Notes to Chapter 1 1. I Have Used the Term 'Conservative Backbenchers
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Notes Notes to Chapter 1 1. I have used the term 'Conservative backbenchers' to describe the entire Conservative party in opposition, and those behind the Treasury bench once Churchill returned to No. 10 Downing Street in October 1951. 2. Gilbert Longden (secretary) memorandum to Charles Mott-Radclyffe, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Foreign Affairs Commit tee minutes, undated. 1.56. The Conservative Party Archives at the Bodleian Library, Oxford. 3. Lord Thorneycroft interview with author. 4. Sir Cranley Onslow MP, chairman of the 1922 Committee 1984-92, interview with author. 5. For an excellent discussion of the role of the Whips, see Philip Norton: Conservative Dissidents: Dissent within the Parliamentary Conservative Party 1970-74 (Maurice Temple Smith, London 1978), pp. 163-175. 6. The Whips' contact with backbenchers was three-fold: through the area whip, backbench committee whip and personal acquaintance. 7. The Chief Whip's Office. 8. Michael Dobbs: To Play The King (HarperCollins, London 1992). 9. Francis Pym, Chief Whip in Edward Heath's government (1970-74), quoted in Norton: Conservative Dissidents, p. 163. 10. See Donald Watt: Personalities and Policies: Studies in the Formulation of British Foreign Policy in the Twentieth Century (Longmans, London 1965), pp. 1-15. Personal affection for a fellow member, no matter how ex traordinary his professed views, was very often accompanied by a greater tolerance for an aberrant opinion; conversely, deep-seated dislike would encourage dismissal of an argument: Sir Reginald Bennett interview with author. 11. For detailed discussion of the political elite, see Michael Charlton: The Price of Victory BBC (London 1983). 12. I have used this term to describe those Conservative MPs who favoured a more positive response to continental ideas of West European inte gration. This was not a contemporary term. 13. For important literature on the role of the Tory backbench MP, see Robert Jackson: Rebels and Whips (Macmillan, London 1968); Hugh Berrington: Backbench Influence in the House of Commons 1945-55 (Per- gamon, Oxford 1973); S.E. Finer, H. Berrington and D. Bartholomew: Backbench Opinion in the House of Commons 1955-59 (Pergamon, Oxford 1961); Leon Epstein: British Politics in the Suez Crisis (Pall Mall Press, London 1964); see also Richard Leonard and Valentine Herman: Tlie Backbencher and Parliament (Macmillan, London 1972); Philip Norton: Dissension in the House of Commons 1945-74 (Macmillan, London 1975); Ronald Butt: The Power of Parliament (Constable, London 1967). 14. 213 MPs. In 1935, 429 Conservative MPs were elected. 236 Notes 237 15. Conservative Chief Whip 1944-48. 16. Conservative Chief Whip 1948-55. 17. The elevation of Edward Heath to the Whip's Office signalled a marked change, although at the time his friends all thought he had commit ted political suicide: Lord Carr interview with author. 18. John Baldock interview with author. 19. This persisted until the mid-1950s. See, for example, Hansard volume 548 (1956-7). 20. Sir Bernard Braine interview with author. 21. The Conservative 'Brigadier Group' was a creation of the press, in spired by the election in 1945 of a considerable number of former serving officers, of whom great things were expected. They included Otho Prior-Palmer, John Selwyn Lloyd, 'Toby' Low, Frank Medlicott, and after 1950, Enoch Powell. Their political views ranged widely, as did their preparedness to toe the party line. 22. For example, Ralph Rayner and Robert Boothby. 23. Paul Williams interview with author. 24. Sir Robert Cary interview with Anthony Seldon. 25. Lord Watkinson interview with author. 26. Lord Watkinson. 27. Morrison and Vere Harvey were not strictly 'knights of the shires' since they were ennobled as the Lords Margadale and Harvey respec tively: Sir Cranley Onslow interview with author. 28. See Division on Suez Base Agreement, 29.7.54, Hansard Official Report. Fifth Series. Parliamentary Debates. Commons Volume 431 columns 820- 822. 29. See Asa Briggs: A History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom: volume 4 Sound and Vision (Oxford University Press 1979) pp. 605-12. 30. For example, Reginald Bevins: The Greasy Pole (Hodder Be Stoughton, London 1965), p. 21. 31. £1200 per annum in 1950. 32. Sir John Astor interview with author. 33. Christopher Hollis: Seven Ages: Their Exits and Their Entrances (Heine- mann, London 1974), p. 174. 34. Wilfred Sendall interview with author. 35. Sir John Astor interview with author. 36. John Baldock interview with author. 37. 'Ministers were very much more remote, more "godlike". One might see them in the Smoking Room' (Lord Watkinson interview with author), but given the general pattern of parliamentary attendance, this was the exception rather than the rule. 38. Sir Charles Mott-Radclyffe interview with author. 39. Lord Watkinson interview with author. 40. In the early 1950s Tories were incensed to discover that discussion within the 1922 and the Foreign Affairs Committees was being leaked to The Daily Express and the Opposition; they became so concerned that the committee rooms were searched for bugs. Sir Kenneth Thompson interview with Anthony Seldon. 41. Nigel Nicolson interview with author. 238 Notes 42. Lord Glendevon (then Lord John Hope) served on the 1922 executive between 1951-53: 'We used to see Winston every month or two. We did not mince our words, so much so that once he said, "Now, if you will forgive me, I will go and see my other Cabinet".' Lord Glendevon interview with author. Also see Thomas Iremonger letter, The Times 29.5.55; also Stanley Prescott letter, The Times 2.6.55. 43. Sir John Arbuthnot interview with Anthony Seldon. 44. Lord Glendevon interview with author. 45. The importance of the 1922 was the status conferred upon its officers and to a lesser extent the Committee's executive members. Most 1922 meetings were unimportant but this changed dramatically in time of crisis; more usually, trouble surfaced in backbench committees. 46. Mrs Goddard's table in the Members' Dining Room was a particular favourite. (Mrs Goddard was a portly waitress renowned for looking after senior backbenchers). Sir Peter Smithers letter to author. 47. See Richard Cockett: Thinking the Unthinkable: Think-tanks and the Economic Counter-Revolution 1931-1983 (London 1995), pp. 68, 72-73; W.H. Greenleaf: The British Political Tradition Volume II: The Ideological Heritage (Metheun, London and New York, 1983), p. 307. 48. Hartmut Kopsch: The Approach of the Conservative Party to Social Policy during the Second World War, PhD thesis, London School of Economics, 1970; and see Cockett, p. 68. 49. Private information. 50. Private information. 51. Private information. 52. See Kopsch and Cockett. 53 Private information. 54. For example Donald McLachlan, The Daily Telegraphy 30.1.57. 55. 'Our fundamental rule was never to be seen talking willingly to a Whip, and above all the Chief Whip.' Sir Reginald Bennett interview with author. 56. Spurred by their frustration at the apparent continuation of the bank rupt policies in the 1930s, nine new young members in 1950 pub lished their coherent social philosophy in the pamphlet One Nation, which had a considerable impact on the Conservative party confer ence later that year; the founder members were Iain Macleod, Enoch Powell, Angus Maude, John Rodgers, Gilbert Longden, Cuthbert Alport, Robert Carr, Edward Heath and Richard Fort. Powell and Macleod, together with Reginald Maudling, were former members of the Con servative Research Department, the powerhouse of the revitalized Conservative party under RAB Butler in the late 1940s; however, their opinions on British foreign policy varied widely, despite their affinity on domestic policy. 57. Sir Geoffrey Cox interview with author. 58. The Times, 22.4.55. 59. Lord Healey and Sir Cranley Onslow interviews with author. 60. See Thomas Braddock letter to Ronald MacKay, 1.4.48, R.W. Mackay papers, BPLES archive, London School of Economics. 61. For definition of a tendency, see John Barnes: Ideology and Factions Notes 239 (p. 344) in Anthony Seldon and Stuart Ball eds: Conservative Century: The Conservative Party Since 1900 (Oxford University Press, 1994). 62. For definition of a faction, see Richard Rose: Parties, Factions and Ten dencies in Britain, Political Studies 21 (1964) pp. 33-46. 63. Lord Aldington interview with author. 64. Public backbench hostility towards the US and UNO in the aftermath of the Suez crisis soon receded without any change in Government policy. 65. Patrick Buchan-Hepburn to James Stuart 22.9.56, Lord Hailes papers, The Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge. 66. Wilfred Sendall interview with author. 67. The Way of the World by John Congreve. 68. Truth 15.10.54. Notes to Chapter 2 1. Sir Peter Smithers correspondence with author. 2. Lord Amery interview with author. 3. Sir Peter Smithers correspondence with author. 4. Lord Eccles interview with author. 5. The United Europe Movement (UEM - founded 1947), the European League for Economic Cooperation (ELEC - founded 1946) and the Council of Europe (founded 1949). 6. Lord Amery interview with author. 7. Sandys was out of Parliament from 1945 until February 1950, when he was returned for Streatham. He is included on the basis of his rela tionship with Churchill and his position in the European Movement. 8. See Appendix I for the list of names. 9. John Hay interview with author. 10. David Maxwell Fyfe, Peter Thorneycroft, David Eccles, Sir Peter MacDonald and Peter Roberts. William Teeling, George Ward, James Hutchison, Sir Cuthbert Headlam, Hugh Fraser, Edward Keeling, Lady Tweedsmuir and Lord Willoughby de Eresby also took a particularly active interest. 11. They strongly resisted British participation in a European customs union which did not permit the continuation of imperial preference. See Hutchison 22.1.48, HC Deb. 446.475. 12. MacDonald 22.1.48, HC Deb. 446.488. 13. See Appendix I for list of names.