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REviEWS misleading. Jo was as firmly Bloch also records correctly against propping up Heath as the that Jeremy hankered after a peer- rest of us, but he was perturbed age himself. Certainly Thorpe by some of the arguments against bombarded every successive leader coalition in principle which he on the subject, but the author is a said were nonsense. It was his stern bit unfair to describe Paddy Ash- warning on that issue which col- down’s refusal to nominate him as oured my own later judgments on the party being unwilling to for- the Lib–Lab pact and indeed the give him. There was rather more to formation of the Cameron–Clegg it than that. Following his acquittal coalition. It is doubtful whether at the famous trial for conspiracy Jeremy was ever offered any spe- to murder Norman Scott (which is cific cabinet post – certainly it was well covered in this volume), the not discussed. party executive was keen to pursue I question Bloch’s assertions on Jeremy for the return of £20,000, two other points. Firstly, he sug- which was part of the Hayward gests, as regards the speakership election donation which had been issue in the summer of 1965, that used in his attempts to suppress Jo Grimond may have fancied the Scott. I was appalled at this sugges- position himself at some time in the tion and argued that we had suf- future. I have never thought that fered quite enough bad publicity. was the case: the truth is that the The party president and the chair- matter was badly handled because man agreed the matter should be the MP for Cardigan, Roddy dropped on the clear understand- Bowen, did not come clean and say ing that Jeremy would play no fur- he would accept the deputy speaker- ther part in the party’s hierarchy: in ship. Had we known that, we might other words, no peerage. I and each as well have supported him for of my successors stuck to that. Speaker. Secondly, he claims that On the matter of Norman Scott, Jeremy offered Ludovic Kennedy a the author tells me that he never in that but I recall John Pardoe com- peerage in 1967 and that thereafter spoke to him in view of the many menting that, whilst Jeremy was Kennedy defected to the SNP. Both differing accounts he has given of endlessly briefing about the tour and are wrong. Ludo was a constituent his relationship with Jeremy. Bloch the wellingtons they should bring, of mine at the time; he never joined has however spoken to others of there was no mention of what they the SNP – merely supported their Jeremy’s liaisons leaving all of us were actually going to say, though winning candidate in the Hamilton who thought we knew him well John admired his impromptu by-election. Some years later I tried astonished at his recklessness. The speeches on the nation’s beaches. to persuade him to stand in West book – which is a rattling good read And that tended to characterise his Edinburgh with the promise that if – is indeed also an intriguing and whole approach to politics – it was a he failed to win I would nominate valuable study of the extraordinary series of fascinating dramas. him for the Lords. He declined, but high-wire behaviour of a public fig- One of those was the aftermath never suggested he had been offered ure; none of which should allow us of the February 1974 general elec- a peerage before. Of course when I to forget his charismatic leadership. tion. Jeremy without consulting became leader there was a queue of anybody dashed to London to meet people who thought they had been David Steel was a Liberal/Liberal the prime minister, who had just promised peerages by Jeremy, and Democrat Member of Parliament from lost the election. The first I (as chief some undoubtedly had been – that 1965 to 1997 and Leader of the Liberal whip) knew of this was a report on was part of his style. Party, 1976–88. the Saturday lunchtime car radio news whilst I was touring my con- stituency branches to thank them. Bloch says I drove to London – no I flew and got there by evening, Pioneering study of Welsh Liberals talked with Jeremy and in fact drove him to the back entrance of Russell Deacon, The Welsh Liberals: the History of the Liberal Number 10 on Sunday evening for a second meeting after our Sunday and Liberal Democratic Parties in Wales (Welsh Academic lunchtime meeting with Jo Gri- Press, 2014) mond and Frank Byers (leader in the Lords). We all raised objections Review by Dr J. Graham Jones but agreed he should probe Ted Heath further on electoral reform. his fine volume is the lat- run by Ashley Drake, ever since At the Monday meeting of the par- est in a spate of authori- 1994. For the first time ever, we liamentary party Bloch describes Ttative works regularly have a comprehensive, substantial Jo Grimond as ‘speaking in favour produced by the enterprising, Car- study of the Liberal Party (later of a coalition’. That is potentially diff-based Welsh Academic Press, the Liberal Democrats) in Wales Journal of Liberal History 90 Spring 2016 35 REviEWS from the ground-breaking ‘crack- source materials – with the nota- the Carnarvon Boroughs in April ing of the ice’ general elections of ble exception of the extensive 1890. Due attention is devoted, too, 1859 and 1868 right through until records of the Welsh Liberal Party to a trenchant analysis of the key the fourth elections to the National set up, primarily by Emlyn Hoo- political themes of this period – the Assembly for Wales held in 2011. son, back in 1967. It is a shame that campaign for the disestablishment The author, Professor Russell much more extensive use was not and disendowment of the Welsh Deacon, an established academic made of the records of local and church, educational reforms, the teacher, has published widely on constituency Liberal associations land question, temperance, and an Welsh political and administrative in Wales (of which many exist) and element of administrative devolu- history in the twentieth century, the rich personal archives of politi- tion for Wales. is an expert on devolution, and is cians like Lloyd George, his politi- As Deacon clearly demonstrates, the author of the important, pio- cian children Gwilym and Megan, Liberal dominance of Welsh politi- neering volume The Governance of T. E. Ellis, D. A. Thomas, Clement cal life was nigh on monolithic by Wales: the Welsh Office and the Policy Davies, Roderic Bowen, Emlyn the time of the general election of Process, 1966–1999 (Welsh Academic Hooson and Alex Carlile. Their January 1906 when only one divi- Press, 2002). use would have enriched consider- sion in the whole of the principal- Russell Deacon has spent close ably the quality and depth of the ity – the second Merthyr Tydfil seat to a full decade immersed in this author’s analysis. captured by Keir Hardie for the major scholarly enterprise. He has The text is divided into eight Labour Representation Commit- certainly mastered the extensive discrete chapters. These are con- tee – was held by a non-Liberal MP. scholarly literature in the field. siderably fuller and more informa- There was not a single Conserva- He has also displayed considerable tive from 1945 onwards, a period tive MP in all of Wales, a result later initiative and tenacity by hold- in which, it is clear, the author feels repeated in the general election of ing some fifty personal interviews much more comfortable and in con- 1997. This overwhelming domi- with the party’s most prominent trol. (For the years up to 1922, we nance was also exercised over local leading lights in Wales, its local have, however, the still authorita- government in Wales. Of consid- activists and many of its organis- tive, major work by Kenneth O. erable interest, too, is the coverage ers over the last sixty years. The Morgan, Wales in British Politics, given to Welsh Liberal women dur- work is also much strengthened 1868–1922, first published in 1963, ing this period, among them Mar- by the author’s personal interest and now in its fourth edition [1991].) garet Haig Thomas (the daughter of and active involvement in Welsh A major asset of the present work is D. A. Thomas MP, and his successor Liberal politics over many years, a that the text is divided throughout as Lady Rhondda in 1918) and Wini- commitment which has informed into short, digestible sections, eas- fred Combe Tennant, a Neath-based and supported his scholarly work. ily read and appreciated by different party stalwart and one of many Lib- Somewhat disappointing, how- categories of readers, scholarly and eral women wholly entranced by ever, is the relative lack of use in the lay alike. The study excels when the slavish devotion to Lloyd George. study of archival and documentary author analyses different elections This pattern had been wholly in Wales and their campaigns. Espe- transformed by the time of the cially gripping are the large num- general election of 1924 when no ber of lively, well-researched pen more than forty Liberal MPs were portraits of so many Liberal politi- returned in the whole of the UK, cians and local party activists which and in Wales the party had dra- appear throughout the volume. matically very quickly retreated to Their contribution and influence its rural bastions in the north and throughout the years are thus easily west. No Liberal MPs remained appreciated by the readership.

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