John Meadowcroft and Jaime Reynolds examine the role of Arthur Seldon (– ) and the Liberal antecedents of the Institute of Economic Affairs.
LIBERALS AND THE NEW RIGHT
‘I was persuaded into economic ‘I say and I shall continue to say The young Arthur hough few Liberal liberalism by intellectual convic- that the worst thing you can do Seldon Democrats would rec- tion and the evidence of events with your money is to hand it ognise him as such, and into Liberal Party sympathies over to be spent by the State … Arthur Seldon was because the Conservatives were Far better keep it in a money-box probably one of the too socialist and the socialists too and sleep with it under your pil- Tmost influential Liberal think- conservative.’ low at night. But, better still, invest ers and publicists in Britain in it in your business or somone the period from the s to the ‘I graduated by national insur- else’s business. Anywhere else is s. Seldon was founder Edito- ance and state education to the better than letting it pass through rial Director of the Institute of LSE. There I read voraciously the slippery fingers of the State.’ Economic Affairs, the free-mar- Lenin, Laski, Strachey, Dalton but Oliver Smedley, Vice-Preisdent of ket think tank, which played an was more influenced by Robbins, the Liberal Party () important role in the revival of Plant and Hayek. The war and economic liberalism that led to post-war siege economy, several ‘We lost people from the Lib- the global implementation of pol- years as editor of a trade jour- eral Party who described them- icies such as the privatisation of nal, the years as an economist in selves as neo-liberals of the sort of previously nationalised industries, industry and five years working Thatcherite school. I was reading the control of inflation via sound in fruitful partnership with Ralph the other day that Arthur Seldon monetary policy and the applica- Harris at the IEA have reinforced was involved in the Liberal Party tion of market-oriented service the view I had acquired from a in Orpington at the time of the regimes where public goods were teacher that the nineteenth cen- by-election. He was typical of a provided by the state. tury was the great age of eman- certain school of Liberal who In the UK these policies were cipation and that the classical abounded in the party at that implemented by the Conserva- economists were basically right.’ time …’ tive government of Margaret David Steel, interview in Marxism Thatcher and its successors. This Arthur Seldon, Capitalism () Today, October association with Thatcherism has
Journal of Liberal History 47 Summer 2005 45 LIBERALS AND THE NEW RIGHT led many Liberal Democrats to went to live with uncles, and two Seldon described as ‘the hostile reject the notion that the ideas were sent to an orphanage). Sel- anti-capitalist environment of the Seldon advocated had any con- don’s foster parents were Jewish s’. It was during his time at nection with Liberalism. Conrad refugees from Ukraine, whose the LSE that Seldon Anglicised Russell, in the opening of his An family name Schaberdain was his surname, apparently following Intelligent Person’s Guide to Liberal- adopted by Arthur. His foster- advice from Arnold Plant who ism, contrasts the ‘moral’ liberal- father died in . His foster- thought such a change wise in the ism of Roy Jenkins (of which he mother set up ‘shop’ in the front light of the rise of anti-Semitism clearly approves) with the eco- room of their East End home in Europe. nomic liberalism of the IEA (of selling lisle stockings in order In the Liberal Party estab- which he clearly disapproves). Yet to pay the rent. The family were lished a committee of inquiry while it is true to say that Seldon’s kept afloat by a £ payment into the distribution of property tireless advocacy of economic from a Friendly Society, paid for inspired and chaired by Elliott liberalism had its greatest impact by his late foster-father’s weekly Dodds. It included Harcourt on the Conservative Party, rather contributions of two shillings. Johnstone, the leader Sir Archibald than the Liberal Party, it is nev- For Seldon such enterprise and Sinclair’s right-hand man and ertheless the case that many Lib- mutual insurance was a model of expert on economic issues in the erals recognised the continued voluntary working-class responsi- party leadership. Plant and Rob- relevance of economic liberalism bility and welfare that was to be bins were approached for their to the Liberal cause. replaced by state benefits and the advice and they asked Seldon to Jo Grimond was a regular IEA ‘dependency culture’. write a paper on the effect of an author, contributing papers to six The family fortunes improved inheritance tax. This led Dodds to different IEA publications, and in when his foster-mother ask him to draft the committee’s he wrote that ‘Liberals must at remarried (a tailor) and they report, Ownership for All, which all times stress the virtues of the moved to the relatively middle- was adopted by the party confer- market, not only for efficiency class suburb of Stroud Green. In ence in . In Seldon’s view, but to enable the widest possi- Seldon won a free place ‘the proposals for the diffusion ble choice … Much of what Mrs to Sir Henry Raine’s (Gram- of private property rather than its Thatcher and Sir Keith Joseph mar) School, off the Commer- replacement by public (socialised) say and do is in the mainstream cial Road, where he was taught property raised the flag of classical of liberal philosophy.’ Certainly, history in the sixth form by E. J. liberalism for the last time in the Seldon, who is now eighty-eight Owner- Hayward, a Liberal of the old Liberal Party’. Its questioning of years old and living in retirement school ‘whose teachings on the public ownership and proposals in Kent, always saw himself as ship for guild system and its replacement for selective privatisation were more of a liberal, or ‘conserva- by industrial capitalism, with its denounced by the Labour Party tive radical’ than a Tory. For over All was advantages for living standards as a violent shift in the Liberal three decades he was an active and liberties, intrigued me more position back to laissez-faire and member of the Liberal Party and a radical than the Fabian influence of the individualism, at odds with both only severed his connection with attack on persuasive economics master’. Labour and Conservative think- it in the s. Nevertheless, when he arrived ing on the ‘socialised sector’. the maldis- at the LSE in , having won a Yet despite its unfashionable state scholarship, he seems initially and ‘right-wing’ reputation, Own- Arthur Seldon, the Liberal tribution of to have shared the prevailing far- ership for All has stood the test of Party and the IEA3 left attitudes of the majority of time better than many of the so- Seldon was born on May . wealth and students, before joining the tiny called radical tracts of the s, He later described his tragic and property in Liberal Society. He supported the and many of its arguments would poverty-stricken childhood, anti-Fascist protests against Sir be regarded as mainstream, if not upbringing and education in the inter-war Oswald Mosley’s march through left-wing, today. It was a radical East End of London, as an ‘indoc- the East End in . attack on the maldistribution of trination against capitalism’. He Britain – Seldon studied and researched wealth and property in inter-war recalled that at the age of eight at the LSE from to , Britain – inequalities which it in the general election, he inequalities graduating with first-class hon- described as ‘gross and shocking’. cheered the Labour candidate for which it ours in economics in , and The uneven spread of property Stepney, and booed the Conserv- then becoming a research assistant prevented equality of opportunity, ative and Liberal cars. described to Arnold Plant. He also stud- wasted social resources, reduced Seldon’s family name was Mar- ied under other liberal and Lib- consumer choice and menaced golis, but both his parents died in as ‘gross eral academics including Hayek, democracy by providing a recruit- the Spanish flu epidemic of Lionel Robbins, Frank Paish and ing ground for Fascism. The and he was brought up by foster- and shock- George Schwartz, who kept alive report rejected outright any abso- parents (two of his elder siblings ing’. free-market economics in what lute right of property and insisted
46 Journal of Liberal History 47 Summer 2005 LIBERALS AND THE NEW RIGHT on society’s right to modify laws style of argument anticipated his Owner- nature writer for the Daily Worker. of inheritance to reduce inequal- later critique of state ownership Up to his death in , he and ity and spread wealth. The causes and provision and his champion- ship for Seldon would debate the issues of the maldistribution of property ing of markets and competition, of communism versus capitalism. were traced to faulty laws and which essentially built on the All was Marjorie was to become in her policies, particularly inheritance framework laid down in Own- own right an active Liberal, free law, lack of educational opportu- ership for All. The Liberal Party unusual for trader and campaigner for educa- nity for the poor, encouragement continued to use the ‘Ownership the times tion vouchers. of monopolistic industrial con- for All’ slogan into the late s. On his return to Britain after centration, divorce of ownership In July the Liberal Party in reject- discharge from the army in , from control of companies, and Organisation published Seldon’s he was drawn back into Liberal indirect taxation on wage-earners pamphlet, The Drift to the Cor- ing statist Party activity after attending a in the form of tariffs, quotas and porate State, which analysed the meeting chaired by Clement subsidies. However, Ownership for likely effects of wartime economy solutions Davies at which Roy Harrod, All was unusual for the times in measures, especially those encour- such as the Keynesian economist, was rejecting statist solutions such as aging monopoly, on the post-war a speaker. In Seldon was planning and public ownership; it economy. He was scathing about planning asked by Philip Fothergill to argued unashamedly for market what he described as ‘the ten- chair a committee on the aged. solutions, greater competition and dency in the s to the forma- and public He consulted Beveridge, whom the extension and permeation of tion in many basic industries of he knew from LSE days, and property ownership throughout joint monopolies of employers ownership; who was, by the late s, con- society. It combined a positive and workers for the exploitation it argued cerned that the expansion of the view of freedom and economic of consumers’. While conced- welfare state was jeopardising the liberal ideas in a distinctive plat- ing the need for some industrial unasham- voluntary welfare movement and form for the party: concentration and planning in Friendly Societies. The com- time of national emergency, Sel- edly for mittee’s report was unanimously The policy we have advo- don was blunt about the potential endorsed by the Liberal Assem- cated is not one of ‘laissez- dangers it posed: ‘it is the corpora- market bly in . faire’. Quite the reverse. tive system of industrial organisa- solutions, Arthur and Marjorie Seldon It would involve deter- tion, which is incompatible with were very active in the Orping- mined, and even drastic, parliamentary democracy; it is the greater ton Liberal Association in the State action at numerous British variant of what in Italy is s as it began the local suc- points. Such action, how- called Fascism’. Where monopoly competi- cess that culminated in Eric Lub- ever, would not take the was unavoidable (‘natural monop- bock’s famous by-election victory form of Government con- olies’) he argued – anticipating tion and in . Each of them served as trol or management … Its ideas that were novel in the s the exten- president. Marjorie organised main objects would be to but have become commonplace local anti-Eden demonstrations create the legal structure in recent decades – that ‘public sion and over Suez in . They had three in which a free economy regulation may … be more suit- sons, Michael, Peter and Anthony, can best function; to see able … than public ownership … permeation Anthony becoming the well- that the market is effi- [and] there would appear to be no known political writer and biog- cient and honest; to outlaw good reason for exclusive public of property rapher of John Major and Tony restraint of trade; to break ownership in the public utility ownership Blair. down unjust and artificial field, where a mixed regime of For some ten years after the privileges; to preserve the private, public, and semi-public throughout war, Seldon worked in industry national resources …; to monopolies, all equally subject to as editor of a retailing magazine, maintain and expand the regulation by Parliament or a del- society. Store, from to , and social services; and to place egated authority would be supe- then as an economic adviser in before all the opportunities rior’. He called for ‘State action to the brewing industry in an office of a full life hitherto open “cleanse” industry of its avoidable headed by Lord Tedder, former only to the rich. In a word, monopoly; and this will involve Air Chief Marshal of the RAF, the Liberal view is that it a more active State, a State more where his connections with the is the function of the State conscious of the conditions and Liberal Party, still associated with ‘to create the conditions of consequences of monopoly …’ Methodism, the nonconform- liberty’… Between and Seldon ist conscience and temperance, served in the army in North Africa aroused some unease. While it is unclear how far Sel- and Italy. He married Marjorie The Institute of Economic don’s drafts shaped the final doc- Willett in . Her father Wilfred Affairs (IEA), founded in , ument, it is striking that many of was a formerly devout Christian was the brainchild of Antony the arguments and much of the who became a communist and Fisher and future Nobel laureate
Journal of Liberal History 47 Summer 2005 47 LIBERALS AND THE NEW RIGHT F. A. Hayek. Fisher, like its first ‘In my life- –, speaking at a ‘Liberal- In contrast to the Smedleyites’ Director, Ralph Harris, was a ism is about Liberty’ fringe meet- hostility to the Common Mar- Conservative – the two first met time the ing at the Liberal Assembly in ket, Seldon seems to have taken at a Conservative Party meet- on ‘The Welfare State and a pragmatic approach to Europe, ing – though the IEA was always Tories have the Economy in the s’. He though he was critical of the level non-partisan, such that when also wrote articles in support of of subsidies under the Common Harris was raised to the peerage enlarged vouchers in the Liberal maga- Agricultural Policy and the oper- by the newly elected Margaret state zine New Outlook at this time. ation of monetary union. There is Thatcher in June he sat as a Other proponents of vouchers, surprisingly little about Europe in crossbencher in the Lords. How- authority or a more pluralist approach to his writings. ever Liberals played a major part welfare, included Professors Alan The Conservative Party had in its early days. Oliver Smedley, by fits of Peacock and Michael Fogarty, little appeal for Seldon until the a free-market zealot, a vice-presi- and John Pardoe MP. era of Margaret Thatcher. He dent of the Liberal Party and its absent- The prominence in the IEA of wrote that ‘in my lifetime the most vocal free-trade campaigner minded- the Liberal founders diminished Tories have enlarged state author- at assemblies in the s, whom in the late s. Fisher and Har- ity by fits of absent-mindedness, Fisher knew through the Society ness, and ris found Smedley’s outspokenness and my political sympathies have of Individualists, played an impor- a handicap in securing business been Liberal, but I prefer to think tant role in the early formation of my political funding, and with Grantches- of myself as a conservative radi- the IEA, providing the organisa- ter he was gradually pushed out, cal: conservative about preserving tion’s first offices at his business sympathies although Smedley remained one the principles of a good society premises (and campaigning head- have been of the seven ‘subscribers’ when but radical about reforming the quarters) at Austin Friars in the the IEA became incorporated institutions required to preserve City of London. Other Liberals Liberal, but in . Graham Hutton, an ex- them in a world of change’. He – Lord Grantchester (Sir Alfred Fabian economist and journalist did not regard the Tories as a free- Suenson-Taylor) and Sir Oscar I prefer to linked to the Liberals, was brought market party: ‘the Conservatives Hobson – were on its advisory in as a replacement. in general have had an indifferent board, while academics associated think of Smedley, Grantchester and record. In the s they spon- with the Liberal Party, such as myself as a S. W. Alexander increasingly sored producer protection when Alan Peacock and Jack Wiseman, focused their efforts on the Free they abandoned free trade in were to become active in the IEA. conserva- Trade Union (FTU), which they , introduced transport licens- The IEA’s first pamphlet, The Free took control of following a fund- ing, agricultural marketing boards Convertibility of Sterling, published tive radi- ing crisis in (and renamed and other “anti-capitalist” restric- in , was written by another it the Free Trade League). The tionist policies.’ Liberal, George Winder. cal.’ FTU had strong connections His final break with the Liber- In Arnold Plant recom- with the Liberal Party into the als seems to have occurred in the mended Seldon to Lord Grantch- s and s (Sinclair and s, though Seldon is somewhat ester who was trying to give Samuel were vice-presidents). unclear exactly when. He later the newly formed IEA ‘a liberal It also provided a link between recalled that he ‘retained private intellectual thrust’. Seldon was post-war economic liberals like hopes of a Liberal revival under Jo appointed Editorial Director of Seldon, who sat on the FTU Grimond but abandoned it when the IEA in , a function he executive from , and the he was followed in by David held until his retirement in , pre-war Liberal free marketeers Steel, a party manager with little and then again between and such as F. W. Hirst, Sir George interest in policy and, it seemed, his second and final retirement Paish and Vivian Phillipps. Sel- almost no understanding of eco- in . From he was also don, sometimes with Marjorie, nomic liberalism, indicated by a Executive Director of the IEA. was a contributor to the FTU remark in a Marxism Today inter- Seldon’s direct involvement journal The Free Trader. After view about my outdated laissez- with the Liberal Party seems to the Smedleyite takeover in , faire’. However,it was Jeremy have wound down from as its Liberal stalwarts Sir Andrew Thorpe, not Steel, who suc- the IEA, seen by some poten- McFadyean and Deryck Abel ceeded Grimond in ; Steel tial sponsors as a Liberal ‘front’, withdrew. Smedley, Alexander did not become leader until worked to establish its non-party and Grantchester carried on, and the Marxism Today interview credentials. Nevertheless he con- with a rump of like-minded, did not appear until . When- tinued to sympathise with and mostly Liberal, free traders and ever Seldon finally broke with the vote for the Liberals for another anti-common-marketeers into Liberals, he continued to claim two decades. He took part as the s. Seldon was dropped some of their leading figures for ‘an independent economist’ in a from the executive in , sug- his ideas. When he dedicated his fierce debate on health and edu- gesting that his sympathies did collected writings to the ‘politi- cation vouchers in the party in not lie with the Smedley group. cians who rolled back the State’,
48 Journal of Liberal History 47 Summer 2005 LIBERALS AND THE NEW RIGHT he included, alongside Thatcher, Seldon’s principal contri- public sector led him to develop Joseph, Tebbit, Powell and other bution, in his role as commis- a critique of the pathologies of Tories, the Liberals Elliott Dodds, sioning editor of more than democratic government that Jo Grimond and John Pardoe. IEA monographs and author of anticipated the emergence of twenty-eight book and mono- public-choice theory. In , graphs and articles, was to two years before the publication Arthur Seldon’s liberal apply these principles as a cri- of Buchanan and Tullock’s land- thought tique of all forms of government mark work The Calculus of Con- Arthur Seldon’s political phi- intervention, ranging from Marx- sent, Seldon wrote: losophy was founded upon the ist-Leninist state socialism to the consistent application of the post-war social democratic con- Representative government principles of economic liberalism sensus, and from the provision of … at its worst … impov- to economic, social and politi- public goods by local authorities erishes and enfeebles the cal problems. Seldon’s training to national land-use planning community by capitulation in classical economics at the LSE controls. Seldon wrote: to articulate and persist- instilled in him the belief that it ent sections at the expense was only a market economy that Micro-economic analysis of the long-term general could efficiently and fairly ration of the prices and costs of He held interest. Much so-called scarce resources, ensure that the individual goods or services ‘economic policy’ can be benefits of economic action and their adjustment at the that not understood only in terms exceeded the costs, including the margin by individual sup- of pressure from organised opportunity costs, and co-ordi- pliers and demanders can be only was producers – in trade asso- nate the actions of the many indi- no less enlightening in the ciations, trade unions or viduals and firms who constituted public than in the private a market other groups. an advanced economy. sector of the economy. economy In Seldon’s view a market For Seldon, the tyranny of the economy was able to perform While accepting that markets superior in majority that had so concerned this function because it utilised were not perfect, Seldon sought classical liberals such as John Stu- the knowledge communicated to show that markets were almost terms of art Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville by prices generated in the mar- always a more effective means had been realised in the ability ketplace. The price mechanism of providing goods and services efficiency, of organised minorities to extract worked spontaneously without than via government diktat, and, it was also special privileges (rents) from the need for a single co-ordinat- moreover, such outcomes could government at the expense of the ing body. The failure of social- be achieved without the need morally unorganised majority. The politi- ism relative to capitalism could for restrictions on individual lib- cal muscle of French and German be explained by the economic erty that so often accompanied superior to farmers, British coalminers and chaos caused by the attempt to attempts to achieve similar out- American steel producers meant abolish markets and prices: ‘The comes by central direction. For alternative that through a combination of use of the free-market pricing Seldon there did not exist a cat- economic subsidy and protection these system explains the relative suc- egory of public goods and a cat- groups were allocated privileges cess of capitalism and the fail- egory of private goods to which models that far exceeded the market ure of socialism.’ The pricing different principles should be value of their economic con- system was the invisible hand of applied; rather, there existed a because it tribution. The result of the abil- the market that led self-inter- whole range of goods and serv- ity of such groups to capture the ested individuals to undertake ices that people wanted, but achieved political process for their own actions that benefited others because resources were finite, economic advantage was not only the unfair even if such altruistic outcomes some mechanism was needed to transfer of resources via political were no part of their original ensure the production of those co-ordina- means (rent-seeking), but dis- intention. goods for which demand was tortions of the price system that He held that not only was greatest at a cost that did not tion with- impoverished society as a whole a market economy superior in exceed the benefits. In Charge, because it led producers to misal- terms of efficiency, it was also Seldon set out his thesis that out the locate capital in response to dis- morally superior to alterna- many public services would be need for torted price signals. tive economic models because delivered more efficiently and One of Seldon’s most original it achieved economic co-ordi- used more sparingly if users were an over- contributions was his application nation without the need for an required to pay for them at the of the principles of public-choice over-arching political authority point of delivery just as they did arching theory to an analysis of the role that directed particular individu- in the private sector. of producer interests in education als to undertake certain tasks or Seldon’s application of micro- political in the defeat of the Thatcher gov- use resources in particular ways. economic principles to the authority. ernment’s attempt to introduce
Journal of Liberal History 47 Summer 2005 49 LIBERALS AND THE NEW RIGHT education vouchers, a subject from the economic right; Many of It should be noted that close to his heart. In The Riddle Grimond’s political strategy of while economic liberalism was of the Voucher, Seldon argued that replacing Labour as the principal the eco- extremely influential within the the combined power of teacher anti-Conservative force in Brit- Conservative Party during the unions and civil servants in the ish politics led him to emphasise nomic s, s and s, it never Department of Education had the more ‘progressive’ aspects of achieved the level of orthodoxy prevented the implementation party policy. This, combined with liberal poli- that is sometimes portrayed. The of a policy that was supported by community politics and grow- cies pur- early Thatcher cabinets contained ministers and many politicians, ing local-government strength, a number of ‘wets’ in senior academics and parents. attracted a new generation of sued by the posts, while Michael Heseltine’s party supporters and activists with famous declaration as President little sympathy for the economic Thatcher of the Board of Trade at the Arthur Seldon and Liberal liberal traditions of the party. Conservative conference that he Party politics Grimond was succeeded by and Major would intervene in the economy One of the most intriguing ques- Jeremy Thorpe, who had long govern- ‘before breakfast, before lunch, tions of British political history been an opponent of the eco- before dinner and before tea’ was is why the economic counter- nomic liberal wing of the party, ments indicative of the hostility to eco- revolution led by Seldon and the but probably the crucial break nomic liberalism that endured IEA had its greatest impact on the with economic liberalism came would have amongst large swathes of the Conservative Party rather than with the election of David Steel Conservative Party. on the Liberal Party. Economic as party leader in . Steel, who been rec- liberalism had long been a cor- described himself as a Keynesian ognised nerstone of the Liberal Party; the Liberal, was intent on positioning Conclusion party had been formed from the the Liberal Party as the centre-left as within While today the economic liber- coalition of Whigs, Radicals and alternative to the extremes of left alism espoused by Arthur Seldon Peelites united by Peel’s repeal and right deemed to be presented the main- and the IEA is most closely asso- of the Corn Laws, and the rai- by the Labour and Conserva- ciated with Thatcherism and the son d’être of many of those who tive Parties. As the Liberal Party stream of Conservative Party, many of the had kept the party alive from the went into alliance with the SDP liberalism economic liberal policies pursued s to the s was to pre- in and reacted against eco- by the Thatcher and Major gov- serve the spirit and natural home nomic liberalism à la Thatcher, by previ- ernments would have been rec- of free trade. with its apparent rejection of ognised as within the mainstream Indeed, there seems good much of the Liberal/Keynes/ ous gen- of liberalism by previous genera- reason to believe that in the Beveridge welfare heritage, any tions of Liberals and by members mid-s the great majority prospects of an economic liberal erations of continental European Liberal of economic liberals were to be revival within the party quickly of Liberals parties. It is open to question found in the Liberal rather than evaporated. what would have happened to the Conservative Party. The story The conversion of the Con- and by the Liberal Party and to UK pub- of the adoption of economic lib- servative Party to economic lib- lic policy had the economic lib- eralism by the Conservative Party eralism can be dated to the members eral counter-revolution occurred is the story of how the economic election of Margaret Thatcher within Liberal rather than Con- liberals came into the ascendancy to the party leadership. Thatcher of con- servative ranks. Certainly, it may in that party as they were simulta- was the leader of a relatively tinental have been possible that economic neously marginalised in the Lib- small faction within the Con- liberalism could have been com- eral Party. servative Party which had long European bined with social liberalism to While at certain elections, advocated the adoption of mon- form the basis of a truly libertar- notably and , the appeal etarist policies and greater indi- Liberal par- ian movement, rather than with of the Liberal Party had inclined vidual freedom in the economic the social conservatism of the to the centre-left, up until the sphere as the solution to Britain’s ties. Tory Party. What is clear is that s it was still the party of relative economic decline. On the long-standing practical and economic liberalism, the open election to the party leadership intellectual links between Arthur economy and free markets. It was she set out her belief in ‘a free Seldon and the IEA and the Lib- under the leadership of Jo Gri- society with power well distrib- eral Party are indisputable. mond after that the party uted amongst the citizens and not shifted to the centre-left, despite concentrated in the hands of the Jaime Reynolds is guest-editor of the fact that Grimond him- state. And the power supported this Special Issue. John Meadowcroft self had strong economic liberal by a wide distribution of private is Deputy Editorial Director at the sympathies and for much of his property amongst citizens and Institute of Economic Affairs and Lec- early career was an outspoken subjects and not in the hands of turer in Parliament and Politics on critic of the post-war consensus the state.’ the Hansard Scholars Programme at
50 Journal of Liberal History 47 Summer 2005 LIBERALS AND THE NEW RIGHT the London School of Economics and Schwartz, George Leopold (– –. President of the Society Political Science. His first book, The ): academic and financial for Individual Freedom and the Free Ethics of the Market, will be pub- journalist. Wrote Liberal Party pub- Trade Union/League. Established lications: ‘To all who live on the the International Liberal Exchange lished by Palgrave in December . land’, ‘To practical men in mining’, before and edited the Journal of ‘To all who live in towns and cities’. International Liberal Exchange, later The It should be noted that the IEA Involved in Free Trade Union. Owl. Helped fund Hayek’s activities does not have, nor has it ever had, a Capitalism, p. . and Mont Pelerin Society, –, and corporate view on any matter, but A. Seldon, The State is Rolling Back: participated in meetings. In – rather its mission is to promote public Essays in Persuasion (London, ) on Advisory Council of IEA. understanding of the role of markets includes extracts. R. Fraser What’s Hobson, Sir Oscar (Rudolf) (– in solving economic and social prob- What in Politics (Labour Book Serv- ): a leading financial journalist of lems. ice, ), pp. –, . his day. Jo Grimond, ‘Eighty Club’ lecture to Ownership for All. The Liberal Enquiry New Outlook, September . the Association of Liberal Lawyers, into the Distribution of Property (LPO/ A. and M. Seldon, ‘How welfare London, October . LPD, March ) vouchers work’, New Outlook , June Mostly based on Seldon, Capitalism A. Seldon, The Drift to the Corporate ; ‘Welfare in the s’ (report (London, ), especially chapter State: A Preliminary Enquiry into the on the New Outlook forum at the . See also Seldon’s interview with Impact of War Economy (Liberal Pub- Brighton conference at which Christopher Muller in M. Kandiah lication Dept, ) The pamphlet is Seldon spoke); and A. Seldon, ‘The and A. Seldon (eds.), Ideas and Think headed ‘printed for private circula- Case for Vouchers’ (his speech to the Tanks in Contemporary Britain vol tion’ and was presumably intended Forum), New Outlook , October (London, ). for a limited readership among the ; A. Seldon, ‘Liberal Controversy Plant, (Sir) Arnold (–): Pro- party leadership. Simplified’, New Outlook April fessor of Commerce, LSE, –; The other members were Lord . an economic liberal and Liberal Party Amulree, Mrs B. Lewis (later Dame Information provided by Lord Har- supporter. Barbara Shenfield), Dr J. A. Gorsky ris. Paish, Frank Walter (–): LSE and Leonard M. Harris. th Report Free Trade and a Free Society, Febru- Professor of Economics. Son of Sir to the Assembly Meeting at Hastings, ary . George Paish, also an academic econ- March . Abel, Deryck (–?): author, histo- omist and indefatigable Liberal and Capitalism, p. . rian and journalist. Chairman of the free trade campaigner. F. Paish was For a full account of the formation of Liberal Party –. active in the Liberal Party from the the IEA, see John Blundell, Waging His chapter in The Rebirth of Britain s to the s and was an influ- the War of Ideas, Second Edition (IEA, (), p. . ential adviser to Jo Grimond as well ); Ralph Harris and Arthur Capitalism, p. . as the government. Seldon, A Conversation with Harris Capitalism p. . and Seldon (IEA, ); Ralph Har- The State is Rolling Back, p. v. ris chapter in Philip Booth (ed.), Capitalism, p. . Towards a Liberal Utopia (IEA, ); Making of the Institute, p. . ‘A Little Laissez-Faire’ R. Crockett, Thinking the Unthinkable A. Seldon, Charge (London, Temple (London, ). Smith, ). Amoroso Smedley, W. Oliver (–): Para- Making of the Institute, p. . All parties have their fancies trooper during the Second World War, In retirement Seldon wrote a book- In political romances, won the Military Cross at Arnhem. In length treatment of these issues: The And a Liberal his devotion must declare; resigned from accounting part- Dilemma of Democracy: The Political Though the object of my passion nership and set up various free trade Economics of Over-Government (IEA, campaigns from office at Austin ). Is at present out of fashion, Friars: Cheap Food League, Farmer’s A. Seldon, The Riddle of the Voucher I love a little lassie fair. and Smallholder’s Association, Coun- (IEA, ). In the total planning era cil for the Reduction of Taxation, On this point and for a discussion She’s dismissed as a chimera, etc. Vice-President of Liberal Party. of the issues at stake and what might Her regalia shows signs of wear and tear; Liberal candidate five times –. have happened had the Liberal Party A Gladstonian survival, Resigned as Liberal candidate in pro- adopted economic liberal policies, see She is not without a rival, test at resolution supporting entry to James Parry, ‘What if the Liberal Party But I love a little lassie fair. Common Market at Assembly. had Broken through from the Right?’ Founded the Keep Britain Out Cam- in D. Brack (ed.), Prime Minister Por- Though Stafford, Nye and Morgan paign, later Get Britain Out and stood tillo… and Other Things that Never May prefer a planning Gorgon, as anti-common market candidate on Happened (London, ). A stern inamorata doctrinaire, various occasions. Finally resigned M. MacManus, Jo Grimond: Towards The Liberal will egg on from Liberal Party . Founded the Sound of Gunfire (London, ). Lady Vi and Lady Megan, the Free Trade Liberal Party, . Margaret Thatcher, press conference For he loves a little lassie fair. In founded Radio Caroline. In after winning Conservative Party acquitted for manslaughter of a leadership, February . Tran- The rulers and the masses business colleague. script available at
Journal of Liberal History 47 Summer 2005 51