderdale, 1965–97, since Gladstone. While many Lib- ity. People were both individuals Leader of the Liberal Party 1976–88, market erals or Liberal Democrats have had and members of wider communi- MSP for Lothians and Presiding Officer more electoral success or held more ties. He was suspicious of abstract of the Scottish Parliament, 1999–2003. research. political power, very few have had ideas and utopian solutions and

14 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 report: jo grimond – the legacy believed politicians should confine placed Grimond close to some new Grimond universal provision was inferior to themselves to dealing with par- right philosophers like Arthur Sel- a system in which individuals or ticular social issues as they arose. don of the IEA, accounting for his understood voluntary institutions were able to Dr Sloman said that Grimond’s qualified sympathy with elements provide for their own or their mem- conception of Liberalism was not of Thatcherism. Liberalism to bers’ needs because the latter gave exceptional but what gave it its However, moving to his third citizens greater independence and hard edge was the way he defined heading, Dr Sloman stressed that be a humani- choice. The welfare state should be it against socialism. This sprang Grimond had a positive vision of a allowed to wither away as living from his political career being con- liberal society as well as his negative tarian creed, standards rose or reduced to a safety temporaneous with the Cold War critique of the state, which served net for the poorest. Liberals should and the post-war social democratic to make him such a successful Lib- grounded focus on raising the incomes of the settlement at home. He was pas- eral leader. His vision centred on the in men and poor through tax credits or negative sionately against the practice of need to return to the individual and income tax rather than provide state Marxist socialism behind the Iron the community the power that was women’s subsidies or benefits in kind. Social Curtain which denied the individ- rightfully theirs. These ideas were services were there solely to meet ual the opportunity for choice and reinforced by Grimond’s role as experi- a need, not good things in them- self-development. He also saw it as MP for Orkney and Shetland. The selves. To this end Grimond was economically flawed as the market islands were remote from London ence in the sympathetic to education vouchers, system could satisfy needs more and Edinburgh. So despite his links charges for GP consultations and efficiently than state planning. to the establishment by education world and the sale of council houses. Labour’s policy of nationalisation at and marriage, Grimond came to see In his final section, Dr Sloman home stood equally condemned. So the governing classes from an out- dedicated to turned to Grimond’s internation- from the moment he became Lib- siders’ perspective. Grimond also alism and his ideas about Britain’s eral leader in 1956, Grimond argued saw the islanders as representative of ameliorating place in the world, which were as that the British left had to choose that spirit of sturdy independence important as his ideas on domes- between two paths to progress: and mutual personal responsibil- their prob- tic policy. Grimond was one of the the socialist path based on equality ity he valued so much. He consist- first politicians to recognise and and public ownership or a Liberal ently sought to push political power lems; a creed say publicly that Britain could no path based on freedom, democratic closer to the people, championing longer be the great power she had participation and the free market. Scottish home rule and supporting based on the been up until the 1940s. Particu- While most Liberal thinkers would devolution to Wales and the Eng- larly in the wake of the Suez crisis, have agreed with Grimond to that lish regions. At the same time he individual Grimond was forthright in argu- point, many in the radical tradi- was very much aware that nations and innately ing that Britain’s destiny had to lie tion like Beveridge and Keynes and regions could also be remote in Europe with membership of the would probably have stopped there, and bureaucratic. The real prize suspicious of Common Market. This was not just as would some later social Liberals was to create active and participa- on economic grounds but as a mat- such as David Steel. They would tive communities on a human scale. deities and ter of political and strategic inter- have argued that once Clause IV That included effective local gov- est. He called for Britain to reduce socialism had been eliminated there ernment but was not limited to it. dogma. her global military interests and was not really much to fear from Nor was community responsibility pool her nuclear capabilities with the democratic state being used as limited to a vote at the ballot box. other western countries. The com- an essential tool for bringing about In the 1970s Grimond helped organ- mon thread between Grimond’s a fairer society. But Grimond was ise independent civic development domestic and international visions more cautious about the state. He initiatives, with financial support was his low view of the nation state believed that modern govern- from the Rowntree Trust, believing and his belief that power should rest ments had an inbuilt tendency to that these grassroots experiments at the most appropriate level. ever expand their activities and could achieve more than govern- Dr Sloman concluded that while waste money on prestige projects, ment bureaucracies. One of his later the main elements of Grimond’s Concorde or nuclear weapons for inspirations was the Mondragon ideas were consistent through all example. Whereas historically cooperative in the Basque country his writings and speeches, the more MPs had been sent to Westminster founded in the 1950s but which by anti-statist aspects did tend to pre- to restrain government spending, the 1970s had its own local bank, dominate during the early 1950s since the Second World War they school and technical college as well and the post-leadership phases of had abandoned this role and had as its own social insurance scheme. his career, rather than in the period become lobbyists for government It also chimed with Grimond’s of Liberal revival around the time intervention. Grimond saw the longstanding interest in industrial of the Orpington by-election. Yet growth of the state as having two partnership. Grimond very firmly this was the time when Grimond malign consequences. Firstly, high believed in the Elliot Dodds con- seemed to inspire people most and government spending overloaded cept of ‘ownership for all’ wishing draw them into Liberal Party mem- the British economy, imposing a to spread property ownership across bership or activity. At this time heavy tax burden on private indus- the community and to democratise he proposed more public invest- try and making economic manage- industrial relations. He also wished ment and indicative planning to ment more difficult. Secondly, it to see power devolved in the area get the British economy moving, fostered a culture of dependency of social welfare. Again following in contrast to his usual caution on the state and discouraged per- Dodds’ approach in the Unservile over state intervention. Dr Slo- sonal responsibility. This approach State essays, Grimond felt that state man felt that Grimond was seduced

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 15 report: jo grimond – the legacy by the modernising mood of the published. Firstly on the grounds On co-part- general election and to an extent early 1960s and the opportunities he would have to read them. Sec- by the Conservatives when they set this presented. He hoped the Lib- ondly because Tory Central Office nership, Gri- up the National Economic Devel- erals might capture the spirit of would add up all the costs of the opment Council in 1962, although the age, drawing Labour revision- proposals and this would lead to mond was Grimond dismissed this as a talk- ists like Crosland and Jenkins into Robin Day asking Grimond on TV ing shop. Liberals were also taking a new progressive movement. Yet how the Liberals were going to pay a repeated the lead on reform of income tax. A somehow it never quite seemed that the bill. Harry contacted the chair- heavyweight panel led by Professor Grimond was fully swayed by the man of the department, Mark Bon- critic of Wheatcroft, the editor of the Brit- slogans and policies the party was ham Carter, whose view was the ish Tax Review, and Hubert Monroe using. Once out of the leadership, very practical one that if the Liber- the class QC wrote a report recommending while Thorpe and Steel continued als were to be taken seriously they divisions the abolition of the standard rate of in more social democratic mode, had to have a credible platform. He income tax. The standard rate was Grimond reverted to his anti-statist knew the party could not rely any reflected hardly paid by anyone and made ideas and this could explain Gri- longer simply on the traditional the whole system too complicated, mond’s detached stance towards the policies of free trade, proportional in British allowing high levels of tax eva- Lib–Lab pact and the alliance with representation and industrial co- sion. The scheme was welcomed by the SDP towards which his own partnership. Bonham Carter took industrial Douglas Houghton, the Labour MP, strategy of realignment of the left on Grimond over the issue of the who was General Secretary of the had so clearly pointed. publication of the reports ensuring relations. Inland Revenue Staff Federation, as they saw the light of day. a major and innovative proposal. One of the new, key, elements On co-partnership, Grimond Policy of the policies was the issue of was a repeated critic of the class Our next speaker was Harry regionalism and the passing down divisions reflected in British indus- Cowie, a former Director of of power to other levels of gov- trial relations. The policy com- Research at the Liberal Party and ernment, introduced as a means of mittee on co-partnership was speechwriter to Jo Grimond, with implementing Liberal ideas. This chaired by Peter McGregor, a Fer- a remit to talk about the develop- flowed through the whole of Lib- ranti executive. They updated the ment of policy under Grimond’s eral policy, although it was not clear policy, which went back to the leadership. Tony Greaves remarked that Grimond actually fully agreed Yellow Book, taking account of that while Jo Grimond was very with it, mainly because he feared developments at the Esso refinery definitely an ideas man he was not the cost of new tiers of government at Fawley where great productivity really interested in policy, despite might outweigh the benefits. One gains had been made by the drop- the party producing a great deal such reform was the abolition of ping of demarcation by the unions. of it at the time of his leadership, the hereditary peers and the intro- This was in return for generous and he introduced Harry Cowie as duction of appointed Lords with a wage settlements and redundancy the man who responsible for for- strong regional element. Regional schemes. Success depended on the mulating much of that policy at a development plans were to be drawn decentralisation of wage bargain- time when the party had minimal up by people in the localities backed ing. Under McGregor’s plan the resources to research and develop it. by a Land Development Corpora- union shop stewards were the most Harry began by agreeing that tion to undertake urban renewal, likely people to be elected to the Grimond was much more interested develop new towns, magnet areas works’ council, they would get to in ideas than policy but pointed out and check the drift to the south-east. see the whole picture of the com- that under his leadership the party The regions were to have independ- pany’s development and have a real had set up policy committees and ence in financial terms with respon- stake in making things work. appointed a Director of Research sibility for health, education and As ever, a key area of Liberal with three assistants funded by town and country planning. While policy was education, as it rested on Rowntree Trust money. This team not directly elected in the first the liberal principle of individual also briefed the parliamentary instance, this was expected further development and personal happi- party and did work for Grimond down the road. Grimond was keen ness. Again the regional approach himself. They also produced policy that these new bodies should take was important. A major adviser to briefings for candidates, not only advantage of new techniques, like the party was Alec Peterson, head setting out the Liberal approach cost–benefit analysis, or social ben- of the Department of Education but also providing critiques of efit analysis, to investment decision- at Oxford, who came in as a result Conservative and Labour policies. making. He also feared the dead of Grimond’s leadership. Peterson This meant that come the general hand of the Treasury and supported believed that regional authorities election, the party was able to pro- the party’s moves to develop a strat- would be able to promote research duce a useful candidates’ handbook egy for growth. The party adopted a and encourage fresh thinking in answering points which might flexible target for growth across the contrast to Labour’s centralised arise. As a result of their efforts a economy with a ministry responsi- approach of building huge compre- series of policy reports were pub- ble for overseeing progress, a minis- hensive schools. The study group lished in advance of the 1964 gen- try for expansion which would take on the public schools suggested that eral election. Grimond called some of the Treasury’s functions. the independent sector should find Harry to a meeting in his office at The idea was then followed up by new roles. The headmaster of West- the House of Commons and told Labour which set up a Department minster School was a member of him he did not want the reports for Economic Affairs after the 1964 the panel, although he did not wish

16 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 report: jo grimond – the legacy that to be known publicly. One of Meadowcroft joined the party in state but he truly believed he could their recommendations was that the Southport at the end of the 1950s recreate a viable Liberal Party. His public schools should become a new and his key early role was as local style filled a gap in contemporary generation of liberal arts colleges government officer. He went on to politics and he used it to appeal to on the American model. Grimond’s become Liberal MP for Leeds West the social democratic side of the attitude to the public schools was from 1983 to 1987. Labour Party to create a progressive that they should enlarge their Meadowcroft began by recall- consensus. He was disappointed in intake to wider sections of the com- ing how Jo Grimond, in contrast the long run but he felt it was pos- munity. At the same time Liberals to the current Twitter genera- sible to mix syndicalism with social were calling for a large increase in tion, used to say, ‘Never ask me reform, as advocated by George the number of universities, dou- to say a few words. I will give you Orwell, much to the horror of many bling in ten years. a speech, a lecture, write an arti- senior Liberals. The self-assurance An area of Liberal policy that cle at the drop of a hat but “just a and confidence with which he pro- was especially important to Gri- few words” is much too difficult.’ posed such things appealed to peo- mond was foreign policy. His prin- Meadowcroft admitted that when ple greatly. Before becoming leader, cipal adviser was Alastair Buchan, he joined the Liberal Party in 1958 Grimond had been chief whip of the professor of International Affairs he did not know much about Jo tiny parliamentary party. Despite at Oxford, who was a proponent of Grimond. But later that year he there only being six MPs, they fre- the gradual withdrawal by the UK went to a huge rally in Blackpool, quently voted three different ways from worldwide commitments. one of those affairs that the party and it was Grimond’s responsibil- At the Llandudno conference in could put on, even in the dark days ity to keep the disparate members 1962, Mark Bonham Carter hard- before the revival and heard Gri- together. He understood this and ened policy on the EEC. No longer mond speak – and he was mag- still felt he could achieve it by lead- were the Commonwealth or EFTA nificent. Grimond had physical ing from the front. A good exam- members to have any simplified advantages. He had a wonderful ple of this was his line on Suez, veto on British membership and resonant voice. He was a large, tall which he got the party to follow there was a call for greater politi- man and could never be intimidated even though many believed it was cal unity in Europe with a directly by the press – or by hecklers. At the wrong. elected European Parliament, pro- rally a member of the League of Grimond used his gifts even posals which were far in advance of In response Empire Loyalists began shouting. more effectively outside the House their time. Grimond challenged him to come of Commons. From his perfor- How to decide the success of to Harold down to the front if he wanted mances in the House, people in par- these policy initiatives? Seven to ask a question. Then he waited liament at the time often used to be documents were published before Wilson’s com- while the heckler slowly trudged bemused at what people outside saw the highly successful 1962 assem- ment that down from the gallery only to wave in Grimond. Given that he usually bly and appropriate resolutions him away when he got there. Gri- had to speak once the House emp- were drafted to get them debated. he was will- mond also projected a slightly anar- tied after the front bench speeches The press reaction was then very chic or academic air when it suited it is not surprising that he saw little positive. The Daily Mirror reported ing to join the occasion but when he needed merit in trying to use the floor of that ‘… the Liberals have practi- to be direct he was unstoppable. the House to make an impact. His cal policies on housing, town plan- Europe if the The general election of 1959 was element was television or groups ning, health, old people … they are the first time that politicians could of people (especially the young). projecting an image of a party led price was be asked questions by members of His crinkly smile and disarm- by hundreds of intelligent profes- a studio audience posed through ing, slightly crumpled appearance sionals. … They are real radicals right, Gri- the presenter, Robin Day. A ques- showed a common touch which who want to have a new society. tioner wished to know if Grimond people found tremendously attrac- Watch out George Brown and Ian mond com- was in favour of joining the Com- tive. He was also popular at party Macleod.’ On the day before the mon Market and wanted a ‘yes or headquarters because he did not 1964 election the first leader inThe mented this no’ answer. So Grimond just said interfere, perhaps unlike every Times was headed ‘A Radical Influ- ‘yes’. Day attempted to follow up other party leader before or since. ence’. It read, ‘Geographically Brit- was rather but Grimond stood his ground. His knew his job was to lead the ain is an island. She cannot stay one This was an example of his sense of party not administer it. As a plat- politically … the test is Europe. She like reserving humour used for political purposes. form performer Grimond was needs a government committed In response to Harold Wilson’s absolutely magnificent. He was to forthright and radical changes, judgment on comment that he was willing to join perhaps the best orator of his day, a competitive economy and more the Reforma- Europe if the price was right, Gri- epitomised by his ‘sound of gun- sensibly articulate society. The Lib- mond commented this was rather fire’ speech, and could genuinely erals represent millions of voters on tion until you like reserving judgment on the Ref- enthuse and inspire. The structure all these things … There should be ormation until you knew what the of his speeches was similar. The first the largest possible Liberal vote.’ knew what monasteries would fetch. He used segment hit you between the eyes self-deprecation but was not a hum- to get your attention. In the mid- the monas- ble man. He possessed a sentimen- dle, came fifteen minutes of ideas. Leadership tal arrogance about himself that he You were always struck by his abil- Our final speaker was Michael teries would was capable of achieving things. He ity to close by hitting the Liberal Meadowcroft on Jo Grimond’s took on the Liberal leadership at a nail on the head when talking about leadership of the Liberal Party. fetch. time when the party was in a poor the current topics of the day.

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 17 report: jo grimond – the legacy

Grimond was also a great ‘The Grimond Generation’. ‘We are have been shockingly undemocratic believer in the power of politics. the Grimond generation. Whether but we were newcomers and did not For that reason he used to hate we like it or not most of joined and really notice. We joined because the staged photo-shoots which he became active in the Liberals and Liberals (Jo Grimond) seemed to regarded as insufficiently serious. Young Liberals when Jo Grimond be bright and new and relevant and He refused to take part in stunts was not only the Liberal leader, to sensible.’ such as pretending to sleep rough, all intents and purposes he was the always preferring reflective, ration- Liberal Party. He had virtually no Graham Lippiatt is a member of the ale debate and the exchange of Parliamentary party and policy was Liberal Democrat History Group ideas. He insisted on reading the whatever Jo said at the time. It must executive. morning papers even when general election timetables required him to be elsewhere and held court at his home at Kew into the small hours with amusing anecdotes as well as serious debate about the election. During the 1966 general election, Grimond’s eldest son Andrew, committed suicide. The Letters prime minister arranged for RAF ‘He had vir- transport to help him travel. Mead- owcroft concluded that the shock tually no Par- Honor Balfour of the death of his son took more It was fascinating to read about she had interviewed. Former cabi- out of Grimond than was realised liamentary Honor Balfour in Journal of Lib- net ministers sometimes dropped in at the time. In 1967 he resigned eral History 78 (spring 2013), not for lunch. the party leadership against the party and least because I was one of the peo- My interview covered her early advice of many in the party includ- ple mentioned as having consulted political career, her views on the ing Meadowcroft himself, say- policy was her papers while she was alive. I Liberal Party during the war, the ing he had had nearly ten years in thought readers would be interested circumstances of the Darwen by- which to get on or get out and he whatever Jo to to know more about this and election and her subsequent inter- felt he had done all he could do. about Honor in her later years. est in politics. A left-wing Liberal, In retrospect however Meadow- said at the I started the research for my she had been tempted to join the croft believed Grimond had served doctorate on the Liberal Party Labour Party, not least because one year too many. In the final time. It must 1945–64 in late 1994 and began Harold Laski offered her a choice year he got very stubborn and it have been the task of identifying suitable of safe Labour seats, but she had was often necessary to have two interviewees. My supervisor, Dr been put off by the party’s link with people present at meetings with shockingly Michael Hart, mentioned that the trade unions. Had she taken up him to ensure he stuck to what he Honor Balfour lived locally and Laski’s offer she might well have had agreed. His deafness, while it undemo- had fought a by-election during the become a cabinet minister under could be used to his advantage with Second World War as an independ- Harold Wilson (whom she knew people he preferred not to engage cratic but ent Liberal. I contacted Cotswolds at Oxford). Instead she committed with, was getting to a point where Liberal Democrats and got her herself to a career in journalism. it was a problem for him. Harry we were address. In those pre-Google days Towards the end of the inter- Cowie added that a major fac- I knew nothing about Honor: all I view Honor said that she had some tor in his decision to retire was his newcomers had to go on was the close result in papers upstairs which might be of sense of having been let down by Darwen in 1943. interest so, mindful of the time of Harold Wilson with whom Gri- and did not We met in Burford in January the bus back to Oxford, I arranged mond felt he had an agreement to 1995. She was tiny, spoke in precise to return. When I did so I was ush- bring in proportional representa- really notice. terms, and seemed amused to be ered up to a spare room and invited tion. Whether such an agreement of interest to a research student. I to rifle through some boxes of was reached is unsure but there is We joined was crammed into her tiny car for papers, press clippings and photos. no doubt Grimond did feel side- the short drive to her cottage at Some were hers and some she had lined after the result of 1966 elec- because the Windrush. There it was soon clear inherited from Lancelot Spicer, tion. To end, Meadowcroft quoted that she had a passion for post-war head of the Liberal Party’s Radi- Grimond as saying, ‘What should Liberals (Jo British politics. Her library was cal Action group in the 1940s. Here alarm us about politicians is not Grimond) enormous. She owned the biog- was a treasure trove of information that they break their promises but raphy or autobiography of every which had not previously seen the they frequently keep them.’ seemed to be major politician active during her light of day and which I wrote up Tony Greaves ended the meet- career. She had incisive views on in my thesis and then for an arti- ing with a reading from the Young bright and the current political scene, when cle in this Journal (‘ Liberal publication Gunfire, which New Labour was on the rise and the and the Liberal Party during the was named after Grimond’s new and rel- Major government was beginning Second World War’, Journal 63, famous ‘Sound of Gunfire’ assem- to collapse. Although she was not summer 2009). As a research stu- bly speech. When it was written in evant and a name-dropper, it was clear that dent, finding something new and 1968, Greaves was the editor of the she still had links to the politicians interesting was like discovering publication. The article was headed sensible.’ from the 1950s, 60s and 70s whom gold dust.

18 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 letters

During this and a later visit I So when I tackled the Bor- the 1874 general election as neither as much as Gladstone’s discovered that Honor was also ders seat I said ‘forget the 53 candidates of the new Irish Home Rule Bills nor the Dual a talented cook. I was treated villages and with our lim- Home Rule Party, or were Monarchy approach then to a three-course lunch with ited forces concentrate on the defeated by such candidates. favoured by the new Sinn Fein beer – a cut above my usual stu- eight towns’. That post-Dum- This had disastrous conse- movement (founded in 1905) dent lifestyle. I liked her tomato friesshire strategy paid off in quences for the Victorian Lib- nor the aspirations of the semi- salad so much I borrowed the 1964, reducing the Tory major- eral Party in Ireland, reaching secret Irish Republican Broth- recipe, and still use it today. ity of nearly 10,000 to under a nadir at the 1886 general elec- erhood, and also by reason of When I finished with the papers 2,000 and paving the way for the tion, when there was only one priestly opposition to secular Honor asked if I could arrange successful by-election in 1965. Liberal candidate in Ireland. control of Irish schools. The for them to be deposited at her David Steel (Lord Steel of James Fargher, in his wide- Irish Parliamentary Party was old college, St Anne’s. I sug- Aikwood) ranging article on ‘The South now in the position that any gested that the Bodleian would African War and its effect on further appearance of compro- be a more suitable home for the Liberal [–Irish National- mising in relation to the fuller them and put her in touch with Aubrey Herbert ist] Alliance’, might have men- Irish demands would be fatal the archivist. I am delighted that I met Aubrey Herbert (noted tioned that there was not only electorally – as would be the her papers are now there, prop- in letters, Journal of Liberal His- a temporary de facto Conserva- case some eleven years later. erly catalogued and cared for. tory 79, summer 2013), in the tive–Irish Nationalist alliance Finally, mention should I kept in touch with Honor early 1960s when we both at the 1900 general election but also be made of the Irish Home after my research ended and served on the Liberal Council. also at the 1885 general elec- Rule motion, with the wording visited her for the last time A most approachable, genial, tion. Indeed, if 17 more pro- agreed with the dying Camp- shortly before her death. Suf- laid-back character, he had home rule Liberal MPs had bell-Bannerman, carried by fering from emphysema and a fund of numerous political been elected in 1885, the first 313 votes to 159 in the House of reliant on oxygen, she was as anecdotes which he told with Irish Home Rule Bill would Commons in late March 1908. cheerful as ever, looking out wit and deliberate understate- have secured a Second Read- Dr Sandy S. Waugh from her book-lined study over ment, in a measured, Leslie- ing on 8 June 1886, and the next the Cotswolds countryside. Phillips-style drawl. At Chester challenge to the Liberal gov- Mark Egan in the bitter general election of ernment would not have been Women leaders 1931, he was hospitalised after a general election but the Con- In this spring’s edition of the a Conservative official, yell- servative (and Liberal Unionist) Journal of Liberal History (issue 1963 Dumfries by-election ing ‘You traitor! Treason!’ majority in the . 78), in the report on the ‘Moth- David Dutton’s fascinating rammed an umbrella, point Moreover, the home-rule- ers of Liberty’ conference tale of the Dumfries Standard in first, into his chest, where it by-stages approach agreed by fringe meeting, a statement is your last splendid issue (Jour- stuck fast between two ribs. Sir Henry Campbell-Banner- attributed to one of the parlia- nal of Liberal History 79, sum- Aubrey was one of those Lib- man, with Asquith and Grey, mentarian speakers that ‘Kirsty mer 2013) dealt rather lightly erals who would be my first and then with the Irish Nation- Williams … is currently the with the 1963 by-election at choice as a dinner party guest. alist leadership in November only female leader of any part which the hapless Liberal candi- I find myself wondering once 1905, led on to the 1907 Irish of the Liberal Democrats’. This date Charles Abernethy lost his more: ‘Where have all the Lib- Council Bill. However, the overlooks Fiona Hall MEP, deposit. It was an object lesson eral characters gone?’ Bill made no progress as it was who has been our leader in the in the result of the Liberal Party Lionel King unanimously rejected by an European Parliament since not fighting the seat for so long. Irish National Convention 2009, and who will lead us I was assistant secretary of in Dublin during the Whit- superbly in next year’s election. the at Liberals and Ireland sun recess, given that it offered Anthony Hook the time and was sent down to In the review of Gerald R. help organise the campaign, Hall’s Ulster Liberalism by Euge- for which I was very grateful nio F. Biagini (Journal of Liberal Liberal Democrat History Group online because without that expe- History 79, summer 2013), there rience I would never have was a reference to Irish Pres- accepted to abandon my PPC byterians as ‘Nonconformists’. Email role in Edinburgh and step into Surely, after the disestablish- Join our email mailing list for news of History Group meetings and the sudden vacancy next door ment of the Church of England publications – the fastest and earliest way to find out what we’re in Roxburgh, Selkirk & Pee- in Ireland in 1869, there were doing. Fill in the form at: http://bit.ly/LDHGemail. bles. What happened in Dum- no ‘Nonconformists’ in Ireland. fries was that on Sunday after- Further, following Irish Website noons I held a strategy meeting criticism of the 1871 Irish Land See www.liberalhistory.org.uk for details of our activities and at which each branch reported Act for not providing for fair publications, guides to archive sources, research resources, and a in. I was told: ‘we are doing rents and fixity of tenure, and, growing number of pages on the history of the party. rather well in Eskdalemuir’ – with the defeat of the 1873 a community with about 180 Irish Universities Bill, with 43 Facebook page voters on the roll, and: ‘insuf- (mainly Irish) Liberal MPs vot- News of the latest meeting and publications, and a discussion forum: ficient returns from Dumfries ing with the Conservatives, as www.facebook.com/LibDemHistoryGroup. burgh’, which had some 18,000 the Bill did not provide for a voters. Indeed, only two turned state-funded Roman Catholic Twitter up for the eve-of-poll rally in university, most Irish Liberal The History Group is now on Twitter! A daily posting of Liberal events the burgh. MPs elected in 1868 contested on this day in history. Follow us at: LibHistoryToday.

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 19 Liberalism and National Identity the Victorian Achievement

‘The Liberal Party is a house of many mansions’, Sir William Harcourt once observed. At the time it was not altogether a compliment. From the perspective of late-Victorian party management, the sheer variety of Liberalism in social and intellectual terms added considerably to the complications of keeping a parliamentary majority intact during what was notionally a seven-year term. On n its heyday from the 1850s to in integrating the various elements 1914 the Liberal Party enjoyed into the system and giving them the other hand, as the Isignificant support in England, a sense of Britishness that seems Wales, Scotland and Ireland; it increasingly elusive today. foundation for building included High Anglicans, Noncon- This was no small achievement, a coherent and inclusive formists, secular Radicals and Jews; for at the start of the nineteenth it mobilised agricultural labourers century Britain was a society sense of national and aristocratic landowners, trade experiencing great social and unionists and major employers, economic upheaval while being identity Liberalism monarchists and Republicans, dedi- run by a largely closed aristocratic looked a much more cated teetotallers and successful elite comprising just a few hundred brewers. This rainbow coalition not families. As John Vincent observed serviceable vehicle. By only reflected British society in all some years ago, the Liberal Party its inconsistency and exuberance, offered an answer to the question Martin Pugh. it also proved to be instrumental of who was to govern the nation

20 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 Liberalism and National Identity the Victorian Achievement

after the landed aristocracy ceased involved never imprisoning men was a narrow movement too closely to be able to do so by themselves.1 without bringing them to trial, not linked to the Anglican establish- In effect the solution lay in levying taxes without parliamen- ment and the maintenance of privi- gradually curtailing, though not tary approval, and maintaining a lege generally. The 1846 split over overthrowing, aristocratic rule free press and freedom to criticise the repeal of the Corn Laws left the and supplementing it by drawing the highest in the land. Although party more dependent on its rural in talent from outside its ranks and the basis for this system was far and landed interests and reluctant eventually engaging comparatively from democratic – only 2.6 per cent to adjust to industrial-urban Brit- poor and powerless people in the of the population enjoyed a vote ain. After the expansion of the elec- political process. before the 1832 Reform Act – Lib- torate in 1867 and 1885 it retained To this end, nineteenth-century erals believed they had found the very little representation in Wales, Liberals developed what today means of steadily extending popu- and not much more in Scotland would be called a narrative designed lar participation without recourse until the Liberal split over home to explain the nation’s past and to the violence and revolutionary rule in 1886 boosted the party with its present. At the constitutional upheaval experienced by Conti- Liberal Unionist recruits. Above level this drew on the notion of a nental Europe in 1789–1815, in 1830, all, Conservatives were alienated rough-and-ready democracy dat- in 1848, in 1870 and at intervals from the Irish by virtue of their ing back to Anglo-Saxon England in Tsarist Russia. By contrast the links with the Anglo-Irish land- that had been subverted by the British had a genius for step-by- owners and the maintenance of Norman Conquest; in this analy- step reform. Although the ‘Whig’ the Anglican establishment over a sis, parliamentary reform could interpretation of gradual, managed Catholic population. Defence of be seen as patriotic and British. In political change tends to be dispar- The role of the Union with Ireland made the time the British had overthrown aged more than respected today, Conservative appeal more negative the absolutism of the Stuart Kings, it exercised a powerful influence Victorian and divisive than ever. In a reac- replacing it with a parliamentary on British thinking and on British tionary speech in 1886, Lord Salis- monarchy and a balanced system of politicians right up to the time of Liberals in bury deliberately polarised opinion government in which three institu- Clement Attlee. by disparaging the Irish for being tions, King, Lords and Commons, The role of Victorian Liberals in building a as unsuited to self-government as checked each other’s exercise of building a coherent idea of British- the Hottentots; he advised them to power. The Liberal philosopher, ness is the more obvious by com- coherent emigrate to Manitoba, a suggestion John Locke, argued that men placed parison with their Conservative almost as insulting to the Canadi- themselves under society on the rivals. No doubt Conservatism also idea of Brit- ans as it was to the Irish!2 The most basis that the state guaranteed to mobilised a wide range of support the Conservatives achieved was to safeguard their lives and property, when forced to do so by the expan- ishness is win sixteen to seventeen seats in with the clear implication that sion of the electorate. Later in the the more Ulster, in the context of a hundred failure to do so gave them a legiti- century, under Disraeli and Salis- for Ireland as a whole, by exploiting mate reason for rebellion against bury, it promoted its claim as the obvious by the fears of the Protestant minority. authority. patriotic, imperial and monarchist In effect Conservatism became In this way emerged the char- party as a challenge to Liberalism as comparison the English party, as it is today, acteristic liberal belief that liberty the national party; but in the pro- rather than the British party. Con- was integral to Britishness and Brit- cess Conservatism confirmed itself with their servatives even struggled to come ain the most free society on earth, as a much more exclusive force, reli- to terms with provincial England a view widely endorsed by Conti- ant on exploiting fears and antago- Conservative and its leaders, apart from the Glas- nental observers by the nineteenth nisms about external factors. For wegian Andrew Bonar Law, were century. Among other things this much of the century Conservatism rivals. essentially English. Admittedly

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 21 liberalism and national identity: the victorian achievement

Arthur Balfour had a home in the excluded the church courts from While Con- to the emergence of the Liberal Scottish Borders but his mental the process of divorce in 1857.4 It Party in the mid-Victorian period outlook was entirely dominated by was also responsible for disestab- servatism than his more equivocal views on metropolitan society, London clu- lishing the church in Ireland in 1869 domestic reform, for he was instru- bland and Hertfordshire. Visits to and in Wales in 1920. In 1858 Liber- increasingly mental in popularising a Liberal the provinces left Balfour feeling als helped remove the disability that narrative based on the steady pro- queasy. ‘Public meetings in great excluded Jews as non-Christians took its stand motion of reform and self-deter- towns have attendant horrors in from sitting as MPs. These reforms mination against autocracy and the way of subsidiary luncheons would have attracted condemna- on defence the abuse of power by emperors and dinner’, he complained to Lord tion from the Daily Mail as being and Catholic regimes all over the Salisbury, ‘which are fatal to one’s anti-Christian, politically correct of the Angli- Continent. temper at the moment and to one’s and multicultural, though fortu- can estab- For Liberals this cause went digestion afterwards.’3 He was not nately it did not come unto exist- hand in hand with the other key altogether sorry to be defeated at ence until the end of the century. lishment, vehicle of progress: the implemen- Manchester East in 1906! Even so, reforms of this kind were tation and extension of free trade. Today, with British national not achieved without some politi- Liberalism The rationale was both material identity unravelling fast, the cal cost, though they gradually had and moral. Free trade raised the liv- apparently secure Britishness of the effect of fostering the inclusive managed ing standards of the growing urban Victorian society seems remark- society of the pre-1914 era. population, kept down the costs able, rooted as it was in pride in Rather less complicated, though to be more of the manufacturers and boosted economic success, parliamentary even more efficacious, was the both direct exports and indirect government, imperial expan- association of Victorian Liberal- inclusive. earnings from investment, ship- sion and popular monarchism, not ism with the British success story ping and insurance. Free trade least because Britain comprised in the shape of Britain’s role as a This was created the confidence that an ever- four distinct nationalities and suf- pre-eminent manufacturing and expanding industry would eventu- fered from divisions of all kinds. commercial power. Mid-Victorian symbol- ally create work for everyone who Religion, for example, gener- Liberals were imbued with an opti- was capable and thereby eliminate ated political controversy right mistic belief in the inevitability of ised by W. E. poverty from British society. But up to 1914. But while Conserva- progress that distinguishes their Liberals also invested free trade tism increasingly took its stand on society from ours. The mood was Gladstone, with moral implications in that by defence of the Anglican establish- typically expressed by the histo- drawing other countries into a sys- ment, Liberalism managed to be rian, H. T. Buckle, in his History who was tem of economic cooperation and more inclusive. This was symbol- of Civilisation in England (1857–61) a staunch interdependence they felt it would ised by W. E. Gladstone, who was – like other contemporaries he inexorably erode the causes of war. a staunch Anglican so immersed in was inclined to equate civilisa- Anglican One by-product of this confi- Christian theology that he might tion with England! In his explana- dence in material progress was to have made a career as a bishop, but tion for national characteristics and … but also make the British, though robustly also enjoyed huge credibility as the successes, Buckle put much of the patriotic, more relaxed about exponent of what came to be called emphasis on material factors such enjoyed huge expressing their nationalism than the ‘Nonconformist Conscience’ in as the gloomy climate and Britain’s other peoples. As British national late-Victorian Britain. In effect the island position. He thought that credibility as identity could virtually be taken role of Liberalism lay in curtailing freedom from invasion had resulted for granted there seemed less need some of the least defensible advan- in the English being especially the exponent to assert it. Consequently the Brit- tages of Anglicanism and incor- attached to liberty and less willing ish neglected some of the obvious porating non-Anglicans into the to accept authoritarian rule than of what came expressions of national identity system. This was essential because the peoples of Continental Europe. used in other countries. For exam- although the Church of England Such sentiments were robustly to be called ple they had no day of national cel- enjoyed the legal status of an estab- voiced by Lord Palmerston, who ebration until Lord Meath dreamed lished church, it fell well short of enjoyed a strong, and typically Lib- the ‘Non- up the idea of ‘Empire Day’. Signifi- being an effective national church. eral, sense of the superiority of the cantly, no one was very interested, By 1800 it claimed only 46 per cent English government and constitu- conformist and when the House of Commons of active church-goers compared tion. As foreign secretary, Palm- debated Empire Day in 1908 mem- with 43 per cent for the Noncon- erston welcomed the growing Conscience’ bers rejected the idea by a majority formist churches and 10 per cent for ascendancy of Liberal principles in in late-Victo- of sixty-eight. Eventually Empire the Catholics. Although the Liberal Europe and cheerfully associated Day was adopted in 1916, a sign that Party included many Anglicans in himself with reform movements rian Britain. British self-confidence was now its parliamentary leadership, it har- even when, as in 1848, they took slipping. nessed the support of the Noncon- the form of revolutions; he argued Empire provoked a good deal formists, by tackling the disabilities with some reason that this reflected of controversy between the two that had excluded them from par- public opinion. Thus, when accused parties, especially later in the cen- ticipation in national life, so effec- of promoting and aiding rebel- tury, which may appear to sig- tively that in the 1906 parliament lion by sanctioning the dispatch of nify their different approach to 177 Nonconformists sat as Liberal arms to the Sicilians in the 1840s, he this element in national identity. MPs. It ended the church monopoly brushed aside his critics. Arguably However, the differences were less on marriage through the introduc- Palmerston’s foreign policy proved than they appeared. Both Liberal tion of civil marriage in 1838, and to be a more formative contribution and Conservative administrations

22 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 liberalism and national identity: the victorian achievement presided over dramatic exten- Yet, though ostensibly the Raj party. On the mainland Irish com- sions of colonial territory; yet this offered a system of alien, autocratic munities remained distinctive but was rarely the result of a deliberate rule much appreciated by Lord were steadily absorbed into the policy, rather the consequence of Salisbury and those Tories who political and social mainstream. initiatives taken locally by ambi- disliked the trend towards partici- They were mobilised by political tious governors general and mili- patory democracy at home, India parties, joined trade unions, and tary commanders in defiance of was never the unqualified autoc- gave a welcome boost to the Catho- London. Home governments fre- racy it appeared to be. Liberal Vice- lic Church and Catholic schools. quently despaired about being roys like Lord Ripon took pains to Despite the popular prejudice dragged into costly new campaigns maintain a free press in India, in the against the Irish for causing pres- designed to rescue British colonists face of Tory opposition, thereby sure on housing, employment and from conflicts with native peoples. keeping open the door for Indian the poor law, for Liberal Britain For example, the reckless seizure of participation in public debate. it remained a matter of pride and several princely states by Dalhou- Gradually a university system patriotism to admit both economic sie helped to provoke the Indian was created, in the process foster- migrants and those fleeing politi- revolt of 1857. Gladstone notori- ing a class of Indians familiar with cal persecution abroad. Challenged ously became entangled in 1880 Western liberal ideas about law and by a deputation of trade unionists when General Gordon, who had government. It is usually forgot- in 1895 complaining about immi- been sent to withdraw troops from ten that the Indian Civil Service grants, the Home Secretary, H. H. the Sudan, flagrantly disobeyed was also open, via the examination Asquith, simply rebuked them: orders and was killed by the rebels system, and although only a hand- ‘who has gained most among the as a result. Despite the contro- ful of Indians had joined the I.C.S. nations of the world from the versy over Gordon, imperial policy by 1900, the numbers steadily grew free circulation and competition was usually bi-partisan. Several – for example, by the 1930s half the of labour? … who would suffer forward moves by the post-1874 officers in the Bombay Presidency most from the exclusion of foreign Conservative government were Despite the were Indians. Although these poli- labour? Again, the English.’5 In fact, actually continuations of policies cies were disparaged by Conserva- by the 1850s it had become essential initiated by the previous Liberal popular tives as subversive, for Liberals they to the British self-image as a nation administration. gave tangible form to the belief that of liberty-lovers to offer refuge On the other hand, by the late- prejudice the ultimate justification for British to anyone, but especially to those Victorian period the two par- rule lay in leading Indians towards oppressed by Catholic regimes and ties did increasingly diverge over against the self-government. In this sense Lib- by authoritarian governments in imperial questions partly because eralism incorporated its thinking Italy, France, Russia and Germany. Disraeli, who had previously dis- Irish for caus- about empire into its wider view of As a result London became notori- paraged colonies as ‘millstones ing pressure Britishness. ous as the centre for violent oppo- around our neck’, accused Glad- Indeed, Victorian Liberal atti- nents of Continental regimes, who stone of wanting to dismember the on housing, tudes towards empire and free usually went unpunished for their empire following his withdrawal of trade were characterised by a com- activities. troops from New Zealand. In the employment bination of idealism and hard- Liberal attitudes towards immi- Midlothian campaigns of 1878–80 headedness. One consequence was gration were tested by the new Gladstone famously attacked Dis- and the poor what, by today’s standards, was a influx of Jewish refugees in the raeli for reckless aggrandisement remarkably relaxed view of the free 1890s mostly fleeing persecution over the wars in Afghanistan and law, for Lib- trade in people. Until interrupted under the Tsarist regime. By 1900 South Africa, though as usual they by war in 1914 Britain routinely around 160,000 Jews lived in Brit- were largely the result of local ini- eral Britain experienced massive emigration, ain and by 1914 around 300,000. The tiatives. Liberals also criticised Dis- immigration and internal migra- new arrivals seemed to pose a chal- raeli for his decision to make Queen it remained tion. By far the majority of inter- lenge to Britishness because they Victoria Empress of India, which nal migrants were the Irish, forced followed a different religion, many seemed alien to the British tradi- a matter of out initially by the famine in the spoke no English and they were tion: imperial titles smacked of the 1840s. Seen from the perspective of regarded as a burden. The Conserv- Continental autocracies of Russia, pride and an inclusive national identity, the atives exploited popular anti-Sem- Austria and Germany. Irish presented challenges simi- itism in the East End, where they Moreover, by the 1880s many patriotism to lar to those thought to be posed by won several seats, and passed the Liberals saw the empire as a moral Catholics during the seventeenth Aliens Restriction Act in 1905 with issue; they argued that colonial rule admit both and eighteenth centuries and by a view to checking Jewish immigra- was justified in so far as it enabled economic Muslims in the late twentieth. That tion. In fact the 1905 Act had little Britain to extend the advantages is to say they were widely demon- effect, perhaps because after 1906 it of efficient government and eco- migrants and ised as a subversive element, lack- was implemented by Liberal Home nomic development to less devel- ing loyalty to Britain and outside Secretaries. Winston Churchill, oped societies. As the territories of those flee- the values and institutions of the who occupied the Home Office in white settlement were now becom- host country. In reality things 1910–11, robustly defended ‘the old ing self-governing Dominions they ing political were more complicated, for while tolerant practice of free entry and envisaged that other parts of the the late-Victorian Irish national- asylum to which this country has so empire would eventually join them. persecution ists sponsored a terrorist campaign long adhered and from which it has India posed the most embarrass- in the countryside they also main- so greatly benefited.’6 The remarks ing challenge to liberal principles. abroad. tained a respectable parliamentary of Churchill and Asquith remind us

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 23 liberalism and national identity: the victorian achievement that the inclusive Liberal version of the eighteenth century was marred Ireland he symbolised the role of Britishness in this period was effec- by outbreaks of virulent Scottopho- Liberalism as the link between the tively underpinned by confidence in bia among the English, symbolised diverse elements in Victorian soci- material success; conversely it was by some of the words in the national ety. ‘English policy has achieved to be undermined in the decades anthem – ‘rebellious Scots to crush’ no triumph so great as the Union after 1918 by economic decline. – which reflected contemporary between England and Scotland’, Moreover, the stance towards fears about repeated Jacobite revolts. he claimed. In view of Gladstone’s Jews adopted by Liberals in the late- For their part the Scots remained absorption with Ireland it is easily Victorian period built on an exist- sensitive to symptoms of metropoli- forgotten how important he was in ing policy developed in the context tan arrogance well into the nine- recognising the distinctiveness of of the smaller but long-standing Above all it teenth century. When Palmerston Welsh cultural and political views. community. As early as 1847 Lionel visited Glasgow in 1853 he was cor- As a result, under Liberalism Wales Rothschild had been elected to par- was Glad- rected by the locals for repeatedly won its first specifically Welsh leg- liament as a Liberal but was pre- stone who referring to ‘England’ and ‘the Eng- islation in the shape of the Sun- vented from taking his seat by the lish’ when he meant Britain. On day Closing Act; in 1872 a college requirement to take the oath as a bestrode a subsequent visit he took care to was established at Aberystwyth Christian; this was lifted in 1858. avoid giving offence.9 that evolved into the University of Nathan Rothschild eventually the multina- However, after 1800 Scot- Wales in 1893; the National Library became the first Jew to receive a tophobia became increasingly of Wales was founded in 1905; and a peerage after the recommendation tional British anachronistic as Scots enjoyed the Welsh Department to promote the of Gladstone who earned warm economic benefits of Union and Welsh language was set up in 1907. praise in the Jewish community for state. With became drawn into the political This record looks rather like a helping Jews to participate in main- mainstream. They took advantage successful example of Victorian stream British life.7 By1900, nine his roots in of access to the large English mar- multiculturalism, for Wales became Jews sat as MPs – mostly Liberals ket, employment opportunities in fully absorbed into the British – and three rose through the party provincial the expanding empire, and imports mainstream. By 1880 no fewer than hierarchy to ministerial posts after of cheap food and raw materi- twenty-nine of the thirty-three 1906: Rufus Isaacs, Herbert Samuel Liverpool, als under the free trade system. By Welsh constituencies returned and Edwin Montagu. It was notice- this stage the Scottish aristocracy Liberal MPs. Liberals were only able that whereas before 1900 Jews his estates at had built London homes, played a little less dominant in the sev- had usually represented East End the English marriage market, sat in enty-two Scottish seats following seats where they were presumed to Hawarden in Cabinets and administered impe- the extension of the electorate in enjoy an advantage, the Edward- rial territories. In the process they 1885. Whereas previously ambi- ian candidates ventured further North Wales, demonstrated that to embrace Brit- tious Scots had often come south afield, Isaacs to Reading, Samuel to his adopted ain involved no surrender of Scot- to find a parliamentary seat, by Cleveland and Montagu to Cam- tish nationality. The Gordons of the late-Victorian and Edwardian bridgeshire. This pattern of formal Scottish Aberdeenshire are a good exam- period English Liberal carpetbag- assimilation was complemented ple of how such families advanced gers happily ventured north: Glad- by the leaders of the Jewish com- constitu- through Liberal politics. In 1852 stone to Midlothian, Asquith to munity who went out of their way the fourth Earl of Aberdeen led the East Fife, Augustine Birrell to East to express their loyalty, especially ency and his Whig–Liberal– coalition Lothian, John Morley to Montrose, during the Boer War and the First that formed the basis of the Victo- and Winston Churchill who rep- World War, on the basis that Brit- dedication to rian Liberal Party. In 1898 Glad- resented Dundee as a Liberal from ain had treated them fairly and that stone appointed the seventh Earl 1908 to 1922. Jews must reciprocate.8 In effect the resolving the governor general of Canada and Nor was Scotland merely a con- Jewish community had maintained first Marquess of Aberdeen. Per- venience for Liberal politicians. its own culture and traditions in grievances haps the most iconic Anglo-Scots Given their sympathy for Greeks the context of what would now be figure was Lord Rosebery. A popu- and Italians struggling to win called a multicultural society while of Ireland he lar Scottish landowner who acted national self-determination they enthusiastically embracing British as Gladstone’s impresario in the were naturally sympathetic to Scot- values, causes and institutions. symbolised Midlothian campaigns, Rosebery tish pressure, which was greatly But it was arguably in managing occupied several pivotal roles Brit- stimulated by the campaign for Britain as a multinational state that the role of ish including president of the Impe- Irish home rule, leading to the for- nineteenth-century Liberals made rial Federation League, the first mation of the Scottish Home Rule their most signal contribution to Liberalism chairman of the London County Association in 1886. But unlike the national identity. There was nothing as the link Council and briefly prime minister. Conservatives, Liberals did not see inevitable about this achievement. In this way he epitomised the com- this as a threat. In 1885 they created The original Union of England between patibility of British greatness with the Scottish Office with its own with Wales, Scotland and Ireland Scottish national pride. secretary of state. By 1906 there was owed a good deal to bullying by the diverse Above all it was Gladstone who a Liberal–Labour parliamentary the dominant power at best and to bestrode the multinational British majority in favour of establishing sheer military conquest at worst; elements state. With his roots in provincial a Scottish parliament as part of a and while it worked well for Scot- Liverpool, his estates at Hawarden wider scheme for home-rule-all- land and Wales, Ireland was never in Victorian in North Wales, his adopted Scot- round. Had this movement not effectively assimilated. After the tish constituency and his dedica- been disrupted by the outbreak of 1707 Union with Scotland, much of society. tion to resolving the grievances of war in 1914 with its concomitant

24 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 liberalism and national identity: the victorian achievement political changes it would have Liberal Unionists rebelled against It is no acci- interrupted by the Second World put multinational Britain onto a Gladstone, inflicted serious dam- War, with the result that Westmin- more secure base for the twentieth age on the role of Liberalism as the dent that the ster lost its claims to competence century. effective British national party and and the rationale for the four-coun- Of course, this Liberal achieve- enabled the Tories to undermine long-term try Union began the long process of ment must be heavily qualified the party’s standing and its electoral unravelling. by the failure in Ireland, which base. decline of ultimately resulted in the parti- On the other hand, the Irish Martin Pugh was formerly Professor of tion of 1921. Yet this outcome was national movement retained its cen- the Union Modern British History at Newcastle not inevitable. Victorian Liber- tral place in British politics, thereby University. His most recent book is a als inherited a highly dysfunc- keeping alive the prospect of and of Lib- study of the historical origins of the cur- tional system for governing Ireland resolving the Irish Question by par- eralism rent crisis of national identity: Britain: through a viceroy, a chief secretary liamentary means. While the Home Unification and Disintegration, and the hundred Irish MPs. Ini- Rule Party retained over eighty of coincided. published by Authors OnLine. tially Gladstone underestimated the hundred Irish members right the depth of Irish grievances in that up to 1914, in the English urban 1 J. R. Vincent, The Formation of the his first land reform and his dises- constituencies Irish voters were Liberal Party 1857–1868 (Constable, tablishment of the Church failed to effectively organised with a view to 1966), pp. 12–13. check the nationalist tide. A cru- sustaining the majorities of Liberal 2 Speech to the National Union of cial step in the breakdown of the candidates. More widely the move- Conservative Associations, 15 May Union came at the election of 1874 ment for home rule had a radicalis- 1886; the idea was to make it impos- when the Home Rule Party won ing effect on Liberal politics, not sible for Lord Hartington to form a fifty-seven constituencies, largely simply by promoting constitutional consensual government and resolve displacing Liberals in the process. reform but by advancing the idea the home rule issue. See A. B. Cooke Gladstone then went much further of state intervention in the sphere and J. R. Vincent, The Governing Pas- in tackling the social problem with of private property, an idea capa- sion: Cabinet Government and Party the 1880 Land Act, an astonishingly ble of extension to the mainland. Politics in Britain, 1885–86 (Branch interventionist measure at the time When the Irish held the balance of Line, 1974), pp. 80–1, 422. that effectively curtailed the rights power after 1910 they forced the 3 A. J. Balfour to Lord Salisbury, 29 of private property owners through issue back onto the agenda and the Sept. 1880, in Robin Harcourt Wil- rent tribunals. During the 1870s passage of a Home Rule Bill under liams (ed.), The Salisbury–Balfour Cor- and 1880s Liberals also made efforts the Parliament Act prior to the out- respondence 1869–92 (Hertfordshire to tackle the economic grievances break of war in 1914. Ultimately Record Society, 1988). of the rural population in Ulster the parliamentary strategy for sat- 4 In the debate on the matrimonial with a view to reconciling the Prot- isfying Irish ambitions within the causes bill, 7 Aug. 1857, Gladstone estant and Catholic communities Union was not decisively derailed was the only member to argue that and thereby consolidating their until 1915 when the Irish leader, women should enjoy the same privi- loyalty to the Union. For some John Redmond, unwisely declined leges as men. The bill allowed hus- years the parliamentary leadership Asquith’s invitation to participate bands to divorce their wives for in London strove to integrate the in his new coalition government. adultery alone whereas a wife was Ulster tenant farmers into the Brit- Thereby he allowed the Union- obliged to prove adultery plus one ish mainstream.10 ists to occupy positions of power, other offence. Ultimately, however, this strat- and by 1918 the Liberal–Irish alli- 5 Jewish Chronicle, 18 Jan. 1895. egy failed as opinion polarised ance had been fatally undermined 6 Quoted in Paul Addison, Churchill on between a radical Irish nationalism by reactions to the Easter Rebellion the Home Front 1900—1955 (Jonathan and a reactionary Ulster Unionism and the emergence of Sinn Fein. Cape Ltd, 1992), pp. 42–4. encouraged by the English Tories. Both parties suffered heavily in the 7 Jewish Chronicle, 26 Jan. 1885. However, Gladstone’s first Home election of 1918. 8 Jewish Chronicle, 2 Jan. 1885; 13 Mar. Rule Bill represented a realistic This represented the one great 1885; 6 Nov. 1885; 5 and 12 Jan. 1900; attempt to solve the problem. His failure of Liberalism in its work of 7 Aug. 1914. draft measure was based on a ‘Pro- sustaining the viability of the Brit- 9 David Brown, Palmerston: A Biography posed Constitution for Ireland’ ish state. It is no accident that the (Yale University Press, 2010), pp. 353, prepared by Parnell and handed long-term decline of the Union 471–2. to Gladstone in November 1886.11 and of Liberalism coincided. After 10 See Graham Greenlee, ‘Land, reform The bill satisfied Irish aspirations 1918 the rationale for the wider and community: the Liberal Party in by creating a parliament in Dub- Union was gradually undermined Ulster 1868–1885’, in Eugenio Biagini lin but also maintained the Union though this was not obvious for (ed.), Citizenship and Community: Lib- by retaining control over defence many years. In Scotland and Wales erals, radicals and collective identities in and foreign policy at Westmin- the Liberals gave way to the two the British Isles 1865–1931 (Cambridge ster. ‘What fools we were not to rigidly pro-Unionist parties, and University Press, 1996), pp. 253–75. have accepted Gladstone’s Home the idea of devolution largely dis- 11 Eugenio Biagini, British Democracy Rule bill’, King George V, who appeared from politics. But as early and Irish Nationalism 1876–1906 (Cam- favoured a general policy of devo- as the 1920s long-term economic bridge University Press, 2007), p. 8. lution, told Ramsay MacDonald decline set in among the manufac- 12 Harold Nicholson, King George The in 1930.12 The rejection of the leg- turing and extractive industries of Fifth: His Life and Reign (Constable, islation 1886, when ninety-three Scotland and Wales, admittedly 1952), pp. 222–3.

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 25 LIBERAL ROOTS: The Liberal Party in a West Yorkshire constituency, 1920s – 1970s

From 1966 to 1971, as a teenager, Jaime Reynolds lived in Morley, West Yorkshire, now part of south Leeds. During that time he was an active member of the Liberals, who were enjoying something of a renaissance in the Batley & Morley constituency. In 1969 Batley borough council was briefly the only local authority in England and Wales where the Liberals were the largest party. Jaime’s desire was to chart the story of Liberal fortunes in these Yorkshire mill towns and pay tribute to the efforts of the pioneers who led the revival there. Thanks to the Liberal Democrat History Group, a few years ago he reestablished contact with Peter Wrigley.

26 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 LIBERAL ROOTS: The Liberal Party in a West Yorkshire constituency, 1920s – 1970s

eter was one of those pio- in Morley in 1852. He moved away the prosperity and civic spirit it neers, parliamentary candi- as a child and though he was said to enjoyed at the end of the nine- Pdate in 1970 and February have few sentimental attachments teenth century. 1974 and still today an active Lib- to his birthplace, he returned in Morley and Batley, and neigh- eral Democrat in the Batley & Spen 1895 to open the town hall and in bouring Dewsbury, were at the constituency. Peter’s recollections, 1913 to be invested as a freeman of centre of the ‘shoddy trade’ – the local research, and the memories he the borough. He was treated as a recycling of woollen rags to make has gathered from others involved local hero. new cloth. This industry had have greatly enriched this joint It was also the home of Theo- boomed in the second half of the portrait of the decline of a Liberal dore Cooke Taylor,2 a legendary nineteenth century and at its peak stronghold and its revival in the figure in Yorkshire Liberalism, an there were thirty mills in Mor- 1960s. ‘advanced Radical’ MP, a tireless ley and the same number in Bat- The Batley & Morley constitu- campaigner for free trade and an ley. Production flourished well ency1 was one of the band of West ‘out-and-out Batley-ite’.3 He was an into the twentieth century, and Yorkshire Liberal strongholds in archetypal patriarchal millowner demand was particularly high dur- the area of Huddersfield, Halifax who pioneered profit-sharing in his ing wartime. However from the Bradford and Leeds where a dis- textile mill. In his lifetime, over 1960s, competition from man-made tinctive current of Radical, Non- 75 per cent of the firm’s capital was fibres and foreign producers, fash- conformist, free trade Liberalism passed into the ownership of its ion changes, reliance on small-scale persisted until 1945 and in some two thousand workers. For many manufacture and private capital, cases later. This Northern Radi- years he personified Liberalism in and labour shortages, all combined cal tradition stretched across the Batley.4 to undermine the trade. The wool- Pennines into Colne Valley and Another notable Yorkshire len mills with their tall chimneys the Lancashire cotton belt where mill-owning family, the Walkers closed down and within a decade towns such as Rochdale, Bolton, of Mirfield and Dewsbury,5 also or two the industry had virtually Darwen, Mossley and Rossendale played an important part in Batley disappeared.7 were notable Liberal redoubts. It & Morley Liberalism. The other foundation of the was closely linked with the social local economy was coal mining, and political culture that arose situated in a number of pits on the around the textile industry and ‘Shoddyopolis’ outskirts of Morley and also in mirrored that industry’s rise and In the 1960s both Batley and Mor- Batley and pits around Batley. This was also a decline. ley still retained much of the Morley and declining industry – the last Batley Batley and Morley have particu- character and fierce local pride surrounding pit closed in 1973. lar claims to fame in Liberal his- of old woollen mill towns.6 Mor- district: By the 1960s the physical tory. Herbert Asquith, the future ley’s magnificent Victorian town constituencies appearance of both towns was Liberal Prime Minister, was born hall (built in 1895) proclaimed 1918–50 changing. In Morley, sweeping

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 27 liberal roots: the in a west yorkshire constituency, 1920s–1970s

slum-clearance programmes had support of a subtantial proportion Theodore Cooke Four generations of the Barkers redeveloped some three thousand of their operatives. In Batley, mill Taylor, circa 1906; served as councillors and aldermen houses up to 1968 and a further owners such as Theodore Taylor, Brian Bradley on Morley council over a period of 1,250 were demolished between Frederick Auty,10 Charles Sped- Barker, Mayor of more than eighty years and several 1968 and 1975. We can recall can- ding,11 and Edmund Bruce12 led the Morley of them were mayor. The Rho- vassing not far from Morley town Liberals while Thomas Western13 des clan served some ten mayoral hall in streets of blackened back- was a Tory. Clement Fernsides,14 terms. The Liberal Association to-back terraces which disappeared founder and proprietor of the Batley seems to have been constituted to soon after. In the early 1960s, only News, was another prominent Lib- a considerable extent by these pil- Liverpool had more inhabited back- eral. In Morley, millowners such as lars of the community and their to-back houses than Batley. By 1972 the Barkers,15 the Rhodes/Watson/ entourages. only a couple of streets survived.8 Marshall clan,16 Joseph Kirk,17 and Naturally there were strong David Dickinson18 were among the Liberal–Nonconformist links. leading Liberals, while the Hep- The Taylors, Stubleys and Fearn- The years of decline worths19 were Tories. In some cases sides were Congregationalists and In the 1920s much of the old Radi- these clans extended widely and Crothers’s father was a Method- cal political culture remained over several generations. Taylor’s ist New Connexion Minister. The intact. At parliamentary elections brother-in-law John Stubley20 (and Barkers were Primitive Method- Batley & Morley was a Liberal– his half-brother David Stubley21), ists. The Rhodes family were also Labour battleground, with the his half-sister, Gertrude Elsie Tay- Dissenters. Ben Turner, the leading Conservatives generally backing lor,22 his business and political right Labour figure in the constituency, the Liberals.9 In the town halls a arm, Hamilton Crothers,23 and recalled cases of ministers and lay similar Lib–Con alliance domi- deputy managing director, Ernest preachers urging congregations nated the scene, opposing the Kirk24 were also councillors and the to vote against him in Batley & Labour Party, which at that time first four served as mayor of Bat- Morley.27 was under the charismatic textile ley. Frederick Auty, also a mayor In many cases the outlook trade unionist leader, Ben Turner, of Batley, was brother of Marga- of these practical businessmen who served as both MP and as a ret Grace Auty25 who became Mrs Radicals was sharply ideological. member of Batley council. Herbert North.26 She was active Some years later Theodore Taylor The local power structure rested in the local Liberal Party and the explained his continuing commit- on business dynasties that ran the Yorkshire Women’s Liberal Federa- ment, despite many disappoint- Liberal and Conservative parties tion and mayoress to her husband ments, to the Liberal Party and his and still, evidently, enjoyed the when he was mayor in 1919–20. attitude to the other parties:

28 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 liberal roots: the liberal party in a west yorkshire constituency, 1920s–1970s

I am a lifelong Liberal and Raymond Stone temptation to gain popularity events of 1931 and the split in the … don’t want to have to (photo provided by applying wrong views … I party between the Samuelite Free change my party. I have by Sheila Stone); think I can be at present most Traders and the pro-Tory Liberal never, however, seen party Batley’s Liberal useful as an inside Liberal, doing Nationals under Sir John Simon, as a primary consideration, Mayor, Vera Ball, my best to keep the Party as who was MP for the neighbouring but only as a means to ends in 1969 (Batley sound as one can …28 constituency of Spen Valley. The which can be summed up in News) split threw the Batley & Morley this case as maintaining and By the mid-1920s, party distinc- Liberals into turmoil. On the one extending human freedom. It tions between Liberals and Con- hand there was considerable respect has always been threatened and servatives at local government level for Simon and a shared anti-Social- I suppose it always will be, by had become somewhat obscured as ist outlook and readiness to work ambitious men. At present in they increasingly adopted the label with the Conservatives. On the Britain, we are threatened by of ‘Independent’. However it seems other hand compromising the par- three sets of folk, the cartelites to have been well known which of ty’s independence was anathema for (with Protection as one of their the parties most individuals sup- the Radical Free Traders who made instruments), the trade unions, ported. In the interwar period, The up the local Liberal elite. and the ‘intelligentsia’ socialists. Times published lists of new may- The Batley & Morley Tories The latter two parties seem ors by party each year and the vast clamoured for their own candidate pretty well combined at present majority were classified as either committed to ‘safeguarding’ of in the ‘Labour Party’. The … Conservatives or Liberals including British industry from cheap foreign cartel traders and trade unions almost all the Batley and Morley imports and by September 1931 have much in common, being ones. In Batley, the Liberals domi- a ‘cabinet’ representing the local both monopolistic in principle nated the mayoralty, occupying it Conservatives nominated Wilfrid and, of course, the true socialist for sixteen years between 1919 and Dewhurst Wills of Skipton, who is a state monopolist. The truth 1945, while Labour and the Con- belonged to the tobacco family, is that all three sections are in servatives had only two years each as prospective candidate. At this fact monopolists of dangerous and six were unidentified. In Mor- stage it was uncertain whether the types. It seems to me that the ley, between 1919 and 1939 Liberals Liberals would also bring forward Liberal Party, if it were to stick held the mayoralty for seven years, their man.29 However, the obvi- to its principles, has a good Independents for six, Labour for ous choice, Walter Forrest,30 who chance to save the country five and Conservative for three. had lost the seat to Labour at the … however … some leading As elsewhere, the Liberal 1929 general election, had recently Liberals cannot resist the hegemony was broken by the joined the Conservatives.31

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 29 liberal roots: the liberal party in a west yorkshire constituency, 1920s–1970s

In the confusion of the political a Liberal to split the anti-socialist Liberals and Conservatives; in crisis of October 1931, the Liberals vote. What is striking is the extent municipal elections the Liber- conceded Batley & Morley to the of local Liberals assertiveness and als and Conservatives act tacitly Conservatives. It seems that there their refusal to back the Tory can- together. At Morley a genuine was an understanding that in doing didate. This was after all Sir John Liberalism survives, not the so, the Tories would stand aside in Simon’s backyard, but there seems kind of Liberalism that sleeps in next-door Dewsbury where the to be no evidence of any marked the pocket of the Tory party, but free trade Samuel-ite Liberal Walter impetus to line up with the Liberal the old type of Nonconform- Rea gained the seat from Labour. Nationals.39 At this time many Lib- ist Radicalism … Radicals of However the Tory win seems erals still hoped and even expected this school detest the National to have been regarded as an abbera- that the two wings of the party Government, but are extremely tion or accident. In 1934 after pres- would reunite just as the Asquith uncomfortable with politi- sure by the Liberal Nationals on and Lloyd George factions had cal associates whom they think the Conservatives to concede them fused in 1923. insist too much upon doctrinaire more seats, Batley & Morley was This support for independent Socialism …45 identified as one of the constituen- Liberalism was confirmed in the cies which a Liberal National would following years. Ernest Dalton was Labour held the seat with an stand a better chance of retaining. selected as prospective candidate for increased majority. However these discussions did not the next general election expected The next general election was lead to any change in the National in 1940 and the Liberals were very not held until the end of the war in candidate.32 active in Batley in the later 1930s, 1945. The Batley & Morley Liberals The Liberals’ sacrifice in 1931 for example in the campaign rallied around Ashley Mitchell,46 proved in vain. At the next gen- against rising prices launched by a dissident Liberal, who stood on eral election in 1935 a ‘National’ the party in 1937.40 However their an ultra-traditionalist anti-Beve- candidate33 was nominated against calculations were upset by a by- ridge platform. Mitchell, who came Rea in Dewsbury who lost his What is strik- election in February 1939. Dalton from an Ossett mill-owning fam- seat. The Batley & Morley Liberals first offered to withdraw in favour ily, was a long-standing pillar of were dismayed at this development ing is the of a ‘United Front’ candidate, but Henry George’s land value taxa- and some looked for a candidate to this elicited no response. The Lib- tion movement. He was also a fer- stand against Wills and Labour. The extent of eral Association then decided not to vent Free Trader. In 1943–45, such names of Colonel James Walker34 fight the seat ‘in order to conserve Liberals were sidelined by policy of the Mirfield Liberal dynasty, local Liberals its resources for the coming Gen- shifts in favour of town and coun- and a Leeds retired police sergeant, eral Election’.41 Labour chose a can- try planning and William Bev- Ernest Dalton,35 were mentioned. assertiveness didate with considerable appeal to eridge’s social insurance plan.47 The However not all of the local party and their Liberals – an official of the League dissidents had formed the Liberal had agreed with this move. One of Nations Union with a back- Liberty League to resist the trend prominent Liberal was reported as refusal to ground in the co-operative move- but had been decisively defeated saying that ‘those who want to fight ment, who pitched for the Liberal at the party’s assembly in Febru- may get their own way … If they back the Tory vote claiming that Gladstone ary 1945. Mitchell with some other do they will drive a lot of Liber- would have agreed with his party’s traditionalists had resigned in pro- als into the Conservative camp for candidate. foreign policy. He received some test from Huddersfield Liberal good. The excuse that a candidate Liberal support for his campaign Association and there was wider is being put forward because Sir This was from outside the constituency,42 but uneasiness about Beveridge among Walter Rea is opposed won’t wash.’ Wills claimed the support of several West Riding Liberals.48 Accord- An Ossett Liberal stated that they after all Sir prominent local Liberals, including ing to Mitchell’s account he was did not agree with splitting the some who signed his nomination persuaded by friends in Batley to National Government vote.36 John Simon’s papers.43 Theodore Taylor issued a contest the seat which he agreed In the end at a private meeting list of questions to the candidates to to do as ‘an independent free from the Liberals decided not to fight, backyard, help Liberal voters make up their party directives’, although he was according to Herbert Brook,37 mind whom to support. Ernest Dal- nevertheless adopted by ‘the local the President of the Association, but there ton issued a denial that any active Liberal selection group’. His cam- because ‘the time was too short to Liberal in the Batley & Morley paign was supported by mostly allow us to get our organisation seems to division was working for Wills, elderly Liberal luminaries includ- into working order and make cer- though he admitted that he was ing Theodore Taylor, who spoke tain of victory’. However Ernest be no evi- getting backing from some Liberal for nearly half an hour on the mer- Dalton was invited to be the can- dence of Nationals.44 its of free trade at a rally in Bat- didate next time and a motion to At the end of the campaign a ley Town Hall, Miss Elsie Taylor, pledge support to W. D. Wills was any marked Manchester Guardian correspond- Herbert Brook (the chairman of defeated, with ‘no more than four ent gave this somewhat unscientific the Batley & Morley Liberal Asso- or five of the 80 or 90 present vot- impetus to assessment of the Liberal tradition ciation), Alderman David Dick- ing in favour.38 in the constituency: inson, who was mayor of Morley The decision to stand aside was line up with 1942–43, and Alderman Patterson unsurprising given that Batley & Batley may be regarded as safe of Ossett. Despite an influx of Lib- Morley was a marginal constitu- the Liberal for Labour. Ossett is usually eral Liberty League activists and ency, and in fact Labour gained assessed as consisting of one half Mrs Mitchell’s canvassing efforts the seat from Wills, even without Nationals. of Labour voters and one half of with the ‘Women’s Auxiliary’, the

30 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 liberal roots: the liberal party in a west yorkshire constituency, 1920s–1970s

George-ists were disappointed with However it seems likely that in In many of the Batley & Morley Liber- the result. Labour held the seat with many cases Liberal allegiance had als is based on what I picked a large majority and Mitchell came become purely nominal. Barker respects the up in that period. I believe it third with 13.5 per cent of the votes, chaired a Tory meeting in the 1949 was Bill Berry who, as part of enough to keep his deposit. This by-election. Theodore Taylor died local party the Grimond revival, placed was effectively the last stand of the in 1952 at the age of 102 and his an advertisement in the local old Radicals in Batley & Morley.49 departure marked the demise of was fresh paper inviting those interested After 1945 the Liberals did not the old Radical cause. Any Lib- to form a local Liberal Associa- contest the seat again until 1964. eral organisation or activity in the and mod- tion. I was often told that in the Their failure to contest a by-elec- 1950s was invisible.54 If it existed at ern. Gone early days the greatest progress tion in 1949 drew criticism from all, it was probably concentrated in was made in Morley, where the the Yorkshire Young Liberals.50 the urban villages of Birstall, Gild- were the old leading lights had been a couple Labour easily held the by-election ersome and Drighlington which who lived in Gildersome. How- which launched the long parlia- joined the constituency from Spen mill-own- ever, when I came on the scene mentary career of Dr (later Sir) Valley in 1949 and had their own the Morley activity had faded to Alfred Broughton, another Labour Liberal clubs. However these areas ing patri- almost nothing, whilst things MP acceptable to many Liberal vot- were under the influence of Lib- had flourished considerably on ers: he came from a family who had eral National collaboration with archs and in the Batley side. been general practitioners in Batley the Tories. Peter Wrigley recalls through three generations. He held much talk of the Lib Nats, Sir John their place The respondents to Bill Berry’s56 the seat until his death in 1979. Simon and Walter Runciman (who advert included several people Theodore Taylor’s decision – at had been MP for Dewsbury until were much who were to spearhead the revival: the 1949 by-election and again at 1918), on the doorsteps when he first Trevor Evans57 and Clifford Lock- the 1950 general election – to back, started canvassing in the 1960s. younger wood58 in Soothill, and Raymond and speak on behalf of, the Conser- The Independents held off Stone59 in Birstall. Among the vative candidate, for the first time Labour until after the Second activists activists in Batley were many teach- since he began participating in elec- World War. Labour briefly took ers – such as R. Stone, C. Armit- tions in 1868, symbolised the final control of both Batley & Morley for mostly new age,60 P. Wrigley, G. Gaunt,61 R. passage of the old Liberal elite into the first time in 1945. Labour estab- Beman62 and K. Gatenby63 – and the Tory camp.51 It was one of the lished firmer control over Batley in to the Liberal employees in local government relatively few constituencies not 1950 and held it continuously and and the health service – such as T. contested by a Liberal in 1950. Some often with large majorities until Party and Evans, L. Ely,64 and V. Ball.65 younger members of the Associa- 1968. Morley was more marginal, often work- The new Association clearly dis- tion were keen to fight and C. E. swinging backwards and forwards tanced itself from the tradition of Hindley, chairman of Bradford between Labour and the Independ- ing in the collaboration with the Tories under Liberals, was available as a candi- ents in the 1950s and ’60s.55 the Independent label. Raymond date. However the majority fol- public sector. Stone, standing for the first time lowed the advice in a letter from in 1961, declared: ‘I am a Liberal Taylor arguing that: Revival in Batley by conviction and I do not wish to Liberalism in Batley & Mor- deceive the electors of Birstall by in order to defeat the Socialist ley emerged anew in the period using any other label, especially the party it is necessary that those between the October 1959 general term ‘Independent’ which has been who are opposed to Socialism election and the May 1960 local brought into disrepute by Con- should unite. I know the reluc- elections. servatives using it as camouflage.’66 tance of old campaigners to join Peter Wrigley takes up the In many respects the local party with their former opponents in a story: was fresh and modern. Gone were political struggle, but it is more the old mill-owning patriarchs and than a party which is at stake – it I had spent the years 1957 to 1963 in their place were much younger is the welfare and prosperity of in the London area, at college activists mostly new to the Liberal our country which, in the hands and in my first teaching post. Party and often working in the of the Socialists, would certainly In that period I became disillu- public sector. None of them appears diminish.52 sioned by the Tory Party (partly to have been involved with the old because of the cover-up of the organisation of ten years before. In local elections both in Batley & Hola Camp massacre of 1959, However that is not to say that Morley, the Liberals and Conserva- and, like many others, inspired there were no traces of traditional tives had stood under the ‘Inde- by Jo Grimond) and joined the Liberal influences. Raymond Stone pendent’ umbrella for more than Liberals through the Hayes and was a teetotaller and prominent two decades by the 1940s. It was Harlington local party. They member of Birstall Temperance said nevertheless that they could were at such a low ebb that I was Hall. Cicero Armitage served for still be easily identified as belonging invited to be their chairman fifty years as a lay preacher with the to one party or the other.53 A Lib- at my first meeting! I declined Congregational Church and was eral Association was functioning as and was never very active there. the son-in-law of Clement Fearn- late as 1950 and some local govern- I returned to Birstall in 1963, sides, a Liberal mayor in the 1930s. ment figures were still regarded as became active and was adopted The party received active help leading Liberals – Colonel James as PPC in 1968. My knowledge and encouragement from John G. Barker in Morley, for example. of the history of the revival Walker, the Yorkshire Federation

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 31 liberal roots: the liberal party in a west yorkshire constituency, 1920s–1970s president, who came from the old Political outlook Members getting, I wrote a letter to the Radical family, the Walkers of Peter Wrigley does not remember Telegraph and Argus, which was Mirfield. much discussion of ‘high politics’ and council- published, condemning this. There was also a sustained at any of the meetings – ward or A small group of Young Liber- attempt by Raymond Stone to constituency – nor any disputes lors, perhaps als and I joined a protest march. reassert the party’s interest in the over policy, either local or national. One of our councillors came Birstall Liberal Club, which was Members and councillors, perhaps with some to watch from the pavement. I selling its premises at this time. The with some exceptions, had a Liberal was nevertheless selected: there club had abandoned its mission to ethos rather than a detailed knowl- exceptions, wasn’t much competition! ‘promote the cause of Liberalism edge of or concern about, national had a Lib- Views in other parties were and provide means of social inter- policy. Peter summarises their out- probably similarly eclectic. For course between persons profess- look as: eral ethos example the chairman of the ing Liberal principles’ some time • Exasperation with class-based governors at Batley Grammar previously and none of its current politics and commitment to a rather than School, where I worked, was a trustees was Liberal. After exten- party which tried to represent Labour Alderman, J. W. Thorn- sive but inconclusive legal research all the community, and not just a detailed ton. I remember having long Raymond Stone concluded that any one side. arguments with him, I advocat- action would ‘court a great deal of • Belief that councillors and knowledge ing comprehensive education unpopularity and hostility which MPs should be servants of the and he being strongly pro-gram- might be a stumbling block to fur- public rather than an exclusive of or con- mar school.’ ther progress of the Liberal Party in cabal which made decisions in the area, as we believe that a good their own rather than the pub- cern about, After adoption as prospective deal of support for myself in the lic’s interest. candidate Peter Wrigley joined municipal election came from the • Expectation that councillors national the Candidates’ Association and membership of the club’67. should think for themselves attended the national Candidates’ The first Liberal candidates and not slavishly follow a policy. Association meetings and the party stood in 1960 and the the initial whip. (That had to be modified council which met twice a year in breakthrough came in Birstall. as the group increased in size!) in the National Liberal Club. Standing for the first time in 1961, • Strong commitment to their Raymond Stone came a good sec- areas. On the whole most Liberals did ond to Labour with one-third of • Inspiration from Jo Grimond, not leak beyond the region, and the votes. The following year, at the then apostle of the ‘New’ weren’t really much interested the height of the post-Orping- politics. outside their own patch. We ton surge when the Liberals made • Industrial partnership and were very parochial. This was sweeping gains nationally, he stood cooperation rather than before the era of working and again under the slogan ‘Build a competition. lower-middle-class affluence Better Birstall with Stone’, and • Openness and good com- and few, if any, of the activists comfortably gained the seat with a munications, though via the would have been able to afford swing of almost 12 per cent. There- press and surgeries rather than to attend the assemblies, except after Birstall remained safely Lib- literature. perhaps as part of the annual eral down to 1970. family holiday, which might Soothill was the other Liberal Two areas which might have not have pleased those with stronghold. The ward was securely caused contention had they been partners and children. In any Independent after 1945. Trevor pressed too far were Liberal poli- case, the assemblies were too Evans’s surprise victory in 1964 cies on Europe, and immigra- late for the traditional northern was clearly aided by the absence tion. Some of us were ardent holiday weeks (known as Feast of Labour opposition and came Europeans and proud of the fact Weeks in Yorkshire and Wakes after an intense and comprehensive that the Liberals were and are Weeks in Lancashire). Many of door-knocking campaign against the only party to have advocated the activists were teachers and the complacent Independents. membership from the begin- would not have found it con- From 1967, the ward was consist- ning. Others were less enthu- venient, or affordable, to take ently Liberal, though usually with siastic. Batley had at the time time off so near the start of a small majorities. a large immigrant population, new school year. Hence links Cicero Armitage gained a seat largely from Pakistan and Bang- were mainly with the region. from Labour in Batley East in 1963. ladesh, recruited by the mill Jeremy Thorpe made a fly- ‘Mr Armitage’ (as Peter Wrig- owners as cheap labour. I suspect ing visit in the late 1960s. This ley always thinks of him) was a some members were very uneasy was part of a regional ‘Leader’s very popular junior school head in about this, whilst others, like Tour’ and was organised by Birstall. There were further spo- me, were proud of the stance the Michael Meadowcroft. Our radic Liberal wins in this ward but party had taken on the admis- turn came for an hour or so it remained marginal. sion of the Kenyan Asians. Just on a Friday afternoon, and we The Liberals never managed to before I was selected as PPC one toured a local ‘up and coming’ win the other two wards – Batley of the local working men’s clubs firm called ‘Shaw Sideloaders’, North and West, both Labour-lean- announced a colour bar. Just so then went on to the town hall ing – though they came close in the that the association would be in to meet Vera Ball, mayor, and early days. no doubt as to what they were other councillors.

32 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 liberal roots: the liberal party in a west yorkshire constituency, 1920s–1970s

Community politics in Morley glory in the early 1920s, had split who had recently started Morley proved stonier ground than away from the Labour Party teaching chemistry at Mor- Batley. Efforts to gain a foothold Procession of and declined to almost noth- ley Grammar School; and Wilf in the early 1960s came to nothing. councillors, ing by the 1940s. A few loyal- Whitaker,70 a lecturer at Hull Frances Sowden contested North probably for ists continued to keep the flame Further Education College who ward in 1962 (13 per cent) and 1963 the centenary burning thanks – as I was told went on to stand as a Liberal par- (11 per cent), but could make little of Batley’s – to the fact that the party still liamentary candidate five times. impact in this hard-fought Labour/ incorporation owned the old ILP publish- In Morley, apart from Wilf, who Independent marginal. Drighling- as a borough ing house which gave it rather was local and had been a keen ton, where the Liberals received 23 (1969). Liberal more resources than other far- Liberal at Morley Grammar per cent of the votes in 1962 seemed councillors left grouplets of the time. They School, we were all middle-class more promising, but it was left are Bernard did not seem to be perturbed by interlopers. uncontested in 1963. Thereafter Prendergarst in the fact that I regarded myself Liberal activity in Morley seems to glasses in the as a Liberal, and thus might be Michael Meadowcroft, who was have largely subsided until the end foreground, considered an ancient enemy laying the foundations of the elec- of the decade. Gerald Gaunt of the ILP. This was the time of toral organisation that was soon A second revival took place in behind him the Young Liberal ‘Red Guards’ to produce a clutch of Leeds coun- Morley at the end of the 1960s. next to Lucy Ely. and as far as I was concerned we cillors and his election as MP for Jaime Reynolds recalls: Behind and to were natural comrades on the Leeds West in 1983, was an impor- the right of the radical left. Within a short time tant inspiration in Morley. Peter ‘hen I first became politically bespectacled I made contact with the Liber- Wrigley remembers: active in Morley around 1968, top-hatted als through Peter Wrigley and the Liberals seemed so absent figure is Harry abandoned the ILP. I discovered When I was adopted as PPC I that I decided instead to help Gledhill and the that efforts were underway to felt that, rather than try to join another venerable third party tall Trevor Evans; revive the Liberal Party in Mor- the group on Batley Council, which had a couple of activists in Cicero Armitage ley. In addition to Peter, the the best way forward for the the town and had started to con- is just behind nucleus of activists comprised: whole constituency was to try test the borough council elec- Gledhill with Philip Heath,68 an energetic and revive things in Morley. tion in one or two wards. This Vera Ball behind Liverpudlian, who had been One way of recruiting was to was the Independent Labour their shoulders involved with the Liberals there distribute contact cards (post- Party (ILP), founded by Keir (photo provided before moving to Morley; Mar- cards with a freepost reply – Hardie, which, after a period of by Sheila Stone). tin Robinson,69 a Lancastrian very adventurous at the time).

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 33 liberal roots: the liberal party in a west yorkshire constituency, 1920s–1970s

Michael Meadowcroft, who had incomer, should be the candi- more (Conservative nine, Inde- replaced the devoted and highly date. We managed to canvass pendent six). As the largest single respected but rather staid Albert the entire ward, probably a new party the Liberals asked for the sup- Ingham as Regional Secretary experience for Denshaw, and port of any of the Independents in 1967, introduced us to this came within a whisker of win- to take control, but there were no system. Those who sent them in ning. Had we done so, that could takers. There was no interest from usually expected literature and have spearheaded the break- the other two parties in sharing were often surprised to receive a through in Morley, and Batley & out the chairmanships proportion- visit. I suspect this was how we Morley history could have been ally. So yet again the Allieds took ‘found’ Philip Heath. different. the chairmanships with the Liberals The Morley group was active acting as vice-chairmen. Vera Ball from about 1969 to 1972. Meet- The by-election was held in Sep- was elected mayor – the first Liberal ings were usually held at Gilder- tember 1969, Philip Heath coming to serve as such since the Second some Liberal Club – like the one a close second to Labour, with 36 World War.71 in Birstall, another remnant of per cent of the votes. As the crucial 1970 elections the old working men’s Liberal approached there was some divi- clubs that existed in the area, sion within the Liberals over tac- where some residual sympathy The revival falters tics. This mainly concerned the for the party persisted, at least Philip Heath stood again in Den- double-member East ward which to the extent of tolerating our shaw in May 1970 but his vote was normally Labour territory meetings as long as we did not slipped to 33 per cent and to only and where there was a record of bother the other drinkers with 23 per cent at a by-election soon the anti-Labour parties putting politics. afterwards. In May 1971 Martin up single candidates for the two Robinson secured 36 per cent in the vacancies raising the possibility of The initial strategy was very sim- safest Labour seat, Central Mor- tacit alliances. The Liberal victo- ple: to get Philip Heath elected ley, just sixty votes behind Labour, ries there were all achieved with for the Denshaw ward, a Labour but he was unavailable to contest a only one Independent or Conser- stronghold dominated by council by-election held that summer and vative candidate standing, or none housing, where neither Labour nor moved away from Morley the fol- at all. An exception was 1966 when the Independents made much of an lowing year. No Liberals stood Cicero Armitage faced both Con- effort. Peter Wrigley continues: in 1972 and in fact no Liberal was servative and Independent oppo- So we elected before Morley ceased to be nents and lost his seat to Labour.72 We actually caused the Denshaw an independent borough and was But any cooperation must have by-election to be called. This obtained the absorbed into Leeds in 1974. been of the loosest kind as there was a ruse to which Michael necessary In Batley the Liberals built up was often a wide discrepancy Meadowcroft alerted us. One their strength on the council to between the votes received by of the Denshaw councillors had form, found four seats by 1964, then surged to the anti-Labour candidates. The died and it was common in those become the largest party in 1969 issue came to a head in March 1970 days, particularly in moribund local elec- when they held all three seats both when both Armitage and Gledhill ‘one party’ areas, to leave the in Birstall and Soothill, three seats were due to seek re-election. Fear- seat vacant until the following tors to sign in East and an aldermen (Raymond ing that the Liberals would lose May. However, if a very small Stone, group leader). Thereafter both seats, East ward planned to number of electors in the ward, I it and then they fell back, maintaining the put up only one candidate (Armit- think only two, pointed out offi- three Soothill seats, one in Birstall age) and then get Gledhill elected cially that the seat was vacant, a handed it in and two aldermen (Raymond Stone at a subsequent by-election when by-election had to be called. So and Trevor Evans) in 1972 until the Armitage was made an alder- we obtained the necessary form, at the town dissolution of the council. man. Raymond Stone and oth- found local electors to sign it and After the May 1968 elections ers strongly opposed this strategy then handed it in at the town hall. We, of the Liberals held the balance with which would have meant throw- hall. We, of course, were ready, nine seats to eleven for Labour ing away a seat and criticised East with both a candidate and litera- course, were and twelve for the Allied group of ward’s over-friendly relations ture prepared: the others were Independents and Conservatives. with the Independents/Tories. In taken by surprise. I remem- ready, with The Liberals and the Allied group the end both Armitage and Gled- ber very clearly the meeting in proposed a coalition with chair- hill stood, as did an Independent, Gildersome Liberal Club when both a can- manships shared out between all and both seats were lost to Labour. Philip Heath, Michael Mead- didate and parties according to their strengths, This would have probably have owcroft and I planned all this. but after eighteen years of control happened anyway even without We had hoped initially to find literature Labour decided to leave office. An the split anti-Labour vote.73 There- a local candidate, preferably an Allied–Liberal partnership was, it after the Liberal cause collapsed in ‘opinion leader’ (e.g. a local doc- prepared: seems, ruled out by the Liberals. the ward. tor or similar, a technique that The eventual solution was that the The Liberal cause was also slip- Michael had successfully used the others Allied group took the chairman- ping in Birstall. The last narrow in Leeds) but had no success, ships and the Liberals the vice- Liberal victory was in 1970. In 1971 and it was Michael who steered were taken chairmanships. In 1969 the Liberals Labour surged past the Liberal can- the conversation round to the gained one seat (to ten seats), but didate and in 1972 the Liberals fell solution that Philip, though an by surprise. the Allied group also gained three to third place.

34 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 liberal roots: the liberal party in a west yorkshire constituency, 1920s–1970s

The Liberals were pushed back democracy and decentralisation The atmos- in Batley & Morley we obtained by Labour’s increase in popularity to the regions, and the reporter 23.8 per cent (11,470 votes). in 1970–72 which was a national usually put something of what phere was It was never glad confident phenomenon, but hit the Liber- I’d said in the local paper. A morning again. I did not fight als hard in those Northern textile burning topic in the period was totally dif- the second 1974 election, but towns where they had won seats in Barbara Castle’s attempt to tame had returned to PNG (where I the late 1960s on the anti-Labour the unions with ‘In Place of ferent from stayed until 1980). Ivan Lester swing. The Independents/Con- Strife’, which much embarrassed had returned to the fold and servatives lost support too and by die-hard Labour veterans and 1970. Eve- polled 20.7 per cent, but by the 1972 Labour had recaptured a large on which we Liberals, through rywhere 1979 election the heart had gone majority on the council. By the our policies of industrial part- out of the association, possibly time the next Liberal surge came nership, had a radical alterna- we were partly as a result of the demise in 1973–74 on the back of a string tive which I very much enjoyed of Batley town council and the of parliamentary by-election suc- pushing. received merger into Kirklees. The candi- cesses, the two municipal boroughs In those days parliamentary date in 1979 was Chris Cawood, were in the process of dissolution as candidates were not given time as realistic a Dewsbury teacher, who polled local government was reorganised. off for the three weeks of the only 10.6 per cent in what he Batley was merged into Kirklees campaign so for the first two contend- described as ‘the cheapest elec- and Morley into Leeds. weeks I would teach full time tion campaign ever’. Under the during the day, and campaign ers rather old rules that would have meant and somehow also keep up with a lost deposit. Parliamentary elections in the my work in the evenings. The than as well- 1960s and 1970s weather was splendid, which This was the last Batley & Morley Elections to Westminster in these was a great help, but the result meaning election. Morley was merged with years reflected the ups and downs was a disappointment nationally. South Leeds and Batley with Spen of the party’s fortunes both nation- However, locally we were proud also-rans and for the next election in 1983. ally and locally. The Liberals put up to be one of only a handful of a candidate at the 1964 general elec- constituencies where the Liber- many peo- tion for the first time since Ashley als increased both the total vote A reinvented party? Mitchell’s maverick bid in 1945 and (ours from 6,366 to 6,893) and ple, includ- In 1974 Brian B. Barker, the first fully official effort since percentage share (from 14.8 per ing some penultimate mayor of Morley, 1929. The candidate was a Leeds cent to 15.1 per cent). was one of its six councillors pharmaceutical chemist and recent In early 1972 I left the area of our cam- elected to serve on the new Leeds chairman of the National League of to teach in Papua New Guinea. Metropolitan District Council. He Young Liberals, Ivan Lester, who I tried before I left to fix up a paign team, represented the fourth generation polled 17 per cent. Lester defected successor but without success. of Barkers to play a leading role to Labour shortly afterwards and in Hence there was no PPC when thought we in Morley local government. His 1966 Bill Berry was the candidate the unexpected ‘Who governs forebears had all been regarded as with a vote of 14.8 per cent. Britain?’ election of February could win. pillars of the local Liberal Party, Peter Wrigley takes up the 1974 was called. The regional but he was an ‘Independent’ – in story: chairman, David Shutt, sug- other words a Conservative – with gested I return to fight the seat. not even a hint of a connection I was selected as PPC in 1968 and As I was paid a huge amount of with the Batley & Morley Liberal tried hard to extend our influ- money by British standards, I Association. ence into Morley. In addition I could well afford it, so flew back, At first sight Batley & Mor- managed to get a good deal of and greatly enjoyed the three- ley seems to demonstrate clearly publicity through my member- week campaign when, unlike in how far the modern Liberal/Lib- ship of the Trades Council. I the previous election, I was able eral Democrat Party that emerged belonged to the National Asso- to work at it full time. in the 1960s diverged from the old ciation of Schoolmasters, at the The atmosphere was totally party that dwindled, died or was time the only teachers’ union different from 1970. Everywhere diverted into the Conservative affiliated to the TUC. The local we were received as realistic camp between the 1930s and the branch of the NAS appointed contenders rather than as well- 1950s. In a district where the Radi- me as their delegate to the Bat- meaning also-rans and many cal tradition was considered to be a ley Trades Council (there was people, including some of our powerful factor until well after the no competition) and as such I campaign team, thought we Second World War there seemed to attended their meetings which could win. Optimism was at its be little if any continuity between were held I think monthly and highest in the weekend before the personnel, the outlook and the to which the Batley News sent a the poll, when one of the opin- support of the Grimond-era Liber- reporter. ion polls put us on 28 per cent als and their predecessors. The most common topic of and the newspapers speculated But did the Liberals so deci- discussion was the inadequacy as to who might be in Jeremy sively escape their past? In Batley of the local bus services (plus ça Thorpe’s Cabinet (I wasn’t men- & Morley, as in many other north- change) but I managed to intro- tioned). Alas the euphoria faded ern industrial constituencies built duce lots of Liberal themes, par- in the final four days. Nation- on textiles, ‘Orpington Man’ was ticularly regarding industrial ally we polled 19.3 per cent and a rare animal. The Liberal gains of

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 35 liberal roots: the liberal party in a west yorkshire constituency, 1920s–1970s the 1960s came in areas with a Lib- In Batley & mill-town municipal boroughs of 1920–22. eral tradition. In Batley & Morley Batley & Morley throughout, and 14 Clement Fearnsides (1882–1952), the most sustained breakthroughs Morley, as in Ossett until it was transferred to waste-paper merchant, founder of were in Birstall and Soothill,74 Dewsbury in 1949. In 1937 the urban Batley News, mayor of Batley 1935–37. urban villages with a long Liberal many other districts of Gildersome and Drigh- 15 Barker family – Morley wool- history. They were secured by Lib- lington were joined to Morley and len manufacturers, Nonconform- erals with deep roots in their com- northern Birstall to Batley; and in 1949 they ists: James Barker (1842–95), Liberal munities such as Raymond Stone were transferred from the Spen Val- councillor 1886–95; Brian Brad- and Cicero Armitage who personi- industrial ley to the Batley & Morley constitu- ley Barker (1868–1942), Liberal, on fied Radical Nonconformism, not constituen- ency. Ardsley was also joined to council 1902–42, mayor of Morley by incomers applying new electoral Morley in 1937 and transferred from 1936–37; James Barker (1899–1971), techniques as a short-cut to vic- cies built the Rothwell consituency to Batley Colonel, Liberal/Independent, on tory. The swing to the Liberals in & Morley in 1949. council 1936–64, mayor of Morley Batley & Morley and some similar on textiles, 2 Theodore Cooke Taylor (1850–1952), 1952–53; Brian Baines Barker (1925–), Northern industrial towns in the Batley woollen manufacturer, Lib- Independent councillor, mayor of later 1960s came not because the ‘Orpington eral MP for Radcliffe-cum-Farn- Morley 1972–73. Brian Bradley Bark- Liberals were seen as an alternative worth, Lancs, 1900–18. er’s brother-in-law, Humphrey Aker- party of the left, but because they Man’ was a 3 Pall Mall Gazette, The New Parlia- oyd Bradley (1867–1934) was also a were regarded as an acceptable anti- ment 1900. councillor (1934–56) and magistrate. Labour Party at a time when the rare animal. 4 George Arthur Greenwood, Taylor of 16 Rhodes etc. clan – Morley cloth Wilson government was unpopu- Batley (London, 1957); T. C. Taylor, manufacturers, Nonconformists. lar. As Labour recovered, the Lib- The Liberal One Hundred Years: Records, Recollec- Samuel Rhodes (1857–1920) was erals lost ground. Their retreat tions and Reflections (Whitehead and mayor 1906–9 and 1911. His nephew was partly because the ‘pioneers’ gains of the Miller, 1946) Harold Rhodes (1881–1956) was had run out of steam by the early 5 Sir Ronald F. Walker (1880–1971) mayor in 1934. Harold’s half-brother 1970s and were unable to find char- 1960s came was president of the Yorkshire Lib- Henry Hedley Watson (1866–1929) ismatic leaders to re-inspire them. eral Federation from 1947–60 and was mayor in 1919–20 (his son Mayo But it was also because the district in areas with of the Liberal Party in 1952–53. His Marshall Watson was a councillor). was undergoing sweeping changes nephew, John G. Walker (1912–2009) Samuel’s brother-in-law’s nephew, in its economy and local govern- a Liberal was chairman of the Yorkshire party Thomas Arthur Marshall (1874–1945) ment. This transformation under- tradition. in the 1960s and was a Batley & was mayor in 1927–28. See the Ellis mined the Liberal roots that had Dewsbury magistrate and later presi- Family Tree (Judith Berry) on Ances- supported the party for decades and dent of the Batley & Spen Liberal try.co.uk for details of the Rhodes had helped to sustain its revival in Association. See: http://www.bram- and Barker genealogies. the 1960s. ley.demon.co.uk/obits/walkerJG. 17 Joseph Kirk (1858–1931), Mor- html ley woollen manufacturer (having Dr Jaime Reynolds was a UK civil serv- 6 An evocative documentary on Bat- started as an overlooker), Liberal, on ant from 1979 and since 2005 has been ley in 1968 by Professor Patrick council 1905–31, mayor 1923–25. an official of the European Commission Nuttgens can be viewed on You- 18 David Dickinson (1880–1965) Morley working on international environmen- tube: http://www.youtube.com/ textile manufacturer, Morley alder- tal policy. He has contributed numerous watch?v=QN6Y8rktaVk man, mayor 1942–43. articles to the Journal of Liberal His- 7 David K. Atkinson, Morley Borough 19 Hepworths: Benjamin Peel Hep- tory and other Liberal Democrat His- 1886–1974 – A Pictorial History (Mor- worth (1858–1948), Morley woollen tory Group publications. Peter Wrigley ley 1973). The Atkinson collection of cloth manufacturer, Wesleyan, Con- was a teacher, mostly of economics, and photographs and much other fasci- servative, mayor of Morley 1929–31; mostly in Batley, but he has spent a sub- nating local historical material can be his daughter Clare Elizabeth Hep- stantial part of his career in developing accessed on the Morley Community worth (1900–78) was a Morley coun- countries: Papua New Guinea (1972– Archives site: http://www.morle- cillor, alderman and mayor 1956–57, 80) and, as a VSO, Malawi (1989–91). yarchives.org.uk/p_homepage2.html also freeman of the borough. He is now retired but continues to cam- 8 The Guardian, 8 Feb. 1972. 20 John Stubley (1850–1911), Batley paign as a Liberal Democrat, is honor- 9 There were straight fights between woollen manufacturer, Liberal, Con- ary president of the Batley & Spen local the Liberals and Labour in 1918, 1923, gregationalist, alderman, mayor party and blogs as keynesianliberal. 1924 and 1929. The Liberals won in 1909–11. blogspot.com 1918 and 1924. In a three-way contest 21 David Stubley (1858–1934), Batley in 1922 Labour won with the Liberals woollen manufacturer, mayor 1911– The authors are grateful to Val Asquith, second. 12, 1917–19. Margaret Berry, Malcolm Clegg, Jean, 10 Frederick Wilfred Hoyle Auty (1881– 22 Gertrude Elsie Taylor (1875–1957), Gareth and Glynis Evans, Michael 1951), Batley woollen manufacturer, Batley councillor 1920s–40s, mayor Meadowcroft, Martin Robinson, Liberal, mayor of Batley 1942–44. 1932–34. Sheila Stone and Gerry Wright for 11 Charles Robert Spedding (1865– 23 Hamilton Crothers (1869–1935), born their contributions to the research for this 1938), Batley woollen manufacturer, Sheffield, insurance clerk then sec- article. Liberal, mayor of Batley 1927–30. retary to Theodore Taylor, Batley 12 Edmund Bruce (1873–1955), Bat- Liberal councillor, mayor 1922–24. 1 The Batley & Morley constituency ley woollen rag merchant, Liberal, His brother Montague (1862–1934) was formed in 1918, modified in 1949 mayor of Batley 1930–32. was deputy managing director of and existed until 1983. It united the 13 Thomas Western, mayor of Batley Taylors.

36 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 liberal roots: the liberal party in a west yorkshire constituency, 1920s–1970s

24 Ernest Kirk, director of Theo- Liberal Party (I. B. Tauris, 2008). candidate, but The Times, 8 Feb. ward. dore Taylor’s woollen mill, Lib- Batley & Morley Liberal Asso- 1949, says he did so at the 1949 69 Martin Robinson (1947– ), eral/Independent councillor ciation was affiliated to the LPO by-election. Chemistry teacher at Morley 1945–50. in 1938. 52 Manchester Guardian, 25 Jan. Grammar School, later deputy 25 Margaret Grace Auty (1875– 40 The Times, 28 Dec. 1937. 1950, 13 Feb. 1950. head at Ryburn Valley High 1960), active Liberal, married 41 The Times, 27 Feb. 1939. 53 Manchester Guardian, 8 Feb. 1949. School, former chair Lancaster Herbert North 1915. 42 Manchester Guardian, 7 Mar. 54 A Batley & Morley Associa- University Liberal Club, Lib 26 Herbert North (1867–1943), 1939. Dalton was critical of the tion was affiliated to the Liberal Dem candidate in Calderdale Batley furniture dealer, Liberal government’s pol- Party in 1949 and 1950, but not in 2010. alderman, mayor 1919–20. icy and failure to support collec- 1958. 70 Wilf Whitaker (1946– ), edu- 27 B. Turner, About Myself (H Toul- tive security through the League 55 Labour controlled Batley in cated at Morley Grammar min, 1930), pp. 175–76. of Nations and the Republican 1945–46, from 1949/50 to 1968, School, Hull University, Hud- 28 Letter from T. C. Taylor to S. government in Spain. See his let- and in 1972–74. It controlled dersfield Polytechnic, lecturer in Martin, secretary of the Liberal ter to the Manchester Guardian, 29 Morley in 1945–47, 1954–55, Geography and Urban Studies, Liberty League 23 Apr. 1945, Oct. 1939. 1956–60, and 1963–66. chairman of Yorkshire Young quoted in Greenwood, Taylor of 43 The Times, 28 Feb. 1939, 2 Mar. 56 A. E. ‘Bill’ Berry (1928–2000), Liberal Federation 1970, presi- Batley, p. 140. 1939, 7 Mar. 1939. journalist, Deputy Chief Sub- dent of Normanton Liberals 29 Batley News, 27 Sept. 1931. 44 Manchester Guardian, 8 Mar. editor of Bradford Telegraph & 1974–77, secretary of Boothferry 30 Walter Forrest (1869–1939), Pud- 1939. Argus, member of Yorkshire Lib- Liberals 1982–83, Liberal parlia- sey woollen manufacturer (sold 45 Ibid. eral Executive. mentary candidate in Keighley out 1917), wealthy businessman, 46 Ashley Mitchell (1886–1977), 57 Trevor Evans (1922–92), local (February 1974), Normanton Coalition Liberal MP for Ponte- Ossett worsted cloth manu- government (later health service) (October 1974), Barnsley (1979), fract 1919–22, Liberal candidate facturer, father was mayor of administrator, Batley Liberal Selby (1983) and Don Valley 1923 and MP for Batley & Mor- Ossett, brother was mayor of councillor/alderman 1964–74, , (1987). Gerry Wright recalls: ‘I ley 1924–29, mayor of Pudsey, Huddersfield, six times Liberal deputy leader of Liberal group. was at Morley Grammar School knighthood 1935. candidate 1923–55. 58 Clifford S. Lockwood (1915–97), with Wilf Whitaker. He was 31 The Times, 2 Apr. 1931. Soon 47 In July 1943, the Yorkshire Lib- Liberal councillor for Soothill two years older but I remem- after he joined the Liberal eral Federation had rejected and Kirklees, councillor for Bat- ber him standing in mock elec- Nationals. Mitchell’s motion attacking the ley East & Soothill 1973–76. tions and raising awareness at 32 The Times, 19 Mar. 1934. Beveridge Report and Mitch- 59 Raymond Stone (1933–85), every opportunity re the Liberal 33 John Fennell, who ran as ell had resigned his Federa- teacher at Crossley and Porter cause. Regarded as an eccentric ‘National Labour’ although he tion offices. M. Egan,Coming School, Halifax, studied history by many fellow pupils prob- was an ex-Liberal. Into Focus – the Transformation of at Manchester University, coun- ably because of his passion and 34 Col. James Walker (1879–1954), the Liberal Party 1945–64 (Saar- cillor for Birstall 1962–74, alder- appearance. His tortoiseshell blanket manufacturer, DSO and brucken, 2009), p. 122. man and leader of the Liberal glasses and vestiges of stub- bar, chairman Mirfield UDC, 48 See Ronald Walker’s letter group. ble marked him out as a hippy brother of Sir Ronald Walker. expressing ‘sympathetic anxi- 60 Cicero Armitage (1904–96), type. A very well-read scholar In 1931, resigned as president of ety’ about the Beveridge scheme, headteacher of Birstall Junior who did much for the Liberal Spen Valley Liberal Association Manchester Guardian, 22 Jan. School, Liberal councillor for cause when the party was going in opposition to Sir John Simon’s 1945. Batley East 1963–70, Congrega- through some choppy water. conversion to tariffs. Chairman 49 Sources: D. J. J. Owen, ‘Batley tionalist, lay preacher 1935–85. Folklore in Morley. Wilf could of Dewsbury Liberal Associa- and Morley from the Inside’, 61 Gerald Gaunt, pupil at Batley not be accused of being bereft tion. In the early 1950s, associ- Land & Liberty, July/August 1945, Grammar School, teacher in of distinctive views and poli- ated with National Liberals and p. 65; A. Mitchell, A Yorkshire Huddersfield, Liberal councillor cies. Although I did not share supported the Conservative can- Liberal Keeps Faith (http://www. for Birstall 1967–71. his classless approach to politi- didate in Dewsbury. cooperativeindividualism.org/ 62 Richard Beman, Liberal coun- cal analysis I matured enough 35 Ernest Edgar Dalton (1879– mitchell-ashley_a-yorkshire- cillor for Soothill 1969–72. to respect his commitment and 1947), Leeds police sergeant, liberal-keeps-faith-1957.html); 63 H. Keith Gatenby Primary views. A great character.’ (email, Nonconformist, prospective M. Cole, ‘The Political Starfish: School teacher, councillor for 15 July 2011) Liberal candidate for Batley & West Yorkshire Liberalism in the Soothill 1971–74. 71 Raymond Stone’s collection of Morley in the late 1930s. Twentieth Century’, Contempo- 64 Lucy Ely, elder sister of Trevor Batley News cuttings in posses- 36 Batley News, 26 Oct. 1935. rary British History, vol. 25, no. 1, Evans, Liberal councillor for sion of authors. 37 Herbert Brook (1883–1949), clerk March 2011, pp. 181–82. http:// Birstall 1967–73. 72 Bernard Prendergarst was the in woollen mill in Batley, chair- www.cooperativeindividualism. 65 Vera Ball, shopkeeper and for- Conservative candidate; he sub- man of Batley & Morley Liberal org/georgists_mitchell_ashley. mer nurse, Liberal councillor for sequently joined the Liberals. Association 1930s and 1940s. html Birstall 1963–70, mayor of Bat- 73 Note on AGM of Batley & Mor- 38 Batley News, 1 Nov. 1935; The 50 Cole, ‘Political Starfish’, p. 182, ley 1969–70. ley Liberal Association March Times, 5 Nov. 1935. quoting a letter from the chair- 66 Batley News, cutting undated 1970 in authors’ possession. 39 The Liberal Nationals did not man of the Yorkshire Young (1961). 74 Soothill Upper (also known as form a separate Yorkshire organ- Liberal Federation to Albert Ing- 67 Letter from R. Stone to D. Hanging Heaton) was an Urban isation until 1936 and until then ham, Yorkshire Liberal agent, 21 Fletcher Burden, 5 Jan. 1963, and District from 1894 to 1910 when did not break with the Liberal Feb. 1949. other correspondence in the pos- half of it was merged into Dews- Party Organisation even in 51 Christopher J. James, MP for session of the authors. bury. The remainder of Soothill Simon’s Spen Valley constitu- Dewsbury (C J James, 1970), 68 Philip Heath, sales manager, Upper was joined to Batley. ency. See David Dutton, Liberals p. 238 – says 1950 was the first chairman of Morley Liberals in Schism: A History of the National time Taylor supported a Tory 1970, candidate for Denshaw

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 37 In April 2011, the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles named the Smallholdings and Allotments Act 1908 among those ancient THREE ACRES AND A COW pieces of legislation, tying the hands of local authorities, which were up for review. This was the Liberal legislation which, among other things, still requires local authorities to provide land for allotments when there is demand for it. There was a huge outcry in the press and the rapidly expanding allotments movement promised to fight this tooth and nail. The Independent immediately launched a ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign against it, aware of how powerful the allotments movement has become.1 David Cameron moved rapidly to reassure people that the 1908 law would stay. David Boyle looks at the story of the 1908 Smallholdings and Allotments Act, and the campaign that resulted in it, led by Liberal MP Jesse Collings.

38 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 THREE ACRES AND A COW

his modern resonance followed him). It regarded the great Liberal MP for Ipswich and then makes the 1908 legisla- original sin of Whig politics as the Birmingham Bordesley. Ttion important. But the Enclosures, which drove poor peo- Collings had become a commer- history of the Smallholdings and ple off the land, undermining their cial traveller, took over the com- Allotments Act was not quite what independence and creating a new pany he worked for, and became it appears on the face of it, and the class of paupers condemned to eke a close friend of Joseph Chamber- legislation was not quite the uncon- out a dependent existence in the lain at the beginning of his politi- troversial breakthrough that it now new cities. cal career in Birmingham. He seems. On the face of it, the Small- ‘The agricultural labourer of understood from his own experi- holdings Act was the culmination modern times is in a position quite ence the importance of a patch of of a campaign for more smallhold- different from that of the agricul- land for those in poverty. His father ings and allotments stretching tural labourer of former years,’ had rented four acres next to their back four decades by the Liberal said Collings in his 1908 book Land house. ‘On these four acres we grew campaigner Jesse Collings. In prac- Reform, written as part of the debate wheat, barley, potatoes, and other tice, when it came to the point, on the law which Pickles wanted to vegetables,’ he wrote in his auto- Collings was its bitterest critic remove.2 ‘In former times, the agri- biography. ‘We kept a number of and opponent. The debate on the cultural labourer was a man who pigs and a large number of fowls. Smallholdings Act at the time was a generally possessed land and almost For myself I had a fancy for rabbits, showpiece clash between the Liber- invariably had rights in common in guinea-pigs, hedgehogs, and ferrets. als and their erstwhile colleagues in connection with the cartilage of his We grew each year sufficient wheat the Liberal Unionists. It was a divi- cottage. This enabled him to keep to supply the family with bread.’3 sion that stymied the Liberal land stock of various kinds and of more It was his fervent support for campaign which, back in the 1880s, or less value, the proceeds of which, the north in the American Civil had looked set to sweep all before added to his earnings as a labourer, War which brought him into for- it. The same divisions may even placed him in a fairly prosperous mal politics, then his admiration remain to this day. condition. The modern agricultural for the American school system. To understand the debate, and labourer is a mere wage receiver.’ By the 1870s, he was a town coun- why it was so bitter, we have to go Liberal politics in the mid-nine- cillor representing Edgbaston, back to the standard critique put teenth century had tended to be an working in Birmingham with forward by the back-to-the-land urban phenomenon, a product in its Chamberlain on the project to cre- movement, a tradition which often own way of the Industrial Revolu- ate a city that was ‘parked, paved, dovetailed with aspects of Liberal- tion. But the agricultural depres- assized, marketed, gas & watered ism but which was primarily artic- sion of the 1870s brought agrarian and improved’ (Collings’ phrase). ulated by people very much on the campaigners into prominent posi- He was also among the organis- fringes of the Liberal Party (Wil- tions in the Liberal Party. Joseph ers, with Arch, of the Agricultural liam Morris, before his conversion Arch, the farm workers’ leader, Labourers Union, a Midlands phe- to socialism), or proto-Liberals was elected as MP for North West nomenon originally, formed on who pre-dated it (William Cob- Norfolk in the crucial year of 1886. Good Friday 1872 under a chestnut bett, Thomas Jefferson), or who But the most prominent of them all tree in Wellesbourne. His work on were actually opposed to Liberal- was a bricklayer’s son from Devon Jesse Collings the union led to the invitation to ism (John Ruskin and those who called Jesse Collings, the future (1831–1920) stand for parliament as a Liberal.

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 39 three acres and a cow

Collings came to believe that The key sharpest in rural Ireland – was right demonstrations after the House of the best solution to urban poverty, at the forefront of political debate. Lords threw out the extended fran- and the best way of providing a reform The debate was spearheaded by chise in 1884, with farm labourers dignified independence to agricul- Chamberlain’s increasingly radical marching into London from Kent tural workers, was to repopulate was for the energies, Chamberlain campaign- and Sussex in a pattern faintly rem- rural areas and rebuild the peasant ing in the cities, and Collings in iniscent of the Peasants Revolt. The class. That meant providing land state to the rural areas. They were a formi- Daily News spoke patronisingly of for anyone who wanted it to meet dable couple, utterly loyal to each ‘men who carried fresh-cut walk- their own needs. He and the union help labour- other, though Collings made fun ing sticks and who do not show the drew up the first of a whole series of Chamberlain incessantly. They remotest affectation of the ways of of bills that would give poor peo- ers become were also a formidable sight on the town life’. ple rights over land, to ‘restore the their own stump, Collings with his huge side It was during the forthcom- connection, now almost destroyed, whiskers, Chamberlain with his ing general election in 1885, in a between the cultivator and the soil’. landlords. trade mark monocle and orchid in speech at Cirencester, that Collings If he could get it enacted, he said, it the breast of his long coat. first used his famous slogan ‘Three ‘would largely diminish pauperism; It was an Chamberlain had set land acres and a cow’. It was not a new and would increase the numbers, reform at the heart of his ‘unau- phrase and it was much ridiculed and raise the social condition of the idea bitterly thorised programme’, which by his Conservative opponents, rural population’.4 – although it was considered dan- but it caught the zeitgeist, setting The key reform was for the state opposed gerously radical at the time – was out clearly what he considered the to help labourers become their actually designed partly to under- minimum for a family to live on. own landlords. It was an idea bit- by the big mine socialism. It was formulated Chamberlain adopted the slogan terly opposed by the big landown- to provide ordinary people with a for his own programme, which set ers, perhaps unsurprisingly, who landown- measure of economic independence out how the state would buy land regarded it as the first stage of a rad- by distributing small plots of land, and let it to anyone who wanted ical expropriation of their inher- ers, perhaps as well as setting out a programme it, at the rate of one acre of arable itance. It was also opposed by the of education, democratic reform and four acres of pasture. It was farmers, afraid that it would make unsurpris- and decentralisation: it was a new the moment that the Liberal Party their labourers too independent, kind of populist Liberalism. adopted some of the flavour of Rus- and much of Collings’ campaigning ingly, who ‘If you go back to the early his- kinian radicalism. ‘The standard of was designed to persuade them it tory of our social system,’ he said welfare of the large family we call would also benefit them. regarded in his speech on the Reform Bill of the nation should be not so much That was the challenge. But Lib- it as the 1885, ‘you will find that … every the amount of its aggregate money eral politics in the mid-nineteenth man was born into the world with wealth,’ wrote Collings in a close century was optimistic when the first stage natural rights, with a right to share echo of Ruskin, ‘but the moral, Back to the Land tradition was in the great inheritance of the com- material and social condition of the deeply pessimistic. It was Non- of a radical munity, with a right to a part of the great mass of its members.’9 conformist when the tradition was land of his birth.’6 Collings’ new law had produced often Anglo-Catholic. It believed expropria- The great land magnates were 394,517 allotments or smallhold- in the inevitability of progress appalled, but when the grand old ings of under four acres and 272,000 when the tradition was deeply scep- tion of their man of Liberalism, John Bright, ‘garden allotments’. He had been tical of it. So Collings’ deft weav- threw his weight behind the land elected chairman of the new Allot- ing together of Liberalism and rural inheritance. campaign, it was clear that policy ment Extension Association to keep radicalism was a new phenomenon, was moving on apace. ‘The time is up the pressure. Historians some- at least new since the days of Cob- near in my opinion,’ he said, ‘when times argue that the Unauthorised bett and his Rural Rides. the great land monopoly of this Programme had little impact.10 But There was also a theological country will be assailed and when it the allotments element, which it dimension because the few allot- will be broken into and broken up.’7 gave birth to, was a political theme ments that existed in rural areas Chamberlain lit the touchpaper which echoed through the next six were usually under the control of of the political fireworks with an decades. Providing access to land the local churches or the chari- attack on the Conservative leader was the proposed solution – not ties they controlled. Trustees often Lord Salisbury, describing him as taxing land, the great campaign interpreted their responsibilities ‘the spokesman of a class – a class to of the 1890s, because that accepted so tightly that nobody who really which he himself belongs, who toil ownership patterns as they stood. needed allotments could possibly not neither do they spin’.8 For Collings, land was to be reor- find their way onto them.5 But the Collings achieved his first suc- ganised in such a way that anyone understanding of the importance of cess with the Allotments Extension who wanted to access to it should common land and preservation was Act of 1883. It was a small meas- be able to have it, whoever they beginning to grow in the 1870s as ure to prevent local parishes from were, wherever they lived. the Commons Preservation Society frustrating access to allotments. It was at this point that his got under way and William Morris But at the heart of the land bat- amendment to the Queen’s Speech launched his Society for the Pro- tle was the question of giving two in January 1886, regretting that tection of Ancient Buildings. New million agricultural labourers the Lord Salisbury’s Conservative versions of common land were in vote, under the assumption that government had no plans to help the air and, as the 1880s dawned, they would force through radical agricultural labourers find allot- the land question – especially at its land legislation. There were huge ments and smallholdings, was

40 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 three acres and a cow unexpectedly passed by the House in Lincolnshire, which was unex- colleagues in the Liberals were less of Commons. It brought down the pectedly won by a Liberal on the interested in providing new forms government. This became known allotments issue. By then, he had of land ownership. They were as the ‘Three Acres and a Cow’ decided to save what he could, and increasingly interested in using the amendment. At long last, the Lib- split his bill into two. What was tax system to take away the power eral leader William Ewart Glad- passed was the Allotments and of the landowners – not adding to stone rose in his seat to support Cottage Gardens Compensation their number. Collings during the debate, prom- for Crops Act 1887, which obliged Collings’ influence on Cham- ising to ‘restore the old local com- local authorities to provide allot- berlain’s son Austen was bringing munities of this country something ments if there was a demand for the Conservatives round to the idea of that character of a community, them. Allotments later became the of a new class of owners on the land in which the common interests of key issue in the first county council – as long as the smallholdings were the individual labourer may be so elections in 1889. Even the evolu- not so big that labourers became managed as to associate him with tion pioneer Alfred Russel Wallace independent of farmers.12 The Con- the soil in a manner much more joined in the campaign by applying servative Lord Onslow launched effectively than that by which he for an allotment to the new Dorset his Association for the Voluntary is associated with it at present’.11 County Council and then publicis- Extension of the Allotments Sys- A few days later, Gladstone took ing the delays and barriers thrown tem as a way to head off their fears office at the head of a new Liberal in his way by reluctant officials. that the Liberals would nationalise government. Collings had never Even so, three years later, another the land. been so hopeful, but it was all to 150,000 people had allotments. At the same time, Collings’ turn to ashes within months. In March 1891, Collings finally At the same smallholdings campaign was The first sign of trouble came passed the other half, his Small- attracting the determined oppo- when he introduced his Allotments holdings Bill. It had taken him time, Coll- sition of the new Labour Party. and Small Holdings Bill, designed eleven years of constant campaign- Ramsay Macdonald himself to give parishes the power to pro- ing, reintroducing the bill with ings’ small- opposed him in a ten-minute-rule- vide allotments where there was a every session, rather as Sir John bill debate in 1907. The idea of land demand and nowhere was available Lubbock had done with his Ancient holdings ownership, even by the poorest, at a reasonable rent. To his conster- Monuments Act. But there was was anathema to socialists. Coll- nation, the new government failed an irony here: the Smallholdings campaign ings’ other political problem was to adopt it. Instead, Gladstone Bill was passed with Conservative that his Liberal Unionists now pushed forward his deeply contro- votes. ‘I have in the last five years was attract- barely existed. Chamberlain had versial Irish Home Rule Bill, deter- seen more progress made with the become a ferocious imperialist, mined once and for all to end the practical application of my political ing the and Colonial Secretary in the gov- centuries of dispute with Ireland. It programme than in all my previous determined ernment, and the Liberal Unionist was a brave move, but Collings and life,’ wrote Chamberlain shortly party organisation was to be wound his colleagues were enraged that afterwards. ‘I owe this result opposition up completely in 1912. so much urgent radical legislation entirely to my former opponents, Worse, as far as Collings was was being postponed for a Home and all the opposition has come of the new concerned, the Liberal landslide at Rule measure they hardly found from my former friends.’ the beginning of 1906 had swept convincing. The new political divisions Labour Party. the Unionists from power. Cham- The divisions in the party saw began to make themselves felt. berlain took the opportunity to Chamberlain and Collings both Collings passionately believed Ramsay Mac- swoop on a weakened Conserva- in the new grouping of Liberal that the smallholdings should be tive Party and to effectively seize Unionists. It was a traumatic period owned outright, as similar legis- donald him- the leadership for his radical impe- of betrayal and shattered friend- lation allowed for in Ireland. He rialism. But just as his moment of ships. Arch stayed with the Glad- wanted his new peasant class to be self opposed triumph, he was struck down by a stonian Liberals while Collings and proprietors, not dependent on land- paralysing stroke. the land reformers followed Cham- lords, even if those landlords were him in a ten- Lloyd George maintained the berlain. Collings was flung out the county councils. He drafted old Collings line as late as 1910. ‘I of his own Allotments Extension his Purchase of Land Bill in 1895, minute-rule- hope Liberalism will see its way to Association, which was then in the designed to let ordinary farm ten- go even further than ensuring secu- hands of the Gladstonians. Instead, ants buy their farms, by advancing bill debate rity of tenure for those who culti- he set up the new Rural Labourers them the money to do so, and doing vate the soil,’ he told the audience at League, with Chamberlain in the the same for people who wanted to in 1907. The the Queen’s Hall in London.13 ‘Our chair, which became a formidable be smallholders. He reintroduced it idea of land chairman has already indicated that campaign organisation in its own every year until 1914. It never made in his judgement there should be right, with 25 paid local agents and it into law. ownership, some great measure which would 3,000 volunteers nationwide. The problem was that the poli- transfer the ownership of the soil Despite this stressful and upset- tics of the debate was changing. even by the from the great landowners to the ting process, Collings went on Gladstone’s final administration cultivating peasants.’ campaigning, battling for his gave powers to parish councils to poorest, was But the politics was different bill through increasingly elon- acquire allotments, but they were now. The main thrust of the new gated sessions until he could do no to be rented, not sold or given anathema to Liberal government was to build on more. The issues were put to the away. The land tax debate was now the idea of security of tenure and test in a by-election in Spalding emerging and Collings’ former socialists. they saw it differently to Collings.

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 41 three acres and a cow

‘The magic of property, such as it He had his common (cheers) Society, a new pressure group set is, is derived not from ownership where he could graze a cow that up in 1907 by the American soap but from security,’ said Asquith, would give him milk and but- millionaire Joseph Fels, follow- the Home Secretary.14 So when the ter for himself and his children. ing a series of controversial land Liberals’ twin Smallholdings and There was a little patch where invasions on the outskirts of cit- Allotments Bills emerged, in 1907 he could raise corn to feed them. ies by people who wanted to grow and 1908, security not ownership There he had his poultry, his food. Fels had been at the forefront was the objective. In fact, would- geese, his pigs; a patch of land of the vacant lot societies that had be smallholders had to find a fifth where he could raise green pro- emerged at the end of the nine- of the purchase money themselves. duce for the table. He was a gen- teenth century in so many Ameri- This was the proposal of a com- tlemen; he was independent. He can cities, as a way of linking ‘idle mission chaired by the banker Sir had a stake in his country. His land with idle labour’. Edward Holden, who said that a title was as ancient and appar- By November 1916, Lloyd new land bank should only advance ently as indefensible as that of George was about to take over four-fifths of the price at 4 per cent the lord of the manor. Where the coalition government, which interest. New smallholding ten- had it gone to? Stolen.17 would leave both Asquith and ants would have to pay the interest Crawford out of office. But by then, on the loan to buy the land for their It was radical. It may have resulted the key policy shift had been made. farms, but the ownership would in major extensions to land avail- Crawford called in the Vacant Land still stay with the county councils. able for allotments if the First Cultivation Society to ask their ‘It is, in short a communalization World War had not intervened, advice about what he was plan- of the land, not at the expense of but it wasn’t what Collings had Rather unex- ning. Included in the meeting was the hated landlord, but at that of campaigned for. In March 1909, the society’s enthusiastic organis- the ‘sweated’ tenant,’ said a furious a disappointed Collings slipped pectedly, ing director for London, Gerald Collings.15 on the icy footboard of a train at Butcher. The smallholdings aspect of Charing Cross Station, fell on the the war pro- Butcher explained that after ‘an the new law was a failure: less than platform and fractured his hip. He interview lasting an hour or more, 5,000 new smallholders took the never entirely recovered, but he vided the [we] left with the full knowledge plunge, mainly in market gardens was paradoxically to see a peculiar that probably the greatest drama near the big cities, but it was dif- and extremely sudden revival of his opportunity which had taken place in land ferent for allotments. The 1907 Act political fortunes. reform for many generations was was consolidated into the 1908 Act, Rather unexpectedly, the war to shift the about to be enacted …’ but Jesse Collings, the great advo- provided the opportunity to shift cate of allotments – the key figure the debate again because producing debate again For once, at any rate, the privi- in their history in the UK – voted food suddenly became urgent and because pro- lege of the few was to become against it. His remaining allies tried vitally important. Britain could no the right of the many. By virtue to extend the rights of tenant farm- longer feed her own population, ducing food of the powers conferred by the ers to buy their farms with state and the U-boat blockade made food Defence of the Realm Regula- help when they were for sale, but imports difficult and dangerous. suddenly tions, the government was about their amendment was lost by fifty- Food also took up space in the holds to lay its hand upon the most six votes. of merchant ships that could have became sacred of monopolies, the most By the end of the decade, even been used for arms. The time had jealously guarded of all vested Lloyd George was on the other side. come to revitalise Britain’s agricul- urgent interests; it intended, briefly, ‘Great Britain, in my judgement, tural base. to commandeer certain land in is utterly unsuited to the establish- The Dig for Victory campaign and vitally order that allotments might be ment of a great peasant proprietor- of the Second World War remains a provided on a large and unprec- ship,’ he said.16 It was a bitter blow part of British folk memory, but its important. edented scale.18 to Collings, who was now in ill equivalent in the First World War health and desperate to give up his has been forgotten. Yet right at the Britain could Two weeks later, Crawford made parliamentary seat. The great cause heart of it all was Collings’ Rural his plans public. The result was the he had given his political career Labourers’ League, encouraging no longer Cultivation of Lands Order 1916. to seemed to have finally been village industries, linking them It gave county councils the right to defeated. What he had actually up with local smallholdings, and feed her take over wasteland or abandoned achieved, embedding allotments eventually concentrating on pro- land, without the consent or even into the new local government moting the idea of potato and live- own popula- knowledge of its owners, and use it machine, was vital for the future, stock clubs. Soon 400 of these clubs tion, and the to grow food. Crawford had been but it was so little compared to the had begun, with an average mem- nervous that the order would out- scale of his ambition: to get people bership of about thirty each – and U-boat block- rage people, but in fact the local back on the land. involving about 24,000 pigs. authorities were overwhelmed with Lloyd George launched his own But the League was no longer ade made demand from people applying to land campaign in 1913, borrowing the central player. The major turn specific bits of land into allot- Collings’ radical language about revival of allotments in 1916 was food imports ments, or to take over part of the the rural English, but to argue brought about by the new Con- new allotments themselves. instead for land tax, conjuring up servative agriculture minister, the difficult and The allotments of the First a vision of the sturdy, traditional Earl of Crawford, and his alliance World War were a social phenom- peasant: with the Vacant Land Cultivation dangerous. enon and their effects were to echo

42 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 three acres and a cow through society long after the plots Collings died origins or objectives. When the 9 Collings and Green, Life of Collings, p. had been handed back to the hous- generation after Collings began to 181. ing developers. Many of those on 20 Novem- pull together the lost and frayed 10 See Ian Packer, Lloyd George, Lib- using them for growing vegetables strands of his campaign, they did so eralism and the Land: The land issue had no idea how to distribute their ber 1920, outside the Liberal Party. and party politics in England 1906–1914 produce, and refused to sell it – but (Royal Historical Society/Boydell gave it away around the neighbour- believing that David Boyle is the author of On the Press, 2001), pp. 12–13. hood as a sign of largesse. Those Eighth Day, God Created Allot- 11 Collings and Green, Life of Collings, who did sell it found, on average his campaign ments: A brief history of the allot- pp. 185–6. that allotment growing could pro- had achieved ments campaign (Endeavour Press). 12 See Paul Readman, Land and Nation duce food to the value of £80 an in England: Patriotism, national identity acre – in the days when a hefty bag its objectives. 1 The Independent, 1 May 2011. and the politics of land 1880–1914 (Royal of potatoes cost 5d (about 2p).19 The 2 J. Collings, Land Reform (Longmans, Historical Society/Boydell Press, argument for allotments as a tool of He could look Green, 1908), p. xvii. 2008), p. 20. poverty reduction seemed to have 3 J. Collings and Sir John L. Green, 13 J. Collings, The Colonization of Rural been won. back on an Life of the Rt Hon. Jesse Collings (Long- Britain (Rural World, 1914), vol. 2, The desperate need for home mans, Green, 1920). pp. 332–3. grown food in the First World War extraordinary 4 Ibid., p. 124. 14 Collings and Green, Life of Collings, p. had also converted Lloyd George 5 Simon Grimble, Landscape Writing 273. to the old Liberal Unionist posi- focused life of and the Condition of England 1878-1917: 15 Collings, Colonization, p. 339. tion, leading to the Land Settle- Ruskin to modernism (Edwin Mellen 16 This was in July 1913, see Collings, ment (Facilities) Bill of December commitment Press, 2004), p. 86. Colonization, p. 333. 1918, designed to resettle returning 6 J. Garvin, The Life of Joseph Chamber- 17 The Times, 12 Oct. 1913. soldiers on the land. Collings was to the cause, lain (London, 1932), p. 549. 18 Gerald W. Butcher, Allotments for All: ill, but his friends rallied round and 7 Manchester Guardian, 25 Mar. 1880. The story of a great movement (George organised a successful amendment stretching 8 Joseph Chamberlain speech, 30 Mar. Allen & Unwin, 1918), p. 18. allowing smallholders to buy their 1883. 19 Ibid., p. 31. land after six years, and to pay back from the days the money over sixty years. Two years later, another 208,000 of town plan- acres had been acquired for for- mer soldiers. Collings died on 20 ning, Ideal November 1920, believing that his Home maga- campaign had achieved its objec- tives. He could look back on an zine and hens extraordinary focused life of com- mitment to the cause, stretching in suburban Reviews from the days of town planning, Ideal Home magazine and hens in back gardens, suburban back gardens, right back to Cobbett, the Great Reform Act, right back to Scapegoat for Liberalism? and the Captain Swing riots. He was old enough to have signed the Cobbett, the Antony Lentin, Banker, Traitor, Scapegoat, Spy? The petition calling for the repeal of the Troublesome Case of Sir Edgar Speyer (Haus, 2013) Corn Laws in the 1840s and to have Great Reform regretted doing so. It was a long Reviewed by David Dutton lifetime, nine decades, of unprec- Act, and the edented change. he First World War gave time, however, as War Minis- Actually, Collings was wrong. Captain Swing rise to countless acts of ter under Campbell-Bannerman The kind of transformation in land riots. Tpatriotic bravery and self- and Asquith, Haldane had done ownership and small-scale agricul- sacrifice. But it also prompted a more than anyone else to prepare ture he imagined, and could see in large number of instances of ugly the British Expeditionary Force other European countries on his xenophobia. As is well known, for military combat in 1914. This, summer jaunts with Chamberlain, the First Sea Lord, Prince Louis however, did not spare the by-then did not come to pass after all. The of Battenberg, second cousin of Lord Chancellor from a vitriolic great opportunity that opened up King George V, father of Louis campaign in the right-wing press. for land reform on that scale was Mountbatten and a nationalised The recipient of more than 2,500 a victim Home Rule divisions in British subject who had served in abusive letters in a single day, Hal- the Liberal Party and the frustra- the Royal Navy from the age of dane was summarily dropped from tion of Lloyd George’s Land Cam- fourteen, was forced from office in the government at the formation paign by the First World War. The October 1914, solely on account of of the first wartime coalition in 1885 slogan ‘Three acres and a cow’ his German birth. The offence of May 1915 – the price Prime Min- continued to be associated with the Lord Haldane was equally slight. ister Asquith was prepared to pay Liberal Party well into the second An admirer of German culture, to ensure Conservative participa- half of the twentieth century, but he had once described Germany tion in the government and his own with little understanding about its as his ‘spiritual home’. At the same position at its head. Even innocent

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 43 reviews

before the outbreak of the First In an essay published in 1912, World War. A wealthy member of Speyer lauded Germany and Eng- a Jewish merchant-banking fam- land as ‘citizens of the world’ and ily from Frankfurt, Speyer settled wrote of the prospect of continu- permanently in London in 1886 ing good relations between two as chairman of Speyer Bros., the kindred nations. Yet he would be a British branch of the family enter- collateral casualty of the collapse of prise. It was Speyer’s money that that vision following the outbreak financed the Underground Elec- of hostilities in August 1914. Spy- tric Railway Company of London, mania predated the coming of war, bringing electrification to the Met- but the fear of the ‘enemy within’ ropolitan and District lines of the inevitably intensified once fight- London ‘Tube’ and completion to ing began. It was not long before major sections of what became the figures on the right of the political Piccadilly, Bakerloo and North- spectrum started to ask whether ern lines. As Tony Lentin writes, someone born in Germany, no mat- ‘He saw the Company not only as ter how pronounced his Anglo- a hoped-for source of profit which philia, could really be trusted. he must strive to keep solvent but Journalists such as Leo Maxse of the also as a great public amenity, an National Review and H. A. Gwynne agent of urban and social progress. of the Morning Post were suspi- The Underground became an end cious of Speyer’s continuing entrée in itself’ (p. 6). According to the into 10 Downing Street. It was Daily Mirror, by 1912 Speyer had rumoured that at one dinner party become ‘London’s “King of the in October 1914, he had been pre- Underground” … the master-mind sent during discussions of the dis- dealing with the mammoth prob- position of the Royal Navy. ‘One’s lem of London’s passenger-traffic’ blood boils at these things,’ wrote (p. 10). At the same time, he became the former Tory whip, the Earl of a generous patron of the arts, sav- Crawford, ‘while we know that dachshunds, impeccably loyal to ing the annual Promenade Concerts communications are being made to their British masters and mistresses, from bankruptcy, underwriting the enemy’ (p. 43). were the victims of unthinking their losses and putting them on a Over the months that followed, persecution. secure financial footing. Speyer’s indiscriminate hostility towards The fate of the German-born enormous wealth also enabled him those of German birth was one Edgar Speyer was arguably even to support such varied causes as the way to vent frustration at the fail- crueller. In the same month that Whitechapel Art Gallery, the Pop- ure of the military to produce the Haldane left office, Speyer, accom- lar Hospital and Captain Scott’s promised early victory. ‘I get lots panied by his wife and children, expeditions to the Antarctic. of violent and abusive letters say- sailed to New York to escape a sus- Then as now, wealth opened ing I am pro-German’, complained tained campaign of vilification in doors and Speyer became promi- Margot Asquith. ‘This is because Britain which charged him with nent on the fringes of Liberal poli- I won’t drop my German friends, disloyalty and more. By this time tics, developing into an intimate Sir Edgar Speyer, [Sir Ernest] Cas- he had tried, unsuccessfully, volun- of both Campbell-Bannerman sel etc.’ (p. 59). Even the king, tarily to resign the privy council- and Asquith, and of the latter’s whom no one could claim was lorship to which he had been raised wife, Margot. His contributions of undiluted British blood, was on Asquith’s recommendation in to party funds for the general elec- alarmed, a feeling that would lead 1909. Worse, however, was to fol- tion of 1906 no doubt eased the to the masterstroke of the crea- low. In 1921, after a lengthy investi- path to the baronetcy he secured tion of the House of Windsor to gation of his wartime activities, he later that year. The following replace that of the distinctly suspect was found guilty by a judicial com- year Lloyd George asked him Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. mittee of enquiry of disloyalty and to advise on the establishment Denounced by Maxse as one of disaffection to the Crown and of of the Port of London Author- a group of ‘opulent, sinister, pow- communicating and trading with ity. Speyer gave public support to erful, truculent Prussians’ and the enemy. For this he was deprived the People’s Budget of 1909 and no doubt recoiling from Horatio of the British citizenship he had was on the long list of those ear- Bottomley’s assertion that ‘you held since the age of twenty-nine marked for a peerage in the event cannot naturalise an unnatural and expelled from the Privy Coun- that their Unionist lordships had beast, a human abortion, a hell- cil, the last individual to suffer this not seen the error of their ways ish freak’ (pp. 62–3), Speyer’s deci- indignity until the Labour MP, and allowed the Parliament Bill to sion to seek sanctuary in the then Eliot Morley, in 2011, following reach the statute book in the sum- neutral United States was entirely imprisonment for fraudulent claims mer of 1911. Winston and Clemen- understandable. His ‘departure for parliamentary expenses. tine Churchill were even renting a from these shores,’ writes Lentin, Speyer’s is not now a household holiday cottage from the Speyers ‘and the fall of the last purely Lib- name. Yet he was a leading fig- as the European storm clouds gath- eral government were coinciden- ure in British society in the years ered three years later. tal but symbolic of the decline of

44 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 reviews liberalism generally’ (p. 164). The previously used by the late Stephen The quarrel kept the (Gladsto- decision of the Home Office in 1919 Koss of Haldane, ‘a scapegoat for nian) Liberals out of power for most to re-open the case, a decision that Liberalism’. ‘Conservatives were of the following two decades and led ultimately to Speyer’s disgrace paying off old scores, taking vicari- the home rule policy blighted both and ‘conviction’, was altogether less ous revenge for their deep-seated the 1892 and 1906 Liberal govern- comprehensible. grievances both against Asquith’s ments. The two candidates angling Was this a flagrant miscar- pre-war administration and for his to succeed the aging Gladstone, the riage of justice inflicted on one wartime failings’ (p. 166). Whig, Lord Hartington, and, the of the country’s greatest benefac- This is a compelling tale told Radical, Joe Chamberlain, both tors of the twentieth century? As with skill and verve. One would sided with the Unionists and in an accomplished historian of this have liked a little more on the turn led the LUs in the Commons. period and also a qualified barris- deeper origins of wartime hostil- A devolved parliament no ter, Antony Lentin is well placed ity, not all of which came to light longer seems such an outland- to decide. He does not, however, only with the outbreak of conflict, ish idea and it is hard to recreate act unreservedly as the counsel for and of the anti-Semitism which was the passions with which home the defence. Rather his task is that clearly a factor. Sir Almeric Fitz- rule was debated, compounded of of a fair-minded judge (something roy, clerk to the Privy Council, enthusiasm for the Empire then largely denied to Speyer through described Speyer as ‘a most charac- approaching its zenith, resentment the person of Mr Justice Salter, teristic little Jew’ and, when swear- of Parnell’s obstructive parliamen- for twenty years the Unionist MP ing him into that august body, tary tactics and the violence of for Basingstoke), summing up the pointedly offered him the Old Tes- Irish agrarian campaigners, British available evidence for his reader- tament, ‘and thus saved the Gos- Protestant fear of regimented Irish ship, the jury. Yet the conclusion pels from outrage’ (p. 27). Overall, Catholicism, and old-fashioned seems inescapable. Speyer had com- however, this is a valuable and salu- racial prejudice against the Irish, mitted minor and technical misde- tary study of the perilous route by which had been stoked up in Stu- meanours, including deliberately which patriotism can shade imper- art times and festered at least until evading the censor. But there is no ceptibly into jingoism and thence the 1950s. proof that he had set out to betray into pure xenophobia. Gladstone had once defined Lib- his adopted country or indeed done eralism as ‘trust in the people only anything to merit the punishments David Dutton is the author of A His- qualified by prudence’. Gladstone imposed. If not quite a British tory of the Liberal Party since 1900 believed that he had detected in Dreyfus, Speyer had good rea- (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), and con- Parnell, a Protestant landowner, the son to feel bitter at his treatment. tributes regularly to the Journal of Lib- reasonableness and conservatism of He was, judges Lentin, in a phrase eral History. a man with whom he could do busi- ness. I have always considered that the essential difference between the Gladstonians and the Unionists was this element of faith for the future. Gladstone judged that home rule Bitterest allies would strengthen the ties between Britain and Ireland, the Unionists Ian Cawood, The Liberal Unionist Party: A History feared that home rule would begin (I.B. Tauris, 2012) the dissolution of the Empire. Alex Salmond’s referendum on Scot- Reviewed by Tony Little tish independence will put these hypotheses to a practical test. While the home rule dispute is a n 17 December 1885, a administration. What was different staple part of analyses of the Victo- newspaper scoop revealed about 1886? The defeat of rian Liberal Party and biographies Owhat some Liberals had The defeat of home rule, Ian home rule, of Gladstone, little has been written long feared: Gladstone had been Cawood claims, created the big- on the Liberal Unionist party as a converted to home rule. Glad- gest defection from any British topic of interest for itself. The focus stone’s proposal for a devolved Irish political party. It was followed by Ian Cawood has been on the dispute or on its parliament resolved the impasse an immediate general election in implications for the Liberal Party created by 1885 election where Par- which Gladstonian Liberals fought claims, cre- or on the leavening of the Conserv- nell’s Irish nationalist party held the Unionist Liberals who were ated the ative Party with a mildly more pro- the balance of power. But his move protected by an electoral pact with gressive element. So much attention split the Liberal Party and ninety- the Tories. The split became insti- biggest has been paid to the LU leaders, three Liberals joined the Conserva- tutionalised. The Unionists formed especially Chamberlain, that it has tives in crushing the Home Rule a separate party and supported defection often been considered a party of Bill. Salisbury’s minority Conservative chiefs without Indians, or as Glad- Division in the Liberal forces administration between 1886 and from any stone put it ‘clergymen without a was nothing new. It had kept them 1892. In 1895, the Liberal Unionists church’ (p. 10). The traditional nar- out of power for parts of the 1850s. (LUs) formed a coalition with the British politi- rative – which suggested that the It had overpowered Russell’s 1865 Conservatives and in 1912 the two party merely provided disillusioned government and Gladstone’s first parties merged. cal party. Whig aristocrats with a comforting

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 45 46 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 reviews resting station on their inevitable Unionists were less understanding Dr Cawood the LUs from capturing any sig- journey into Conservatism – has of the aggressive Irish National- nificant ground from the Gladsto- been undermined by the work of ist land campaigns and Unionists seeks to put nians by embracing Chamberlain’s Parry, Lubenow and Jenkins show- were more outraged by the parlia- more radically Liberal policy pro- ing the continued vitality of Whig- mentary stratagems of Nationalist the Liber- posals. LU achievements within gism within the Liberal Party, but MPs. The Home Rule Bill was seen Tory governments were at best always had a flaw. How could the as rewarding this lawlessness. Here, alism back modest. Cawood’s wide range of continued alliance of Chamberlain the Unionist Liberals were more in sources allows him to illustrate the and his associates with these Whigs tune with middle-class public opin- into Liberal breadth and depth of exasperation be reconciled with his known ion than the Gladstonians. A swathe this caused among LU rank and file. radicalism? of newspapers switched their alle- Unionism The pact effectively prevented LUs Dr Cawood seeks to put the Lib- giance to the Unionist cause and fighting Conservative-held seats eralism back into Liberal Unionism LUs had a strong representation and to turn but did not stop the Tories trying to and to turn the spotlight on the led among universities and public the spot- get their own candidates preferred as well as the leaders. In the pro- intellectuals. for vacated LU seats. Inadvertently, cess he has painted a more detailed But in other respects they were light on the Cawood’s book describes the two picture of the Unionists, drawn out of sympathy with the develop- parties as ‘bitterest allies’ (p. 91), a on a range of previously neglected ing political culture. They placed led as well misprint which reveals a hard truth sources and provided a range of a particular emphasis on character, from which the LUs never escaped. novel illustrations which do much consistency and manliness. They as the lead- The two chapters on the organi- to enliven his text. By this pro- deemed Gladstone effeminate for sation of the Liberal Unionists and cess he gives more detail about the pandering to Irish bullying and that ers. In the their impact on the electorate are a organisation and the foot soldiers accepting such Gladstonian whims source of considerable strength to of Liberal Unionism than is read- demeaned their sturdy independ- process he the book and value to the reader. ily available about the Gladsto- ence. Outside Chamberlain’s West The author presents an analysis that nian Liberal Party and he moves us Midlands Duchy, the LUs were has painted covers not only the efforts to estab- towards an answer to the Chamber- men who formed relationships with lish a central party organisation lainite mystery though he certainly their constituency only when an a more and a variety of affiliated groups does not enhance Joe’s reputation. MP’s family influence and his sta- but the very patchy strengths To some extent the opening tus in the community were critical detailed pic- and weaknesses of the LUs on a three chapters cover old ground: to his election. These were not men regional basis. Among the affili- the initial home rule division, the who saw themselves as answer- ture of the ated groups were a Women’s Lib- ideology of Liberal Unionism and able to a constituency caucus or eral Unionist Association, which the alliance with the Conservatives. who recognised how crucial party Unionists, attracted a number of high-profile What is added is a level of complex- organisation had become after drawn on Liberal women, the Nonconform- ity missing from earlier accounts, the franchise had been extended ist Unionist Association, capitalis- which establishes how problematic so widely among the labouring a range of ing on Protestant fears, and a Rural was the creation of a new party/ classes, who more readily made Labourer’s League reflecting Coll- parties comprising the very dif- a link between their work-place previously ings’ and Chamberlain’s efforts to ferent outlooks of the Hartingto- oppression and that of the Irish. appeal to this component of the nian and Chamberlainite MPs. For Where there was a significant neglected newly enfranchised. The regional general readers, however, it would difference was in the Lords, where basis of the party very much rep- have helped if Dr Cawood had defections were disproportionately sources and resented an early exemplar of the given some more background both at a much higher level than in the ALDC motto: ‘where we work to the home rule dispute and to the Commons. A separate analysis of its provided we win’. Chamberlain’s team were dissident Liberals. The 1880–85 impact would have been valuable . nearly invincible in the Birming- government had not been a happy a range of ham area. Parts of the west of Scot- ship and for many that experience land and the West Country were influenced their choices in 1886. A hard truth novel illus- areas of real strength, which Wales Dr Cawood sets the operation of and the east of Scotland never the pact between the LUs and the trations became. Elsewhere efforts were dis- Character, consistency and Conservatives against the back- tinctly patchy and Dr Cawood sug- manliness ground of his detailed work on which do gests that the electoral efforts of LU It has been long accepted that the individual constituencies. To do so, leaders were intermittent, energetic dissident Liberals MPs did not dif- the book spends surprisingly little much to when roused by bad by-elections fer significantly from their more time on the efforts to reunite the enliven his or the onset of general elections but orthodox brethren in class or occu- various wings of Liberalism. The otherwise often lethargic. pation. What Dr Cawood estab- alliance gave the Conservatives text. The final section deals with the lishes is that there was also little government between 1886 and 1892 merger of the Liberal Unionists difference in policies embraced, and again in the 1895 coalition. The with the Conservatives and is subti- apart from the differences over Ire- alliance protected LUs against the tled ‘The Strange Death of Liberal land, but that this apparently small consequences of their home rule Unionism’ in a conscious echo of variation masked critical differ- vote and gave their leaders places in Dangerfield’s well-known polemic ences in character and outlook. government, but at a heavy price. on the problems of Edwardian Lib- While all Liberals had a particu- The need to avoid upsetting Con- eralism. But here surely there is lar reverence for the rule of law, the servative sensibilities prevented less to explain. The leaders of the

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 47 reviews

Liberal Unionist Party were more that individuals made to their party Richard A. Gaunt’s interest- involved in running government no matter how irrational their aspi- ing new work Sir Robert Peel: The than developing their party after rations had become. Life and Legacy is not such a book. 1895. Chamberlain’s explosive radi- The legacy of Liberal Union- Gaunt discusses the various facets cal ideas could hurt his friends as ism was not limited to the subtle of Peel’s political career and tries much as his enemies, as he dem- changes in Conservatism manifest to address the question of Peel’s onstrated between 1903 and 1906. right up till the Second World War, principles and convictions. How- The party had failed to establish if not beyond, but was also evident ever, he finally shrinks from being itself outside its original enclaves in the pioneering campaigning explicit about them. He finds virtue and, once it had rejected the idea of methods the new party employed in in the different interpretations and reunion with the Gladstonians, it its struggle to survive. Dr Cawood does not let the reader know where became progressively more prob- hints at the scope for more work he stands personally. In fact, his lematic to envisage escaping the that can, and I hope, will be done to book is neither an extended biog- not always friendly Tory embrace. explore this. His book is much to be raphy nor at least an exploration of Cawood suggests that the pro- welcomed and from now on those Peel’s political thought, but, rather, longed engagement from the for- interested in the period will need to an informative account of the mul- mation of the 1895 government to engage with his findings. tifarious ideas that contemporar- the consummation of the merger in ies and historians had about Peel. 1912 is a tribute to the residual inde- Tony Little is Chair of the Liberal Dem- Gaunt rarely quotes Peel himself. pendence of the regional LU par- ocrat History Group. Where he recounts what Peel actu- ties and the emotional commitment ally did, he does not assess him, but prefers to point to all those who talked or wrote about him from the beginning of his political career on. Though this produces a fascinat- ing picture of the evolving images Views of Peel of one of Britain’s most eminent nineteenth-century politicians, it is Richard A. Gaunt: Sir Robert Peel: The Life and Legacy (I. B. not the best way to understand this Tauris, 2010) politician’s genuine intentions and ideas. This approach is not suited to Reviewed by Dr Matthias Oppermann offer, as Gaunt announces to do, ‘a reinterpretation of Peel’s attitudes to what he was doing in key areas t is no longer possible to deny career so well established after his of activity which have subsequently it: Sir Robert Peel was one death. He claimed Peel for the Con- formed the nucleus of his political Iof the most successful British servative Party, a view that Nor- prime ministers of the nineteenth man Gash affirmed and widened century. He was the author of a decades later in his outstanding couple of liberal reforms, for exam- two-volume Peel biography. Gash, ple the currency reform of 1819 who himself favoured a prudent, and the Metropolitan Police Act of pragmatic, and non-ideological 1829. Moreover, he advocated, in conservatism promoted Peel to the 1829 – after having opposed it for rank of ‘founder of modern Con- a long time – Catholic emancipa- servatism’. This new or ‘revision- tion, and repealed the Corn Laws in ist’ judgement resonates in Douglas 1846. No prime minister produced Hurd’s Peel biography of 2007, but a legislative record as comprehen- it is far from being unanimously sive as Peel’s. However, for a long accepted. Cambridge historian time Disraeli and Gladstone have Boyd Hilton, for example, has chal- clouded Peel’s image in history. lenged it several times since the Conservatives wanted Disraeli to 1970s. He understands Peel as the be the greatest nineteenth-century contrary of a flexible and pragmatic prime minister; Liberals prefered politician. For him Peel was a dog- to reserve this honorific for Glad- matic liberal who shared George stone. Peel, the founder of the Canning’s assumed evangelical- Conservative Party who eventu- ism that drove him to embrace free ally wrecked it by the repeal of the trade and economic liberalism for Corn Laws, pleased neither side. ideological reasons. Unnecessary to At best, he was seen as Gladstone’s say that Gash condemned this view teacher, as the forerunner of Glad- lock, stock and barrel, and that the stonian Liberalism. debate as to whether Peel was a con- The first historian to change servative or a liberal continues to that picture was George Kitson this day. As a consequence, a book Clark who challenged, in the 1920s, that seeks an answer to this ques- the Gladstonian reading of Peel’s tion would be timely.

48 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 reviews legacy.’ Attacking the question ‘He was the he gives the impression that all manner: ‘He was the father of mod- whether Peel’s reforms as Home attempts to classify Peel within a ern Conservatism and of modern Secretary, especially the establish- father of longer tradition are in vain: ‘To Liberalism. He was too great for ment of the Metropolitan Police, designate him a false “Tory”, a ren- one party.’ Peel was a kind of con- were signs of his liberalism and modern Con- egade “Conservative”, a “Liberal servative liberal or, to be more humanitarianism, Gaunt for exam- Tory”, a “Liberal Conservative” or exact, a liberal with a conserva- ple discusses the interpretations of servatism a proto-Gladstonian Liberal, is to tive disposition in the Oakeshot- several historians and concludes play, semantically, with the career tian sense. And though he founded that none of them is completely and of mod- of a shrewd, ambitious and complex a party as an instrument for his compelling. Yet he does not take political operator and try and give ambition, he never was a confirmed up a position of his own. If Hilton ern Liberal- it helpful characterisation within a party man. is wrong in assuming Peel to have ism. He was sometimes limited political vocab- been motivated by an evangelical ulary.’ Nevertheless, more than Dr Matthias Oppermann is a lecturer belief in the natural harmony of too great for one hundred years ago, the writer in modern history at the University of every political order, what then was and Liberal MP Herbert Woodfield Potsdam. He is the author of a book Peel’s motivation? Gaunt does not one party.’ Paul showed in Men and Letters that about the political thought of the French say. Indeed, there is no ‘reinterpre- it is indeed possible to characterise liberal philosopher and sociologist Ray- tation’ in this book, and the reader Peel was a Peel in a balanced but significant mond Aron. must wonder why the author did not make a stab at a close reading kind of con- of Peel’s speeches and letters as the only way to understand his ‘atti- servative lib- tudes to what he was doing’. Gaunt thus missed a good eral or, to be Son of the Grand Old Man chance to draw a little bit nearer to the thought of this important more exact, a Ros Aitken, The Prime Minister’s Son: Stephen Gladstone, but somehow enigmatic politician. Rector of Hawarden (University of Chester Press, 2012) A close reading of Peel’s writings liberal with a could have led him to underline Reviewed by Ian Cawood even further that all existing inter- conservative pretations are flawed in one way or another. On the one hand, Nor- disposition. he sons of prime ministers the family man, in her biography man Gash was right to criticise are almost fated to endure of Stephen Gladstone, the G.O.M.’s Hilton for ascribing ideas to Peel Tlives of disappointment second and eldest surviving son. that were essentially his own and and relative failure. David Lloyd Ros Aitken is a model of the not Peel’s: this non-ideological George’s son, Gwilym, went on highly experienced history teacher statesman, who used the word pru- to be the most forgettable Home who has never let the renowned dence in his letters nearly as often Secretary of the post-war years, snobbery of British academics dis- as Edmund Burke had, was not a while Winston Churchill’s shadow suade her from engaging with seri- dogmatic economic liberal driven managed to eclipse the careers of ous archival research. Not for her, by evangelicalism. On the other both his son and grandson. Of all arcane and jargon-ridden musings hand, where Hilton overstretches eminent Liberal families, only the on such sophistry as the ‘other- the role of ideas, Gash has too little step-brothers Austen and Nev- ness’ of Stephen’s familial identity; use for them. That Peel was marked ille Chamberlain exceeded their instead she painstaking describes by moderation and prudence does father, Joseph, in the seniority of all of Stephen’s long life in a well- not necessarily mean that he was their appointments, but even their researched and nuanced picture of merely a Conservative in the party careers ended in ignominy, with aristocratic life of the nineteenth sense. It is difficult to assess Peel Austen one of the few Conserva- century. Superb pen-portraits of in terms of this party label. Look- tive leaders never to become prime the academic failings of the public ing at Peel with continental eyes, minister and Neville one of the school system, the residual popu- I daresay that he was the quintes- few who ought never to have been lar anti-popery that blighted the sential model of the fusion of lib- allowed to do so. William Glad- careers of high churchmen such as eralism and conservatism that the stone, at first glance, seems a rela- Stephen and the sacrosanct impor- French and Germans think to be tively benign political parent in tance of letter writing, create a typical of nineteenth-century Brit- comparison, as his youngest son, micro-study of upper-class Vic- ain. For a better understanding of Herbert, was apprenticed as pri- torian attitudes, behaviours and Peel and his actions, therefore, we vate secretary to his father before preoccupations. should resort instead to the history going on to be a highly influential Stephen emerges as a rather of ideas in a broad sense rather than chief whip, a moderately successful tragic character, full of doubt as to to party history. Like Canning, Home Secretary and the first gov- his role as a domestic clergyman, Peel was a nineteenth-century suc- ernor general of the new Union of constantly pushed into preferments cessor to the ‘Old Whig’ tradition, South Africa. An enthusiastic sup- beyond his capabilities, largely as a politician in the wake of Burke porter of the superb Gladstone’s his father had always wanted to and Robert Walpole. Library in Hawarden, Ros Aitken, take holy orders and, like so many But this is a perspective Gaunt has, however, revealed a much less frustrated parents, he vicariously is not interested in. By the end, complimentary side to Gladstone, overcame his disappointments

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 49 reviews

from this comparatively minor Ultimately, this is a very well- question. By contrast, there is far written and insightful portrait of too little analysis of Stephen’s reac- a minor figure in the orbit of one tion to William’s famously ambigu- of the most remarkable men of the ous and posthumous confession to Victorian age. Stephen emerges as Stephen that he had never ‘been something of an irritating mille- guilty of the act which is known as quetoast, nagging at his father, yet that of infidelity to the marriage unable to act independently, and his bed.’ Nor is it made clear enough treatment of his wife Annie reflects that this ‘declaration’ was only poorly on his character, idolising opened in 1900, two years after the her in his courtship, yet failing to retired statesman’s death, so that defend her against the monumen- John Morley could use it in the tal busybody that was his mother, authorised biography of Gladstone Catherine, once they were mar- (Morley wisely chose to steer clear ried. Remarkably, considering the of the whole matter). unabated flow of scholarship on the Perhaps the text also hurries to four-time prime minister, Aitken’s a finish somewhat, with the last ten biography provides Liberal scholars years of Stephen’s life condensed with a completely original perspec- into a mere fifteen pages. In this tive on Gladstone; one which, in way, Aitken perhaps unwittingly this reviewer’s eyes at least, seems confirms that his importancehad substantially to confirm Clem- lessened once his father had died. ent Attlee’s judgement of William However, as these years included Gladstone as a ‘frightful old prig’, the First World War in which Ste- but which ameliorates it by reveal- phen’s second son, Charlie, was held ing that Gladstone had, after all, in a German P.O.W. camp for three spent his life in the company of and a half years, and his youngest prigs. son, Willie, was killed in the Brit- through his children. Gladstone ish army’s successful advance in Ian Cawood is head of history at New- seems to have wanted to control autumn 1918, it is a pity that more man University, Birmingham and is his children and keep them close to time and reflection could not have a member of the editorial board of the him, a trait that seemed to inten- been spent in reviewing the impact Journal of Liberal History. His latest sify, once he himself lost control of of the global cataclysm on those book is The Liberal Unionist Party his own party in 1886. That event hitherto protected from the harsh- 1886–1912: A History (I.B. Tauris, was largely caused by his appall- ness of everyday life such as Ste- 2012). ing mishandling of his Liberal col- phen Gladstone. leagues and he seems to have taken the feelings of his own family for granted, in much the same way. One has to admire his daughter, Helen, who escaped to Cambridge to become vice-principal of Newn- Art at the National Liberal Club ham College for nineteen years and who was only dragged back to Michael Meadowcroft, A Guide to the Works of Art of the Hawarden to nurse her ageing par- National Liberal Club, London (National Liberal Club, 2012) ents after William’s retirement. Inevitably, given the author’s Reviewed by Eugenio F. Biagini scrupulous concern for the use of primary sources to support all her assertions, there are frustrations. he art collection at the including works by leading Brit- The question of Stephen’s eyesight National Liberal Club ish and Irish artists such as Jack B. (he was blind in one eye and suf- T(NLC) is a great source of Yeats and William Orpen. Given fered restricted vision in the other) pride for its members and a delight the ‘pro-Europe’ tradition of the is given much attention in the for the visitor. This Guide is a gift to party, it is not inappropriate that first chapter, but seems to vanish both, and indeed to anyone inter- for over thirty years the person in once Stephen goes up to Oxford. ested in the history of British Lib- charge of new acquisitions and the Some minor issues, such as Ste- eralism. It is lavishly illustrated and conservation of the existing works phen’s thwarted plan to move away well supported by detailed descrip- was a Dutch citizen, J. E. A. Rey- from his father’s ambit in 1893, are tions of the works displayed, with neke van Stuwe (1876–1962), who explored in rather laborious detail short biographies of the subjects joined the Club in 1908. The author with precious little contextualising, and of the artists who portrayed of this book, Michael Meadow- as the defeat of Gladstone’s second them. croft, a former adviser to emerg- Home Rule Bill in the same year Since its foundation in 1882, the ing democracies as well as a Liberal must surely have been responsible Club acquired a substantial number MP for Leeds West, is himself an for distracting the prime minister of busts, monuments and paintings, example of such an internationalist

50 Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 reviews tradition of liberalism. Yet revolutionary hero John constitution (like Hampden). as the watchdog of the people’s the collection is surprisingly Hampden, the eighteenth- The most successful power rights, a force that contributes and exclusively ‘British’: you century Whig leader Charles politicians commemorated in to the governance of the coun- don’t find here any of the many J. Fox, the Victorian Quaker the collection – Gladstone and try by being critical, independ- champions of liberty Brit- John Bright, and, again, Glad- Lloyd George – were them- ent and rooted in the ideals of ish Liberals admired – such as stone, who has inspired several selves either ‘trouble-makers’ civic virtue, rather than in mar- Abraham Lincoln, Giuseppe works of varying artistic value. (in A. J. P. Taylor’s words) or ket forces, national chauvinism Garibaldi or Dadabhai Naoroji A whole room is dedicated to widely regarded as quasi-revo- or pressure-group shibboleths. (of the Indian National Con- women, first among them Lady lutionaries. There is also a bust In other words, the Club’s art gress, the first Asian MP and an Violet Bonham-Carter, in a of Sir Robert Peel: but then collection proclaims that there ardent Gladstonian). It is also portrait which does justice not he too was a trouble-maker of is more to British democracy surprising – and rather sad – only to her stunning beauty but sorts, having nearly destroyed than the obsession with power that the Club does not have a also to her indomitable political the Conservative Party to which defines the party’s more memorial to John Stuart Mill, resolve and visionary approach advance the cause of free trade, successful national competitors voted ‘the greatest Liberal’ in a to politics. ‘the food of the people’, which on either the right or the so- party-member poll a few years It is interesting to reflect was and long remained one of called left. Perhaps this should ago. on what this art collection the most important items on provide food for thought for Many of the paintings are suggests about party iden- the Liberal agenda. the present-day Coalition Lib portraits of leading radicals – tity and self-representation. The message is clear: NLC Dem MPs, as they survey opin- such as William Cobbett, G. J. Even this sanctum sanctorum of members perceived Liberal- ion polls and consider the party Holyoake and Charles Brad- the Liberal establishment cel- ism as ‘conviction politics’ in mood in the run-up to the next laugh – but most of them cel- ebrates not power, but opposi- an exclusive, absorbing and general election. ebrate the party leaders, from tion to power, and its heroes uncompromising way. This W. E. Gladstone to Paddy Ash- are often men and women does not mean that they had Eugenio F. Biagini is Reader in down (there are no portraits, as who never held office or did from the start the vocation of Modern History at Cambridge and yet, of , Men- so very briefly, who opposed the ‘party of protest’ – as the a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College. zies Campbell and Nick Clegg). power with all their strength media incessantly claim about He has published extensively on the The busts and statues include (like Cobbett), or even died the Lib Dems – but that they history of Liberalism in Britain, the seventeenth-century in the attempt to overturn the defined themselves primarily Ireland and Italy.

New from the Liberal Democrat History Group The Dictionary of Liberal Quotations

‘A liberal is a man or a woman or a child who looks forward to a better day, a more tranquil night, and a bright, infinite future.’ (Leonard Bernstein) ‘I am for peace, retrenchment and reform, the watchword of the great Liberal Party thirty years ago.’ (John Bright) ‘Few organisations can debate for three days whether to stage a debate, hold a debate, have a vote and then proceed to have a debate about what they have debated. But that is why the Liberal Democrats hold a special place in the British constitution.’ (Patrick Wintour) Edited by Duncan Brack, with a foreword from . Writers, thinkers, journalists, philosophers and politicians contribute nearly 2,000 quotations, musings, provocations, jibes and diatribes. A completely revised and updated edition of the History Group’s second book (published originally in 1999), this is the essential guide to who said what about Liberals and Liberalism. Available at a special discounted rate for Journal of Liberal History subscribers: £10 instead of the normal £12.99. Copies can be purchased from the Liberal Democrat History Group stand at the Liberal Democrat autumn conference in Glasgow (see back page). Alternatively, to order by post, please send a cheque (made out to ‘Liberal Democrat History Group’) for the cover price plus postage and packing at the rate of £2 per copy. Orders should be sent to: LDHG, 54 Midmoor Road, London SW12 0EN.

Journal of Liberal History 80 Autumn 2013 51 A Liberal Democrat History Group fringe meeting survival and success the first 25 years of the

This year, 2013, marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Liberal Democrats. From near-annihilation to entry into government, the years since 1988 have been a roller-coaster ride for the party.

Discuss which factors were important in the survival and success of the Liberal Democrats, and speculate about the future, with: • Duncan Brack (Editor, Journal of Liberal History): on leadership and policy • Mark Pack (Liberal Democrats online campaign manager, 2001 and 2005): on campaigns • John Curtice (Professor of Politics, Strathclyde University): who votes for the Liberal Democrats? • Cllr Julie Smith (Vice Chair, Lib Dem Policy Commottee): on the impact of coalition • Chair: Paddy Ashdown (Chair, 2015 general election campaign)

8.00pm, Sunday 15 September 2013 Picasso 2 room, Campanile Hotel, 10 Tunnel Street, Glasgow G3 8HL (a few minutes’ walk from the conference centre, and outside the secure area – no passes necessary)

Liberal Democrat History Group at Lib Dem conference Visit the History Group’s stand in the exhibition in the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow – stand F7. There you can: • Take part in our annual Liberal history quiz. Exciting prizes to be won! • Chat to stand-holders about your interests in Liberal history. • Buy a copy of our latest book, the Dictionary of Liberal Quotations: £10 to Journal subscribers, £12.99 to everyone else. • Buy any of our other three books: Peace, Reform and Liberation: A History of Liberal Politics in Britain 1679–2011; the Dictionary of Liberal Thought; and Great Liberal Speeches. Sub- stantial discounts for Journal subscribers. • Buy any of our short booklets: Mothers of Liberty: Women who built British Liberal- ism; Liberal History: A concise history of the Liberal Party, SDP and Liberal Democrats; Liberal Leaders of the 19th Century and Liberal Leaders since 1900. Discounts for Journal subscribers. • Renew your Journal subscription – all subs are now due for renewal (unless you sub- scribe by standing order).