For the study of Liberal, SDP and Issue 84 / Autumn 2014 / £6.00 Liberal Democrat history

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Lloyd George portrayed Alan Mumford Images of Lloyd George LG in cartoons Kathryn Rix Party agents, 1880–1914 Professionalisation and political culture David Dutton Walter Runciman and the decline of the Liberal Party Graham Lippiatt Liberal Party colours David Cloke and Douglas Oliver Reports The Rowntrees and their legacy; Liberalism, peace and the First World War Liberal Democrat History Group 2 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 Journal of Liberal History Issue 84: Autumn 2014 The Journal of Liberal History is published quarterly by the Liberal Democrat History Group. ISSN 1479-9642 Liberal history news 4 Editor: Duncan Brack Chamberlain conference; Information wanted; Correction (Manchester); On Deputy Editor: Tom Kiehl this day in history Assistant Editor: Siobhan Vitelli Biographies Editor: Robert Ingham Reviews Editor: Dr Eugenio Biagini Images of Lloyd George 6 Contributing Editors: Graham Lippiatt, Tony Little, Alan Mumford looks at how David Lloyd George was portrayed in cartoons York Membery throughout his long career Patrons Letters to the Editor 17 Dr Eugenio Biagini; Professor Michael Freeden; Party agents (Michael Steed); John Buchan and the Liberal Party (David Steel); Professor John Vincent Queries (Michael Meadowcroft); Elections of the 1920s (Sandy Waugh) Editorial Board Party agents, 1880–1914 18 Dr Malcolm Baines; Dr Ian Cawood; Dr Matt Cole; Dr Roy Douglas; Dr David Dutton; Prof. David Gowland; Professionalisation and political culture; by Kathryn Rix Prof. Richard Grayson; Dr Michael Hart; Peter Hellyer; Dr Alison Holmes; Dr J. Graham Jones; Dr Tudor Jones; Walter Runciman and the decline of the Liberal 26 Tony Little; Michael Meadowcroft; Dr Mark Pack; Dr Ian Packer; Dr John Powell; Jaime Reynolds; Prof. Andrew Party Russell; Dr Iain Sharpe; Dr Michael Steed David Dutton examines the part played by Runciman (1870–1949) in the disintegration of the Liberal Party Editorial/Correspondence Contributions to the Journal – letters, articles, and Liberal Party colours 38 book reviews – are invited. The Journal is a refereed publication; all articles submitted will be reviewed. It wasn’t always orange or yellow … by Graham Lippiatt Contributions should be sent to:

Duncan Brack (Editor) Report 40 54 Midmoor Road, London SW12 0EN Social reformers and Liberals: the Rowntrees and their legacy, with Ian Packer, email: [email protected] David Shutt and Tina Walker; report by David Cloke All articles copyright © Journal of Liberal History. All rights reserved. Report 44 Liberalism, peace and the First World War, with Robert Falkner and Louise Advertisements Arimatsu; report by David Cloke Full page £100; half page £60; quarter page £35. Discounts available for repeat ads or offers to readers Reviews 47 (e.g. discounted book prices). To place ads, please contact the Editor. Evans, Gender and the Liberal Democrats – Representing Women?, reviewed by Dinti Batstone; Torrance, David Steel: Rising Hope to Elder Statesman, reviewed Subscriptions/Membership by Alan Beith; Rosen, Mill, reviewed by Michael Levin An annual subscription to the Journal of Liberal History costs £20.00 (£12.50 unwaged rate). This includes membership of the History Group unless you inform us otherwise. Non-UK subscribers should add £10.00.

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Patrick Mitchell 6 Palfrey Place, London SW8 1PA; email: [email protected] Liberal Democrat History Group Payment is also possible via our website, www.liberalhistory.org.uk. The Liberal Democrat History Group promotes the discussion and research of topics relating to the histories of the Liberal Democrats, Liberal Party, and SDP, and of Liberalism. The Cover design concept: Lynne Featherstone Group organises discussion meetings and produces the Journal of Liberal History and other Published by the Liberal Democrat History Group, occasional publications. c/o 54 Midmoor Road, London SW12 0EN For more information, including historical commentaries, details of publications, back issues Printed by Kall-Kwik, of the Journal, and archive and other research sources, see our website at: 18 Colville Road, London W3 8BL www.liberalhistory.org.uk. September 2014 Chair: Tony Little Honorary President: Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 3 Liberal history news Autumn 2014

Joseph Chamberlain: Imperial Standard Bearer; National Leader, Local Icon: Birmingham 4–5 July 2014 In early July about 100 people speech by Peter Marsh, the second government. Those a contestation of Chamber- attended the conference in Bir- leading Chamberlain biogra- conference-goers who paid the lain’s political legacy by repre- mingham, organised by New- pher, reinforced the dynamic necessary supplement dined at sentatives of the Conservative, man University and partly entrepreneurial approach of Chamberlain’s home, High- Labour and Liberal Democrat funded by the Liberal Demo- Chamberlain whose under- bury, and heard from Stephen parties. crat History Group, to mark standing of the nature of Bir- Roberts how the house was The second day also the centenary of the death of mingham business was the used as much as a political head- included an introduction to Joseph Chamberlain. Tony foundation of his political quarters as a home. some of the library’s Cham- Little was there. success. The second day’s proceed- berlain archives, including the The opening address by Delegates heard fifteen ings opened with a newly local architect’s original plans Sir Alan Beith summarised papers on various aspects of composed ‘Fanfare for Bir- for Highbury, and ended with Chamberlain’s career as a pio- Chamberlain’s career over mingham’ played in the theatre a tour of Birmingham’s mag- neering political organiser and two days, though with a bias of the city’s recently opened nificent Council House, led successful executive mayor of towards his Liberal Unionist central library, and speeches by some of the leading mem- Birmingham who went on to period and his links with Bir- from the council leader, Albert bers of the current administra- split both the Liberal and Con- mingham rather than on his Bore, and Cities Minister Greg tion, showing some of the relics servative parties. The keynote ministerial career in Gladstone’s Clark. This was followed by and artwork associated with

On This Day … Every day the Liberal Democrat History Group’s website, Facebook page and Twitter feed carry an item of Liberal history news from the past. Below we reprint three of them. To see them regularly, look at www.liberalhistory.org.uk or www.facebook.com/LibDemHistoryGroup or follow us at: LibHistoryToday.

September 30 September 1872: Birth of Ramsay Muir, historian, politician and Liberal MP for Rochdale 1923–24. Muir made a key contribution to the development of Liberal political thought in the 1920s and ’30s. His book Liberalism and Industry strongly influenced leading Liberal politicians including Lloyd George. In 1921 Muir was one of the co-founders, along with John Maynard Keynes, of the Liberal Summer School which was a major source of ideas for the party between the wars. From 1923 to 1926 he was editor of the Weekly Westminster. In the 1930s he was one of the key figures in the organisation of the Liberal Party, serving as Chairman of the National Liberal Federation 1931–33 and its President 1933–36. As President he wrote much of the NLF’s The Liberal Way (1934), which was a strong statement of Liberal policy and of the principles underlying modern social Liberalism.

October 24 October 1993: Death of Jo Grimond, Baron Grimond, Liberal MP for Orkney and Shetland 1950–83, Leader of the Liberal Party 1956–67 and 1976. A man of considerable charm and intellect, Grimond’s period as leader saw the Liberal Party undergo a notable revival. Grimond reversed the seemingly inexorable Liberal decline and brought dynamism and ideas back to the party. His writings, in particular The Liberal Future and The Liberal Challenge, and his formation of the Unservile State Group, gave political Liberalism a new direction and placed it on the left of British politics. Grimond resigned the leadership after eleven years during which time the Liberal Party’s vote had risen from 722,000 to over 2.3 million and the number of MPs had more than doubled. In 1976 Grimond returned briefly to the leadership in the wake of the resignation of Jeremy Thorpe, when he steadied the party’s nerves and oversaw the first leadership election that involved a vote of the whole party.

November 8 November 1973: Alan Beith wins the Berwick-on-Tweed by-election by a majority of 57 votes, taking the seat from the Conservatives. The by- election was called following the resignation of Lord Lambton after he was involved in a sex scandal. 13 November 1905: The ‘Relugas Compact’ – an informal agreement between Asquith, Haldane and Grey that they will not serve any government led by Campbell-Bannerman unless he goes to the Lords – is almost broken by CB when he states to Asquith that the Balfour government is days from resignation and he expects to lead a new one. He goes on to ask Asquith, ‘what would you like? The Exchequer, I suppose?’

4 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 Chamberlain and the council Information wanted: Liberal Democrats in Rochdale, Stockport (where the chamber in which he estab- Liberal Party HQ Manchester: correction council is Liberal Democrat- lished his reputation. Curiously, I cannot find a The article ‘Who votes for the led) and Trafford, retain Liberal Details of the programme consolidated list of Liberal Liberal Democrats?’ in Journal Democrat representation. The and text of some of the key- headquarters’ addresses since of Liberal History 83 (summer article should have referred to note speeches can be found the party’s formation. I have 2014), by Andrew Russell, con- the City of Manchester Coun- at the Newman Univer- endeavoured to put a list tained the statement (on page cil, where the last Liberal Dem- sity website (www.newman. together from contemporary 55) that ‘local Liberal Democrat ocrat councilors lost their seats ac.uk/media-centre/3596/ sources but I am not convinced representation has been wiped in 2014. Our sincere apologies conference-joseph-chamber- that it is entirely accurate. out in Greater Manchester’. to all concerned. lain-imperial-standard-bearer- Can any reader help, please? This is of course an error: national-leader-lo). A full Email Michael Meadowcroft several of the councils in report will appear in the next on meadowcroft@bramley. Greater Manchester, includ- issue of the Journal. demon.co.uk. ing Bolton, Bury, Oldham, The Liberal Party and the First World War A one-day conference organised by the Journal of Liberal History and King’s College, London. Saturday 1 November 2014, Room K2.40, Strand Campus of KCL

0930 Registration

0950 Introduction | Lord Wallace of Saltaire, President of the Liberal Democrat History Group

1000 The Liberal Party and the First World War – an overview | Professor Pat Thane, King’s College

1030 Sir Edward Grey and the road to war | Professor Thomas Otte, University of East Anglia

1115 Coffee break

1145 Gilbert Murray v. E.D. Morel: Liberalism’s debilitating Great War divide | Professor Martin Ceadel, New College, Oxford

1230 Lunch break

1315 The papers of Asquith and Harcourt | Mike Webb, Bodleian Library

1400 Asquith as War Premier and Liberal Leader | Dr Roland Quinault, Institute of Historical Research

1445 Coffee break

1515 Comparing Lloyd George and Winston Churchill as war leaders | Professor Richard Toye, University of Exeter

1600 Panel discussion on the impact of the war on the Liberal Party | Michael Steed, Professor Vernon Bogdanor, Roland Quinault, Pat Thane

1700 Close of conference

The cost of the conference will be £15 (students and unwaged £10) to include morning and afternoon refreshments. (Lunch is not provided but there are plenty of cafes and sandwich shops in the vicinity of the campus.)

To register please send your name and address to Graham Lippiatt, 114 Worcester Lane, Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield, B75 5NJ, or [email protected]. Payment can be taken on the day.

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 5 Images of Lloyd George The winter 2012 issue of this Journal depicts on its front page the standard, rather intense photographic treatment of David Lloyd George. Like most photographs, it gives no indication of the Lloyd George seen in other images, such as cartoons, paintings, mugs and ceramics. Biographies and general histories contain a number of differing versions of what Lloyd George did, his motivation, the impact of his actions and the personality through which he delivered those actions. There are largely favourable biographies by Thomson and Owen, stridently critical versions by Lloyd George’s son Richard and by McCormick, and more balanced views by Rowland and Hattersley.1 Alan Mumford reviews images of Lloyd George.

6 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 Images of Lloyd George

uch ‘outsider’ views are in his company that flavour of the people who viewed them. For complemented and occasion- final purposelessness, inner irre- Lloyd George, the main change in Sally contradicted by Lloyd sponsibility, existence outside the political environment was the George’s own direct contribution, or away from our Saxon good increase in the electorate – from 6.7 both from reports of his speeches and evil mixed with cunning million in 1900, to 7.7 million (all and through his articles and books. remorselessness, love of power.6 male) in 1910, to 21.3 million includ- The books were, of course, substan- ing many women in 1918, then to tially concerned with presenting This caricature in words was writ- 28.8 million in 1930.8 Two paral- his own image of his role during ten at the height of Keynes’ anger lel changes were the continuing the First World War and in creat- with Lloyd George, during the increase in adult literacy and cor- ing the peace treaties, and they 1919 peace-treaty negotiations. responding proliferation of news- conflict in places with the memoirs When he eventually published it, papers (there was no radio until the and biographies of other people, in 1933, he confessed that it was an 1920s and, of course, no TV). Lloyd particularly generals, that cover the unfair portrait, having worked in George’s response to these changes war.2 Frances Stevenson (his secre- harmony with Lloyd George on found expression in his relationship tary and mistress) recorded in 1934 unemployment in the 1920s. Lloyd with the press – which he said ‘must that ‘some of his friends think that George, however, retaliated in his be squared or must be squashed’.9 he would do better sometimes to War Memoirs: ‘He is an entertaining Thus he can be viewed as the first admit that he has occasionally made economist whose bright but shal- modern prime minister in the way mistakes, and been in the wrong low dissertations on finance and he developed that relationship, for but he seems incapable of doing political economy when not taken example, holding in 1922 the first this’.3 He did not keep a diary dur- seriously always provide a source of press conference ever given by a ing this parliamentary career; and innocent merriment to his readers.’7 prime minister.10 (Unlike Church- his letters to Dame Margaret and Yet another image of Lloyd ill, radio was not a major contribu- Frances, unsurprisingly, sustain his George is presented through drawn tor to his image). self-image.4 A lot of Stevenson’s caricature or cartoons (the word used Lloyd George’s predecessors material probably reflects what throughout the rest of this article). had shuddered with distaste at the Lloyd George wanted recorded as The most frequently used illustra- thought of trying to influence news- his views; his other main secretary, tion is that by David Low, and he is a LG (Low, New papers; he, on the contrary, was A. J. Sylvester, reveals less attrac- totally different figure in this image Statesman, 16 obsessed with the cultivation of his tive aspects of his boss.5 from the one seen in most photo- March 1926) image. Beaverbrook wrote, ‘Mr However, the image that has graphs: a twinkling figure engaging From 1919 to 1922 Lloyd George likes praise but not been most frequently seized upon the viewer in a sense of fun, enjoy- Low had drawn from a delight of flattery. He likes in books is that of J. M. Keynes: ment, participation. However, just as critical cartoons a good Press as a shopkeeper likes a with the written word, the various of Lloyd George, good customer.’11 Salisbury’s com- How can I convey to the reader, cartoonists depicted a wide variety but this cartoon ment about the Daily Mail – ‘a paper who does not know him, any of images of Lloyd George, as will be (part of a series written by office boys for office just impression of this extraor- shown in this article. on important boys’12 – perhaps recognised the rev- dinary figure of our time, this people) brings olution in newspaper style and cir- syren [sic], this goat-footed out his attractive culation which formed so significant bard, this half-human visitor The context for cartoons – side. It also a feature of Lloyd George’s relations to our age from the hag-ridden electorate and press indicates LG’s with the press, and through which magic and enchanted woods of The significance of cartoons is best large head and cartoon images of Lloyd George Celtic antiquity. One catches understood within the context of short legs. became more relevant.

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 7 images of lloyd george

The coincidence of vastly Stop Thief increased adult literacy and the (J. J. Proctor, The innovative ideas of Alfred Harms- People, 9 May worth (later Lord Northcliffe) cre- 1909) ated a larger readership. At the start of Lloyd George’s parliamen- Caption: Taffy tary career in 1890, The Times sold was a Welshman; 40,000 copies, and the top-sell- Taffy was a thief; ing London morning papers sold Chief of hen-roost perhaps 300,000. Of the Sunday robbers; May his papers, Reynolds sold 350,000 – but run be brief. the News of the World only 30,000. Only ten years later, in 1900, the In 1908 Lloyd Daily Mail was selling more than George said ‘I 700,000 copies. By the time the have no nest First World War broke out in 1914, eggs. I am the Daily Express (not yet under looking for Beaverbrook’s control) was sell- someone else’s ing 400,000; the Mail, 800,000; the hen roost to News of the World, 2,000,000; and rob next year’. The Times went up to 165,000 as The famous the result of a massive price reduc- People’s Budget tion. By the end of Lloyd George’s of 1909 proposed premiership, the Daily Express was new taxes. nearly up to the 1,000,000 of the The caption Daily Mail, compared with the makes use of Liberal Daily News at 300,000. The a then familiar Daily Herald, supporting Labour, gibe about increased from 40,000 before 1914 Welshmen. to 200,000 in 1921. Conservative- The dog is supporting newspapers outsold the presumably a Liberal papers (Daily News, Daily reference to Chronicle, Westminster Gazette and A. J. Balfour’s Manchester Guardian) by two to description of one over the period 1900 to 1922.13 the House of – Scott hoping to influence Lloyd through his newspapers, said that There was also a large readership Lords as the George while Lloyd George tried Asquith had to go, though with- for a substantial number of pro- watchdog of the to influence the content of Scott’s out necessarily supporting Lloyd vincial papers – the Manchester constitution. editorials, saying: ‘Come and see George as a replacement. North- Guardian, for example, was influ- me sometimes and correct my faults cliffe subsequently crowed to his ential outside Manchester. In 1910, or help my better self.’14 In contrast, brother, ‘who killed cock Robin’16 national and provincial papers both he was involved in the removal of – and believed he had had a major sold 3.5 million copies daily. The Donald, editor of the Liberal Daily input. LG brought him into gov- readership – and so the number of Chronicle, when he diverged from ernment to try and keep him quiet people who saw cartoons of Lloyd LG’s policies. There is little evi- – unsuccessfully: from 1918 he was George – was three or four times dence of contact with the editor of consistently an enemy of Lloyd this. We can compare this reader- the Daily Mail at one extreme or George. On 16 April 1919 Lloyd ship with the number who saw The Times at the other. George made a venomous attack on political prints in the early nine- He frequently (at least 700 meet- an unnamed newspaper proprietor teenth century, which was perhaps ings)15 saw Riddell, who was the (Northcliffe). He delivered a sarcas- 40,000 for best sellers. main director of Reynold’s News tic description of what he claimed Unlike Asquith, as in so many and the News of the World. Riddell to be this man’s ‘diseased van- other respects, Lloyd George fre- bought a house for him at Walton ity’ (tapping his head). In the same quently met editors and particu- Heath in 1912, frequently played speech he spoke of The Times as larly those of Liberal papers. The golf with him and recorded their being seen by people in France who most important relationship was conversations in two published dia- did not recognise it as ‘the three- with C. P. Scott of the Manchester ries. This seems, however, to have penny edition of the Daily Mail’.17 Guardian – who supported, encour- been a relationship as close to that Newspapers, including The Times aged, but then finally became criti- of friendship as Lloyd George was and the Daily Mail, provided exten- cal of Lloyd George – from 1900 ever prepared to engage in, as much sive coverage of the speech – but to the mid-1920s. The relationship as an attempt to influence what few cartoons. LG wrote his own with Scott is particularly interest- went into those two papers. speech; unlike Baldwin’s famous ing because it was most frequently In contrast, his dealings with attack on press proprietors in 1931, Lloyd George who called C. P. Northcliffe, owner of theDaily in which the crucial phrase was Scott to come and see him, often Mail and later of The Times, were written by Kipling. over working breakfast meetings. strictly political and full of mutual The other major involvement The relationship was symbiotic distrust. In 1916, Northcliffe, with a press owner was with Max

8 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 images of lloyd george

Aitken, who became Lord Beaver- published between October 1920 appear in the Dictionary of National brook at the time of the creation of and November 1923 with a print Biography, as do Poy and E. T. Reed the new government in December run of 30,000. (but not, strangely, Strube). 1916. Beaverbrook wrote some bril- These attempts to create news- The political impact of newspa- liantly readable but not fully accu- paper support must be seen in the pers is now thought by experts in rate accounts of his involvement in context of a press environment in this field to be most often to con- this change of government and the which the majority of newspapers firm views that the readers have later fall of Lloyd George, and his were Conservative-supporting and already developed. And this goes, (exaggerated) contributions to these presented him as at best devious too, for cartoonists, since they gen- events.18 (The ‘honours scandal’ of and at worst as a liar (see, for exam- erally produce cartoons that fit the 1922, which contributed to Lloyd ple, the Marconi debates in 1913 and political views of their paper. When George’s downfall, was initiated by General Maurice in 1918). In such Illingworth took over from Stani- the Duke of Northumberland, who a newspaper context, more often forth on the Western Mail, his politi- protested about the number of hon- unfavourable than complimentary, cal views differed from those of the ours for people in the press.) what was the contribution of car- paper. But ‘Nobody suggested ideas In 1901 Lloyd George brought toonists and how did they make it? The First when I started on the Western Mail. about changed ownership of the Benefits (Will I knew very well what the poli- Daily News, which thereafter sup- Dyson, Daily tics of the paper were, and I knew ported moderate pro-Boers instead The significance of political Herald, 1912) which side my bread was buttered. of Liberal Imperialists. Much cartoons The cartoonist must have a prag- greater was his financial involve- Political cartoons describe and eval- Caption: [The matic approach.’19 ment in the purchase of the Daily uate, often with pungency. In the Worker is Chronicle in 1918; not only did he days before TV they created a visual supposed to get direct its political views, but it image more powerful than pho- benefits from Style of cartoonists added to the Lloyd George politi- tographs. Low’s cartoon of Lloyd Lloyd George’s Act Throughout the period of Lloyd cal fund when he sold shares in it in George is more likely to stay in the while he is unwell, George’s career, cartoons were 1926. Perhaps the most extraordi- mind than the verbal caricature by but the Insurance more often intended to produce a nary involvement, had it come off, Keynes. The award of a knighthood Financier smile or even a laugh than many of would have been with The Times to John Tenniel in 1893 signified certainly gets today’s cartoons. However, there upon the death of Northcliffe in recognition of the fact that politi- benefits from were significant developments in 1922. Lloyd George sought to get cal cartoons had a more than trivial it all the time.] the style of cartoons: a decline in the financial backing to take over place in public interest. Beerbohm, The Insurance references to the classics; more use the paper and even discussed with Partridge and Low were later simi- Financier: ‘I think of up-to-date symbols and meta- Frances Stevenson the idea that he larly honoured; the award to Francis now you may phors. From the first significant should become editor and give up Carruthers Gould (FCG), however, give what is left cartoon of Lloyd George in 1894 in his major political involvement. was explicitly for his support for to the deserving the Western Mail, and through to This was on top of having set up his the Liberal Party. All of these car- poor, who have 1912, the general content was con- own coalition Liberal magazine, toonists were significant enough to provided all sistently moderate by today’s stand- this rare and ards – JMS, FCG and the Punch refreshing fruit. cartoonists in that sense remaining Unfortunately in the tradition of most of their pre- they will not be decessors. Criticisms of individuals able to judge and policies there were, but often of its refreshing more through the title and text qualities, but accompanying the cartoon than by they will never any portrayal of the participants in be at doubt for a physically exaggerated form. moment as to its FCG deployed what Low later rarity!’ called ‘tabs of identity’ portraying Chamberlain with his ever pre- Lloyd George’s sent orchid and monocle, with a 1912 Insurance mild emphasis on his sharp nose. Act produced However there was no tab, no great the first state- exaggeration in his version of Lloyd based scheme George. FCG appears in cartoon for sickness and histories frequently, although he unemployment. worked for a small-circulation Most of the (though politically influential) attacks on it newspaper, because he was the had been from first, and because he republished doctors and his cartoons in a series of books. He employers but made two comments which are of this cartoon particular significance in relation provides to Lloyd George. He said that he a different aimed to use ‘vinegar not vitriol’. criticism. And in relating his cartoons to his

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 9 images of lloyd george

The Responsible Party (JMS, Western Mail, 14 November 1904)

Caption: Robber (Mr Lloyd-George): If yer don’t ’and over the blooming swag at once an’ without no trouble, I shall ’old yer responsible for all the devastation an’ damage as’ll take place.

Lloyd George’s political career had started with a victory over the established church in Wales. In 1904 he was battling to reduce the control that the church had on schools.

A Counter Attack (FCG, Westminster Gazette, 3 July 1913)

Caption: The Tory Party: Deary me! What a dreadful, savage, dangerous creature! And we were only beating him with a broomstick! [The Tory criticism of Mr Lloyd-George’s speech at the National Liberal Club on Tuesday is on the lines of ‘Cet animal est méchant; quand on ‘lattaque, il se défend’.

Lloyd George had a continuing belief that the taxation of land would provide him with the additional revenue he needed. His attack on landowners stimulated Conservative attacks on him.

Insurance Act, and post-war dur- ing the 1918 general election. His cartoons are of great significance to cartoon historians but they only appeared in a paper with a small circulation (40,000) in Dyson and Lloyd George’s heyday, although Lloyd George reappeared when Dyson rejoined the Daily Herald with a much larger circulation (over a million) in 1931. However no other cartoonist followed his style. Another major change came with the arrival of Low in The Star political beliefs (he was awarded page of the Daily Herald in 1912, in 1919, with a much more emphatic a knighthood at the suggestion of broke with this tradition. He line in drawing. Low in his autobi- the Liberal Prime Minister Rose- criticised policies and individuals ography said: bery) he commented, ‘I have never, both through dramatic aggressive since I devoted my pencil and my attacks on policies and sweeping I always had the greatest dif- pen to the service of the party, seen physical exaggeration. He was a ficulty in making Ll.G sinister any part of my duty to attack my socialist drawing for a paper sym- in a cartoon. Every time I drew own side. When my Conservative pathetic to socialism and concerned him, however critical the com- friends have asked me “why don’t to develop support for the working ment, I had to be careful or he you sometimes caricature your classes, regularly drawing a bloated would spring off the drawing own people”, I have replied “that’s capitalist figure. Lloyd George board as a loveable cherubic little your work not mine” ’.20 was one of the individual politi- chap. I found the only effective Will Dyson, whose cartoons cians he attacked, both pre-war, for way of putting him definitely began to appear as the full front example in relation to the National in the wrong in a cartoon was

10 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 images of lloyd george

Party Paint (Frank Holland uses the famous Three Graces statue in his cartoon for John Bull, 21 June 1913)

Caption: A Marconi Study in Black and White

Lloyd George, Rufus Isaacs and the Master of Elibank were accused of profiting from inappropriate purchase of shares in the American Marconi company. A select committee of the House of Commons produced three reports: the Liberal majority exonerated (whitewashed) the three; a minority led by the Conservative Robert Cecil condemned them; and the third was selectively critical.

The Modern Artful Dodger (Matt, Daily Dispatch, October 1913)

Caption: In bringing this famous Dickens picture up to date our artist has adhered rather too closely to precedent by showing the modern Dodger with his hands in his own pockets.

Lloyd George’s speech in Limehouse, London, on 30 July 1910 in defence of his budget was regarded by his opponents, both Conservative and Liberal, as an unacceptably violent attack on the aristocracy. This was still a reference point in October 1913 when Lloyd George referred inaccurately to pheasants eating mangel wurzels.

by misplacing his quality in sardonic incongruity – by sur- rounding the comedian with tragedy.21

I have difficulty identifying this radical policies chimed with what as a gentle genius: ‘I don’t mind his in Low’s cartoons of him. Cer- seemed to be Low’s own politi- attacks because he never hits below tainly much more damaging to cal beliefs. Like Dyson, Low was the belt. Now Low is a genius but Lloyd George was Low’s wonder- sometimes accused of being a he is evil and malicious. I cannot ful invention – in 1920 when he socialist but, unlike Dyson, was bear Low.’24 Low in fact criticised worked for The Star – of the coali- in reality only mildly radical and Strube for being too kind to politi- tion as a two-headed ass.22 Interest- mildly left wing, though strongly cians; certainly Strube’s cartoons of ingly Low depicts this figure in a anti-establishment. Lloyd George created mild amuse- relatively abstract form, without Low’s companion in the Bea- ment rather than shock. However applying the faces of Lloyd George verbrook stable, Strube, differed in he also created ‘tabs of identity’ for and either Bonar Law or Aus- drawing for the larger-circulation Lloyd George. In a speech in 1913 ten Chamberlain. Lloyd George Daily Express and Sunday Express, Lloyd George had claimed incor- was still a significant figure when and in his political views – mildly rectly that pheasants eat mangel Low moved to the London Evening conservative.23 His cartoons were wurzels (and that the pheasants of Standard in 1927, by which time certainly very different from those the rich were eating the mangel Lloyd George’s change to more of Low. Baldwin described Strube wurzels of the poor). Strube for

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 11 images of lloyd george decades continued to draw Lloyd described him as the ‘first gentle- 40,000 in 1870 and had reached George with pheasants and man- man of Fleet Street’, which perhaps 120,000 by 1930. Its rivals such as gel wurzels also present, as Lloyd sums up the nature of his cartoons. Judy and Fun had largely ceased to George’s son was delighted to point be important by the time Lloyd out in his nasty biography of his George achieved prominence. father. Earlier he showed Marconi The publication of cartoons Another magazine, Vanity Fair (cir- shares peeping out of a pocket or The decision by papers on whether culation 2,500), survived and pub- the £100 per week Lloyd George to use political cartoons changed lished a cartoon of Lloyd George in was earning as Chancellor. Strube during Lloyd George’s lifetime (and its last year, 1913. Magazines such said that Lloyd George has changed twice since). Political as London Opinion, John Bull, Passing cartoons gradually started to appear Show, and Bystander regularly car- … was the major reason why I regularly in newspapers after first ried cartoons, as did the short-lived took up political cartooning. He the Pall Mall Gazette (circulation Lloyd George Liberal magazine – had all the qualities that a car- around 10,000) from 1888, and then though the long-lived Liberal maga- toonist dreams of. Apart from the Westminster Gazette (circulation zine rarely did. None of the ‘heavy’ his great oratorical powers, he 20,000 in early twentieth century), political journals used cartoons, had expressive features, which decided to publish FCG. Both were the one temporary exception being were a delight to draw whether London evening papers. Only in the New Statesman, which printed as a conjuror, wizard, pirate, the first decade of the twentieth a supplement in 1926 of cartoons puck, doctor, farmer or a wasp century did a majority of the popu- drawn for it by Low, including under an inverted tumbler … lar papers start to regularly include one of Lloyd George. (Circulation, Even if he were tucked away in them – with the exception of the however, was then around 10,000). an odd corner he was still the Daily Mail, which held off until The national ‘heavy’ newspa- sparkle of the cartoon.’25 1918. The most important decision A Slight pers – The Times, the Daily Tele- was by the London Evening News, Discrepancy graph – published some cartoons The pheasants lasted longest in the which brought Poy from the Man- (E. T. Reed, The during the First World War. The cartoons and were an example of chester Evening News: his cartoons Bystander, 29 Observer did not use cartoons until Strube’s mild humour rather than were often reproduced the next day December 1915) the 1960s. The Sunday Times and savage criticism. In later years in the Daily Mail. provincial papers sometimes had Strube used Lloyd George’s cloak Newspapers had been much Caption: Hasquith cartoons by their own cartoonists and long hair as ‘identifiers’. later in using cartoons than maga- (to his pal Jawge): but often repeated those from Lon- In terms of the number of read- zines, and it was the establishment ‘ ’Ere! Not s’much don papers. ers who saw his cartoons in the Eve- of Punch in 1841, in particular, ’o your “Too ning News and Daily Mail, Poy was which gave impetus to the latter. Late”!!! What’s the Strube’s main rival. Northcliffe Punch had a circulation of about blinkin’ good o’ The involvement of newspaper me a ’ollerin’ aht owners what I’m a ’ollerin’ There is very little information aht, if you go a available about the decision to ’ollerin’ aht what carry cartoons, and then which you’re a ’ollerin’ cartoonists to use and which line aht?!!!’ should be taken. Beaverbrook, as owner of the Daily Express, Sunday Asquith in 1910 Express and London Evening Stan- told the Tories dard, was involved in all aspects of that they should his papers while constantly deny- ‘wait and see’ ing it. His personal role in relation what might be to cartoons was most evident in the done about case of David Low, who he pursued the creation of for several years to try and attract a majority of him from the London Evening Star Liberal peers. to his own Evening Standard, finally The phrase achieving this in 1927. He already became a had Strube for his most popular criticism of paper, the Daily Express. The Eve- his general ning Standard (circulation 334,000 approach. In in 1929) aimed at a slightly higher December 1915 market than its evening rivals and Lloyd George was thought to be read by ‘impor- made a speech tant people’. regretting that Low and Beaverbrook both actions were claimed that he was never censored constantly by Beaverbrook or anyone else at too late. Lloyd the Standard. In fact, at least forty of George obtained his cartoons were not used, usually the original after an editor or other executive drawing. had consulted with Beaverbrook;

12 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 images of lloyd george however, none of these relate to The Crisis (Bert Lloyd George.26 (Since Strube Thomas, London offered his editor a choice of five Opinion, 16 or six cartoons, the situation did December 1916) not arise for him.) Beaverbrook had a continuing interest in car- Caption: Lloyd toons about himself. Apparently he George: ‘A more sought copies of all cartoons which vigorous war included him in however minor policy, or your a role,27 and he particularly liked job!’ Asquith: Low’s version of him. Northcliffe ‘Kamarad! is recorded as intervening once – in Kamarad!’ the form of an instruction to the night editor of the Daily Mail to Lloyd George, publish fewer Tom Webster car- supported by toons.28 The only other proprie- Bonar Law, tor about whose interest we have wanted to take knowledge is Rothermere, who full charge of had complained to Beaverbrook the war. Asquith about the Low cartoons in which refused to accept he appeared. Low was told (success- this, but resigned fully) to tone down his cartoons.29 on 5 December Cartoonists were often less 1916 when he responsive to speeches than would realised he be the case nowadays. This was lacked support. sometimes true for historically important Lloyd George speeches, for example there were no cartoons about his description of the House of Lords as Balfour’s poodle in 1908. There were only two cartoons about Agadir in 1911, and even his great Queen’s Hall speech about the need for war in 1914 resulted in only one cartoon. Lloyd George had always been subject to criticism from cartoon- ists, for example, about his 1910 budget, the House of Lords, or the National Insurance Act (where he show Lloyd George’s personality. Cartoons of Lloyd George often was depicted as the devil). They Whether you took the extraordi- highlighted his Welshness, most generally made use of the more nary depiction of him by Keynes, usually through putting him in a radical elements of his speeches, or the less elegant denunciations supposedly Welsh dress, for exam- although there were also compli- of him as a devious and intrigu- ple as Dame Wales, a figure cre- mentary cartoons about his success ing Machiavellian politician, con- ated by JMS in 1893. Sometimes, in resolving strikes. The attitude of cerned only with power, these were however, he was drawn as a goat. cartoonists changed with the First more difficult to convey within the The most straightforward expla- World War, as he was recognised conventions then used by cartoon- nation for this is that a goat was a as the man who had been success- ists. Though nowadays cartoonists well-recognised symbol of Welsh- ful in the Ministry of Munitions. would have no problem in portray- ness, and nearly all of these cartoons Most cartoonists welcomed his ing Lloyd George with lies spewing were drawn before Keynes’ descrip- later appointments, first as Secre- out of him. tion of him as ‘goat footed’ in 1933. tary for War, then as prime minis- Cartoonists enjoyed portraying It may also simply have occurred ter. With the exception of Dyson, Lloyd George in a variety of roles, to cartoonists that he was nimble most favoured him during the 1918 which is most easily observable in footed as he moved from one situ- general election. Critical cartoons the Punch collection of cartoons on ation to another. In political circles re-emerged over questions such as him.30 We see Lloyd George as an the description of him by one of waste in government expenditure, acrobat, snake charmer, Cockney, his civil servants, Sir George Mur- some aspects of his struggles over shepherd, and character from Dick- ray, as ‘my Welsh goat … he feeds payment of war costs by Germany ens, amongst others. Other guises happily enough out of my hand at from 1919 and, eventually, the hon- deliberately set out to present a present’31 may have circulated in ours scandal. Critical and favoura- view of Lloyd George’s personality political circles, but may not have ble cartoons appeared following the and nature – as the Artful Dodger, been known to cartoonists. A fur- peace treaty with Ireland in 1921. as Long John Silver with his politi- ther interpretation is suggested by It was easy to portray Lloyd cal fund, or as Napoleon the man of John Campbell’s use of a cartoon of George’s actions: it was less easy to destiny. Lloyd George as a goat in his book

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 13 images of lloyd george

characteristics, they provide an opportunity for a degree of chrono- logical examination of the changes in depiction of Lloyd George. The collection of Punch cartoons referred to earlier took him up to 1921 (and followed the precedent of individual collections by Punch on Disraeli and Judy on Gladstone). General histories covering Lloyd George’s political life sometimes include cartoons; the Low New Statesman cartoon is probably the favourite. Punch cartoons are also frequently used, perhaps because Punch volumes are easier to research than newspapers. This is slightly misleading, because Punch artists tended towards observation rather than sharp criticism. Given the rela- tively small circulation of Punch, they were in fact less important in creating Lloyd George’s contempo- rary image. Since he was interested in cartoons it is very surprising that Beaverbrook includes none in his three volumes about Lloyd George (although he did include them in his small book Politicians and the Press).35 Not all biographies include cartoons: Lloyd George’s great-grandson Robert leads the way with nineteen,36 followed by Richard Toye’s volume on the same subject who gives us seven.37 The most recent biography by Roy Hat- tersley38 sadly includes only the Spy cartoon. A most interesting absence of cartoons is to be found in Frank Owen’s biography, the first to be based on the collection of papers sold to Beaverbrook by Frances Ste- venson. The absence is interesting not just in itself, but because Owen had been sent details of original The Goat in the Wilderness,32 which his long white hair, which he grew The Tie That cartoons and scrapbooks held in raises the possibility that the car- from the 1920s, his cloak, and Binds (B. Cory those papers. Lloyd George did not toonist was deliberately referencing occasionally his pince nez. Physi- Kilvert, Life, include cartoons in his six volumes the passage from Leviticus about the cal exaggeration is not usually part 8 June 1922; on the war and the peace treaties. scapegoat.33 Finally, there remains of the picture. Northcliffe once Parliamentary the question of Lloyd George’s sex- remarked, ‘it’s his big head on a lit- Archives ual activities, which have led to an tle body that I don’t like.’34 How- LGF/10/3/4) Collections of cartoons assertion that he was a goat in that ever only two cartoonists seem to At first sight this Institutions such as the Lloyd sense. But were cartoonists aware have seen the same thing: Low (see resembles the George Museum, the National of that aspect of Lloyd George’s life earlier), and Spy in Vanity Fair in chuckling Lloyd Library of Wales and the National and did they mean that sort of dou- 1913, although this was a charac- George image Portrait Gallery have small collec- ble reference? This would not be an teristically dull cartoon otherwise. of the 1926 Low tions of Lloyd George cartoons. issue nowadays, since references to (Photographs indicate that North- cartoon. But The British Cartoon Archive at the sexual activities by politicians are cliffe’s description was accurate). look at the eyes. University of Kent also has a num- more frequently made, for exam- This was sent to ber of cartoons related to LG. ple in relation to George Osborne Lloyd George by and his supposed association with a Cartoons in books Churchill with dominatrix. Lloyd George is, of course, fea- the comment Commemorative ceramics The physical characteristics tured in the collections of cartoons ‘Prime Minister. As well as standard portraits, car- of Lloyd George which cartoon- by FCG, Poy, Dyson, Strube and Rather nice’ toons were occasionally either ists increasingly drew upon were Low. Aside from their individual copied or developed especially for

14 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 images of lloyd george commemorative ceramics. The of what he thought were my best In 1933 Lloyd George was asked most famous (and most expensive efforts.’43 One included in this arti- how he managed to keep so cheer- to buy) is the Toby jug version pro- cle was ‘You’re Next’, showing him ful with all the anxieties and work duced by FCG as part of his collec- as the only surviving leader from which he encountered when he was tion on war leaders. the 1919 Peace Treaty. prime minister.

Lloyd George’s reaction to cartoons Grey and Peel in the early to mid- nineteenth century collected prints of themselves. There is no indi- cation other prime ministers did likewise until Lloyd George, who certainly did. However, there is no reference in the biographies of him that this author has read to Lloyd George’s attitude or response to cartoonists. For example there is nothing in Frances Stephenson’s diaries. However information from the Lloyd George papers,39 and from cartoonists tells us that he col- lected cartoons featuring himself. (It is not known whether he paid for them). J. M. Staniforth of the Western Mail received compliments from Lloyd George, and even more sig- nificantly an engraved cigarette case. Staniforth’s cartons were advertised in 1918 as being avail- able for sale ‘at 2 guineas each’. The obituary for Staniforth in the West- ern Mail says ‘The Prime Minister often asked for the original draw- ings. Many of these are hung on the walls of 10 Downing Street or at Mr Lloyd George’s private residence.’40 Lloyd George wrote in the same paper that Staniforth’s cartoons ‘were always free from malice and any suggestion of coarseness.’ Lloyd George regarded ‘The responsible party’ as one of Staniforth’s great- est successes and ‘it is always kept in Mr Lloyd George’s own house’.41 It is rather puzzling as to why this should be Lloyd George’s favour- Studies in ite. The 4th Earl Lloyd George Expression has thirty-four original cartoons (Harry Furniss, which were probably held by Lloyd publication George at Churt. Unsurprisingly details unknown) the original cartoons he held were Untrustworthy not strongly critical. and devious Lloyd George, apart from col- were some of lecting cartoons, sent compliments the adjectives to a number of cartoonists, such as used about Staniforth, Low and Strube. An Lloyd George interesting demonstration of his by opponents. views was that he persuaded Rae- Others saw him makers, the Belgian cartoonist, to as creative and go to the USA to enlist American imaginative. This help in the war.42 Low in his auto- is the antithesis biography says that Lloyd George to the familiar ‘had a little collection of originals Low cartoon.

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 15 images of lloyd george

The first thing I did, even before of inner irresponsibility, absence of the 4th Earl Lloyd George, and Dr I got out of bed was to take up Saxon good and evil (whatever that Nick Hiley at the British Cartoon the Daily Express, a paper with was) and cunning remorselessness. Archive. whose policy I often firmly Moreover, whatever the contribu- Approval of the use of cartoons disagreed, and look at Strube’s tion of Keynes description to the was given by Solo Syndication cartoon. That put me in good views of historians and biographers, (Low), Parliamentary Archives humour for the rest of the day. it was only read from 1933. The (Kilvert), and National Library of Strube taught me how to laugh views of cartoonists had been influ- Wales (Matt). at myself and that, believe me, ential for three decades before that. is a virtue which many eminent 1 G. M. Thomson, David Lloyd George: men would do well to acquire.’44 Alan Mumford is the author of David The Official Biography (Hutchinson, Lloyd George: A Biography in Car- 1948); F. Owen, Tempestuous Jour- We have no evidence that Lloyd toons. He has previously published col- ney (Hutchinson, 1954); R. Lloyd George’s interaction with editors lections of cartoons on the Conservative George, Lloyd George (Muller, 1960); and owners affected how cartoon- and Labour parties and two on general D. McCormick, The Mask of Mer- ists portrayed him. The fact that he elections, the most recent being Drawn lin (Macdonald, 1963); P. Rowland, obtained cartoons and commented at the Hustings (2011). Lloyd George (Barrie & Jenkins, 1975); on them favourably is not matched R. Hattersley, David Lloyd George by any recorded response by those Note: For copyright reasons some (Little Brown, 2010). cartoonists. We do not know cartoons are not available for inclu- 2 D. Lloyd George, The War Memoirs whether they were more inclined to sion in the article. (Odhams, 1938); The Truth About the present a softer view of him. Peace Treaties (Gollancz, 1938). Returning to the caricature of 3 A. J. P. Taylor (ed.), Lloyd George: A Lloyd George by J. M. Keynes, we Acknowledgments Diary by Frances Stevenson (Hutchin- can see that some of it appears in the The author is grateful for the help son, 1971), p. 261. work of cartoonists: the siren, the he received from Professor Chris 4 K. O. Morgan (ed.), Lloyd George: goat, the bard and Keynes’ implica- Williams, Mari Takayangi at the Family Letters (Clarendon Press, 1973); tion that Lloyd George was a magi- Parliamentary Archive, Dr J. Gra- A. J. P. Taylor (ed.), My Darling Pussy cian. What cartoonists could not ham Jones and Lorna Mason at (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1975). capture was Keynes’ observation the National Library of Wales, 5 A. J. Sylvester, Life with Lloyd George

16 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 letters

(Macmillan, 1979). 1972), p. 301. 24 A. Christiansen, Headlines all my unto a land not inhabited: and 6 J. M. Keynes, Essays in Biography 14 T. Wilson (ed.), Political Diaries Life (Heineman, 1961), p. 35. he shall let go the goat in the (Macmillan, 1933), p. 36. of C. P. Scott (Cornell University 25 Benson, Strube, p. 12. wilderness. 7 Rowland, Lloyd George, p. 70. Press, 1970), p. 384. 26 T. Benson, ‘Low and Lord Bea- 34 Taylor, The Great Outsider, p. 8 D. Butler & G. Butler, British 15 J. McEwen (ed.), The Riddell Dia- verbrook: The Case of a Car- 197. Political Facts (Macmillan, 1994), ries (Athlone Press, 1986), p. 17. toonist’s Autonomy’, Ph.D. diss. 35 Lord Beaverbrook, Politicians and pp. 213–215. 16 R. Pound & G. Harmsworth, (University of Kent at Canter- the Press (Hutchinson, n.d.). 9 M. Cockerell, Sources Close to the Northcliffe (Cassell, 1959), p. 513. bury, 1990) 36 R. Lloyd George, David and Prime Minister (Macmillan, 1984), 17 Hattersley, David Lloyd George, p. 27 A. J. P. Taylor, Beaverbrook Winston (John Murray, 2006). p. 67. 505. (Hamish Hamilton, 1972), p. 37 R. Toye, Lloyd George and 10 C. Seymour Ure, Prime Ministers 18 Lord Beaverbrook, Politicians and 678. Churchill (Macmillan, 2007). and the Media (Blackwell, 2003), the War 1914–1916 (Collins, 1960). 28 Pound & Harmsworth, North- 38 R. Hattersley, David Lloyd p. 180. 19 T. Benson, Illingworth (Political cliffe, pp. 6–7. George (Little Brown, 2010). 11 Lord Beaverbrook, Politicians and Cartoon Society, 2009), p. 10. 29 Benson, ‘Low and Beaverbrook’, 39 Parliamentary Archives, the Press (Hutchinson, n.d.), p. 20 Francis Carruthers Gould, man- p. 282. BBK/G/14/18. 108. uscript draft autobiography, 30 W. A. Locker (ed.), Lloyd George 40 Obituary of J. M. Staniforth, 12 S. J. Taylor, The Great Outsider Parliamentary Archives HC/ by Mr Punch (Cassell, 1922). Western Mail, 19 Dec. 1921. (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996), LB/1/37/1. 31 I. McLean, What’s Wrong With 41 Ibid. p. 35. 21 D. Low, Low’s Autobiography The British Constitution? (Oxford, 42 M. Bryant, World War I Cartoons 13 A. P. Wadsworth, Newspaper Cir- (Michael Joseph, 1956), p. 146. 2010), p. 95. (Grub Street Publishing, 2006), culations 1800–1954 (Manchester 22 D. Low, Lloyd George & Co (Allen 32 J. Campbell, The Goat in the Wil- p. 28. Statistical Society Transactions, and Unwin, 1921). derness (Cape, 1977). 43 Low, Autobiography, p. 144. 1954/5); N. Blewett, Peers, the 23 T. Benson, Strube (Political Car- 33 Lev. 16: 22 – And the goat shall 44 Benson, Strube, p. 12. Parties and the People (Macmillan, toon Society, 2004), p. 12. bear upon him all their iniquities Letters Party Agents It is always a pity to spoil better known as a right-wing Peebles and Selkirk (later part First, how was it that the a good anecdote, but I am journalist. John Junor tells the of my own constituency). He individual votes in the different impelled to do so in deference full story of his youthful cam- declared that the Borders was boroughs were apparently offi- to this Journal’s reputation as a paigning in the Northern Isles a real hotbed of Liberalism and cially known? (‘Lloyd George source of accurate history. The and with Lady Glen-Coats on went off instead to become MP and the Carnarvon Boroughs’, correspondence on this subject pages 7–11 of his Memoirs (1990). for the universities seat. by Dr J. Graham Jones). My was stimulated by David Steel’s Incidentally, Orkney & My second recall was trig- understanding was that, fol- story about Jo Grimond being Shetland was only twice won gered by your report that the lowing the Ballot Act 1872, in asked about his politics by a by a Conservative, in 1935 and Buchan family became Tories order to guarantee the secrecy Lerwick solicitor, Mr Goodlad, 1945; apart from being local because of Gladstone’s ‘weak- of the ballot, given that the bal- after, not before, that solicitor Liberal organiser, Peter Good- ness in leaving General Gordon lot paper number was recorded had agreed to be his election lad would have been well aware to be killed in Khartoum’. In on the counterfoil, once the agent ( Journal of Liberal History that Jo was the sitting Tory the 1966 general election when number of ballot papers in the 80, autumn 2013). MP’s challenger. I was fighting to retain the seat ballot box had been verified, I have now come across an Michael Steed I had won in the by-election the all the papers from all the boxes earlier reference to Peter Good- previous year, my wife was told were mixed so that there were lad; he was the Liberal agent on the doorstep by one woman: so many consecutive series of in the Shetlands in 1938, not John Buchan and the ‘I quite like your husband as our the same numbers that it would at an election, but as organis- Liberal Party MP, but I could never vote Lib- be impossible to identify a par- ing a summer vacation cam- Two memories came flooding eral’. ‘Why not?’ Judy enquired. ticular voter’s ballot paper. Was paign tour by the President of back when reading of Liberal- ‘Because they did not send help there a different rule in Wales, the Glasgow University Liberal ism in John Buchan’s life (‘Lib- for General Gordon’! Years or was it not introduced until Club, in support of Lady Glen- eralism and Liberals in John later when I saw the plaque in after the period dealt with? Coats, then the constituency’s Buchan’s life and fiction’, by Khartoum on the murder spot I Second, there is a review of newly-selected prospective Lib- Malcolm Baines, Journal of Lib- reflected ‘that cost me a vote’. J. B. Williams’ biography of eral candidate. eral History 82, spring 2014). I David Steel Dr Charles Leach MP, on the The Liberal student con- regret I cannot recall the exact cover of which it is stated that cerned did later twice come quote nor its location, but I he was ‘The only MP to lose close to becoming a Liberal MP remember coming across the Queries his seat for being of unsound himself, in West Aberdeen- statement attributed to Buchan Two queries following the mind.’ However, the inquest on shire in 1945 and Dundee West when he resigned as prospective excellent spring edition of the in 1951; much later he became Tory candidate for his native Journal – concluded on page 51

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 17 Professionalisation and political culture party agents, 1880–1914

The decades after 1880 were formative ones for the evolution of mass electoral politics in Britain. Dr Kathryn Rix considers some of the key developments in British political culture during this crucial period, and assesses the significant effects which the emergence of an expanding network of professional constituency agents, both Liberal and Conservative, had on electioneering and political organisation in the period after the Third Reform Act of 1884.

18 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 Professionalisation and political culture party agents, 1880–1914

n 1894 the chairman of the extended the electorate, and com- be influenced by local rather than National Union of Con- pletely redrawn the electoral map. national concerns. As a crucial Iservative and Constitutional This article – which is based on point of interaction between the Associations, James Rankin MP, a paper given to the conference on central party organisations and the described the Conservative party’s ‘The Liberal Party, Unionism & constituencies, the agents provide professional agents as ‘the founda- political culture in late 19th and valuable insights into the relation- tion of our present electoral sys- early 20th century Britain’ organ- ship between politics at the local tem’.1 In a similar vein, the Liberal ised by Dr Ian Cawood at New- and the national level. leader, Sir Henry Campbell-Ban- man University, Birmingham, nerman, praised the Liberal agents in November 2012 – draws on in 1901 for their role ‘as channels of research on the Liberal and Con- The professionalisation of communication between our sup- servative party agents to examine political agency porters in the country and those some of the key developments in The decades after 1880 saw a who direct the headquarters of the political culture between 1880 and key transition from the solicitor party’. 2 Contemporaries were in the First World War.3 It focuses agents who handled registration no doubt about the significant part firstly on the emergence of profes- and electioneering on a part-time which the growing network of pro- sional political agency in the period basis alongside their legal practice fessional constituency agents played after 1880, replacing the earlier to full-time professional agents in the workings of the representa- model whereby the work of reg- undertaking the work of party tive system in the late nineteenth istration and electioneering was organisation in the constituencies and early twentieth centuries. undertaken on a part-time basis by all year round. Keen to develop This group, whose duties included solicitors. The second key theme links with fellow members of the overseeing the registration of vot- is to explore some of the perceived profession and to improve their ers, election campaigning and the differences between the Liberal status, the agents established their day-to-day management of party and Conservative parties in terms own professional organisations. organisation, formed a vital link of the prevailing cultural attitudes Founded in 1882, in anticipation between politics at Westminster within those parties, looking at of the major electoral reforms of and at grassroots level, helping to these from the perspective of the 1883–5, the Liberal Secretaries connect political parties with the constituency agents. In particular, and Agents Association was sub- electorate. They had a major impact this article reassesses how the rival sequently renamed the National on political culture in this period, parties approached what contem- Association of Liberal Secretaries which was a critical one for the evo- poraries termed the ‘social side’ of and Agents (NALSA). A rival body, lution of mass electoral politics, as politics, and argues that the differ- the Society of Certificated Liberal politicians sought to adapt to the ences between Liberalism and Con- Agents (SCLA), was set up in 1893 new electoral conditions created by servatism in this respect were not with the object of providing ‘a real the Corrupt and Illegal Practices as clear-cut as might be supposed. ‘The slave practical test to keep out interlop- Prevention Act (1883) and the Third The article concludes by engaging to duty’ ers and duffers’.4 Although the two Reform Act (1884–85). These land- with the ongoing debate among (Manchester organisations initially disagreed mark reforms had placed strict lim- historians about how far elections Evening News, 19 on whether agents should have to its on election expenditure, greatly during this period continued to August 1910) hold certificates of proficiency,

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 19 professionalisation and political culture: party agents, 1880–1914 they overcame their differences lecturing on their party’s behalf.8 local and parliamentary elections. and formally merged in 1901 as the Michael Sykes, a former apprentice By the time of the seventeenth edi- Society of Certificated and Asso- clog-maker from Yorkshire, who tion in 1895, the requisite mate- ciated Liberal Agents.5 On the undertook several speaking tours in rial on these matters filled three Conservative side, the National that region with the Conservative volumes.13 The chief Conservative Society of Conservative Agents party’s ‘Balfour’ van, provides one agent, Richard Middleton, encap- was created in 1891, although sev- such case.9 sulated the transformation which eral regional Conservative agents’ The shift away from solici- had taken place when he observed associations were already in exist- tor agents towards professional in 1897 that ‘the work of the politi- ence before that date, the earliest agency was prompted by the grow- cal agent of to-day … if it was to be of which had originated in 1871.6 ing demands of political organisa- successful, must be the work not of Both the Liberal and Conservative tion in the late nineteenth century. a few days but of a lifetime’.14 agents published their own pro- The restrictions on election spend- While local Liberal and Con- fessional journals from the 1890s ing and the stringent regulations servative associations were increas- onwards – the Liberal Agent, which imposed by the 1883 Corrupt ingly choosing to employ full-time developed out of an earlier publica- and Illegal Practices Prevention professional agents, it is important tion, the SCLA Quarterly, and The Act were an important stimulus to recognise that this shift away Tory, which was later replaced by for change, making expertise at from solicitor agency was a grad- the Conservative Agents’ Journal – to elections and preparatory work ual and uneven process. At one provide information and advice to between elections essential. The end of the spectrum, there were members, and held regular meet- extension of the franchise under the constituencies where professional ings at national and regional level, Third Reform Act saw the num- agents had appeared even before the at which they discussed matters ber of voters in the United King- reforms of the 1880s, notably large ranging from the technicalities of dom rise from 3,040,050 in 1880 to boroughs where the demands of registration and election law to the 5,708,000 in 1885, and 7,264,608 in registration work were particularly best methods of canvassing. 1906.10 This increased the burden of The restric- onerous. In Manchester, the Con- Although the agents’ profes- registration work and gave a fur- servatives employed a professional sional bodies did allow solicitors to ther boost to the growth of local tions on agent from 1870, and the Liberals join their ranks, most of their mem- political organisations to harness followed suit in 1874, appointing bers came from a diverse range of the support of a mass electorate. election Benjamin Green, a former pub- non-legal backgrounds. One of the After these two key reforms it was, lisher and bookseller.15 At the other leading Liberal agents, James Lin- as the chairman of the National spending and end of the scale, some constituen- forth, who served in turn as Liberal Society of Conservative Agents the stringent cies had no agents and indeed little agent for Lichfield, Nottingham noted in 1895, no longer easy for organisation at all. Liberal organi- and Leeds, had previously been a solicitors ‘to manage constituencies regulations sation in London was notoriously cabinetmaker and joiner, and had in a great rush at election times’.11 weak, and the Liberal Agent in 1896 produced much of the oak panel- Added to this, it is important to imposed by bemoaned that ‘in the Metropoli- ling for the Council House in Bir- remember the growing number of tan Constituencies there are hardly mingham. He had also worked as a local election contests taking place, the 1883 Cor- any skilled and paid Agents; and local correspondent for the Birming- with the creation of county coun- the number seems diminishing’.16 ham Daily Post.7 Among Linforth’s cils in 1888 and parish and district rupt and Ille- Other constituencies continued to Liberal colleagues and Conserva- councils in 1894. Although these rely on solicitor agents through- tive counterparts were several elections, and those for other bodies gal Practices out this period, and even in con- former teachers and journalists, a such as school boards and municipal stituencies which had professional miner, a bank clerk, a handful of councils, were not always conducted Prevention agents, candidates often still turned agricultural labourers, a tailor, an on political lines, many constitu- to solicitors to act as their election antiques dealer, several army offi- ency agents were keen to see that Act were an agents, much to the professional cers and a carpet-weaver. Like Lin- they should be. Alfred Mills, Lib- agents’ disgust. The Liberal Agent forth, who first became involved in eral agent for Birkenhead, advised important recorded concerns in 1900 about political work when he campaigned his fellow professionals in 1902 that registration agents who were made for a Liberal candidate at the 1874 ‘local elections are capital training stimulus for ‘mere hewers of wood and drawers general election, these individuals grounds for parliamentary elections, of water, at election times, for solic- had typically undertaken volun- both for agents and canvassers, and change, mak- itor agents who have done no party tary activity for their party before it is only by fighting such elections ing expertise work, probably, for years’.17 making political agency their pro- that the machinery can possibly be For some candidates their deci- fession. The agents’ ranks were kept up-to-date and oiled’.12 at elections sion to eschew a professional elec- filled particularly with those from The increased responsibilities tion agent reflected the fact that the lower middle-class and working- of the political agent are strikingly and prepara- election agency remained a valu- class backgrounds. There appear to illustrated by a perusal of one of the able piece of patronage, which they have been more agents from work- leading election handbooks of the tory work preferred to give to a friend, rela- ing-class backgrounds among the day, Rogers on Elections, which was tive or other leading supporter; Liberals than the Conservatives, the set textbook for candidates sit- between for others, it may have stemmed although what these working-class ting the Conservative agents’ exam- from a lack of enthusiasm about Conservative agents lacked in num- ination. The thirteenth edition, elections the advent of professional ‘machine bers, they made up for by being published in 1880, consisted of one politics’. The suspicion which had notably active in speaking and volume covering registration and essential. surrounded the emergence of the

20 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 professionalisation and political culture: party agents, 1880–1914

Liberal ‘caucus’ and its ‘wire-pull- Each sum- and the Conservative agents expe- This allowed them to take some of ers’ in the 1870s lingered, and as rienced similar difficulties at this the burden off MPs when it came to late as 1910, Robert Hudson, the mer, accom- date.21 While it was particularly matters such as the ‘political edu- chief Liberal agent, felt compelled the case that organisation might be cation’ of voters through meetings to defend the notion of professional panied by his wound down after a defeated candi- and party literature. It also gave agency, arguing that: date (and his purse) withdrew from them the opportunity for much wife, child, a constituency, even victory was no more direct and informal interac- … it is a little odd that only in guarantee that an agent would keep tion with voters. The Liberal agent politics, in the science of gov- maid, office his place. Indeed The Tory claimed for the extensive rural division of erning, is the professional con- lad and dog, in 1894 that ‘the greater the success Wellington in Somerset, Stanley sidered so dangerous … We achieved the more likely the party French, described how he came don’t seek out the uncertified French cycled is to dispense with the Agents’ ser- into contact with those in even the doctor or the unqualified law- vices’, as complacency set in.22 most remote parts of the constitu- yer. We employ a professional around the The critical factor in decid- ency. Each summer, accompanied and we pay him … I cannot see ing whether an agent would be by his wife, child, maid, office lad why in politics alone the pre- constituency, appointed was local party finance, and dog, French cycled around the tence should be maintained that because the agent’s salary, typically constituency, camping overnight, it is only the services of the ama- camping ranging from £150 to £300, was and collecting the information teur which are of value.18 a major component of local party necessary for making registration overnight, expenditure.23 Both the Liberal claims for party supporters quali- The low number of professional and Conservative agents’ associa- fied to be on the electoral register Liberal agents employed in Lon- and col- tions appealed on occasion to cen- and objections to the enrolment of don, where the party’s electoral tral party headquarters to intercede opponents. Locals were attracted to chances at parliamentary level were lecting the to improve their status, pay and his evening campfires, and French poor, suggested that there was some employment conditions. In 1907, observed that ‘a pleasant hour degree of correlation between the information for example, the annual meeting of can be spent in chatting with the marginality of a constituency and the National Society of Conserva- farmer on whose ground you are the employment of an agent. There necessary tive Agents asked Conservative pitched, or in sympathising with was little point in expending funds Central Office to advise local asso- a disappointed applicant for small in organising a constituency which for making ciations to give preference to ‘men holdings, or settling the politics of would not even be contested. How- who have had expert training’, a the nation with the local Liberal ever, in other areas where Liberal registration plea which bore little fruit in terms workers’. 26 electoral prospects were equally claims for of central party action.24 The fact bleak, such as Birmingham, an that the national party organisers, impregnable stronghold of Con- party sup- while sympathetic to the agents’ The ‘social side’ of politics servatism and Liberal Unionism claims, were unable to dictate to Alongside the work of registration after Joseph Chamberlain left the porters qual- local party associations on such and electioneering, the professional Liberal party, agents were nonethe- matters provides a useful reminder agents were involved in efforts to less employed. The endeavours of ified to be of the ongoing limitations of cen- attract supporters for their party by William Finnemore, secretary to tral party influence over the con- adding a social dimension to their the Birmingham Liberal Associa- on the elec- stituencies. It also highlights the organisational activities, whether tion from 1897, were lauded by the fact that the professionalisation through the provision of entertain- Liberal Agent, which recorded that toral register of political agency should not be ment and refreshments at meetings, ‘no agent has had a lonelier furrow regarded as straightforwardly syn- or through auxiliary bodies such as to plough than he’ in this ‘politi- and objec- onymous with the centralisation of cycling clubs and benefit societies. cally pagan’ city.19 party organisation. Although both parties deployed A discernible pattern was a tions to the Despite these caveats, the reach such methods, the Conservatives degree of ebb and flow between of professional agency expanded have generally been regarded as elections with regard to profes- enrolment of significantly in this period. In 1906 more proficient at exploiting what sional agency, with agents being the Society of Certificated and contemporaries referred to as the appointed when an election was opponents. Associated Liberal Agents had 321 ‘social side’ of politics. In his sur- imminent, aided by the presence of members in England and Wales.25 vey of party organisation pub- a candidate to contribute towards These professional agents served lished in 1902, Moisei Ostrogorski local party funds. Thus in July as important representatives of lauded them as ‘the past masters in 1905 the Lancashire and Chesh- their parties in the constituencies, the organization of “social meet- ire district of the Liberal agents’ with crucial implications for politi- ings” and in the art of making them association reported that ‘quali- cal culture. The contact which attractive’. 27 Historians have also fied Agents have been appointed in MPs and candidates had with the highlighted the differences between almost every constituency’.20 Con- electorate was often sporadic, and the parties in this regard. As Jon versely, some agents lost their posts – away from the hurly-burly of Lawrence notes, ‘where Liberalism in the wake of general elections. election meetings – undertaken in was associated with the dry proce- The Liberal Agent ended its reports a rather stage-managed and con- dural debate of the branch meeting, of agents left unemployed after the trolled way, such as giving set-piece Conservatism was associated with party’s 1906 landslide victory with addresses at ticketed meetings. In entertainment and spectacle’.28 The the words ‘ditto, ditto, ditto’, indi- contrast, the agents were a perma- Primrose League, with its tea par- cating the extent of the problem, nent presence in the constituency. ties and garden fêtes, provides the

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 21 professionalisation and political culture: party agents, 1880–1914 most notable example of a resource This contrast nuanced picture emerges. When it extend their social activities, ask- which the Liberals found hard to came to the practicalities of party ing them to supply information match. Lawrence’s research has also between organisation, there are strong indi- on local efforts, with ‘an estimate highlighted a second key element cations that agents were aware of their value to the Party’, and of the Conservatives’ social appeal: the more of the dangers of conforming to in 1901 it formed a Central Com- their identification with traditional the cultural stereotypes associ- mittee, assisted by representatives masculine pastimes such as sport rational, ated with their parties, and tried from the National Liberal Club and and the public house, in contrast to overcome these by modify- from women’s Liberal organisa- with the dull, temperance-abiding, sober- ing their organisational activities. tions, to encourage ‘the social side killjoy Liberals.29 This theme has The agents’ professional journals of Liberal work’.38 The need for been developed more recently in minded confirm the Conservatives’ adept- the Liberals to counteract accu- the work of Matthew Roberts on ness at adding a social component sations that they were ‘a dry lot’ Leeds and Alex Windscheffel on Liberal to their meetings. One Conserva- was recognised by Fred Harrison, London, among others.30 The cor- approach tive agent recommended ‘Music, agent for the Wirral, who urged ollary of this is that the Conserva- Mirth, and Mimicry’ as ‘the popu- that ‘in addition to being serious tives have been seen as paying less and the con- lar and proper line to take with just politicians we must also be socia- attention to the political education enough politics to make meetings ble beings, and occasionally drop of the electorate. John Ramsden, vivial and political’.33 However, at the same down from our exalted position for example, has described them as time, concerns were creeping in and take a real part in their social ‘social rather than truly political’.31 sociable about the need for the Conserva- life’.39 However, underlying this, As a broad interpretation this tives to pay sufficient attention to there were some genuine qualms contrast between the more rational, Conserva- the vital work of political educa- that when engaging in such activi- sober-minded Liberal approach tion, which was in danger of being ties, the Liberals must take care not and the convivial and sociable tives has lost among their social activities. to ‘degrade’ political life. James Conservatives has considerable James Bottomley, Conservative Martin, Liberal agent for Wood- merit, and does much to explain considerable agent for Lancaster, complained in bridge in Suffolk, acknowledged the differing appeals of the parties 1899 that some Primrose League that the Liberals ‘must recognise to voters in this period. A shared merit, and habitations in the North of Eng- that there is a social side to human political culture could be as impor- land ‘had recently degenerated nature which has its needs’, but he tant as political beliefs in binding does much into mere entertainment caterers’.34 disdained the acrobats, Punch and parties together. The divergent Bottomley, one of the small but Judy performances and tea parties attitudes of the two parties were to explain significant number of Conserva- offered at Primrose League gather- nicely captured in the memoirs tive agents from a working-class ings. His suggested social activities of John Bridges, chairman of the the differing background, was notably active in were more high-minded, including East Worcestershire Conservative appeals of the work of political education on debates, a ‘political question box’, Association. This was a constitu- his party’s behalf, having addressed lantern lectures, music, singing, ency in which Conservatives and the parties to political meetings in every county and informal discussion meetings Liberal Unionists found them- in England by 1895.35 The Primrose in people’s homes, where the host selves having to work together voters in this League itself took steps to tackle would read an original paper or an after 1886. Yet their mutual oppo- the perceived imbalance between article from a Liberal publication.40 sition to home rule did not prove period. the social and political aspects of Despite the keenness of some of his sufficient to overcome the cultural its activities: its Grand Council colleagues to broaden the Liberals’ divide between them. As Bridges decided in 1891 that it would not social appeal, Martin’s proposed reflected: provide speakers unless they were social programme demonstrated given at least thirty minutes to the influence which the Liberals’ … our ways were not their ways. speak, arguing that ‘it is impossi- more sober and rational approach Smoking concerts … which we ble for any one (except perhaps Mr. to politics continued to have on the frequently found so serviceable, Gladstone out of a railway carriage party’s organisational efforts. were, I feel sure, an abomina- window) to do more than “say a Undoubtedly one of the most tion to the Liberal Unionists. I few words” in fifteen minutes’.36 difficult subjects for Liberal organ- have seen a few of them there, Conversely on the Liberal side, isers was the drink question. but if not always like skeletons the professional agents periodically Reflecting their party more gen- at a feast, they never seemed discussed how best to counter the erally, the Liberal agents’ ranks comfortable. They gave the idea Conservatives’ social appeal by pro- contained several temperance activ- of condescending to what they viding their own social activities. ists.41 However, scrutiny of their considered a regrettable waste of In 1896, under the heading ‘How professional journals also reveals a their valuable time. We, on the to Make Politics Popular’, the Lib- degree of recognition among the other hand, thought their politi- eral Agent reprinted the programme agents of the problematic nature of cal tea parties… jejune affairs. It of a Liberal fête at East Grinstead, the temperance issue for their party, appears that there is something with attractions including sports, particularly if they wished to win in the professing of Liberal poli- minstrels and dancing alongside support beyond the Nonconformist tics that makes a man averse to the political speeches.37 Following faithful. The Liberal Agent’s editors joviality.32 the Liberal election defeats of 1895 in 1898 argued for the importance and 1900, the Home Counties Lib- of representing Liberal clubs – a Approaching this question from eral Federation enlisted the advice significant number of which did sell the agents’ point of view, a more of agents on how the Liberals could alcoholic drink – on the executive

22 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 professionalisation and political culture: party agents, 1880–1914 committees of local Liberal associa- national focus are H. J. Hanham would ‘hesitate, to do more than tions. They were worried that these and Martin Pugh.44 Others have “suggest”’ to local agents how they committees too often comprised: dated the critical turning point should act. In the absence of action much later. Peter Clarke’s work by Conservative Central Office, the … the puritan section of the sees the ambit of politics switch- agents’ organisation issued its own party, in an altogether over- ing from the local to the national guidelines, which Middleton three whelming proportion; the con- during the Edwardian period.45 Jon years later incorporated into head- sequence is that the Liberal party Lawrence has pushed the timing of quarters advice.48 has in many cases associated change later still, for while he sees As well as exchanging ideas itself with attacks on the pleas- the First World War as marking a at meetings and through their ures of the people, which were new phase in the nationalisation of Whereas professional journals, the agents certainly not endorsed by the political debate, he also emphasises could spread more uniform meth- Liberal electors at large. There the continued significance of ‘the solicitor ods of working when they moved are plenty of Liberal electors politics of locality’ in the inter-war agents had between constituencies. Whereas who like their “pint of mild”, period.46 Lawrence’s work suggests solicitor agents had tended to stay their “three of scotch”… if by the importance of understand- tended to in one locality, the new profes- any means this section can be ing the interactions between the sional agents showed a surpris- represented on the councils of national and the local dimensions stay in one ing degree of mobility: a study of the party, some serious mistakes of electoral politics, a process in almost 200 Liberal and Conserva- may be avoided.42 which the agents played a key part locality, the tive agents reveals that more than as intermediaries between the cen- 70 per cent of agents from non- The views of one veteran Liberal tral party organisations and the new profes- legal backgrounds appear to have agent in 1909 echoed this concern constituencies. moved between constituencies at that the party’s stance on the evils As noted above, this period saw sional agents some point during this period. Nor of drink diminished its ability to the agents of each party coalesce were these moves confined to a win broader electoral support. He into a professional group by means showed a particular area: more than half of argued that an agent could not of their national and regional those who moved transferred to a possibly get to know the differ- organisations. The agents’ profes- surprising completely different region.49 James ent elements of the electorate if he sional network was an invaluable Bottomley, the Conservative agent divided his time between his office, conduit for the exchange of infor- degree of for Lancaster mentioned above, home and church, encountering mation between party organis- had previously been agent for Don- only those who drank ‘lemonade ers. There were several areas in mobility: caster, but was offered a higher and soda-water’.43 The agents’ day- which this contributed to a greater salary to persuade him to move.50 to-day contact with ordinary vot- uniformity of practice across the a study of Fred Nash, one of the leading Lib- ers gave them a different take on constituencies. Comparing notes almost 200 eral agents, first became an agent matters from that of party leaders, in 1892, the Conservative agents for the Handsworth constituency MPs, candidates and other promi- realised that in some constituen- Liberal and in 1882, moved to Ipswich in 1884, nent partisans. There was an evi- cies postmasters were charging a Norwich in 1886, and finally held dent tension between high-minded penny postage for polling cards, Conserva- the Liberal agency at Colchester party idealism and the realities of while elsewhere only a halfpenny from 1893 until his death in 1906.51 politics on the ground, and agents was charged. A deputation from the tive agents In addition to transferring their of both parties realised the impor- National Society of Conservative professional knowledge when they tance of trying to move beyond Agents saw the Postmaster-Gen- reveals that moved between constituencies, the party stereotypes to appeal to eral, who ruled that the lower rate agents brought their expertise to a wider section of the electorate. applied.47 While this might seem more than 70 bear elsewhere on other occasions, This prompted something of a jug- trivial, it represented a significant notably when they went to assist gling act, particularly for Liberal and welcome saving, especially in per cent of at by-elections, where professional agents, as they sought to balance view of the strict limits on elec- organisers were increasingly being the ingrained cultural attitudes of tion spending imposed by the 1883 agents from deployed.52 the party faithful with the desire Corrupt Practices Act. On other While this mobility between to reach beyond their established practical questions, such as the for- non-legal constituencies and the desire for constituency. mat of inquiry cards on ‘outvoters’ uniformity in the practical meth- – those who lived in one constitu- backgrounds ods of political work might suggest ency but had a vote in another, an that an increasingly nationalised Electoral politics: local or issue on which agents had to coop- appear to political and electoral culture was national? erate – both Liberal and Conserva- have moved developing, the agents’ experi- The agents can also help to shed tive agents realised the benefits of ences also demonstrated that local light on another question which uniformity. Indeed they sometimes between forces continued to carry signifi- has attracted considerable atten- seemed more willing to encourage cant weight. As noted above, it tion from historians: when did the it than did the central party organ- constituen- was local party associations which national rather than the local arena isers. In 1895 when the Council of exercised the greatest influence become the primary focus in elec- the National Society of Conserva- cies at some over whether a professional agent tion campaigns? Among those who tive Agents asked the chief agent, would be appointed, so while they have identified the 1880s as the Richard Middleton, to issue cen- point during were an increasingly mobile group, formative decade in which British tral party guidelines on outvoter the professional agents should not electoral politics acquired a more inquiries, he responded that he this period. be regarded as party functionaries

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 23 professionalisation and political culture: party agents, 1880–1914 sent to impose on the localities. It election leaflets, pamphlets and the fields of Kent.61 Thus even the is clear that agents put down strong posters during this period. The growing central provision of elec- local roots in their constituencies, dominance of particular election tion literature did not preclude con- engaging with voters through a issues such as home rule in 1886 or tinued diversity in the appeals made variety of social, religious, educa- free trade versus tariff reform in locally to electors. tional, sporting and philanthropic 1906 arguably contributed towards The persistent lack of uniform- activities. William Beardsley, who giving elections a more uniform ity in party colours across the became Liberal agent for Wal- national focus. Frank Trentmann country was a particularly strik- sall in 1892, was involved with the has asserted that in the Edward- ing indicator of this local variety town’s adult school movement ian period ‘Free Trade was politi- in electioneering, with the colours and also served as a Wesleyan local cal life. It was ubiquitous. Even The expan- in use by the Conservatives in 1894 preacher.53 tourists and day-trippers at seaside including blue in Manchester, red Their involvement in such activ- resorts became engulfed by Free sion within in Liverpool, dark blue and prim- ities helped agents to gain a greater Trade ideas, demonstrations, and the constitu- rose in East Dorset and pink in Lin- understanding of the appeals which entertainment’.57 colnshire. Meanwhile an article in would resonate with their constitu- Yet despite the increasing cen- encies of a the Liberal Agent in 1898 bemoaned ency’s voters at elections. Platform tral output of election literature, the fact that the Liberals across speeches, reported at length in the whether from party headquarters network of the country used ‘every colour of national, regional and local press, or auxiliary bodies such as the Free the rainbow, in various shades and remained a central part of the elec- Trade Union, local input remained professional mixtures’.62 It is evident that there tion campaign, and agents spent paramount.58 Where centrally pro- was not a straightforward transi- much time and effort organising duced material was used, it was agents had tion from a locally focused to a election meetings. However, the often given a local spin. Sometimes nationally based electoral culture. most costly component of election- this was done in a fairly superficial significant Instead, countervailing local and eering was the printing and distri- way, over-printing a poster with national influences continued to bution of election literature: at the the local candidate’s name, or add- ramifications shape electioneering and political 1906 general election, 45 per cent ing his portrait to the cover of a organisation in this period. of total expenditure by candidates headquarters pamphlet. However, for British The expansion within the con- in England and Wales came under despite its attractions – not least stituencies of a network of pro- this heading.54 Candidates and their that it was supplied to constituen- political cul- fessional agents had significant agents were offered an increas- cies at cost price and offered mate- ramifications for British politi- ingly wide choice of material from rial such as Gould’s cartoons which ture. It can- cal culture. It cannot simply be central party headquarters. At the could not be matched locally – the assumed that the professionalisa- 1906 election, the Liberal Publica- agents did not solely rely on head- not simply tion of party organisation, which tion Department (LPD) supplied quarters provision. A wide and be assumed was in itself an ongoing and uneven 26,000,000 leaflets and pamphlets, inventive range of election material process, was synonymous with 700,000 coloured posters and was produced at local level, ena- that the pro- the modernisation and nationali- 2,600,000 cartoons, many of them bling national issues to be viewed sation of electoral politics. Even from the pen of the noted politi- through a local prism. To take fessionalisa- had the need for professional cal cartoonist, Francis Carruthers just one example, on the morning party machinery been universally Gould. Even more was provided of the poll at Sheffield Brightside tion of party accepted, financial pressures made by the National Union of Con- in 1906, the Liberals distributed it unfeasible to employ full-time servative and Constitutional Asso- handbills at the factory gates of organisa- professional agents in every con- ciations (NUCCA), which issued the Cammell engineering works, stituency. Nonetheless, the grow- 34,000,000 leaflets and pamphlets, a major employer in the constitu- tion, which ing importance of the professional 250,000 posters and 150,000 car- ency. These reproduced the views agents’ network as a vital conduit toons in 1906.55 This material was of Cammell Laird’s chairman in was in itself for communication between the extensively used and appreciated support of free trade, urging that central parties and the localities, by the professional agents: follow- ‘Cammell’s chairman says No Pro- an ongoing and between candidates and elec- ing the Liberals’ decisive victory in tection. Follow his lead’.59 Like- tors, should not be underestimated. 1906, Liberal agents in Yorkshire wise, Trentmann has shown how and uneven Through their mobility and their passed a resolution thanking the the free trade campaign’s ‘attempts interactions with each other via LPD for its ‘invaluable aid’, espe- to centralize and streamline politi- process, was their professional bodies, the agents cially ‘the liberal grant of effective cal activities’ could be ignored or helped to encourage greater uni- posters, which so materially influ- adapted by local activists.60 The synonymous formity in the practical work of enced the result of the elections’.56 central party headquarters them- with the registration, electioneering and However, the LPD and the selves realised the need to target party organisation across the con- NUCCA were not the only central particular local industries or inter- moderni- stituencies. At the same time, their bodies to provide election litera- est groups in their literature. In day-to-day contact with ordinary ture. On the Liberal side, the Home 1910, for example, the NUCCA sation and voters gave them a greater aware- Rule Union, the National Reform offered several extremely specific ness of some of the challenges fac- Union, the Cobden Club, the Lib- leaflets on the benefits of Tariff nationalisa- ing the political parties as they eration Society, the Free Trade Reform, among them one aimed sought to adapt to the demands of Union and the Budget League at piano-makers and another tion of elec- mass politics, notably the need to were just some of the plethora of addressed to Londoners who spent appeal beyond the party faithful to organisations which produced their holiday time picking hops in toral politics. a wider section of the electorate,

24 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 professionalisation and political culture: party agents, 1880–1914 and the need to give national politi- The experi- p. 1183; Manchester Guardian, 26 Sept. 40 Liberal Agent, 28 (Apr. 1902), pp. cal issues resonance in their constit- 1892. 22–31. uencies by filtering them through ences of the 16 Paul Thompson, Socialists, Liberals and 41 Rix, ‘Party agent’, p. 103. a local lens. The experiences of the Labour. The struggle for London 1885– 42 Liberal Agent, 12 (Apr. 1898), p. 53. professional agents, both Liberal professional 1914 (London: Routledge & Kegan 43 Liberal Agent, 57 (July 1909), pp. 5–6. and Conservative, highlight the Paul, 1967), p. 75; Liberal Agent, 6 44 Martin Pugh, The Making of Mod- intriguing complexities of British agents, both (Oct. 1896), p. 37. ern British Politics 1867–1939 (Oxford: elections in the decades after the 17 Liberal Agent, 21 (July 1900), p. 5. Blackwell, 1993 (second edition)), p. 10; Third Reform Act. Liberal and 18 Thomas Palmer Newbould, Pages H.J. Hanham, Elections and Party Man- from a life of strife (London: Frank agement: Politics in the Time of Disraeli and Dr Kathryn Rix is Assistant Editor Conserva- Palmer, 1910), pp. ix–x. Gladstone (Hassocks: Harvester Press, of the House of Commons, 1832–1945 tive, high- 19 Liberal Agent, 46 (Oct. 1906), p. 39. 1978 (second edition)), p. xxx. project at the History of Parliament (see 20 Liberal Agent, 41 (July 1905), pp. 40–1. 45 Peter Clarke, Lancashire and the New www.historyofparliamentonline.org light the 21 Liberal Agent, 43–44 (Jan.–Apr. 1906), Liberalism (Cambridge University and www.victoriancommons.wordpress. p. 153; Conservative Agents’ Journal, 13 Press, 1971), pp. 406–7. com). Her book on Parties, Agents and intriguing (Nov. 1908), p. 4. 46 Jon Lawrence, ‘The dynamics of Electoral Culture in England, 1880– 22 The Tory, 16 (May 1894), p. 349. urban politics, 1867–1914’, in Jon 1910 is currently in preparation. complexi- 23 Rix, ‘Party agent’, p. 177. Lawrence and Miles Taylor (eds.), 24 Westminster City Archives, National Party, State and Society: Electoral Behav- 1 The Tory, 23 (Dec. 1894), p. 671 ties of British Society of Conservative Agents, iour in Britain since 1820 (Aldershot: [microfilm pagination]. Minute Book, 14 Feb. 1907. Scolar Press, 1997), p. 97. 2 National Liberal Federation, Annual elections in 25 Rix, ‘Party agent’, p. 127. 47 The Tory, 1 (June 1892), p. 4; The Tory, reports and conference proceedings (1901), 26 Liberal Agent, 60 (Apr. 1910), p. 178. 6 (Jan. 1893), p. 148. pp. 124–5. the decades 27 Moisei Ostrogorski, Democracy and 48 The Tory, 26 (March 1895), p. 795; 3 The themes discussed in this article the organization of political parties (Lon- National Society of Conservative are explored more fully in my book, after the don: Macmillan, 1902), vol. 1, p. 440. Agents, Minute Book, 8 July 1898. ‘Parties, Agents and Electoral Cul- 28 Jon Lawrence, ‘Popular politics and 49 Rix, ‘Party agent’, p. 95. ture in England, 1880–1910’, cur- Third Reform the limitations of party: Wolver- 50 The Tory, 25 (Feb. 1895), pp. 736–7. rently in preparation. hampton, 1867–1900’, in Eugenio 51 Liberal Agent, 37 (July 1904), pp. 1–2. 4 The Tory, 17 (June 1894), p. 407. Act. Biagini and Alastair Reid (eds.), Cur- 52 Kathryn Rix, ‘By-elections and the 5 For a more detailed account of the rents of Radicalism. Popular Radicalism, modernisation of party organisation, development of the Liberal agents’ Organised Labour and Party Politics in 1867–1914’, in T. G. Otte and Paul professional bodies, see Kathryn Britain, 1850–1914 (Cambridge Uni- Readman (eds.), By-elections in Brit- Rix, ‘Hidden workers of the party. versity Press, 1991), p. 76. ish Politics, 1832–1914 (Woodbridge: The professional Liberal agents, 29 Jon Lawrence, Speaking for the People: Boydell and Brewer, 2013), pp. 1885–1910’, Journal of Liberal History, Party, Language and Popular Politics in 151–75. 52 (Autumn 2006), pp. 9–10. England, 1867–1914 (Cambridge Uni- 53 Liberal Agent, 58 (Oct. 1909), pp. 67, 6 Kathryn Rix, ‘The party agent and versity Press, 1998), pp. 107–8; idem., 70. English electoral culture, 1880–1906’, ‘Class and gender in the making of 54 Rix, ‘Party agent’, p. 275. Ph.D. diss. (University of Cam- urban Toryism, 1880–1914’, English 55 Rix, ‘Party agent’, pp. 278–9. On bridge, 2001), pp. 117–22. Historical Review, 108 (1993), pp. 634, Gould, see Philippe Vervaecke, ‘“Etch- 7 Liberal Agent, 8 (Apr. 1897), pp. 10–11. 639–40. ing with vinegar”. Francis Carruthers 8 For the research on which this analy- 30 Matthew Roberts, ‘“Villa toryism” Gould and Joseph Chamberlain, 1895– sis is based, see Rix, ‘Party agent’, pp. and popular Conservatism in Leeds, 1907’, Revue française de civilisation britan- 76–89. 1885–1902’, Historical Journal, 49:1 nique, vol. XVI: 2 (2011). 9 Kathryn Rix, ‘“Go out into the (2006), p. 241; Alex Windscheffel, 56 Liberal Agent, 43–4 (Jan.–Apr. 1906), highways and the hedges”: the diary Popular Conservatism in Imperial Lon- p. 132. of Michael Sykes, Conservative don, 1868–1906 (Woodbridge: Boydell 57 Frank Trentmann, Free Trade Nation: political lecturer, 1895 and 1907–8’, and Brewer, 2007), p. 28. Commerce, Consumption and Civil Soci- Parliamentary History, 20:2 (2001), pp. 31 John Ramsden, The Age of Balfour and ety in Modern Britain (Oxford Univer- 209–31. Baldwin 1902–1940 (London: Long- sity Press, 2008), p. 4. 10 F. W. S. Craig (ed.), British Electoral man, 1978), p. 50. 58 A more detailed discussion of the bal- Facts 1832–1980 (Chichester: Parlia- 32 John A. Bridges, Reminiscences of a ance of central and local provision mentary Research Services, 1981), Country Politician (London: T.W. Lau- in election literature can be found in pp. 80–1. rie, 1906), p. 170. Rix, ‘Party agent’, ch. 5. 11 The Tory, 26 (Mar. 1895), pp. 799–800. 33 The Tory, 36–37 (Jan.–Feb. 1896), p. 59 Sheffield Local Studies Library, 12 Liberal Agent, 27 (Jan. 1902), p. 28. 1103. Newspaper cuttings relating to the 13 J. C. Carter, Rogers on Elections, reg- 34 Primrose League Gazette, 2 Jan. 1899. Brightside elections, vol. 2 (1906), p. istration and election agency (London: 35 The Tory, 25 (Feb. 1895), pp. 735–6. 79. Stevens and Sons, 1880 (13th edition)); 36 Primrose League Gazette, 14 Feb. 1891. 60 Trentmann, Free Trade Nation, p. 129. M. Powell and S. H. Day, Rogers on 37 Liberal Agent, 6 (Oct. 1896), pp. 38–9. 61 National Union of Conservative and Elections (London: Stevens and Sons, 38 Liberal Agent, 7 (Jan. 1897), p. 23; Lib- Constitutional Associations, Facts 1894 (17th edition)). eral Agent, 22–3 (Oct. 1900–Jan. 1901), for Pianomakers! (No. 1358); Londoners 14 The Tory, 51–52 (Apr. & May 1897), p. pp. 68–9; Home Counties Liberal Beware!! Hopping in danger (No. 1390). 1490. Federation, Annual reports (1901), p. 5. 62 The Tory, 17 (June 1894), p. 423; Lib- 15 The Tory, 39 & 40 (Apr. & May 1896), 39 Liberal Agent, 70 (Oct. 1912), p. 20. eral Agent, 11 (Jan. 1898), p. 39.

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 25 Walter Runciman and the Decline of the Liberal Party

Historians remain divided about the contribution that biography can make to their craft. Those who believe that the study of individuals is important because the decisions of those individuals affect the course of events and that the replacement of one key player in the historical mosaic can significantly change the way in which history evolves are matched by others who argue that biography inevitably exaggerates the role and significance of the individual and distorts the reality of the historical narrative. By David Dutton.1

26 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 Walter Runciman and the Decline of the Liberal Party

etween someone like parliament alongside his own father seafaring family. Two of his great- Thomas Carlyle, who and even of having preceded him grandfathers fought as midshipmen Bwrote that ‘history is the there. A governmental colleague at Trafalgar, while his father, also essence of innumerable biogra- offered a very fair assessment of him called Walter, rose from humble phies’, and the committed Marxist in 1912. ‘Runciman,’ he wrote, ‘is beginnings to own a major ship- who views the individual as a help- able, honest, hard-working, coura- ping company in the north-east. less cork bobbing up and down on geous, but while a good speaker, The traditional Liberal commit- the remorseless tides of economic just lacks that touch of genius which ment to free trade was part of the determinism, there can be no meet- Churchill has got, and that charm young Walter’s thinking as a pros- ing of minds.2 But somewhere which Lloyd George abounds in. He perous businessman. So too was his between these competing views will enjoy and deserve high office, support for temperance as a lifelong there may perhaps be an accept- but never I think the highest.’3 So it Wesleyian Methodist. Throughout ance that the career of an individual turned out. Runciman never held his political career, contemporaries can offer a revealing prism through one of the great offices of state; his pointed to the continuing impor- which to study important historical most senior appointment was as tance of Runciman’s background themes and problems. President of the Board of Trade, in the world of business and com- The political biography of Wal- where he played an important role merce. A Cabinet colleague dur- ter Runciman, first Viscount Run- in shifting British policy away from ing the First World War found him ciman of Doxford, offers such an free trade in the early 1930s. His- ‘lucid, concise and courageous … opportunity. Runciman’s career tory best remembers him for a job ambitious and a little cocksure. A was certainly a long one. First he performed when not holding hardworking, very capable man elected to the House of Commons government office, travelling to of business….’5 Many years later, in 1899 as Britain became involved Czechoslovakia in the summer of the journalist Colin Coote wrote in the Boer War, he finally retired 1938 in an ultimately unsuccessful approvingly of a ‘shrewdly practi- from his last Cabinet post at the out- attempt to broker a peaceful set- cal business man … whose politics break of the Second World War 40 tlement of the crisis between the were more pragmatic than dog- years later. But political longevity Czechoslovak government and the matic’.6 Even Neville Chamber- does not in itself confer significance, Sudeten Germans, before Prime lain, in announcing to the House and it has to be conceded that Run- Minister Neville Chamberlain took of Commons Runciman’s appoint- ciman was never a politician of the the problem into his own hands in ment as ‘independent mediator’ absolutely first rank. ‘Who were the direct negotiations with Adolf Hit- in the Czechoslovakian crisis of first married couple to sit together ler. Briefly, at least in the opinion of 1938, suggested he would be play- in the House of Commons?’ may be Chamberlain’s Minister of Health, ing the part ‘of a man who goes a good pub quiz question, but the Walter Elliot, Runciman became down to assist in settling a strike’.7 answer – Walter and Hilda Runci- the second most powerful man in Walter But this practical man of business man – does not necessarily endow the world. Unfortunately, Elliot Runciman, struck many as stiff and cold in those concerned with overwhelm- had to add that the most powerful 1st Viscount personality. The Tory MP, Cuth- ing historical importance, even was Adolf Hitler.4 Runciman bert Headlam, always found him if Walter can also claim the unu- Runciman’s background helped of Doxford ‘friendly and pleasant’ but never ‘a sual distinction of having sat in determine his politics. His was a (1870–1949) popular character – clever, etc., but

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 27 walter runciman and the decline of the liberal party lacking the human touch’. He had more plausible propositions, claim- For all that, Labour Party for eventual fusion to heard that Herbert Asquith, who ing that at the very moment of the have taken place – if it hadn’t been enjoyed inventing pseudonyms for Liberal Party’s greatest electoral Runciman’s for the intervention of the First his political colleagues, preferred success, its overwhelming vic- World War. In practical terms, this ‘the old Pirate’ [Runciman’s father] tory of 1906, the die was already career does community of purpose manifested to the ‘Alabaster Statesman’.8 Simi- cast. ‘The Liberal Party which itself in an electoral pact whereby larly, Lloyd George is said to have came back to Westminster with offer an in many constituencies Liberal remarked that Runciman ‘would an overwhelming majority was’, and Labour candidates gave way make a thermometer drop, even at he claimed, ‘already doomed. It excellent to one another in order to avoid a distance’.9 This sense of separation was like an army protected at all splitting the ‘progressive’ vote. Far from his fellow men was underlined points except for one vital posi- opportunity from being replaced by Labour, the by Runciman’s somewhat dated tion on its flank. With the election to investi- Liberals were well positioned to style of dress. Like Chamberlain, of fifty-three Labour representa- contain the Labour threat and ulti- he favoured the winged collar long tives, the death of Liberalism was gate one of mately swallow it up.12 after it had gone out of fashion. pronounced; it was no longer the How then does the career of For all that, Runciman’s career Left.’10 In other words, in an elec- the most Walter Runciman throw light on does offer an excellent opportunity toral structure in which the logi- this highly polarised debate? A con- to investigate one of the most con- cal state of affairs was a struggle contentious sensus has grown up among histo- tentious historical controversies of between a party of the right and a rians in recent years that the picture the first half of the twentieth cen- party of the left, the Liberals were historical of Liberal–Labour relations varied tury, the decline of the British Lib- about to forfeit their claim to be enormously in different parts of eral Party. Ever since 1936, when the that of the left. The beginnings of controver- the country. Dangerfield’s blan- Cambridge historian George Dan- the Labour Party with its claim to ket gloom is unjustified; but so gerfield published his celebrated, be the party of the British work- sies of the too is the view of Clarke, derived seductive, persuasive, but sadly very ing class was bound in time to lead from the rather atypical circum- wrong study, The Strange Death of to the eclipse of Liberalism. Simi- first half of stances of Lancashire, that all was Liberal England, this issue has fasci- larly, Henry Pelling has written of well in a revitalised and progres- nated students of British politics. the growth of a sort of undogmatic the twenti- sive Liberal Party. Certainly, Run- Runciman’s political life encapsu- ‘Labourism’ in the period before ciman’s experience fits neither of lated the Liberal Party’s disastrous 1914, a feeling that ‘the Labour eth century, these extreme interpretations. It evolution. At the time of his first Party and not the Liberal, was the was not easy for a young MP, even appointment to government office, party for working men to belong the decline one seen as ‘unquestionably the best as Parliamentary Secretary to the to’.11 Another way of looking at the of the British speaker among young Liberals’,13 Local Government Board in Decem- problem is to suggest that Liberals to stand out after 1906 in the array ber 1905, the Liberal Party which would struggle to survive in a situ- Liberal Party. of talent making up what has been Runciman represented stood on the ation where voting was going to described as ‘the most able and bril- verge of the greatest triumph of its be increasingly determined by the liant [government] in British his- entire history. The following month question of class. tory’.14 Nonetheless, Runciman the party secured a landslide gen- But against this pessimistic view made steady progress. Promoted to eral election victory. The Liberals later historians saw in Edward- the position of Financial Secretary won 400 seats in the new House of ian Britain a very much brighter to the Treasury in January 1907, he Commons. Their major opponents, political outlook for the Liberals. entered the Cabinet as President the Conservative/Unionist Party, Their most distinguished spokes- of the Board of Education in April secured just 157. As the two minor man is probably Peter Clarke. Bas- 1908, moved to the Board of Agri- parties, Labour and the Irish Nation- ing his analysis on a detailed study culture and Fisheries in October alists, were unlikely to support the of the politics of Lancashire, Clarke 1911 and became President of the Unionists on any significant vote, argued that voting behaviour had Board of Trade at the outbreak of the Liberal government enjoyed an indeed come to be largely deter- war in August 1914. But it is Run- effective parliamentary majority mined by the question of class by ciman’s career as a constituency of 356. Yet, by the time of Runci- 1914. He believes, however, that the MP which is particularly revealing man’s death in 1949, the Liberal Party Liberal Party had adapted perfectly of the condition of the Edward- seemed to be on a remorseless road to well to this development. Indeed, ian Liberal Party. After losing his political extinction. Two years later, by taking on board the ideas of the seat at Oldham to the Conserva- in the disastrous general election of so-called ‘New Liberalism’ – that tive, Winston Churchill, in the 1951, it was reduced to just six MPs, government would have to inter- general election of 1900, Runciman an apparently irrelevant appendage vene far more actively in the soci- secured his return to the Commons to the political system. ety and economy of the twentieth in a by-election in Dewsbury, West This article will consider a num- century than had been the norm Yorkshire, in 1902 and he retained ber of issues that have been key in the Victorian era – the Liberal this seat until the general election to the debate on Liberal decline, Party had entrenched itself as the of 1918. Dewsbury was a predomi- through the prism of Runciman’s party of social reform and of the nantly working-class constituency career. The first is the health of the British working class. Clarke sug- which numbered around 3,000 Edwardian Liberal Party. Char- gests, in fact, that there was enough miners and 6,000 woollen textile acteristically, the debate has been common ground between Edward- workers in its electorate. Runci- polarised. At one end of the scale ian Liberalism and the social demo- man fought a total of six contests in there is Dangerfield, in one of his cratic wing of the newly emerging Dewsbury. If we take the first five

28 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 walter runciman and the decline of the liberal party of these contests fought before the of hostilities badly divided, with member of an embryonic anti-war outbreak of the First World War – the mainstream party led by H. H. group within the Cabinet in the Runciman’s initial victory in 1902, Asquith reduced to a parliamen- summer of 1914, but any doubts he the general election of 1906, the by- tary rump of under thirty MPs by may have felt were quickly over- election necessitated by his eleva- the ‘coupon’ general election of come, perhaps as a result of a lunch tion to the Cabinet in 1908, and the 1918. As Trevor Wilson memorably with his mentor and friend, the two general elections of 1910 – it put it, the war was like a ‘rampant Foreign Secretary Edward Grey, emerges that only in 1910 did Run- omnibus’ which, out of control, on 1 August. For him, the need to ciman not face a Labour opponent. mounted the pavement and ran maintain the free movement of Little evidence is thus offered of the over an unsuspecting pedestrian.17 British ships in the Channel may two parties coming together in a The pedestrian, of course, was the have been enough to convert him process of gradual fusion. The local British Liberal Party. It may have to the necessity of the government’s picture was one of conflict rather had its problems before 1914, but it stance. Thereafter Runciman was than cooperation. Local Liberal did not face mortal danger. But the clear that the war had to be fought, activists felt so well established that war was different. It was an une- though he was evidently shaken they saw no need to seek an elec- qual contest which the party had by the mounting casualty lists and toral pact or make way for a Labour no chance of winning. But defining was never fully persuaded by the candidate and had resisted pressure the nature of the challenge posed doctrine of ‘the knock-out blow’ to do so prior to selecting Runci- by the war has proved altogether associated with Lloyd George. man. Furthermore, faced in 1910 more difficult. The most seduc- Runciman did have one consist- with straight fights against Con- tive definition relates to the realm ent ally in the trials and tribula- servative opponents, Runciman of ideology. According to Kenneth tions besetting the wartime party. adopted the traditional stance of a Morgan, it was the Liberals’ prin- This was Reginald McKenna, who nineteenth-century Liberal, attack- ciples ‘which the very fact of total became Chancellor of the Excheq- ing his opponents as representa- war with the unbridled collectiv- uer in succession to Lloyd George tives of the privileged landowning ism and the “jingo” passions which when the latter moved to the classes and equating the interests of it unleashed, appeared to under- newly created Ministry of Muni- wealthy businessmen such as him- mine’.18 Modern warfare, it has tions in May 1915. Runciman and self with those of ordinary work- been argued, destroyed liberalism’s McKenna, suggests one historian, ing-class voters against the landed faith in man’s essential rational- ‘became a pairing referred to histo- classes who, in Joseph Chamber- ity. Its waging demanded a degree riographically almost to the point lain’s famous words, ‘toil not, nei- That the of government intervention in and of hyphenation’.20 Even so, it would ther do they spin’. Liberal meetings control over the life and liberties of be wrong to present the two men in Dewsbury were dominated by Liberals the individual citizen which many as the champions of an outdated discussion of traditional Liberal were badly Liberals could not contemplate. political creed which had no place issues – free trade, the powers of The party’s problems are said to in the context of the world’s first the House of Lords, licensing and – perhaps have come to a head over the issue total war. Indeed, Runciman had temperance. ‘Liberal gatherings’, of conscription. Could true Liberals already shown his willingness to writes Martin Pugh, ‘usually had a fatally – ride roughshod over the fundamen- intervene and employ the pow- distinctly old-fashioned ring.’15 The tal human liberty of leaving it to ers of the state during his spell at socio-economic issues which are divided dur- the individual to decide for himself the Ministry of Agriculture. Fur- said to have dominated the politics whether he fought – and quite pos- thermore, he heaped praise on his of the New Liberalism are nota- ing the war sibly died – for his country? Con- colleague’s budget of September ble largely for their absence. But scription thus posed, in Morgan’s 1915, even though that budget has the most striking feature must be is beyond words, ‘a symbolic divide between often been presented as marking Runciman’s electoral success. In a whole-hearted commitment to the deathknell of the Liberal Party’s Dewsbury, what was still largely a question. all-out war, whatever the sacrifice, once unshakeable commitment to middle-class party proved remark- and a respect for the historic cause the sacred principle of free trade.21 ably effective in attracting the But whether of individual liberty’.19 Runciman and McKenna working-class vote. ‘Runciman’s But does this analysis reflect divided from their colleagues, not victories’, concludes Pugh, ‘sprang these divi- what actually happened to the Lib- on ideological grounds, but over from the unexhausted seam of eral Party between 1914 and 1918? the very practical issue of how best nineteenth-century Liberalism.’16 sions took That the Liberals were badly – to win the war. They became asso- The conclusion that Liberalism perhaps fatally – divided during ciated with the idea of ‘business as was not confronted by an existen- place along the war is beyond question. But usual’, not because they opposed tial crisis in the years before 1914 clearly whether these divisions took place greater governmental interven- has propelled many historians to along clearly defined ideological tion in the running of the national the period of the First World War defined lines is altogether more problem- economy per se, but because they itself in the quest for explanations atic. For one thing, the lines of believed that excessive intervention of the party’s decline. The evidence ideological division were markedly inconsist- could only damage the prospects of for such an approach seems compel- ent. Leading individual Liberals ultimate victory. They argued that ling. The party which entered the lines is alto- found themselves united with one Britain had to be able to pay its way war as the party of government, another on one issue, but irrec- through the war, not just because with nearly nine years of continu- gether more oncilably separated on the next. national bankruptcy would under- ous and often distinguished admin- This was certainly the case with mine any concept of military vic- istration behind it, was by the close problematic. Runciman. He has been listed as a tory, but because the maintenance

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 29 walter runciman and the decline of the liberal party of the country’s industrial strength to control inflation in food prices by Runciman was put under tremen- would enable Britain to supply artificially fixing the price of basic dous pressure to reconsider his res- money and war materials to its con- foodstuffs was not the response of a ignation. Asquith’s wife Margot tinental allies. If everything was laissez-faire zealot, but the reasoned wrote in characteristically silly thrown into the war effort – includ- calculation of a minister who under- terms: ‘How can you find it in your ing all available manpower, as stood the problems that would arise heart to desert Henry when Puffin most Conservatives and an increas- for a country as dependent as Britain has been such a friend of your little ing number of Liberals demanded was on imported food. If suppliers boy’s!’32 Runciman was never likely – disaster was almost bound to reacted to capped prices by seek- to be swayed by being reminded ensue.22 Runciman’s position was ing a better return for their goods that his son and Asquith’s young- easy to vilify. H. A. Gwynne of the in other markets around the world, est had been childhood playmates. Morning Post variously described Britain might starve.27 But when it was agreed that discus- him as one of ‘the Pacifist Group Even the debate over conscrip- sions could take place as to the size of the Cabinet’ and, with echoes of tion needs to be seen in the same which it was desirable for the army the Boer War, as one of the ‘pro- practical terms. Runciman did not to attain, he and McKenna had lit- Germans in the Cabinet’.23 Neither base his opposition on any funda- tle choice but to withdraw their indictment was fair. Runciman’s mental rejection of the state’s right resignations. Their argument was ideas might or might not have made to compel a man to fight for his not about the rights and wrongs of military victory more likely. But country. It is true that, after exten- forcing men to fight, but about the his thinking was rational and intel- ‘­McKenna sive Cabinet debates at the end of tipping point after which it would lectually defensible. Runciman and 1915, Runciman, McKenna and be counter-productive to put more those who thought like him took and I the Home Secretary, John Simon, men into uniform if this led to a their inspiration from the way in reached a decision to resign. The shortage of labour for the domestic which Britain had waged successful declared three men went to see Prime Min- economy and a consequent loss of wars in earlier centuries. The ‘Brit- ister Asquith on 28 December and industrial production. In the event, ish Way in Warfare’ was based on that the lat- tendered their resignations. It was, therefore, only John Simon went an all-powerful navy and strictly Runciman admitted to his wife, ‘a ahead and resigned on the point of limited intervention in continen- est proposals most unpleasant interview, ending principle that military compulsion tal land wars. It was an argument with not even a handshake’.28 But in was wrong. Runciman and McK- Runciman had put forward in 1911 were mixed an important diary entry, Asquith’s enna stayed at their posts. at the time of an earlier war scare. daughter-in-law discussed the Over the following year debate ‘What I have been most anxious up with the men’s motivation: continued to rage inside the gov- about,’ he then wrote to a Cabinet ernment over the best way to fight colleague, questions of McKenna – not on principle, but the war and Lloyd George emerged unlimited because as Chancellor he says as the champion of those who were has been that this week which is he cannot possibly undertake to committed to doing everything critical should not pass without recruiting finance it – Runciman for the they could to secure outright vic- the French knowing that what- same motives.29 tory, at whatever the cost. To the ever support we may have to give … and we Conservative, Austen Chamberlain, her, it cannot be by six divisions, A well-placed Cabinet colleague Lloyd George wrote in January 1916: or four, or one on the Continent. regarded the confirmed this analysis: The sea is our natural element We must win through even and the sooner they realise that avoidance His great argument with [Run- though we win in rags. The we are not going to land troops ciman and McKenna] was that notion of keeping up our trade the better will be the chances of of industrial they could not resign for a rea- as if there were no war is fatal. preserving Europe’s peace.24 son that they could not name, The single eye always triumphs and financial for the real reason of their res- in the end. Thus Germany fights From the outbreak of war in August ignations is not any question – her trade gone and her people 1914, therefore, Runciman’s man- collapse as of principle or even the fact of rationed on potatoes. I implore agement of the Board of Trade was compulsion but simply on the you not to give assent to the designed to ensure that the coun- so important number of men who are taken, McKenna–Runciman position. try’s ‘wealth production could con- i.e. the size of the Army.30 If you desert us on this point … tinue with minimal disruption’.25 that we could Britain will be beaten.33 When he and McKenna insisted that Runciman himself offered yet fur- British merchant ships should con- not consent ther corroboration in a letter to his Lloyd George’s position, like Run- tinue to be allowed to carry trade wife: ciman’s, was entirely plausible. But between neutral countries rather to giving the it is important not to misrepresent than be restricted to carrying goods military the McKenna and I declared that the the nature of the division between to and from Britain, this represented latest proposals were mixed up them. no abstract defence of the principle compulsory with the questions of unlimited By the end of 1916 another crisis of free trade, but rather a desire to recruiting … and we regarded had arisen. In what approximated maximise the country’s foreign cur- powers for the avoidance of industrial and to a palace coup, Lloyd George rency earnings in order to support financial collapse as so important replaced Asquith as prime minister, the balance of payments.26 Similarly, which they that we could not consent to giv- and Runciman, a committed mem- Runciman’s opposition to propos- ing the military the compulsory ber of the Asquith camp and advis- als that the government should seek asked.’ powers for which they asked.31 ing Asquith to stand firm against

30 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 walter runciman and the decline of the liberal party

Lloyd George’s demand for a radi- death, there was no one who It is clear But Asquith would not play the cal restructuring of the machinery could take his place, and could part that Asquithians, Runciman of wartime government, found put the party before persons and that Runci- included, had mapped out for him. himself out of office. In a reshaped personalities. Gulland, the Chief In March 1917, Runciman recorded Asquith administration he might Whip in 1916 did nothing.35 man hoped that McKenna ‘says that we must go have been promoted to the Admi- on propping up our distinguished ralty. As it was, his exclusion would More generally, this approach to be part of jelly – the late PM to wit! – We last almost fifteen years. Just as accepts that the Liberal Party was must do our best to screw him up importantly, this episode left many badly damaged by the war, but a more vigor- to an emphatic speech on Ireland.’38 Liberals – Runciman included – argues that the fissures did not have Asquith was constrained by the with a lasting detestation of Lloyd to be either permanent or cata- ous opposi- belief, probably correct, that overt George for the way he was per- strophic for the party. After all, opposition to the new government ceived to have behaved. The reac- the Labour Party also split over tion to the would be castigated as a failure tion of Runciman’s father was no the conduct of the war, but it came Lloyd George to support the war effort. In fact, doubt shared by the son: ‘No coup back together again and advanced the celebrated Maurice Debate of could be brought about in the way rapidly within the political sys- government, 9 May 1918 was the only occasion it has without sowing seeds of bitter tem in the immediate post-war when Asquith and the Asquith- feeling. It could have been avoided years. The Asquith–Lloyd George which he ian whips gave their backing to a but for the attitude of one man and rupture, by contrast, was not tem- division against the government. his co-operators.’ Asquith’s politi- porary. Two separate Liberal par- described as By this time Runciman seems to cal demise had been ‘brought about ties existed until 1923 when they have become completely disillu- mainly by the man he had been a nominally came together again in ‘a directorate sioned with both of the potential benefactor to’.34 defence of free trade. Even after Liberal leaders. Convinced that The crisis of 1916 leads to a third 1923, though, reunion was paper- of the French Lloyd George would escape from theme upon which historians have thin, deep-rooted animosities what could have been a damag- focused in their quest for explana- remained, and the party’s decline revolution ing parliamentary debate – ‘there tions of the Liberal Party’s decline, continued apace. During those were so many ways in which inac- where Runciman’s experience is seven years between 1916 and 1923 type’, than curate statements could plausibly be again instructive. This relates to the Labour Party advanced dra- explained’ – he nonetheless hoped individuals, personal animosi- matically, moving from the periph- Asquith was that Asquith would renounce his ties, chance, bad luck, miscalcu- ery of the political stage to its very own claims to the premiership and lations and misjudgements – in centre, and forming its first gov- prepared to promise ‘general support to an other words contingencies which ernment in January 1924. This was administration with a Conservative need not have happened and which no coincidence. Labour willingly provide. at its head while it waged war effec- do not reflect the sort of deep filled a void opened up by the Lib- tively’.39 In the event Runciman, and longstanding problems said eral Party. And, once the Liberals who should have wound up the to be contained in the challenge had fallen into the third-party trap, debate for the Opposition, ‘looked of the Labour Party and the sup- they would find it very difficult miserable, and never rose’.40 posed crisis of identity and doc- to escape from it. How, then, does The general election of Decem- trine occasioned by the First World Runciman’s career after 1916 illu- ber 1918, held only a month after War. The classic exposition of this minate this issue? the armistice, was a disaster for the approach was perhaps offered by His commitment to Asquith independent Liberal Party. It served Lloyd George himself. Looking was soon shaken. It is clear that to intensify Liberal divisions and back from the vantage point of the Runciman hoped to be part of a accentuate personal animosities. mid-1930s, by which time he was more vigorous opposition to the Victory was secured by a coalition increasingly prone to reminisce Lloyd George government, which of Conservatives and Lloyd George about the past, the great Welsh- he described as ‘a directorate of Liberals in which the former were man attributed the downfall of the the French revolution type’, than by far the dominant element. Only Liberal Party to an oyster. As his Asquith was prepared to provide.36 28 independent Liberals of the secretary and mistress, Frances Ste- Just weeks after the change of gov- party still headed by Asquith were venson, recorded: ernment, Runciman was clear returned to parliament. The key about what should now happen: factor was the so-called ‘coupon’, He went on to explain that the letter of endorsement signed by Percy Illingworth [the party’s I am much impressed with the Lloyd George and the Tory leader, chief whip] died of typhoid anxiety of the country to have Bonar Law, which served almost caused by a bad oyster [in 1915]. some responsible men acting as as a passport back to Westminster, Had he lived, he would never their watch-dogs, for, when we and Lloyd George’s ready accept- have allowed the rift between went out there was some rejoicing ance of a bargain struck with the D[avid] & Asquith to take place. over the prospect of the opposi- Conservatives, whereby only 150 He would have brought them tion becoming once more efficient Liberal candidates received it. Most together, patched the quarrel as well as responsible. We must not of the leading independent Liberals, up, cursed them and saved the fail in this duty and we should be including Asquith and Runciman, Liberal Party. He would have failing if we cease to be vigilant, went down to defeat. Indeed, Run- held up to the light the intrigue and equally failing if we did not ciman came bottom of the poll in of McKenna and Runciman, give the country the impression Dewsbury, despite the efforts of the whom he knew well. After his that they can rely on us.37 Asquithian whip, J. W. Gulland, to

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 31 walter runciman and the decline of the liberal party secure the withdrawal of his Labour bouncing back, but Runciman and Runciman’s Commons. When this move failed, opponent.41 those who thought like him stood eleven Liberal MPs, with Runci- Runciman’s outlook on poli- very self-consciously in the way outlook on man as their chairman, formed the tics over the following decade was of reconciliation, as long as Lloyd so-called ‘Radical Group’, effec- determined by one factor above all George remained in front-line poli- politics over tively disowning Lloyd George’s others – a deeply personal detesta- tics. At the meeting of the National authority. The group announced tion of Lloyd George. The two men Liberal Federation General Com- the following that it stood for ‘free land, free had been developing a dislike for mittee in Leamington in 1920, for trade and free people’ and that it one another before the outbreak of example, it was noted that leading decade was proposed to ‘carry out the policy war, with Runciman declaring that Asquithians, including Runciman, foreshadowed by Cobden’.49 It the Welshman ‘would snatch at any deliberately avoided giving Lloyd determined amounted to a party within the opportunities of stabbing me if he Georgeites a hearing.45 Yet the Lib- party, but any ties of doctrine got the chance’.42 Their hatred now erals needed Lloyd George, not by one factor seemed less important than per- knew no limits. Arguably, this sort least because Asquith, as Runciman above all oth- sonal animosities. Hatred of Lloyd of personal animosity destroyed any himself recognised, was no longer George appeared to be the new hope of a Liberal recovery in these an effective leader. Rather than face ers – a deeply group’s primary motivation. crucial post-war years. While Lib- the inevitable, however, Runci- Illness finally forced Asquith’s erals such as Runciman should have man strove to persuade the former personal resignation in 1926 and the party been focusing their attention on the Foreign Secretary, Edward Grey, as a whole turned to Lloyd George mortal danger which the Labour to fill the leadership vacuum, even detesta- as his successor, not least because Party now posed, they seemed more though the latter was now almost it was now desperately short of intent on fighting Lloyd George. blind and most reluctant to re-enter tion of Lloyd money, something which only When the need was to devise the political arena. ‘He shudders at Lloyd George could supply via his policies to appeal to the newly continuous responsibility’, admit- George. ill-gained ‘Political Fund’. Once expanded electorate, they turned in ted Runciman, ‘but we must go again, the malcontents responded on themselves in order, it seemed, on impressing him with what the by setting up a new organisation. to engage in a mutually destructive Methodists describe as the “Call” – Runciman now emerged as chair- civil war to the death. In the words which he dare not shrink.’46 man of the ‘Liberal Council’ and of Jonathan Wallace, Runciman’s When Asquith and Lloyd effectively its parliamentary leader. only biographer, by 1930 ‘Runci- George did put past differences The new body stood for a pure and man had become an embittered behind them, at least to the extent uncorrupted form of Liberalism. Its malcontent who could never be rec- of combining to oppose the tariff aim was to shift the balance within onciled to Lloyd George, no matter proposals of the new Conserva- the parliamentary Liberal Party and what the latter did.’43 tive prime minister, Stanley Bald- it hoped to field candidates in oppo- In the wake of the disastrous win, in 1923, Runciman remained sition to Lloyd Georgeites at the 1918 general election defeat, The unreconciled and probably irrec- next general election. When Lloyd Times declared that Runciman was, oncilable. Though he wrote to George turned up at the meeting of even out of parliament, ‘without Lloyd George of his ‘great joy … the National Liberal Federation in doubt, the rising hope of the Radi- to become united with you and June 1926, Runciman, ‘there at the cals’. 44 Though it is not clear from those Liberals who have stood loy- beginning, sulked and went away – the context precisely what mean- ally by you,’ it seems unlikely that a foolish exhibition’.50 ing the newspaper intended to these words reflected his true senti- But Lloyd George now gave convey by the word ‘radical’, Run- ments.47 If they did, his mood soon fresh life to the party, helping ciman had, in practice, forfeited changed. Less than a year later, he to devise a range of new policies any claims to radicalism in the sense suggested that ‘the personal diffi- designed above all else to counter of a progressive, root-and-branch culties are acuter than ever and can the mounting scourge of unem- approach to current politics. The never be solved so long as LG insists ployment. The last years of the image he cultivated now was that on pushing himself as leader or decade witnessed a mini-Liberal of a traditional Gladstonian Lib- deputy leader’48. renaissance, with a number of by- eral of the nineteenth century. His Like many Liberals of this era, election gains. Few could have speeches in 1919 concentrated on Runciman struggled to secure his anticipated that these would be the need for sound finance and the own return to parliament. Defeated the party’s last such gains until the abolition of government controls. in Edinburgh South (1920), Ber- famous Torrington contest of 1958. Runciman was far from being the wick-upon-Tweed (1922) and Still, however, Runciman held first – or indeed the last – politician Brighton (1923), he finally returned aloof – ostentatiously so. Quite to drift to the right as his career to the Commons at the general simply, if Lloyd George visited a progressed. But there was another election of 1924 as MP for Swansea by-election constituency, Runci- factor at work. His aim was to pro- West. Asquith had secured his own man stayed away. The latter set out ject himself as a pillar of ortho- return for Paisley at a by-election his reasoning: doxy and rectitude in contrast to in February 1920, but was defeated the dangerous ambition and innate again in 1924. He now went to So far as the methods of these corruption of Lloyd George. Many the Lords as the Earl of Oxford elections are concerned, I thor- Liberals, particularly among the and Asquith, while retaining the oughly detest them. Their lavish rank and file at constituency level, party leadership. But Runciman expenditure, their loudspeakers recognised the need for reunion if tried to resist the election of Lloyd and the deplorable bad taste and the party was to have any chance of George as sessional chairman in the gross inaccuracies of their land,

32 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 walter runciman and the decline of the liberal party

industrial and mining news dis- warm for him by his wife, Hilda, his business interests, becoming a gust me … The country wants who had captured it in a by-elec- director of the London, Midland Liberalism, not LG, and I am tion in March 1928. The 1929 gen- and Scottish Railway in Decem- distressed when I see Liberalism eral election did see a partial Liberal ber 1929 and Deputy Chairman of suffer because he is allowed to recovery, enough to leave the party the Royal Mail Group the follow- dominate it.51 holding the balance in the new par- ing November. Indeed, in February liament. But underlying divisions 1931 he announced his intention to By this stage Runciman had remained and, over the next two step down from the Commons at published a short book, which years, the Liberals were reduced the next general election. Archibald amounted to a personal manifesto, to a parliamentary rabble, unable Sinclair noted that he was now setting out a political creed which to unite behind Lloyd George and ‘wholly occupied with his business was in sharp contrast to the radi- seldom capable of even sending all interests and only appears in the cal interventionism being offered their MPs into the same division House of Commons very occasion- by Lloyd George. In Liberalism As I lobby of the House of Commons. ally to emphasise by vote or speech See It Runciman wrote, ‘the aver- The veneer of unity displayed by some difference with his Liberal age non-political citizen wants what the party during the election cam- colleagues’.57 is in fact a Gladstonian policy. But paign soon disappeared. It was Yet Runciman still had an at present he does not feel that he not long before Runciman and his important role to play in the Lib- can get it from the Liberal Party.’52 colleagues in the Liberal Council eral Party’s fortunes during the This made it very difficult to see reverted to a policy of independ- 1930s. The collapse of the Labour how he could ever be reconciled to ence from the party leadership. ‘I government, its replacement by an the party while it remained led by Runciman’s can no longer be comfortable in all-party ‘National’ administra- Lloyd George. ‘No-one is likely the Liberal Party,’ he admitted in tion and the prospect that he might to misunderstand my position,’ attitude November, but it was not imme- yet return to high office caused he insisted, ‘for they know that I diately clear where else he could him to reverse his earlier inclina- opposed his Chairmanship of the towards turn. If, as seemed likely, the Con- tion to retire from political life. Parliamentary Party and oppose it servatives moved towards protec- This is a period that many histo- still; that I decline to go to bye-elec- Wales’s most tion, ‘a Free Trader like me can see rians of the party’s decline once tions which are dominated by him, nothing but disaster’.55 But, while neglected, largely out of the belief and that I have stated plainly that I famous son he remained determined not to fol- that there was nothing more to say. could not undertake to enter a Cabi- low Lloyd George, Runciman soon They considered that the Liberal net with him as Prime Minister.’53 may have recognised that there was much to Party was doomed by 1930 and that Such, however, was Lloyd support in the new Labour govern- little was to be gained by poring George’s momentum that, as the been a factor ment, not least the presence at the over its death throes. So, for exam- general election of 1929 approached, in his deci- Exchequer of Philip Snowden, a ple, Trevor Wilson’s classic study, almost all Liberals saw the need to committed exponent of free trade The Downfall of the Liberal Party, line up behind him, at least for the sion to leave and sound Gladstonian finance. treated the party’s travails after the sake of public appearance. Even This dual motivation carried its 1931 general election as little more Runciman gave the leader’s ambi- Swansea and own complications, for Lloyd than a postscript to the main story. tious plans to reduce unemploy- George too, if not as consistently More recently, however, it has been ment to normal proportions within secure elec- as Runciman, understood the need argued that there was still a chance a single year his public endorse- to keep the Labour government in of a Liberal revival, perhaps not ment. Election posters appeared in tion instead office. The next few months saw to the glory days of earlier years, the press, carrying pictures of the Runciman abstain on the govern- but at least sufficient to restore its party’s united leadership, includ- in the St Ives ment’s Coal Bill in December 1929, credentials as a significant parlia- ing Lloyd George, Herbert Samuel, when the official Liberal stance mentary force. The Labour Party Viscount Grey, Lord Reading, Sir division of was one of opposition, and abstain was badly damaged by the 1931 John Simon, Lord Beauchamp and again the following February on a general election, reduced to just Runciman. But the latter’s real Cornwall, a Liberal amendment which tried to fifty-two MPs. Surely the Liber- intentions were probably contained delete protection quota arrange- als could have taken advantage of in a letter sent to him by the like- seat conveni- ments. Negotiations seem to have this situation. To do so, however, minded Harcourt Johnstone who taken place between Alec Beech- they needed one thing above all wrote: ‘Our real business over the ently kept man (who eventually succeeded else – unity. This was conspicuous next three months is to get ourselves Runciman as MP for St Ives in only by its absence, and Runci- returned to Parliament and specifi- warm for him 1937) and Prime Minister Ramsay man was at the heart of a new and, cally to get a majority – or strong by his wife, MacDonald about the possibility of as it turned out, permanent party minority – returned which will be a formal breach with Lloyd George. division.58 Though the entire Lib- hostile to LG. To do this we may Hilda, who MacDonald, ‘very appreciative eral Party began by supporting the have to improvise a little our natu- of the line … you [Runciman] all-party National Government set ral inclinations.’54 had captured and Donald [Maclean] took over up in August 1931 to deal with the Runciman’s attitude towards the Coal Bill … would, of course, country’s economic crisis, two Lib- Wales’s most famous son may have it in a by- like us to follow up the break with eral groupings soon emerged – the been a factor in his decision to some pronouncement about sup- mainstream party now headed by leave Swansea and secure election election in porting him’.56 The moment, how- Herbert Samuel and a group of so- instead in the St Ives division of ever, passed and Runciman turned called Liberal Nationals led by John Cornwall, a seat conveniently kept March 1928. his attention increasingly towards Simon. The key difference between

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 33 walter runciman and the decline of the liberal party them was the readiness of the Lib- Board of Trade to the impeccably associated with an organisation of eral Nationals to abandon the once free-trade Runciman. But Runci- which Simon ‘calls himself leader’.69 sacred principle of free trade in the man’s thinking on this matter was As a Liberal National, Runciman fight to save the national economy. evolving and he had already told insisted that he remained as true a In practice, this involved becoming his constituents that he was ready Liberal as he had ever been. As late electoral and parliamentary allies of to back any moves necessary to as March 1938 he was still calling the Tories. restore the trade balance.63 Once for ‘pure, simple, strong Liberal- To begin with, Runciman’s in government, Runciman was ism in order to save [the] country position was unclear. Though it quickly won over to the argument from disaster’.70 But, if Runciman was hard to regard him any longer in favour of tariffs, though he was remained more of a ‘Liberal’ than as a loyal member of the main- successful in persuading Cham- did most Liberal Nationals, this stream party, he had not been act- berlain to accept a more moderate did not prevent him becoming an ing in association with Simon. In Once in gov- scheme than the latter would ide- object of Liberal hostility in the particular, he had not followed suit ernment, ally have liked – an achievement south-west, where his interven- when, on 26 June, Simon, Robert for which he incurred the lasting tion in the general election of 1935 Hutchison and Ernest Brown had Runciman animosity of all-out imperial pref- was widely held responsible for the formally resigned the Liberal whip. erentialists such as Leo Amery.64 defeat of Isaac Foot in Bodmin. A statement issued to the press on was quickly According to David Wrench, the Over time, the Liberal Nationals as 25 October 1931 read: ‘Mr Runci- Runciman–Chamberlain agree- a whole became indistinguishable man is not to be included in any won over to ment created the essential ‘com- from Conservatives and they were group. He is a Liberal supporting promise that enabled the National in the latter’s pockets long before the National Government.’59 This, the argu- Government to dominate British they finally amalgamated with of course, was a description that politics for the rest of the decade’.65 them in 1968. Moreover, the Lib- fitted almost all Liberal candidates ment in Runciman hoped to use British eral–Liberal National split proved at the election held a few days later. tariffs as a bargaining counter in catastrophic for the Liberal Party, He had not been included in the favour of tar- negotiations with other countries destroying any possibility of a Lib- emergency Cabinet of ten set up in that had also introduced tariffs, in eral revival for at least a generation. August, in which the Liberal rep- iffs, though order to move towards all-round At a stroke, half the Liberal Party’s resentatives were Samuel and the reductions and, ultimately, the res- remaining parliamentary strength Marquess of Reading, when this he was suc- toration of a free-trade system. As had been lost and, in most cases, the Nonconformist Wesleyan had com- late as 1937, the Tory backbencher, sitting Liberal MP (now a Liberal mented rather unpleasantly, ‘So far cessful in Brendan Bracken, was still describ- National) succeeded in taking his as I am concerned, it is clear that ing him, along with the American local party organisation with him the Jews had no place in the Cabi- persuading Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, as into the new group. In many con- net for a Gentile.’60 Samuel tried to Chamberlain ‘the only true begotten Cobdenites stituencies where Liberalism had convince Runciman that he had in left on earth’.66 managed to survive through all the fact secured the agreement of Mac- to accept a As the mainstream Liberals challenges and crises of the second Donald and Baldwin to the offer of under Samuel resigned from the and third decades of the century, it the non-Cabinet post of War Sec- more moder- government in September 1932 in now all but disappeared, while Lib- retary, ‘should you be prepared to opposition to the tariff arrange- eral voters were often left confused take it’. But Samuel’s suggestion ate scheme ments reached at the Ottawa Impe- as to which side of the divide repre- that this plan had been thwarted by rial Conference, while Runciman sented the authentic Liberal creed. difficulty in contacting Runciman than the lat- remained in office, he had little Notwithstanding unrealistic did not help matters, especially alternative but to associate himself hopes that he might yet be ele- when the post was finally offered ter would with the Liberal National group, vated to the Treasury, Runciman to the almost forgotten figure of though anomalously he retained retained the office of President of Lord Crewe.61 At the same time, ideally have offices within the Samuelite party the Board of Trade until the reshuf- Runciman was wary of finding for some years and was re-elected fle occasioned by Neville Chamber- himself part of a small opposition liked – an vice-president of the Liberal Coun- lain’s accession to the premiership Liberal grouping which included cil in June 1934. Indeed, he was in May 1937. Arguing that he was Lloyd George, telling Samuel, ‘my achievement one of two Liberal Nationals (the busily engaged in ongoing matters opinion is no less strongly against other being Simon) on an infor- at the Board of Trade, he angrily LG & his machinations than it has for which he mal six-man steering group, which rejected the prime minister’s offer ever been’.62 When the Cabinet was eventually became a General Pur- of the non-departmental post of enlarged to normal proportions incurred the poses Committee of the Cabinet, Lord Privy Seal.71 Somewhat sur- after the general election in Octo- lasting ani- and which confirmed the reality of prisingly, he was brought back into ber, he had the chance to return to ‘National Government’.67 But Run- the government in October 1938 government after an absence of fif- mosity of all- ciman was no friend of the Lib- in the wake of the Munich crisis as teen years. The Labour prime min- eral National leader, John Simon, Lord President of the Council. The ister of the National Government, out imperial and, by the end of 1934, was tell- outgoing minister, Lord Hailsham, Ramsay MacDonald, was obliged ing the prime minister that Simon sixty-six years old and in poor to accept the Conservative, Neville preferential- was the government’s ‘weakest health, must have been somewhat Chamberlain, as Chancellor of the link’.68 Indeed, when Runciman surprised to have been asked by Exchequer, but he sought to bal- ists such as became president of the Liberal Chamberlain to make way for a ance the appointment of this com- National Council in 1937, his wife successor who was sixty-eight and mitted tariff reformer by giving the Leo Amery noted how ‘distasteful’ it was to be also now ailing.72 At all events, the

34 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 walter runciman and the decline of the liberal party appointment was not a success. An a mutineer whenever mutiny is Campbell- 12 P. F. Clarke, Lancashire and the New extended leave of absence to restore possible’.76 Runciman emerged as a Liberalism (Cambridge, 1971), passim. his health proved unavailing. Run- committed Asquithian, especially Bannerman’s For an important recent contribution ciman resigned at the outbreak of during the internecine struggles of to this debate, see I. Packer, ‘Con- war in September 1939, admitting the First World War, but became own descrip- tested Ground: Trends in British By- that ‘my nerves are all to pieces’.73 disillusioned with Asquith several Elections, 1911–1914’, Contemporary years before the latter’s retirement. tion of Runci- British History, 25, 1 (2011), pp. 157–73. ~ He clearly despised Lloyd George 13 Manchester Guardian, 15 Nov. 1949. and did everything he could to man, written 14 A. Salter, Personality in Politics (Lon- What then does the career of Wal- destroy him, and he ended his polit- don, 1948), p. 113. ter Runciman reveal about the ical career in a new party headed by in 1901, was 15 M. Pugh, ‘Yorkshire and the New destruction of the British Liberal John Simon, whom he also disliked Liberalism’, Journal of Modern History, Party? Conclusions based on the and sought to undermine. No one, prophetic. 50, 3 (1978), p. D1153. This section experience of one man must nec- of course, could argue that Walter He was, he draws heavily from Professor Pugh’s essarily be tentative and qualified. Runciman caused the decline of the important article. But the evidence of Runciman Liberal Party. But internal divi- suggested, ‘a 16 Ibid., p. D1155. as a Dewsbury MP does not sug- sions and disputes surely did play 17 T. Wilson, The Downfall of the Liberal gest that Liberalism faced a mor- an important part; and to this prob- pugnacious, Party 1914–1935 (London, 1966), p. 18. tal threat from the rising Labour lem Runciman made a significant 18 K. O. Morgan, The Age of Lloyd George: Party in the years before the First contribution. sectional The Liberal Party and British Politics, World War. But neither was it 1890–1929 (London, 1978), p. 58. transmogrifying into a social dem- After thirty-five years teaching in Liv- partisan who 19 Ibid. ocratic progressivism. Traditional erpool, David Dutton punctuates his 20 M. Farr, Reginald McKenna: Financier nineteenth-century Liberalism retirement in South-West Scotland with will be, as Among Statesmen, 1863–1916 (Abing- was still thriving in this constitu- submissions to the Journal of Liberal don, 2008), p. 76. ency. His experience as a govern- History. in the past, 21 Runciman to McKenna, c. 23 Sept. ment minister in the first half of 1915, cited D. French, British Strat- the First World War argues against 1 Earlier versions of this paper were a mutineer egy and War Aims 1914–1916 (London, the idea that this conflict posed an presented at Elshieshields Tower, 1986), p. 124. insuperable ideological challenge home of the Revd Dr Ann Shukman, whenever 22 French, British Strategy, pp. 120–1. to the party’s very existence. On grand-daughter of Walter Runci- 23 K. Wilson (ed.), The Rasp of War: The the other hand, both in the ongo- man, and at Manchester Metropoli- mutiny is Letters of H. A. Gwynne to The Count- ing disputes of the 1920s around the tan University. ess of Bathurst 1914–1918 (London, personality of David Lloyd George 2 A. Partington (ed.), Oxford Dictionary possible’. 1988), pp. 169, 196. and in the final split between Liber- of Quotations (Oxford, 1996), p. 180. 24 Runciman to L. Harcourt, 4 Sept. als and Liberal Nationals a decade 3 E. David (ed.), Inside Asquith’s Cabinet 1911, cited D. French, British Economic later, Runciman’s career suggests (London, 1977), p. 122. and Strategic Planning 1905–1915 (Lon- that the Liberal Party indulged in 4 N. Rose (ed.), Baffy: The Diaries of don, 1982), p. 33. a case of political suicide – a party Blanche Dugdale 1936–1947 (London, 25 J. Wallace, ‘The Political Career of so engrossed by its own internal 1973), p. 93. Walter Runciman’, Ph.D. thesis (Uni- quarrels that it failed to focus on the 5 David (ed.), Asquith’s Cabinet, p. 230. versity of Newcastle, 1995), p. 184. bigger question of its very survival. 6 C. Coote, Editorial (London, 1965), p. 26 French, British Economic Planning, p. 104. Liberalism as a political philosophy 159. 27 Ibid., p. 99. is all about the rights of the individ- 7 House of Commons Debates, 5th 28 University of Newcastle, Runciman ual. But there perhaps existed a fun- Series, vol. 338, cols. 2956–8. MSS 303, Runciman to H. Runci- damental conflict between this and 8 S. Ball (ed.), Parliament and Politics man 28 Dec. 1915. Extracts from the the need for a political party to seek in the Age of Churchill and Attlee: The papers of Walter Runciman are cited out those common beliefs that bind Headlam Diaries 1935–1951 (Cam- by kind permission of the Viscount individuals together, submerging bridge, 1999), pp. 607–8. See also M. Runciman of Doxford. points of difference in the interests and E. Brock (eds.), H. H. Asquith: 29 Lady Cynthia Asquith, Diaries 1915– of the wider organisation. The evi- Letters to Venetia Stanley (pb. edn, 1918 (London, 1968), p. 117. dence suggests that Runciman was Oxford, 1985), p. 409. 30 J. J. Norwich (ed.), The Duff Cooper no team player. He had no confi- 9 H. Nogueres, Munich: The Phoney Diaries 1915–1951 (London, 2005), p. dence in Sir Henry Campbell-Ban- Peace (London, 1965), p. 77. 23, reporting the opinion of Edwin nerman, the first party leader he 10 G. Dangerfield,The Strange Death of Montagu. nominally served on entering par- Liberal England (London, 1936), p. 10. 31 Runciman to H. Runciman, 28 Dec. liament in 1899.74 He supported the It needs to be noted that Dangerfield 1915, cited Wallace, ‘Runciman’, p. 229. Boer War, which Campbell-Ban- can only reach the figure of fifty- 32 C. Asquith, Diaries, p. 123. Anthony nerman opposed, and, only a year three by including the batch of so- Asquith, son of H. H. Asquith by his after entering the Commons, was called Lib–Lab MPs who continued second wife Margot, was invariably describing his leader as ‘insuffer- to take the Liberal whip. LRC (soon called ‘Puffin’ because of the shape of able’.75 Campbell-Bannerman’s own to be Labour Party) strength is usu- his nose. description of Runciman, written ally recorded as thirty MPs. 33 Parliamentary Archives, Lloyd in 1901, was prophetic. He was, he 11 H. Pelling, Popular Politics and Soci- George MSS, D/16/7/4, Lloyd suggested, ‘a pugnacious, sectional ety in Late Victorian Britain (London, George to Chamberlain, 8 Jan. 1916. partisan who will be, as in the past, 1968), p. 118. 34 Elshieshields Tower, papers of Walter

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 35 walter runciman and the decline of the liberal party

Runciman, sr, Sir W. Runciman to wife, 9 Dec. 1916. Extracts Liberal Democrat History Group online from the papers of Walter Run- Email ciman, sr, are cited by kind per- Join our email mailing list for news of History Group meetings and publications – the fastest and earliest way mission of the Revd Dr Ann to find out what we’re doing. Fill in the form at: http://bit.ly/LDHGemail. Shukman. 35 A. J. P. Taylor (ed.), Lloyd George: Website A Diary by Frances Stevenson See www.liberalhistory.org.uk for details of our activities and publications, guides to archive sources, (London, 1971), p. 320. research resources, and a growing number of pages on the history of the party. 36 Runciman to Emmott, 3 Jan. 1917, cited J. Turner, British Facebook page Politics and the Great War (New News of the latest meeting and publications, and a discussion forum: Haven, CT, 1992), p. 186. www.facebook.com/LibDemHistoryGroup. 37 Runciman to Asquith, 29 Jan. 1917, cited Wallace, ‘Runciman’, Twitter p. 243. A daily posting of Liberal events on this day in history. Follow us at: LibHistoryToday. 38 Runciman to H. Runciman, 3 Mar. 1917, cited Turner, British Politics, p. 188. Dec. 1923. Wrench, ‘Very Peculiar’, p. 63. 64 J. Barnes and D. Nicholson 39 W. Buckler to Col House, 9 May 48 Runciman to Herbert Glad- 56 Beechman to Runciman, 18 (eds.), The Empire at Bay (Lon- 1918, and Runciman to H. Run- stone, 21 Nov. 1924, cited Wal- Dec. 1929, cited Wallace, ‘Run- don, 1988), pp. 232, 253, 265, 295, ciman, 1 May 1918, cited Turner, lace, ‘Runciman’, p. 273. ciman’, p. 314. 396. British Politics, pp. 298–9. 49 The Times, 25 Nov. 1924. 57 Sinclair to H. A. L. Fisher, 20 65 Wrench, ‘Very Peculiar’, p. 82. 40 Maurice Hankey diary 9 May 50 D. Dutton (ed.), Odyssey of an Mar. 1931, cited Wilson, Down- 66 R. Cockett (ed.), My Dear Max: 1918, cited S. Roskill, Hankey: Edwardian Liberal: the Politi- fall, p. 364. The Letters of Brendan Bracken to Man of Secrets, vol. 1, (London, cal Diary of Richard Durning Holt 58 This argument is developed in Lord Beaverbrook 1925–1958 (Lon- 1970), p. 545. (Gloucester, 1989), p. 90. D. Dutton, ‘1932: A Neglected don, 1990), p. 39. 41 B. Wasserstein, Herbert Samuel: 51 Runciman to I. Foot, 3 Oct. Date in the History of the 67 D. Dutton, Liberals in Schism: A A Political Life (Oxford, 1992), 1928, cited J. Campbell, Lloyd Decline of the British Liberal History of the National Liberal Party pp. 232–3. George: The Goat in the Wilderness, Party’, Twentieth Century British (London, 2008), p. 73. 42 Runciman MSS 303, Runciman 1922–1931 (London, 1977), p. 215. History 14, 1 (2003). 68 National Archives, PRO 30/69, to H. Runciman, 14 Aug. 1911. 52 W. Runciman, Liberalism As I See 59 Statement to Central News, MacDonald diary, 4 Dec. 1934. 43 Wallace, ‘Runciman’, p. 320. It (London, 1927), p. 4. London 25 Oct. 1931, cited Wal- 69 Hilda Runciman diary, 24–25 44 The Times, 1 Jan. 1919. 53 Runciman to Harcourt John- lace, ‘Runciman’, p. 335. June 1937, cited Wallace, ‘Run- 45 J. Ramsden (ed.), Real Old Tory stone, 28 Feb. 1929, cited D. 60 Runciman MSS 245, Runciman ciman’, p. 389. Politics: The Political Diaries of Wrench, ‘“Very Peculiar Cir- to G. Collins, 1 Sept. 1931 (draft). 70 R. Douglas, Liberals: The History Robert Sanders, Lord Bayford 1910– cumstances”: Walter Runciman 61 Runciman MSS 215, Samuel to of the Liberal and Liberal Demo- 1935 (London, 1984), pp. 138–9. and the National Government, Runciman, 29 Aug. 1931. crat Parties (London, 2005), pp. 46 Runciman to A. Murray, 22 1931–3’, Twentieth Century British 62 Runciman to H. Runciman, 17 239–40. Sept. 1921, cited K. Robbins, Sir History, 11, 1 (2000), p. 63. Sept. 1931, cited Wrench, ‘Very 71 Runciman to L. Hore-Belisha, Edward Grey (London, 1971), pp. 54 Johnstone to Runciman, 26 Feb. Peculiar’, p. 65. 31 May 1937, cited R. Minney, 356–57. 1929, cited Campbell, Goat, p. 230. 63 G. Tregidga, The Liberal Party in The Private Papers of Hore-Belisha 47 Lloyd George MSS, G/17/4/1, 55 Runciman to W. Fitzherbert South West Britain since 1918 (Exe- (London, 1960), pp. 137–8. Runciman to Lloyd George, 8 Wright, 28 Nov. 1929, cited ter, 2000), pp. 63–4. 72 Chamberlain to Hailsham, 21 Oct. 1938, cited C. Cooper, ‘Conservatism, Imperialism and Appeasement: The Political Unlocking Liberalism – Career of Douglas Hogg, first Viscount Hailsham 1922–38’, Life after the Coalition Ph.D. thesis (University of Liv- erpool, 2012), p. 351. 73 Runciman to H. Runciman, 24 A new book of essays setting a post-2015 course for the Liberal Democrats. Aug. 1939, cited Wallace, ‘Run- ciman’, p. 406. 74 Technically, Campbell-Banner- Contributors include David Steel, Robert Brown, Ross Finnie, Graham man was only leader of the party Watson, Prateek Buch, Nigel Lindsay, and the authors of The Spirit Level. in the House of Commons at this date. Foreword by Charles Kennedy. 75 Runciman to C. Trevelyan, 27 Sept. 1900, cited Wallace, ‘Run- This 228-page book can be bought at the Glasgow Liberal Democrat ciman’, p. 34. 76 Campbell-Bannerman to H. conference for £9.50, or can be ordered by post for £11 (cheques payable Gladstone, 30 Oct. 1901, cited to ‘Liberal Futures’) from Nigel Lindsay, 4 Church Road, Bo’ness, West ibid., p. 39. Lothian, EH51 0EL.

36 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 Conservatives have blue, Labour have red and Liberal Democrats have yellow – but it wasn’t always like that. Graham Lippiatt examines the history of: Liberal Party Colours

lections of sorts have been than the intrinsic usefulness This was the case in Liverpool and held in the United Kingdom of the message itself.5 Some of Cumbria and across many parts of Esince the days of the knights this has been driven by election south-east England. The Liberal of the shires and burgesses of the legislation such as the use of party colours in Greenwich (then a two- boroughs.1 These elections were logos on ballot papers6 but it has member parliamentary borough in taking place before universal literacy come about principally as society, Kent), which Gladstone represented (in England; Scotland always had communication technology and from 1868 to 1880, were blue. When much higher literacy rates), even politics have changed and the Gladstone fought Greenwich in among the limited electorates nature of political communication 1874 he fought in blue and his two before the Great Reform Acts and organisation has changed Conservative opponents used of 18322 and during the advances with them. The Conservative crimson, while his Radical running towards the mass democratic state Party tree, the Labour rose or the mate, in honour of his support for of the twentieth century. So it Liberal Democrat freebird will Irish home rule, adopted green.8 was important to ensure that rival be the ubiquitous symbols of each More recently, Liberal colours candidates were properly identified, organisation and candidates and were traditionally blue in Berwick particularly in the days before the literature will be adorned in the on Tweed until changed by Alan secret ballot and the printed ballot same blue, red or yellow colours. Beith, its Liberal MP from 1973.9 paper. Giving candidates and, later, It was not always like this, The author of this article was parties a distinguishing-colour especially with party rosettes. puzzled during the general election rosette or favour assisted in the early As recently as the 1970s, perhaps of February 1974, while waiting democratic process and, perhaps in more recently still, there was nervously for the anticipated Liberal the tradition of battlefield colours much more diversity and it was win in Ceredigion, to see to see identifying the combatants, it also not the case that a candidate would the victorious candidate sporting helped to add some drama and automatically fight an election a huge dark blue rosette but was ‘colour’ to the election contests. As wearing their ‘national’ party then quickly relieved to recognise a result the term ‘political colour(s)’ colour. John Barnes, the historian the mighty frame of Liberal has itself entered the language as a and Conservative parliamentary candidate Geraint Howells.10 metaphor for political allegiance candidate for Walsall North in the Martin Thomas11 recalled that in or opinion with references back at 1960s, described how when first out many parts of Wales, by tradition, least as far as the early nineteenth canvassing in a blue Tory rosette he the Conservatives wore red and century.3 was met by an enthusiastic female were colloquially known by In modern political life, elector who kissed him and said she Liberals as ‘cythreuliaid coch’ – branding4 (the symbolic value of a had been waiting thirty years for the red devils.12 This was not the product) is becoming increasingly a Liberal candidate to reappear in case however in the largely Liberal important. At UK general Walsall. At that time in this area, he stronghold of Montgomeryshire. elections you will see a uniformity recounted, the party colours were Lady Shirley Hooson recalled that of political themes, messaging, Tory red, Liberal blue and Labour her husband Emlyn fought his images, logos and party colours yellow (or yellow and red).7 It is victorious 1962 by-election in red across the country with authorised clear that those on the progressive and yellow colours and that these variations for national, regional side of British politics continued to were the colours inherited from and local approaches. Being ‘on wear blue in many areas, contrary former party leader Clement Davies message’ has sometimes been seen to our anachronistic association who had represented the seat since as more important for politicians of that colour with Conservatism. 1929.13

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 37 liberal party colours

traditional associations with local ruling families, often reflecting the racing colours of the original Whig and Tory aristocrats who dominated elections two centuries ago. At the Torrington by-election of 1958, the first Liberal gain at a by-election since 1929, won for the party by Mark Bonham Carter19 the colours in use were purple and orange as against the National Liberal (Conservative) rosettes of red, white and blue.20 Paul Tyler21 recalled the background to this as relating to the old Bodmin constituency where the Liberal colours were those of the Robartes family, seventeenth-century Parliamentarians in the Civil War (when most of Cornwall was Royalist), Whigs in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and Liberals thereafter. Thomas Agar Robartes won the 1906 general election for the Liberals22 but was unseated by the Tories because his mother had inadvertently treated a substantial number of electors with the annual tenants’ tea! When Tyler was adopted as Liberal parliamentary candidate in Bodmin in 1968, Robartes’ sister, Miss Eva Agar Robartes, attended, and Tyler was ceremonially invited to lunch at the family estate, Lanhydrock, now a National Trust property. Purple and yellow were the racing colours of the Robartes family, and hence for local Liberals too, but by the time of the February 1974 general election Miss Agar Robartes was no longer racing as she was in her late eighties, and Liberals were encouraged to adopt dayglo orange to achieve coordinated national One author has dated the use of Scotland than in England, later recognition.23 Meanwhile John the political colours red and blue to added buff as an identifying colour. Pardoe had apparently shaken up the Exclusion Crisis of 1679–1681, According to one historian, the a lot of traditional supporters in when red was the colour of those Whigs adopted the buff and blue North Cornwall by switching to supporting the Crown, the Tories, of the uniforms of American orange and black when he won while blue was the colour of the Revolutionary soldiers. In these the seat in 196624 while in North Whigs who sought to exclude the colours they paraded around Devon Jeremy Thorpe stuck to the Roman Catholic James, Duke of London dressed as American rebels customary yellow and purple.25 York and Albany and Earl of Ulster to the discomfort and irritation Paul Tyler suggests that the who later became King James II of Lord North16 and King George advent of colour television in 1967 (James VII of Scotland), from III.17 The buff and blue were was a principal driver towards inheriting the throne on the death retained as Whig colours at least national uniformity of party of his brother, Charles II.14 Another until the time of the 1832 Reform political colours for Liberals. The has traced these colours even Acts.18 Conservative use of blue however further back. During the Wars of But these colours were never was as a result of growing trend over the Three Kingdoms, the Scottish universal and, as we know, have the course of the twentieth century supporters of Charles I wore red been subject to change over the and was reinforced by a decision and the opposing Covenanters years. In some parts of the country, made by Conservative Central (proto-Whigs) adopted blue.15 The political colours were taken Council in 1949.26 Michael Steed, Whigs, who originated earlier in from the coats of arms or other the noted Liberal psephologist,

38 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 liberal party colours agrees and has written that for Top: postcard proved however to be the most and stronger still in Scotland, Liberals there was no national from the 1906 intractable of issues with local Wales and the far south-west, party colour until the late 1960s, general election associations, passionate about where traditional Liberal strength instead there being many regional in Gloucester their time-honoured party colour was greatest. variations. When Steed joined the at which which, they believed, immediately In Scotland the old Liberal Liberal Party in East Kent in 1958 Richard Rea identified them to the electors. colours were usually red and the local colour was green and that was re-elected; Meadowcroft remembers one yellow – the colours of the Lion applied to most of, if not all, of the dominant Cheshire constituency, probably Rampant flag. Whereas the Tory the Home Counties and Greater colour is red, Macclesfield, where, following colours were blue and white – the London. Green was the colour with ‘The Liberal boundary changes, it proved colours of the Saltire flag.38 When used by Eric Lubbock in his famous candidate’ in impossible to persuade both parts Asquith fought and won the Paisley by-election win at Orpington in yellow; the of the new constituency to use by-election of 1920, his daughter, March 1962. William Wallace27 writing in the the same colour. Consequently Lady Violet Bonham Carter,39 recalled that green was also the middle is green party workers had to have two recorded in her diaries that the Liberal colour in Leicestershire in on yellow. rosettes and to switch them when Liberals had got the women’s’ the 1950s and early 1960s28 when his they crossed from one part of vote and that on polling day by father-in-law, Edward Rushworth, Bottom: election the constituency to the other. a large majority the children fought local elections and when card from In 1964,The Times reported that had been decked out in red (‘our he was a parliamentary candidate Michael Steed’s Mr Harold Webb, a Manchester colours’, she noted). That day, in the Harborough constituency.29 Brierley Hill supplier of political rosettes and wrote Lady Violet, Paisley was During his days in Cambridge by-election in favours, was doing good business covered with red carnations and and Oxford, Michael Steed also 1967, which is with the Liberals and although rosettes.40 However, there were came across yellow in some of faced in orange they had tried to standardise on many variations in individual the Eastern Counties and when (under the orange the mark of their failure constituencies in the Borders for he moved to Manchester in 1965, photo). to do so nationally meant that he example, and green was favoured he discovered that red was firmly stocked eight colours or colour in the Kincardine and Western entrenched as the Liberal regional combinations to meet Liberal Aberdeenshire constituency of colour (so Labour was obliged to use demands up and down the country.35 1918–1950 with a shade of magenta yellow and red). Cyril Smith,30 for Slowly but surely, however, as in West Aberdeenshire as late as instance, insisted on retaining the national literature continued to 1974, although this was used only north-west red during his famous be produced in orange, and as the once to avoid a clash with another Rochdale by-election win in 1972 benefits of dayglo were perceived, candidate.41 When Councillor and stuck to it for some elections it did eventually come adopted Robert Brown first stood as a thereafter. But across the Pennines everywhere, particularly as a new local government candidate in in Yorkshire, Liberals sported generation of younger Liberals, Rutherglen (Glasgow-South yellow. By this time however, the who were not tied to past traditions, Lanarkshire) in the 1970s, his adoption by the Liberal Publication came to the fore.36 posters were accidentally printed Department of dayglo orange for its It remains doubtful that there in a greeny yellow. As he won, own publications was beginning to was ever a centralised decision by that colour was kept for the next impinge on more newly established the Liberal Party to adopt orange couple of local elections. And local constituency parties and began as a national party colour during even in the days of the fledgling to be used in by-elections. Orange this period. Michael Steed was a Social Democratic Party, a party was the colour adopted in the member of the party’s national unencumbered by obligations Brierley Hill by-election of 1967, executive committee representing to any pre-existing grassroots where Steed was the candidate.31 the Union of Liberal Students in organisations or local bodies with Michael Meadowcroft32 worked 1962–3. At that time, the Liberal their own traditions to protect,42 at Liberal Party HQ from 1962 to Publication Department (which the young Charles Kennedy43 1967and served as the party’s Local was using orange) was emphasising adopted the Liberal Red and Government Officer.33 He recalled very firmly that this was not a Yellow to adorn his election address that at this time the party tried to national party colour, and that its during his campaign in Ross, get everyone to use orange, on the decision had no implications for Cromarty and Skye at the 1983 grounds that it was acknowledged the right of local parties to use general election. In some parts, in professional advertising circles to their own local colours. It seems it was a custom for the candidate be the colour that stood out most, that Liberal Party officials were to wear a white heather lapel spray particular when used in dayglo urging local parties to go orange with red and gold ribbons on format on posters. This idea was because this was the way the wind polling day. After the introduction introduced on the recommendation was blowing rather than because of seat belts, the spray had to be of a member of the Liberal Party in the party had officially agreed.37 worn on the right lapel rather than Lewisham named David Marchant Orange spread first to most the left.44 The Ulster Liberal Party who was a senior figure in a public constituencies in the southeast, of 1956–1985 used yellow and black, relations agency. He offered the where the currently used green was which have also been the colours advice anonymously because of his not associated with strong local of the Alliance Party of Northern professional position and used to traditions, and anyway the party Ireland since its formation in 1970.45 refer to himself as ‘William Ewart’ was organisationally very weak in It is perhaps the case though, when working for the party.34 many constituencies. Resistance that everyone’s favourite story This push towards uniformity was strong in the north of England, about Liberal colours dates from

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 39 liberal party colours the early 1950s when the party Lady Megan no confidence brought following 32 Michael Meadowcroft, b. 1942: Executive was discussing the the decisive British defeat of the Liberal MP for Leeds West 1983–87. matter. The rivalry and antipathy thundered Revolutionary War at the battle of 33 http://www.bramley.demon.co.uk/ between the left-wing Lady Megan Yorktown. liberal.html Lloyd George46 and the more that she 17 Leslie Mitchell, The Whig World: 34 Information to the author from traditional Lady Violet Bonham 1760–1837 (Hambledon Continuum, Michael Meadowcroft, 23 Mar. 2012. Carter was well known. After didn’t care 2005), p. 4. 35 The Times, 13 Oct. 1964, p. 17. going through a number of options 18 Ibid., p. 13. 36 Information to the author from Lady Megan thundered that she what colour 19 Mark Raymond Bonham Carter Michael Meadowcroft, 6 Mar. 2012. didn’t care what colour the party the party (Baron Bonham-Carter), 1922–1994, 37 Information to the author from fought in – as long as it wasn’t grandson of Liberal prime minister Michael Steed, 6 Mar. 2012. violet. fought in – H. H. Asquith. 38 Block, Source Book, p. 78. 20 Mark Pottle (ed.), Daring to Hope: The 39 Lady Violet Bonham Carter, Graham Lippiatt is a Contributing as long as it Diaries and Letters of Violet Bonham Baroness Asquith of Yarnbury Editor to the Journal of Liberal Carter, 1946–69 (Weidenfield and DBE, 1887–1969: daughter of prime History. wasn’t violet. Nicolson, 2000), pp. 199–200. minister H. H. Asquith. 21 Paul Tyler (Baron Tyler), b. 1941: 40 Mark Pottle (ed.), Champion 1 In Scotland, Commissioners of the Liberal MP for Bodmin, 1974 and Redoubtable: The Diaries and Letters Shires and Burgesses of the (Royal) North Cornwall, 1992–2005. of Violet Bonham Carter, 1914–45 Burghs. 22 F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary (Weidenfield & Nicolson, 1998), p. 113. 2 There were three Reform Acts in Election Results 1885–1918 (Macmillan 41 Information to the author from Dr 1832 – one for England and Wales, Press, 1974), p. 238. Sandy Waugh, author of A Scottish one for Scotland and one for Ireland. 23 Information to the author from Paul Liberal Perspective: A Centenary 3 The Times, 10 Sept. 1833, p. 4. Tyler, 5 Mar. 2012. Commemoration for Sir Henry 4 Manuel Adolphsen, ‘Branding 24 Information to the author from Campbell-Bannerman, 1836–1908, 26 in Election Campaigns: Just a Michael Steed, 5 Mar. 2012 Dec. 2013. Buzzword or a New Quality of 25 Information to the author from 42 Ivor Crewe and Anthony King, SDP: Political Communication?’ MSc William Wallace, Lord Wallace of The Birth, Life and Death of the Social dissertation (LSE, 2008). Saltaire, 4 Mar. 2012 Democratic Society (OUP, 1995), p. 217. 5 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_ 26 Barnes, Journal of Conservative History. 43 Charles Kennedy, b 1959: Leader of politics/7259197.stm 27 William Wallace (Baron Wallace of the Liberal Democrats, 1999–2006. 6 See Registration of Political Parties Saltaire), b. 1941. 44 Information to the author from Dr Act, 1988 and Political Parties, 28 Information to the author from Sandy Waugh. Elections and Referendums Act, 2000. William Wallace, Lord Wallace of 45 Information to the authors from 7 John Barnes, ‘Party Colours’, Journal Saltaire, 4 Mar. 2012 Berkeley Farr, former Chairman of Conservative History, Summer 2004. 29 F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary of the Ulster Liberal Party and 8 Ibid. Election Results 1950–1970 (Political candidate for South Down in 1973. 9 Information to the author from Reference Publications, 1971), p. 442. 46 Lady Megan Lloyd George, Sir David Steel (Baron Steel of 30 Sir Cyril Smith MBE, 1928–2010: 1902–1966: daughter of David Aikwood), 10 Dec. 2013 Liberal MP for Rochdale 1972–1992. Lloyd George, Liberal MP for 10 Geraint Howells, 1925–2004: 31 Information to the author from Anglesey 1929–1951, Labour MP for Liberal MP for Cardigan 1974–83, Michael Steed, 5 Mar. 2012. Carmarthen 1957–66. Ceredigion and Pembroke North 1983–1992. 11 Martin Thomas, Lord Thomas of Gresford b.1937: Liberal candidate for Flintshire West 1964–1970. 12 Information to the author, 5 Mar. 2012 13 Interview with Lady Shirley Reports Hooson, 16 Feb. 2014 14 Geoffrey D. M. Block OBE, former Assistant Director (Information) at the Conservative Research Social reformers and liberals: the Rowntrees Department, author of A Source and their legacy Book of Conservatism (Conservative Political Centre, 1964) and The Tory Conference fringe meeting, 7 March 2014, with Ian Packer, Tradition (Conservative Political Centre, 1957). Lord Shutt and Tina Walker; chair: Lord Kirkwood 15 Raymond Campbell Paterson, Report by David Cloke A Land Afflicted: Scotland and the Covenanter Wars 1638–1690 (John Donald, 1998), p. 26. he Liberal Democrat His- discursive, but ultimately enlight- 16 Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford, tory Group’s meeting at ening and thought-provoking 1732–1792: prime minister 1770–82, Tthe 2014 Spring Confer- review of the life, work and legacy he resigned to avoid losing a vote of ence was an intriguing, somewhat of Joseph and Seebohm Rowntree

40 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 report – Social reformers and liberals: the Rowntrees and their legacy

– successful businessmen, pioneers of social investigation and commit- ted Liberals. As Ian Packer, of Lin- coln University, noted at the start of his talk, the Rowntree name is known for two things: as a brand name for chocolates and sweets, and as the supporters of serious inves- tigations into social conditions. This renown is due to the activi- ties of Joseph Rowntree and his son Seebohm. As Packer rightly said, it all began with the company. Joseph Rowntree was born in 1836, the second son of a Quaker family that owned a wholesale grocery busi- ness. In 1869 he joined his younger brother Henry in a small chocolate and cocoa business that Henry had founded seven years earlier – and by small Packer meant a company the firm, and in that sense there had From left: Ian of the audience asked why both the consisting of twelve workers and a been an element of social ownership. Packer, Archy Rowntrees and another Quaker donkey that undertook deliveries! The Rowntrees did not keep Kirkwood, David family, the Cadburys, had gone In Packer’s view Joseph was the their views on management to Shutt, Tina into the chocolate business. Packer effective founder of the company. themselves and Seebohm was a the- Walker argued that it stemmed in part from He was its driving force (Henry orist and publisher on management their temperance activities and died in 1883) and was especially and labour relations. His first book, that they saw cocoa as providing a skilled as an accountant. A key The Human Factory Business (1921), good-quality drink for the work- decision on the road to success was was a key text in the development ing classes. to begin the manufacture of fruit of management theory. He argued Joseph wrote or co-wrote five pastilles in 1881. In 1890 Rowntree consistently that good wages and books on the subject of alcohol in established a new factory in New conditions were important for effi- the seven years between 1899 and Earswick and by 1902 employed ciency as well as for labour rela- 1906. Packer argued that three main 2,000 people. Although Joseph did tions and that a well-paid, engaged points emerge from these writings. not retire until 1923, when he was workforce was good for British Firstly, he saw drinking as a result eighty-seven, he shared the run- industry. He developed a more of the deprivations of urban life, ning of the company with his four scientific approach to manage- which needed to be tackled. Sec- sons, three nephews and two sons- ment, highlighting cost account- ond, the public needed to be made in-law (it was very much a family ing, proper research and the use aware of how poor conditions were concern). Nonetheless, it was clear of psychology and the company in many of England’s cities. Third, that his heir apparent was his sec- became the first business to employ working-class families did not have ond son, Seebohm, who was man- a psychologist. sufficient income to feed the whole aging director from 1923 to 1936. Packer reported that Joseph family and a great number had no Packer made it clear that the and Seebohm had a range of inter- margin for alcohol. experience of running a business ests. Joseph was obsessed with col- These findings fed into the informed by their Quaker faith lecting statistics and Packer noted investigations undertaken by See- influenced their moral and politi- later that it was this quasi-scientific bohm, the most famous of which cal thought, and that in turn influ- approach that made the arguments was the first,Poverty: A Study of enced how they ran the business. of the Rowntrees so persuasive in Town Life, published in 1901. This The Rowntrees developed an early the early years of the twentieth cen- was a study of his home city, York, form of corporate welfare, with tury. Joseph’s great crusade had and tabulated the income of work- an eight-hour working day, a pen- initially been against alcohol. Dur- ing-class households and their sion scheme, works councils and ing the 1870s he came to see it as the expenditure. Packer argued that, profit sharing. What they did not key cause of the poverty and mis- despite that seemingly dry, statis- do was hand over the company to ery around him in York. As Packer tical approach, it was surprisingly the employees along the lines of noted, this was not an uncommon accessible. Seebohm calculated that the John Lewis Partnership. This view among the Nonconformists 10 per cent of the population was in was argued in the fringe meet- of the time. It also appealed to his first-degree poverty: that is, they ing to have been a more radical and character, which was rather puri- did not have sufficient income to forward-looking option, and one tanical with little time for relaxa- feed and clothe themselves and pay which might have protected the tion. Seebohm was also quite rent. A further 17–18 per cent were company from takeover. David austere, campaigning against gam- in second-degree poverty: they Shutt did note, however, that the bling, cinema and the dance hall, had just enough income to do these trusts established by Joseph Rown- seeing them as distractions from the things but chose instead to spend tree had owned the majority stake in serious business of life. A member their income on other things such

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 41 report – Social reformers and liberals: the Rowntrees and their legacy as drink. It was noted later from the company. Unfortunately too soon, These books after the First World War, and they floor that current statistics might as David Shutt (former Director were acquired by the Westminster reveal similar levels of poverty, also and Chair of the Joseph Rowntree made the Press, which was owned by another compounded by expenditure on Reform Trust) noted, to make the Liberal businessman, Lord Cow- cigarettes, gambling and alcohol. most of the Nestlé takeover in 1988. Rowntree dray. In the 1930s Seebohm with- These books made the Rown- The three trusts were the Joseph drew from the newspaper business tree name synonymous with the Rowntree Charitable Trust, the name synon- altogether and made more direct great controversies of the day Joseph Rowntree Social Services donations. Joseph Rowntree had regarding poverty and alcohol. Trust and the Joseph Rowntree Vil- ymous with always wanted the trust to focus So much so that one Rowntree lage Trust. The roles of the trusts on employing people to do things described himself as the brother were outlined in a Founders Mem- the great rather than on building meeting of poverty and the son of drink! orandum drafted on 29 Decem- controver- houses and investing in property. It Helped by the scientific aspect of ber 1904 and which Shutt argued also had the aim of maintaining the their studies, they were able to still provided great inspiration to sies of the ‘purity of elections in York’. Whilst change the attitude to poverty from those working for the trusts today. he had said that it would be ‘inexpe- one focused on individual failings He explained that the distinction day regard- dient’ to use the trust for ordinary to one that recognised that it was between the work of the Charitable subscriptions to political parties, structural and required govern- Trust and the Social Services Trust ing poverty Rowntree had acknowledged that ment action. Their work influenced was merely the legal distinction there may be occasional crises when Churchill, Lloyd George (who, between what could and could not and alcohol. it could be called upon. Shutt noted Packer noted rather drily, claimed be regarded as charitable, although that they had been living in crisis to have read the book) and the Lib- the focus of their work was essen- So much so for the last hundred years! eral period of social reform up to tially the same. So, for example, The Social Services Trust had 1914 more generally. Rowntree noted that the soup that one changed its name to the Reform Despite this influence, Packer kitchen in York had no trouble in Trust some twenty years ago, reported that their activities gave obtaining financial aid but that an Rowntree partly to avoid confusion with local them little time for a formal political inquiry into the extent and causes authority social services commit- career. Both were committed Liber- of poverty would get little support. described tees, and also to reflect better its als, seeing it as part of the movement The first two trusts were also sup- activities. Shutt argued that the for Nonconformity, temperance posed to conclude their work by himself as Reform Trust had had three dis- and social reform. The family 1939 and hand over their resources tinct phases in its history. Dur- was very influential in York, with to the Village Trust, which was to the brother ing the period up to 1939, in part Joseph being president of the York be permanent as it owned property. of poverty reported on by Packer, 15 per cent Liberal Federation and his nephew However, Rowntree had provided of the expenditure went on temper- Arnold being MP for the city from that the trusts could continue after and the son ance work. The Liberal Party had 1910 to 1918 and, later, president of 1939, and so they did. to wait until 1935 for its first grant, the York Liberal Association, and Shutt highlighted that at the of drink! and by 1939 under 1 per cent of the the family ran the Association and start all six trustees of all three trusts trust’s expenditure had gone to the the Liberal group on the council. were the same six people, were all Liberal Party. The years from 1939 At a national level, the Rowntrees Rowntrees and, at the prompting of to 1969 represented the quietest worked in the background. Packer Tina Walker, noted that they were period of the trust, though it did noted that, unlike other business- all men. The first non-Rowntree increase the funds it made available men, they did not give the party any was John Bowles Morrell, appointed to the Liberal Party: £20,000 in the money, as they were not interested a director of the Social Services ten years to 1950 and £50,000 in in peerages (though it was reported Trust in 1906, followed by another the years up to 1960. In 1969, dif- later in the meeting that Joseph was non-Rowntree in 1913. Nonethe- ferences between Jeremy Thorpe on the list of possible peers to be cre- less, for the first fifteen to twenty and Pratap Chitnis at Liberal Party ated in the event of the failure of the years the trustees were largely the Organisation led to Chitnis being Parliament Bill). same six Rowntrees. put forward to the Rowntrees by Jo In a sense the political, moral Packer reported that a key role Grimond and Richard Wainwright and social reforming beliefs of the of the Social Services Trust in its as someone who could run the Rowntrees came together in the early years was supporting the trust. Up to that point it had been a three trusts that Joseph Rowntree Liberal press. Rowntree had been part-time occupation. established ‘with the cordial assent determined to respond to the Tory The Chitnis era, and beyond, of my wife and children’ at the end gutter press, particularly after the saw a significant increase in the of 1904. The entire endowment was Boer War, and bought a number activity supported by the trust. It initially in shares in Rowntree and of regional newspapers and briefly bought a building in Poland Street Company with a dividend banked owned a national newspaper, the in London and let it out to a wide twice a year. Until the merger with Morning Leader, and a London even- range of organisations to use as Mackintosh’s in 1969, the three ing paper, The Star. The latter, their headquarters. These included trusts together owned 53 per cent however, largely paid its way by the Low Pay Unit, Gingerbread, of Rowntree and Company. With publishing gambling tips on its back Child Poverty Action Group, the merger, the holding reduced to page, and after failed attempts to Friends of the Earth and the Tory 38 per cent and, thereafter, disputes get rid of the tips, Rowntree sold up Reform Group. Kirkwood noted with the board led the trustees to after three years. The newspapers that it was a splendid place for net- divest the trusts of their shares in the began to lose money quite seriously working, with great energy and

42 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 report – Social reformers and liberals: the Rowntrees and their legacy synergy, and launched the careers meant in 2014 and, in doing so, campaigning against the objectifi- of many excellent people. The trust perhaps indicated the early years cation of women; and Pro-Choice also set up a think tank, the Outer of a fourth period of the Reform campaigners, especially in North- Circle Policy Unit, established the Trust’s history and one that seemed ern Ireland. Birchfield Centre in Hebden Bridge to me less directly connected with As its financial weight was tiny as a ‘Poland Street of the North’, the current priorities of the Liberal compared with governments, cor- and funded many parliamentary Democrats but no less liberal for all porations and the charitable sec- assistants, fondly known as choco- that. Or perhaps it indicated that tor, the trust had decided to target late soldiers. Overall, from 1972 the the party is now less closely con- funding at issues with immediate trust supported the Liberal Demo- nected with what might be termed political salience. So, for example, crats and its predecessor parties to the wider liberal movement than it it had not focused recently on Lords the tune of £10 million. The Chari- had been when the trusts were estab- reform or PR because they did not table Trust, meanwhile, focused its lished. Walker also noted that the currently have political traction. work on peace, race, Ireland, power purposes of the trust had changed Nonetheless, whilst there had been and responsibility and Quakerism, over the last 110 years, quoting limited opportunities for politi- though the latter accounted for less Rowntree himself in her defence: cal reform since 2010, the trust had than 10 per cent of its activities. ‘time makes ancient good uncouth’. supported campaigns on party The third organisation estab- Walker reported that the trust funding and Spin Watch’s work lished was the Joseph Rowntree had thought a great deal about its against corporate lobbying. The Village Trust. It was provided with role within English and British pol- trust’s connection with the news- a plot of land near the factory on itics within the last few years and paper industry had been contin- which was built an experimental in light of liberal and Quaker val- ued through support for the Media housing estate. Packer reported that ues. The trust was also small, with Standards Trust and Hacked Off by the 1950s there were 600 houses, £44 million in assets providing and for their support for the recom- though not many were owned by income for £1.2 million in grants mendations of the Leveson Inquiry. working-class people. He also noted They had each year; whereas Shutt had earlier Walker also argued that the trust that it was the Village Trust that noted that the Charitable Trust had continued to demonstrate Rown- started Rowntree’s association with encompassed assets of £160 million. The Reform tree’s care for working people land reform. He claimed that Joseph Trust had, therefore, agreed to though its support for the campaign disliked landowners, especially for the Gladsto- focus on a specific set of interrelated by the High Pay Centre to mod- their failure to make land available themes: correcting imbalances of erate high wages and the Intern for housing, which he believed lay nian Liber- power; supporting the voice of the Aware campaign to ensure all behind the proliferation of slums. alism of the individual and the weak; strength- potential applicants got a fare deal Seebohm began investigating land ening the hand of those striving for and equal access to opportunities. reform in response, using Belgium high Victo- reform; speaking truth to power; In response to a question on the as an example, as it did not have any challenging systems that hinder extent to which Joseph Rowntree’s large landowners. Working with rian period, freedom and justice; and support- own views dictated priorities, Shutt Lloyd George, it was intended that ing creative campaigns for political noted that, whilst trustees regu- the issue should provide the major as well as the change and reform that support a larly referred back to the founda- Liberal campaign for the 1915 general healthy democracy. tion document, Rowntree himself election, with Seebohm as its driv- New Liber- These priorities had manifested had said that it did not bind trus- ing force. Although the 1915 general themselves in support for a number tees to anything. However, trustees election never took place, Seebohm alism of the of different activites, such as Med were chosen because the existing continued to work closely with Confidential and its campaigns on trustees thought that they were the Lloyd George into the 1930s, provid- early twenti- care.data, Open Rights campaign- right sort of people. In that way, ing elements of the Yellow Book. ing against the Communications perhaps, the trusts developed, as, The Village Trust subsequently eth century, Data Bill, and supporting the Don’t indeed, had the Rowntrees them- became the Joseph Rowntree Foun- Spy on Us Coalition. The trust selves. They had encompassed the dation, which in turn established a and had both had also supported campaigns for Gladstonian Liberalism of the high separate trust to look after housing. individual human rights by fund- Victorian period, as well as the New The Foundation, the wealthiest of reflected ing Protection Against Stalking, Liberalism of the early twentieth the three with assets worth £300 Women Against Rape, and cam- century, and had both reflected and million, spent its money on ‘pov- and made paigns against domestic violence. made possible the changes in Lib- erty, place and ageing’. Kirkwood possible the Black Mental Health UK had been eral thought and policy during their noted that the Foundation pro- giving funds to campaign against lifetimes. Both Shutt and Walker duced ‘blue chip research’ in these changes the retention of the DNA of those gave confidence that this legacy was areas and had helped to develop arrested for minor offences, which in safe hands, and the range of activ- minimum income theory in col- in Liberal had been applied in a discrimina- ities supported should continue to laboration with academics at York tory fashion, and to highlight the inspire Liberal thinkers and activ- University and elsewhere. The qual- thought and deaths in custody and in psychiat- ists. What had changed, however, as ity and quantity of the work of the ric settings of black mental health Packer noted, was that it no longer Foundation had necessarily limited policy dur- service users. The trust also sup- seemed possible to be both an indus- the role of the Reform Trust and ported groups in the ‘Fourth Wave’ trialist and a social investigator. focused it on giving people a voice. ing their of feminism including UK Femi- Tina Walker, Secretary of the nista, which provided infrastruc- David Cloke is a member of the Liberal Reform Trust, outlined what this lifetimes. ture support and training; Object, Democrat History Group’s committee.

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 43 Liberalism, peace and the First World War limited results. In the context of Liberal Democrat History Group meeting, 30 June 2014, the end of the Belle Epoque, the unfashionable prophesy of Edward National Liberal Club, with Louise Arimatsu and Robert Grey, from 1914, that ‘the lights Falkner; chair: Martin Horwood had gone out in Europe’ was ren- dered all the more tragic upon the Report by Douglas Oliver panel’s reflection. That said, both Arimatsu and Faulkner spoke opti- hree days and a full cen- in June 1914 had his chauffer not mistically about the legacy of Lib- tury after Gavrilo Prin- made an unpropitious detour into eral Internationalism, a movement Tcip’s Sarajevo ‘shot that a Sarajevo cul-de-sac, where his whose potency now owes much to was heard around the world’, the armed Serbian assassin happened by the traumatic milieu in which it Liberal Democrat History Group chance to be standing. As it was, the was originally conceived. and Liberal International met at the bloody act which killed both the Falkner spoke of the vestigial National Liberal Club to discuss the archduke and his wife, with only effects of the conflict on his native enduring legacy of the First World two bullets, set off a deadly dom- Germany and how its shadow sub- War on liberalism and the Liberal ino chain of diplomatic escalation, tly coloured his own childhood Party, and the broader implications which led to world war. in Bavaria, many decades later. that the catastrophic conflict had With the benefit of hindsight, In his boyhood, he had been par- on liberal notions of international the narrative of inevitable passage tially looked after by a local woman law, financial progress and peace. to war – including the re-arma- whose husband had been badly The panel also discussed the grow- ment of the British and Ger- injured in the war, and was hence ing liberal international movement, mans and the strains in the aging unable to have children. He spoke which had its roots in the immedi- Austrian and Ottoman Empires Falkner of her conspicuous tendency to pre- ate years preceding the war and was – might perhaps seem easily persua- serve rations and material goods in left shaped by its outcome. sive. However, as Professor Falkner defined lib- a way that was indicative of a deep Appropriately, the discussion and Louise Arimatsu of Chatham habit developed in a time of scar- was held in the club’s Lloyd George House both pointed out, war might eral interna- city and uncertainty, a habit that he Room, and the panel and audience well have been avoided. Indeed, to had inherited to this day. The mark reflected actively on the role the many liberal political economists of tionalists as of memory was stubborn, as well as Welsh prime minister and other the time, up to and including 1914, painful, for much of the European Liberals played in the years of war conflict seemed philosophically being those continent. and in the controversial peace that unthinkable. Falkner defined liberal interna- followed. As the war dragged on, As the panel explained, the who value tionalists as being those who value the conflict put the party under previous ninety-nine years since individual rights wherever they enormous existential strain, and the Waterloo saw a period of rela- individual may be, even outside their own internal and external political pres- tive European peace not seen on rights wher- countries. As such, Liberals had a sures inflicted on it may well have the European continent for many cosmopolitan outlook, and believed contributed to its eventual eclipse centuries – along with widespread ever they that the individual should be by the Labour Party. improvement in economic cir- allowed to flourish anywhere in the Liberal Democrat MP for Chel- cumstances for the vast bulk of its may be, even globe. Liberal internationalists did tenham, Martin Horwood, chaired citizens. Macauley’s works set the not believe that realpolitik was all the event and discussed the influ- tenor for an optimistic trend in Lib- outside their that should be employed in inter- ence that Lloyd George biographer eral philosophical outlook, but this national objectives and that peace, and disciple Ken Morgan had had trend ought not to be seen in isola- own coun- justice, the betterment of individ- on the development of his own tion. As the world economy became ual rights around the world were political philosophy as an Oxford ever more integrated in a way fore- tries. As such, critical. Whilst they were prag- undergraduate. Horwood today seen by the likes of Smith, it seemed matic about the value of the nation chairs the party’s International that war was sufficiently beyond Liberals had state, they were ultimately ‘activist’ Affairs Committee at Westminster the pale of individual as well as in outlook and restless to improve and stated that the enduring spec- mutual self-interest that its occur- a cosmopoli- individual opportunity and human tre of despotism and human rights rence in Europe would be avoided. rights where possible. Liberal inter- abuse gave liberals a lot of work, As Falkner pointed out, the lan- tan outlook, nationalists were part of a progres- just as it had to the likes of Asquith, guage of the great Liberals Locke sive creed, and didn’t just believe in Grey, Lloyd George and Wood- and Cobden was often coloured by and believed more of the same in terms of war. row Wilson, in the early twentieth metaphors of peace, not just mate- Falkner juxtaposed liberal inter- century. rial security, and this remained a that the indi- nationalism with what he termed In his opening remarks, Hor- touchstone for the party through- vidual should social internationalism. The latter wood mused on the sometimes out the period. wished to ‘remake the world’ on apparently stochastic nature of However, war followed swiftly be allowed to a socialist basis and with utopian history, evinced by the seem- in summer 1914, with the two goals, and was linked to interna- ingly eccentric circumstances of groups of countries bound inflex- flourish any- tional political networks. Liberal the Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s ibly by international treaty. Mean- internationalists were more com- demise. The heir apparent to the while, Liberal Interationalist where in the mitted to protecting human rights Austro-Hungarian throne might attempts to stop or even merely from abuses such as torture, whilst have survived his visit to Bosnia blunt its excesses had apparently globe. emphasising a practical attitude to

44 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 report – liberalism, peace and the first world war realpolitik. He also differentiated it Liberal inter- period, after leaving the Liberal of the German side. However, from the closely related concept of Party in part because of the war. this began to change as the war liberal pacifism, which had opposed nationalists Leonard Woolf, husband of Vir- went on. H. G. Wells coined the all forms of war, including the First ginia, and the influential econo- phrase ‘war to end all wars’ in 1914, World War, from the outset. Lib- would also mist John A. Hobson had also but by 1916 he spoke of it as ‘not eral internationalism was also asso- already migrated to the Independ- being clearly of light against dark- ciated with but distinct from the potentially ent Labour Party before hostilities ness, but wholesome instincts in a late-Victorian Liberal imperialist commenced. Each had been sig- nightmare; the world is not really movement of Joseph Chamberlain, give differ- nificant players in the Union of awake’, and his ambivalence was which offered a more statist domes- Democratic Control, which, whilst indicative of a growing mind set: as tic policy in reaction to the classical ent answers not exclusively pacifist, harshly the war went on, the memory of its economic policy of Gladstone. to a num- criticised what it perceived as the initial purpose was diluted by the Perhaps not uniquely in the military dominance of govern- apparently senseless nature of the field of liberal scholarship, Falkner ber of ques- ments at the outset of war, and continuing slaughter. Wells’ point stated that the practical applica- became increasingly critical of both was not that war should be opposed tion of liberal internationalism tions. Should sides, as the conflict became more without equivocation, but indi- was ambiguous. With a keenness bloody and protracted. However cated, instead, a desperate urge to to empathise with the individual all war be current liberal internationalism is, reduce its evil when it was impossi- need, Falkner argued that liberal in Falkner’s opinion, articulated ble to avoid. internationalists could be argued avoided at all with most zest by politicians in the Falkner concluded with three to be proponents for and against right-hand corner of British poli- points about the conflict’s legacy intervention. Falkner argued that costs? Cob- tics, including those Conservative upon liberalism. The first was that its philosophical descendants in the MPs who were influenced by the the idea that trade could be used to early twenty-first century in Brit- den said yes, American neo-conservative move- guarantee peace was greatly chal- ain probably included both Charles ment to intervene in Iraq. lenged and consequently the notion Kennedy and Tony Blair, who others no. Three concepts underlined of free trade was diminished in the took markedly differing stances on liberal international thought in post-war period. Duncan Brack of the Iraq invasion, but based both the pre-war period according to this journal contested this, point- their arguments upon an explicit Falkner. First was what he called ing out that the importance of free humanitarian basis. ‘harmony of interest’ – or ‘common trade remained underscored by Liberal internationalists would interest’ as outlined by Adam Smith a range of factors, including the also potentially give different – and is the notion that people do Liberal contribution to the Bret- answers to a number of questions. not naturally seek out war and con- ton Wood talks on free trade, the Should all war be avoided at all flict. Further, Falkner stated, this Liberal Party’s commitment to costs? Cobden said yes, others no. tendency was reinforced by the view the common market and EU, and Where the democratic will of the that the natural progression from an the party’s enduring interest and people was for war, even on a non- agrarian to an industrial society had celebration of Richard Cobden liberal basis such as nationalism, increased the potential opportunity and John Bright. Whilst Falkner would it be liberal to oppose it? cost that could accrue from conflict. accepted this, he felt that the opti- Should so-called ‘civilised’ nine- Second was the notion that indi- mistic narrative of the Victorian teenth-century nations seek ‘liberal vidual rights led to greater collective period was never re-established reform’ in less democratic coun- rights and success – an idea influ- and that when free trade was talked tries, or seek to preserve peace- enced by Kant’s notion that democ- about after 1945, it was no longer ful co-existence? Whilst William racies were unlikely to engage in framed as squarely within the con- Gladstone spoke of foreign inter- war. Similarly, Thomas Paine had text of peace. Second, Falkner vention, such as the attack on Alex- stated his belief that wars were typi- stated that he felt the old notion andria in Egypt in the 1880s, as the cally rooted in monarchical self- that democratic states were inher- ‘Duty of England’, there was no interest; modern republics were less ently more inclined toward peace settled opinion, by the start of the likely to go to war. Finally, liberal was challenged, and that as a result First World War, of what liberal internationalists were committed to they opted for a more interven- internationalism was. the rule of law, which was felt to be tionist approach in later years. The Falkner therefore termed liberal important as a form of defence of the growth in state planning in the internationalism a ‘broad church’, individual from the state. This view 1920s was also seen to weaken this with varied goals that were at times had been expressed by liberal think- view. Finally, though international ill defined: ‘there was no simple ers ranging from Jeremy Bentham law became more salient and more blueprint’. Nor could the move- to Woodrow Wilson, and was seen deeply reified during the inter- ment that characterised it be clas- as a key tool for taming the state. war period, the effectiveness of sified as belonging to an easily Falkner emphasised that, the League of Nations was clearly discernible faction: in the British although liberal internationalists a disappointment. That said, the context, it straddled both the Liber- were unenthusiastic about the war United Nations’ success after 1945 als and the emerging Labour Party. from its very outset, they did accept gave strong reasons for optimism Proponents during the period of it. Many liberal internationalists and perhaps offered a sweeter form the First World War included Nor- felt that the allied cause was neces- of irony, as the liberal project came man Angell and Edmund Morel, sary to preserve international law in to fruition. who became important figures in and the integrity of Belgium; there Whilst Gladstone’s views were the Labour Party in the interwar were no liberals arguing on behalf clearly coloured by his own theistic

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 45 report – liberalism, peace and the first world war inclinations, they were perhaps Arimatsu always had to be one that champi- combatants from non-combatants, also influenced by the growing dis- oned ‘pluralism’ at the expense of and to delineate war claims, mari- semination of news media in the delineated ‘anti-pluralism’. time neutrality, asylum and extra- Victorian period – a factor that has Arimatsu spoke of the impor- dition, were being explicated for increased to an ever greater degree the chal- tance of the post-1648 classical the first time. Each of these prin- to the present day – with the result model of international relations. ciples has become pervasive and that the domestic audience has come lenge faced The Peace of Westphalia had been influential, if not universal, today. to feel an ever more potent sense of an important stepping stone in Arimatsu argued that, given the human empathy for individual suf- by Liberal the transition from the city state bloodshed of the First and Second fering, wherever it might occur in toward the modern European World War, it was easy with hind- the world. Whilst Gladstone’s Mid- Interna- nation state; by the late nineteenth sight to dismiss the achievements lothian words about the universal tional in the century, relations were largely of liberal internationalism in the ‘sanctity of life’ in the mud huts of decided based on relative power, or period. However, she pointed out Afghanistan were richly evocative, form of the as Geoffrey Best remarked, it was that it is the nature of any law that they were ahead of their time, as ‘War governed by power’. breaches occur and that the real test shown by the enduring public con- constant However, two trends emerged of a law is how such breaches are cern today about Human Rights during the period to change such dealt with, rather than whether they around the world. dilemma thinking. The rapid growth of are universally upheld from the out- Louise Arimatsu opened her dis- European economies in the nine- set. In the early twenty-first cen- cussion by highlighting the Serbian that, in order teenth century led to ever-greater tury, we now expect offenders, such response to Austria’s ultimatum of economic interdependence as coun- as those accused of war crimes in the July 1914. Whilst it gave Serbia lit- to solve war, tries developed their industrial base Western Balkans, to be punished for tle option to avoid war, the Serbs and sought to exploit gains from breaching international law. themselves responded by refer- liberals must trade with one another. Financial Although the Third Hague ring the standoff to the Permanent connections led to legal and politi- Peace Conference was cancelled Court of Arbitration in The Hague. be willing cal linkages and it was felt that as world war began, the war led to Offering her own counterfactual, these could make war less likely. ever-greater demands for a more had the international framework to threaten The second separate strand were humane and pluralistic approach, been stronger, or had the Austrians the overlapping liberal movements cultivated from roots in the pre- been slightly more willing, maybe violence as a throughout the century, including war Liberal International move- the period 1914–18 could have been campaigns against the slave trade, ment. The enduring legacy of the remembered in the context of inter- deterrent for for women’s suffrage and other movement today, Arimatsu said, national law as being one of con- violence; in peace movements. With both fac- proves that it was not a failure a stant deliberation by the PCA. tors moulding a zeitgeist, it was no century ago. Nonetheless, Arimatsu argued other words, surprise that Czar Nicholas II of As the meeting moved on to that, despite the tragedy of the war Russia sought to call a halt to the questions, there was a greater and the damage inflicted on lib- to use a cure arms race. The 1899 and 1907 Con- focus on the post-war period. It eral dreams of indefinite peace, ferences in The Hague sought to was asked whether the Versailles the period ultimately laid the potentially reduce the chance of war, but the Treaty, with its punitive peace groundwork for the system of impetus was nonetheless pragmatic and heavy burden of reparations, international law – including the as damaging and was also based on the idea of much criticised and often cited as UN Charter system – that greatly softening the impact of war when a cause of the Second World War, shapes today’s conflicts and our as the dis- it inevitably did occur. Arimatsu was a failure of ‘liberal thought’. response to them. Indeed, despite highlighted the legacy of the 1899 Falkner accepted that it was, and the perceived futility of the pre- ease itself. and 1907 Hague Peace Conferences that despite the presence of liberal- war Hague treaties, the war dam- and the concept of ‘codification’. minded leaders like Lloyd George aged the case for the existing order The first aimed to reduce arma- and Wilson, the punishing agenda and the pre-war classical model of ments such as poisoned gas, soft of French Premier Clemenceau did might as right. bullets, naval mines and the use of indeed result in a damaging set- Arimatsu delineated the chal- balloons to drop bombs. The latter tlement. That said, Falkner felt it lenge faced by Liberal Interna- focused on conventions for war on was clear that the lesson had been tional in the form of the constant land and sea and for the settlement learned by 1945 and that the gen- dilemma that, in order to solve war, of disputes arising from war. The erous attitude of the allies to the liberals must be willing to threaten Permanent Court of Arbitration rebuilding of Europe indicated a violence as a deterrent for vio- that arose was the first of its kind, belated triumph of liberal thinking. lence; in other words, to use a cure and exists to this day. Jonathan Fryer asked whether potentially as damaging as the dis- The interwar period saw the discussion of the war had fallen ease itself. This had led, Arimatsu advent of Wilson’s League of into a Eurocentric trap of excessive felt, to a necessary confusion about Nations. Whilst it was not ulti- focus on the events on the Western whether effective means to solve mately successful, it was a radical Front, at the expense of what was human rights crises in an interna- departure from the previous, ad occurring in the Middle East. As the tional context can ever properly hoc approach to international law, Ottoman Empire fractured, were be considered ‘liberal’. In terms of and was influential upon the UN the Balfour Declaration and the finding a solution to this ambiguity, Charter system. Meanwhile, more much-criticised Sykes–Picot agree- Arimatsu felt that a ‘liberal’ solu- formal attempts to codify POW ment perhaps the most significant tion to an issue of international law status, to properly discriminate legacy to international affairs, given

46 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 reviews that both had received much cover- freedom in 2003, his anti-pluralistic Democrats’ handling of sexual age in the summer of 2014? Whilst actions were indicative of an out- harassment allegations. In fact, it Falkner accepted that the Middle look counter to the idea of liberal comes from p. 36 of Dr Elizabeth East had experienced a difficult cen- internationalism. That said, the Evans’ book, Gender and the Liberal tury, he felt it was necessary for us international landscape was shaped Democrats – Representing Women?, to live with historical mistakes and profoundly today by the activities which is based largely on doctoral to make the best of them and that of those people inside and outside research undertaken between 2005 it would be a mistake to think we the UK Liberal Party in the inter- and 2009. could go back to previous borders. nationalist movement who wished Despite the differing context of Citing a recent Michael Ignatieff to foster a stronger peace, or at least their report and doctoral research article in the Financial Times which a better war. respectively, Helena Morrissey spoke of his aversion to secession, Falkner’s conclusion was most and Elizabeth Evans share a fun- Falkner felt it was worth recognis- optimistic about the future. For damental conclusion: that there ing that ‘every new nation creates a all its manifest contradictions, and is a woman-unfriendly culture in new minority group’. the difficulties inherent in the so- the Liberal Democrats. Morris- Challenging Arimatsu’s san- called ‘Right to Protect’, interna- sey (p. 57) notes that ‘the Party (and guine tone about the Liberal Inter- tional liberalism had changed the politics generally) is struggling to national legacy, Simon Drage asked discourse of international affairs for genuinely develop an encouraging if the apparently widespread use the better. He concluded that ‘we environment for women’, while of drones by the Obama admin- are all liberal internationalists now’. Evans argues that ‘despite the equal istration was proof that interna- As the ninety minute meeting opportunity rhetoric, the party is tional law and oversight remained drew to a close, Martin Horwood an institution embedded in a mas- weak today. Arimatsu argued that, remarked on the myriad of issues culine ethos and ideology’ in which despite initial uncertainty about the discussion had not even touched there is a ‘persistent privileging of Pakistan, in the case of operations upon, as evidence of the complex- male norms and values’ (p. 146). both there and in Yemen, it was ity of what had been discussed: the For both, the most glaring – but clear that both countries had invited Bolshevik revolution was not even by no means only – manifestation the Americans to intervene; in the mentioned, nor the effects of the of this cultural problem has been case of the latter, the encourage- conflict on Africa and Asia. Hor- the continuing failure to elect more ment was forthright. Whilst lib- wood said the fact that the topic women Liberal Democrat MPs. It erals might query the approach of was still relevant and emotive a cen- is this failure which leads Evans to those individual governments, at tury later, proved that the appar- ask whether Liberal Democrats are the internationalist level, a structure ently ancient liberal battle to foster ‘representing women’. was in place that respected national individual creativity and heteroge- In answering the question she sovereignty and process of law. neity – against the foes of absolut- poses herself, Evans structures her Arimatsu concluded by saying ism and despotism across the world empirical evidence – quantita- that liberal internationalism was – still had a long way to go. tive and qualitative data, including perhaps best understood as a state interviews with parliamentarians, of mind. Whilst Blair might have Douglas Oliver is the Secretary of the candidates and senior staff – around asserted a commitment to personal Liberal Democrat History Group. three key criteria: • descriptive representation (numbers of women in speci- fied senior roles); • substantive representation (the extent to which the party’s policies may be described as ‘feminist’); and Reviews • symbolic representation (whether women are presented as ‘tokens’). Evans finds the party most want- Women and the Liberal Democrats ing in relation to the first and third of these criteria. She notes that, Dr Elizabeth Evans, Gender and the Liberal Democrats – despite comprising approximately Representing Women? (Manchester University Press, 2011) half the membership, women are largely absent from senior volun- Review by Dinti Batstone tary and staff roles. A senior party official is quoted remarking that I just worry that the way the That’s obvious to anyone who ‘Women do the work but aren’t party behaves as an employer sees Cowley Street close up. represented at decision-making does not reflect our policies, level’ (p. 32). Even at the grassroots, I seethe about it. It’s a wider ut for the reference Evans finds ‘an inherent gender cultural thing and a couple of to Cowley Street, this bias within local parties which seek senior people at the top don’t Bquote could have come to reinforce the traditional sexual think there’s a problem but there straight out of Helena Morrissey’s division of labour’ (p. 148). Women is. There is a major problem. report last year into the Liberal are more likely to be baking cakes

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 47 reviews

candidates’ (p. 81), Evans neverthe- reinforced or diminished by inter- less glosses over these complexities actions with female party members. to conclude unequivocally that ‘the While quoting Liberal Democrat party is suffering from demand- peer Paul Tyler’s observation that side rather than supply-side prob- ‘women candidates are asked ques- lems vis-à-vis women candidates’. tions that would not be asked of a This un-nuanced view seems man in a comparable position’ (p. largely to be based on a flawed 74), Evans fails to consider who is assumption that the mere fact of asking those questions and why. being on the ‘approved list’ of can- Anecdotal evidence from candi- didates is indicative of a genuine dates mentored by Campaign for and pressing desire to stand for par- Gender Balance suggests these liament. In fact, many women (and questions most often come from men) go through the approval pro- older women, reflecting a patri- cess without any serious intention archal view of family life deeply of standing in the next election, rooted in wider society. Evans ini- let alone subsequent elections. For tially dismisses societal factors as them, going through the ‘approval’ having ‘little impact upon the elec- process is merely dipping a toe in tion of women MPs’ (p. 102), yet the water. later argues that ‘an increase (in More worryingly, Evans’ the prominence of Liberal Demo- unstinting attachment to the crat women as role models) would demand-side worldview means that undoubtedly symbolise that it is she fails to engage with the very possible for women to overcome serious issue of candidate attrition. the various societal and institu- Many ‘approved’ women decide tional barriers to election’ (p. 144). after one or two elections that they Evans asserts that ‘there are and running raffles than voting as will not stand again. While this is insufficient critical actors work- delegates to party conference. understandable given the enormous ing to feminise the party’ (p.151). The handful of women who personal sacrifices entailed in mak- While acknowledging the efforts have successfully made it into sen- ing a serious run for parliament, it of a few individuals, she criti- ior positions are too often deployed deprives the party of a key talent cises a lack of joined-up thinking, in a tokenistic way. Evans observes pool of women with the experience strategic direction and leadership that photographs chosen for the to win tough contests (a problem from the top. She highlights the last three general election manifes- more acute for Liberal Demo- relatively low status, funding and tos reinforce ‘the gendered iden- crats than for parties with ‘safe’ membership of the party’s two tification of MPs as male, whilst seats). Evans’ use of raw numbers of women’s organisations (CGB and voters and members of the public ‘approved’ women as evidence for WLD, merged into Liberal Demo- are codified as female’ (p. 138) and her assertion that the Liberal Dem- crat Women last year) and sees this argues convincingly that the party ocrats do not have a supply-side as an area in which the influence of could better deploy its women par- problem fundamentally misunder- SDP feminists was diluted follow- liamentarians to convey the mes- stands the nature of the ‘approved ing the 1988 merger with the Lib- sage that women can be successful list’: it may feed the candidate pool, eral Party. The evidence she cites Liberal Democrat politicians. Her but it is certainly not a proxy for for this is credible, but her char- overarching conclusion is that pro- it. Moreover, her claim that the acterisation of Liberalism at times women policies are not sufficient party’s Campaign for Gender Bal- descends into caricature: ‘Liberal for the party to be able to claim that ance ‘places emphasis on increas- ideology remains based upon the it represents women: ‘the party’s ing the number of women on the writings of a group of male writ- policies, however feminist, are ulti- approved list, rather than encour- ers whose political philosophies, mately undermined by a lack of aging those women already on the whilst dealing with equality and women MPs’ (p. 126). list to apply for seats’ is simply fac- liberty, are not, on the whole, con- The book also considers in tually incorrect. cerned with women and achiev- detail the controversial question of Also missing from Evans’ anal- ing equality for women’. The whether under-representation at a ysis is an exploration of the role chapter on ideology opens with a parliamentary level is driven pri- that women party members may paragraph from the Orange Book, marily by supply-side (women not play on the demand side. Evans quotes at length from the works coming forward) or demand-side notes that ‘some (female candi- of Conrad Russell, and yet makes (women not being selected) factors. dates with children) felt they were only a passing mention of Mill’s This is where her argument is at its in a Catch-22 situation: either they The Subjection of Women. On this weakest. Whilst acknowledging went for it and got criticised for narrowly precarious base, Evans that ‘there is reciprocity between being a ‘neglectful’ or ‘bad’ par- constructs an argument that comes supply-side and demand-side fac- ent, or they accepted that they very close to stating outright that tors’ (p. 75), and noting that labour- wouldn’t be able to stand until their feminism and liberalism are funda- intensive campaigning techniques children were older’ (p. 96). How- mentally irreconcilable. mean ‘that time affects both the ever, she does not probe the extent This is a shame as it occasionally supply and demand of women to which these feelings may be leaves the reader feeling that there

48 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 reviews may be an element of confirmation of areas of success (until recently bias in some of the data presentation the European Parliament, where and interpretation. This tendency for several years there were more is most evident in Evans’ framing female than male Liberal Demo- of the issue of female representa- crat MEPs) as well as exploring why tion almost exclusively through successive party leaders have failed the prism of All-Women Shortlists to use a mechanism wholly within (AWS). Data that does not fit with their gift to appoint more women her worldview that Liberal Demo- to the House of Lords. crats have a demand-side problem Despite some shortcomings, is heavily caveated: ‘Liberal Demo- Elizabeth Evans’ book is to be crats selected the largest percent- strongly welcomed as the first seri- age of women in their vacant (2010) ous scholarly analysis of female seats; however it is important to under-representation in the Lib- note that this is on much smaller eral Democrats. For long-standing numbers, and following the elec- party activists it paints in forensic tion, the party has the lowest per- detail an all too familiar picture of centage of women MPs’ (p. 9). In intra-generational tensions, presen- the last electoral cycle, without teeism, grinding low-level discrim- AWS, Liberal Democrats selected ination and egalitarian rhetoric women in 37 per cent of the party’s unmatched by tangible outcomes. I most winnable seats and four out hope Dr Evans will revisit the issue of seven retiring incumbent seats. after the next election and find that The fact that these women were not the party’s culture has improved. elected in the constituencies where Meanwhile, implementing Helena they stood can hardly be attributed Morrissey’s recommendations to a demand-side problem within would be a good start. the Liberal Democrats. A more nuanced approach to Dinti Batstone is a member of the the intersection between feminism Liberal Democrat Federal Policy and liberalism might have explored Committee and former Vice-Chair of Liberal Democrat leadership why women in winnable seats did of Campaign for Gender Balance. A to define himself as ‘centre-left’, not get elected and considered what former councillor and parliamentary established so little rapport with mechanisms other than AWS Lib- candidate, she has mentored and trained those in the party who defined eral Democrats could use to attract, many women candidates, and led a themselves in the same way. retain and elect more women candi- review of candidate retention for the He was, as Torrance’s account dates. It might also have made more party’s Federal Executive. reminds us, politically ruthless, and that was not necessarily a fault when used to secure real politi- cal advances. But detachment was a fatal flaw when, for example, it came to negotiating the merger It’s Boy David with the SDP. The SDP leadership went into the negotiations deter- David Torrance, David Steel: Rising Hope to Elder Statesman mined to promote an SDP position; (Biteback Publishing, 2012) David Steel failed to back his own team when they presented a Liberal Review by Alan Beith case. That was how the problems arose with the famous ‘dead par- here is not a lot of scope his early campaigns on apartheid, rot’ policy document. The book for adding to the picture on immigration and on abortion quotes a suggestion that I was try- Tmost Liberal Democrats law reform, as well as the extent ing to set a trap for Steel. In fact I have of David Steel, despite David to which his considerable political had assumed that we would, with Torrance’s diligent examination skills benefitted the Liberal Party difficulty, eventually arrive at an of correspondence and papers, his and the Liberal Democrats. His acceptable compromise by negotia- interviews with politicians and shortcomings are equally well tion, but that if his own side told his ability to put together a clear known to readers of political him it was not achievable he would and thorough narrative. Indeed, biography: his impatience with back us. I should have realised that the uncomplicated clarity of policy and detail, his failure to turn concluding the negotiations mat- David Steel’s personality makes his Liberal instincts into a more tered much more to him than the new insights difficult to find. His thoroughly Liberal analysis of content of a document that he had political progression from Borders political issues, and his detachment probably barely read. Incidentally, by-election star to presiding from the grassroots workers of even if there was no other reason officer of the Scottish Parliament the party he led. It was ironic that for buying this book – although is detailed in the book, and it someone who was much more there are several – it is worth it for underlines the political courage of ready than the current generation another sight of the priceless photo

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 49 reviews which followed these negotia- should be disqualified from sitting individual human character and of tions, with several of us lined up in the Scottish Parliament; Steel social development. Ethology, the behind Steel and Maclennan while wrote opposing this restriction, science of human character, was, they explained that the document seeing merit in an overlap ‘pend- says Rosen, at the centre of Mill’s would be ditched. As Paddy Ash- ing reform of the Lords’. He has attempt ‘to become a self-directing down put it – and the line up was subsequently done his best to make agent rather than a brute merely his barmy idea – we looked like sure that democratic Lords reform responding to internal or exter- hostages about to be tortured. The remains permanently in the pend- nal stimuli’ (p. 3). If this was the facial expressions of Paddy, Mal- ing tray, where it has been since centre of Mill’s intellectual con- colm Bruce, Alex Carlile, Charles 1911.Torrance describes his sup- cerns, it was because it also lay at Kennedy and Russell Johnston are port for an appointed House as the core of his personal ones. The the funniest thing since Monty ‘cautious’ and ‘realistic’. Others see internal brute instincts that Mill Python. it as wholly inconsistent not only thought should be kept down were A few things need correct- with the platform on which he led one’s sexual urges. Self-direction ing or qualifying for the record. the party but also with the reform- required control of them as much The Ettrick Bridge meeting dur- ing zeal on which his key earlier as resistance to control by others. ing the 1983 general election did achievements were based. Mill’s battle here was firstly against indeed fail to secure agreement to David Steel helped to ensure his father, who raised him to be the drop the pretentious ‘Prime Min- Liberal survival in some very dif- next generation’s flag bearer for the ister designate’ status which had ficult times, and challenged the Utilitarian creed; and then against proved a liability in Roy Jenkin’s party to remember that its purpose Thomas Carlyle and Auguste uncharacteristically lacklustre elec- is to achieve change, not merely to Comte, both of whom sought to tion campaign; but the ensuing debate change. This book recounts co-opt Mill to their respective cam- press coverage gave every impres- the steps on the way, admits the paigns. Mill managed to fight free sion that Steel had in practice taken flaws and the failings (including his against three opinionated and dom- over the role of campaign leader. problems with the cost of the Scot- inating men; against one attractive Torrance claims that under Paddy tish Parliament building) and dem- woman he did not. After one dif- Ashdown’s leadership Steel was onstrates that its subject is a good ference of opinion with his wife, he ‘regularly deployed as an interme- and able man, an extremely skilled declared: ‘As your feeling is directly diary to prevent potential rows communicator and a shrewd tac- contrary, mine is wrong and I give between Ashdown and his MPs’: I tician who has given much to the it up entirely’.1 have no such recollection. Steel was party. The basic point of Mill’s ethol- much more preoccupied with inter- ogy was that the individual could national politics and his plans for Sir Alan Beith has been the MP for Ber- be improved and so society itself life after the Commons, including wick-upon-Tweed since 1973. He was could advance. This led him to promoting the Scottish Parliament. Liberal Chief Whip 1977–85, Deputy discuss the laws by which society There is an interesting sidelight Leader of the Liberal Party 1985–88 and on Steel and the House of Lords. Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats There was a proposal that peers 1992–2003.

Reassessing John Stuart Mill Frederick Rosen, Mill (Oxford University Press, 2013) Review by Michael Levin

ohn Stuart Mill’s Collected proportional representation. Fred- Works comprise thirty-three erick Rosen’s argument is that these Jvolumes, many of which are famous works ‘do not fit neatly around 500 pages long. It is a mas- together’ (p. 1) and in any case mis- sive collection. However three represent much of what Mill was writings in particular are best really about. He suggests that put- known to students of Mill. Fore- ting matters right requires atten- most is On Liberty, 1859, with its tion to two earlier works through influential argument for freedom which Mill originally attained of speech. The other two writings fame: his System of Logic of 1843 and appeared in 1861: Utilitarianism, Principles of Political Economy of 1848. Mill’s attempt to modify the creed Rosen believes that Mill was that he had been brought up with; more concerned to be a scien- and Considerations on Representative tist than a moralist. In the Logic Government, with its advocacy of Mill attempted a science of both

50 Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 reviews moved forward and to praise Adam Smith are among those to be undermined on all sides: of the most difficult and fasci- the eccentric French intel- mentioned. This categorisa- its arguments were elaborated nating issues in liberal theory, lectual Auguste Comte as the tion is unusual in downplay- earlier and its principles are best still not sufficiently addressed only person to have previ- ing the French thinkers Mill understood by their later appli- in recent writings – that of ously attempted such a task. admired. He once wrote that in cation in Mill’s The Subjection the extent to which liberals He described Comte as ‘one of ‘political philosophy the initia- of Women, 1869. As for its con- should tolerate other’s illiberal the great intellects of our time, tive belongs to France at this tents, Rosen rejects the inter- practices. whom I regard with the most moment’ because of ‘the far pretation of Mill as someone Rosen does not claim origi- esteem and admiration’ (p. 100). more elevated terrain on which who believed that ‘freedom of nality but makes it clear that he Comte had argued that socie- the discussion is engaged’.2 expression alone would lead to picks up on the long-neglected ties moved forward through Rosen’s elevation of Comte is truth’ (p. 9) and also repudiates judgments of Alexander Bain, theological and metaphysical accompanied by the implicit the notion that the designation Mill’s close friend and first stages before reaching the ulti- downgrading of other French- of a category of self-regarding biographer. Following Bain, mate positivist one. He believed men whose writings were also actions can serve to defend Rosen thinks Mill’s Logic was in phrenology, a once popular significantly influential: in individual liberty. This book, his ‘greatest work’ (p. 101) yet pseudo-science that now seems Henri de Saint-Simon, Mill then, stands out among recent ends on rather a downbeat risible, and also practised what found the division of history scholarship for its downgrad- assessment of its value: ‘Even he called ‘cerebral hygiene’, into critical and organic peri- ing of the work that others where he is open to criticism, that is not reading anyone ods; in François Guizot, a sense have seen as Mill’s most durable Mill provides an excellent else’s writings so as to keep his of the development of civilisa- contribution. guide to logic and methodol- own mind clear. Ultimately tion and its causes; and in Alexis Rosen wants Mill regarded ogy, though his conclusions or Mill came to reject Comte’s de Tocqueville, an account of ‘more as a profound “contem- their applications to numerous vision of a society where the how modern democracy gives porary” thinker than as an topics seem in retrospect to be rulers declare they know best rise to a dangerous mass society. obscure Victorian moralist’ (p. mistaken’ (p. 259). This book and so can do the thinking for One of the pleasures of the 259) and is bold enough to sug- is significantly different from everyone else, whilst Conte’s political economy of the eight- gest where he can be placed in recent commentaries on Mill assumption of female inferi- eenth and nineteenth centuries terms of today’s political issues. and as such is likely to be the ority ran directly counter to is that it covered much broader We are told that Mill would focus of much attention. Mill’s ethology. Rosen reminds ground than much of the aca- have rejected the idea that us that Mill’s falling out with demic economics that suc- regime change in Iraq could Michael Levin is Emeritus Comte has left a much stronger ceeded it. So Mill’s Principles lead to democracy and would Reader in Politics at Goldsmiths, impression than his earlier sig- of Political Economy is econom- also have denied the view University of London, and author nificant deference. ics within a general social sci- that greater economic growth of J. S. Mill on Civilization and In the concluding section ence context. Rosen makes the would increase happiness. Barbarism (Routledge, 2004). Rosen outlines the thinkers case that the foundations of On What about multiculturalism? who, in his opinion, provided Liberty are here clearly appar- Rosen thinks that Mill would 1 Quoted in P. Rose, Parallel Lives Mill’s intellectual roots. They ent, most significantly in the have been against it in that mul- (London, 1994), p. 139. are overwhelmingly Greek and belief that a majority could be ticulturalists are illiberal in 2 John Stuart Mill Collected Works, British. Socrates, Plato, Aris- despotic. Where, then, does accepting despotism within the vol. xxiii (Toronto, 1986), p. 446. totle, James Mill, Bentham and this leave On Liberty? It seems family. We here touch upon one

Letters continued from page 17

Ben Spoor MP (The Times, 27 Elections of the 1920s Labour 4,439,780 + 41,414 the Labour Whip and Rhys December 1928), whose chronic The report by Graham Lippi- (adjustment for unopposed Hopkin Morris (Independent alcoholism had led to heart and att (Journal of Liberal History 82, returns) = 4,481,194 Liberal, Cardiganshire) took liver problems and to his being spring 2014) on the meeting on Liberal 4,301,481 + 106,090 the Liberal Whip in the new found dead in his hotel room, 10 February 2014 on the general (adjustment for unopposed Parliament. quotes the Coroner as saying elections of 1922, 1923 and 1924 returns) = 4,407,571 I take the view that Asquith that he ‘had actually been cer- prompts me to have a closer Accordingly, the gap between might have, at least, addressed tified insane … and confined look at the Liberal and Labour Labour and Liberal was, in real- the possibility of forming a in homes.’ How is it that this statistics for 1923. ity, much less than the ‘crude’ minority Liberal administra- had not led to the forfeiture of Taking account of the Lib- 138,299, although allowance tion in early 1924. his seat? Spoor was the Labour eral and Labour MPs elected would have to be made for Dr Sandy S. Waugh Government’s Chief Whip unopposed and assuming that some other facts. during its first government in the votes for such candidates Labour did not contest 176 1924 and his state of health was would otherwise have been at constituencies and Liberals did disastrous for the day-to-day least as much as for such candi- not contest 146 constituencies organisation of the difficult par- dates in other constituencies, I in Great Britain. G.M.L. Davies liamentary arithmetic needed would reconstruct the ‘crude’ (Christian Party, University to maintain the government. statistics as follows: of Wales) and O.E. Mosley Michael Meadowcroft 1923 General Election – (Independent, Harrow) took

Journal of Liberal History 84 Autumn 2014 51 A Liberal Democrat History Group fringe meeting great liberal thinkers: lessons for the future Liberalism has been built on more than three centuries’ work of a wide range of political thinkers and writers, and the aspirations of countless human beings who have fought for freedom, democracy, the rule of law and open and tolerant societies. What can we learn from these thinkers and their ideas for the future direction of the Liberal Democrats? Baroness Liz Barker, Alan Beith MP, Mark Pack and John Pugh MP nominate their favourite thinkers, and draw lessons for the future. Chair: Malcolm Bruce MP. Twitter: #LDHGFringe.

The meeting marks the launch of a new History Group booklet, Liberal Thinkers, containing concise summaries of the lives and thoughts of the greatest Liberal thinkers, from John Milton to John Rawls, including John Stuart Mill, Tom Paine, L. T. Hobhouse and many more.

7.45pm, Sunday 5 October 2014 Picasso 2 room, Campanile Hotel, 10 Tunnel Street, Glasgow G3 8HL (a few minutes’ walk from the conference centre, and outside the secure area – no passes necessary)

Liberal Democrat History Group at Lib Dem conference Visit the History Group’s stand in the exhibition in the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow – stand D9. There you can: • Take part in our annual Liberal history quiz. Exciting prizes to be won! • Chat to stand-holders about your interests in Liberal history. • Buy a copy of our latest booklet, Liberal Thinkers: £5 to Journal subscribers, £6 to everyone else. • Buy any of our others short booklets: Mothers of Liberty: Women who built British Liberalism; Lib- eral History: A concise history of the Liberal Party, SDP and Liberal Democrats; Liberal Leaders of the 19th Century and Liberal Leaders since 1900. Discounts for Journal subscribers. • Buy any of our books: Peace, Reform and Liberation: A History of Liberal Politics in Britain 1679–2011; the Dictionary of Lib- eral Quotations, the Dictionary of Liberal Thought; and Great Liberal Speeches. Sub- stantial discounts for Journal subscribers. • Renew your Journal subscription – all subs are now due for renewal (unless you sub- scribe by standing order).