‘the fighting parson’

leading nineteenth-century Method- 17 F. Brockway, Story – the cent), Follick (Lab) 3,885 (11.4 per ist evangelist preacher and founder of Life of Alfred Salter (Geo Allen & cent), L majority 1,174 (3.4 per cent), Joyful News. Unwin, , 1949), p. 118. turnout 75.3 per cent. 3 C. Twinch, ‘Roderick Morris Kedward 18 C. Cook, The Age of Alignment, p. 26 Letter from Georgia Reed to the (1881–1937)’, Bygone Kent, Vol. 24, no. 235–6. author, 16 June 2004. I am grateful for 11 (November 2003), pp. 642–51. 19 Result: Salter (Lab) 11,578 (57.2 per Georgia Reed and Prof. H. Roderick 4 Methodist Recorder, 20 October 1960 cent), Kedward (L) 8,676 (42.8 per Kedward for sharing information 5 1922 election leaflet, ‘R. M. Kedward cent), turnout 75.0 per cent, Lab with me on their grandfather. They – By One of his Admirers’ Southwark majority 2,902 (14.4 per cent). have confirmed that apart from a Local Studies Library 20 SLSL, Bermondsey Liberal Associa- few photographs, press cuttings and 6 http://www.1914-18.net/31div. tion leaflet, November1924 . the quoted letter from Lloyd George, htm. See also the novel Covenant 21 They held the Parliamentary and none of their grandfather’s political with Death by J. Harris (1961) which seats and papers have survived – ‘he was rather describes the raising and slaughter of dominated Bermondsey Borough secretive about his later life and didn’t the 31st Division. Council and the Board of Guardians. keep any biographical material’. 7 Bermondsey Election News 1924: How The composition of Bermondsey 27 On the tithe war see further: C. the Labour Party deserted. Southwark Borough Council over the decade Twinch, Tithe War 1918–1939 – The Local Studies Library was as follows: Countryside in Revolt (Media, Nor- 8 Result: Sykes (Coalition Conserva- 19-- 19 22 25 28 wich, 2001); and on the historical tive) 13,805 (80.1 per cent); Kedward background see E. J. Evans, The Con- Labour 24 35 48 48 (L) 3,434 (19.9 per cent), turnout 54.9 tentious Tithe – the Tithe Problem and Progressive 27 5 0 0 per cent, C majority 10,371 (60.2 per (Liberal) English Agriculture 1750–1850 (London cent). Electoral 1976). Association 9 John D. Beasley, The Bitter Cry Heard 0 10 6 6 28 A. Thorpe, The British General Elec- and Heeded – The Story of the South (anti- tion of 1931 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, Socialist) London Mission 1889–1989 (South 1991), p. 175. Result: Knatchbull London Mission, London, 1990); Independent 1 4 0 0 (Con) 20,891 (58.7 per cent), Ked- Rev. W. Spencer, Glory in the Garret ward (L Nat) 14,681 (41.3 per cent), 22 S. Goss, Local Labour and Local Gov- (Epworth, London, 1932); A. Turber- Con majority 6,210 (17.4 per cent), ernment – A study of changing interests, field, – the Archbishop turnout 75.9 per cent. politics and policy in Southwark from of British ? (Epworth Press, 29 The president of the NTA in 1931 1919–1982 (Edinburgh, 1988), p. 41. Peterborough, 2003). The main Cen- was Viscount Lymington, a Tory MP. 23 Salter held the seat in 1931 by ninety- tral Hall was demolished in 1967. Other Tory supporters included R. A. one votes against a Conservative 10 Sir H. Llewellyn Smith et al., New Butler. and a Communist. Labour had very Survey of London Life and Labour Vol 30 Twinch, Tythe War, p. 81. comfortable victories over Liberal iii Social Survey 1– Eastern Area (P. S. 31 The Star, 5 March 1937. Nationals in 1935 and 1945 and a King, London, 1932) p. 357–60. 32 Result: Spens (Con) 16,051 (47.7 Liberal also stood in 1945 winning 11 Other working-class Liberal strong- per cent), Kedward (L) 11,423 (33.9 just 8 per cent of the vote. holds in the 1920s and 1930s included per cent), Beck (Lab) 6,178 (18.4 per 24 Result: Steel (Con) 15,159 (60.4 per Lambeth North, Southwark North, cent), Con majority 4,628 (13.8 per cent), Humphrey (L) 5,487 (21.8 per Bethnal Green South-west and North- cent), turnout 70.9 per cent. cent), Noble (Lab) 4,473 (17.8 per east, Shoreditch and Whitechapel. 33 Twinch, Tythe War, p. 126. cent), Con majority 9,672 (38.6 per 12 Result: Glanville (L) 4,260 (40.6 per 34 http://www.historic-kent.co.uk/ cent), turnout 70.4 per cent. cent), Scriven (CoL) 2,998 (28.5 per vill_h.htm. It was moved to the new 25 Result: Kedward (L) 15,753 (46.0 per cent), Salter (Lab) 1,956 (18.6 per Ashford cattle market in the 1990s. cent), Steel (Con) 14,579 (42.6 per cent), Becker (Ind) 1,294 (12.3 per cent), turnout 48.5 per cent, L major- ity 1,262 (12.1 per cent). 13 Election Address of Dr Alfred Salter, 6 December 1923; and leaflet: ‘Back to Sanity: Vote for Kedward, A Worker for the Workers’, 1923, Southwark Local Studies Library 14 Result: Salter (Lab) 7,550 (44.6 per cent), Kedward (L) 5,225 (30.9 per Reports cent), Scriven (Nat L) 2,814 (16.6 per cent), Nordon (Ind C) 1,328 (7.9 per cent), turnout 64.6 per cent, Lab majority 2,325 (13.7 per cent). Liberals and organised labour Scriven received official Conservative endorsement. Fringe meeting, March 2005, Harrogate, with David 15 Liberal leaflet: Fair Play and Labour leaflets Foul Play versus Fair Play and Powell and Keith Laybourn Foul Play: that is a lie. Southwark Local Studies Library Report by Chris Gurney 16 Result: Kedward (L) 9,186 (52.5 per cent), Salter (Lab) 8,298 (47.5 per cent), turnout 66.1 per cent, L ith the 2005 general hotel in Harrogate for a scintillat- ­majority 888 (5.0 per cent). There election not too far in ing discussion from two academ- was a definite Liberal–Conservative the future, Liberal Dem- ics about the relationship between pact, see C. Cook, The Age of Alignment W – Electoral Politics in Britain 1922–1929 ocrats gathered in a packed-out the Liberal Party and organised (Macmillan London 1975), p. 160. Charter Suite in the conference labour. The loss of support from

38 Journal of Liberal History 48 Autumn 2005 REPORTS organised labour during the late into the late nineteenth century, The loss century was to see the rise of a Victorian and Edwardian period despite evident tensions in areas ‘New Liberalism’ that sought to was clearly a central element in such as trade-union reform. of support respond to both unionism and the decline of the Liberal Party as Many of the first working men Marxism and to demonstrate a significant electoral and politi- elected to the House of Com- from organ- the continuing relevance of cal force. Once this confidence in mons were members of the Lib- Liberalism for the next century. the party was gone, the Liberals eral–labour alliance, helping to ised labour Hobhouse’s 1893 text The Labour never got it back and trade union provide further cross-fertilisation during the Movement argued for the positive and labour issues have never since and co-operation between the and progressive role that could be had the same high priority in two groups. For many, Liberals late Victo- played by trade unions as well as Liberal politics. Our two speakers, and organised labour were ‘natu- more traditional liberal concerns whilst coming from very differing ral allies’ and they saw no reason rian and such as the importance of organ- perspectives and with differing for this to change. ised self-interest and competition motivations, sought to examine The second period that was Edwardian for the good of all. Things were why and how it was that organ- important in the Liberal–labour period was not quite this simple, however. ised labour broke away from the alliance began in the mid 1880s. Hobson, writing in 1899, warned Liberal Party and the impact this In comparison to the earlier clearly a of the dangers that an over-pow- had on the Liberal vote. period of co-operation, this was erful trade union might have. He David Powell (Head of the one of challenge and contest central ele- saw that the possibilities of a con- History Programme, York St John within the relationship. The flict between trade-union interests College, and author of British changing context of industrial ment in the (whether directly those of work- Politics and the Labour Question: relations, characterised by the decline of ers or indirectly those generated 1868–1990) began the session by increasing numbers and militancy by bureaucratic organisations) and explaining that the brief that he of disputes and increasing hostil- the Liberal the wider ‘social good’ meant that had been given, the history of ity from both employers and the there remained a vital role for the Liberals and organised labour courts towards organised labour, Party as a state in regulating union activi- since the nineteenth century, meant that the assumption by ties and preventing them from was both rather vague and too many of harmony between the significant becoming too powerful. broad for the time allotted to him. interests of the ‘two halves’ of electoral The years either side of the He stressed that the relationship industry was becoming more First World War provided the third between the Liberal Party and difficult to sustain. Some organi- and politi- of the periods that Dr Powell organised labour was not static sations, such as the Social Demo- argued was essential for under- and that its dynamism reflected cratic Federation and militant cal force. standing the relationship between the evolution of both in changing union groups, sought to challenge the Liberal Party and organised contexts. He therefore hoped that the ‘closeness’ of the relationship labour. This period saw the final by focusing on the organisational and the very ‘naturalness’ that dissolution of the relationship and intellectual elements of the had been taken for granted in the between the two groups. Whilst relationship between the Liberal earlier period, seeking to develop the early twentieth century’s Lib- Party and organised labour he organisations and alliances that eral governments adopted many could elucidate three distinctive would represent the workers trade unions reforms and legisla- periods that serve to demonstrate themselves. tive proposals that found support the dynamism of a gradually This increasing confrontation in the labour movement, the trend distancing and disintegrating did not mean that co-operation was by no means unidirectional. relationship and also to prompt was impossible, and at the 1892 Many in the labour movement, some interesting questions in the general election twenty candi- for example, considered Church- present context. dates stood on a Lib-Lab platform ill’s policy of labour exchanges to The earliest period that Dr demonstrating the strength of be, in fact, a source of non-union- Powell wished to focus on was the alliance in many areas. Liberal ised labour, the ‘industrial reserve in the mid-nineteenth century Party support for many union army’ that Marx had prophesied, and saw the origins of both reforms had secured continu- revealing Liberals as being in the Liberal Party and labour ing loyalty from many sections league with capital. Whilst on the organisation. This period was of labour. This was not to the other side trade union demands when relations between the two ­satisfaction of all, however, and the for freedom from liability revealed groups were at their best, partly, was them to be the anti-individualist he argued because of the strong set up in 1893 seeking to provide organisations that many Liberals relationship between Gladsto- an ‘independent’ (from Liberals) had always said they were. nians and skilled labour. Many voice for organised labour in the Increasing industrial unrest members of both groups believed House of Commons. placed the Liberal government in the ‘common interests’ of This challenge to the alliance in a difficult position. Traditional capital and labour in society and was to have interesting ideological Liberal attitudes suggested that this helped to sustain the alliance consequences. The late nineteenth the state’s role as mediator would

Journal of Liberal History 48 Autumn 2005 39 REPORTS place it in a perfect position number of skilled workers in were active in local Liberal associa- to act as ‘referee’ between the the labour market. These factors, tions. Not only this but the refusal interests of labour and capital. combined with weakening insti- of many Liberals to support the However, use of the army to quell tutional links between the trade adoption of trade-union-friendly industrial unrest only served to union movement and the Labour candidates further served to drive create greater distance between Party, suggests that there may now people away from the Liberal Party. the Liberal Party and organised be ‘something of an opportunity ‘Illingworthism’ (attempts to sub- labour. To many this was sufficient for a renewal’ of links between sume union demands under the evidence that the Liberal state, far Liberals and organised labour. Liberal banner) gradually gave way from being an impartial referee The breakdown of ‘class,’ the rise to ‘Hardieism,’ which pushed for (as it and Liberals claimed it was), of the multiple interests of labour the democratic involvement of the was actually firmly in the pocket combined with increasing focus trade union movement in political of capital. The Miners Federation on both political and economic activity. was the first union formally to citizenship mean that Liberals, Liberal Party responses to affiliate to the new Labour Party. always the ones to exalt the indi- industrial unrest in the West By 1913 union ballots for political vidual and their interests, may be Riding in the 1880s and 1890s funds were donating most of their in an ideal opportunity to exploit provided further impetus for the resources to the Labour Party, this new position. breakdown of relations between and, worst of all, local election The focus of our second Liberals and organised labour. In arrangements for a progressive speaker, Professor Laybourn the Huddersfield textile strikes alliance to keep out the Conserv- (Professor of History, Hudders- in 1883, Liberals came down on atives had broken down. field University, and author of the side of the employers against If the situation was not already Liberalism and the Rise of Labour, labour. The Manningham mill bad, the First World War only 1890–1918), was somewhat dif- strikes of 1890–91, which lasted worsened it. The splits in the ferent from that of Dr Powell. six months, saw 5,000 people Liberal Party over entry into the Rather than focus on organisa- on strike, acts of violence and war meant that the focus of much tional and ideological changes in the reading of the Riot Act. Liberal attention was directed the relationship between the Lib- It was felt Local Liberals dominated the at reuniting the Liberal ‘family’ eral Party and organised labour, ‘watch committee’ and tried rather than seeking to maintain he sought to provide a case study by many to stop union meetings that an even more complicated alli- on relations between Liberals and that the Lib- sought to discuss strike action. ance with organised labour. labour in the textile district of They also supported the use of The Liberal Party was slowly West Riding between 1880 and eral Party troops against strikers. Given the pushed into the political wilder- the eve of the First World War. importance that was often placed ness. Despite positive attempts to This had traditionally been a Lib- was insen- on strikes as a form of political ‘rethink’ Liberalism (such as The eral heartland (in 1886 nineteen activity by those in the labour Yellow Book in 1928), in the new of the twenty-three MPs from sitive to the movement it was hardly surpris- context of ‘industrial politics’ the West Riding were Liberals) but needs of ing that using the army would Liberal Party remained politically by 1914 the Independent Labour drive more support away from unpopular as the Labour Party Party had seriously challenged the labour the Liberal Party. All this added became the new ‘natural’ home of this hegemony and by 1929 only further credence to the idea that organised labour. one Liberal MP remained. Profes- move- both Liberals and Conserva- Dr Powell closed his remarks sor Laybourn sought to explain tives were ‘capitalists first’ and by bringing us back to the present why this situation had developed, ment, and only ‘politicians second’. Trade day. He suggested that the rela- such that by 1913 the Huddersfield the trade unionists began to appreciate that tionship between the Liberal Herald was able to declare the ‘you cannot give political sup- Party and organised labour had ‘passing of Liberalism.’ unions were port to a man who economically to be seen in the light of the The first factor that Professor opposes you’. The Liberal Party changing content and context of Laybourn focused on was a strong to play a was offering harmony and com- the labour question. This raises sense of anti-Liberalism among promise whilst trade unionists questions for us in the present. trade unions and the labour move- central role wanted support and independent Thatcher’s reforms in the 1980s ment. It was felt by many that the in capturing ­representation. have created a different and Liberal Party was insensitive to the These developments were shifting industrial context. We needs of the labour movement, working- coupled with the rise of socialist have seen the decline of union and the trade unions were to play a societies and independent work- membership and the destruction central role in capturing working- class sup- ers’ movements across the region. of Britain’s manufacturing and class support from the Liberal Party. These provided a sphere in which extractive industries, the tradi- These views were reinforced by port from workers could organise together, tional backbone of the union the fact that local employers seen as the Liberal develop self-reliance and also movement. There has also been exploiting workers (such as Alfred develop political programmes. a commensurate increase in the ­Illingworth and Sir James Kitson) Party. These included the formation of

40 Journal of Liberal History 48 Autumn 2005 REPORTS the Socialist League in Bradford What had twentieth century. Whilst both necessarily dangerous. Is the idea and Leeds, Labour Union clubs brought differing perspectives to that the Labour Party is the ‘natu- as well as more ‘cultural’ aspects been the bear on the question of this rela- ral’ home of the working class an of life such as socialist Sunday tionship, it was interesting how idea that has come to an end? Is schools, the Clarion cycling clubs, hope of both presentations brought out the Labour Party aware of this? Is and support from some Anglicans the problem of the Liberal Party’s now a time for new possibilities of and nonconformists. In this way John Stu- assumption that it was the ‘natural’ articulating alliances between Lib- organised labour began to arise as art Mill in home of the working class and erals and organised labour groups a genuinely independent move- the effect that that had on atti- on issues of mutual concern? ment from the Liberal Party and the 1850s tudes towards organised labour Who knows, but what seems clear to break the hegemony of Liberals and socialist movements. After all, is that it cannot get worse than as the ‘best representatives of the was being if you are their ‘natural home’ any Liberal–labour relations in the working class’. What had been the challenge to that is likely to be early and mid-twentieth century. hope of John Stuart Mill in the utterly seen as misguided, rather than as 1850s was being utterly refuted by refuted locally organised labour groups developing outside the Liberal by locally Party giving organised labour the opportunity to develop their own organised Civil liberties in war and peace interests and increasingly to see themselves as the best guarantors labour Evening meeting, January 2005, with Professor Clive of their fulfilment. groups Emsley and Julian Dee Laybourn finished by argu- ing that the Liberal Party had develop- Report by Neil Stockley neglected the needs of workers at their cost. It was a pity that he ing outside ince the events of 11 antecedents really champion civil had not focused more on how September 2001 and the liberties, even when the state per- the Liberal Party had failed to the Liberal so-called ‘war on terror’ ceived itself to be under threat? articulate the needs of workers S Party. began, the question of balanc- This meeting gave answers that in its programmes, rather than ing the need to protect the state were different to what many Lib- simply describing the failure and against the desire to promote erals might expect, or, indeed, be Labour’s rise to fill the vacuum. individual freedom has been comfortable with. At times it seemed to him as at top of the political agenda. Professor Clive Emsley if it were self-evident that the Liberal Democrats take con- explained how the Whig Charles Labour Party should represent siderable pride in our steadfast James Fox had ‘kept the flame organised labour best, and that it commitment to civil liberties. We of liberty alive’ during the ‘reign was merely a matter of workers roundly condemned the deten- of terror’ of William Pitt the coming to realise this truth rather tion of foreign nationals for an Younger during the 1790s. When than of anything more complex. indefinite period without trial in the French Revolution hap- Nonetheless, it is important to Belmarsh prison. We were against pened, it was initially viewed remember that the trade unions the government’s proposals to sympathetically in this country. had often been suspicious of Lib- detain terror suspects without However, as Professor Emsley eral reforms (as in 1906–14) and trial and its plans to place them put it, ‘things went a bit nasty’ the failure of the Liberal Party to under house arrest and to apply after English and Irish radicals involve workers in decision-mak- other restrictions on liberty, with took inspiration from events ing processes could have only only limited appeal to judges. We over the channel. They wanted exacerbated this. The Liberal oppose Labour’s plans to bring in to reform Parliament and create Party, by assuming that it knew compulsory identity cards. In his a true democracy. Some spoke what the workers needed better personal introduction to Freedom, of overthrowing King George than they did themselves, only Fairness and Trust, the party’s ‘pre- III. In 1793, war broke out with served to drive itself further away manifesto’ document before the revolutionary France as the Pitt from organised labour movements 2005 general election, Charles ministry, which had been formed that sought actually to involve Kennedy declared that ‘our Lib- four years earlier and supported working people in the decisions eral background makes us wary by the majority of Whigs, sought that affected their lives. of an over-mighty state and dedi- to save the King and the state. Dr Powell and Professor Lay- cated to civil liberties’. Professor Emsley gave a grim bourn provided interesting and But is there really a Liberal summary of the steps taken challenging discussions on the heritage on matters of personal by Pitt’s government. These collapse of relations between freedom; if so, how can we included: the suspension of the Liberal Party and organised describe it? Did our political habeas corpus in 1794 and 1795; labour in the nineteenth and early

Journal of Liberal History 48 Autumn 2005 41