The journal of the Conservative History Group | Winter 2004/2005 | £7.50 Conservative History Journal RONALD PORTER AND MARK COALTER LORD BOOTHBY’S TURBULENT LIFE AND TIMES

BENDOR GROSVENOR SHOPPING FOR THE SUEZ CANAL WITH DISRAELI

PHILIP COWLEY AND MARK STUART CONSERVATIVE BACKBENCH DISSENT UNDER THE CONSERVATIVE RESEARCH DEPARTMENT Alistair Cooke, Mark Garnett and Helen Szamuely look back at 75 years of the at the heart of Central Office

Plus: John Barnes reviews The Guardsmen Keith Simpson reviews Mark Coalter reviews The Right Nation. Contents

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

ISSN 14798026 We are Getting There 1 Helen Szamuely Advertisements To advertise in the next issue The 75th Anniversary of the Conservative Research Department 3 call Helen Szamuely on 07733 018999 Helen Szamuely

Editorial/Correspondence James Douglas 6 Contributions to the Journal – letters, articles and Mark Garnett book reviews are invited. The Journal is a refereed publication; all articles submitted will be reviewed The Conservative Research Department 1929–2004 9 and publication is not guaranteed. Contributions Alistair Cooke should be emailed or posted to the addresses below. All articles remain copyright © their authors Rum, Buggery and The Lash: 13 The Truth About My Hero Lord Boothby Subscriptions/Membership Ronald Porter An annual subscription to the Conservative History Group costs £15. Copies of the Journal are included Robert Boothby: Icon of an Extant Era 15 in the membership fee. Mark Coalter

The Conservative History Group Shopping for the Canal 19 Chairman: Keith Simpson MP Bendor Grosvenor Deputy Chairman: Professor John Charmley Director: Treasurer: John Strafford Book Reviews Secretary: Martin Ball The Guardsmen by Simon Bell 21 Membership Secretary: Peter Just reviewed by John Barnes Journal Editors: John Barnes & Helen Szamuely Chief Whip by 22 Committee: reviewed by Keith Simpson Christina Dykes Lord Norton of Louth The Right Nation by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge 23 Lord Brooke reviewed by Mark Coalter Jonathan Collett Simon Gordon Mark Garnett Conservative Backbench Dissent Under 25 Ian Pendlington Iain Duncan Smith MP Philip Cowley and Mark Stuart MP William Dorman Graham Smith Jeremy Savage Lord Henley William McDougall Tricia Gurnett

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

oing better but must try harder still. How This issue centres on the 75th anniversary of that one misses those old comments by teach- excellent and somewhat eccentric institution, the ers who managed to convey a whole Conservative Research Department. Its work is plethora of opinions and attitudes in just described by Alistair Cooke who was Deputy Director Done or two sentences. No nonsense about for some years and editor of its publications, a post to half a page of woolly commentary to be discussed which he has now returned. We also publish a with the pupil, who must write a reciprocal page. poignant article by Mark Garnett, based on the last So we are getting there but still a little late. We are interview with James Douglas, one of the “back- going to do better in 2005 and shall produce the two room” boys of the Conservative Party. issues on time - one in the spring and one in time for Still on the twentieth century and still on colourful Helen Szamuely is the new the party conference, which will probably be after a Conservatives, we have two articles on Bob Boothby, co-editor of the Conservative general election. Lord Boothby. The subject is tackled by Ronald History Journal. Email her on [email protected]. The most useful thing about being a Conservative Porter, who knew him and Mark Coalter who writes History Journal is that we do not have to make any as an historian. comments or predictions about the forthcoming elec- Iain Duncan Smith has not been considered a par- tion, beyond wishing all good luck to the previous ticularly colourful personality but his brief “reign” as editor, Iain Dale, who will be fighting the North leader of the Conservative Party has raised some Norfolk seat. We are certain that Iain will make a interesting political questions and speculations that splendid MP and will be an ornament to the Philip Cowley and Mark Stuart deal with in their arti- Conservative Party in the coming years. cle. We are achieving some of our aims with the In our next issue, which will be out probably just Journal. There is, in this issue a review of a book on before the General Election (woops, I said no predic-

American by Mark Coalter. We hope to tions), we hope to go further back and tackle the sub- Below: The two most power- have more on that subject in future issues. On the ject of Conservative foreign policy in the nineteenth ful men of their time, other hand, all but one of our articles concentrate on century and to trace the several strands of conserva- Franklin D. Roosevelt and , meet for a the twentieth century. That we hope to change in the tive thinking. conversation on the future. In the meantime, happy reading. Whitehouse lawn.

Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 | 1 The Conservative History Group As the Conservative Party regroups after two general election defeats, learning from history is perhaps more vital than ever, We formed the Conservative History Group in the Autumn of 2002 to promote the discussion and debate of all aspects of Conservative history. We have organised a wide-ranging programme of speaker meetings in our first year and with the bi-annual publication of the Conservative History Journal, we hope to provide a forum for serious and indepth articles on Conservative history, biographies of leading and more obscure Conservative figures, as well as book reviews and profiles. For an annual subscription of only £15 you will receive invites to all our events as well as complimentary copies of the Conservative History Journal twice a year. We very much hope you will want to join us and become part of one of the Conservative Party’s most vibrant discussion groups.

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2| Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 hose of us who are interested in Conservative (as well as The conservative with a small “c”) politics have always Tbeen aware of the existence of the Research Department, the CRD. On the whole it has appeared rather a mysterious and mystical place, where policies were devised but, often more 75th to the point, careers were made. How many of the big names of the last cen- tury’s Conservative politics started as Anniversary of the humble (or not so humble in many cases) back-room boys under Joseph Ball or . And at least one big name in the last century’s Labour politics: Frank Pakenham, Lord Longford. Conservative The real history of this institution is still to be written, though, as it is still fully functioning and, indeed, accord- ing to Alistair Cooke, himself an Research important part of that history, reassert- ing its position, that may not be all that easy. Where would one draw the line? Well, the 75th anniversary is a good time to look back and assess. A very Department small taster of that history was a col- lection of documents, edited by Alistair Cooke and published by the Department, in the summer. It is an absolute joy to read. For one thing, the collection, necessarily selec- tive though it is, knocks on the head (yet again - how many times do we In June the CRD celebrated the fact have to do it?) the notion that the Conservative Party is the stupid party. that it had survived the many Discussions of policy, of ideas for a Conservative education centre (this one vicissitudes of twentieth century from Frank Pakenham), of the need to counter yet adjust to the Conservative Party politics for 75 years. newly evolving world of the twentieth century, took place with great gusto. Helen Szamuely, the coeditor Pakenham’s paper on the need to counter the propaganda through educa- of the Journal looks at the collection tion that was carried out by the WEA, the need to develop intellectual under- of documents produced standing in people who supported the party emotionally and the absolute in celebration. necessity to develop and build on the sizeable working class vote would be of enormous value even today. One of the many problems the modern Conservative Party faces is its lack of educational (some might say indoctri- national) institutions. One thinks long- ingly back to the days of the Swinton

Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 | 3 The 75th Aniversary of the Conservative Research Department

College. Training on how to deal with this country but at the time only a few The first, research, with a view to the media is not quite the same thing. brave souls spoke up against it. One of future policy planning. There is a fascinating extract from the best things one can say about the The second, the provision of secre- the then Director of the CRD, David CRD that many of these were its own tarial help to the Party’s Clarke’s 1949 paper The Right Road denizens. Parliamentary Committees. for Britain. Even this shows the diffi- Perhaps the most interesting of the And the third, the writing of publi- culties the party faced at a time when documents in this collection, apart cations and the provision of informa- socialist or semi-socialist ideas seemed from ’s letter, thank- tion to the Party at large.” to carry all before them, in adapting to ing Alistair Cooke for the hard back the political climate while keeping a copy of the 1987 Campaign Guide that The research side sounds daunting in separate intellectual identity. The result helped to win a third Tory victory, is the the extreme. In fact, the CRD was pro- may well have been unsatisfactory text of the speech given by Michael viding its own civil service, specifical- from a purely ideological point of view Fraser, Director of CRD, to the 1922 ly for the use of Conservative MPs: but it did lay the foundation of a raft of Committee in February 1960. Conservative policies that won three In it he outlined the activity and “On the research side, we service the elections handsomely and only barely organization of the CRD. Party’s policy committee, both stand- lost the fourth one in 1964. ing committees and ad hoc commit- Looking back, the politics of con- “The Department as it exists to-day tees. The main standing committee is sensus may not have been the best for has three broad functions: the Party’s Advisory Committee on Policy, with Mr. Butler as Chairman,

Letter from Prime Minister Neville Mr. Brooke as Deputy Chairman and Chamberlaine to Joseph Ball, 1937. myself as Secretary. This committee is fully representative of the Party both in Westminster and in the country, having five representatives of this Committee, the ‘22 Committee, two of the Unionist Peers, eight of the National Union and up to four coop- tions. It is in fact rather more repre- sentative even than that, for every effort is made to represent particular areas and groups. The committee meets regularly, and is a very valuable sounding board of Party opinion. In addition to this standing commit- tee machinery, there are normally, at least in the year of two before an Election, additional standing commit- tees set up to direct the work of pro- ducing the Manifesto. For example, from the end of 1957 up to the 1959 General Election there was a thing called the Steering Committee with the Prime Minister as Chairman and Mr. Butler as Deputy Chairman, and it had a kind of sub-committee known as the Policy Study Group. Besides the standing arrangements that are made, the Party has usually at any given moment in operation a number of ad hoc policy committees, examining specific subjects. Half the membership of these committees in normally drawn from the Party in the House of Commons and half from out- side people within specialist knowl- edge of the subject.

4| Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 The 75th Aniversary of the Conservative Research Department

As well as these arrangements there Letter from Margaret Thatcher to Alistair are, of course, policy sub-committees Cooke, 1987 set up by the Parliamentary Committees from time to time.”

The secretarial function, Fraser explained, was a parliamentary one, providing secretaries for the Party’s Parliamentary Committees in the House of Commons and for one or two in the . On top of nor- mal functions, the secretaries provided briefs for debates. Interestingly, Fraser saw this as being particularly onerous in opposition as the Socialists did keep producing a very large number of briefs. He was clearly rather proud of the fact that a Conservative govern- ment did not bother to keep up with that sort of record. One wonders what his reaction would have been to the last few years of ’s government. Then there were the publications:

“Because our products tend to come out under imprints other than our own, I don’t think that it is very widely known how many publications we have a hand in. In normal times, such as these, we produce the series ‘Notes on Current Politics’ fortnightly under the Central Office imprint. We produce the ‘Survey of Foreign Affairs’ and the ‘Survey of Commonwealth and Colonial Affairs’ monthly under the C.P.C. imprint for the Overseas In addition to this fairly wide range about political organisations, and so Bureau and the Commonwealth of regular publications, we also col- on. For example, among our records Council. We produce monthly, in con- laborate with the Publicity we have a fairly complete selection of junction with the Publicity Department at the Central Office in individual candidates’ election Department at the Central Office, the the production of leaflets, advertise- addresses for all parties going back to small publication ‘Pocket Politics’. We ments and broadcasts, both television the First World War.” produce the Weekend Talking Point. and sound, our contribution being pri- We contribute to Mr Christ’s ‘Weekly marily the basic material and the final Exhausting or what? The most extraor- Newsletter’. vetting. dinary part of it is that all this work was For local elections, we produce the Apart from these main activities of done by an executive staff of about 25. “Q. & A.” question and answer hand- the Department, we are also responsi- Of course, there was administrative books and the Campaign Notes. At ble for a number of ancillary services staff as well, especially the invaluable General Elections, we produce the for the provision of information. We secretaries. Still, one can stand back Campaign Guide, the “All the have a reference Library and Press and admire the work done by people Answers” handbooks, the Daily Notes Cuttings Section. We produce the who, as Alistair Cooke describes, were and, in addition, we service the Conservative Pocket Book and the easy-going and socially very adept. Questions of Policy Committee which Verbatim Report of the Party Anyone who has ever had to battle is responsible for the guidance notes Conference. We handle the Division through the serried ranks of self-impor- to the candidates on policy matters Records and electoral statistics servic- tant political advisers and researchers and the suggested answers to ques- es, hold biographical material about that throng every political institution tionnaires. political personalities, information these days can only sigh with envy.

Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 | 5 James Douglas CRD staff member 195077 (Director, 197074)

James Douglas survived the 75th anniversary of the CRD by just a few months, his death occurring in September, 2004. We are, therefore, particularly happy to publish the historian Mark Garnett’s article, based on the last interview Douglas gave.

he Conservative when he ran for the Presidency. He I can promise you is that you won’t Research Department is worked in the wartime civil service, do the same thing two days run- associated with some of and was a member of PEP - Political ning”. This promised a refreshing the best-known figures and Economic Planning - an early break from civil service routine, for T of the post-war party, British ‘think tank’ which also a congenial cause. At from , recruited . It was at a Douglas had called himself a ‘polit- and to Michael PEP meeting in 1950 that Douglas ical agnostic’, which was ‘my name Portillo and . But met David Clarke, the CRD director. for my brand of Conservatism’. He these were ‘backroom boys’ who Douglas believed that Clarke - the served as President of the University found their way to the front of the author of one of the most attractive , but he stage. In celebrating 75 years of expositions of conservative philoso- won that position in characteristic achievement, the CRD is also mark- phy in The Conservative Faith in a style. He recalled that a friend rang ing the contribution of many gifted him up one day to tell him that he people who worked for the party had been elected in his absence. He away from the limelight. Anyone who reads John Ramsden’s was not even sure whether he had Anyone who reads John “ previously joined the organisation. Ramsden’s The Making of The Making of Conservative Party In short, he identified himself with Conservative Party Policy Policy (Longman, 1980) will soon the Conservative Party, but he dis- (Longman, 1980) will soon appreci- appreciate the central role played by liked dogmatism or narrow partisan ate the central role played by James spirit. Douglas, who was CRD director James Douglas, who was CRD director PEP attracted Douglas precisely from 1970 to 1974. Ramsden writes from 1970 to 1974 because it tried to stand outside that “He was one of the sharpest ” party conflict. It reflected an intel- intellects that the Department has lectual trend in the 1930s which has ever had, with an academic and Modern Age (1947) - contributed as been well characterised as ‘middle sometimes an iconoclastic turn of much to the development of the opinion’ by the historian Paul mind”. Douglas was born in Simla, CRD as the better-known Sir Addison. Groups like PEP accepted India, in 1919 - making him 10 Michael Fraser (Director, 1951-64; the principle of state interference in years older than the organisation he Chairman, 1971-4). Clarke was the economy, not as an article of served for so long. Later his parents instrumental in reviving the faith but because it seemed to be moved to , and sent James to a Department after the war, and had necessary after the slump of the late Jesuit boarding school near put together the formidable team of 1920s and early 30s. If the state was Windsor. It was a cosmopolitan Maudling, Macleod and Powell in going to take a more active role, it upbringing which fostered an open- what was then the separate should do so on the basis of accurate minded approach to politics and to Parliamentary Secretariat. statistical research. PEP set itself to life in general. In 1950 Clarke was on the look- supply this information, as an inde- At Oxford Douglas was active in out for fresh talent. Douglas remem- pendent supplement to the official the Union, although he was beaten bered his sales pitch: “The one thing civil service. It also engaged in what

6| Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 James Douglas

James Douglas in his prime

the Blair Government would call Noone was in a better position than Cambridge Club. No-one was in a ‘blue skies’ thinking, although its “ better position than Douglas to predictions of future policy require- Douglas to explain the overall purpose explain the overall purpose of ments were based on something of Conservative Party policy, and his Conservative Party policy, and his more than scribbles on the back of efforts ensured that the civil service an envelope. efforts ensured that the civil service was well briefed when Labour unex- The idea that sound political deci- was well briefed when Labour pectedly lost the 1970 General sions depended on expert advice was unexpectedly lost the 1970 General Election. Douglas was at the centre also a guiding principle of the CRD. of planning for that election, and Douglas became head of the Election had to skim through all the morning Department’s Economic Section in ” papers on his journey to Central the 1950s, and helped to introduce ject, preserved in the CRD archive at Office, in a taxi sent by the party to his parliamentary bosses to the dis- the Bodleian Library, would provide his Highgate home. In those days mal ‘science’ of psephology. But it an invaluable and entertaining hand- substance was regarded as more was not his style to regurgitate raw book for anyone engaged in a similar important than spin, and the CRD data without lively and incisive com- exercise. could veto any election advertise- ment. He was never afraid to offer Although the policy review was ment which gave unnecessary advice, even when the gist of his often chaotic, the late 1960s were hostages to fortune. When Douglas’s message was unwelcome. As probably the most fulfilling years of friend, the late Geoffrey Tucker, Research Organiser he was responsi- Douglas’s career at the CRD. In the gave a private showing of a publici- ble for overseeing the ambitious pol- run-up to the 1970 General Election ty film which ended with a shot of icy exercise of 1965-70, and often he used to lunch every Tuesday with the white cliffs of Dover, the whole expressed irritation at the lack of Sir Douglas Allen (later Lord audience burst out laughing. coordination between the various Croham), the Permanent Secretary After the Conservative victory the groups. His memoranda on the sub- to the Treasury, at the Oxford and CRD Director Brendon Sewill

Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 | 7 James Douglas joined Iain Macleod’s Treasury team circle, notably the free market ideo- angles: as a civil servant, as a mem- and his friend Douglas succeeded logues in the newly-founded Centre ber of a non-party think tank, as a him. When the Conservatives are in for Policy Studies (CPS), regarded key adviser to the Conservatives, office the CRD tends to lose influ- the CRD as semi-socialist and a and as an academic. It was hardly ence, since its role is largely taken hotbed of intrigue against the new surprising that this multi-faceted over by Whitehall. In any case this dispensation. This provides a useful exposure to politics had deepened was an unhappy time, for the CRD insight into the Thatcherite mind-set Douglas’s sceptical cast of mind. and the party as a whole. at the time, which was a mixture of But he retained his affection for the Inadvertently, Douglas contributed crusading zeal and insecurity bor- Conservative Party as an institution, to one of the most potent myths of dering on paranoia. The suspicions and his numerous friends in retire- the Heath premiership, by suggest- were certainly ill-founded so far as ment included several old CRD ing that the should Douglas was concerned. His ‘politi- hands. Unusually for a reluctant vet- get together before the election for cal agnosticism’ placed him within eran of the infighting of the 1970s, an intensive weekend of policy dis- the One Nation tradition. But he was Douglas stayed on very good terms cussion. The gathering, at Selsdon never an unquestioning supporter of with so-called ‘wets’ like Patten and Park Hotel at the end of January the post-war consensus, finding confirmed economic liberals like 1970, was actually an unsatisfactory fault both with Heath’s ‘managerial’ (another friend with exercise, which underlined the diffi- style and the subsequent resort to a CRD associations). culties of coordinating policy in statutory prices and incomes policy. Of the two greatest ‘backroom opposition. Anyone who clings to The antagonism of the leadership boys’ he was closer to Iain Macleod, the idea - promulgated by Harold provided an inauspicious context for who made more of an effort than Wilson, and still propagated by sup- a new policy review. Angus Maude Powell to keep in touch with the porters of Margaret Thatcher - that had become Chairman of the CRD CRD after he had joined the party’s Selsdon was the start of a concerted front bench. Powell, though, advised drive to destroy the post-war ‘con- As the Heath Government buckled Douglas to get himself selected in a sensus’ should consult Douglas’s “ safe seat for the 1955 election, oth- fragmentary minutes in the under the pressure from rising inflation erwise he would never get into par- Bodleian. and industrial militancy, Douglas pressed liament. Douglas did not take the As the Heath Government buck- advice, and quietly regretted that he led under the pressure from rising the case for a snap election in January never had the opportunity to study inflation and industrial militancy, 1974. His advice, seconded by several of politics from yet another angle. Douglas pressed the case for a snap Heath’s closest allies, was not taken However, while the party lost the election in January 1974. His ” chance of acquiring a gifted and advice, seconded by several of charismatic MP who could easily Heath’s closest allies, was not taken. in 1975, but there was no chance of have become a minister, it probably Douglas himself stepped down from reviving the relatively objective gained more by retaining the servic- his post shortly afterwards, though approach of PEP. Instead, the policy es of such a bold and original coun- he remained as an Associate exercise was nominally under the sellor. Director under . The control of Sir , whose Jim’s death, on 22 September 2004, defeat of February 1974, and Mrs intellectual enthusiasm was more came a few weeks after a memorable Thatcher’s election as party leader, than a match for his organisational birthday celebration in Highgate. It ushered in an even more difficult ability. Patten and Douglas were left was fitting that so many of his friends period for the CRD. Ironically, with the thankless task of co-ordi- caught their last glimpse of Jim at the Douglas himself had played a lead- nating an ever-burgeoning brood of centre of festivities. Despite Jim’s ing role in drawing up the rules for policy groups, often produced by Sir increasing deafness in his last years, the election of a leader, in 1964 Keith’s momentary whims. In 1977 he and Mary were always the most under Alec Douglas-Home and then Douglas decided that it was time to convivial of hosts. It was on a typical- ten years later, when provisions were leave, not least because his wife ly merry occasion that the present included which made the incumbent Mary, a world-famous anthropolo- writer snatched the chance to review far more vulnerable. He had wanted gist, was retiring from her Chair at Jim’s life for the purposes of this Lord Carrington to succeed Heath, the LSE. James joined the ‘brain interview; and it was equally charac- but when he and Brendon Sewill drain’ which the Thatcherites were teristic that Jim made no mention of approached the former Defence hoping to reverse, teaching political his well-deserved OBE, reflecting his Secretary, Carrington said ‘It’s a science at Yale and the University of public service as a founder-member of mug’s game - all kicks and no Illinois. the Consumers’Association as well as ha’pence!’. Douglas had now seen the politi- his years of work for the Conservative Some of those within the Thatcher cal process from four different Party.

8| Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 The Conservative Research Department 1929–2004 An overview by Alistair Cooke OBE, who was the CRD’s Deputy Director for some years and the editor of its publications. After an absence of six and a half years, he recently returned to resume the editing. This essay is based on his introduction to the collection of documents published in the summer in cele bration of the 75th anniversary.

The Unique Character of CRD where eccentricity is readily tolerat- that work of a high standard requires ‘The correct place for back-room ed. In the late 1970s the head of the detailed control from above or boys’, declared Michael Fraser, the CRD’s political section would tedious bureaucratic procedures. longest-serving Director of CRD, ‘is respond to a request for a key statis- The chief characteristics of life in in the back room’. (He intended no tic or quotation by burrowing into a CRD have always been informality disrespect to CRD’s distinguished vast mound of paper on his desk, (accentuated today by the introduc- back-room girls.) If the CRD’s vital invariably emerging triumphant. tion of ‘dress-down Friday’) and a back-room activities are not success- Visitors to CRD today will not find rather collegiate style of doing ful, the work of the Party’s leaders in serried ranks of immaculate files. things. When he was Chairman of the front rooms is unlikely to pros- Amidst some apparent confusion, CRD, Rab Butler used to call in even per. This simple political truth has the heirs of CRD’s proud, if idiosyn- the most junior members of the always been perfectly obvious in the cratic, traditions pour out the latest Department ‘for the most delightful Conservative Party during the seven- in the series of documents and chats - almost like an Oxford tutori- ty-five years of CRD’s existence. papers begun in the years after 1929: al - in which we would exchange There have, after all, been plenty of information required immediately ideas’1. His senior Parliamentary people to point it out at the highest by the leader of the party and his colleagues caught the mood and it level: those who have themselves colleagues, briefs to assist MPs with swiftly became customary to treat graduated from CRD and secured their work, proposals for the devel- members of CRD from the moment prominent positions in the front opment of policy, contributions to of their arrival (often straight from rooms. In the last and the current front-bench speeches, leaflets for university in their early twenties) in political generations they include constituency use and, by no means an easy, relaxed manner as friendly, , Chris Patten the least important, drafts for the if overworked, associates in a com- (Director of CRD from 1974-1979), next Campaign Guide, the ‘blue mon task. Such well-established ele- and Oliver Letwin. bible’ on every area of mainstream ments of CRD life add greatly to the For fifty years until 1979 the policy, which gladdens the heart of enjoyment of working in it today. Department was based in Old Queen every candidate at election time. If In one very important respect, Street, overlooking St James’s Park. anything, members of CRD today however, it has changed. CRD has Its home for the last quarter of a cen- work faster than ever before, operat- ceased to be aloof. It no longer tury has been Conservative Central ing at break-neck speed on their stands apart from other sections of Office. Throughout it has retained computers in the far from peaceful the party organisation. When its own particular habits of behav- surroundings of their open-plan Matthew Parris arrived at CRD in iour. It has always been a lively, office. 1976 ‘the department’s determina- cheerful, noisy and untidy place No-one in CRD has ever believed tion to have as little as possible to do

Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 | 9 The Conservative Research Department 19292004

with Conservative Central Office Alistair Cooke People who work in the CRD do Lord Eustace Percy, a largely forgot- was evinced not least by their OBE. former not take themselves too seriously. ten ex-Cabinet minister with intel- deputy director dogged refusal to be relocated there of the CRD. They never have done. When asked lectual pretensions. To a greater or in Smith Square, which was close recently to sum up her memories of lesser degree they all had some and where there would surely have the place, Enoch Powell’s widow - involvement, but their roles were not been space. But the Conservative who was his CRD secretary before decisive. The ‘lively little debate’ is Research Department was their marriage - replied simply ‘it won conclusively by the remaining different’2. When the decision was was such great fun’. Past and present candidate, , taken to move CRD into Central members of CRD will heartily con- who had for some years been press- Office after the 1979 election, there cur. It explains why they feel affec- ing on an unenthusiastic Baldwin the were loud lamentations among tion for their back room with its need for a permanent organisation to many of its members. Now CRD has remarkable character. carry on the good work done briefly grown entirely accustomed to work- by a short-lived policy secretariat set ing closely with the other depart- Beginnings up before the 1924 election. ments of Central Office in the com- In his history of the CRD published Documents in the Party Archives mon cause. It is hard to believe that in 1980, John Ramsden observed on the history of CRD consistently it will ever seem sensible to re- that ‘there has been a lively little refer to Chamberlain as the founder, establish it as a separate institution. debate among Conservative Party though the files for 1929 itself do In any case there is no reason why historians as to who actually “found- not provide authoritative contempo- serious policy work need be con- ed” the Conservative Research rary confirmation. David Clarke, ducted in isolation, as the advocates Department’3. He then proceeds to who joined the Department in the of independence maintained. It can dismiss briskly the claims of three mid-1930s and became its first post- take place alongside the day-to-day out of the four possible contenders: war Director, stated unambiguously work of party politics. It can - , the leader of the in a note for the Party Chairman in indeed it does - in the CRD now as Party in 1929; J. C. C. Davidson, the July 1946 that: ‘The Conservative it celebrates its 75th anniversary. incumbent Party Chairman4; and Research Department was estab-

10 | Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 The Conservative Research Department 19292004 lished after the defeat of the Party in Ball’s talent for intrigue. Ball was most notable result of the prodigious the 1929 election under the interested in Burgess and they post-war labours of the CRD. The Chairmanship of the late Neville remained on quite good terms charters formed the basis for one of Chamberlain’. Clarke’s successor, throughout the thirties’. Fortunately the most important policy docu- Michael Fraser, was no less emphat- - for the sake of CRD’s future repu- ments ever produced by the Party, ic in a speech he prepared in 1960 tation - those who dealt with The Right Road for Britain, pub- for the : ‘It was Burgess’s application decided that lished in 1949. The first draft was founded by Neville Chamberlain’, ‘he was not what they were looking written by the CRD Director, David he said. for in the Research Department’5. Clarke, who was driven almost By the end of 1929 a small group In the 1930s the little CRD team, demented by the extent of the revi- of four was at work in Old Queen known as ‘Neville Chamberlain’s sions proposed by members of the Street under the first Director of private army’, produced an impres- Shadow Cabinet, necessitating the CRD, Sir Joseph Ball, a former MI5 sive array of reports on major issues circulation of many further versions, officer who had already achieved a of policy which now adorn the early which add up to quite a pile in the formidable, if rather sinister, reputa- CRD files in the Bodleian Library. Party Archive. But that is the way tion as the Party Chairman’s right- Particular attention was given to that effective policy work often pro- hand man in Central Office (one MP proposals for the introduction of tar- ceeds. In the CRD the Party had an accused Ball of organising a break- iffs on imported goods - an issue organisation that was now large and in at his house). The little team close to Chamberlain’s heart. Time effective enough to handle the included none other than Lord was also found to contribute to his process successfully. Longford, then Frank Pakenham, speeches, establishing the practice Curiously, the famous trio - who came from a strong Tory fami- of assisting Party leaders in this way Enoch Powell, Iain Macleod and ly. (It was said rather unkindly that that all subsequent generations of Reginald Maudling - who did so his conversion to socialism was pre- CRD officers would continue. As much to embellish the reputation of cipitated by a blow on the head the decade wore on, there was an CRD in the late 1940s, worked for which he received at a meeting of increasing preoccupation with the most of the time, not in CRD itself, Mosley’s Blackshirts in 1936.) At preparation of the manifesto for the but in the separate, though associat- the 1931 election Pakenham was next general election expected in ed, Parliamentary Secretariat which given the task of assembling evi- 1940. It would have contained major provided services to MPs. From dence of the past misdeeds and plans for the extension of the social Brigadier Powell came a torrent of shortcomings of opposition Liberal services including better pensions, briefs which provided in clear and politicians - the forerunner of a gen- family allowances and health insur- authoritative terms all the informa- eral exercise on opposition parties ance. A full draft of the manifesto tion that MPs could possibly have familiar to all who have passed prepared in 1939 survives in the needed. The standard of such brief- through CRD. He also drew up a CRD records. It is a fascinating doc- ing may have dropped a little on ‘scheme of Conservative education’ ument, underlining clearly the Powell’s departure before the 1950 which won the warm approval of the Party’s firm commitment to exten- election, but its importance led to it (now) former Party Chairman, J. C. sive social reform which could well being incorporated in the regular C. Davidson. ‘The party that have defeated socialism if war had work of the CRD. secures support based on education’, not broken out postponing the elec- In all that he did Butler was con- he wrote, ‘secures at the same time tion until 1945. cerned to ensure that from detailed stable support’. Responsibility for policy work stemmed clear, uncom- political education was in 1945 Post War plicated political messages that placed in the hands of the Rab Butler began his distinguished could be used for campaigning pur- Conservative Political Centre (CPC) nineteen-year term as CRD poses. Following the completion of working in close association with Chairman immediately after the the work on the charters, for exam- CRD. 1945 election defeat (CRD having ple, he wrote to the Party Chairman, Someone with an infinitely more been in abeyance during the war). Lord Woolton, underlining the need embarrassing future than Longford He had for some time been engaged for ‘a simple but consecutive Party apparently offered himself for serv- in post-war planning and rapidly “line” on which speakers could get ice in the Conservative Party’s new assembled a CRD team - which was to work’6. He also insisted that ‘pol- back room. It seems that Guy substantially larger than the pre-war icy cannot be made in a vacuum’ but Burgess felt that a job in CRD rather group - to carry forward the work. must be influenced ‘by the currents than the Foreign Office might help The series of charters redefining of thought and feeling in the House him lay the foundations of his career policy in purely general terms, and the constituencies’7. A Research as a Soviet spy. It is said that he which began with the famous Department which combined policy ‘was attracted by what he heard of Industrial Charter of 1947, was the work for the future with day-to-day

Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 | 11 The Conservative Research Department 19292004 briefing material for the Party at the Party, the Department second half of the decade - long, but all of us were buoyed large would ensure that the right (steeped as it was in the CRD expounded , up by the excitement of the balance was struck. That, in a assumptions of the post-war and explained its dramatic and period and the sure knowledge nutshell, was the CRD’s formu- consensus with which Rab far-reaching results, with vigour that what we were doing would la for success. Butler had identified it) did not and authority in its briefings be the basis of any future suc- Butler’s structures stood the embrace with immediate enthu- and publications, both of which cess of the Conservative Party’ test of time. The CRD therefore siasm Mrs Thatcher’s powerful increased in volume and, Mrs .11 remained recognisably the same new economic agenda based Thatcher felt, in quality. The kind of place for successive robustly on free market values. detailed exercises CRD under- generations of its members who During a tense visit to CRD took in analysing the policies of worked there. The main ques- soon after her election as leader, other parties won it particular 1 Sir Peter Tapsell MP, a member of CRD in tion with which its Directors Mrs Thatcher declared ‘this is praise in 1990 and as the 1992 the mid1950s, quoted in Stephen tended to be preoccupied was what we believe’, slamming a election approached. A strong Parkinson, ‘R. A. Butler & the Conservative Research Department whether the Department was copy of Hayek down on the CRD was a feature of the 19451951’ (unpublished Cambridge dividing its time satisfactorily table. It was evident that there remaining years of University thesis, 2004) between new policy work and were a number among those lis- Conservative government. 2 Matthew Parris, Chance Witness (Viking, briefing MPs and constituencies tening to her who did not share In opposition after the 1997 2002), p.169 about existing policy. The reali- her belief. election, CRD did not regain a 3 John Ramsden, The Making of Conservative Party Policy: The ty was (and is) that opportuni- In developing her bold new serious policy role. Within Conservative Research Department since ties for fresh thinking about pol- agenda she turned for support Central Office the view steadily 1929 (Longman, 1980), p. 37 icy arise mainly, if not entirely, and intellectual underpinning to gained ground that attention 4 CRD did, however, have Davidson to when the Party is in opposition. the Centre for Policy Studies should be focused on the media thank for its financial security. He was Between 1964 and 1966 the (CPS) which she herself and rather than on the construction ‘very anxious that the Research Department should be financially inde Party undertook ‘the biggest Keith Joseph had set up in 1974 of a new programme for govern- pendent of the Central Office, and the review of its policy ever carried to think what had hitherto ment or even on briefing MPs problem was met when a prominent sup out’8 through intensive discus- seemed unthinkable. The CPS and candidates in the traditional porter of the Party gave the necessary sions co-ordinated by CRD, and did not, however, supersede detailed manner. At the 2001 finance; as a result 24 Old Queen Street there was no slackening of the CRD in the run-up to the 1979 election the famous Campaign was acquired and maintained without any call upon Central Office funds’ (Robert pace before the 1970 election. election: responsibility for poli- Guide failed to appear for the Rhodes James, Memoirs of a The Director of CRD, Brendon cy work as a whole did not pass first time in over fifty years. This Conservative: J.C.C. Davidson’s Memoirs Sewill, reported to the Party lock, stock and barrel from one approach led in 2003 to the CRD and Papers, 191037, Weidenfeld and Chairman on 4 September 1969 to the other, as some have been being formally subsumed, along Nicolson, 1969, p.725). This does not that ‘since we went into opposi- inclined to assert. Even in eco- with the Party’s Press Office, in mean that Davidson deserves most of the tion there have been over fifty nomic policy much of the a new Communications credit for the establishment of CRD, as Rhodes James goes on to claim. His major Policy Groups, and over detailed preparation for govern- Department. One of Michael papers, now in the House of Lords 2,000 papers have been circulat- ment was done in CRD. In his Howard’s first acts on becoming Record Office, contain nothing on the ed’ while noting, in relation to history of CRD John Ramsden leader was to reverse that deci- subject. the other sphere of its opera- notes that ‘the centrality of the sion and reconstitute CRD once 5 Bruce Page, David Leitch and Phillip tions, that ‘the Research Research Department to the again as a separate department Knightley, Philby (Penguin ed., 1969), p.88. Ball, however, found a use for Department also provides day- work of Opposition was much with its own distinct identity and Burgess as a courier for letters to-day briefing for the Shadow as before, in practice if not in the positions of Chairman and between Chamberlain and the French Cabinet and the Parliamentary appearance’9. Director restored. So today the Prime Minister Daladier when they Party’ and adding cheerfully Looking back on these years Research Department is once wanted to bypass the Foreign Office that ‘an academic study soon to in her memoirs, Lady Thatcher more seeking the right blend hierarchy. 6 Quoted in Ramsden, The Making of be published shows that herself made clear that she between work directed towards Conservative Party Policy, p.134 Conservative MPs consider that ‘came to have a high regard for the next manifesto which is 7 Lord Butler, The Art of the Possible they get a good service from the the work of the department, par- being carried out in the Policy (Penguin ed., 1973), p.144 Research Department while ticularly when it was fulfilling Unit that it has currently within 8 John Ramsden, The Making of Labour members are much less its role as Secretariat to the it and its wider responsibilities to Conservative Party Policy, p.253 9 Ibid, p311 happy about the help they Shadow Cabinet rather than MPs, candidates and the con- 10 Margaret Thatcher, The Path to Power receive from Transport House’. devising policy’ (plainly a sig- stituency parties that we all (HarperCollins, 1995), pp.2923 Wholehearted praise, howev- nificant qualification on her serve. Words used by Rab Butler 11 Lord Butler, The Art of the Possible, er, was not readily forthcoming part). ‘The CRD’, she contin- about the 1945-50 period apply p.144 from Margaret Thatcher when ued, ‘moved further and further equally well now: she became leader of the Party in the direction that Keith and I N.B. Quotations in the text without foot notes are all from unpublished papers in 10 in 1975, particularly in the early were taking’ . Indeed, during ‘The burden was heavy and the the Party Archives at the Bodleian days. Like so many others in the 1980s - particularly in the hours worked preposterously Library, Oxford.

12 | Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 never owned one. The real truth about Boothby is this. He was born in 1900. After Oxford, he Rum, won a seat in Aberdeen in the 1924 election. He held that seat, against all the odds, until 1958. When he held it, it was always a safe Tory seat. It has since gone Labour. He was a brilliant speaker in the House and that is why Buggery Churchill chose him as his PPS when Churchill was Chancellor of the Exchequer. Boothby certainly had a bisexual element in his make up. But that did not stop him and Harold and the Lash Macmillan’s wife, Dorothy, having an affair which resulted in a daughter. The affair lasted from the early 1930s right The truth about my hero, Lord Boothby up until Dorothy died in 1965. Boothby, to his eternal credit, was strongly anti - Munich and a great advocate of Keynesian economics in Ronald Porter the thirties. He was a junior minister in Churchill’s wartime Coalition. And then Churchill turned on him, probably because he was jealous of Boothby’s few weeks ago , the first nothing could be further from the truth. great ability at the microphone, speak- part of a drama series There were a lot of other silly and ing up for the war effort and on behalf called The Long Firm irritating factual errors in the drama. of his food ministry. Churchill sacked was shown on television. Boothby was the first ever Life Peer to him for not declaring a piddling finan- A It tried to tell the story of be created in 1958, not 1964. He was cial interest in the Commons. Boothby Lord Boothby’s involvement with never blackmailed by the Krays on then joined the RAF. After the war, tel- Ronnie Kray. It was quite good view- account of his sexual flings with lads evision came into its own and he rapid- ing. But it bore very little resemblance supplied to him by the Krays. The ONE ly became a leading television per- to the truth. photograph taken with him, his cat bur- sonality. His tv programme, Dinner Lord Boothby came over as a dod- glar boy friend and Ronnie Kray was Party, was a resounding success in the dery, wee-wee stained, semi-drunk, taken with Boothby’s full permission early sixties. At the age of ten, it was completely lacking in self confidence. and in his flat at Eaton Square. It shows my favourite viewing and one of my The truth was the absolute opposite. He all three men sitting on a sofa, smoking earliest introductions to British could always hold copious amounts of and posing, somewhat formally, over a Politics. booze. And he had superb diction, a drink. They are all fully dressed. In His connection with the Krays came fantastic gravelly voice which made Boothby’s case, he was wearing his through the Labour MP, Tom Driberg. him a complete success on television familiar waistcoat and bow tie with a Kray supplied East End boys for and in . He had a stocky carnation in his button hole. Nothing Driberg. He did so for Boothby on a build, distinguished looks and was a could be more harmless. And I have a more occasional basis. That is how great wit and raconteur of the first copy of the photograph to prove it.Yet Boothby met his boyfriend who was a order. A completely optimistic, positive The Long Firm had us believe that he cat burglar. Contrary to rumours, he and life enhancing character if ever was drugged and stripped naked to be never had beating sessions with the lad. there was one. The Long Firm made photographed lying with naked lads on In return for all this, and the occasion- him out to be a rub out, a failure and a double bed. Absolute nonsense. al cash handouts and generous hospi- someone who just wanted sex with Boothby never got involved in tality, Boothby would sometimes ask young , working class blokes. Wanda , Ronnie Kray’s mad scheme for the con- the odd question in the Lords about his charming and popular Italian wife struction of a new town in an African lengthy police questionig of the Krays. of many years, was portrayed as a country. So the trips abroad and all the And contrary to what the tv drama sug- dreadful old, stuck-up, chain smoking, long and somewhat drawn out African gests, he never took any directorships, ugly , snobbish, tweedy English adventure scenes were one hundred per in any shape or form, from the Krays. Country House Bitch of the First cent fiction, as were the English coun- The , in 1964, foolish- Order. Like the portrayal of Boothby, try house scenes. Boothby and Wanda ly tried to allege that Boothby was

Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 | 13 Bob Boothby involved in some awful sex scan- dal with the Krays and that he was actively involved in racketeering with them. None of this could be proved satisfactorily. And it never has been. Boothby won forty thou- sand pounds in an out of court set- tlement. Three years later, he mar- ried Wanda. Some in the media suggested it was ‘a lavender mar- riage ‘. It was no such thing. They had many years of happiness before Boothby died in 1986. There was no Memorial Service. But when his official biography was launched in the Crypt of the House of Commons in the early 1990s, this gave his close friends and supporters a chance to go along, help launch the book and generally celebrate his life. I attended, as did Wanda. gave a fantastic speech in honour of one of his closet and dearest friends. At that launch, the publishers gave me a copy of Boothby’s election poster for 1924. It shows a picture of the young, black haired Bob and car- ries the words ‘VOTE FOR BOOTHBY. THE FRIEND OF ALL’. It stands in my house, with pride, to this day. Boothby’s problem to historians is that no biographer has dealt properly with his involvement with the Krays. So rumours, half truths and complete lies continue to flourish. John Pearson, the biog- rapher of the Krays, told me at a luncheon party recently , that he could not print, in The Profession of Violence, the real story about Boothby’s involvement with the Krays because Boothby was then very much alive and the libel would have stopped it. And rumours have growed like Topsy ever since. Robert Rhodes James, the official biographer of Boothby, had a golden opportuni- ty to set things straight in his Bob Boothby - A Portrait. Sadly, he, too, ducked out of dealing with it in a proper way. Perhaps it is not surprising then that tv dramas get it all mixed up......

14 | Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 Robert Boothby Icon of An Extant Era

Mark Coalter, a regular contributor to the Conservative History Journal, looks at the career of one of the more colourful politicians of the twentieth century.

he political career of Bob gence and excess. Yet, this is only the Boothby spanned a stag- tip of the iceberg. Boothby’s career gering sixty-two years. may not have been laden with minis- A showman and bon terial accolades or legislative tri- T viveur rather than con- umph, but the unique nature of his sistent statesman of puritanical public service, coupled with its many virtue, it seemed that the ideological scrapes and near misses, allows the leitmotif that underpinned his public reader a snapshot of an age that has service merely consisted of the pur- long since vanished. suit of pleasure coupled with occa- As mid-twentieth century politi- sional grandstanding. He was elected cians go, Boothby’s background was to Parliament when only twenty-four, solid enough. He was born into the yet swiftly connected with the big comfortable surroundings of upper- beasts of public life, at one stage middle class in 1900, being discussed as a future Prime attending public school in Kent and Minister. He went on to play a lead- Eton, subsequently joining the army ing role in the anti-appeasement cam- in 1918, though too late for action. paign of the 1930s, whilst in the Post-war Oxford was the setting for 1950s became one of the first recog- his undergraduate studies. Boothby nizable faces of the modern media drifted towards politics, first through age. Unfortunately for Boothby, he journalism and secondly by member- is, in the public mind at least, better ship of the Canning Club, which pro- remembered, as the man who cuck- vided the opportunity to encounter olded and, rather the leading statesmen of the day, less accurately, as an associate of the from to Lord London underworld. Such are the Birkenhead, previously F.E. Smith. historical difficulties of labouring in Robert Rhodes James, Boothby’s the shadows of great men that the biographer, notes in relation to the contributions of lesser mortals are latter that “this wonderful opportuni- often overlooked. Whilst the names ty for young men to be exposed to so of Lloyd George, Churchill and much that was exciting and valuable Birkenhead are enduring, their frail- in this remarkable man was accom- Lord Boothby gives out the ties standing alongside their achieve- panied not only with the praise of awards at a ments, Boothby’s contribution is alcohol and its substantial consump- school prize- giving merely measured by personal indul- tion, but also too often led them to try

Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 | 15 Bob Boothby and emulate Birkenhead’s bucca- the 1924 General Election, a trouble was that Boothby was not that in some early photographs neering and basically amoral marginal 2,683, yet, on retire- cast by nature for this subservient he looked “more like one of attitude to life.” Naturally, ment, in 1958, Boothby role”. Remarkably, Boothby was Lenin’s early collaborators than Boothby was a willing student. bequeathed his successor a given an extraordinary amount of a duke’s son-in-”, though she Boothby graduated in 1922 healthy surplus of 10,057, a tes- lea-way. He continued opposing remained ambitious for him and opted for law. His heart, timony to the high regard in the Gold Standard, advocated politically. Boothby, in contrast, however, was really in politics which he was held. restoring trade with Russia, and offered glamour, excitement, and and when Stanley Baldwin Boothby’s youth and desire to along with Harold Macmillan and the thrill of the chase. The cou- called a General Election in achieve prominence brought him others published a pamphlet argu- ple even considered marriage but 1923 he was selected for the to the attention of the House. His ing for greater state intervention Macmillan would not consent to Liberal stronghold of Orkney maiden speech during an in industry, the authors dismissed divorce, the likely scandal prob- and Shetland. The Unionists had Opposition debate was an attack by the as “Socialists in ably ending both his and not contested the seat in a gener- on the Baldwin Government’s Conservative Disguise”. Further Boothby’s political careers. ation, so the result was not nec- unemployment strategy, though policy differences arose over the Dorothy became increasingly essarily a foregone conclusion. he did little to endear himself to next few years and Boothby insensitive and selfish, senti- Boothby’s campaign was quin- that eminence grise of the Liberal offered his resignation at least ments directed towards both her tessentially Victorian. He pro- Party, Sir John Simon, who, he twice only to be rebuffed. family and Boothby. In the fam- duced a lengthy election address, claimed, had not uttered a single Eventually this became academ- ily home, she discarded with policies specifically tai- constructive proposal during an ic, as the Conservatives were Boothby’s love letters, whilst lored for the constituency, earlier contribution. He opposed defeated at the 1929 General talking to her lover on the tele- though potentially conflicting Churchill’s 1924 budget that Election. phone at inopportune moments. with the Party’s manifesto, and augured in the disastrous return That year had greater long- With Boothby she was responsi- spoke at over fifty crowded to the Gold Standard, denouncing term significance for Boothby ble for him breaking several meetings in the run-up to polling engagements, albeit to American day, in the event carrying heiresses whose wealth was one Boothby invited the the Macmillans to stay at Orkney. However, electoral suc- “ of their more endearing facets, cess proved elusive; he lost his parents’ Scottish residence for a weekend’s and on one occasion travelled Shetland and the election by 811 shooting. On the morning of the day’s activities, across Europe to implore him to votes, though taking 45.7% of end one such arrangement. the total ballots cast in a Liberal Boothby, waiting for his turn to shoot, found his Questions arose over the parent- bastion was certainly no mean hand being squeezed by Dorothy in an age of Sarah, the last of feat. Macmillan’s children, born in Boothby received praise from affectionate manner 1930, with Boothby’s name not all quarters for his performance, ” far from Dorothy’s lips. including Baldwin fresh from it in the Commons, the than a stint in Opposition. It However, this may have been a squandering ’s major- Chancellor retorting that, “the marked his first intimate bargaining chip to squeeze a ity of seventy-seven to the dogs bark, the caravan passes”. encounter with Dorothy divorce out of Harold. In the Labour Party. Baldwin invited Critics dismissed such antics as Macmillan, the wife of Harold event, Boothby did marry, Boothby to join his secretariat, a mere attention seeking, however, who was one of the casualties of though to Dorothy’s cousin, curtailing the brief flirtation with Boothby had the interests of his the 1929 election. As a way of Diana. The unhappy union last- law. Fortuitously, during the constituents at heart, particularly consoling his friend Boothby ed two years, largely because of campaign, a few officers of the the herring industry and agricul- invited the the Macmillans to Dorothy’s reappearance in East Aberdeenshire Unionist ture, the backbones of the East stay at his parents’ Scottish resi- Boothby’s life. As he later Association happened to be vis- Aberdeenshire economy. dence for a weekend’s shooting. wrote, “it is impossible to be iting Orkney on business and He did not go unnoticed by the On the morning of the day’s happily married when you love attended one of Boothby’s meet- upper echelons of the Party and activities, Boothby, waiting for someone else”. It was not until ings. They were impressed with Churchill, perhaps identifying a his turn to shoot, found his hand Dorothy’s death, in 1966, that the young candidate, one noting fellow rebel and as a sedative being squeezed by Dorothy in an Boothby’s private life regained that, “when he gets up to speak, measure, made Boothby his PPS. affectionate manner. Rhodes some level of normality and in he goes off like an alarm clock.” The arrangement was not a suc- James ventures that this was 1967 he married Wanda Senna, Shortly after his defeat, the East cess. Boothby could not suppress “when it all began”. Dorothy an Italian beauty, thirty-three Aberdeenshire Association his independent and rebellious was the love of Boothby’s early years his junior. began looking for a new candi- streak, whilst Churchill, in the life, and undoubtedly had the Horne concludes that date and after meeting Boothby words of Violet Bonham Carter greatest impact. She was cer- Dorothy’s infidelity allowed the decided that he was ideal for the “demanded partisanship from a tainly bored with the bookish lonely Macmillan to concentrate constituency. The seat was by no friend, or at worst acquiescence.” Harold, Alistair Horne, on his political career, however, means safe, his first majority, at As Rhodes James noted, “the Macmillan’s biographer, noting the same advantages did not flow

16 | Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 Bob Boothby to Boothby. The affair was com- age had been done, and whilst yet for this most hubristic of papers were seized and apparent- mon knowledge in London soci- Churchill replied that their rela- characters, nemesis was fast ly provided evidence that ety, with minority opinion cast- tions “remained unchanged”, it approaching. Boothby had been abusing his ing Boothby in the role of is notable that it took him five In 1928 Boothby joined a firm parliamentary position for the bounder. His cause was not days to respond. of stockbrokers to supplement purposes of making a profit. helped by the presence of In matters European, Boothby his parliamentary salary. To an The Chamberlainites were Macmillan’s brother-in-law, was firmly on the Churchill extravagant spendthrift and delighted that one of the ‘crooks’ James Stuart, in the Whips’ wing of the Party in opposing inveterate gambler this addition- had been exposed and Churchill, Office. The political course on appeasement. Unlike Churchill al income was essential. By the at the height of war, decided to which he was about to embark and fellow anti-appeasers, late 1930s his finances were in appoint a select committee to was destined to bring him into Boothby did not feel the heat disarray and he had borrowed investigate the allegations. The conflict with this bastion of the from within his constituency £5,000, which he was unable to composition of the committee Party establishment. association as he had been dili- repay. Instead of asking his was heavily loaded against The first such skirmish with gent in consolidating his local father for the money, Boothby Boothby and probably due to his the Whips’ Office was the position. However, he still tread- looked elsewhere. He developed bewilderment at being investi- Abdication Crisis; Boothby, ed carefully and an offer to speak an interest in Czechoslovakia in gated on an entirely spurious along with Churchill, was a on behalf of the Duchess of the 1930s, especially during and matter he gave franker answers staunch supporter of Edward Atholl, who nobly resigned her after this unfortunate country’s than were advisable. His barris- VIII. Unlike the latter he recog- Kinross and West Perthshire seat abandonment at Munich and ter, though a QC, was overly def- nized that Edward could not to stand as an Independent over eventual annexation. He was, erential to the committee, no marry Mrs Simpson in the face Munich, was withdrawn when therefore, outraged by the doubt because of the inclusion of of hostility from both his moth- Stuart threatened to remove the Government’s decision to con- the , Lord er and ministers. Boothby, whip and his constituency chair- fiscate all British assets held by Simon, as one of its number, Churchill and Archibald who was already antipathetic Sinclair, the Liberal leader, towards Boothby. Regardless of drafted a declaration to be made “In 1940 Weininger was arrested as an enemy the committee’s hostility by Edward promising not to alien and interned in Brixton Prison. His papers Boothby was still confident of enter into a marriage against the vindication, a fact symbolically advice of the Cabinet. It seemed were seized which apparently provided evidence made by the Luftwaffe when a possible that this approach that Boothby had been abusing his parliamentary bomb destroyed the report and might work as Mrs Simpson had documents prior to publication. issued a statement appearing to position for the purposes of making a profit However, luck was not to be renounce the marriage proposal, ” on his side. The committee though Edward’s determination found against him on the charge remained unabated, a point over- man pledged to quit. Czechs after March 1939. that he was to receive payment looked by the triumvirate. On 7 Opposition, however, did not Boothby, who had had previous in exchange for providing polit- December 1936, three days end there. With Germany’s business dealings with Richard ical services and that his “con- before the Abdication, Baldwin seizure of Czechoslovakia, in Weininger, one of the wealthier duct was contrary to the usage was making a routine statement March 1939, Boothby threw members of this class of poten- and derogatory to the dignity of on the royal situation, when himself into plotting the down- tial claimants, decided to lend the House and inconsistent with Churchill appeared in the fall of the Prime Minister, his assistance on a collective and the standards which Parliament House, allegedly after a good Neville Chamberlain, under the professional basis. Weininger, is entitled to expect from its lunch, and misjudging its mood, nominal leadership of the veter- aware of Boothby’s financial Members”. Boothby was now vehemently requested further an diehard, Leo Amery. predicament, offered to pay him fighting, quite literally, for his delay in forcing Edward’s hand. Churchill did not approve and, a commission and clear his debts political life. He had no alter- For his pains, he was howled on joining the , if the matter could be resolved native but to resign from office, down by and advised Boothby that, “if he did expeditiously. Boothby agreed but, he was determined to retain stormed out of the Chamber. not mind his own business he and as well as convening meet- his seat, for without it his polit- Boothby joined the chorus of might find that he had no busi- ings of the claimants’ committee ical career would be over. His disapproval and wrote to ness to mind”. Chamberlain made two speeches in the House subsequent speech to the Churchill, “this afternoon you finally resigned in 1940, to be on the subject, without declaring House, explaining his conduct have delivered a blow to the succeeded by Churchill. his extra-curricular involvement. and objections to the commit- King, both in the House and in Boothby received his first and A conflict of interest had unwit- tee’s conclusions was measured the country, far harder than any only portfolio, Under-Secretary tingly arisen. and circumspect. Churchill that Baldwin ever conceived of State at the Ministry of Food. In 1940 Weininger was arrest- considered the resignation “a of ”. He retracted these words As with every fresh challenge, ed as an enemy alien and loss to His Majesty’s shortly afterwards, but the dam- Boothby immersed himself fully, interned in Brixton Prison. His Government, who lose a highly

Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 | 17 Bob Boothby competent and industrious and in an effort to make new. product of this affair. As Minister, one of the few of his amends, granted Boothby a In 1964 he was bizarrely Boothby won his claim against generation who has attained knighthood in 1953. linked with the London under- the Sunday Mirror so the Krays advancement” whilst in a piece Boothby spent his remaining world. The Sunday Mirror decided to launch their own of oratorical bravado stated, “as years on the periphery of public emboldened by the fallout over libel action, on the pretext that for my Hon. Friend, one can life. Along with Michael Foot, the Profumo scandal, published the paper referred to Ronald as only say that there are paths of he became one of the first politi- a photograph of Boothby and “a leading thug in the under- service open in wartime which cians of the modern media age, Ronald Kray under the head- world”. They were ultimately are not open in times of peace; through the television pro- line “Peer and a Gangster: Yard unsuccessful. and some of these paths, may be gramme In the News. Though Probe Public Men at Seaside Boothby’s marriage to Wanda, paths to honour”. the number of viewers at this Parties.” In Boothby’s version in 1967, at last, provided him The Czech Assets debacle time was minuscule, the pro- of events, Kray came to consult with the emotional security that serves as a prime example of gramme proved a resounding him about a business opportu- he had long craved. He wartime hysteria, through the success, so much so that the nity and asked if he could have remained active in the Lords formation of a committee to established parties put pressure his photograph taken with the championing the cause of the investigate an individual on the producers to place more peer, a request that Boothby Scottish fishing industry and Member’s conduct while conventional ‘party men’ on the granted. He responded with a European Integration. After pro- London and other British cities panel. The celebrity afforded by letter to rebutting tracted ill health, he died in were being bombed daily, as such public appearances went to the allegations at one point 1986, his ashes scattered off the well as political revenge, in the Boothby’s head and proved a stating that, “I have never been coast of Peterhead by a fleet of machinations of the source of mild irritation to his to a party in with trawlers - a fitting send-off for Chamberlainites. Although colleagues, Churchill referring gangsters - still less clergy- one who loved Scotland and the Churchill was at the helm, the sea. appeasers remained entrenched Boothby’s career began as one within the Party apparatus. In “Despite innumerable skills, it was his frailties of great promise. Despite innu- 1951, fresh after a narrow elec- that cost him high office. A gambler, womaniser, merable skills, it was his frailties tion victory and having played that cost him high office. A a leading role in Opposition, and spendthrift, all attributes that ironically gambler, womaniser, and spend- Boothby hoped for a ministeri- endeared him to his Highland constituency, yet thrift, all attributes that ironical- al recall. On the Sleeper from ly endeared him to his Highland Edinburgh he speculated to a confirmed his unsuitability to the Party constituency, yet confirmed his young journalist, John Junor, establishment unsuitability to the Party estab- that this would likely be at the ” lishment. He possessed all the Ministry of Labour. In vices of F.E. Smith, yet was London, Lord Beaverbrook to him as “the Member for men.” Boothby was litigiously credited with none of the bril- provided a harsh dose of real- Television”. He championed the successful winning £40,000 in liance. If he had chosen alterna- ism with the comment, “look repeal of repressive measures damages, though this has not tive causes to champion or idols up of March 1938 against homosexuals - Foot ended speculation about his to worship the outcome may (sic). There will be nothing for described Boothby as the “non- sexuality and the true nature of have been different, though this Boothby.” playing captain” of the homo- his relations with the Krays. judgment is qualified by the Boothby saw out the remain- sexual team - as well as voting There are suggestions that knowledge that his strengths der of the war in the RAF, against the new Premier, Boothby had youthful homo- were constantly undermined by though solely in an administra- , over Suez. The sexual experiences, but his unpredictability and lack of con- tive capacity. After the elec- resulting uproar within his con- main interest appears to have vention; Boothby was no F.E. toral route in 1945, he became stituency association happily, for been women, and whilst his and he could not have it both one of the principal Opposition Boothby, coincided with a new parentage of Sarah Macmillan ways. Yet, he was a serious speakers in the Commons and a constitutional innovation, life is debatable, his biographer politician and a major player. firm advocate of the new post- peerages. Boothby, never shy, concluded that he sired other Robert Boothby may not have war model centred on state enquired as to their availability. children. Perhaps, there was climbed to the top of the greasy intervention and welfarism. Eden’s successor, Harold more than an element of truth pole but he made public life There was a post-war rap- Macmillan, in response to in the Kray connection, as interesting and through his prochement with Churchill, Boothby’s request, said, “of Boothby enjoyed living life on many escapades and scrapes we though relations never reverted course he must have it” and the edge of accepted social can view his seemingly effort- to their 1930s peak and deterio- informed him later, “you can be norms and was probably curi- less contribution to both rated with Boothby’s non-inclu- the last of the old, or the first of ous about this superficially Parliament and his age. In retro- sion in the Cabinet. Churchill, the new”. Unsurprisingly, the glamorous yet shady world. spect he would not have had it possibly feeling a pang of guilt, old showman elected for the There was one amusing by- any other way.

18 | Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 Shopping for the Canal Bendor Grosvenor, a regular contributor to the Journal, tells how Derby and Disraeli purchased the the Khedive’s shares in the Suez Canal.

n late 1875 the Khedive of over questions of war and peace dur- ready to buy if reasonable terms can Egypt, charming, enlightened, ing the Great Eastern Crisis of 1876-8, be obtained’.2 but hard up, offered to sell his and their respective policies over the The rapidity with which Derby remaining shares in the Suez Suez Canal in 1875 apparently reflect acted is important. According to I Canal. As everybody knows, their differing attitudes to foreign Disraeli the plan to buy the shares , then Prime affairs. In short, the caricature runs was actually his own suggestion, one Minister, dipped his hand into the thus: Disraeli seized the opportunity to forced upon a reluctant Derby. ‘I was Rothschild pocket, bought the shares, capture the Canal for Britain, while so decided and absolute with Lord and presented his imperial jewel to Derby obfuscated and resisted on Derby,’ he claimed to the Queen, Queen Victoria with a romantic flour- grounds of economy. At such ‘that he ultimately adopted my views ish; ‘You have it Madam.’ moments Britain was fortunate, argues and brought the matter before the Buying, in one stroke, both the Disraeli’s first biographer George Cabinet...’3 History has accepted the world’s finest strategic point and its Buckle, to have a Premier with ‘orien- Prime Minister’s boast, but there is most advanced engineering project tal imagination’. But the tale is in fact no other evidence to support it. was vintage Disraeli - better than any a little more complicated than Derby’s diary records no meeting plotline, and entirely befitting his Disraelian mythology makes out. with, or persuasion from, Disraeli. life’s wish ‘to act what I write’1. The News of the Khedive’s offer first Buying the shares was, in fact, the strategic influence of the canal was reached Derby at the Foreign Office implication of a policy Derby had obvious; four fifths of all traffic was on the 15th November, from the jour- sanctioned, over a year and a half ear- British, most of which went to and nalist Frederick Greenwood. The lier; ‘We cannot let the canal go to from India, Britain’s greatest colonial Khedive was apparently in secret ruin’, he wrote to Disraeli in April asset. ‘It is vital’ Disraeli wrote to the negotiations with two French syndi- 1874, ‘it is too useful to us. Stokes [a Queen, ‘...that the Canal should cates to sell his 44% share of the British director of the Canal] sug- belong to .’ Canal. Derby immediately checked gests buying out the shareholders... The Suez purchase has been used the story with the British Consul in There are difficulties in the way, by historians and Disraeli’s biogra- Egypt, General Stanton. On the 17th obvious and grave; but things really phers to cement his glamorous reputa- November he brought the issue to look as if this were the only way out tion. In particular they have sought to Cabinet, where it was agreed ‘with- of the scrape.’4 contrast his approach with that of his out dissent that we could not allow Agreeing in principle to buy the , the 15th Earl of nearly half the shares to pass to a shares was, however, the easy part. Derby. The two would clash bitterly French company... [and] that we are The Khedive was already in

Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 | 19 Shopping for the Canal advanced negotiations with the The whole affair was concluded was ‘a blow to Bismarck’. new strategic headache for French, and needed, he claimed, in ten days, at a time when Nobody seemed at all concerned Britain. Though a Canal might between three or four million Parliament was not sitting. The that Britain had merely bought a greatly facilitate Indian trade, it pounds by the end of November; Government would have to bor- pile of overpriced paper, repre- would require huge resources to ‘Scarcely breathing time!’5, row the money, and simply hope senting shares that were mort- defend, and necessitate even wrote Disraeli. The French had that Parliament would approve. gaged until 1894. greater British involvement in to be stopped. General Stanton Fortunately, the Prime Minister Nevertheless, it was impres- the Mediterranean. It would fur- was instructed to protest in counted the Rothschilds sions that were all important to ther complicate the ‘Egyptian Egypt against any sale to , amongst his closest friends, for Disraeli. In presenting the ‘won- Question’, which, when added to while in London Derby applied they alone could guarantee such drous tale’9 to the Commons all the other ‘Questions’ that diplomatic pressure to the a sum. Montague Corry, Disraeli had ‘no wish to leave it bedevilled nineteenth century French. Duc Decazes, France’s Disraeli’s private secretary, tells to the tender mercies of Derby’10. politics - Eastern, Irish, Italian - Foreign Secretary, was told in the tale of their involvement in a His parliamentary tactics may led simultaneously to the unusually blunt language that typically romantic fashion. have been influenced after hear- strengthening and weakening of Britain ‘should certainly be When sent to ask if the Prime ing, through Corry, of the oppo- British power. The heaviest opposed to these shares falling Minister could, please, have £4 sition’s plans to ‘represent it to crowns prove the hardest to bear, into the hands of another French million by ‘tomorrow’, Corry the nation at Lord D’s valuation. and the Canal was at once a prize company...’6 The strategy seemed claimed he faced only one ques- They expect that you [Disraeli] and a liability to pay off; the Khedive offered tion; ‘What is your security?’. will make the matter wear a dif- In 1876 Derby, too, was surely Britain first refusal in any deal, ‘The British Government’ he ferent complexion so... they will right to be concerned. Nobody and the French syndicates found replied, whereupon Rothschild, uphold Lord D as a trumpet of doubted the Canal’s importance it impossible to raise the neces- sucking on a grape, said simply common sense, and call Mr. D a to Britain, or that it represented a sary funds. ‘You shall have it’. The story is reckless poet.’11 great national interest. But by Almost immediately, however, false, but indicative of the spirit The opposition had highlight- claiming to have ‘bought’ the Derby received news on 24th of the transaction. ed, and probably inflamed, the Canal Disraeli elevated its place November that Lesseps, the ‘England has bought the Suez real difference of opinion in the public imagination from French constructors of the canal, Canal’, the future Kaiser between Derby and Disraeli - useful national interest to invio- had found and offered £4 mil- Wilhelm II wrote to his English presentation, or to put it in mod- late national asset. Future gov- lion. The Khedive in turn gave mother, ‘How jolly!!!’8 The pur- ern terms, ‘spin’. Derby was ernments, from Gladstone in Britain first refusal - at that chase was an outstanding politi- pleased that it ‘was a complete 1882 to Eden in 1956, dared not price. A cabinet was immediate- cal success, both in Britain and political success’ yet the very flinch when it came to protecting ly called and agreed, with ‘no abroad. Germany was delighted fact of it being so caused him ‘our’ Canal. In neither case did difference of opinion among at France’s apparent defeat, some uneasiness. As the shares the Canal return our munifi- us’,7 to buy. Two days later the while the rest of Europe could headed from Egypt to cence. shares were delivered to the not fail to be impressed by such Portsmouth, in seven zinc-lined British Consulate in Cairo. a prestigious coup. Queen boxes, Derby wondered, 1 Disraeli’s ‘mutilated diary’, from Benjamin But whence the money? Here Victoria took to cooing repeated- prophetically, at how they had Disraeli Letters: 18151834, ed. Gunn Matthews, Schurman & Wiebe, p. 447 Disraeli’s influence was vital. ly, though fantastically, that it ‘created a feeling of something Toronto 1982. like enthusiasm far in excess of 2 Derby Diaries (D.D.), ed. John Vincent. 17 [their] real importance... it November 1875. shows the intense desire for 3 Disraeli to Victoria, 18th November 1875 action abroad that pervades the Buckle ‘Disraeli’ Vol . V p. 443 4 Derby to Disraeli April 24th 1874 Disraeli public mind, the impatience cre- Papers B/XX/S/905 ated by long diplomatic inactivi- 5 Disraeli to Victoria 18th November 1875 ty, and the strength of a feeling 6 Buckle ‘Disraeli’ Vol . V p. 445. which might, under certain cir- 7 D.D. 24th November 1875 cumstances, take the form of a 8 Crown Princess Victoria to Queen Victoria, quoting ‘Willy’, November 30th 1875, in cry for war.’12 Darling Child: Private Correspondence of When the idea for the Canal Victoria and the Crown Princess of Prussia had first been mooted, in the 187178, ed by R Fulford p199 London 1840s, Palmerston struck a 1976 seemingly odd note in opposing 9 Disraeli to Victoria, 24 November 1875, it vigorously. He did so not Buckle Vol. V p. 449. 10 Disraeli to Cairns 7 January 1876, P.R.O. because of some absurd aversion Cairns Papers to speeding up Indian trade 11 Corry to Disraeli 29 December 1875 routes, or a technological pho- B/XX/Co/115 bia, but because it created an 12 D.D. 29 November 1875.

20 | Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 Disraeli Book Reviews

Four Among Equals John Barnes, a noted political historian and coeditor of the Conservative History Journal, reviews The Guardsmen by Simon Ball.

The Twenty years ago Jeffrey Archer deliberations of the party’s versement in their fortunes was Guardsmen penned First Among Equals, the machinery of government policy the result of war and the arrival of Simon Ball story of four competitors for the committee in the mid 1960s and Winston Churchill in No 10. Had highest office. Simon Ball has the acceptance of its findings by Crookshank been physically able HarperCollins produced a real-life version, . However, it was to accept the position offered him 0002571102 £20 although it is confined to competi- largely a formalisation of a pattern late in 1942, Macmillan might tion within one party rather than that had evolved over some years. have languished in the Colonial several. More ambitiously, it sets Ball, of course, is concerned with Office. Instead he took the post as out to be an exercise in compara- men who made their careers Churchill’s second choice and tive biography, an explanation of before and during the war and went on to fortune. He could be why political careers take the there is good reason to think that regarded as lucky also to have shape they do. Criticism of such a the template sketched above landed the Ministry of Housing project should be constructive and would be too rigid to serve him as and Local Government in 1951 - begin with a warm acknowledge- an analytical model. But it is per- Sandys, who succeeded him, had ment of the value of the whole haps a weakness in his book that in many ways a better claim to the exercise. Still more to the point, the question of what would count job, but was younger and had Ball has produced a very readable as the normal path to the top is not missed the 1945-50 Parliament. account of the four men involved explored. Macmillan would cer- Macmillan thought it a more jun- and has added considerably to our tainly not fit the mould, although ior position than he had anticipat- knowledge of them and the vari- things might have been very dif- ed, but Churchill may well have ous spheres in which they operat- ferent had Baldwin won the 1929 recalled his record at the Ministry ed. election and appointed him to jun- of Production. Like North Africa, Political scientists have paid ior office as he clearly intended. it improved the making of his some attention to post-war career Instead Macmillan became a career. The late starter, Oliver structures and have identified the rebel, resigning the whip in 1936 Lyttelton, had some hopes of the way in which Conservatives first Eton and the Guards are the Exchequer, but instead had to con- set foot on the political ladder, common factors in the making of tent himself with the Colonial either by election to office in one the chosen four. Lyttelton was at Office and a subsequent return to of the party’s backbench commit- Cambridge, his three contempo- industry. One senses that he was tees or by being chosen to serve as raries at Oxford. So far, so good, less than whole-hearted in his a Parliamentary Private Secretary but while Macmillan and political ambition and that may be to a minister. Junior ministers are Crookshank were early aspirants something of a drawback in the drawn from these two sources and to a political career, Lyttelton overall conception of Ball’s study. in the main Ministers of State have chose the City and the future Although their lives interweave served an apprenticeship in junior Marquess of Salisbury attempted in a satisfying way - Lyttelton, for office. Almost invariably, Cabinet to do likewise. In his concluding example, wrote the DNB entry on ministers are selected from the rel- remarks Ball suggests that Crookshank - they are not perhaps atively small number who have Macmillan had reached the top a natural foursome. By the time made it thus far and the Prime through hard work rather than Cranborne joined the political Minister will have served in luck. While there is truth in the arena, it must have been clear to Cabinet or shadow Cabinet before remark, he enjoyed much good him that because he was doomed achieving the purple. The ministe- fortune also. By 1939 Crookshank to the House of Lords, he could rial hierarchy achieved its current was streets ahead of him in the never hope to be Prime Minister shape largely as a result of the ministerial stakes and the boule- and in the end even the Foreign

Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 | 21 Book Reviews

Secretaryship was denied him. a good resignation behind him and argued that it was “necessary to length is the Malayan emergency. Other reviewers have observed generally recognized as understand the details of political Ball might well answer that he that Ball is dealing with two pairs, Churchill’s likely successor. It manoeuvre in order to highlight the uses evidence selectively to under- Macmillan and Crookshank from seems absurd that he should have relationship between situational stand why some political careers the upper ranges of the middle been so clearly worried by necessity and the intentions of stutter and others move on, and class, independently wealthy, but Macmillan’s growing role or that politicians.” Although he recog- competence in office is arguably essentially new men, while the latter could see himself as a nised that at the heart of each was less of a factor in a successful Lyttelton and Cranborne are aris- potential rival for the top. But so it something described as “a tem- career than charisma, charm and tocrats. Ball does not fully explain was. The two men were of the perament”, he did not think it rele- the ability to use words to per- his choice and one can think of a same political generation, best vant, and consistency of public pur- suade whether in the council more competitive quadrumvirate. defined perhaps by their point of pose only seemed to matter chamber or on the platform or on Crookshank almost makes the entry into the House of Commons. because of the expectations of the the box. But Macmillan’s career point when he writes of the 1924 Their relative chances had been public. Cowling’s picture always illustrates well that success in results, “Four recent Foreign significantly influenced by anoth- seemed overstated. Few politicians doing the job matters greatly and it Office people got in, Bob Hudson, er key factor, continuity of service. have the mental stamina to be is something of a weakness in Duff Cooper, John Loder and I - I Losing in 1929, when he was on always engaged in political Ball’s book that it is underplayed. am also one of the twelve the point of being offered a junior manoeuvre and while it is an essen- That said, Ball’s account of the Magdalen men and one of the office, was a significant step back- tial and little understood part of four men is nevertheless always per- twelve old Grenadiers!” An older ward for Macmillan and one that it their every day life, biographers can ceptive and illuminating. His por- colleague, Lord Winterton comes took not only hard work but good discern other goals and motives at trait of Salisbury is particularly closer still when writing of three fortune to redeem. work. Ball makes a major contribu- good. The complex relationships he young men, “all with a fine record If there are flaws in Ball’s con- tion to our understanding by bring- enjoyed with Eden and Macmillan in the 1914 war - Captain ception, or perhaps it would be fair- ing a biographical dimension to the are explored with great subtlety and Crookshank, Captain Macmillan er to say in his choice of runners, Cowlingite world and we benefit insight and The Guardsmen would and Captain Anthony Eden - were that should not detract from the greatly from it. be well worth reading for that alone. amongst those whose names credit due to him for finding a way There is, however, one curious But Ball offers much more - an began to be familiar to the public to complement and illuminate feature about his insight that is astonishing mastery of private in the 1927 session” and he notes Cowling’s concept of “high poli- troubling. He pays remarkably lit- papers, used deftly and with an with satisfaction his own confi- tics”. Cowling damned biography tle attention to the activities of admirable lightness of touch, and dence then that all would reach as almost always misleading politicians as ministers. the book is well-written and consis- high office. In many ways it would because it abstracted a single politi- Crookshank’s highly successful tently readable. Historians will have been more illuminating to cian from a system, which consist- ministerial career in the 1930s value it for its insights into twentieth have juxtaposed the careers of ed of some “fifty or sixty politi- scarcely figures, Lyttelton is dealt century British political and social Duff Cooper and, above all, Eden cians in conscious tension with one with as Minister Resident in the history and its contribution to the with those of Macmillan and another”, a world ruled by ambi- Middle East, but not as an way we think about politicians and Crookshank in order to understand tion, self interest, antipathy and extremely successful Minister of their careers, but it is not just a book the chances and turns of a political mutual contempt, and because it Production, while the only episode for scholars. It is as exciting and career. By 1943 Eden was in his implied linear connections between from his time in the Colonial readable as any novel by Jeffrey second term as Foreign Secretary, one situation and the next. He Office that is dealt with at any Archer and much better written.

The WhipperIn Keith Simpson, MP for MidNorfolk, Conservative spokesman on defence, Chairman of the Conservative History Group and a former Whip himself, reviews Tim Renton’s Chief Whip.

Chief Whip: People, Power This book is a hybrid. The first Henry Brand to Alec Douglas was at two disadvantages when and Patronage third consists of the author’s Home’s Chief Whip the lugubri- appointed as Chief Whip. He had in Westminster detailed recollections, helped by ous Martin Redmayne. Tim never been in the Whips’ Office Tim Renton reference to his diary, of his thir- Renton concludes with some and lacked the experience and feel Politico’s teen months as Margaret thoughts on today’s House of that goes with being a junior whip 1842750984 Thatcher’s Chief Whip. This is Commons and challenges for - your reviewer writes with experi- £25 followed by a very short history of Chief Whips and, finally, on what ence of this. His appointment was parliamentary whipping and then a happens in the Lords. a surprise given that he was asso- series of biographical sketches of Tim Renton’s account of his ciated with and the some notable Chief Whips from time as Chief Whip falls into the Tory “wets” and never seems to the mid 19th century liberal category of “kiss and tell”. He have fully had the confidence of

22 | Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 Book Reviews

Margaret Thatcher. This was to Unforgiving”. [Thatcher’s gold and cunning required of a good managers whose job is to “make a prove crucial over his thirteen pencil and the victim Winston Chief Whip. To be fair, few Tory House” and keep a majority avail- months as her Chief Whip when Churchill.] Renton describes how Chief Whips could have succeed- able if a government is to secure she faced two leadership chal- chaotic Cabinet reshuffles could ed in squaring the circle between its business. The men, and since lenges and an increasingly rebel- be and how difficult it was to get a loyalty to the Leader and loyalty to 1964, the women who are whips, lious parliamentary party. tired, distracted Prime Minister to the Party. have the task of persuading or Renton’s account of his time as concentrate after dinner. “I went The reader may be tempted to cajoling colleagues to attend and Chief Whip doesn’t substantially through my suggestions continual- think that after all the drama of the vote. The origin of the name add new information to the fall of ly trying to bring her back to my first part of the book the rest is “whips” dates from the eighteenth Margaret Thatcher, but there are draft list. She interrupted, jumped merely a dry account of whips and century when the government’s details and cameo portraits that from one department to another whipping. In fact, Renton has a business managers were likened to bring alive that period and explain and then - worst of all - occasion- number of interesting points to the “whippers’-in” from the hunt the behaviour of many of the lead- ally leaned back and fell asleep for make that put his own experience who kept the hounds together. ing members of the Cabinet. some seconds.” into a wider context. He does As Renton shows, much of the Renton shows that during this Given the threat to her leader- exaggerate when he writes that whips’ work is pedestrian and period the Conservative parlia- ship it was, to say the least, eccen- “this is a story that has never been requires social skills beyond mentary party was almost unwhip- tric of Thatcher to appoint Renton told before”. There are a lot of promises of advancement or pable with rebels on the left and as Chief Whip. She saw him myths about parliamentary whips threats of denial of office. He right. The Whips estimated that working for his “master” Geoffrey and whipping, one of which is that concludes, rightly, that since the there were seventy malcontents Howe, and although he attempted whips are like a secret society and 1990’s whipping has become and after ten years in government to give her objective advice, he are sworn to silence. In fact there much more difficult, and even many on the backbenchers were never had that close, intimate rela- are many published accounts by the present government with its sacked former ministers and those tionship that is crucial between a former whips through memoirs, huge majority has faced a series passed over. A scenario that must leader and Chief Whip. His own diaries and autobiographies of rebellions. Renton believes be familiar today to Blair’s Chief personal doubts about her meant including Ted Heath, the only for- that Blair’s Chief Whips lack the Whip . that when Heseltine challenged mer Chief Whip to become leader influence of their predecessors. Faced with rebellions Margaret her he abstained in the vote. of his Party and Prime Minister. And on the role of a Chief Whip Thatcher could be ruthless and on Renton comes across from this On the origins of parliamentary during a leadership challenge he one occasion Renton notes “that account as an intelligent, civilised, whipping I found Renton canter- writes that the Chief Whip night the gold pencil goes through patrician Tory of the old school, ing through in a rather superficial “retains the power of regicide Winston’s name for a knighthood. but lacking the real ruthlessness manner. Whips are parliamentary but not in king making”.

Divided by a Common Language Mark Coalter, a practising solicitor, historian and regular contributor to the Conservative History Journal reviews John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge’s The Right Nation.

The Right Nation: In the aftermath of Watergate and British) counterparts. lence”, Indeed, I recollect listen- Why America is Different the resignation of President American conservatism is a ing to his show on my last visit to John Mickelthwait and Nixon, the 1974 Republican heterogeneous creed accommo- the U.S. when a caller from Adrian Wooldridge Congressional campaign for the dating a wide range of groups, Denver informed him that he Allen Lane mid-term elections adopted the from so-called Swift Boat “was doing the Lord’s work”, slogan, “when has it been easy to Veterans for Truth to the such is the devotion that Rush 0713997389 £14.99 be a Republican”, According to Christian Coalition. It houses inspires amongst Right thinking John Micklethwait and Adrian within its tent diverse individuals people. Wooldridge, the authors of The united principally by the common The strength and influence of Right Nation, this time is perhaps denominator of conservatism, The Right Nation is most promi- now, with the advent of the reign from heavy weight politicians nent at a moral and evangelical of George II. However, The Right such as Donald Rumsfeld and the level. From a post-Christian Nation is more than just a politi- authoritarian Attorney-General European perspective, the perva- cal overview of Republican elec- John Ashcroft, evangelical fig- siveness of American evangelism toral strength in America: rather it ures like Pat Robertson, to Rush and the Republican Party’s is an account of conservative Limbaugh, the popular and pop- reliance upon this Southern con- power in the U.S., how it devel- ulist radio talk show host, who stituency is a curious phenome- oped and why it is distinct, in acts as the self-styled dean of his non. The explanation is, however, practice, from its European (and “school of conservative excel- perfectly logical and grounded in

Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 | 23 Book Reviews historical and demographic fac- proved an electoral disaster. The eccentrics and shady characters; vatism of Presidents Lincoln, tors. Commencing with Barry present incumbent, whose some well-known such as Theodore Roosevelt and (espe- Goldwater’s failed 1964 favourite philosopher is Jesus, Frederick Hayek and Milton cially) Coolidge in their historical Presidential Campaign and pro- seems to have redressed the bal- Friedman, both obviously in the overview. A deferential nod to gressing to those of Richard ance. As the authors note, former bracket, with Joseph the distant past is provided with Nixon and Ronald Reagan, the “Reagan supported the church McCarthy naturally in the latter an analysis of President Republican heartland shifted like a flying buttress, from the category; others less prominent McKinley’s late nineteenth-cen- from New England and the Mid- outside. Bush, a born-again such as Ayn Rand, a Russian émi- tury outreach to the industrialised West to embrace the rugged indi- Methodist, is more a pillar in the gré and novelist who “dressed in classes, though this only serves to vidualism and entrepreneurial nave.” a flowing black cape tied closed provide a comparison with the spirit of the West and the evangel- On the lighter side, the unusu- by a gold broach in the shape of success of George W Bush and ism and gripes of the white al - from a British perspective - a dollar sign” and who opined Karl Rove in Texas and their aspi- South. demographic nature of American “the cross is a symbol of torture. rations for broadening the Whilst Nixon was content to conservatism is analysed, the I prefer the dollar sign, the sym- Republican base. champion the grievances of the authors observing that “in no bol of free trade and therefore In addition, certain key events “silent majority”, Reagan openly other country is the Right defined free minds”, However, these are dealt with superficially, such courted religious groups whose so much by values rather than individuals were confined to the as the 1960 election, as well as resolve to remain aloof from class”, The reader is taken on a fringes of the Republican Party, the Nixon and Reagan adminis- party politics was severely weak- comparative journey across two working within universities, trations. It seems that the ened by the Carter administra- Congressional Districts in Illinois think tanks and pressure groups. authors’ primary concern is not tion, which mooted the possibili- and California, represented by the After all, President Eisenhower’s so much to show conservatism in ty of depriving private - in the Speaker of the House of commitment to maintaining (and action in an historical and main, Southern and religious - Representatives, Dennis Hastert, strengthening) the New Deal Washington setting, rather to schools, established after 1953, of and the Democrat Minority consensus was unshakeable, sen- examine national themes and their tax exempt status. Reagan, Leader, Nancy Pelosi. Hastert timents echoed by Nixon in trends that have facilitated the the great communicator and represents a large swathe of rural 1960. contemporary emergence of this shrewd political operator, won Illinois, the population largely The authors pinpoint the 1964 broad coalition dubbed The Right their vocal support and gratitude, white, church going, and family Presidential Election as the first Nation, and entities such as the continuing to pay lip service to orientated, involved in agricultur- real attempt at unlocking the lib- Heritage Foundation, The the religious Right during his al or blue-collar jobs with a smat- eral zeitgeist, with the selection National Review, and the Neo- Presidency. Indeed, so essential tering of professionals living on of Goldwater, archconservative Conservatives receive greater was this constituency to George the fringes. and free marketeer, as the analysis than, say, Reagan’s great- Bush Senior that, in the 1988 Conversely, Pelosi’s District in Republican candidate. Whilst his est achievement in ending the Presidential Election, the old downtown San Francisco, notable defeat should, on paper at least, . Episcopalian patrician spoke for its architectural grandeur, be considered a textbook example However, maybe I am too criti- movingly at the Bob Jones contains areas of extreme wealth of how to fight and lose an elec- cal, as The Right Nation is a very University about the strength of and poverty, along with high tion convincingly, it provided readable and enjoyable book. Due his faith. numbers of homosexuals, the Reagan with a national platform to the topicality of American poli- This uneasy coalition of homeless and ageing hippies, and and exposed the vulnerability of tics resulting from the disputed money and morality soon disinte- a low rate of church attendance. the liberal consensus. Whilst this election of 2000 and now given grated in the 1990s as the latter The authors note that, “there was point is correct, it remains ques- greater by the war in began to exert a greater influence a time when the Catholic arch- tionable that 1964 was such a rad- , there are a variety of critiques over the Republican Party’s plat- bishop was one of the most pow- ical departure from conservative of Bush and America available in form and offended the more cos- erful political figures in town. thinking and practice during ear- any metropolitan bookstore tend- mopolitan sensibilities of the vot- Now, in a largely secular city, he lier Republican eras of domi- ing to reflect the prejudices of the ers of the largest State in the west, is a marginal figure, one among a nance. If this logic were trans- local clientele. The Right Nation, California. Even Arnold cacophony of religious voices planted to British circumstances, however, is in a class of its own. If Schwarzenegger, recently elected that range from Buddhists to would Enoch Powell be consid- you desire a balanced, entertaining as Governor, is unlikely to recruit members of the Church of ered the architect of modern con- overview of American society and it to the Republican cavalry in the Satan”, servatism, the construction its conservative instincts then you immediate future. However, as The Right Nation is more of a undertaken by Keith Joseph, with should look no further. It plugs a the election of 2000 demonstrat- contemporary political commen- finishing touches applied by long overdue gap in the British ed, California is dispensable if all tary than a work of history, Lady Thatcher? To do so would market in its serious treatment of other components within the though this point provokes my neglect the contributions of American conservatism and pro- Republican coalition remain unit- main criticism. The chronologi- Disraeli, Baldwin, and vides an insight into this multi- ed - after all, the brief theological cal narrative begins in 1952 with Macmillan. In a similar vein, the faceted beast, which promises to interregnum of Bob Dole in 1996 an assortment of academics, authors disregard the conser- be with us for many years to come.

24 | Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 Northcote Conservative Backbench Dissent Under Iain Duncan Smith Philip Cowley and Mark Stuart

n 2001 the Conservative Party the same way that Churchill had elected a former backbench routinely defied the Tory whips. Table 1. Most rebellious Conservative rebel as its leader. This marked Many others - especially those who MPs, 2001October 2003, votes cast Iain Duncan Smith out from his opposed him - wondered how a for- against party whip recent predecessors. Edward mer rebel would be able to keep IHeath may have metamorphosed party discipline. Rank Name Votes into a backbench critic after his 1. D. Hogg 23 defenestration, but before he The rebellions 2=. R. Shepherd 19 entered government in the 1950s his Yet despite his own background 2= B. Spink 19 record as a backbench loyalist was (and eventual fate), IDS’s period as 4. A. Mackay 12 perfect. Margaret Thatcher voted leader saw relatively little back- 5. J. Kirkbride 10 against the party whip twice before bench dissent. There were 72 occa- 6= A. Turner 9 she made it into government - over a sions during his leadership when 7= N. Winterton 9 clause in the Administration of Conservative MPs defied their party 8. P. Bottomley 8 Justice Bill in 1960 and in favour of managers. This equated to roughly 9 K. Clarke 7 corporal punishment in 1961 - but one rebellion every ten divisions, 9=. B. Mawhinney 7 these two isolated rebellions hardly and was about half the rate of rebel- 9= A. Rosindell 7 made her a member of the usual sus- lion on the Labour benches. 12= J. Gummer 6 pects. John Major’s voting record Moreover, most of the Conservative 12=. T. Taylor 6 was spotless before he entered gov- rebellions were small - unlike the 14. A. Winterton 4 ernment, and cast large-scale revolts, most notably just one vote against the party whip over Iraq, which caused so much - over a clause in the Local trouble on the Labour benches dur- Government and Housing Bill in ing the same period. clearly out in front of the rest of the 1989 - before becoming Norman These rebellions involved a total pack were it not for his boycott of Lamont’s PPS. of 60 Conservative MPs. Table 1 the practice of ‘deferred divisions’, By contrast, Iain Duncan Smith lists the most rebellious introduced as part of Labour’s had made his name as one of the Conservative backbenchers - those ‘modernisation’ reforms of the , who gave John who cast at least four votes against Commons. The list of the most Major such headaches in 1992-93, rebellious includes two husband- voting against the Maastricht Bill on and-wife pairings (Mackay and 12 occasions, as well as frequently “ Iain Duncan Smith had made his Kirkbride, and the Wintertons) as abstaining. Together with another name as one of the Maastricht rebels, well as two members of the 2001 three votes cast against the whip intake, Andrew Turner and Andrew later in the Parliament, these rebel- who gave John Major such headaches in Rosindell (along with Bob Spink, lions meant that before becoming 199293, voting against the Maastricht who returned in 2001, having been leader he had voted against his first elected in 1992). party’s whip five times more than Bill on 12 occasions, as well as Beyond those listed in Table 1 are his four predecessors put together. frequently abstaining nine Conservative MPs who voted For his supporters - many of ” against their party line on three whom had been voting with him in occasions. (These include Andrew opposing the - this the party whip under IDS’s leader- Hunter, but counting only those was evidence of his courage, daring ship. - who declared occasions before he resigned the to stand up to the whips in voting recently that ‘every vote is a free party whip on 2 October 2002). for something that he believed in, in vote’ - would have been even more And below them are 20 Tory MPs

Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 | 25 Conservative Backbench Dissent Under Iain Duncan Smith

who rebelled twice and 17 who did IDS:more rebelled Yet things were not entirely were already able to adopt), the against than so once. rebelling? sweetness and light. Three issues issue was thereafter nearly always Yet it is a mark of the general caused noticeable backbench diffi- referred to as one of ‘ adoption’ level of cohesion on the culties during IDS’s leadership: the - and it caused division on the Conservative benches that the most Adoption and Children Bill, House Conservative benches. rebellious MP had rebelled just 23 of Lords reform, and Iraq. The Government granted its MPs times, and that a table of the most a free vote on the issue. After much rebellious Conservative MPs The Adoption and Children Bill discussion in Shadow Cabinet the includes those to have voted against Until it was amended by backbench Conservatives, by contrast, issued a their party whip on just four occa- Labour MPs during its Committee whip, telling the party’s MPs and sions. Had Douglas Hogg been a Stage to include clauses allowing peers to vote against the legislation. Labour MP he would not even have adoption by unmarried couples, the But, faced with opposition from a made it into the top twenty rebels, Adoption and Children Bill had vocal minority of Conservative and would have been a long way off been a fairly uncontentious piece of MPs, the leadership let it be known the top of that table - headed by legislation. Although the Bill made that they would allow MPs to be , who voted against no distinction between heterosexual absent from the Commons if the his whip over 80 times in the same or homosexual unmarried couples issue caused them difficulties (what period. (and although single gay people became known, somewhat oxy-

26 | Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 Conservative Backbench Dissent Under Iain Duncan Smith

thus disguising any division. This is Table 2. Conservative MPs’ voting on Lords Reform, one - indeed, perhaps the only - lux- 4 February 2003 ury of Opposition. To impose a For Against three-line whip, when there was no N% N% pressing need to do so, and when it Abolition 2 1 146 99 was clear that there were serious Fully appointed 59 40 87 60 divisions within the party, was crass Fully Elected 59 43 79 57 in the extreme. No one noticed the 80% elected/20% apptd 73 49 75 51 19 Labour MPs who voted with the 60% elected/40% apptd 50 34 97 66 Conservatives over adoption, nor, because of the furore, did the fol- lowing day’s much larger rebellion of 43 Labour MPs over asylum leg- moronically, as a ‘soft three-line Curry, Julie Kirkbride, Andrew islation attract much attention. All whip’). Lansley, Andrew Mackay and the focus was on the Tories and their The issue reached the floor of the - included four for- internal divisions instead. Commons in May 2002 and four mer members of the Shadow Conservative MPs defied their Cabinet. Lords reform party’s whip and voted in favour of The rebellion resulted in a renewed In January 2002 the Shadow the legislation. Several others, focus on the issue of the Conservative Cabinet had come out in support of including four Shadow Cabinet leadership, made even more intense a largely elected Second Chamber, members, found convenient reasons when IDS held his famous press con- to be called the Senate, eighty per to be absent from the Commons. ference at Conservative Central cent of its 300 members were to be After amendment in the Lords the Office, during which he claimed that elected, with just 20 per cent Bill then returned to the Commons ‘for a few, last night’s vote was not appointed. It was the exact opposite in November, with more damaging about adoption but an attempt to of the Government’s plans con- consequences. At the second time challenge my mandate to lead this tained in the White Paper, of asking, the numbers voting party’, and then told his party that it Completing the Reform. At first, it against the whip climbed to eight. appeared that the new policy was a A further number of Tory MPs also The rebellion resulted in a renewed focus tactically sophisticated piece of abstained. (A total of 35 “ repositioning, making the Conservatives were absent from the on the issue of the Conservative leadership, Conservative Party appear more vote. Many newspapers therefore made even more intense when IDS held his democratic than Labour. talked of 35 abstentions, even The problem for the Conservative famous press conference at Conservative though it was clear that many of leadership was that a belief in the these 35 were simply away from the Central Office, during which he claimed that wisdom of the Party’s position was Commons on other business). In ‘for a few, last night’s vote was not about not shared by all of its quantitative terms, this was not Parliamentarians. In February 2003 especially damaging: eight MPs adoption but an attempt to challenge my the Commons considered eight dif- constituted just five percent of the mandate to lead this party’, and then told his ferent options for reform of the parliamentary party. An equivalent Lords, including total abolition, and rebellion from amongst the ranks of party that it had to ‘unite or die’” ranging from 100 per cent elected to the PLP would have seen 20 Labour 100 per cent appointed. As is well MPs defying their whip, and rebel- had to ‘unite or die’. known, the Commons failed to lions of that size were by then rarely Yet the split - and the subsequent agree on any of the options, reject- reported. But there was an impor- crisis - was almost entirely self- ing each one in turn. (In the House tant qualitative dimension to the inflicted and eminently avoidable. of Lords, peers predictably support- Conservative rebels. They included It is quite common to see occasions ed a wholly appointed Chamber, by , absent from the vote when one major party allows a free a margin of three to one.) Few peo- in May but who now resigned from vote, but the other enforces a whip. ple came out of the episode well. the Shadow Cabinet in order to vote But it is almost always the other way The Commons did not appear to be and speak against the Party’s line. round from the Adoption and able to make what to most people Michael Portillo and Kenneth Children Bill: governments, who seemed like a simple decision. The Clarke - both of whom had stood need to get their legislation through, Prime Minister had had his against IDS when he won the lead- often enforce a whip, even if this favoured position (a largely ership - also voted against their reveals division, whilst the appointed Lords) rejected by the party whip. The other five - David Opposition can allow a free vote, House, by the majority of his own

Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 | 27 Conservative Backbench Dissent Under Iain Duncan Smith

MPs, by four of his Cabinet col- given that half of his parliamentary was the involvement of the party’s leagues and 21 other ministers. And party had not supported his own grassroots in the selection of the the Leader of the House had seen policy. leader. But the MPs effectively acted his favoured position (a largely as gatekeepers. They - and they alone elected House) rejected, too. Less Iraq - decided whether to call a vote of noticed, but equally embarrassing, In the run-up to the war on Iraq, the confidence in the leader. They - and was the rebuff delivered by Conservative frontbench was they alone - then participated in that Conservative MPs to Iain Duncan extremely supportive of the vote. And then, they - and they alone Smith. Government, and Conservative anti- - whittled down the choice of any Table 2 shows the voting of war sentiment was confined to a new leader to two. Moreover - as the Conservative MPs on the five votes. minority of Conservative MPs: dur- more prescient pointed out at the time (The Commons did not divide on ing the 2002/3 parliamentary session, - there was no compulsion on the par- three of the options). Conservative a total of 21 Conservative MPs liamentary party to put two candi- MPs were almost unanimous in rebelled over the issue), but it was a dates forward to the members at the their Opposition to abolition (just vocal minority, and, just as over the final stage of the process. two Tories, and Bill Adoption and Children Bill, there Eventually, that was exactly what Wiggin, voted in favour of abolish- was a qualitative dimension to the happened. The requisite 25 signa- ing the second chamber) but more rebellion. The former Chancellor of tures of MPs were delivered to Sir divided on some of the other the Exchequer, was , the Chairman of the options. The one commonality is particularly vociferous in his opposi- 1922 Committee, to initiate a vote of that the majority of Conservative tion to war, arguing during the 26 confidence. IDS lost that vote of MPs opposed all five of the options February debate that the ‘revolting confidence by 90 to 75, a result that nature of the Iraqi regime’ was not a was closer than some had predicted, sufficient legal basis for war. He was but still an overwhelmingly negative “The requisite 25 signatures of MPs joined by Douglas Hogg, another for- verdict on an incumbent leader. And were delivered to Sir Michael Spicer, the mer Cabinet Minister, who co-spon- then, with breathtaking speed, sored the cross-party anti-war appeared as the Chairman of the 1922 Committee, to amendments, around which opposi- ‘unity’ candidate for the leadership. initiate a vote of confidence. IDS lost that tion to the war was to coalesce. The All the potential rival candidates largest Conservative rebellion came declared that they would be support- vote of confidence by 90 to 75, a result on 18 March 2003, when 16 ing Howard. With just one candidate, that was closer than some had predicted, Conservatives joined 139 Labour there was no need for a ballot of MPs, but still an overwhelmingly negative MPs (and an assortment of MPs from let alone the grassroots, and Howard the minor parties) voting in favour of became party leader. verdict on an incumbent leader the anti-war amendment. Three The whole process had been initiat- ” Conservative junior frontbench ed, and then decided, by the party’s spokesmen - MPs, with no grassroots involvement presented to them. This included (Environment), at all. For all the talk of the decline of the 80 per cent elected option, the (Home Affairs) and Parliament, parliamentarians remain party’s official policy. Over half the (Health) resigned from their front- in an extraordinarily privileged posi- Conservative MPs who voted - 75 bench positions, as John Randall had tion in most British political parties - as against 73 - rejected the position earlier resigned as a Conservative and nowhere is that more obvious than advocated so publicly by Iain Whip, in order to speak out against in the Conservative Party. Duncan Smith. the war. The following day, at Prime Philip Cowley is Reader in Minister’s Questions, IDS accused Conclusion Parliamentary Government at the the Prime Minister of breaking his The general state of harmony within University of Nottingham, author of 2001 election manifesto to make the Commons’ division lobbies did Revolts and Rebellions: the House of Lords more democrat- not, however, reflect a high level of Parliamentary Voting Under Blair ic. The charge was certainly valid. satisfaction within the (Politico’s, 2002) and runs Blair had announced his support for Parliamentary Party about their www.revolts.co.uk. Mark Stuart is a largely appointed House in the leadership. It was this generalised a researcher at the University of week of the vote, thus swaying dissatisfaction that was to prove Nottingham, the author of Douglas some of his MPs and scuppering fatal to IDS. Hurd: The Public Servant the likelihood of a largely elected When William Hague radically (Mainstream, 1998) and is writing Lords succeeding. But it was a dif- altered the Conservative Party’s con- the authorised biography of John ficult charge for IDS to make stick, stitution in 1998 the headline reform Smith, All We Ask.

28 | Conservative History Journal | issue 4 | Winter 2004/2005 What were they saying . . . ? The Salisbury Review The quarterly magazine of conservative thought £4.50

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