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Taxing the land Roy Douglas The Lloyd George land taxes David Dutton Liberal National leader Charles Kerr, Lord Teviot Nancy LoPatin-Lummis The Liberal electoral agent in the post-Reform-Act era Graham Lippiatt The King of Showland Pat Collins, Liberal MP for Walsall, 1922–24 Mark Pack Peace, Reform and Liberation Launch of History Group’s new book Liberal Democrat History Group 2 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 Journal of Liberal History Issue 73: Winter 2011–12 The Journal of Liberal History is published quarterly by the Liberal Democrat History Group. ISSN 1479-9642 The Lloyd George land taxes 4 Editor: Duncan Brack Roy Douglas looks at the history of the land taxes introduced by Lloyd George Deputy Editor: Tom Kiehl in the 1909 People’s Budget. Assistant Editor: Siobhan Vitelli Biographies Editor: Robert Ingham Reviews Editor: Dr Eugenio Biagini Liberal National leader 14 Contributing Editors: Graham Lippiatt, Tony Little, David Dutton examines the life and career of Charles Kerr, Lord Teviot. York Membery The Liberal electoral agent in the post-Reform- 20 Patrons Dr Eugenio Biagini; Professor Michael Freeden; Act era Professor John Vincent Nancy LoPatin-Lummis analyses the activities of the Liberal electoral agents in the period after the Great Reform Act. Editorial Board Dr Malcolm Baines; Dr Roy Douglas; Dr Barry Doyle; The King of Showland 28 Dr David Dutton; Prof. David Gowland; Prof. Richard The unusual career of the entertainment entrepreneur and Liberal MP for Grayson; Dr Michael Hart; Peter Hellyer; Dr Alison Walsall, 1922–24, Pat Collins; by Graham Lippiatt. Holmes; Dr J. Graham Jones; Dr Tudor Jones; Tony Little; Prof. Ian Machin; Dr Mark Pack; Dr Ian Packer; Dr John Powell; Ed Randall; Jaime Reynolds; Dr Andrew Liberal history quiz 2011 35 Russell; Dr Iain Sharpe The questions (answers in the next issue). Editorial/Correspondence Reports 36 Contributions to the Journal – letters, articles, and Forgotten heroes for a governing party, with Matt Cole, Navnit Dholakia, book reviews – are invited. The Journal is a refereed publication; all articles submitted will be reviewed. Floella Benjamin and Mark Pack; report by David Cloke. Peace, Reform and Contributions should be sent to: Liberation, with Julian Glover, Paddy Ashdown and Shirley Williams; report by Mark Pack. Duncan Brack (Editor) 54 Midmoor Road, London SW12 0EN email: [email protected] Letters to the Editor 41

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Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 3 THE LLOYD GEORGE LAND TAXES

Why did the land taxes which Lloyd George introduced in his 1909 budget cause such a tremendous fuss? They represented a very small addition to the general tax burden, for they were designed to raise just £½ million in the ensuing fiscal year. Even by 1909 values, and in the context of early twentieth- century budgets, this was not much: about 0.3 per cent of the proposed taxation. Yet the Chancellor’s proposal to introduce land taxes, and a general land valuation which was essential to make them work properly, precipitated a huge constitutional crisis and enormous public excitement. Roy Douglas tells the story.

4 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 THE LLOYD GEORGE LAND TAXES

hat excitement can only times give assistance in money or held by nearly all the leading propa- be understood in the con- kind to the ‘deserving poor’. They gandists who set socialism on its feet text of earlier events. In all were seen increasingly as mere in Great Britain between 1886 and parts of the United King- receivers of rent. 1900’, wrote Sir Robert Ensor in dom, ‘land’ already had Agricultural labourers, the his volume in the Oxford History strongT overtones, which resonated worst treated of all major occupa- of England series.1 He might have with many people. There had been tion groups, were leaving the coun- added that George’s influence on many occasions, well within liv- try. A Royal Commission was told Liberals was every bit as strong. ing memory, when public attention in 1881 that 700,000 farm workers Henry George confronted the had been focused on matters which and their families had emigrated paradox that the enormous techno- related to land and land rights. In the in the previous nine years, and the logical developments of the previ- early 1880s, Irish peasants had con- process continued thereafter. Many ous century or so had not destroyed ducted a savage ‘land war’ against workers in the towns and mines poverty. He saw the root of poverty oppressive landlords, and, for the were beginning to wonder whether and social injustice – urban as well as remainder of the decade, troubles their own, often deplorable condi- rural – in the prevailing system of centring on Irish land constantly tions were also somehow related to land ownership. Here he was using attracted attention throughout the the land problem. They, too, had the word ‘land’ not in its legal sense British Isles. During the same dec- no share in the very valuable landed but in its economic sense, to mean ade, a less terrible, but still some- property of the United Kingdom. more or less the same as ‘natural times violent, ‘land war’ broke out Many of these experiences, in resources’. No human being has cre- in the Hebrides. This did not attract various parts of the British Isles, ated ‘land’, yet life is only possible much attention in England, but the involved some kind of conflict through access to ‘land’. Some peo- Scottish newspapers featured it as between owners of land and people ple owned a great deal of land and major news day after day. A good who did not own land. While the others owned none at all. Landless many residents in Scottish towns ownership of most kinds of prop- people were therefore compelled to were of recent Hebridean extrac- erty bore some relation to the useful pay a ransom to those who owned tion and viewed these matters with activities of the owner or his recent land, and that was what caused pov- great interest. Wales also seemed to predecessors, the ownership of erty. In a modem society there is no be on the verge of a ‘land war’, and it land usually did not. Perhaps some way of dividing land so that every- was in that connection that a young remote ancestor had performed a body gets a fair share; but what can solicitor named David Lloyd George service (not necessarily a credit- be done is to ensure that everybody first attracted press attention in 1886. able one) to a sovereign in the dis- gets a fair share of the value of land. From the 1880s onwards, English tant past; perhaps the land had been As we will note, some of George’s agriculture was profoundly affected taken by force; perhaps it had been critics described him as a ‘socialist’; by a dramatic fall in prices, first of awarded by a compliant legislature, but this is quite inaccurate. George grain and later of meat, as a result of without reference to the interests of himself was explicit on the point. cheap imports. The overwhelming A Liberal leaflet other people; perhaps, notably in ‘The antagonism of interests is not majority of farmers were tenants in prepared for Scotland, a chieftain who once had between labour and capital, as is pop- those days. A great many of them the January both rights and duties had gradu- ularly believed, but is really between were driven out of business, but 1910 election; ally assumed the powers of absolute labour and capital on the one side and landlords were forced to reduce the the peer is ownership. landownership on the other.’2 rents of those who remained. When probably meant In 1879 a book appeared – Prog- Land Value Taxation, com- farm rents fell, the wealth and pres- to represent ress and Poverty – by the American monly abbreviated as LVT, was seen tige of landowners was gradually the Marquis of economist and philosopher Henry as the way to resolve the problem of eroded. They could no longer func- Lansdowne. George. Its influence was enor- poverty. George and his support- tion as the centre of local activities (Liberal mous. ‘“Out of Henry George by ers proposed that all land should and the people who could finance Pamphlets and either Bellamy or Gronlund” was first be valued. That valuation agricultural improvements, and at Leaflets 1910) a true pedigree of the convictions would consider only the value of a

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 5 the lloyd george land taxes site (including any minerals lying It has been noted that 52 per cent were retained with much-reduced beneath it), but would exclude the of Liberal candidates specifically majorities. value of anything put on it, or in it, endorsed land taxation.6 Prime by human activity. It would there- Minister Campbell-Bannerman fore exclude buildings, machinery, soon met a delegation claiming to The budget crops, drainage and so on. A tax represent more than 400 MPs, call- When Asquith succeeded the dying would then be levied on the basis of ing for progress in that direction. Campbell-Bannerman as prime that valuation. It would be small at There was a powerful argument minister in 1908, Lloyd George first, but would gradually increase. for the view that LVT would have became Chancellor of the Excheq- The revenue produced would be a great and beneficial effect on the uer, and in the following year was devoted to public purposes, and housing market, and that SVR required to present his first budget. any left over would be distributed. would substantially relieve poor The prospects were daunting. Other taxes would be reduced cor- householders.7 Nobody doubted that a good deal respondingly. Some people thought Nowhere was the idea of LVT in more revenue would be required that the yield of LVT would be one form or another more popular to meet existing commitments.9 so great that no other taxes at all than in Scotland. In the 1906 gen- In the previous year, parliament would be required. Those people eral election, the large majority of had approved the first old age pen- were called ‘Single Taxers’. Henry elected Scottish MPs was commit- sions, for which £7 million would George and his followers argued ted to the principle. The new Sec- be required. While old age pensions that LVT would produce many retary of State for Scotland, Jack were the most important new item other benefits as well as the eradica- Sinclair, later Lord Pentland, who of social expenditure, the Chan- tion of poverty. had once been Campbell-Banner- cellor anticipated further spending Many Liberals, probably most, man’s personal secretary, was enthu- for invalidity and unemployment would not have gone all the way siastic for land reform. Even more insurance. with Henry George, and would enthusiastic in that cause was Alex- There was also a developing certainly not have called themselves ander Ure, Scottish Solicitor Gen- naval race with Germany, which ‘single taxers’.3 They did, however, eral and later Lord Advocate. Later demanded £3 million more for see the merit of LVT. Resolutions in the year, the Liberal government warships. At that moment there was at the National Liberal Federation proposed a bill for the valuation of still uncertainty about the measure conferences at Birmingham in 1888, Scottish land. The bill passed the of naval construction which would at Manchester in 1889, and at its Commons with big majorities, but be needed. In particular, there was more famous conference at Newcas- in 1907 it was rejected by the Lords. much discussion, in the Cabinet tle in 1891, bear the strong imprint A similar bill followed in 1908; this and elsewhere, about how many of Henry George’s ideas. The prin- time the Lords merely proposed ‘Dreadnought’ battleships were ciple could very easily be applied to Many Liber- wrecking amendments. Without required, and when the budget was ‘rates’, which were then the main prior valuation, it was difficult to introduced there still seemed to be source of local government finance. als, prob- see how LVT or even SVR could be some prospect that current esti- These were currently assessed on made to work satisfactorily. mates might be reduced a little. the total value of a piece of prop- ably most, In the period between the general In addition to these items, there erty. All that was necessary was to election of 1906 and the budget of would be other new calls on state switch the assessment to the value would not 1909, the House of Lords had given expenditure in the coming finan- of the site alone: what was called offence to a lot of other people as well cial year. As a result of the economic Site Value Rating (SVR). This idea have gone as Scottish land taxers. Government recession, existing taxes had pro- was widely discussed. By 1906, no bills which had failed to reach the duced £3.2 million less than the fewer than 518 local authorities had all the way statute book because of action by the anticipated yield. As everybody subscribed to the principle that they House of Lords included the Educa- at the time believed firmly in the should be permitted to levy rates with Henry tion Bill and the Plural Voting Bill of principle of ‘balanced budgets’, this on the basis of site values.4 Nor was 1906, the Scottish Smallholdings Bill would need to be compensated for SVR a matter of interest exclusively George, of 1907, another Scottish Smallhold- in the current year. £0.95 million to Liberals and Socialists. A number ings Bill of 1908, plus a Licensing Bill would be required for miscellaneous of others, such as Sir Albert Rollit, and would of the same year.8 It was obvious that purposes, particularly for improve- at that time Conservative MP for a lot of other legislation that Liberals ments on main roads. In all, £14.15 Islington South, though later a Lib- certainly not wanted would be similarly wrecked million would be needed over the eral candidate, also evinced a meas- if it ever reached the House of Lords. estimates for the previous year. ure of sympathy.5 have called On top of those troubles, in 1909 It took a long time to work out themselves there was a serious economic reces- how all this was to be met in the sion, which was accompanied by a 1909 budget, and special attention 1906 and after ‘single tax- high level of unemployment. By- was focused on the possibility that The huge Liberal landslide of 1906 elections were running strongly some of the money would be raised was greeted by most land taxers ers’. They did, against the government. By April from land. On 5 September 1908, with great joy. Free trade versus 1909 the Liberals had lost ten seats Lloyd George sent a memorandum tariff reform had been the key issue however, see to the Conservatives and their Lib- to Sir Robert Chalmers, chairman in most constituencies, but nearly eral Unionist allies, one to Labour of the board of Inland Revenue, all land taxers were also free trad- the merit of and one to an independent Socialist. expressing interest in a land tax.10 ers, and in many places land reform Some of the twenty-one seats which He mentioned the possibility of ‘a had also played an important part. LVT. they had held during that period general tax on ground rents and on

6 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 the lloyd george land taxes all lands situated within the area of towns and within a certain distance of towns’, and also the possibility of taxing mining royalties and waste land. But the document fell far short of the proposals which he would eventually submit to parliament. Papers at the Public Record Office include a number of docu- ments submitted shortly after- wards by interested people. These included the Liberal MP Josiah Wedgwood, who pressed strongly the ideas of Henry George, and the Lord Chancellor, Lord Loreburn, who pointed out some (not insuper- able) difficulties.11 Asquith circu- lated the Cabinet with three critical documents he had received from Liberal MPs, without implying per- sonal approval for their strictures. To these Lloyd George responded in detail, also observing that:

It is known that, although the overwhelming majority of the Party in the House are pledged to the taxation of land values and urgently press it upon the Government, there are at the outside six Members sitting on the Liberal side of the House who oppose it in principle. They have never mustered more than three in the Division Lobby when the Government proposals bearing on this subject have been submit- ted to the House.12

Gradually the proposals took shape in the form which would be submit- ted to the Cabinet, and then to the House of Commons, in the budget of 1909. duties proposals which many of In the excitement an extra £14.2 million in taxation. There remained a great con- them obviously detested. over the 1909 £3.5 million more would be raised stitutional problem. The House Could land valuation be incor- Budget, the in income tax and a new super-tax of Lords had a huge Conservative porated in the 1909 budget, and details were on high incomes, £2.85 million majority, made up largely of people then LVT follow a year or two later? often forgotten. more in extra death duties, £2.6 with great territorial interests, who Prima facie, the answer seemed This Liberal million more in liquor licences, obviously hoped to wreck LVT – to be no, for the Speaker would leaflet, based on £1.6 million more on spirits, £1.9 and, for that matter, much other not allow anything which was not an ‘FCG’ (Francis million more on tobacco, £0.65 legislation on which Liberals had set related to current taxation propos- Carruthers- million more in stamp duties and their hearts. There was one hope of als into the Finance Bill. To get over Gould) £0.6 million more on cars and pet- overcoming this difficulty. A cus- that one, Lloyd George contrived cartoon in the rol. Only £0.5 million was antici- tom – some called it a convention some land taxes, with a sort of tenu- Westminster pated from land taxes.13 of the constitution – seemed to have ous link between them and a general Gazette, There were several land propos- grown up, to the effect that, while valuation. The object of his current appeared well als in the budget of 1909. First, there the Lords might wreck other kinds strategy, so far from being a general before the Lords’ would be an increment value duty of bills from the House of Com- confrontation with the House of rejection of of 20 per cent on the amount, if any, mons, they would not interfere Lords, was to circumvent the Lords. the bill. (Liberal by which the site value of a piece of with an annual Finance Bill, which While the land taxes presented Pamphlets and land exceeded its earlier site value. had been introduced by a budget. In special difficulties, they represented Leaflets 1909) This sum would be payable on sale 1894, for example, on the advice of only a very small part of the extra or long lease, or on the death of the the Marquis of Salisbury, they had taxation which would be required. owner. Second, there would be a let through Sir William Harcourt’s To meet the anticipated shortfall, reversion duty of 10 per cent on the budget, with its controversial death Lloyd George contemplated raising benefit accruing to a lessor on the

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 7 the lloyd george land taxes determination of a lease of land. civilised country to embody in a Then supporters of the budget Third, there would be an annual legislative proposal the peculiar began to fight back. They made it duty of ½d in the pound – roughly theory associated with his name.’ clear that the budget stood or fell as 0.21 per cent – on the site value of Outlook decided that ‘Probably the a whole. In June, Liberal MPs set up undeveloped land, and a similar most vicious of the schemes adopted a Budget League, with R. B., later tax on the capital value of minerals. by Mr Lloyd George is connected Viscount, Haldane as president and At the same time all land was to be with the Taxation of Land Values.’ Winston Churchill as chairman of valued, and a distinction was to be To the Daily Mail, ‘The net result … the executive. Churchill served as made between ‘site value’ and ‘total is that capital is more heavily taxed Lloyd George’s adjutant, and was a value’.14 in Great Britain than in any other particularly enthusiastic advocate of When the budget proposals were civilised country of the world … Outlook the taxation of land values.19 In July considered in Cabinet, there had Tax is piled on tax till no one will there was a by-election in the mar- been deep doubts. Sir William Har- know where he stands.’ On the Lib- decided that ginal High Peak division of Der- court’s son ‘Loulou’ slipped a card eral side, the Morning Leader rejoiced ‘Probably byshire. The Liberal MP, Oswald to a colleague, Walter Runciman: that ‘Mr Lloyd George has provided Partington, accepted ministerial ‘This Budget will ensure the tri- for the long over-due Taxation of the most office, and – as the law then stood – umph of Tariff Reform.’15 Lord Car- Land Values, urgently demanded needed to resign his seat and stand at rington, a great (and, by accounts, a by the urban municipalities and by vicious of a by-election. His campaign centred very good) Lincolnshire landowner the rural occupier.’ ReynoId’s was on a defence of the budget. Parting- and president of the Board of Agri- mildly critical, declaring that ‘The the schemes ton was returned on a heavy poll, culture, later recorded that ‘When Budget is a long way from the ideal, with both Liberal and Conservative the Budget was introduced into but a beginning has been made, and adopted parties increasing their vote on the the Cabinet … I said tax the land- it will be for future Liberal financi- previous general election figures. owners in the towns if you like, ers to carry to their logical issues by Mr Lloyd The contest was a straight fight but leave alone the hard-working the democratic principles of taxa- between the same two candidates farmers and the landowners, and we tion which Mr Lloyd George has George is as in 1906, and so there could be no entirely abandoned a tax on the land so heroically enunciated.’ For the question either of changed person- that grows the food of the country; Labour Party, Keir Hardie declared connected alities or of third parties influencing practically all agricultural land has at a meeting in Birmingham that the result. no fresh taxation whatever.’16 ‘the proposal to get at a portion of with the The Chancellor began to change From the middle of March the unearned increment of land his whole strategy. Instead of seek- onwards, no fewer than fourteen … was a beginning in the right Taxation of ing to slip the budget’s land valu- Cabinet meetings were devoted direction.’18 ation past a reluctant House of largely to discussions of budget pro- In the week which followed the Land Values.’ Lords, he now prepared to use it posals – by no means exclusively budget speech, the government lost To the Daily to challenge the Lords. At the end those relating to the land taxes and two more by-election seats: Strat- of July 1909, Lloyd George deliv- valuation. Despite all reservations, ford-on-Avon fell to the Conserva- Mail, ‘The net ered his famous Limehouse speech, the large majority of the Chancel- tives, and the Attercliffe division of in the East End of London. Today lor’s proposals, including the gen- Sheffield to Labour. Apart from the result … is it sounds quite mild, but it infuri- eral valuation of land, were broadly first flurry, there was little immedi- ated the opposition, who spoke of agreed. The active support of Prime ate sign of great enthusiasm. The that capital ‘slimehouse’. In October he made Minister Asquith appears to have real importance of the valuation a much funnier and more provoca- been of major importance in pro- was not yet made clear. Even Liberal is more heav- tive speech in Newcastle. Knowing ducing that agreement.17 Magazine does not bring out sharply that there were no Liberal Dukes, its full significance. ily taxed in he claimed that ‘a fully-equipped A Budget Protest League was Duke costs as much to keep as two Aftermath formed. The middle classes and Great Britain Dreadnoughts; and Dukes are The Chancellor introduced his above – more or less the only peo- just as great a terror and they last budget in the House of Commons ple who paid income tax in those than in any longer.’ This sort of thing drove the on 29 April 1909. The immediate days – would certainly not like the Lords to fury. On 30 November, the political and press reactions were big increase. Working-class voters other civi- House of Lords rejected the budget more or less predictable. Austen would also be upset. ‘Beer up, baccy by 350 votes to 75. They argued Chamberlain, for the opposition, up, and they call this a People’s lised country that by this action the budget was considered that ‘the cumulative Budget!’ snorted a working-man being submitted to the people. lf effect … would be to bring about … on a Conservative poster. Yet there of the world the government wanted it to pass, at no very distant date, a revolution seems to have been tacit acceptance … Tax is they must call a general election on in our country life which would that the Finance Bill would pass the issue. If it was carried in a new strike directly the well-to-do, but the Commons safely, whereupon piled on tax House of Commons, the Lords which would, glancing from their the Lords – no doubt grumbling would let it through. It was clear shoulders, fall with added weight furiously – would reluctantly let till no one that the crucial issue was the land upon those of the poor and labour- it through. From the opposition’s valuation and taxes. ing classes.’ The Conservative press point of view, the value of the whole will know The government was compelled was more explosive. To the Morning exercise would not be to defeat the to call the demanded general elec- Post, ‘Henry George, the Social- budget, but further to undermine where he tion. The issue was declared to be ist, has found in his namesake … a government which was already ‘Peers versus People’. Although there the first responsible Minister in any weakened. stands.’ had been doubts in the minds of

8 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 the lloyd george land taxes some Liberals in earlier stages of the This Liberal controversy, by the time of the gen- leaflet, produced eral election these had been resolved. for the January The only MPs who had been elected 1910 election, as Liberals in 1906 who sought elec- suggests the tion under any other designation in peers’ preference 1910 were some of the minework- for tariff reform ers who transferred to Labour (but rather than who solidly supported the budget) the taxation of and Harold Cox in Preston, the one the unearned Liberal who had opposed old age increment of pensions, and who stood as an Inde- land values pendent Liberal – finishing badly at proposed in the the bottom of the poll. 1909 Budget. An official Liberal leaflet pub- Note that the lished at the beginning of the Duke actually campaign made the issue clear. A wears a Marquis’s Marquis (probably meant to be coronet. (Liberal Lansdowne, the opposition leader Pamphlets and in the House of Lords) holds back a Leaflets 1910) crowd of people who seek access to ‘The Land’. At the end of the text are the words:

The Tory cry is – ‘Hands off the land!’ The Liberal policy is – Taxation of land values and the best use of the land in the interests of the community.20

By now both sides seemed tacitly to accept that the alternative to the budget was ‘tariff reform’, that euphemism for protection, which had been so decisively rejected in 1906. A happy-looking man in peer’s robes (oddly, with a Marquis’s coro- net) holds two moneybags, and has the words ‘Unearned Increment’ the Liberal decision not to oppose that LVT would operate to the across his ample abdomen. The slo- them. Apart from that, there was labourers’ detriment – echoing the gan is, ‘Tariff Reform means happier little difference from 1906 in the views of Austen Chamberlain and Dukes’.21 As Liberals never ceased north of England and Scotland. A much of the Conservative press to point out, tariff reform required few seats changed hands each way. when the budget was announced.22 food taxes, which would inevitably In the south of England, however, At first there was some doubt bring hunger to many poor people. the swing against the government as to how the Irish Nationalists was enormous. The Liberals had, would vote when the Finance Bill perhaps, hoped to ‘do an 1885’ and was brought before the new House. General election and after win the farm labourers’ vote. They The deep antagonisms of the 1880s At the general election of January had, after all, introduced old age had been largely damped down by 1910, the Liberals lost their over- pensions, which saved many old a series of land purchase measures, all majority, and were reduced to people from the workhouse, and some of Liberal and some of Con- almost level pegging with the oppo- relieved younger relatives of oth- servative origin, culminating in sition: 275 Liberals, 273 Conserva- ers from a serious burden of sup- George Wyndham’s act of 1903. tives and Liberal Unionists. Forty port. They had, with considerable The Irish parliamentarians were Labour MPs could be added to the difficulty, pressed ahead with rural a good deal less interested in radi- Liberal total for most purposes. The smallholdings, and had good reason cal land reform than they had once Irish Nationalists, with eighty-two, for thinking that the new budget been. There was also an impor- held the balance of power. pointed the way to much more tant factor which disposed some of Electoral swings varied greatly radical and general changes. Yet them actually to oppose the budget, in different parts of the country. results among the rural poor in the for the increased liquor taxes dis- The substantial increase in Labour south were not encouraging. All pleased distillers who had been representation is attributable to the the familiar pressures were exerted major contributors to Nationalist decision of most of the minework- upon them by the wealthier classes funds. In the end most, but not all, ers’ MPs who had hitherto sat as with apparent success. In some of the Nationalists were swung to Liberals to transfer allegiance, and places it was argued by opponents the government side. They were

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 9 the lloyd george land taxes probably persuaded that they had sessions of parliament. The maxi- essential condition precedent for some chance of getting home rule mum duration of parliament was proper land value taxation, or even from the Liberals, but none at all reduced from seven years to five. site value rating, did not appear, and from the Conservatives. land taxers began to show anxiety. The overall result was that the Land Values, monthly organ of the government secured a substantial A major After 1910 United Committee for the Taxation majority for the Finance Bill in the weakness of the There had been one fundamental of Land Values24 was complaining new House. The Lords kept their Liberal proposals tactical error in the land valuation. in February 1912 about the unnec- word, and it became law. The vari- for land value Many years later, Sir Edgar Harper, essary questions, and expressed ous taxes, including the little land taxation was the who had been chief valuer on the the view that ‘the reactionary ele- taxes, took effect. The much more innumerable board of the Inland Revenue, and ment in the Ministry – especially important land valuation began. A and unnecessary was a good friend of the land tax- the Department whose duty it was great new struggle between Liber- questions ers, explained the problem.23 Far to prepare and introduce a Bill for als and Lords also began; but most of accompanying too many questions were asked, the reform of the rating system – that struggle is not our concern here. the valuation many of them quite unnecessary blocked progress.’ It referred to a Suffice to say that the upshot was that – the primary for the valuation. The valuation ‘Memorial signed by 173 Members the House of Lords lost all power to reason for process, which should have been of Parliament and presented to the interfere with a Finance Bill, while the delay in quick and cheap, proved extremely Prime Minister and the Chancellor nearly all other bills could proceed to introducing the protracted. Whether for this reason of the Exchequer ‘urging the has- enactment if they passed the House tax. (Punch, 24 exclusively, or perhaps for others as tening of valuation and the levy of a of Commons in three successive August 1910) well, the valuation which was an national tax on land values’.25 At this point we should note a change of name, though not of sub- stance. In May 1912 the Conserva- tive and Liberal Unionist parties, which had long been indistinguish- able for practical purposes, were formally united, and for some years they preferred to use the designa- tion ‘Unionist’. That practice will be followed in this paper. Later in 1912, several by-elec- tions pointed convincingly to the popularity of land value taxation. Land taxers, we may guess, made efforts to ensure that adopted Lib- eral candidates were enthusiasts for their cause. In north-west Nor- folk on 31 May, E. G. Hemmerde held a by no means safe seat. Land Values claimed that ‘Land Reform became the burning question of the fight, and during the last few days almost silenced all others’.26 Even more spectacular was the Hanley by-election on 13 July. The seat had been held by a miners’ MP who had originally sat as a Liberal, but transferred to the Labour Party, and was not opposed by the Liber- als in the two 1910 general elec- tions. At the by-election which followed Edwards’s death, Labour nominated a defender. The Liberal candidate, R. L. Outhwaite, was an especially keen land taxer, and made the issue the dominant ques- tion in his campaign. The Unionists evidently expected to win the seat on a split progressive vote. A car- toon in Punch, published while the campaign was in progress, showed the Liberal chief whip, the Mas- ter of Elibank, pulling at one end of the cow ‘Electorate’, and Ram- say MacDonald, chairman of the

10 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 the lloyd george land taxes

Labour Party, pulling at the other. Land campaign The Punch who were by far the worst treated Each says, ‘My cow, I think’. Seated There seemed little doubt that ‘land’ cartoonist of all major occupational groups. between them on a milking stool was a great popular issue, even Bernard A minimum wage was to be estab- and smiling, the Unionist candi- though some of the more cautious Partridge lished, as had already been done for date, says, ‘My chance, anyhow.’27 Liberals were anxious not to press too expected the some other trades. Hours of labour But matters did not turn out that hard or too fast with LVT. If ‘land’ competition would be regulated and adequate way. Outhwaite was elected, join- could be presented in some other between housing provided, where neces- ing Josiah Wedgwood, the equally form, this might win a great deal of the Liberal sary by state action. Commissioners enthusiastic Liberal land taxer who public support and create a prelude to and Labour would receive the power to provide sat for the contiguous constituency the next general election. Thus a new candidates allotments and smallholdings, if of Newcastle-under-Lyme. The ‘Land Campaign’ developed, which at the Hanley necessary by compulsory purchase. loss of Crewe by the Liberals at a could be regarded as a sequel and by-election Farmers would receive increased by-election shortly after the Hanley extension to the great budget con- to deliver the rights against landlords, including victory and the loss of Midlothian troversy.28 In June 1912, an unofficial seat to the new protection against damage by in September could be explained by Land Enquiry Committee was set up Unionists; in game. Provision was made to ensure the intervention of Labour in con- by Liberals at the insistance of Lloyd fact, the Liberal that the cost of increased labour- stituencies where there had been George and with full support from R. L. Outhwaite, ers’ wages would not be borne by straight fights in 1910. Asquith. The chairman was Arthur, who had fought the tenant farmer, but would be The 1912 by-elections seemed later Sir Arthur, Acland, a former the campaign transferred to the landlord through to show that the cause of land value Liberal MP. Members included See- mainly on the reductions in rent. There was much taxation, when well argued, was bohm Rowntree, author of impor- programme more in the same vein. popular in a very wide range of con- tant studies on poverty in York, and of land value Initial reactions proved highly stituencies. But, for reasons which some noted land reformers of various taxation, was favourable. ‘Swindon was electric. still do not seem wholly clear, the kinds, including Baron de Forest, elected. (Punch, I have rarely addressed such an land taxers’ urgent purpose of get- C. Roden Buxton and E. G. Hem- 10 July 1912) enthusiastic meeting,’ wrote Lloyd ting the land valuation complete merde. The committee reported in George to Percy Illingworth, the so that LVT could commence, was the following year, and in October new Liberal chief whip, after one not achieved. Lloyd George himself 1913 a Liberal Land Campaign began, of the early meetings. ‘Winston must bear a share of responsibility based on its findings. found the same thing at Manches- for not keeping a close watch on Special attention was given to ter. His allusions to our programme how the valuation was proceeding. the plight of agricultural labourers, were received with wild cheering.’29

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 11 the lloyd george land taxes

Illingworth shared the Chancellor’s independence. As the election cam- Unionists were seven Unionists, two coalition enthusiasm. Reporting on proceed- paign developed, Lloyd George Liberals, two non-coalition Liberals ings at the National Liberal Federa- and the Unionist leader Bonar Law still deeply and two Labour. The Select Com- tion meeting at Leeds a month or so issued letters of support, commonly mittee soon disagreed on its terms later, he declared. ‘The Prime Min- nicknamed ‘coupons’, to the can- disliked the of reference, and at the end of Octo- ister’s speech last night was I think didates whom they favoured. For ber adjourned for a fortnight.34 In the best l ever heard him make. reasons which are peripheral to the ‘land taxes’, the course of that fortnight, Whit- “Land” went like hot cakes at the present story, most recipients of the taker died, and a by-election was delegates’ meeting.’30 ‘coupon’ were Unionists, but quite and the mounted in his constituency, Spen The Land Enquiry Committee a lot were Liberals and a few were Valley. published its Urban Report in April members of smaller parties. valuation The Spen Valley by-election 1914. It dealt with such matters as When polling took place, the even more greatly exacerbated divisions urban housing, land acquisition coalition’s nominee was usually suc- among Liberals. Although Whit- and urban tenures. It proposed a cessful. Of the elected ‘couponed’ so. On the taker had received the ‘coupon’, the system of local rating which would candidates, 332 were Unionists, 132 local Liberal Association nominated allow considerable discretion to Liberals and 16 members of other other side, Sir John Simon, who had been a local authorities as to how far they parties. All those leading Liberals minister before the war and ranked applied SVR.31 Reactions were who had not received the ‘coupon’, many people as an ‘Asquithian’, as candidate. To notably less enthusiastic than those including Asquith, were defeated, this the coalitionists retorted by given to the Rural Report; and how but thirty lesser fry scrambled who had nominating a certain Colonel R. C. far it would eventually be solidified home. Forty-eight ‘uncouponed’ Fairfax. Nobody in politics seemed into government and Liberal policy Unionists, sixty Labour and eighty- supported to know much about Fairfax, but he was still uncertain. nine others, mainly from Irish par- was described as a coalition Liberal, What seemed clear in the sum- ties, were also victorious. Lloyd the famous though he used the local Unionist mer of 1914 was that the land taxes George remained prime minister, office as his headquarters. This was proposed in Lloyd George’s budget but the large majority of his puta- budget pal- the first by-election since 1918 at of 1909 had started a chain of events tive supporters was now Unionist.33 which two candidates described as which was still very far from com- At the time of the general elec- pably wished Liberals opposed each other. Labour plete. There were plenty of signs tion, Liberal headquarters were also nominated a candidate. In the that not only the Liberals but their firmly in the hands of Asquith and to see taxes event Labour was elected with a Unionist opponents as well were his associates. They had not for- small majority over Simon, with now thinking of reforms, largely mally condemned the coalition, and valua- Fairfax trailing third. tied up directly or indirectly with explicitly stating the Liberal can- tion revised Not long after Spen Valley land, which were much more exten- didates ‘should be free to promise polled, another Liberal MP died. sive than had been generally visual- support for the coalition govern- considerably. Sir John M’Callum of Paisley had ised half a dozen years earlier. The ment’ on certain conditions. After not received the ‘coupon’, but had land taxes had played a major part the general election, however, big been returned in a very close con- in that shift. differences began gradually to test, with fewer than 400 votes appear among Liberal MPs, which separating three candidates. The corresponded roughly, though not local Liberals chose Asquith him- Not with a bang … exactly, with receipt or non-receipt self as candidate. On 12 February The end of the Lloyd George land of the ‘coupon’. On 3 February 1919, 1920, Asquith was victorious with taxes is intimately bound up with a meeting of twenty-three Liberal a fair margin over Labour, with an the fate of the Liberal Party in the MPs who were considered not to be obviously unsuitable Unionist a bad early aftermath of the 1914 war, supporters of the government was third. The net effect of these two and neither story can be properly convened. Thereafter, most of them by-elections was to make the Lib- understood without considerable acted as an opposition group. eral schism almost total. reference to the other. The complex Unionists still deeply disliked Meanwhile, the Select Commit- politics of the 1914 war are mainly the ‘land taxes’, and the valuation tee which had been looking at the outside the present account. Suffice even more so. On the other side, land taxes continued its work, but here to say that when Lloyd George many people who had supported soon ran into complete deadlock.35 formed a coalition in December the famous budget palpably wished Among the evidence offered was a 1916, Asquith and his closest associ- to see taxes and valuation revised submission of evidence by Dundas ates were omitted, although a seri- considerably. On 25 July 1919, it was White of the United Committee for ous and confidential attempt was announced that a Select Committee the Taxation of Land Values, rec- made to incorporate them towards had been appointed ‘to enquire into ommending that a tax on the value the end of the war.32 When the fight- the present position of the [Land of all land should be substituted for ing ended in November 1918, Lloyd Value duties and valuation and the existing duties. One section George was prime minister of a to] make recommendations with of the Select Committee declared three-party coalition government regard to their retention, altera- that it would resign if this evi- which still did not include Asquith tion or repeal.’ A coalition Liberal, dence was admitted, the other that or his immediate followers. Almost Sir Thomas Whittaker, who had it would resign if the evidence was immediately, a general election was sat in parliament since 1892 and not admitted. The Select Commit- called. The Labour Party broke had published a book on the land tee could do no more than publish away from the government and question, was chosen as chairman. the evidence already received from operated thenceforth in complete Other members of the committee others.

12 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 the lloyd george land taxes

The next stage in the story was repealed, had been the instigator of Mail, 30 Apr. 1909; Morning Leader the budget statement by the coali- the same duties and valuation eleven 30 Apr. 1909; Reynold’s, 2 May 1909. tion Unionist Chancellor of the years earlier. We may only speculate Land Values supplement, June 1909, Exchequer, Austen Chamberlain, as to what were his real thoughts pp. xx–xxii. on 19 April 1920. The government on the matter. In the debate which 19 Winston Churchill’s views at the time proposed to repeal the land value followed Austen Chamberlain’s – from which, apparently, he never duties, to forego the collection of budget speech, Asquith proposed resiled – were published in 1909, and arrears, and to refund the duties that the epitaph on the duties should republished many years later with a paid. In the course of his budget be ‘not Requiescat but Resurgam.’ new introduction by Cameron Hazle- speech in April 1920, Chamber- Some time, perhaps, we will see the hurst, as The People’s Rights (Hodder & lain proposed abolition of both the Day of Resurrection. Stoughton, 1909; Jonathan Cape Ltd, land value duties and the valua- 1970). tion. On its face, the argument was Dr Roy Douglas is Emeritus Reader at 20 LPD Leaflet No.2263, 1 Dec. 1909. clear-cut. The duties, he said, ‘have the University of Surrey. He fought five Pamphlets and Leaflets 1910, Liberal produced hardly any revenue, and times as a Liberal parliamentary candi- Publication Department. … are, with the exception of the date. He is the author of fifteen books on 21 LPD Leaflet No.2262, N.D. Pam- mineral rights duty, either wholly historical subjects, including The His- phlets and Leaflets 1910, Liberal Pub- or partially in abeyance.’36 The min- tory of the Liberal Party 1895–1970 lication Department. eral rights duty could survive as a (1971) and Liberals: The History of 22 Packer, Lloyd George, Liberalism and the separate tax. As for the valuation, it the Liberal and Liberal Democrat Land, pp. 50–2. referred to values as at 30 April 1909, Parties (2005). 23 Sir Edgar Harper, The Lloyd George and with the repeal of the duties it Finance (1909–10) Act 1910: its errors no longer had fiscal significance. 1 R. C. K. Ensor, England 1870–1914 and how to correct them (International Here we may observe that nobody (OUP, 1966), p. 334. Union for Land Value Taxation and – certainly not Lloyd George – had 2 Henry George, Progress and Poverty, Free Trade, 1929). ever intended the duties to produce London 1911 edn., p. 142. 24 Land Values is now continued as Land much revenue. A serious implied 3 Many years later, Asquith explicitly and Liberty; the United Commit- criticism of the valuation was that it denied that he was a single taxer, and tee continues as the Henry George referred to a particular date, far in a similar denial was made on behalf Foundation. the past. Land values, as everybody The irony of of Lloyd George. Asquith at Lady- 25 Land Values, xiii, February 1912, pp. knows, are constantly changing, bank 5 Oct. 1912; George Lambert at 214–15. and any useful valuation requires the situation Chawleigh, 7 Oct. 1912. Liberal Maga- 26 Land Values, xiii, July 1912, p. 84. frequent, certainly not less than zine 1912, pp. 618, 578. 27 Punch, 10 Jul. 1912. annual, revision. was com- 4 Land Values, March 1906; Liberal Mag- 28 See Liberal Magazine, especially 1913, On 14 July 1920, the Committee plete. Lloyd azine, 1906, pp. 64–5. pp. 622–40, and Offer, Property and of the Whole House voted separately 5 Anver Offer,Property and Politics 1870– Politics, p. 371 et seq. on a proposal to terminate the valu- George, 1814 (CUP, 1981), pp. 249, 322. 29 Lloyd George to Illingworth, 24 ation; a proposal to repay the duties; 6 A. K. Russell, Liberal landslide: the Oct. 1913. Lloyd George papers (HL) a proposal to cease the increment head of the General Election of 1906 (Gazelle Book C/5/4/7. value duty; a proposal to terminate Services Ltd, 1973), p. 65. 30 Illingworth to Lloyd George 28 the reversion duty and a proposal government 7 See discussion in Ian Packer, Lloyd Nov. 1913. Lloyd George papers (HL) to terminate the undeveloped land George, Liberalism and the Land (Royal C/5/4l8. duty. In these votes, the numbers at whose Historical Society, 2001), pp. 54–7. 31 Liberal Magazine, 1914, pp. 276–84. supporting the government view 8 The Govermment’s Record 1906–1913 32 Memorandum of meeting with Lloyd ranged from 193 to 220, the num- instance the (Liberal Publications Department, George, 24 Sept. 1918, Elibank papers, bers to the contrary from eighty 1914). National Library of Scotland 8,804, to ninety-one. Predictably, all, or duties and 9 Liberal Magazine, 1909, pp. 232–9. fos. 193–6. almost all, of the Unionists voted 10 Lloyd George to Chalmers, 5 Sept. 33 Somewhat different figures are given with the government, and all the the land val- 1908. PRO IR 73/2. 16. in some works of reference. These fig- Labour and ‘Asquithian’ members 11 PRO IR 73/2. ures are explained in Roy Douglas, A voted against it. The most remark- uation were 12 PRO CAB 37/97, 10 (Asquith, 26 Jan. classification of the Members of Parliament able feature of the divisions was how 1909), 16 (Lloyd George, 29 Jan. 1909). elected in 1918, Bull. Inst. Hist. Res. the coalition Liberals split. The num- repealed, 13 Liberal Magazine, 1909, pp. 227–31. xlvii, May 1974, pp. 74–94. ber supporting the government view 14 Liberal Magazine, 1909, pp. 280–3, 34 Liberal Magazine 1919, 426; Daily ranged from twenty-four to thirty- had been the 613–17. News, 30 Oct. 1919. two, the number voting against it instigator 15 Harcourt to Runciman 24 Mar. 1909. 35 This is not explained in the Parlia- from nineteen to twenty-five. On Runciman papers, University of mentary Paper, Cmd. 556, but is the repayment issue, those opposing of the same Newcastle upon Tyne. explained in Land and Liberty, xxi, the government even exceeded its 16 At Yorkshire Union of Agricultural May 1920, p. 391. supporters by one vote.37 Thereafter duties and Clubs, 23 Feb. 1911. Land Values, xiii, 36 Liberal Magazine, 1920, p. 198. the Finance Bill soon proceeded to p. 146. 37 See the classification inLand and Lib- formal enactment. valuation 17 Roy Jenkins, Asquith (HarperCollins, erty, xxi, August 1920, pp. 462–8. Lib- The irony of the situation was 1964), pp. 96–7. eral Magazine, 1920, p. 294, gives the complete. Lloyd George, head of the eleven years 18 Austen Chamberlain, House of Com- smaller votes on the motion to repeal government at whose instance the mons, 29 Apr. 1909; Morning Post, 1 all the duties, but does not provide an duties and the land valuation were earlier. May 1909; Outlook, 1 May 1909; Daily individual classification of the MPs.

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 13 liberal national leader Charles Kerr, Lord Teviot

Charles Iain Kerr, first Baron Teviot, is best remembered for the eponymous agreement which he reached with Lord Woolton, the chairman of the Conservative Party, in 1947, by which Conservatives and Liberal Nationals regularised their constituency arrangements after more than a decade and a half of electoral cooperation. His political career, however, spanned four decades from the end of the First World Charles War. David Dutton Iain Kerr, examines his life and First Baron Teviot career. (1874–1968)

14 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 liberal national leader Charles Kerr, Lord Teviot

err was born in 1874, 1,600 votes of victory. In the same transfer his attention to the sort of the elder son of Charles constituency the following year backstage organisational work for Wyndham Rudolph (one of generally poor Liberal per- which his talents in any case best Kerr, grandson of formance), Kerr came tantalisingly suited him, and he became chair- the sixth Marquess of close to success, reducing the gap man of the executive committee KLothian. At the age of eighteen he with his Tory opponent to just 200 of the National Liberal Federation left Britain to seek his fortune in votes. Then, in a by-election in and of the Liberal Publications Canada where he worked for three Hull Central in 1926, occasioned Department. Early in the new dec- years as a miner. Later he went to by the defection of the sitting Lib- ade, however, Kerr had to confront South Africa where he also engaged eral member, J. M. Kenworthy, the choice which faced all Liber- in manual work. But on his return to Labour, Kerr ended up in a dis- als as the party once again split to London he became a stockbro- tant third place, nearly 9,000 votes into two rival factions, divided by ker, rising eventually to become behind the Conservative runner- attitudes to the minority Labour a senior partner in Kerr, Ware and up. In this contest Kerr gave hints government headed by Ramsay Company. After service in the of what would become the central MacDonald and disagreements First World War, during which he tenet of his political creed, his oppo- over the continuing relevance of was awarded the DSO and Mili- sition to socialism. While the sort of For Kerr the the doctrine of free trade. For Kerr tary Cross and was mentioned in Labour policies now espoused by the choice was simple. A convinced despatches, he embarked upon a Kenworthy were largely compati- choice was anti-socialist, he allied himself in political career. Family ties deter- ble with Liberal beliefs, Kerr argued 1931 with John Simon’s group of mined that he would seek advance- that it was Labour’s long-term simple. A Liberal Nationals. Resigning all ment in the Liberal interest. His objectives, upon which Kenwor- offices within the Liberal Party, cousin, Philip Kerr, the eleventh thy was conspicuously silent, which convinced he declared that he was ‘so out of Lord Lothian, had served as private needed to be considered.1 Through- sympathy with the majority of secretary to Lloyd George and was out his career Kerr seemed to find it anti-social- the parliamentary party and the active in Liberal politics through- easier to say what was not Liberal- party organisation in their attitude out the inter-war years. But the ism than what was, but at this stage, ist, he allied of supporting the present Gov- 1920s were a difficult time for an in his espousal of traditional Liberal himself in ernment, which I consider to be aspiring Liberal politician and, like causes such as free trade, he gave against the interests of the country many others, Kerr struggled unsuc- no indication that he was outside 1931 with and detrimental to the future of the cessfully to secure election to the the party’s mainstream. Finally, in party, that I do not wish to hold House of Commons, as his party what was, at least in terms of votes John Simon’s any position in the party machine slipped inexorably into electoral secured, a comparatively good Lib- and thereby either directly or indi- third place, squeezed between the eral year, he came within 650 votes group of rectly support this policy’.2 In a upper and nether millstones of its of victory in Swansea West in the somewhat strange but revealing Conservative and Labour rivals. He general election of 1929. Liberal comment the Manchester Guardian contested Daventry in the general Such electoral disappointments noted at this time that Kerr had election of 1923 and came within seem to have persuaded Kerr to Nationals. ‘never been an assertive Liberal’.3

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 15 liberal national leader: charles kerr, lord teviot

Simon made good use of his behind this, and I regret to say It was Kerr’s Christian Front and, the following organisational abilities in construct- that a great bulk of the people year, Kerr, along with several for- ing the new party, and the follow- working in that direction are of organisa- mer members of the British Union ing year, with the elevation of Sir the Jewish race.7 of Fascists, joined Ramsay’s so- Robert Hutchison, another Liberal tional skills called ‘Right Club’, a ‘stage army of National defector, to the peerage, Anti-Semitism was more wide- increasingly desperate fascists and Kerr was selected as candidate for spread in those pre-Holocaust days rather than pro-Nazis’.12 There is no evidence the by-election in Montrose Burghs. than it has since become, but, with that Kerr’s dalliance with the far- With a strong Liberal tradition, and his vague suggestion of a Jewish his inner right went any further than this. in the absence of Tory intervention, conspiracy, Kerr was moving to a Yet it is difficult to deny that he had it looked a safe seat. Hutchison had different plane. Not surprisingly, political travelled a long way from the origi- defeated his Labour opponent by his remarks created an outcry – beliefs that nal Liberal affiliation under which more than 12,000 votes as recently with Sir Maurice Block, chairman he had entered the political arena. as the general election of October of the Glasgow Jewish Repre- carried For all that, it was Kerr’s organi- 1931. This time the outcome was sentative Council, insisting that sational skills rather than his inner complicated by the arrival of a Scot- his claims were ‘utterly fantastic forward political beliefs that carried forward tish Nationalist candidate. Even so, and untrue’. ‘We naturally look to his political career, and he was an the reduction of Kerr’s majority to Colonel Kerr as a man of honour to his politi- obvious choice for the position of just 933 votes was a considerable dis- substantiate his statement or make Liberal National chief whip fol- appointment: a reflection perhaps amends.’8 Meanwhile, Kerr wrote cal career, lowing the unexpected death of Sir of a generally lack-lustre campaign to The Times to explain, some- James Blindell in 1937. This promo- on all sides, but a possible indication what lamely, that he had merely and he was tion carried with it the junior post too that traditional Liberal voters been attacking the idea of Liberals of Lord Commissioner of the Treas- were as yet unready to accept the working with Labour in a ‘popular an obvious ury in the National Government. Liberal Nationals as authentic expo- front’ movement and that many of He was promoted to be Comp- nents of their creed.4 his best friends were Jews.9 After a choice for troller of HM Household early in Kerr’s career as an MP was few days’ reflection, however, Kerr 1939 but, at much the same time, largely uneventful, though he did was obliged to issue an unqualified the position announced that he would not be attract attention when moving apology: defending his seat at the next gen- the Address to the King’s Speech of Liberal eral election, widely anticipated for in November 1934, dressed in the I have come to the conclusion National that year, for reasons of health. Kerr uniform of the Royal Company of that under the circumstances was sixty-five years old and had Archers, the king’s bodyguard in I had no right whatever in my chief whip in experienced some health problems Scotland. His contributions to par- remarks on the Communist and at the turn of the year. But the fact liamentary debate were not always anti-God movements to refer to 1937. that he lived on comfortably into his of the highest order. In his maiden the Jews. Doing so has created a tenth decade gives some credence speech in October 1932 he suggested completely wrong impression, to the contemporary suspicion that resolving the unemployment prob- and I now express my sincere other factors were involved. The lem by resettling the unemployed regret at having done so.10 Fascist dropped clear hints that his and their dependents in the under- retirement was related to his appar- populated Dominions. This idea But were Kerr’s remarks merely a ently anti-Semitic remarks of a year was being widely discussed at this case of extreme political ineptitude? earlier.13 None the less, with the time, but when, later in the same It is striking that his sentiments and prospect of a general election post- speech, he appealed to the Labour even his vocabulary – for example, poned for the duration of hostilities, opposition to drop its censure the phrase ‘anti-God’ to describe Kerr was elevated to the peerage motion on the government as a ‘ges- communist activity – bore a strik- in June 1940 as Baron Teviot. Later ture of goodwill and cooperation’, ing resemblance to those being that year he was elected to succeed Kerr showed his inexperience.5 But voiced at this time by the notori- Lord Hutchison as chairman of the perhaps the most extreme exam- ous Captain Archibald Ramsay, Liberal National Organisation.14 ple of what has been described as Conservative MP for Peebles and For the remainder of the Sec- Kerr’s ‘mixture of eccentricity with South Midlothian, a crypto-fascist ond World War Teviot performed naivety’6 came when he addressed who was rapidly emerging as one of the sort of patriotic good works the Scottish Liberal National Asso- Hitler’s leading apologists in Brit- that might have been expected of ciation in May 1938. Here he spoke ain and the only sitting MP to be a semi-retired politician support- of a plot to unseat the government imprisoned in 1940 under Defence ing Churchill’s coalition govern- and unwisely coloured his remarks Regulation 18B. Interestingly, ment. He visited China in 1942 as a with racist overtones: Ramsay’s home, Kellie Castle, was member of a cross-party delegation situated inside Kerr’s parliamentary and was clearly impressed by what You would hardly credit the ter- constituency. More significantly, he saw, telling a Liberal National rible, low-down, wicked efforts there is a suggestion that a meet- lunch on his return in March 1943 that are being made to under- ing in London referred to in Kerr’s that ‘the Chinese people were being mine everything we hold dear. speech, from which he had derived prepared to accept a new consti- There are people in a very big his information about the ‘Judaeo- tution which perhaps would be way in this country who support Bolshevik’ danger, had been the best democratic organisation Communism, though not out- attended by Ramsay.11 The two in the world, and from which we, wardly. There is a lot of money men were associated in the United with our old-fashioned democracy,

16 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 liberal national leader: charles kerr, lord teviot might learn something’.15 Later that themselves to probable electoral sui- up in consultation by the two par- year he chaired an inter-departmen- cide, posed an insuperable hurdle. ties’ headquarters. Successful can- tal committee set up to consider and In the last resort this was not a step didates would sit in parliament as report on the progressive stages by that Teviot was prepared to con- Liberal-Unionists, a somewhat which, ‘having regard for the num- template. By the last months of 1946 strange title given the fate of a simi- ber of practising dentists, provision it was clear that Liberal reunion was larly named group which had disap- for an adequate and satisfactory a non-starter and that he would peared from the political landscape dental service should be made avail- need to pursue a different option just before the First World War. able for the population’.16 Reporting of even closer association with the All of this guaranteed the survival in 1944, Teviot’s committee unani- Conservatives. in the immediate future of Liberal mously recommended that a com- By this time, of course, the Lib- Nationalism as a concept, even if prehensive dental service should eral Nationals had suffered a con- the outlook in the longer term sug- be an integral part of an overall siderable reverse as a result of the gested probable absorption by the National Health Service. It was a 1945 general election, their House big battalions of the Conservative significant contribution to the plan- of Commons strength reduced to Party. At a national level Liberal ning of the post-war welfare state. just eleven unequivocal adherents. National prospects looked a lit- As the war neared its end, atten- In the negotiations which now tle brighter with structures such tion inevitably refocused on the began, with Teviot leading for the as the Liberal National Organisa- domestic political agenda. The years Liberal Nationals and Lord Wool- tion, the Liberal National Council of conflict had been particularly ton for the Conservatives, the lat- and the annual conference carry- damaging for the organisational ter held almost all of the cards. The ing on much as before. The Liberal infrastructure of the smaller politi- Conservative chairman brushed National Party thus retained the cal parties, and the Liberal Nation- aside Teviot’s complaint that it was form, appearance and structure of als faced the additional difficulty a pity to find Conservative can- a national movement with officers that the circumstances and attitudes didates being adopted in what he and finances separate from those which had brought them into exist- considered to be traditional Liberal of the Tories. Teviot, then, still ence in the early 1930s had become National seats, and he effectively had a political party to help man- a matter of history rather than Teviot, then, put a gun to the head of the smaller age. Indeed, there were those who current politics. Teviot, however, party. Woolton suggested that jobs believed that the very fact that he became one of the strongest advo- still had a might be found for competent Lib- enjoyed being the chairman of a cates, particularly after Labour’s eral Nationals in the Conservative political party was an important landslide victory in the general political organisation but, ‘if they delayed factor in keeping the movement in election of 1945, of the idea that the for two or three months, I should existence.19 threat of socialism in Britain com- party to have completed my staff and would Other Liberal Nationals, how- pelled Liberals and Conservatives to help man- then undertake no obligation in the ever, were more inclined to accept join forces in opposition to this alien event of amalgamation’.18 The Con- the logic of the situation and political tradition. First, it was nec- age. Indeed, servatives were fully aware of the amalgamate fully with the Con- essary to see whether the divided weakness of the Liberal National servatives. After all, if the modern forces of Liberalism could be reu- there were position, while the latter knew that, Conservative Party was as liber- nited – but only on this limiting the longer they delayed, the more alised as Liberal Nationals repeat- basis which in practice precluded those who their residual strength up and down edly claimed, what was the point independent Liberal action. Teviot the country was likely to be eroded. of maintaining even the semblance believed that a number of Liberals, believed In such circumstances agreement of a separate identity? John Simon, dissatisfied with the performance was soon reached and the terms now like Teviot in the House of of the parliamentary Liberal Party, that the very of the Woolton–Teviot pact were Lords, was one of their number. might come over to the Liberal announced in May 1947. There, he accepted the Conserva- Nationals in the ‘not so distant fact that The agreement probably offered tive whip, sat on the opposition future’. For that reason it was nec- Liberal Nationals as much as Teviot front bench and even attended some essary to play down links with the he enjoyed could have reasonably expected. meetings of Churchill’s Consulta- Conservatives for the time being in On the one hand the position in the tive Committee, the shadow cabi- case such an association frightened being the constituencies, where the Liberal net of the day. In the wake of the away potential Liberal defectors.17 National organisational infrastruc- 1945 general election Teviot had Two sets of negotiations were chairman of ture was often crumbling or already become Liberal National whip in held in 1943–4 and in 1946, in which dormant, was regularised. In those the upper chamber, but his task Teviot played a prominent part. In a political where Liberal Nationals and Con- was not an easy one. By 1949 there the circumstances, the talks went party was an servatives both had an existing were, in theory, still thirteen peers on longer than the basic situation organisation, a combined asso- in receipt of the National Liberal merited, encouraged perhaps by a important ciation should be formed under a whip. The problem, however, was strong feeling within many con- jointly agreed title. Where only one that the group was predominantly stituencies that reunion must be the factor in of the parties had an organisation, elderly and, as Teviot admitted, way forward. Both sides seemed encouragement should be given to ‘with very few exceptions … our reluctant to admit that the question keeping the all potential members, from either people hardly ever attend and there of Liberal independence, which for tradition, on the basis of joint action are many days when [Simon] and Liberal Nationals would mean sev- movement in against socialism. And the selec- I are the only National Liberals ering their links with the Conserva- tion of parliamentary candidates there’. And even Teviot’s presence tive Party and therefore exposing existence. should be based on a joint list drawn could not be taken for granted: ‘I

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 17 liberal national leader: charles kerr, lord teviot try and get there as much as I can, majority in the general election of ‘Rumours are spreading all over the and take part in debates on occa- February 1950. Their narrow fail- place’, he once complained, ‘and I sions, but my attempt to earn my ure to do so was widely attributed am in a very awkward position … living must come first and I am very to the intervention of as many as all I can say to those who are con- busy in this direction’. This gave a 475 independent Liberal candi- tinually ringing up is that I know considerable advantage to the main- dates. Persuading Liberal voters nothing, the answer to that is “Well stream Liberal Party in its ongoing to join the effort to unseat Labour you ought to”.’26 efforts to undermine the National was therefore central to the election After 1951, of course, Teviot’s Liberals’ claims to legitimacy and campaign of October 1951, espe- stance needed a subtly different viability. The former ‘appear to cially as the Liberals now restricted emphasis. The socialist ‘threat’ had have a lot of people with nothing their challenge to just 109 seats. But visibly receded and he now stressed else to do but attend the House of Teviot’s intervention was bound to the importance of the National Lords’. 20 This was not a picture that irritate the proudly independent Liberals, or more accurately the the elderly and hard-pressed Lord Liberal Party headed by Clement Liberal-Unionist contingent in the Samuel, leading the mainstream Davies. ‘In view of your Broadcast House of Commons, in keeping party in the upper chamber, would and the Liberal Manifesto’, he told Churchill’s government on broadly have recognised. Both Liberal fac- Davies, progressive and ‘Liberal’ lines. tions were in fact struggling to Nineteen MPs had been elected maintain a presence in the House it appears that there is no fun- under a somewhat confusing vari- of Lords. After the 1945 general damental difference between ety of labels, a convenient figure election Lord Salisbury, Conserva- the Liberal and Conservative granted that the government’s over- tive leader in the upper house, had ideas. Because of the serious cri- all majority in the new parliament suggested that National Liberal sis through which our country was just seventeen seats, giving peers should take the Conservative is going, and the great danger Teviot’s group the rather spurious whip. But it remained Teviot’s view to our future if a Socialist Gov- claim that they were ‘holding the that it was best to retain this token ernment is again returned, with balance’. Writing in 1955, Teviot of independence, not least because great respect I suggest to you spelt out the importance of his par- it contradicted the Liberals’ claim that there is a great opportu- liamentary colleagues: that the National Liberals had been nity here to enhance the Liberal swallowed up by the Conservative position in the country, and that The function of the group is to Party. In response to Simon’s sug- all Liberals in constituencies consider at its weekly meetings gestion that the next general elec- where there is no Liberal can- short- and long-term policy, tion might be the time to bite the didate should be urged to vote with particular regard for the bullet and accept full amalgamation for the candidate who is 100 per point of view of those Liberals with the Tories, Teviot remained cent against Socialism, which is throughout the country who non-committal: ‘we will just have anathema to Liberalism.25 believe that in today’s politi- to deal with this fence when we get cal conditions Liberal principles to it’. 21 In practice the two men had The Liberal Party, however, was must be constantly stressed, but to agree to differ. Simon ‘admire[d] not to be so easily seduced. Indeed, can only be translated into effec- very much [Teviot’s] public spirit in some Liberals such as Megan Lloyd tive policy by working in full sticking to your task as Chairman George regarded the Tories rather alliance with one of the major of the Organisation’, but could give than Labour as their mortal foe. parties. Socialism is the negation no absolute assurances as to his own Furthermore, it was by no means of Liberal principles, whereas the future actions. ‘So far, I have made clear that, in the Conservative [Conservative] Government’s my contribution in council and It was, he attempt to attract the Liberal vote, record of achievement since 1951 debate without any formal change the existence of the National Liber- is one to which any Liberal could of name. But I would not like you to insisted, als as a separate entity was any par- be proud to have contributed. think that I am pledging myself to ticular asset. As a result the Tories continue indefinitely in this ambig- the threat pursued something of a dual strat- Still, though, Teviot drew back uous position.’22 egy. If the presence of candidates from formal amalgamation: Teviot retained his posts within of social- from joint National Liberal and The fact that National Liber- the National Liberal hierarchy until Conservative local associations, als have established a method of September 1956. In the intervening ism which sporting hybrid party affiliations, expressing their political views years he was probably his party’s attracted votes that straightfor- in constructive government does most prominent spokesman, restat- made com- ward Tories would have struggled not mean that they should sacrifice ing repeatedly and consistently, if mon action to secure, all well and good. But their identity either in the constitu- not entirely convincingly, the jus- at the same time the Conserva- encies or in Parliament. There are tification for the National Liber- between tives sought to woo the Liberal very real advantages to the nation als’ continuing existence.23 It was, Party directly, a policy that culmi- in maintaining a distinctive chan- he insisted, the threat of social- Liberals nated in Churchill’s unsuccessful nel through which the flow of Lib- ism which made common action offer of ministerial office to Clem- eral and Conservative thought can between Liberals and Conservatives and Con- ent Davies in the wake of the 1951 be brought together. We would imperative.24 By the late 1940s this general election victory. Bilateral respectfully suggest that the argument carried some weight. The servatives negotiations between the Tories and National Liberal Council outside Conservatives made a huge effort the independent Liberals inevitably Parliament and the Liberal-Union- to overturn Labour’s parliamentary imperative. caused Teviot considerable concern. ist group within provide what the

18 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 liberal national leader: charles kerr, lord teviot independent Liberal party cannot, a exception’. ‘What are we coming Teviot’s a Liberal’.35 It was an appropriate, means of making Liberalism a con- to?’ he asked, accompanied by the disbelieving comment not just on tinuing and effective force in our laughter of one unnamed peer.33 ‘liberalism’, Teviot’s speech, but on his whole national life.27 Teviot’s words now seem to belong career. For all that, as the joint Teviot was eighty-two when to another age, but there is no doubt such as it architect of the 1947 agreement with he stepped down from the chair- that he spoke for a substantial body Lord Woolton, he helped ensure manship of the National Liberal of public opinion at the time. was, related that the National Liberal tradition Organisation. He continued to Teviot died in London on 7 Janu- survived, in however attenuated a make occasional contributions to ary, 1968 at the age of ninety-three. largely to form, for twenty years more than Lords debates for the next five years He thus almost survived to see the might otherwise have been the case. or so. His style was to be brief and end of the political party in which concepts to the point. Many of his interven- he had spent the overwhelming of sound David Dutton has written histories of the tions seemed designed to hold back majority of his career. The National Liberal and Liberal National Parties and the mounting tide of permissive Liberal Council was wound up on finance, contributes regularly to the Journal of and liberal reform. At the end of 14 May 1968 and its accumulated Liberal History. one short speech on the Common- funds were transferred to the Con- small budg- wealth Immigration Bill of 1962 – servatives. For all of that career, 1 Manchester Guardian, 26 Nov. 1926. which proved in fact to be his last however, he had borne the title of ets and 2 Kerr to Arthur Brampton, president parliamentary performance – he ‘Liberal’ in one guise or another. of the National Liberal Federation, 30 declared: ‘As your Lordships know, His case prompts several con- limited Apr. 1931; Manchester Guardian, 9 May I never speak for long: I always just clusions. The Liberal Party which 1931. state my case and then sit down, Teviot joined after the First World government. 3 Manchester Guardian, 9 May 1931. which I am going to do now.’28 His War was an extremely broad 4 The full result was: Kerr (Lib Nat) brevity could at times be his undo- church, containing both radicals 7,963; T. Kennedy (Lab) 7,030; ing, with his bald and unadorned who moved easily towards Labour D. Emslie (Scot Nat) 1,996. Kerr statements leaving him open to and traditionalists who found much increased his majority to 8,566 in the criticism or ridicule. In 1960, in a that was congenial in the Conserva- general election of 1935 in a straight debate on crime and punishment, tive Party of Stanley Baldwin, and fight with Labour. he asked the Lords to consider the its internal cohesion and unity were 5 House of Commons Debates, 5th possibility of making the death pen- under severe strain long before the Series, vol. 269, cols. 858–61. The alty match the actual crime that had final parting of the ways in 1931–2. leader of the Liberal Party, Herbert been committed. This, he argued, Teviot’s ‘liberalism’, such as it was, Samuel, welcomed Kerr as a ‘personal would serve as a real deterrent.29 But related largely to concepts of sound friend’, regretting only that he was Lord Chorley, who spoke immedi- finance, small budgets and limited not ‘in even closer political associa- ately after Teviot, found his words government. Towards the end of the tion than is the case as yet’. Ibid., col. ‘really quite fantastic’. Was it seri- Second World War he was criticised 861. ously being proposed that a killer for his warnings about the size of 6 M. Pottle, ‘Charles Iain Kerr, first found guilty of murder by stab- the nation’s budget, even though it Baron Teviot’ in Oxford Dictionary bing should himself be stabbed? Did was difficult to see how this could be of National Biography, vol. 31 (OUP, Teviot truly believe that any public avoided in the context of the global 2004), p. 411. executioner could be found, pre- conflict. ‘The progressive increase 7 Manchester Guardian, 28 May 1938. pared to carry out such a sentence?30 in the Budget’, insisted The Times, 8 Ibid. But it was in a debate following ‘twice accelerated by world wars 9 The Times, 28 May 1938. the trial of Penguin Books for the in which the State itself is necessar- 10 Manchester Guardian, 31 May 1938. publication of D. H. Lawrence’s ily the great consumer and spender, 11 R. Griffiths,Patriotism Perverted: Cap- celebrated novel, Lady Chatterley’s is the mark of an inevitable evolu- tain Ramsay, the Right Club and British Lover, in 1960, that Teviot gave tion.’ These ‘formidable totals’ rep- Anti-Semitism 1939–40 (Constable, full vent to his reactionary views. resented ‘a redistribution’.34 Teviot 1998), pp. 83–5. He was appalled by the jury’s deci- did not live long enough to see such 12 M. Pugh, ‘Hurrah for the Blackshirts!’ sion that the publishers should go thinking as that put forward by The Fascists and Fascism in Britain between unpunished. The book was a ‘dis- Times challenged by the New Right the Wars (Pimlico, 2006), p. 281. gusting, filthy affront to ordinary of the 1970s and 1980s. 13 The Fascist, June 1939, cited in Grif- decencies’, ‘far worse than anything On social matters, the major- fiths,Patriotism Perverted, p. 149. that I could possibly have thought ity of his views were conservative, 14 The Times, 7 Aug. 1940. could be published in this coun- reactionary even, if not necessar- 15 Ibid., 25 Mar. 1943. try’.31 Its portrayal of sexual love ily Conservative. After one par- 16 Ibid.. 14 Aug. 1943. and emotions disgusted him, for if ticularly blimpish speech in the 17 Bodleian Library, Oxford, Conserva- love ‘is abused it seems to me that it House of Lords in which he had tive Party Archive, CCO 3/1/64, becomes the work of Satan, inde- railed against unaccountable tel- notes of meeting at 24 Old Queen cent and quite dreadful’.32 For good evision ‘personalities’ who inter- Street, 21 Mar. 1946. measure Teviot used the occasion viewed senior Cabinet ministers 18 Bodleian Library, Oxford, Woolton to condemn the Wolfenden Report on programmes such as Panorama MSS 21, fos. 52–3, memorandum of of 1957, which had recommended and called for more governmental conversation with Teviot and Wil- the legalisation of homosexual acts control of such activities, the mav- liam Mabane 25 Oct. 1946. between consenting adults – ‘to erick Tory peer, Lord Boothby, which I equally take the greatest interjected, ‘And the noble Lord is concluded on page 27

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 19 The Liberal Electoral Agent in the Post-Reform-Act Era

Following the Great Reform Bill’s to abolishing rotten and pocket boroughs enactment in 1832, Radicals and Whigs and redistributing parliamentary seats, the had little time to rejoice. With the first Reform Act had created a new, standardised election of a ‘reformed’ parliament scheduled system to replace the disparate collection for December, there was a tremendous of freehold, household, and potwalloper1 need to register all existing and new qualifications for voting. Nancy LoPatin- enfranchised electors according to the new Lummis analyses the activities of the Liberal criteria set forth by the bill. In addition electoral agents in this new era.

20 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 The Liberal Electoral Agent in the Post-Reform-Act Era

hile the historic Registration of existing and the approximately 360,000 electors forty-shilling newly enfranchised borough and that existed in England prior to 1832 freeholders in the county electors was therefore seri- with those who qualified to vote counties did not ous business if the election results under the newly expanded fran- lose their electoral were to be valid. Registration was chise, electoral agents also created Wrights, the old practice of being eli- to be central in securing the return the sometimes even dirtier business gible to vote as a county elector, of candidates from any particular of partisan politics and electioneer- even if the property lay within a party, and all party leaders and their ing in the post-Reform Act era. borough boundary, unless the elec- election managers knew that meet- This paper examines the work tor otherwise qualified for the bor- ing the new criteria and follow- of Joseph Parkes and James Cop- ough franchise, was to come under ing procedures would be the main pock, electoral agents for Whig and scrutiny with the new electoral means of contesting election results Radical candidates in the 1830s and system. on the grounds of legality and cred- 1840s.4 Appearing as solicitors both The new registration standards ibility. Indeed, scholars such as defending and objecting to electoral and their impact on the old ‘open Philip Salmon, Miles Taylor and registrations and votes in dozens of voting system’ – according to cus- John Phillips have shown just how contested elections between 1835 tom and dependent upon residence important electoral registration and 1841, both men helped deliver – were to become among the chief and voting procedure was in the the electors, parliamentary num- causes of litigation arising from the development of nineteenth-century bers and parliamentary votes that registration of newly enfranchised party politics.2 shaped the formation of the nine- electors following the 1832 Reform One of the most significant teenth-century Liberal Party. Their Act. The requirement for proof political roles that emerged from careers demonstrate the expanding of borough residence, in order to the reformation of registration pro- importance of the electoral agent determine whether or not individu- cedures was that of the electoral in parliamentary politics and the als were casting ballots incorrectly agent. The traditional role of the development of national political in boroughs (which had the much agent – of acting on behalf of and parties in the Victorian age. This higher £10 franchise rate), rather doing the local campaign work for a article examines these electoral than in counties, created the oppor- parliamentary candidate – changed agents’ post-1832 work in three tunity to contest elections and their significantly with the new rules of ways: first, the electoral agent’s results on the part of candidates 1832.3 The agent’s role broadened to increasingly critical function in and electors alike. Likewise, many include registration of electors and the registration process; second, freehold boroughs – those whose the funding of those efforts, con- their role as legal agent in contested freemen had ancient rights to vote testing the results of an election if elections – as election solicitor on that were not to be taken away – grounds could be found on which to behalf of both petitioners and seated required proof of pre-1832 electoral challenge an undesirable outcome, members of parliament; and third, status in order to be ‘grandfathered’ and securing the number of voters somewhat by extension, the role of into the new system. This, too, for any particular party based upon election agent as catalyst for politi- raised the possibility of contesting rate-paying and residency mainte- cal public relations and character the outcome of elections. Failure nance. Agents worked with lawyers attacks on political opponents. This to comply with the new require- and emerging national political placed the electoral agent in the role ments of the Reform Act could eas- Election hustings organisations to secure electoral of creating some very anti-dem- ily mean that long-standing electors at Brentford, victories in the sometimes dirty ocratic tones to the new electoral would lose their vote, but continue Middlesex, business of cleaning up the corrupt registration criteria and procedures to cast it at elections, unaware, or in 1840 (Illustrated politics of the pre-Reform Bill era. during a critical transition period in defiance, of the new requirements. London News). In trying to standardise the rights of British political democratisation.

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 21 the liberal electoral agent in the post-reform-act era

To make sense of it all, it is first The means as well as private correspondence for the Reform Association was, necessary to understand exactly between Lord Melbourne8 and him- ‘to see that the Reformers not only what the Great Reform Act did by which self, demonstrated how determined register but defend their own reg- to change the electoral registra- he was to aid the government’s istration and watch the enemy.’10 tion criteria and process. The new electoral efforts to reform parliament by As most estimates of the numbers requirements for county and bor- easing tensions between Grey and voting in the elections after the bill ough registration were exacting: registration the BPU’s leadership, which was indicate that approximately 650,000 voters needed to make certain that talking about preparing an armed votes were cast, the race to regis- their names appeared on the list of would play a insurrection, while simultaneously tration was critical for party con- ratepayers (or, more often, individ- fomenting public support for a bill trol.11 Finding grounds to throw out uals or parties who had an interest critical role which did not go nearly as far as the newly registered electors would be in voter registration made certain) in control- many joining political unions had important in calculating electoral or, if possessors of freeman voting hoped. He appeased all and thus, advantages and parliamentary wins. status prior to reform, they had to ling parlia- made himself a dependable ally and Little would be overlooked as a legal make sure that their name appeared aid to the Whigs. They rewarded opportunity to throw out votes and on the borough’s list of freemen. ment was him for his work in securing the contest elections. By late summer of Proof of poor relief payments bill and reigning in the BPU by 1835, Coppock had moved on to an would also be required by the newly immediately putting him in the role of primary examination of arrears in rate-pay- established deadline of 20 July of Whig electoral agent for the general ing both to defend Whig registra- each year, so that electoral lists apparently election of December 1832, the first tions and contest those among Tory would be complete in early August.5 election under the new criteria of supporters. One of the requirements All new electors were to pay a shil- to those who the Reform Act. of the new registrations process was ling registration fee.6 Parkes well understood that that all rates be paid by 20 July. If The means by which electoral had already the new requirements for electoral there was a balance on these taxes registration would play a criti- registration adopted in 1832 would still due by then, the elector would cal role in controlling parliament established produce many opportunities to get not be included in the lists that were was immediately apparently to reformers elected – and potentially drawn up the first week of August those who had already established careers in as many opportunities for voters and which were at the polls by the careers in electoral management. to be disenfranchised, not by the next election as the official record Joseph Parkes (1796–1863) was a electoral law, but by the contesting of elec- of legal electors. He detailed pro- Birmingham solicitor and com- tion results based on accusations of gress to Parkes, who reported it to mitted Radical with an already manage- non-compliance with the new law. Lord Brougham, Radical leader established law practice in con- ment. Both Parkes and his Tory counter- and member of the Whig govern- tested political elections. Parkes parts were ready to use the new laws ment. ‘If we once allow arrears we contested his first elections in 1826, to their own partisan advantage. shall fall behind your expectations, filing suit in Camelford, Cornwall To this end, he convinced fellow in electoral registration advantage.12 and the Corporation of Warwick, liberal-minded Whigs, Lord Dur- Coppock was diligent in his duties, his birthplace. Demonstrating ham and Edward Ellice, Sr, to help as were his deputies. While there corruption and bribery, his vic- him establish and fund the Reform is mention of additional staff, par- tory in setting aside the election of Association in 1834. The associa- ticularly in reference to going out Warwick’s mayor on corruption tion’s leaders would hire agents to to electoral boroughs for registra- charges, earned him a reputation.7 register new electors according to tion and canvassing, in the corre- This success, as well as his political the law. It would also retain solici- spondence between the men, there links to London’s Benthamite Radi- tors to contest registrations from is no specific evidence indicating cals, brought him to the attention of Tory electors if, after research, there how many men were employed by Whig leaders. He was a pragmatic proved to any violation of new pro- the Reform Association, or even reformer in Birmingham at the cedures, including discrepancies of how many the membership dues time when Thomas Attwood was residency requirements, delinquent could likely have supported. Parkes organising the Birmingham Politi- rate-paying or missed registration himself overlooked the account- cal Union in 1830 and he launched deadlines. The association would ing and found that ‘all outstanding a new extra-parliamentary reform also, through its membership funds, arrears be paid and pro rata pay- campaign that gained popular sup- pay for legal representation for ments made.’13 Registration num- port and a following throughout Whig and Radical registrants who bers vary from study to study, but the Reform Bill debates. During the faced similar court objections by Salmon has calculated that electoral most heated days of the agitation Tory opponents. registrations between 1832 and 1835 for the bill’s passage, in May 1832, The Reform Association office increased by between 10–20 per Parkes played a critical role in liais- opened in Cleveland Row in 1834. cent.14 ing between the Whig government Hired to manage the association, In addition to criteria for elec- and the BPU to maintain peace and ‘fixed at the top of the House’ with toral registration, the Reform cooperation between parliament a £300 pound a year salary, was a Act also created a number of new, and the political unions so as to ease Radical solicitor, James Coppock standardised mechanisms for chal- fears of revolution and secure the (1798–1857). A partner in the firm lenging registrations. Election pro- continued support of the king in Blunt, Coppock, Barnes & Ellis, cedure could be deemed violated for pressuring the House of Lords to he soon joined Parkes and others failing to change the address of an support the bill. His articles in The in the fairly limited field of elec- elector from one rental to the next, Times and the Morning Chronicle, tion law.9 His chief responsibility or if there was a failure to pay the

22 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 the liberal electoral agent in the post-reform-act era entirety of rates owed, by the pre- had been brought into the case on by-election. Parkes not only secured scribed date. Furthermore, the new behalf of Parkes. Parkes had served a new election for his Warwickshire law required that all claims would the previous Stamford MP, Charles petitioner clients, however, but also be found in favour of the accuser, Tennyson D’Enycourt as an agent shaped the Warwick Borough Bill. and therefore disqualify electors, since 1830. Gregory had worked Modelled, in part, after the East whether or not the grounds were for Tennyson D’Enycourt and been Retford Bill, this measure expanded legitimate, if the registrant did not handpicked to succeed him at Stam- the borough’s boundaries. Warwick appear in person to defend his reg- ford when the latter moved on to a was to be extended to include the istration.15 The government estab- seat in Lambeth.17 While Gregory £10 householders of Leamington lished revision courts and each attempted to prove a number of Spa, a point specifically referred to defending registrant would now be registrations invalid, thereby nul- in the parliamentary debate against required to prove his qualifications lifying several votes, the court it.20 before a revising barrister in a court deemed there to be no viable proof. Coppock himself would describe session held in September–October. The court dismissed oral testimony that particular case, and many oth- The objector could either appear in on the basis that revenge and per- ers, in his sworn testimony before person or have an agent appear on sonal animus might have tainted the the Select Committee hearings in his behalf, and was not required to testimony. Gregory lost his court 1837. Warwick was an example of prove disqualification. This meant, complaint. how access to money corrupted in practice, that the law intended The most notorious contested both the election and the access to to disqualify voters rather than risk election of 1833, however, took justice. Contesting elections were greater inclusion among potential place in Warwick. Parkes success- expensive, he argued. It ‘gener- electors. There was also the finan- fully exposed the malfeasance of the ally employ[ed] two counsels, fre- cial burden of retaining agents and Earl of Warwick in the election of quently three [for the defence], … solicitors to go to court to defend his brother, Sir Charles Greville and and have retained four on the side one’s qualification to vote against another Tory candidate, Edward of the petitioners …’.21 Electoral an objection, whether merited or Bolton King in the December 1832 agents rarely had the luxury of such frivolous. general election. Parkes petitioned cash reserves to hire the legal team As a result, the contested elec- on behalf of William Collins, Whig necessary to contest an election, tion became a growing phenom- candidate, exposing bribery, treat- even with just cause. What he did enon over the ‘decade of reform’ ing, illegal payment of rates and not report, but was indeed happen- – and at the centre of the emerging lack of residency as reasons to throw ing, was that the Reform Club was legal battlefield of electoral registra- out the election results in favour of The con- also raising money from members tion and revising courts was James Collins.18 The evidence was com- to cover the legal costs of contested Coppock. As he testified before pelling. Several men testified to tested elec- elections as well as the costs of regis- the parliamentary Select Com- outright bribes, exchange of prop- tion became tering electors.22 mittee on Controverted Elections erty for votes and threats that were A scandal that required even the on 7 May 1838, his own career in made on behalf of Warwick by his a growing legal opinion of Chancellor Lord election work involved his role steward and others, threatening ten- Brougham to resolve, the War- as an electoral agent and a solici- ants and Corporation of Warwick phenom- wick case did two things. First, it tor contesting elections before the members if they did not vote as he persuaded the Whigs to secure the court on the grounds of opponents desired. The court case received enon over appointment of Joseph Parkes as violating the new (post-1832) reg- attention in the Morning Chronicle the secretary for the new Parlia- istration requirements. He worked and The Times, no doubt arranged the ‘decade mentary Commission on Munici- with Joseph Parkes on contesting by Parkes himself. The Times notice pal Reform. Secondly, it prompted election results immediately after would draw the attention of a large of reform’ them to organise their efforts to the December 1832 general elec- Tory readership to the corruption contest elections even more care- tion.16 Indeed, between 1832 and openly practised among Tory cor- – and at the fully. To that end, Coppock moved 1837, Coppock was an agent, either porations, undermining opposition into position of the lead solicitor for by himself or working alongside to the mounting body of evidence centre of the newly created Reform Club, Parkes, for more than twenty-one in support of a municipal reform which replaced the old Reform challenges to election results. In measure, being drafted by Parkes, the emerg- Association. Parkes relied on the some cases where he was the peti- to dismantle corruption and abuse political influence and economic tioner’s agent, he sought to present of electoral authority; while the ing legal contributions of the recently evidence not just that those regis- Morning Chronicle’s Whig and Radi- returned Edward Ellice and E. J. tered were not entitled to the vote, cal-leaning readers were given more battlefield Stanley, and the Reform Club, built but that votes had been bought ammunition in favour of municipal of electoral in Pall Mall, was formed.23 An early either through bribery or illegal reform. club registry reported one thousand treating. A parliamentary committee registration regular members and 250 MPs.24 The first of these cases took place agreed, ‘the earl of Warwick did The Whig aristocrat Lord Durham, in Stamford where the Whig candi- unconstitutionally apply … by and revis- a former member of the govern- date, Captain Gregory, was seeking, his agent and steward … £3000 ment’s Committee of Four who based upon incorrect registration and upwards towards the election ing courts drafted the 1832 Reform Bill, was procedure, to throw out votes so expenditure, and promotion of the the most vocal supporter of radical as to overturn his electoral loss to political interest of the candidate was James parliamentary reform, and claimed the Tory candidates Lt Col. Chap- …’.19 The election was nullified and much of the credit for the success of lin and George Finch. Coppock two Whigs were returned in an 1833 Coppock. the club. ‘… [Y]ou will remember

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 23 the liberal electoral agent in the post-reform-act era this time last year,’ he wrote to votes cast, it did not seem to change into which no inquiry was Parkes, ‘how I pressed the vital the outcome, with Pohill and Craw- permitted.32 necessity of it, and of a Registration ley returned. It does, however, indi- Committee. How well the latter cate how much was at stake, with As a result, contesting elections worked is proved by the Municipal the total number of registered elec- became more partisan, heated, and Elections, and I am confident that tors in Bedford being 857 and the frequent. In 1837, Parkes partici- out of the club will arise, at least if votes counted listed at 834.29 Chal- pated in contesting the election in it is well managed, such organisa- lenging registrations and qualifica- Petersfield (disqualifying an elec- tion and concentration as will set tions through the legal system could tor who did not meet residency all Tory measures at defiance.’25 negate enough votes to change the requirements) which resulted in a The new club became the social outcome of a closely fought elec- victory for his client, the petitioner. and negotiating site for Whigs and tion. As a result, the solicitors with- Here, Cornthwaite, the petitioner, Radicals. The dues were used, in drew cases, failing to provide the contested the vote of Richard Legg part, to pay the salaries of Coppock numbers to change the outcome, who had been declared eligible to and others, as well as registration, though not before Parkes and Cop- vote by virtue of ‘a barn, stable, election and court costs for contest- pock raised significant doubts in outhouses and twenty acres of land’, ing elections. With Parkes working court before the reforming barris- although sworn testimony by a wit- on new reform legislation, Cop- ters and prompted further scrutiny ness, Thomas Tigg, argued that he pock took the lead role in contest- of the local registration agents and was not a resident of that or any ing numerous electoral cases – the the complicity of the candidates land. The testimony negated the second critical outcome of the War- involved.30 revising barrister’s determination wick case. In the 1837 and 1839 general elec- and the contested vote was enough After the general election of tions, Coppock spent more time to allow the Whig candidate, John 1835, Coppock assisted Parkes in defending sitting members against Hector, to be returned to parlia- petitioning on behalf of Freder- petitioners than in representing ment.33 He also defended Joseph ick Villiers against sitting member petitioners or defeated candidates. Brotherton, the sitting member Stephen Rumbold Lushington in This represented a change in how for Salford, against an elector who Canterbury. Deputies for Villiers the contested election was being mistakenly was recorded in the poll contended that sheriff deputies used. Having made significant books.34 A supporter of Tory can- had interfered with access to the headway in ending some of the didate William Garnett claimed polls for legally registered elec- abuses at the local level through the that unqualified electors had voted tors.26 While the case was originally payment of rates on behalf of poten- and that Brotherton had engaged delayed in order to accumulate evi- tial voters and qualifying non-res- in bribery and treating.35 Brother- dence, it was eventually resolved idents to vote (thanks to Parkes’s The new club ton counter-claimed that several that any electors turned away from work on the 1835 Municipal Cor- became the voters for Garnett were wrongly the polls had legally been rejected porations Act), agents like Coppock on the register. As the vote was 890 as having received parochial relief found that defending clients against social and to 888, any success in throwing out or recently changing their residen- accusations of bribery ‘having been votes would be critical. The court cies, and Lushington won with a conducted by local subscriptions, or negotiating determined that charges against nineteen to nine vote.27 Coppock’s by the large contributions of three Brotherton were unfounded and the own publication on electors’ rights or four active leading individuals site for Whigs election results confirmed. clearly stipulated that occupiers of of the local parties, was common.’31 It was not, however, always £10 residencies needed to reside in This was true whether the accusers and Radicals. good news for Parkes. He lost a their borough or within seven miles won or lost the election. petition brought in Woodstock on of it for ‘six months previous to 31st The dues behalf of Whig candidate, Lord July in each year’ and that all elec- If the defeated candidate present Charles S. Churchill, objecting to tors ‘rated to the poor for twelve a petition against the return of were used, in the residency of a number of elec- months previous to the 31 July in his successful opponent, and sim- tors and the insufficient value of a each year.’28 ply pray that the Election may be part, to pay number of properties belonging In the Bedford borough election, adjudged to be a void Election on to electors who had polled for the Coppock and Parkes represented a the ground of Bribery and Cor- the salaries Tory candidate, Henry Peyton. petition from the electors on behalf ruption, but do not ask for the The latter had been elected with of Whig candidates Samuel Craw- seat, he many unseat his oppo- of Coppock 126 votes to Churchill’s 117 – a total ley and W. H. Whitbread, who had nent, and render him incapable of 233 votes out of 330 registered come in second and third in the of being again returned; but as and others, electors.36 Peyton was confirmed, election, with the Tory candidate, he himself does not pray for the as well as however, only to vacate the seat in Captain Frederick Pohill, defeating seat, it has in some instances been January 1838 for the Tory Marquess them both, 490 votes to 408 and 383, determined that a case of retali- registration, of Blandord.37 respectively. The petition alleged ation cannot be entered into as Coppock served as agent for a that many of the voters were neither respects the Petitioner by the election and petitioner against sitting MP John freemen nor residents of Bedford. sitting Member. Thus the Peti- Minet Fector in Maidstone and The revising barristers, finding evi- tioner, though equally guilty, court costs assisted Parkes with a victory in dence to corroborate this, and in the may again propose himself and Walsall, reversing the election on absence of many of those accused of be returned in consequence of for contest- the basis of failed residency require- malfeasance, disqualified these vot- the very Bribery practiced at ments and a lack of witnesses to ers. While this negated many of the the preceding Election, and ing elections. defend votes for the Tory candidate.

24 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 the liberal electoral agent in the post-reform-act era

He also assisted Parkes with a con- Large and witnesses, collecting evidence and not pay a thing. With such financial test, albeit a losing one, in Devizes, filing legal papers. What is clear, constraints, Coppock negotiated alleging that bribes were paid – in small bor- though, is that the costs of carry- a deal with local political leaders the form of payment of rates – on ing out such tasks were paid for and electors that if they defended behalf of the sitting member, Cap- oughs alike, from the Reform Club treasury Vivian against any charges, or con- tain James Whitley Deans Dun- – the coffers filled by club sub- vinced the petitioner to drop them, das.38 In Evesham, where a petition whether scriptions, patron donations or he would have Plumridge resign against George Pushout Bowles and supporters’ ‘fundraising’ efforts. from the seat in Penryn in favour of P. Borthwick alleged bribery and with high Coppock wrote to Lord Broughton a safer seat in another borough that treating – specifically that Borth- in September 1837, concerning the would be easier to defend against wick gave a voter named Ebenezer electoral sums necessary for registration any future contests. The Reform Pearce, a silver snuffbox worth £7. turnout or expenses in Ipswich and urging an Club would handle costs to pursue 5s. 6d., and paid the rent arrears for infusion of money before accounts the new seat, to be determined dur- one Joseph Clement, amounting low, saw ran dry.41 He reminded him that all ing the next general election and to £36. 6s. – bribery charges were Whig and Radical leaders needed when an accounting of safe open dismissed against Borthwick, but challenges to to donate funds to handle the costs seats took place. When Coppock maintained against Bowles. Hill, not just of registrations but also of informed Plumridge of the arrange- the Tory candidate, was returned the returned legal proceedings when elections ment approved by national leaders with Borthwick.39 were contested. The Reform Club in the Reform Club, the candidate Coppock also did some work candidates, was the social and political tool for was both surprised and unhappy. for Sir John Hobhouse concern- raising support, both financial and He felt that his political opportuni- ing the election of Liberal parlia- spurred by electoral, for the Whigs and Liber- ties were lost and he would be ‘left mentary candidates in the next als. While its role would gradually out in the lurch.’44 election. Clearly, this was through principle, shift to that of a social and dining Coppock argued that his inves- the Reform Club and concerned club exclusively, it did so only as tigation revealed another story. Coppock’s knowledge of the ques- law, or politi- the mechanics of national party He testified before the Commit- tionable political influences of organisation took shape.42 During tee that Plumridge only stood for the bishopric on county residents cal necessity. the 1830s, the political necessities of Penryn at the request of voters and throughout Lincoln.40 In most of registering electors, paying for can- that, upon his agreement to stand, these cases, minimal court evidence It was the didates to stand and then the costs of the candidate had told all present in was presented and there is little to litigation, made the financial dona- the committee room that he ‘would indicate how the decisions by the role of the tions of liberal-minded politicians not pay a single sixpence’ to do registration courts were reached, electoral a critical tool in achieving elec- so.45 Coppock determined that he though they were apparently toral majorities at the national and had been challenged because the accepted by all parties involved. agent, how- municipal levels. petitioners believed that he would While individually, these con- Money was certainly a consid- not defend his seat because of the tests might appear insignificant, in ever good or eration in one of the most com- costs involved. Coppock estimated that the litigation was not always plex and interesting cases in which that £4000 had already been spent effective in changing the outcomes bad the case, Coppock acted. This took place by Liberals on the election, a good of the elections or forcing local elec- during the 1839 general election and many financial promises made toral registrants and revising barris- to pursue resulted in his testimony before the for votes, but none by Plumridge ters to take greater care in following Parliamentary Select Committee himself.46 the letter of the law and so secur- challenges on Bribery and Corruption on 6 Coppock and Compton Reade ing clean elections, they did take July 1842. During the general elec- (who, though not a parliamentary their toll. As both sides experienced in order tion of 1839, Captain James Hanway agent, represented John White the expense of defending corrupt Plumridge was returned as MP for Dixon, the petitioner, in the legal practices and pursuing allegations to secure Penryn and Falmouth. A petition negotiations) ultimately achieved a that were sometimes accurate and was brought against his election. resolution. The petition would be sometimes fraudulent, the numbers greater In this case, a single elector charged withdrawn against Plumridge if he of contested elections increased by Plumridge and Captain Vivian, the agreed to retire on 1 July 1842 and 20–30 per cent (depending upon numbers in other Whig candidate, with bribery not stand again or oppose anyone location) in the 1830s, with a spike and a lack of qualification. Coppock brought in to stand for the seat – at the time of and immediately the House of had not been involved in the elec- presumably Reade’s real client, Mr following the passage of the 1835 Commons. tion and was only retained after Gwyn. (Gwyn had sought the seat Municipal Corporations Act. Large the petition was presented. Rather from the beginning; he had hired and small boroughs alike, whether than face the expense of defending Reade and paid the costs involved with high electoral turnout or low, his seat before the court, Plumridge for John White Dixon to file his saw challenges to the returned can- offered to relinquish the seat to petition against Plumridge in the didates, spurred by principle, law, another Whig/Radical candidate. first place.) Then, Plumridge would or political necessity. It was the In the testimony Plumridge gave be proposed for appointment as role of the electoral agent, however to the Select Committee, Coppock Crown Steward and Bailiff of the good or bad the case, to pursue chal- rejected the offer, saying ‘that is out Chiltern Hundreds, a government lenges in order to secure greater of the question [as] yours in a good post that would save face for the numbers in the House of Commons. seat …’. 43 But Coppock also could Whigs and be, comparatively speak- There is little evidence as to how not defend the seat without money ing, a less expensive resolution to Coppock went about interviewing and Plumridge declared he would the problem. This was agreed upon

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 25 the liberal electoral agent in the post-reform-act era and Plumridge was duly elected for The electoral from the poor man the possibility of Dr Nancy LoPatin-Lummis is Profes- Penryn without the expense of the petitioning.’49 Long after, however, sor of Modern British History and chair court proceedings. agent was Coppock still dabbled in the busi- of the History Department at University However, when the resigna- ness of electoral agency, and John of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. She is the tion was due to happen, Plumridge turning into Bright discussed with Parkes, as author of Political Unions, Popular evidently decided he must not go late as 1857, Coppock’s defence of a Politics and the Great Reform Act through with it, though there is no more than Rochdale MP’s contested election.50 of 1832 and articles on parliamentary explanation as to why not. Plum- Parkes and Coppock’s career and popular political history in Jour- ridge told Coppock in no uncertain a campaign in the increasingly partisan world nal of British Studies, Parliamen- terms that whatever deal had been of contested electoral practices tary History, Journal of Victorian struck was, it was non-binding, manager and party politics following the Culture and other journals. She is co- because of its corrupt nature and and public Reform Act of 1832 is a telling general editor of the Lives of Victorian ‘slapdash way of getting rid of a piece of evidence as the age of Political Figures series from Pickering Member of Parliament’.47 Reade relations local politics gave way to national & Chatto and the editor of Public Life testified to the committee that, organisation. New electoral regis- and Public Lives: Essays in Modern while he had negotiated a deal, he agent. They tration requirements made things British Political and Religious His- believed that he had proved his uniform, but also provided the tory in Honor of Richard W. Davis. case of bribery, though he refused were turning means of a different kind of par- to state before the committee with tisan ‘influence’. Placing the bur- 1 Potwalloper was the term used to what evidence he had done so. into litiga- den of defence on the candidate describe those with the vote as the While treating undoubtedly took or elector accused, perhaps quite head of a household with a large place, no personal actions by Plum- tors, sensing falsely, of non-compliance with pot or cauldron. The 1832 Reform ridge or his agents constituted a the new rules, certainly did not Act redefined this archaic notion of bribe offered. Plumridge kept his where courts further the advancement of politi- household elector. seat and Coppock’s reputation was cal democracy in British parlia- 2 Philip Salmon, Electoral Reform at called into question, as was the could be mentary politics, New criteria for Work: Local Politics and National Par- work of the Reform Club. The new electoral qualification and regis- ties, 1832–1841 (Boydell, 2002); Philip age of the election solicitor was utilised to tration opened the door for votes Salmon, ‘Local Politics and Par- investigated more thoroughly than and election outcomes being con- tisanship: The electoral impact of ever before. overturn an tested on the basis of both corrup- Municipal Reform, 1835’ Parliamen- The upshot of this incident and unsuccess- tion and an ignorance of the rules. tary History, xix, 2000; John Phillips, the Select Parliamentary Commis- Non-compliance, whether mali- The Great Reform Bill in the Boroughs: sion’s inquiry was a change in activ- ful electoral cious or not, could, however, be English Electoral Behaviour, 1818–1841 ity for both Coppock and Parkes. significant in the successful return (Clarendon Press, 1992); John Phil- Alhough neither gave up the work outcome. or a candidate. The successful lips, ‘The Many Faces of Reform: entirely, the frequency of their return of Whig and Liberal elec- The Reform Bill and the Electorate’, court appearances declined. Cop- tors meant having watchful eyes Parliamentary History, i, 1982; John pock continued on as secretary for and full coffers to take matters to Phillips and Charles Wetherell, ‘The the Reform Club and still handled court, whether as the plaintiff or Great Reform Act of 1832 and the legal work, but increasingly in civil the defendant. The electoral agent Political Modernization of England’, law, rather than electoral law. In was turning into more than a cam- American Historical Review, c, 1995; 1840, he gave testimony to guide paign manager and public relations Miles Taylor, ‘Interest, Parties and parliament in drafting the bill for agent. They were turning into liti- the State: The Urban Electorate in the Trial of Controvert Elections. gators, sensing where courts could England, c. 1820–72’, in Lawrence His concerns about ‘frivolous affi- be utilised to overturn an unsuc- and Taylor (ed.), Party, State and Soci- davits and recognizances,’ along cessful electoral outcome, publi- ety: Electoral Behaviour in Britain since with counter-affidavits without cally embarrass a candidate, reveal 1820 (Scolar Press, 1997). review, were clearly presented. corruption and bribery amongst 3 For the role of the electoral agent, see He testified that, for corrupt prac- a witting electorate, and move, E. A. Smith, ‘The Election Agent in tices to be halted, ‘MPs would find when necessary, weaker candi- English Politics, 1734–1832’, English accusations against sitting Mem- dates into safer seats or appoint- Historical Review, lxxxiv, 1969; D. L. bers more credible … if petitions ments, looking to secure future Rydz, The Parliamentary Agents: A withstood examination and were elections with other Whigs and History (Royal Historical Society, not thrown out as frivolous and Liberals. While the Reform Act 1979); Nancy LoPatin-Lummis, vexatious.’48 However, he strongly of 1832 sought to clean up politics ‘“With All My Oldest and Native objected to petitioners bearing from abuse and corruption, the Friends”. Joseph Parkes, Warwick- the financial burden of contesting early electoral outcomes presented shire Solicitor and Electoral Agent in elections, however egregious the new and different challenges to the Age of Reform’, in Nancy LoPatin- violation of the law. The bill’s pro- reform of parliamentary politics. Lummis (ed.), Public Life and Public posal that petitioners be required But if anyone tried to reconcile the Lives: Politics and Religion in Modern to deposit £1,000 in the Bank of political, ideological and partisan British History (Wiley-Blackwell, England to secure the costs of hir- with truth in electioneering at the 2008); Nancy LoPatin-Lummis, ing solicitors and paying the court birth of the Liberal Party, it was ‘Joseph Parkes, Electioneering and costs for contesting an election those new election agents/solici- Corruption in Post-Reform Bill was wholly rejected by him on the tors, epitomised by Joseph Parkes Elections’, Proceedings: The Consor- grounds that ‘you would take away and James Coppock. tium on Revolutionary Europe 1750–1850,

26 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 the liberal electoral agent in the post-reform-act era

Selected Papers, 2006, ed. Frederick 12 Brougham MSS, 20,959, Parkes March 1836. 37 Falconer and Fitzherbert, Cases of C. Schneid and Denise Davidson to Brougham, 28 September 25 Ibid., Durham to Parkes, 20 Controverted Elections. (High Point University Press, 1833. March 1836. 38 Ibid. 2007). 13 Parkes MSS, Parkes to W. Hutt, 26 Jerome William Knapp and 39 Ibid. 4 Coppock has received almost no M.P. (copy enclosed to Lord Edward Ombler, Cases of Con- 40 Hobhouse MSS British Library historical attention. There is the Stanley), 19 August 1838. verted Elections in the Twelfth Par- Add MSS, 36,471, f. 379, Cop- Dictionary of National Biography 14 Salmon, Electoral Reform Act liament of the United Kingdom; pock to Hobhouse, 14 March written by Albert Nicholson, Work, p. 22. This revises esti- Being the Second since the Passing of 1838. revised by H. C. G. Matthew in mates previously offered by Acts for the Amendment of the Rep- 41 Broughton MSS, British Library 2004 (http://www.oxforddnb. Michael Brock, The Great Reform resentation of the People (London: Add MSS 36,472, f. 81, Coppock com/view/article/6279), but lit- Act (HarperCollins Publish- 1837). to Broughton, 21 September tle more than a mention in other ers Ltd, 1973), p. 312 and Frank 27 Henry Stooks Smith, Register of 1837. historical works. The one work O’Gorman, Voters, Patrons and Parliamentary Contested Elections 42 For more on this, see my arti- published by the man himself Parties, The Unreformed of Hano- (2nd edn., Simpkin, Marshall & cle, ‘The Reform Club and the was a manual of electors’ rights, verian England, 1734–1832 (Claren- Co., 1842), p. 29. creation of the Liberal Party’ in The Electors Manual of Plain Direc- don Press, 1989), p. 179. 28 Coppock, The Electors Manual, p. a forthcoming special edition of tion by Which Every Man May 15 2 Will. IV c. 45, 729–738. 12. the journal Parliamentary History. Know His Own Rights and Reser- 16 Minutes of Evidence taken 29 Stooks Smith, Register of Parlia- 43 Reports from Select Committees on vations (Finsbury Reform Club, before the Select Committee mentary Contested Elections, p. 7 Controverted Elections, p. 727. 1835). on Election Petitions Recogni- 30 Reports from Select Committees on 44 Ibid., p. 728. 5 2 Will. IV c. 45, 738, clause 56; see zances, Reports from Select Com- Controverted Elections, p. 468. 45 Ibid., p. 723. Salmon, Electoral Reform at Work, mittees on Controverted Elections, p. 31 Coppock, The Electors Manual, 46 There is nothing to suggest how pp. 20–25. 541. pp. 12–13. Coppock arrived at this figure 6 2 Will. IV c. 45, 729–738. 17 Henry James Perry and Jerome 32 Ibid. in his testimony before the select 7 See Joseph Parkes, The Governing William Knapp, Cases of Con- 33 Reports from Select Committees on committee, but his fundraising Charter of the Borough of Warwick, verted Elections in the Eleventh Controverted Elections, p. 725. efforts within the Reform Club, 5 William and Mary, 18 March 1694, Parliament of the United Kingdom; 34 Thomas Falconer and Edward as well as Parkes’s nervousness with a Letter to the Burgesses on the Being the First since the Passing of Fitzherbert, Cases of Controverted about the state of funding and Past and Present State of the Corpo- Acts for the Amendment of the Rep- Elections, Determined in Commit- correspondence with Ellice and ration (Birmingham, 1827). resentation of the People (J. & W. T. tees of the House of Commons in others, render the hefty amount 8 The Parkes and Melbourne Clarke, 1833). the Second Parliament of the Reign plausible. manuscripts reveal a few signifi- 18 For a detailed assessment of of Queen Victoria (Saunders and 47 Reports from Select Committees on cant letters in May 1832 between this particular case in Warwick Benning, 1839). Controverted Elections, p. 728. the men, discussing ways in and its impact on both electoral 35 Willliam Wardell Bean, Par- 48 Minutes of Evidence take before which the BPU’s actions could practice and the beginnings of liamentary Representation of Six the Select Committee on Elec- be softened. See Parkes MSS, Municipal Corporation Reform, Northern Counties of England from tion Petitions Recognizances, University College London and in which Parkes played a part as 1603 to 1886 (C. H. Bamwell, Reports from Select Committees on Melbourne MSS, British Library. Secretary to the Select Parlia- 1890), p. 435. Controverted Elections, p. 541. 9 Minutes of Evidence, 9 March mentary Municipal Corporation 36 William Retlaw Williams, Par- 49 Ibid. 1840, in Reports from Select Com- Reform Commission, see my liamentary History of the County of 50 Parkes MSS, Folder 8, Bright to mittees on Controverted Elections article ‘“With All My Oldest and Oxford including the City and Uni- Parkes, 26 June 1857. and on Election Proceedings and Native Friends”. Joseph Parkes, versity (Brecknock, 1899), p. 225. Expenses: With Minutes of Evidence Warwickshire Solicitor and Elec- and Appendices, 1834–44 (Irish toral Agent in Age of Reform,’ in University Press Series of British Nancy LoPatin-Lummis (ed.), Parliamentary Papers, Govern- Public Life and Public Lives: Politics Liberal National Leader: Charles Kerr, Lord Teviot ment, Elections, 2; Irish Aca- and Religion in Modern British His- Continued from page 19 demic Press, 1970), p. 558. tory, p. 96–108. 10 Parkes MSS, Parkes to Durham, 19 Annual Register, (1833), ch. VIII, 19 Conservative Party Archive, 25 National Library of Wales, 21 July 1835. For more details on pp. 211–12. CCO 3/1/63, Col. P. J. Blair to Davies MSS, J/3/58, Teviot to the creation of the Reform Club, 20 Parliamentary Papers (1833), IV, Sir Arthur Young 15 Jun. 1949. Davies, 4 Oct. 1951. see the Parkes MSS throughout pp. 633–4; XI, p. 197; The Times, For more details of the evolution 26 Woolton MSS 21, fo. 116, Teviot second half of 1835; Tennyson 6 August, 1834, p. 3. of the Woolton–Teviot agree- to Woolton, 19 Sep. 1950. MSS, TED H/31/14, Parkes 21 Reports from Select Committees on ment, see D. Dutton, Liberals in 27 Teviot and J. Maclay to The to Tennyson, 20 June 1835; Controverted Elections, p. 469. Schism: A History of the National Times, 7 Jun. 1955. Parkes MSS, University Col- 22 This was certainly the case in Liberal Party (I.B.Tauris, 2008), 28 House of Lords Debates, vol. 238, lege Library, Parkes to Stanley, Warwick. Parkes directly asked pp. 157–66. col. 63. 14 October 1835; Durham MSS, Edward Ellice, who in turn 20 Bodleian Library, Oxford, 29 Ibid., vol. 225, cols. 473–4. Lambton Castle, Memorandum raised the funds with Lord Dur- Simon MSS 98, fos. 6–7, Teviot 30 Ibid., col. 475. by Molesworth on the Forma- ham, for a £1,000 to cover court to Simon, 27 Jul. 1949. 31 Ibid., vol. 227, col. 530. tion of the Reform Club, 7 Feb- costs. Lambton MSS, Parkes to 21 Ibid. 32 Ibid., col. 529. ruary 1836. Ellice, 15 April 1834. 22 Ibid., fos. 3–5, Simon to Teviot, 33 Ibid., col. 528. 11 Philips and Wetherall, ‘The 23 Ibid., Parkes to Durham, 9 26 Jul. 1949. 34 The Times, 26 Oct. 1944. Great Reform Act and the March 1836. 23 The party formally changed its 35 House of Lords Debates, vol. 216, Modernization of England’, pp. 24 Ibid., Parkes to Durham, 2 Feb- name to National Liberal in 1948. cols. 601–2. 413–14. ruary 1836; Parkes to Durham, 1 24 The Times, 19 Nov. 1949.

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 27 THE KING OF SHOWLAND Pat collins, LIBERAL MP FOR WALSALL

Graham Lippiatt tells the story of Pat Collins, King of Showland, entertainment entrepreneur – and Liberal MP for Walsall from 1922 to 1924. As this uncommon, flamboyant and colourful man stated in a summary of his life’s work and Liberal political philosophy, ‘I am a showman first and a politician second. I am a worker and fighter rather than an orator. There is only one object in my life and that is to see people have fair play.’

28 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 THE KING OF SHOWLAND Pat collins, LIBERAL MP FOR WALSALL

oday’s members of par- amusement caterer, and theatre and go travelling with his family.11 He liament tend to be cinema proprietor. Being a Liberal then embarked on a highly varied drawn from a smaller MP and local government politician working life. He worked on the and smaller constitu- was probably the most boring aspect travelling shows, including a spell ency of full-time politi- of his remarkable life, although as a Boxing Booth fighter.12 At one cians:T people who have studied and Collins was proud of his achieve- time or another he was a farmer, an worked in politics.1 The main routes ment in being the first showman engineering works proprietor and, into the House of Commons seem to to be elected as a member of parlia- from these beginnings, he became be through party or parliamentary ment.3 His name is still remembered involved in the early development jobs or local government party poli- today through the company ‘Pat of steam roundabouts and outdoor tics. The former Cabinet Secretary, Collins Funfairs’, which operates amusements in general. He later Lord Turnbull, has recently char- from Collins’ old stamping ground diversified, playing a role in intro- acterised the route this new breed in the Black Country. At one point ducing and popularising the cinema takes into government as: ‘Leave he was running four separate fairs industry in Britain. He first put on university, lick envelopes at Cen- a week, as well as owning cinemas moving picture shows around the tral Office for a year; then get into and skating rinks.4 On his death year 1900 and ended up operating a think-tank; appointed as a special he was described in World’s Fair fourteen cinema or assorted variety adviser; get into Parliament and by magazine as the Grand Old Man of establishments, including circuses.13 the time you are 38, you have got Showland.5 Pat Collins Ltd was created in 1899, into the Cabinet without touching Collins was born in 1859 on a when Collins established a round the sides of real life …’.2 Professional fairground in Chester,6 the son of of fairs in the Black Country based as the contemporary crop of MPs John Collins, a Roman Catho- on traditional ‘Wakes’ or local holi- may be, what is increasingly miss- lic agricultural labourer of Irish days or from August to October.14 ing from the House of Commons, as descent7 who also worked as a trav- Although he ran his fairs, bioscopes the forum of the nation, is the rich- elling peddler.8 There is a conflict and cinemas across the country, his ness, the breadth and the diversity over his exact date of birth. One main base was in the West Midlands of the world as experienced outside usually reliable source shows Col- and the Black Country. He moved Westminster (other than the almost lins’ date of birth as 5 April 18599 but to Walsall in 1882 and located his obligatory qualifications in the law). both the biography of Collins in the business there. He held Wakes It was not always so, as the story of Oxford Dictionary of National Biogra- fairs in his home base of Bloxwich, Pat Collins, the uncommon, flam- phy and a locally produced biogra- which lies just to the north of Wal- boyant and colourful man, who was phy for the Walsall Local History sall, every August. The world Liberal MP for Walsall from 1922 to Centre give his date of birth as 12 moves on however and, according 1924, demonstrates. May 1859.10 to the Walsall Local History Centre Patrick Collins is best known The young Collins attended website, the location for the fairs is not for his politics at all but as a St Werburgh Catholic School in Pat Collins (1859– now the home of the ASDA super- fairground showman, outdoor Chester but left at the age of ten to 1943) in 1923 market car park.15

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 29 the king of showland: pat collins, liberal mp for walsall

Collins knew how to move with racial and class considerations as world in the provision of enter- much as concerns for social welfare tainment. Traditional attractions and hygiene. One prominent cam- such as wild animals, mummers paigner, George Smith of Coalville and freak shows gave way over the in Leicestershire, compared van years to new thrills such as chairo- and gypsy children to the children planes, dodgem cars, waltzers – a of Africa, complaining that their constant updating to ever speedier camps ‘would disgrace the Souda- and more adventuresome rides. nese’. 23 The measures and the lan- Collins later diversified into cinema guage of their proponents produced and built a picture house to grace his widespread anger throughout the adopted home village of Bloxwich. travelling fraternity. Meetings were This theatre, the Grosvenor, was held among the travellers; a fighting designed by Hickton and Farmer of fund was set up; MPs were lobbied Walsall, in a classical style, and was and showmen, including Pat Col- constructed by J. & F. Wootton. It lins who was elected to the national cost £12,000 and was opened on 11 committee against the bill, were December 1922.16 politicised. The Moveable Dwell- Collins grew to love Walsall and ings Bill did not become law and the its people and he embarked on a travelling community had won a civic and charitable life to the bene- notable victory. Collins had become fit of the town. Collins was a partic- engaged in public campaigning and ular benefactor of the local hospitals in the organisations created to rep- and clinics. He made it his practice resent showpeople and take up the to donate the full takings from one issues which concerned them.24 He night at Bloxwich Wakes in August continued to be active in the Van to the Walsall General Hospital. 17 Dwellers’ Protection Association In 1880 Collins, at the age (VDPA), and later in the Birming- of twenty-one, married seven- ham District Committee of the teen-year-old Flora Ross from VDPA’s successor organisation, the Wrexham.18They had one son, Showmen’s Guild of Great Britain Patrick Ross Collins (1886–1966), and Ireland,25 having been one of known as Young Pat, who car- the guild’s founding members.26 He ried on his father’s business19 and rose to become vice-president of the who followed in his father’s politi- guild at national level after 190027 cal footsteps too. Young Pat was and then served as its president for elected a member of Wallasey an astonishing nineteen years.28 Council, New Brighton Ward in Through these activities, Col- 1921.20 Flora died in 1933, and in lins acquired political and admin- 1934 Collins married his second istrative skills. In the promotion of wife, Clara Mullett, who worked his business, he learned the value of for his company as his secretary and advertising and publicity as well as who was herself the daughter of an developing his flair for razzamatazz. amusements caterer.21 Using a combination of these arts, Collins’ interest in active politics Collins began to deal regularly with probably stems from his involve- local authorities over licences, and ment in the campaign against the the location of fairs and sites for introduction of a bill in 1888 to show people and their equipment. restrict the movement of travelling He learned to handle local residents people, including fairground work- who objected to noisy fairground ers. The bill would have provided rides and who had worries about the for the registration of all move- character of the travellers.29 In this able dwellings, the compulsory way Collins was preparing for his school attendance of all gypsy and career in public and political life, as van dwellers’ children and regula- a future local councillor and mem- tions about the number of people ber of parliament. allowed in a particular living space. In pursuing this career, Collins The local council could authorise an had to overcome the prejudices of officer of the law to enter a van with the age. While there was, of course, a warrant, to inspect the dwelling nothing to stop working-class for sanitation, health and moral Roman Catholics of Irish descent irregularities.22 The proposers of from being active in public life or in the bill regarded travellers, many the Liberal Party in the early twen- of whom were Irish, as the dregs of tieth century, it was quite unusual society and an immoral influence. for Catholics to get elected as Lib- Their campaign was influenced by eral MPs. The strong connection

30 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 the king of showland: pat collins, liberal mp for walsall of the party with the Protestant dissenting tradition is well docu- mented.30 In common with many of their countrymen, many Liber- als were anti-Catholic, a tradition which historians have identified as a building block of British national identity lasting well into the nine- teenth century and beyond.31 After all, the rallying cry against the 1902 Education Act, led by the Liberal Party and their traditional noncon- formist supporters was to oppose ‘Rome on the Rates’32 and Sir Clif- ford Cory (Liberal MP for St Ives, 1906–22 and 1923–24), a contempo- rary of Collins in parliament, was a leading light in the organisation the Welsh Protestant League which had a reputation for being rabidly anti- Catholic.33 Of Liberal MPs enter- ing parliament between 1910 and acquire a building as a headquar- Wolverhampton he was elected Liberal MP for Wal- 1914, 47 per cent were estimated to ters for the local party.37 Collins funfair featuring sall in 1922, Collins seems to have be nonconformist, 36 per cent were was himself created an alderman Collins rides, had no parliamentary ambitions in Anglican, 8.5 per cent were Church in 1930 and, during his long career from a postcard the run-up to the election and few of Scotland and only 8.5 per cent on the council, he served on many of the time. prospects of success given that the were recorded as being of another of its committees including: Baths, party in Walsall was poorly organ- or of unknown religion.34 In his Parks and Cemeteries; Electricity ised and appeared to be in decline. religion, then, Collins was certainly Supply; Gas; Health; Free Library In the 1918 general election, the not typical of the usual stamp of and Art Gallery; Old Age Pen- Liberal candidate in Walsall, W. H. Liberal MP and neither was it com- sions; Property; Public Assistance; Brown, had come bottom of the mon for men of labouring origins Public Works; Trade Development; poll in a three-cornered contest to make it to the top. The average Maternity and Child Welfare; which had been won by Sir Richard Liberal MP in the early twentieth Mental Welfare; Transport and the Cooper, the Unionist MP for the century was middle class, a lawyer Watch Committee. In 1938, at the town since January 1910. Cooper or businessman, a nonconform- age of eighty, he was elected mayor stood as a Coalition National Party ist with university or public school of Walsall. Soon after becoming candidate41 having been a joint education – although this model mayor, Collins showed he had not founder of the National Party, a was less prevalent after 1910.35 In one lost his sense of humour. He wrote pro-Imperialist, right-wing splin- respect, however, Collins did con- in response to a well-wisher: ‘Fancy ter from the Conservatives,42 with form to the pattern for Liberal suc- me at the age of 80 taking on myself Henry Page Croft in 1917.43 In com- cess. He had a background of strong the onerous duties of Mayor of a mon with many Liberal associations local service to his community large County Borough. I have been in 1918, the Walsall Liberals were through engagement in local poli- approached many times during the divided over supporting the coali- tics, and this was a route into selec- last ten years but succumbed to per- tion or standing their own candi- tion as a parliamentary candidate sistent entreaties in a weak moment. date – split between a regard for for many Liberals who had served I will let you have a photo in full Lloyd George as the man had who on county or town councils, school regalia in a few days time, when won the war, on the one hand, and boards or boards of guardians. you WILL notice how young I the independence of their party, Collins first became a member of look’.38 When he became mayor no on the other.44 However by 1919, Walsall Council in April 1918 when one could remember the last time a Cooper had indicated his desire he was co-opted to fill a vacancy Roman Catholic had held the post. to stand down at the next election in the Birchills Ward created by In an echo of that old prejudice, and the Unionists adopted his wife, the election of William Halford however, the vicar of Bloxwich Lady Alice Cooper, in his place.45 to become an alderman. Although regretted publicly that for the first Left, from top: When the 1922 general election Collins was a Liberal by conviction, time in twenty years that the mayor Pat Collins in was called, following the decision he later described himself as some- of Walsall had not attended Blox- 1934, on the of the Conservative Party to end one whose Liberalism was ‘born in wich Parish Church.39 In 1939 Col- steps of his living their participation in the coali- him’ and whose Liberal principles lins received a final tribute from his van. tion government at a Carlton Club were ‘marrow to his bones’,36 he adopted home town when he was The Grosvenor meeting on 14 October 1922, Wal- does not seem to have had politi- made a freeman of the Borough.40 Picture House, sall Liberals had no candidate in cal ambitions but he was invited Such local service was not, how- Bloxwich, in the place, could not find one and were to join the council because of his ever, seen as an inevitable stepping 1930s. seriously thinking of not contesting role as a public benefactor and his stone towards a parliamentary Pat Colins with the election at all. They were hop- financial generosity to the Walsall career as far as Collins was con- his wife and dog ing the Midland Liberal Federation Liberals having provided funds to cerned. On the contrary, although in the 1930s. or the party’s chief whip in London

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 31 the king of showland: pat collins, liberal mp for walsall might come up with a name.46 At up someone would invariably shout reversion to ordinary party poli- the last minute, Collins agreed to ‘Good old Pat’ or some other decla- tics, claiming that only the Liberal stand. He had the local govern- ration of moral support, giving him Party could now provide strong ment credentials, had lived locally the chance to recover and carry on and stable government. On foreign for forty years, and his name was with his address.52 policy Collins favoured a revision well known through his shows and Another factor that Collins of the Paris peace treaties, putting entertainments. Nevertheless he could capitalise upon in 1922 was reparations and war debts on a rea- was a surprise choice both nation- the social work he had done in the sonable and businesslike footing. He ally and locally – perhaps even to Roman Catholic community, par- advocated universal disarmament Pat himself, although as a success- ticularly in Bloxwich, his home through an effective and powerful ful businessman he certainly had area. Father McDonnell, the local League of Nations and supported the substance to maintain himself priest, was a Liberal activist and he the League as the new diplomacy if elected.47 On the debit side, it was and Pat worked together to rally – the old methods being antiquated thought his lack of education might the Catholic vote, taking advantage and so discredited they must be tell against him in a national contest of the presence of a large number buried forever.55 In a later address and he was said to be a poor public of Irish immigrants who had been he declared his support for ‘Free speaker.48 attracted to the town by work in Trade, Economy, Drink Reform However, when the 1922 gen- heavy industry.53 and No to Nationalisation’.56 Collins eral election came, it was Collins Whereas the Liberal Party in also stressed his local connections who was elected MP for Walsall in Walsall had been poorly organised as a local man to represent Wal- a three-cornered contest. In a close and funded since 1918, the adop- sall in parliament, making much fight he beat the Conservative can- tion of Pat Collins as parliamentary of his experience on the borough didate, Lady Cooper, the wife of the candidate produced a surge in mem- council.57 former MP49 by the narrow margin bership, activism and income. The Collins’ Tory opponent, Lady of 325 votes, with R. Dennison for Showman’s Guild offered to organ- Cooper, had some problems in her Labour in third place.50 This was ise a procession through the town own campaign. She may have suf- a real achievement for the Liberal to aid electioneering, but Collins’ fered electorally because she was Party, leaping from third place to agent had to turn the offer down a woman. Only three women had victory in one election. It is clear for fear of exceeding the election been elected to parliament since that Pat Collins’ profile, person- expenses restrictions.54 women were permitted by law to ality and his reputation as a local Collins published an election stand as candidates in 1918: Lady philanthropist had a lot to do with address that was reproduced in the Astor,58 Countess Markiewicz59 and his success.51 The election campaign local newspaper. This manifesto Margaret Wintringham.60 At the did expose Collins’ limitations as a emphasised the traditional Liberal 1922 general election, there were public speaker but his supporters causes of freedom, reform and pro- thirty-three women candidates: five in the audience, some were prob- gress. He welcomed the passing of Tories, ten Labour, sixteen Liberals ably placed there as claques, usu- the coalition government, which and two Independents. Of these all ally came to his rescue. If he dried had ‘died a natural death’, and the were defeated with the exception of the two former members.61 There Result of the 1922 general election in Walsall was still widespread opposition to Pat Collins Liberal 14,674 38.6% women’s involvement in national politics. Sir Henry Craik, member Lady Cooper Conservative 14,349 37.8% of parliament for the Combined R. Dennison Labour 8,946 23.6% Scottish Universities, may have Majority 325 0.8% typified the attitude of many men, and not just Tories, when he wrote Result of the 1923 general election in Walsall to The Times saying that, in his Pat Collins Liberal 16,304 43.5% view, not enough time had passed S. K. Lewis Conservative 14,141 37.8% since the introduction of women’s A. C. Osburn Labour 7,007 18.7% suffrage to justify the ‘new experi- ment’ of electing women to parlia- Majority 2,163 5.7% ment and that ‘our attitude towards Result of the 1924 general election in Walsall women used to be that of homage W. Preston Conservative 15,168 37.9% and … that fits in badly with politi- 62 Pat Collins Liberal 12,734 31.8% cal contentions’. Given the nar- rowness of Collins’ majority over G. L. R. Small Labour 11,474 28.7% Lady Cooper, just 325 votes, her Dr J. J. Lynch Independent 622 1.6% gender may have cost her the elec- Majority 2,434 6.1% tion. However, in pure election- eering terms, Lady Cooper faced Result of the by-election in Walsall, 27 February 1925 a particular difficulty. She found W. Preston Conservative 14,793 38.2% much in the depressed social and Rt Hon. T. J. Macnamara Liberal 12,300 31.8% economic conditions of the town G. L. R. Small Labour 11,610 30.0% which she deplored and wished to see improved. She sympathised Majority 2,493 6.4% with Collins in his exposure of

32 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 the king of showland: pat collins, liberal mp for walsall the poor housing conditions of the An old man One of Collins’ key constituen- candidate.77 Macnamara stuck with working people of the town. She cies was the Irish, Catholic vote, Walsall for the 1929 general election nevertheless felt constrained to elec- went into which helped him in 1922 and but also without success. tioneer around these issues because 1923.69 But by 1924 the Liberal Party Collins did not stand for parlia- her husband had been the local MP vote and nationally was facing a tougher time ment again, although his name was for years and had been a supporter as it, and the electorate, struggled to suggested as a potential candidate of the outgoing government which was asked by come to terms with its position as for the general election of 1931,78 had failed to deal with these social the third party in a two-party sys- but another local councillor, Joseph problems effectively. Fighting too the canvass- tem. Collins had a new Conserva- Leckie, was chosen. Leckie had been hard on these popular issues would tive opponent, Charles William chairman of Walsall Liberals since simply invite criticism of Sir Rich- ers whom Preston. He also faced a stronger 1912. He was described as a man ‘… ard and the Unionist Party. Lady he wanted challenge than previously from of the old school, valiantly hold- Cooper did, however, try a little Labour, now represented by Mr ing on to Liberal ideals’79 and he said tactical voting, reminding electors to vote for. G. L. R. Small, who was beginning of himself that he was ‘as strong as that at the last election the Liberals to woo some of the working-class ever on Free Trade.’80 In the general had been bottom of the poll, behind ‘For Lady Irish, Catholic vote away from Col- election of 1929, Walsall had gone the Labour Party, with only 17 per lins. There was also the added com- Labour for the first time. In the situ- cent of the votes cast.63 She politely Cooper?’ ‘No’. plicating factor of an Independent ation created by the financial crisis asked the electorate to consider how candidate, Dr J. J. Lynch. Among of 1931 the Labour MP, John James likely it was that they could win ‘For Den- those who came to Walsall to cam- McShane, did not follow Ramsay this time.64 The rationalism of this paign for Pat was David Lloyd MacDonald into the National Gov- appeal was swept away by the tide nison?’ ‘No’. George,70 but Collins was unable ernment and negotiations between of sentiment in favour of Collins, to hold on and Preston, who was the Liberals and Unionists in Wal- however. This is illustrated by an ‘For Collins?’ described as a man of ‘no political sall led to Leckie being adopted as oft-repeated anecdote about an old experience of any kind, although he the National candidate over the man went into vote and was asked ‘No’. ‘Then did play cricket for Walsall’71gained claims of the Conservative prospec- by the canvassers whom he wanted the seat for the Tories with a major- tive candidate Mr W. Talbot, a local to vote for. ‘For Lady Cooper?’ who do you ity of 2,434 votes.72 industrialist. Leckie held the seat in ‘No’. ‘For Dennison?’ ‘No’. ‘For In an unexpected twist, how- 1935 standing as a Liberal National Collins?’ ‘No’. ‘Then who do you want to vote ever, Preston was disqualified from but with the full support of the local want to vote for?’ ‘Ah dunna want parliament on the grounds that he Liberal Association.81 This included to vote for any of them; ah want to for?’ ‘Ah had held government contracts the support of Collins who remained vote for Pat’.65 dunna want with the Post Office (albeit in trivial president of Walsall Liberals right Collins made his maiden speech amounts) at the time of his election. though until the Second World in the House of Commons on 29 to vote for Collins was the obvious candidate War.82 He also continued to spon- November 1922 during the third for the resulting by-election but he sor the party financially. He was one reading of the Irish Constitution any of them; demurred on grounds of ill health.73 of three members of the association Bill. ‘As an Irishman, this is the hap- There is some question about how who joined together to pay off a piest day of my life. The House has ah want to ill Collins really was. It is known, long-standing debt that the associa- given us what we have been looking for instance, that he continued to tion owed to the Midland Bank.83 for 700 years.’ He said he believed vote for Pat’. travel widely on business, adding On 17 August 1938, Collins pre- the people of England would never new destinations to his fairground sided at a Special General Meeting regret granting this measure of jus- circuits in 1923–24. He also trav- of the Walsall Liberal Association tice to Ireland.66 During his time elled to London for the Empire which was held to consider what in parliament, Collins could not be Exhibition at Wembley in 1924 and to do following the death of Joseph described as a great House of Com- was well enough to attend a garden Leckie. He proposed a resolution mons man – perhaps his old inability party and meet the king and queen.74 of condolence and voted for the as an orator inhibited him – but he He also continued to attend large motion to find a replacement can- raised a number of important local numbers of Walsall Council meet- didate who would fight the by- matters concerning Walsall in ques- ings throughout the 1920s.75 It is election in support of the National tions, for example the inadequate recorded that Collins admitted find- Government.84 The by-election size of the Walsall Post Office and ing the restraints of party politics at took place on 16 November 1938 the complaint of sixty women voters the national level irksome and time- and was won for the Liberal Nation- at Elmore Green that they had been consuming and that he was getting als by Sir George Schuster, a bar- denied the right to cast their vote. He tired and frustrated by national rister from a wealthy family with also used his position as MP to secure politics.76 For the by-election Wal- banking and cotton interests who an order for tubes for battleships for a sall Liberals adopted the former had already had successful careers Walsall firm thus providing employ- Liberal MP and Minister of Labour, in business, colonial government ment for a large number of men in Thomas James Macnamara, who and economics.85 Schuster was not the town for some months.67 had just lost his seat at Camberwell a Walsall man and was suggested to The next general election came North West. Macnamara was unable the local association by the Liberal quickly but Collins held his seat to win the seat back, the by-elec- National leadership. Following Pat in 1923 in another three-cornered tion voting figures differing little Collins’ resolution Walsall Liberals fight. Against new Conservative from the general election poll, with had set up a selection sub-commit- and Labour candidates he increased Labour appearing to pick up most tee but they could not find a suitable his majority to 2,163 votes.68 of the votes from the Independent local candidate. They hoped that

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 33 the king of showland: pat collins, liberal mp for walsall another prominent local councillor, ‘I am a show- Protection Association to gain a http://hri.shef.ac.uk/fairground/ long-time Chairman of the Liberal foothold in local politics in Wal- guilds.html Association and Collins’ successor man first and sall and to use his celebrity to help 23 Letter to The Times, 4 February 1885, as mayor of Walsall, Cliff Tibbits, him into parliament. But he did not p. 4. would agree to stand but he turned a politician really use this real-world experience 24 The Times, 24 January 1895, p. 10. the opportunity down.86 The Wal- in the House of Commons, if only 25 Homeshaw, This Was His Life, pp. sall Conservatives were piqued that second. I because he was there for too short 2–3. the Liberals had exercised their a time. As Collins himself pointed 26 Who was Who (OUP, 2007). right to find a successor to Leckie, am a worker out in a summary of his life’s work 27 Toulmin, DNB. rather than cede the nomination and fighter and Liberal political philosophy, ‘I 28 Toulmin, DNB. on the basis of what some said was am a showman first and a politician 29 Homeshaw, This Was His Life, p. 4. a tacit understanding that when rather than second. I am a worker and fighter 30 Keith Robbins, ‘Noncomformity’ in Leckie ceased to be the town’s MP it rather than an orator. There is only Brack and Randall (eds.), Dictionary of would be the Unionists’ turn to put an orator. one object in my life and that is to Liberal Thought (Politico’s, 2007), pp. forward a National candidate.87 In see people have fair play.’90 304–306. the end, however, they were told by There is only 31 E.g. Linda Colley, Britons: Forging the Central Office that they regarded Graham Lippiatt is a contributing editor Nation, 1707–1837 (3rd revised edn., Walsall as a Liberal seat and reluc- one object in to the Journal of Liberal History and Yale University Press, 2009). tantly agreed to support Schuster Secretary of the Liberal Democrat His- 32 David Bebbington, Evangelicanism in in the by-election, which he won my life and tory Group. Modern Britain: a history from the 1730s in a straight fight against Labour to the 1980s (Routledge, 1898), p. 134. by a majority of 7,158 votes, having that is to see 1 Jeremy Paxman, The Political Animal: 33 M. J. Daunton, Coal Metropolis: Cardiff taken 57 per cent of the poll.88 An Anatomy (Penguin, 2003), p. 76, 1870–1914 (Leicester University Press, It was said that Collins was people have pp. 116–118. 1977), p. 176. offered a knighthood by Prime 2 The Guardian, 28 August 2009, p. 35. 34 George L. Bernstein, Liberalism and Minister Neville Chamberlain for fair play.’ 3 The Times, 20 January 1939, p. 17. Liberal Politics in Edwardian England his services to the entertainment 4 Vanessa Toulmin, ‘Patrick Collins’, in (Allen & Unwin, 1986) p. 18. industry but turned it down on the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 35 Ibid., p. 17. basis that he had been born plain Pat (OUP, 2004–9). 36 Allen and Williams, Pat Collins, p. 54. Collins and that’s how he would 5 National Fairground Archive, Uni- 37 Ibid., p. 39. die.89 Collins died on 8 Decem- versity of Sheffield, 2007. 38 Letter to E. H. Bostock, 23.12.38: ber 1943 aged eighty-four years at 6 The Times, 9 December 1943, p. 7. Mayoral correspondence, Walsall his home, Lime Tree House, High 7 Francis Cowley Burnand, The Catho- Local History Centre, ACC/53/1/9. Street, Bloxwich and he is buried lic Who’s Who and Yearbook (Burns & 39 Allen and Williams, Pat Collins, p. 75. Bloxwich cemetery. It cannot be Oates, 1941), p. 89. 40 The Times, 7 August 1939, p. 7. argued that Collins was a politi- 8 E. J. Homeshaw, This Was His Life: 41 Iain Dale (ed.), The Times House of cian of real national significance. The Story of Pat Collins, written for Commons: with full results of the polling He sat in parliament for just two presentation to Mrs Clara Collins on and biographies of members and unsuccessful years, making little impact there the centenary of Pat’s birth in 1959 candidates and a complete analysis and sta- but representing his constituency (unpublished, Walsall Local History tistical tables (facsimile reprints of editions competently enough. Neither can Centre), p. 1. originally published 1880–1929), Volume it be said that Liberal success in 9 Leigh Rayment’s Peerage Page, http:// 2: 1910, 1911 and 1919 (Politico’s Pub- Walsall at the 1922 and 1923 general www.leighrayment.com/commons/ lishing, 2004), 1919 p. 40. elections was a pointer to electoral Wcommons1.htm 42 Chris Cook, Sources in British Political successes elsewhere. Like many Lib- 10 Homeshaw, This Was His Life, p. 1. History 1900–1951, Volume 1: A Guide to eral MPs, Collins was swept from 11 Toulmin, DNB. the Archives of Selected Organisations and parliament at the 1924 general elec- 12 Homeshaw, This Was His Life, p. 10. Societies (Macmillan, 1975), p. 184. tion. The later victories of Leckie 13 John Parker, Who’s Who in the Theatre 43 David and Gareth Butler, British Polit- and Schuster owed little to Collins’ (Pitman, 1947), pp. 1936 and 1947. ical Facts, 1900–1994 (Macmillan Press, success and were explained by the 14 Ned Williams, ‘All the Fun of the 1994), p. 164. combination of anti-Labour forces Fair’, http://www.localhistory.scit. 44 Kenneth J. Dean, Town and Westmin- in Walsall and across the country wlv.ac.uk/articles/Fair/TheFair.htm ster: A Political History of Walsall, 1906– and the electorate’s desire to support 15 http://www2.walsall.gov.uk/local- 1945 (County Borough of Walsall, the National Government at a time historycentre/Local_Towns/blox- Libraries, Museum and Art Gallery of economic crisis. The interesting wich.asp Departments, 1972), pp. 85–86. thing about Collins was his rise to 16 http://www.thebloxidgetallygraph. 45 Ibid., p. 91. become a Liberal MP in the first com/cinemasofoldbloxwich.htm 46 Ibid., p. 92. place. Being the child of an agricul- 17 Homeshaw, This Was His Life, p. 5. 47 Allen and Williams, Pat Collins, p. 51. tural labourer and travelling ped- 18 Ibid., p. 1. 48 Dean, Town and Westminster, pp. dler, of Irish descent and a Roman 19 Who was Who (OUP, 2007). 92–93. Catholic, with little formal educa- 20 Freda Allen and Ned Williams, Pat 49 George J. Barnsby, Socialism in Bir- tion, was hardly a traditional career Collins: King of Showmen (Uralia Press, mingham and the Black Country, 1850– path into parliament with the Lib- 1991), p. 229. 1939 (Integrated Publishing Services, eral Party. Collins clearly made use 21 Toulmin, DNB. 1998), p. 415. of his experience as a showman and 22 National Fairground Archive Image 50 F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary administrator with Van Dwellers’ Database, Sheffield University, Election Results 1918–1949 (Political

34 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 the king of showland: pat collins, liberal mp for walsall

Reference Publications, 1949), p. 60 Margaret Wintringham (1879– 1999), p. 350. Liberal Association: minute 264. 1955), Liberal MP for Louth 74 Allen and Williams, Pat Collins, books, 1931–1942, ACC/31/1/3. 51 Allen and Williams, Pat Collins, 1921–1924. p. 43. 83 Walsall Local History Centre p. 31. 61 Pamela Brookes, Women at West- 75 Ibid., p. 46. Archive, papers of the Wal- 52 Ibid., p. 52. minster (Peter Davies Books, 76 Ibid., p. 44. sall Liberal Association: min- 53 Ibid. 1967), p. 33–35. 77 Betts, Dr Macnamara, pp. ute book, 29 September 1931, 54 Ibid. 62 The Times, 2 July 1923, p. 15. 350–351. ACC/31/1/3. 55 Walsall and Staffordshire Chronicle, 63 Craig, Election Results, p. 264. 78 Walsall Local History Centre 84 Walsall Local History Cen- 4 November 1922. 64 Allen and Williams, Pat Collins, Archive, papers of the Wal- tre Archive, papers of the 56 Allen and Williams, Pat Collins, p. 53–54. sall Liberal Association: min- Walsall Liberal Association: p. 54. 65 Homeshaw, This Was His Life, p. ute book, 29 September 1931, minute book, 26 March 1942, 57 Ibid., p. 52. 6. ACC/31/1/3. ACC/31/1/3. 58 Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor 66 The Times, 30 November 1922, p. 79 Phil Jones, Joseph Alexander Leckie 85 Oliver Van Oss, ‘Sir George (1879–1964), Conservative MP 7. (published privately, 1989), p. 53. Ernest Schuster (1881–1982)’ for Plymouth Sutton 1919–1945. 67 Walsall Observer, 24 November 80 Walsall Local History Centre in Oxford Dictionary of National 59 Constance Georgine Markiewicz 1923. Archive, papers of the Wal- Biography online 2004–11 (http:// (1868–1927). Although detained 68 Craig, Election Results, p. 264. sall Liberal Association: min- www.oxforddnb.com/view/ in Holloway Prison at the time, 69 Dominicans of the English Prov- ute book, 29 September 1931, article/31661?docPos=4) accused as a participant in the ince, New Blackfriars, 1973, p. 225. ACC/31/1/3. 86 Dean, Town and Westminster, p. Irish rebellion and of conspiring 70 Allen and Williams, Pat Collins, 81 David Dutton, Liberals in Schism: 170. with Germany, Markiewicz was p. 44. A History of the National Liberal 87 Ibid., p. 169. elected MP for Dublin St Patrick’s 71 Ibid., p. 51. Party (Tauris Academic Studies, 88 Craig, Election Results, p. 264. at the 1918 general election. As a 72 Craig, Election Results, p. 264. 2008), p. 92. 89 Toulmin, DNB. member of Sinn Fein she always 73 Robin Betts, Dr Macnamara 1861– 82 Walsall Local History Centre 90 Allen and Williams, Pat Collins, refused to take her seat. 1931 (Liverpool University Press, Archive, papers of the Walsall p.60. Liberal history quiz 2011 This year’s Liberal history quiz was a feature of the History Group’s exhibition stand at the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham in September. The winner was Stuart Bray, with an impressive 19 marks out of 20. Below we reprint the questions – the answers will be in the next issue. 1. Which prominent Liberal politician was forced to disguise himself as a policeman to escape the mob at a meeting at Birmingham Town Hall in 1901? 2. Who was the first person elected to the House of Commons as a member of the SDP, and for which seat? 3. Who was the leader of the Liberal Party from 1935 to 1945? 4. When the Liberal Party split over Ireland in 1886, what was the name of the party founded by Joseph Chamberlain and Lord Hartington which formed an alliance with the Conservatives in opposition to Irish Home Rule? 5. For which constituency did Lady Violet Bonham Carter stand, unsuccessfully, as Liberal candidate at the 1951 general election, unopposed by the Tories and with Winston Churchill speaking on her behalf? 6. What connects an SDP think tank with the rise of capitalism and the Reformation? 7. Who was the Whig – later Liberal – politician who was Prime Minister in 1846–52 and again in 1865–66? 8. Who won the Ryedale by-election for the Liberal-SDP Alliance in 1986? 9. What is the full title and sub-title of the 2004 book edited by David Laws and Paul Marshall aimed at charting a new direction for the Liberal Democrats? 10. In 1950, who told an arresting police officer, ‘I am a Liberal and I am against this sort of thing’, and why? 11. For which general election of the Grimond era was the Liberal Party manifesto titled People Count? 12. Who stood as Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London at the first mayoral election? 13. Whose autobiography, Memoirs of a Minor Public Figure, was published in 2011? 14. Monty Python’s parrot featured in Liberal history on two occasions, in 1988 and 1990. Why? 15. Who connects Queen Victoria with an unloved stubborn pack animal which had provided ‘much valuable service’? 16. What connects Gladstone with Rosebery’s final request? 17. In the 2010 election, who was the moderator, for ITV, of the first televised party leaders’ debate in Manchester, on 15 April? 18. What do Matthew Taylor (1987), Sarah Teather (2003) and Jo Swinson (2005) have in common? 19. What was the name of the organisation formed in 1960 to act as a focal point for creative policy work by younger Liberals, which took its name from a survey integrating and explaining its radical programme published by the NLYL and ULS in 1959? 20. She was born in 1882 and died in 1981. Her father was a Liberal MP. She was one of the leading lights in the international women’s suffrage movement, a Liberal candidate eight times and was appointed a Dame in 1967. Who was she?

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 35 Wainwright urged them to be bro- ken, as they were with the Bolton REPORTS East by election in 1960. Later in the 1970s Wainwright took part in the Lib–Lab Pact, despite being vulnerable to it, Forgotten heroes for a governing party relying as he did on Tory votes Evening meeting, 20 June 2011 with Dr Matt Cole, Lord in his fight against Labour in his constituency. In part he supported Navnit Dholakia, Baroness Floella Benjamin and Dr Mark the pact because his parliamentary Pack; chair: Baroness Claire Tyler. colleagues had. But, pragmatically, Wainwright sought to use the pact Report by David Cloke to advance policies he believed in: worker representation, through the Post Office Bill; electoral reform; he Group’s July meeting, Wainwright himself was not Dr Matt Cole, a land bank and a minimum wage. chaired by Liberal Democrat keen on hero worship, as a Noncon- Whilst none of these policies were Tpeer Claire Tyler, mused on formist he was not keen on icons. Lord Navnit implemented he brought them out the theme of forgotten heroes for Following a trip to Paris in 1938 he of obscurity. a governing party. Baroness Tyler had written a report on the Radi- Dholakia, Despite this, Wainwright fell out opened the meeting by noting that cal Party in which he had written of love with the Pact fairly quickly, there were many forgotten, some positively of its lack of ties to the Baroness realising that Labour were not going deservedly so, but that others were past noting that ‘there is no Glad- to deliver, notably on electoral sources of inspiration and useful stone, no Cobden, no Asquith. In Floella Ben- reform. When he chaired the Party quotations. She hoped that the responding to questions later, Cole Assembly debate on the pact follow- speakers would rescue their heroes said that he felt that Wainwright jamin and Dr ing the rejection of electoral reform from the twilight of history and would have been embarrassed to for the European elections he skil- demonstrate how they could influ- have been chosen as a hero. Mark Pack fully reflected the anger of the grass- ence Liberal Democrats today and Nonetheless, Wainwright was roots without breaking ranks with in government. Dr Matt Cole, Lord himself a historian and understood between his colleagues. He poured scorn on Navnit Dholakia, Baroness Floella that there was something to be Labour’s rejection of PR arguing Benjamin and Dr Mark Pack learnt from the past. He had writ- them pro- that it put out of court any renewal between them proposed an inspir- ten a history of his constituency of the pact. Nonetheless, he accepted ing and formidable list of heroes, and the Liberal candidates and MPs. posed an that it needed to continue to the end drawn from close personal and In answering questions later, Cole inspiring and of the agreement. working relationships, admiration stressed the importance of Wain- Dr Cole noted that once Wain- across political boundaries, detailed wright’s local organisation and formidable wright had committed himself biographical study and a broad his- local campaigning and his develop- to something he stuck to it. Cole torical perspective. ment of the local Young Liberals list of heroes, argued that there was not a prob- Dr Cole launched proceed- and Women Liberal Association. lem with changing one’s mind, ings with the case for Richard He liked being a constituency MP. drawn from but changing one’s mind on things Wainwright MP. He felt that he In Cole’s view Wainwright had that had been promised did dam- had perhaps lost the element of three qualities that were rare in close per- age, which he felt was a lesson to be surprise regarding his choice hav- combination: pragmatism, loyalty learnt. ing just written a biography of the to the party, and holding fast to his sonal and Wainwright’s loyalty to the man. He had chosen him, both as principles. He demonstrated these party had been demonstrated in a hero but also as a worthy subject qualities in a number of ways over working rela- his dealings with the Social Demo- of biography because he was a the years. crats, which had not been easy significant figure of a particular Wainwright had joined the tionships, for him, and in his relationships type in the history of the Liberal Party in 1936 when it was split three with party leaders. He defended Party. He was just below the top ways and he first fought for it as a admiration them even when he was unhappy. rank, lacked national and media candidate in 1950 when it was at its Only when he thought things had exposure and was frequently omit- lowest ebb, losing over 300 depos- across politi- become impossible did he move, ted from histories of the party. He its. This inspired his pragmatic triggering Thorpe’s resignation had no aspirations to be leader, approach. He understood the need cal bounda- in 1976 and encouraging Steel’s and his dislike of London, the to enter into deals and work with ries, detailed after the 1987 general election. His Westminster set pieces and the other parties in order to support the actions had been based on evidence media effectively precluded him party. One of his mentors was the biographical and in the interests of the party, from that role. Nonetheless he, and Liberal MP, Donald Wade; he was not out of any personal dislike. His others like him, helped the party MP for Huddersfield West in the study and loyalty was also demonstrated in to survive in its traditional form 1950s as a result of a deal with local his personal generosity to the party and took it forward to the Liberal Conservatives. It was only by such a broad and to associated causes includ- Democrats and to becoming a pacts that Liberals had representa- ing, as a contributor from the floor party of government, something, tion in urban Britain. Nonetheless, historical noted, the Joseph Rowntree Trust. Cole stressed, Wainwright had once he believed that the party Wainwright was also loyal to wanted to achieve. could survive without such deals perspective. his principles, even when they

36 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 reports were not part of the mainstream Wainwright, in the country and sought to con- Taking her turn, Floella Benja- view amongst Liberals. He was an tribute to the political system. The min, spoke passionately and obvi- anti-militarist and did not fight and others person who had helped him at this ously with much love and affection in the Second World War, and a time was his next potential hero, about her friend Antonella Lothian, social reformer concerned with like him, Jo Grimond. He had heard him the Marchioness of Lothian. She women’s rights, sexuality and the at a meeting of the Assembly and urged the meeting not to be put role of youth. He acted as a bridge helped the had later spoken to him. Dholakia off by her title. Antonella herself between the leadership and these recalled being mesmerised by Gri- was aware of the problem and liked groups within the party. party to mond, his original thinking, his to be called Tony. For Benjamin, Cole argued that Wainwright concern for the rest of the world Tony Lothian was an extraordinary recognised that the fight against survive in its and his focus on poverty and com- woman, full of vision, compas- the tyrannies of conformity and traditional munity. Grimond had also assured sion and wisdom. She had known poverty would never cease, that it him that the party that would con- her for thirty years as a friend and was unfinished business, and that form and tinue to support him. mentor: a rock-like supporter who he also realised the importance of Despite that, Dholakia’s hero had motivated her and thousands of deciding how to take on that fight. took it for- was not Jo Grimond or even a other women. She saw the human These remained as true today as member of the Liberal Party. He being in all and their talent and they had in Wainwright’s time. ward to the was a man described by the Mar- potential. The way she lived her life Navnit Dholakia started his talk quess of Salisbury as ‘too clever by had been summed up for Benjamin by recalling that he had known Liberal Dem- half’, Ian Macleod. What inspired by a remark she had made whilst on Richard Wainwright and declaring Dholakia was Macleod’s imple- a fact-finding mission to Moscow: that what Dr Cole had said was true ocrats and mentation of what he believed in, ‘Never be afraid to speak out and in every sense. He then proceeded particularly in the area of colo- do what is morally right.’ to work towards his hero in the to becoming nial policy. He often visited the Tony Lothian had a charismatic, manner, as he put it, of a Liberal countries concerned, promoted striking appearance, and when Democrat raffle, starting with the a party of independence and had encouraged Benjamin had known her, dyed fourth placed person first. Macmillan to make his ‘wind of black hair and a black patch over one His first thought was Aung San government. change’ speech. No Liberal could eye, which she had lost as a result Suu Kyi, whose Reith lectures he have said the things that Macleod of cancer. She always wore either had recently attended via tapes did on a Conservative platform black and white or red and white. smuggled out of Burma. She had on this and on other issues, such as She had been born in Rome in 1922, highlighted that, for him, freedom, the abolition of the death penalty the daughter of a British army doc- justice, rights and liberties were key. and homosexual law reform. He tor and an Italian woman and often He then reflected on his moth- also worked with Liberal MPs and described herself as a doctor’s daugh- er’s influence, which was in some with opponents such as Callaghan ter. Her strong political (though not ways an indirect one. He had been and Bevan. He had also been close often partisan) views first emerged born in a small bush town in Tan- friends with Enoch Powell but when she visited family in Ger- zania. Whilst at primary school he broke with him completely after many shortly before the war. She realised that his mother could not the rivers of blood speech. spoke out against the treatment of read or write. Reading the Bhaga- Dholakia recalled that when he Jews, and was hastily sent back to vad-Gita to her had informed him first entered the House of Lords England before she got herself into from an early age. he had sat with the former Con- serious trouble. There she met Peter His next potential hero was servative Home Secretary Lord Lothian, the future twelfth Mar- Julius Nyerere, who had attended Carr. Dholakia had been angry quess of Lothian, and married him at the same school, and who Dholakia with Labour’s continual playing the age of twenty-one. They had six had met when he had come to the of the numbers game on immigra- children and a happy marriage last- UK to study. Dholakia reported tion and Carr reported that it had ing sixty years. Benjamin stressed that when he had asked Nyerere been Macleod’s influence that had the importance of Peter Lothian’s why he was in England, he had told ensured that Britain honoured steadying role in supporting his wife him that he was there to negotiate its commitments to the Ugandan and noted that behind every power- independence. Dholakia thought Asians expelled by Idi Amin. He ful woman was a strong supportive that this was a remarkable aspira- also noted that the decision by Cab- man, including, she charmingly tion given the time it had taken for inet had taken all of five minutes. noted, her own husband. India to achieve her independence. Dholakia wondered if Cameron Tony Lothian was a commit- These reflections had led would make such a promise and ted Roman Catholic who went to Dholakia to cast his mind back to stick to it. mass every morning at 8.30. Whilst his experiences in Britain in the In summing up, Dholakia she described herself as a Christian 1950s and 60s and the sheer hatred argued that it did not take away his feminist, Benjamin noted that, on demonstrated to people from Com- love and affection for the Liberal a couple of occasions, her views on monwealth countries. For Dholakia Party that he had joined fifty-five abortion had led to some conflict this had magnified following his years previously to have chosen with other women. Lothian always election to Brighton Council. For Macleod: there are others who stressed the importance, however, of the first six months he had to have influence you. He believed that the broad coalitions. She demonstrated police escorts to attend council country had lost the greatest liberal this in her own life by working meetings and for a time he had in the Conservative Party when closely with Coretta Scott King, wondered to himself why he stayed Macleod died. the soviet cosmonaut Valentina

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 37 reports

Tereshkova, and the American Grey was a In some ways Mark Pack had a concerned proved to be successful communist who became women’s more traditional choice for a hero, in the post to which they had been editor of the Morning Star, Mikki reformer except that there could be some appointed. Doyle. Her family, meanwhile, debate about whether he was ‘for- Grey’s most significant achieve- was a Conservative one, notably rather than gotten’. He had brought his party ment was the Great Reform Act, her eldest son, Michael Ancram and back to power after twenty-three which Pack stated he would not her husband an equerry to Prince a radical but, years in opposition, oversaw major dwell on as the issue had been Charles. This meant that, accord- political reform, led a successful covered in an earlier meeting and ing to Benjamin, Lothian’s personal as such, a coalition with Conservatives, and reported on in the Journal. None- political views were something of a his views on issues such as race and theless, it demonstrated Grey’s mystery, though she believed that, Liberal who religion had aged well. The person tenacity, guile and persuasive despite occasional outbursts, such could be concerned was Charles Grey – Earl skills. His first attempt at getting as declaring that she did not really Grey – who was now at least as it through was initially successful believe in capitalism, Lothian was a remembered famous for the tea that bore his in the House of Commons, being ‘floating voter’. name as anything else. Pack argued passed with a majority of one on The focus of Lothian’s work was for his deeds that Grey should be beloved of the biggest ever turn-out of MPs, the promotion of women. She had party leaders with his pragmatic but was scuppered by an amend- jointly established the Women of and achieve- creed that ‘practical good is infi- ment in committee. The second the Year lunches in 1955 to celebrate nitely preferable to speculative attempt passed the Commons only women’s achievements. At that ments as perfection’. to be defeated in the Lords. On time, Benjamin noted, there were Grey had become a parliamen- the third attempt he managed to no female peers in the House of well as his tarian at a youthful age, became bluff the Lords into thinking that Lords. Women were definitely sec- embroiled in the trial of Warren the king was willing to create the ond-class citizens at this time and words. Hastings, which pout him at the number of peers necessary to have the idea was ridiculed with some centre of political life. He was a the bill passed. He thus pre-empted claiming that there would only be youthful, but short-lived, Foreign the tactics of the People’s Budget by a handful of eligible attendees. In Secretary, and was only a little more than eighty years. fact 500 attended the first lunch. older than David Owen when he Pack also noted that Grey also Over the next fifty years, women took up office. Pack argued that the had characteristics that might from every possible background comparison was instructive because not serve him so well as a modern were celebrated at the annual event. Grey’s natural inclination was to politician. He was something a lad Lothian didn’t seek to trade places be a uniter and with that ability he about town, and had an affair and with men but to ensure that women was able to return to office as prime an illegitimate child with Geor- had their say in how the world was minister, something Owen failed giana, Duchess of Devonshire, run. A practical way in which she to achieve. a tale which featured in a recent did this was to write and publish a Grey’s opportunity arose when film. Nonetheless, in his own age biography of Tereshkova because the Conservative government it did not undermine his ability she felt that it was important to see crumbled and split over political to achieve results. Indeed, Pack the world through her eyes. reform. As the government had argued that Georgiana’s Whig con- Lothian had many running bat- not been swept away by a general nections may have helped him have tles which she faced with a smile election, Grey had to put together a successful political career. and with charm. In the words of a coalition from the existing The other defining and inspir- one member of her family, she ‘used parliament. He skilfully knitted ing moments of Grey’s career were, the devil’s ways to do God’s work’. together a government made up of according to Pack, his defence of She hated racism, declaring that all Tories and Radicals and all shades liberty against the security scares were descended from the first man in between. Pack compared his following the Peterloo massacre; on earth, a black man from Africa. achievement to having a Cabinet his moving of the motion propos- As a catholic, she campaigned with both John Redwood and Tony ing the abolition of the slave trade against abortion. She also cam- Greaves in it. and his abolition of slavery as prime paigned for a healthy eating life- Pack gave as an example of minister and his arguments for style long before it was fashionable, Grey’s political skills, his handling religious tolerance and Catholic and established the Health Festival. of Henry Brougham. Brougham emancipation. Pack also noted In short, she was not afraid to go was a passionate, charismatic, his introduction of democracy against the tide, even when she was annoying, inconsistent populist into local government. Pack also attacked. But, Benjamin argued, firebrand. He was at the height seemed to feel that the nature of his Lothian also knew how to get the of his popularity in 1830 when departure from political life was best out of other people and make he won election to the House of inspiring. Having been defeated in them aspire beyond their dreams. Commons as a Yorkshire MP. Grey parliament, rather than fight on, he In summary, Benjamin declared managed to put Brougham into a decided to slip away whilst still at that Lothian made a difference to position where he could not refuse the height of his powers. humankind and could have con- a peerage, thus stripping away his For Pack, Grey was a reformer tributed much to the Liberal Dem- populist base, and appointed his as rather than a radical but, as such, a ocrats. Her legacy lived on, even his Lord Chancellor, where he was Liberal who could be remembered among those who did not know she a notable legal reformer. Pack high- for his deeds and achievements as had affected them, and that those lighted that a rare aspect of such well as his words: a worthy man to who did loved her still. manoeuvrings was that individual remember.

38 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 reports

At the end of the meeting, the with the help of people like Navnit The paper’s political advice has panel was asked who amongst cur- Dholakia. In answering the ques- varied much over the years. Julian rent and recent Liberal Democrats tion directly, she chose Shirley Wil- Glover even located a 1950s Guard- most reflected the characteristics liams whom she regarded as sharp, ian editorial which urged people to of their chosen hero. Pack chose attentive to detail and not afraid to vote out Clement Atlee and vote in Roy Jenkins because of his ability stand up against the tide. She was the Conservative Party. But much to achieve radical change. Dholakia also willing to give help and advice. of the time the paper had been a agreed about Roy Jenkins, who Finally, Matt Cole chose Vince Labour-supporting outlet which was the first Home Secretary to Cable, another Yorkshireman, who urged best wishes on the Liberals introduce race relations legislation, was almost universally respected at and their successors, often advising but also stressed the importance of the time of writing the Wainwright the party to be just a little different figures like Nancy Seear and Frank biography. That esteem had been in a benevolent / condescending Byers. Floella Benjamin had earlier tarnished a little by the effect of (delete to taste) way. noted that, in Navnit Dholakia, the holding office, but Wainwright Much of the editorialising about meeting had a Liberal hero amongst himself never had to weather the Britain’s third party has been, as them. She had shared his experience modern media storm. Glover highlighted, variants on a of hatred earlier in her life, but on common theme: to bemoan that reflecting on her peerage, she had David Cloke is Treasurer of the Liberal the third party is not fully backing felt that she reached that position Democrat History Group. whatever cause is of most concern to the paper at the time. The other theme, he added, is to write off the third party as doomed. On occa- sion, The Guardian has combined both themes in one leader, includ- Peace, Reform and Liberation ing in a 1987 leader that said, ‘These ‘Being a rela- are dire days for the Alliance. They Conference fringe meeting, 19 September 2011, with Julian have some of the most thought- Glover, Paddy Ashdown and Shirley Williams; chair: Duncan tive outsider ful and radical politicians around.’ Glover added, ‘As a paper we cer- Brack. compared to tainly seem to enjoy nothing more Report by Mark Pack than praising the Liberal Party and the older MPs the Liberal Democrats while going on to explain why we can’t actually t would be a brave person who Shirley Williams was late! He also I had, in my support it.’ The party’s 1992 general walked up to Paddy Ashdown or quoted Paddy Ashdown’s words on rush to cre- election manifesto received praise IShirley Williams and told them the importance of political history from the paper: ‘it far outdistances to their face that they are history, to a party, taken from his autobi- ate the new its competitors with a fizz of ideas or even old, but they are two of the ography, A Fortunate Life, in which and an absence of fudge’, but even most charismatic, interesting and Ashdown recounted some of the party, failed that was not enough for the paper thoughtful members of the living problems of the 1989 SDP–Liberal to call for Paddy to become prime history class – people who have merger. He wrote that, ‘Being a rela- to under- minister. ‘So there you have it, 150 been around in politics long enough tive outsider compared to the older years from The Guardian and the to be able to talk at first hand about MPs I had, in my rush to create the stand that Manchester Guardian calling on the not only the origins of the Liberal new party, failed to understand that Liberal Party and the Liberal Dem- Democrats but prior events too. a political party is about more than a political ocrats to be brave, radical; praising So to have both on the bill at the plans, priorities, policies and a chro- the party’s policies and then writ- Liberal Democrat History Group’s mium-plated organisation. It also party is about ing it off as irrelevant’, concluded Autumn 2011 conference fringe has a heart and a history and a soul.’ Julian Glover. meeting not surprisingly resulted in The same applies to a newspa- more than He was followed by Paddy Ash- a spacious room being packed, leav- per, too, and in kicking off with the down, who in typical fashion strode ing people standing at the sides, the first main speech Julian Glover took plans, priori- towards the audience before starting back and in the doorways. How- a look at one part of his newspaper’s to quiz everyone in the room, test- ever, the star of the show in many history and soul – its on/off, love/ ties, policies ing people’s knowledge with quotes ways was the less well-known third hate relationship with the Liberal from history. After an easy duo with speaker, then of The Guardian and Party and its successors. Glover and a chro- ‘Go back to your constituencies now of Downing Street, Julian cited The Guardian’s May 2010 edi- mium-plated and prepare for government’ and ‘I Glover. torial urging people to vote Liberal intend to march my troops towards All three were introduced to the Democrat. But, as Glover added, organisation. the sound of gunfire’, with the audi- meeting by the Group’s chair, and ‘As soon as we did it, we changed ence easily and correctly guessing (or one of the lead authors of the book our minds.’ That prevarication is It also has a in many cases, remembering) David being launched, Peace, Reform and nothing new and, he implied, not Steel and Jo Grimond, Ashdown Liberation, Duncan Brack. He reas- necessarily much of a problem for heart and a posed a tougher one with, ‘Ideas are sured the audience that the meeting the party given that polling showed not responsible for the people who was maintaining historical party that Labour support amongst history and a believe in them’. The answer? Paddy traditions, for Paddy Ashdown was Guardian readers went up after that himself (on being particularly exas- going to have to leave early … and 2010 editorial. soul.’ perated by Alex Carlisle). Probably.

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 39 reports

He admitted he may have borrowed Left to right: where that balance lies for your She then turned to the way the it from someone else and forgotten. Julian Glover, time, for your nation and for your Liberal Party declined so sharply (A search through Hansard finds Shirley Williams, generation. It does not lie always in in the early twentieth century, him first using the phrase in Parlia- Duncan Brack, the same place. You have to deter- becoming reduced to near irrel- ment 1986, in a different context and Paddy Ashdown mine that. That is why liberalism is evance. ‘What kept it going were even then not sure if he had penned (photo: Matt a living creed.’ He finished saying, the deep roots it had put down in it himself).1 Cole) ‘The thing that we have in our party some parts of the country – the He went on to entertain and title – liberal – goes back thousands Pennines, parts of the West Coun- enlighten the audience with a of years. You should be proud of try and of course the Celtic Welsh sequence of many other quotes from that. It should give us strength, and and Scottish Liberals,’ Shirley past Liberals, including from Lord it should make us campaign even Williams explained. Her own Acton: ‘A state which is incompetent harder … Henry Gibson once said, roots, of course, are in the social to satisfy different races, condemns ‘You do not go out to battle for democracy rather than liberalism – itself. A state which labours to freedom and truth wearing your a distinction she described as being neutralise, to absorb, to expel them best trousers.’ Sometimes I think based on being less distrustful of destroys its own vitality. A state our party wears its best trousers too the powers of the state, but also a which does not include them is desti- much. This is our heritage and it is distinction that has faded as the tute of the chief basis of self-govern- also our message today – and we merged Liberal Democrats have ment.’ Acton got several mentions, should be proud of it’. evolved. with Ashdown also picking out It would take a speaker of rare Returning to America and the what he described as one of his skill to match Ashdown’s speech, uses of history, Williams said that favourite quotes: ‘It is easier to find but Shirley Williams is one of the lessons from the 1930s are still very people fit to govern themselves than select band who could – and did, relevant. One of her conclusions it is to find people fit to govern’. The even though she opened joking that from them is the need to consider a quote should be emblazoned across she wished she had after all agreed to job creation program, aimed par- the party’s political manuals, he said, speak before rather than after him. ticularly at young people, funded making the implicit point that many She contrasted Ashdown’s drawing by a dedicated temporary tax. of the lessons past liberal drew from of lessons from the more distant past More optimistically, she thinks their contemporary experience are with her own talk – looking at the politicians have learnt from the still highly relevant today. lessons from more recent political 1930s that they should not ‘simply As he said, ‘our history is our pre- history, in particular the way the take the dictation of the market sent’ – just after quoting Gladstone limited teaching of history in the US without any question as to whether on Afghanistan. Different centuries, helps shapes its leaders’ worldview – it is right or whether it isn’t.’ Then different wars but the same humane, if you only teach American history, only the American President FDR liberal creed: ‘That philosophy of you end up with people who do not amongst western leaders bucked liberalism that combines a solu- think much beyond the boundaries that consensus of treating the tion to the questions of liberty and of America. This had ‘devastating recession as an act of inevitability, freedom – and sometimes, as John consequences’, Shirley Williams introducing instead a liberal and Stuart Mill said, they oppose each argued, when the lessons of the Viet- democratic government to fight other, the freedom to and the free- nam War and the state the country that which other people viewed as dom from – you have to determine was left in were not applied to Iraq. inevitable.

40 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 letters

The USA is also responsible On Ireland, Williams questions, including very strong would have married Mrs for her views on coalition. Wil- reminded the audience that Ire- comments about the importance Khrushchev. liams revealed that initially she land was long a passion of Wil- of the party improving the Closing the meeting, Dun- would have preferred a minor- liam Gladstone. The tragedy diversity of its parliamentary can Brack reminded people of ity Conservative government, of his inability to secure home party in the Commons from the comment made by the dis- with a confidence and supply rule for Ireland was a heavy both Williams and Ashdown. tinguished historian and Liberal arrangement rather than a for- burden on Britain and Ireland’s The latter admitted to changing Democrat peer, the late Conrad mal coalition. However, she has subsequent histories. But, much his mind on the topic and is now Russell, that the party via its since changed her mind, draw- less well known is that when willing to support more radical predecessors was probably the ing on what she has seen in the in office Gladstone offered temporary measures if neces- oldest political party in the USA and the dangers it shows the Zulus a military alliance sary than he was when leader of world. This 350 years of history of ‘total political polarisation’ against the Boers. When he fell the party. is captured in the new history stopping the government from as prime minister the proposal Ashdown also retold a story of the party – to remember, to taking necessary action in an fell apart, with huge costs to of a meeting between Henry celebrate and to learn. economic crisis. As a result, she South Africa, too. On this Kissinger and Mao Zedong. now thinks forming a coalition point, Williams did not explic- Seeking to kindle a shared Dr Mark Pack worked at Liberal ‘was necessary and it was right itly say what the lessons for interest in history to smooth Democrat party HQ in 2000–07 … One had to make the politi- modern Liberal Democrats are, the business, Kissinger asked and has contributed as an author or cal system work, even if it was the implication was left hang- Mao what he thought would editor to eighteen books spanning painful and difficult to do so.’ ing in the air that it meant – at have happened if it had been history, politics and technology. He Finally, looking back a least some of the time – being Khrushchev and not John F. is Co-Editor of the most widely read century to Britain’s own his- willing to militarily support Kennedy who had been assas- Liberal Democrat blog, Lib Dem tory, Shirley Wiliams said the oppressed. What she did say sinated. Mao pondered before Voice (www. LibDemVoice.org). there were three failures of in conclusion was that history saying that he doubted that the Liberal Party in 1911: on matters, for ‘we must learn the nice, rich Greek ship owner 1 http://bit.ly/ashdown1986 gender, inequality and Ireland. lessons, even the painful ones, ‘It was appalling that Asquith and not make the same mistakes consistently refused to consider again’. suffrage for women,’ she said, In answers to questions from before stressing that in her the audience, Ashdown agreed view the party had made far that Gladstone’s love of thrift too little progress in improv- and voluntarism is still very ing the diversity amongst relevant – environmentalism is its MPs – and has a diversity a form of thrift and community Letters problem illustrated by the politics is based on volunta- near all-white audience for the rism. But community politics Liberal Prime Ministers fringe meeting. The success of is greater than voluntarism, for There was a reference in Kevin Leader in the Commons 1875– ‘zipping’ in introducing gender community politics must also Theakston’s article on ‘The 80 and later Liberal Unionist balance amongst the party’s be about shifting power. afterlives of former Liberal Leader in the Lords) spent MEP’s points the way, she said, Williams agreed, saying the Prime Ministers’ (Journal of Lib- Christmas Day 1862 in the towards the need for action in country was increasingly realis- eral History 71, summer 2011) to Confederate States of America, other areas. ing how unreal the New Labour Lord John Russell and his Scot- making eggnog for cavalry The second failure was economic boom had been, based tish second wife being given offices in General Robert E. shown by the so-called work- on unsustainable debt producing Pembroke House in Richmond Lee’s army. ers’ rebellion, fuelled by a a mirage which both the public Park, by Queen Victoria, for Further, not only was the dramatic drop in real wages. and the government believed in. their lifetime use. According 5th (Scottish) Earl of Rosebery As with gender, this source of For her thrift has a moral and to Amanda Foreman in her – who sat in the Lords as 2nd 1911 failure is a challenge for psychological purpose, making excellent A World on Fire (Allen (UK) Lord Rosebery, not as a the modern party too, with real us more happy, she thinks, given Lane/Penguin Books, London, Scottish representative peer – wages once again dropping. the costs of the anxiety that 2010/2011), Lord John, when created a Knight of the Thistle But on this issue Williams said comes from seeking ever-more Foreign Secretary in 1859–65, on resigning as Prime Minister the party was getting right, riches rather than enjoying what also had the use of Abergeldie in 1895, he was also created with its emphasis on a fairer you have. Castle (two miles from Bal- 1st (UK) Earl of Midlothian, tax system, keeping the 50 per On voluntarism, Williams moral Castle on Deeside) which etc., in the 1911 Coronation cent tax rate and increasing the again agreed with Ashdown, Prince Albert had leased for Honours. After the former basic rate income tax allow- pointing to the amazing care forty years from 1840. Appar- Prime Minister – who did not ance to £10,000. When she was that hospices provide, thanks to ently, it was at Abergeldie that attend the House of Lords after first elected in 1964, the ratio a system based on voluntarism. Lord John had useful informal 1911 – had a severe stroke in between the pay of the coun- Repeating her high profile talks, during the US Civil War, 1919, his son and heir – who try’s leading chief executives opposition to some aspects with Charles Francis Adams was briefly Liberal National and the average wage of people of the government’s health (son and grandson of US Presi- Secretary of State for Scotland who worked in manufacturing reforms, she nonetheless saw a dents), the Minister at the US in May-August 1945 – entered was about 8:1 she said; now it key role for such voluntarism. Legation in London. the House of Lords as 2nd (UK) has risen to over 80:1. ‘That’s The question and answer Incidentally, Amanda Earl of Midlothian although not just inequality: it is appall- session was rather taken over Foreman also advises that the his father survived until 1929. ing obscenity.’ by contemporary political Marquis of Hartington (Liberal (The family is descended from

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 41 letters one of my wife’s 16th–17th cen- allowed to proceed by 319 votes refers to the selection of John Conservatives found a strong tury Primrose ancestors.) to 316. Johnston was the lead- Taylor, the black Conservative local candidate. Finally, strictly speaking, ing member of a very small candidate who lost the seat in Michael Steed Asquith did not ‘lose his own team which encouraged Paddy 1992, and to media comment on 1 John Curtice and Michael seat’ at the 1918 general elec- Ashdown to persevere in giving the link between Taylor’s race Steed, ‘The Results Analysed’, tion. The East Fife constitu- Liberal Democrat support for and the outcome, but sees it as in David Butler and Dennis ency, which he had represented the Major government’s efforts an injustice to Nigel Jones’ own Kavanagh, The British General since 1886, did not include the to sustain the new Treaty. Had ‘profoundly anti-racist politics’. Election of 1992 (Macmillan, 1992), seven Royal Burghs within that vote been lost at West- But was that why Taylor lost pp. 338–39. its bounds which were in the minster the Treaty would have the seat? Horwood does not say. 2 Michael Steed, ‘The Results separate constituency of St fallen and subsequent European There is clear evidence that Analysed’, in David Butler and Andrews Burghs, which from history would have been very the Conservatives did worse Dennis Kavanagh, The British 1886 was only Liberal held in different. than they should have done in General Election of October 1974 1903–06 and briefly in 1910. Second, Johnston was the 1992. This is discussed in detail (Macmillan, 1975), pp. 343–45. The constituency in which principal British figure at the in the appendix to the Nuffield Asquith was defeated in 1918 birth (1977) and in the later study on that general election.1 was a combination of his old development of the European Essentially we found that the Liberal Unionists constituency and the usually Liberal Democrat and Reform drop in the Tory vote was sig- Ian Cawood’s interesting anal- Tory (or Liberal Unionist) St Party (ELDR). As Finnie nificantly higher than the local ysis of the relationship between Andrews Burghs. The enlarged observes, Johnston was frus- pattern of voting movements, Liberal Unionists and Con- constituency was Liberal in trated in his efforts to be elected and that this was linked to a servatives ( Journal of Liberal His- 1922–24, Tory in 1924–29, MEP, but he served well the below-average rise in turnout. tory 72, autumn 2011) makes for Liberal in 1929–31 and then Liberal cause in Europe over Some Conservative voters good reading. It ends, perfectly Liberal National or Tory until decades, and was Vice-Presi- must have stayed at home in reasonably, with the merger being won (as North East Fife) dent of ELDR until giving way a racially prejudiced protest. of 1912. There was, though, by (Sir) Menzies Campbell in (against his will) to Ashdown. It is impossible to say exactly an afterlife of sorts in the per- 1987. Russell Johnston has an hon- how many, but we suggested son of Neville Chamberlain. Incidentally, Mrs Emma oured place in the pantheon of about 2 per cent of the elector- Accepting the Conservative Tennant (Margot Asquith’s European Liberals. ate. If, as an exercise, you add Party leadership on 1 June 1937, mother) could not have said Andrew Duff MEP 2 per cent of the electorate to Chamberlain said that he ‘was anything about Lloyd George the 1992 Conservative vote, not born a little Conservative. I as Prime Minister as she (Mrs Nigel Jones would have won was brought up as a Liberal and Tennant) died in 1895. Perhaps Cheltenham the seat by just 72 votes instead afterwards as a Liberal Union- Kevin Theakston meant Mar- Martin Horwood’s fascinating of 1,668. Too close to call on ist. The fact that I am here, got Asquith’s stepmother. story of Cheltenham elections that basis. accepted by you Conservatives Dr Sandy S. Waugh (Journal of Liberal History 71, sum- However, one should refer as your leader, is to my mind a mer 2011) illustrates how lucky back to the findings in the demonstration of the catholic- he is to have such a constitu- October 1974 appendix.2 That ity of the Conservative Party.’ Russell Johnston ency. There are very few con- was when Charles Irving was (Source: Andrew Crozier, Dic- Ross Finnie gives a valuable stituencies which have remained first elected as Conservative tionary of National Biography.) review of Russell Johnston’s essentially unchanged in size or MP, replacing a non-local Chamberlain certainly inspiring life (Journal of Liberal character since 1832; and there incumbent. The evidence of his appears to distinguish himself History 71, summer 2011). Two are not many more which cor- personal vote (for a Conserva- from the party he was about to more features are worthy of respond so clearly to one distinct tive non-incumbent) was one of lead, but whether there was a recall. entity, such as a town or island. the clearest at that or any other political difference is another First, Johnston was one of Generally, population move- election I have studied. I sug- question. the very few Members of the ments and boundary change gested then ‘his local reputation Paul Hunt House of Commons engaged in disrupt such links of continu- was worth a personal vote of the scrutiny of European Union ity and community; the new around 1,500.’ affairs from a pro-European mathematically strict boundary Irving’s subsequent majori- The Triple Lock stance. His role became of key drawing rules will make for ties made both the complacent Mark Pack’s article on the triple importance in the debates over more such disruption in future. Conservatives and the met- lock (Journal of Liberal History the ratification of the Treaty of This coherence of constitu- ropolitan media assume that 72, autumn 2011) referred to me Maastricht. His interventions ency and community facili- Cheltenham was a safer Con- a couple of times, so a few com- in the protracted wrangling tates genuinely local election servative seat than it really was. ments seem appropriate. were often bold and incisive, behaviour; such constituencies Their expectation that Taylor In the run-up to the 2010 providing useful cover for are more likely to produce could easily inherit that major- general election, I advised Tory government ministers deviant local swings at general ity, and their simple conclusion both Danny Alexander and assailed by the Eurosceptics elections, or good votes for that race was the reason he Ros Scott of my provisional on their own benches, while independents. Cheltenham failed to, reflected their lack of view that the triple lock was goading Labour for its lack illustrates both. understanding of local voting not constitutionally binding. of scruple and consistency on That is the context in which behaviour in Cheltenham. I I say ‘provisional’ because, as I matters European. The crucial to enquire further into the had already concluded that the explained when I gave the same Commons vote on Maastricht controversial bit of Chelten- Liberal Democrats had a good view to the Federal Execu- took place on 4 November ham’s electoral history which chance of gaining Cheltenham tive (as Mark notes), I was then 1992 when the ratification was Horwood skirts around. He when Irving retired, unless the Chair of the Federal Appeals

42 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 letters

Panel, and I was not prepared Coalitions who continued in the Cabinet by the local Liberals and was to give a definitive view in case Anent your special issue on throughout its three years’ defeated by H. H. Asquith by I subsequently had to consider coalitions (Journal of Liberal His- existence. The three departing 374 votes at the 1886 general the question formally. tory 72, autumn 2011), I would Peelites on 21 February 1852 election. That actually arose on an offer a few comments on Angus were replaced numerically by Ian Cawood might also have application by a party member, Hawkins’ contribution (which two Whigs (Lord John Rus- mentioned that from the failure and I invited Gordon Lishman would have been better sub- sell and Robert Vernon Smith) of the ‘Round Table’ confer- to make a submission as to the titled as ‘Whigs, Peelites and and one Radical (Sir William ence on Liberal reunion in early validity of the triple lock. This Radicals’ rather than as ‘Whigs, Molesworth). 1887, to opposition to the Con- was carefully considered by a Peelites and Liberals’) and Ian Secondly, it should be appre- servatives’ imposition of semi- panel consisting of myself and Cawood’s contribution on ‘The ciated that George Goschen permanent coercive policies in the respective Chairs of the Liberal Unionist – Conserva- ‘was unable to take on the role Ireland later in 1887, to oppo- English and Welsh State Party tive Alliance’ from 1886. of leader of the [Liberal] rebel- sition to Imperial Preference/ Appeals Panels. Firstly, Viscount Palm- lion’ against Gladstone’s Irish Tariff Reform from May 1903 We delivered our ruling erston’s first administration Home Rule policy in early and to support for Irish Land in August 2010 to the Federal (1855–58) was, certainly ini- 1886 not only ‘because of his Reform from 1904, and also President, Chief Executive and tially, just as much a Whig- distance from the Liberals since including direct ‘conversions’ Operations Director, leaving Peelite-Radical coalition as 1874’, etc. (Ian Cawood) but to Irish Home Rule, there were, it to them to determine how that of the Earl of Aberdeen in also because he had opposed at least, twenty-five Liberal it should be published (sorry to 1852–55. The Cabinet formed the extension of the borough/ Unionist MPs, candidates or disabuse Liberator of yet another on 2 February 1855 included burgh franchise to the counties peers who rejoined the Liberal conspiracy theory!). In the nine Whigs and five Peelites. in 1877 and because, at the 1885 Party – from Sir George Otto interests of open government, Three of the Peelites – William general election he had been Trevelyan in 1887 to Cameron I am happy to supply a copy to Gladstone, Sir James Graham elected (with Conservative sup- Corbett (father-in-law of Jo anyone interested (requests to and Sydney Herbert – resigned port) as Independent Liberal Grimond’s sister) in 1910. Thus [email protected]). within a fortnight, in opposi- MP for Edinburgh West in with also the Marquis of Har- Please note that we were tion to Viscount Palmerston’s opposition to a Radical Liberal. tington (8th Duke of Devonshire careful not to say that the triple intention to initiate an investi- As the Liberal Unionist candi- from 1891), Liberal Unionist lock was a nullity, as clearly it gation into the conduct of the date at the 1886 general election Leader in the Commons (1886– represented the general view of Crimean War for which they, he lost Edinburgh West to a 91) and in the Lords (1891–1904) conference. And we emphasised with the Earl of Aberdeen, had (Gladstonian) Liberal by 2,253 defecting to the cross benches in the importance of consultation. been primarily responsible. to 3,694 votes. 1907, and the number of Liberal But we did conclude that it was However, two other Peelites Thirdly, not all the ‘radical Unionist MPs falling from 77 not constitutionally valid in remained in the Cabinet: Unionists managed to carry in 1886 to 36 in 1910, the union two key respects – binding the Charles Canning (1st Viscount their constituency associations of the Liberal Unionists and the Commons party, and binding Canning) until December 1855, with them’ (Ian Cawood). John Conservatives as Unionists in the conference – without hav- when he resigned in anticipa- Boyd Kinnear, elected for East 1912 was perhaps inevitable. ing been proposed and passed as tion of his appointment as Fife as a Radical Liberal at the Dr Sandy S. Waugh a constitutional amendment by Governor-General of India, 1885 general election, was, as a two-thirds majority. and the 8th Duke of Argyll a Liberal Unionist, repudiated Philip Goldenberg

ORPINGTON JUBILEE It is not just the Queen’s Jubilee in 2012; it is also a jubilee year for Liberals. On 14 March 2012 it will be fifty years ago since Eric Lubbock – ‘a modest unassuming local resident’, according to a special issue of New Outlook – won a sensational victory in the Orpington by-election. (The result was declared on the 15th which explains why some accounts date the by-election to that day.) ‘My God’, said a bewildered-looking Jo Grimond when the poll was declared, ‘it’s an incredible result’. Four days earlier Mr Grimond, in the days before the Focus bar chart, had been explaining to commentators why the Liberals could not win. The Orpington Circle, based at the National Liberal Club, will be celebrating this very special occasion in style at a dinner on Wednesday 14 March 2012. The Guest of Honour is, of course, the ‘unassuming local resident’, and we are hoping to attract as many Orpington veterans as possible. Liberal Democrat President Tim Farron MP is not old enough to have helped at Orpington, but he is a most entertaining speaker and we look forward to hearing from him at the dinner. One person who did help was William Wallace, academic and Government Whip in the Lords, and we shall also hear from him and, hopefully, from some others too. The price of the three-course meal, with wine and a drinks reception beforehand, will be roughly £50. We expect this to be a ‘sell-out’ event, and special booking forms will be available in January. Please register your interest with Louisa Pooley (email: [email protected]) at the National Liberal Club and you will be sent a form as soon as booking opens. We would also like to mount a small Orpington Exhibition for the occasion in conjunction with the Liberal Democrat History Group. Please contact Paul Hunt (email: [email protected]) if you have any early 1960s Liberal memorabilia which you are prepared to loan. The Orpington Circle was founded in 2008 and has raised over £20,000 for the exclusive use of Liberal Democrat candidates in Westminster by- elections.

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 43 and Liberal Democrats. I was a rea- sonably active member in the 1980s reviews and found that chapter rang true to my own experiences at the time – whilst likewise the penultimate section, dealing with the Liberal Comprehensive Liberal history Democrats since the merger of the Robert Ingham and Duncan Brack (eds.), Peace, Reform Liberal Party and the SDP in 1988 and written by Duncan Brack from and Liberation: A History of Liberal Politics in Britain 1679–2011 his inside perspective, gives a real (Biteback Publishing, 2011) insight into the story of the party in recent years. Reviewed by Malcolm Baines However, whilst the book gives an excellent account of the party eace, Reform and Libera- the formation of the Liberal Party from the perspective of its head tion is the latest publication as a coalition of Whig, Radicals and office and Westminster leadership, Punder the aegis of the Liberal Peelites. Also missing is some more it could have benefitted from more Democrat History Group. Unlike background on nineteenth-century examination of Liberal activity in previous books, which contained politics – it seems puzzling, for wider civil society, including local biographies of Liberal and Liberal example, that the Liberals obtained government since 1979, looking at Democrat politicians and thinkers, substantially more votes than their for example the role of ALDC in extracts from speeches, quotations Conservative rivals in many of the the growth in council representa- or thought, and were marketed as elections in the 1830s and 1840s, but tion and the attempts by Liberals in handy reference works, this is an often had only a small majority or places like Liverpool, Kingston and altogether more ambitious attempt even a deficit of seats. Presumably Tower Hamlets to implement their at a comprehensive history of the the reason is that more Tories were values at local level. Also interest- party from the Exclusion Crisis of unopposed or that the Liberals ing would have been more on the 1679–81, which crystallised opposi- represented larger constituencies, social character of the party’s areas tion to the succession of Catholic but the electoral context is not fully of traditional electoral strength James to the English throne, to the explained. However the Introduc- – the background to its enduring decision of the party to join a coali- tion by Michael Freeden giving appeal in Cornwall and parts of the tion with the Conservatives in 2011. an overview of the Liberal Party ‘Celtic fringe’ for instance. More This book is unusual in that it and Liberal politics throughout the generally over the whole period, is a collection of essays by different whole period is a real tour de force there could have been more on authors covering the history of the and is almost worth buying the Liberal relations with external Whigs, the Liberal Party and the book for on its own. Liberal Democrats over that 330- From 1859 onwards, the action year period. Unlike other histories moves forwards with consider- of the Liberal Party, Peace, Reform able pace through the Gladstonian and Liberation offers a complete period to the splits and disagree- chronology as well as the official ments of the 1880s and 1890s and stamp of an introduction by Nick on to the New Liberal years before Clegg. Consequently, although the First World War. Chapters are the momentum of the narrative written by a mixture of History of the party’s history sometimes Group stalwarts like Tony Little falters it is nevertheless a superb and Robert Ingham and respected reference book for the party’s his- historians such as Eugenio Biagini, tory throughout the period. One Martin Pugh and David Dutton. very effective feature of the whole These provide well-written sum- book is a series of insets looking at maries of the party’s history in individual Liberals, places or events the twentieth century, including in greater detail, which very hand- charting the disintegration of the ily are separately indexed. These party in the 1920s and 1930s, the give the book additional weight as disappointment of the immedi- a reference volume as do the superb ate post-war years and the revival appendices dealing with party under the leaderships of Grimond, organisation, electoral performance Thorpe and Steel. There are espe- and party leaders, as well as provid- cially strong chapters on the party ing a timeline of party history. under the leadership of Samuel and If the book has a weakness it is Sinclair in the 1930s, including the that the earlier chapters seem a little split with the Liberal Nationals, bit rushed, covering as they do 150 and the editors have rightly chosen years to 1832 followed by another to look at this in detail rather than twenty-nine to 1859, the year of glossing over these years as is often the famous meeting in Willis’s the case. Also particularly good are Rooms which traditionally marks the sections covering the Alliance

44 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 reviews Peace, Reform and Liberation A History of Liberal Politics in Britain, 1679–2011

The British Liberal Party, and, by extension, its successor, the Liberal Democrats, has a good claim to be regarded as the oldest political party in the world. This book is a comprehensive single-volume history of that party, its beliefs and its impact.

Written by academics and experts, drawing on the most recent scholarly research, Peace, Reform and Liberation is the most comprehensive and most up-to-date guide to the story of those who called themselves Liberals, what inspired them and what they achieved over the last 300 years and more.

An essential source for anyone interested in the contribution of Liberals and Liberalism to British politics.

Available at a special discounted rate for Journal of Liberal History subscribers: £24 instead of the normal £30.

To order, please send a cheque (made out to ‘Liberal Democrat History Group’) for the cover price plus postage and packing at the rate of £4 for one copy; £7 for two copies; £9 for three copies; and add £1 for each further copy. Orders should be sent to: LDHG, 54 Midmoor Road, London SW12 0EN.

groups such as the Nonconformist – but it is both an excellent intro- Following completion of a D.Phil. on churches, trade unions, manufac- duction for the student and a great Liberal Party survival in Britain, 1932 to turing, the City and the profes- reference book for both the party 1959, at Exeter College, Oxford, Mal- sions. These would have given member and those interested in colm Baines now works in tax for a well- Peace, Reform and Liberation a wider politics more generally. known hotel and serviced offices group. perspective on the party and set it in a broader political and electoral context. These minor caveats aside, though, the History Group is to be commended for producing this Personalities and causes of the left history of the party and Liberalism since the end of the seventeenth K. O. Morgan, Ages of Reform: Dawns and Downfalls of the century. Other party histories are British Left (I.B.Tauris, 2011) either rather dated like Roy Doug- las’s Liberals: The History of the Liberal Reviewed by Martin Pugh and Liberal Democrat Parties, dry and academic like A Short History of the eaders of the Journal of Lib- personalities, including Keir Hardie, Liberal Party: the Road Back to Power, eral History will find much Lloyd George, Nye Bevan, Jim Cal- or primarily cover the twentieth Rto interest them in Ages of laghan and Michael Foot, four of century like David Dutton’s A Reform, a collection of nineteen whom have been the subject of biog- History of the Liberal Party. Ingham essays, lectures and articles writ- raphies by Morgan, and also on the and Brack is not a substitute for the ten by Ken Morgan over a long great issues and causes of progressive range of more academic studies period and ranging widely across politics, as opposed to questions of of the party at different periods – left-wing politics in nineteenth and party organisation and elections. indeed each chapter ends with a list twentieth century Britain. They Some chapters are short, though of suggestions for further reading reflect an emphasis on the prominent none the worse for that, notably

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 45 reviews his splendidly incisive speech in Labour prime ministers have got extension of inter-war policy in the House of Lords attacking the on rather well with their monarchs which the parties cooperated over decision to go to war in Iraq. The and the wider movement has shown moves to extend participation in sentiments, if not the language, are minimal interest in republicanism. government to Indians, the main reminiscent of Gladstone’s condem- The foolish decision to exclude Blair controversies occurring within the nation of Disraeli for his irresponsi- and Brown from the royal wed- Conservative Party. ble imperialist wars in the late 1870s. ding is completely out of line with In ‘The rise and fall of nation- The speech is also a reminder that a past practice. From the early 1920s alisation’ Morgan tackles another modicum of knowledge about the onwards Labour politicians were important but neglected theme. dismal history of British invasions routinely invited to royal functions He traces Labour’s gradual adop- of Afghanistan on the part of today’s which they eagerly accepted. tion of nationalisation between the Labour and Liberal Democrat politi- The question is why has Labour wars leading to the innovations cians might have opened their eyes been so content with a heredi- of 1945–51 and the party’s marked to the predictable fiasco in which tary monarchy? Morgan does not retreat from the idea thereafter. But Britain has been embroiled for ten delve far into this, but part of the why did Labour lose confidence in years. explanation is that, in so far as the whole enterprise so quickly ? As It is hardly possible in a review Labour has been a working-class Morgan points out, the timing of of this kind to comment on all nine- movement, it has simply reflected the launch was not perfect – a fuel teen of the chapters. Suffice it to working-class enthusiasm for the crisis in 1947 undermined wartime say that this reviewer’s interest was royal family. The other is that confidence in planning and linked especially attracted by several of the George V set a crucial precedent in nationalisation with failure. But essays in the second half of the book 1924 when he invited Ramsay Mac- this is not sufficient explanation. dealing with aspects of Labour his- Donald to form a government with It was an error, politically, not tory. For example, Morgan draws a mere 191 MPs and with no condi- to involve the labour force more attention to a neglected theme in tions attached. In effect, the king closely in the running of nation- ‘Labour and republicanism’ – or conferred legitimacy on Labour at alised industries and thereby to perhaps one should say ‘Labour and a time when Tory propaganda was take the opportunity to build an monarchism’. Historically Liber- denouncing it as unfit to govern. ethos around the idea of collective als have experienced more conflict A similar question is raised by ownership. As a result, by the early with monarchs than Labour partly the chapter dealing with Labour 1950s there was no popular appetite because they tend to be more inter- and imperialism. Morgan’s focus for further nationalisation. Yet ested in constitutional questions and is on a handful of leading figures nationalisation was never as unpop- because their governments suffered during the post-1945 era. As a ular as later propaganda suggests, from Queen Victoria’s inability result, he tends to miss the extent to partly because state ownership had to adjust to her role as a politically which the early Labour movement a longer history. Early Socialists neutral figurehead. By contrast, reflected conventional attitudes like Robert Blatchford had used the about empire. Though not very Victorian Post Office as evidence interested in India and Africa, it of the efficiency and popularity of was enthusiastic about the colonies public enterprise. The foundation of white settlement which were of the Forestry Commission in 1920 seen to offer opportunities for reflected the general belief that state emigration, markets, employ- intervention was necessary to rem- ment, trade union organisation edy the failure of the private sector and, in Australia and New Zealand, to invest in the national interest. Labour Parties that won power Moreover, Labour’s nationalisa- relatively early and offered useful tion programme proved to be too models for interventionist social narrow, focusing on problematic, legislation. underfunded industries and back- Instead Morgan examines the ing away from profitable private process of post-war decolonisation monopolies in consumer goods in which Labour, though largely such as sugar refining. out of power, proved to be influen- Morgan’s survey of Labour tial. He makes a strong case for the and the special relationship with role of Jim Callaghan as both sup- the United States offers a useful porter and critic of Conservative corrective to impressions of the policy under Lennox Boyd and Ian Blair–Brown era. He reminds us Macleod. In effect, decolonisation that while the relationship enjoyed was an aspect of consensus politics, a brief climax during the late 1940s although Morgan does not use the during the Cold War, it was other- word. Indeed, Labour sometimes wise complicated by friction over wanted to proceed more slowly to such issues as the post-war loan, the independence than the Conserva- atomic bomb and the Korean War, tives in that it aspired to create a but also sustained by Gaitskell’s measure of democracy and eco- enthusiasm for America, by sym- nomic stability before renouncing pathy for New Deal policies and by control. In many ways this was an the writing of J. K. Galbraith. It is

46 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 reviews salutary to note that three Labour polls twice in a short space of time. governments have effectively been A second election in 1910 failed to destroyed by slavishly follow- improve the Asquith government’s ing American priorities: those of position. In 1951 Attlee risked his Attlee, Blair and Wilson. The latter small 1950 majority at a second bought American backing for the election and lost it. After the first currency after 1964 with a view election of 1974 Wilson’s minority to avoiding devaluation, thereby government successfully managed upsetting his entire economic to lead the country out of the chaos strategy; Wilson antagonised his of the miners’ strike, the three-day domestic support by backing the week and raging inflation, though war in Vietnam but irritated the it suffered fifty-nine parliamentary Americans by resisting pressure to defeats in 1974–76. Encouraged by send troops to fight there. Morgan the pollsters, Wilson opted for the shows that even in the 1960s Ameri- expected autumn election – and can politicians had little genuine failed to win the expected working regard for Britain despite extrava- majority. Would a minority Tory gant public displays of mutual government, handicapped by eco- admiration. nomic austerity and internal divi- Finally, Morgan offers a per- sions in 2010–11, really have been suasive revisionist view of the in a position to risk a second elec- Wilson-Callaghan governments tion? On the contrary, the ensuing of 1974–79 which, indirectly, post-election interval would have gives food for thought for Liberal allowed Lib Dems to maintain their Democrats. Although the party distinctiveness and leave the Con- learnt some lessons from the abor- servatives to shoulder the blame tive pact between David Steel and for economic failure while giving Jim Callaghan, its present leaders Labour the opportunity to select have hopelessly misjudged the a new leader, distance itself from wider implications of minority Blairism and cooperate with the Lib government. In May 2010 both the Dems to oust the government. Lib Dem negotiators and the MPs generally seem to have assumed Martin Pugh was Professor of Modern ideas and debate. I recall, for that they could not risk leaving the British History at Newcastle University instance, at my first Liberal Assem- Conservatives to form a minority until 1999 and is now a freelance his- bly in 1961, Jo attended a meeting at government because that would torian. His most recent book is Speak Edinburgh University. He sat on a lead to a second general election and for Britain! A New History of the table surrounded by a large attend- an inevitable government victory. Labour Party (2010) and he is currently ance of maybe two hundred Young However, there is scant histori- writing a book on the crisis of British Liberals happily participating in a cal support for this view. Voters national identity, which will be pub- lively debate on current issues, with- tend to resent being forced to the lished in 2012. out any sense of condescension or hierarchy on his part. Grimond directly and indirectly sparked a whole raft of policy publications. By 1960 there was the beginnings of a formidable research Policy and ideology department at headquarters headed Tudor Jones, The Revival of British Liberalism – From Grimond by Harry Cowie, a very able but somewhat acerbic Scot in whom to Clegg (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) Grimond placed considerable trust. Reviewed by Michael Meadowcroft By the time of my arrival at head- quarters in January 1962, there were also three research assistants, John ny Liberal wanting a single Liberal writing over fifty-five years, Blake, Michael O’Hara and Ann reference volume on the by interviewing a wide range of Rodden, and between them they Adevelopment of party policy contributors to the policy debate – produced a high-quality monthly from 1956 to the present, and its including, I need to declare, myself political bulletin Current Topics relevance to the political history of – and by utilising his particular and staffed a series ofNew Direc- the Liberal and Liberal Democrat speciality of political thought, he tions policy booklets, plus a set of parties, will find this an admirable has brought a remarkable sense of reports on key subjects by commit- and reliable guide. Tudor Jones has order to what would otherwise be tees which included experts from applied his experience and academic regarded as an inchoate jumble. beyond the party’s formal member- skills to produce a companion vol- Jones uses the advent of Jo Gri- ship, drawn in by Grimond’s char- ume to recent political histories mond to the Liberal leadership as the ismatic leadership. of Liberalism. By spending four starting point of his study not least Grimond tells in his memoirs of years reading the whole oeuvre of because Jo enjoyed and welcomed arriving in the Commons in 1950

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 47 48 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 reviews and being thrust immediately into The book own judgements. It rightly makes reference, rightly regarding them as the uncongenial role of Chief Whip those of us who have had a long the definitive expression of the par- and of the disparate free spirits that sets Liberal involvement and, often, inside ty’s political stance at that moment made up his small team. I suspect experience, take on board evidence in time. He ties in with this that one underlying reason for his philosophy that impinges on our prejudices! approach the semi-official books promotion of party policy initia- His methodology enables him, for that have accompanied the mani- tives was to find a unifying corpus firmly into instance, to place the community festo at every election since 1945, of policy to shift the political focus politics strategy within a broader and he traces the freer expression away from parliament in which the party’s framework of party activity and of policy that is possible between Liberal representation was capri- political it enables him to coin the choice elections. The book is an excellent cious and largely dependent on phrase ‘Denting the Mould’ for a compendium of Liberal publishing local personalities and historical history and later period. This method brings over half a century. party arrangements. into focus the existence over the Given his thorough coverage of As Jones points out, Grimond as such it is long term of a much more consist- the Ashdown years and the subse- had already been part of the group ent broad body of policy than the quent twists and turns, Jones can be that produced the book The Unser- a valuable short-term battles would have forgiven the long gestation period vile State, edited by George Watson indicated at the time, provoked as for his book. It ends tantalisingly in 1957, the publication of which led addition to they often were by internal strife – with the election of Nick Clegg as to a series of pamphlets on separate such as the problems that brought leader and as a consequence it lacks topics, and had himself published the litera- into being the Liberal Commission a review of the past four crucial his first book in 1959 in time for of 1969, chaired by Donald Wade, years of a leader who speaks always that year’s general election. Other ture. I hope, which produced the excellent of Liberals and Liberalism and groups in the party sought to take report Facing the Future. whose book The Liberal Moment part in the flurry of ideas. The probably in This approach is valuable, both (Demos, 2009) is as good a short Young Liberals and the Union of to historians and to those activists statement of social liberalism as Liberal Students joined together in vain, that who understand the key importance has appeared in recent years. One 1959 for what they originally called of rooting current thinking and looks forward to a second, updated, ‘Operation Manifesto’ until the it will be strategy in the experience of the paperback edition taking us up to party bosses convinced them that past and of linking consistency with the coalition, which might also be this would be confused with the widely read innovation. Jones is exceptionally more within the affordable range of party’s official election manifesto. by the cur- surefooted and brings a scrupulous such books. Between 1960 and 1968 it produced honesty to his assessment of party The book sets Liberal philoso- nineteen pamphlets. Finally the rent Focus- writings. Speaking for myself, I phy firmly into the party’s political monthly publication New Outlook would have welcomed a critic of this history and as such it is a valuable was launched at the 1961 party obsessed calibre. All too often efforts at expo- addition to the literature. I hope, assembly as a semi-official publica- sition of Liberalism and at critiques probably in vain, that it will be tion in effect to fill the long gap generation of other political philosophies have widely read by the current Focus- caused by the demise of the Liberal seemed to attract only approbation obsessed generation of Liberal Magazine in 1950. of Liberal from colleagues and otherwise to Democrat activists. Jones points out: ‘These varied float into the ether untested. All of Liberal publications underlined Democrat us benefit from debate and discus- Michael Meadowcroft was a Leeds City the importance which Grimond sion and there is far too little of it Councillor, 1968–1983, and Liberal MP attached to the formulation and activists. today. And one does not have to for Leeds West, 1983–87. He has held communication of policy and ideas agree with all Jones’ conclusions to numerous local and national offices in the as an essential part of his attempt to welcome his work. Liberal Party and is currently the Chair restore the intellectual and political Jones takes the party’s election of the Leeds Liberal Democrats Cam- credibility of his party.’ Further on manifestos as his main points of paign Development Group. in the book, Jones draws attention to the somewhat unpalatable fact that the later Grimond expressed support for the economic liberal- ism of the Institute of Economic Affairs. Grimond Liberals of the Secular intellectuals 1950s and 1960s vintages have pre- ferred to hang on to his consistent William C. Lubenow, Liberal Intellectuals and Public support for community initiatives, Culture in Modern Britain, 1815–1914: Making Words Flesh co-ownership and a diminution of (Boydell Press, 2010) ‘bureaucratic blight.’ Jones’ great skill lies in allying Reviewed by Iain Sharpe the key events in the party’s his- tory to its policy development. he starting point for Profes- Britain from the patronage values He does this with great clarity but sor Lubenow’s book is that of the confessional fiscal-military without apparent bias so that, for Tthe repeal of the Test and state’ and ‘opened political and instance, his assessment of party Corporation Acts in 1828 and the social space by forging liberal leaders and their effectiveness ena- granting of Catholic emancipa- values’. The author traces the bles the reader to make his or her tion the following year ‘wrested intellectual life and social milieu

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 49 reviews of the secular public intellectu- on civil service reform, came from attitudes of Catholic aristocrats, als who emerged to fill this new a wealthy West Country family, who in the early part of the nine- social space. The intellectuals but pursued an administrative teenth century often supported referred to in the title were not career. He fathered something of a the Liberals because they were specialists in particular fields but literary/political dynasty. His son more sympathetic than the Tories rather those who pursued profes- George Otto went on to become to religious equality, but as the sional, academic or literary careers a Liberal Cabinet minister under century wore on increasingly (indeed often combinations of Gladstone, as well as pursing a liter- moved towards Conservatism. Two these) having studied at Oxford ary career, writing a well-known particular episodes prompted this: or Cambridge. Their interests multi-volume history of the Amer- first Lord John Russell’s overtly were wide-ranging, encompass- ican war of independence. Of his anti-Catholic Ecclesiastical Titles ing not only history, politics, sons, one, C. P. Trevelyan became Act of 1851; secondly, and perhaps science, mathematics and litera- first a Liberal then a Labour MP surprisingly, Gladstone’s adoption ture, but also travel, in particular and a Cabinet minister in the 1924 of home rule, which they saw as Alpine mountaineering. What and 1929–31 governments, while pandering to ‘revolutionary’ Irish united them was an intellectual another, G. M Trevelyan was both nationalism. Many secular Liberals approach that incorporated accept- a popular and an academically emi- too had problems with Irish home ance of doubt and rejection of nent historian, ending up as Regius rule, although they had earlier sup- dogmatic religion – for example Professor of History at Cambridge ported other nationalisms, such their interest in the study of sta- University. as Italian reunification. Those tistics reflected an acceptance that A continuing thread through- Liberal intellectuals who became knowledge could be a matter of out the book is the careers and Liberal Unionists did so for vari- probability rather than certainty. families of the brothers Sir James ous reasons, which can perhaps be The author outlines how the role Fitzjames Stephen and Sir Leslie best summed up as a fear of both of Oxford and Cambridge universi- Stephen. The former was a lawyer, the (Irish) Roman Catholic nature ties changed to put more emphasis judge and polemicist, who stood of Irish nationalism and its revolu- on academic achievement and twice as a Liberal parliamentary tionary character. To grant home preparing students for the secular candidate, but who gave up party rule, they believed, would pave professions rather than the Angli- politics due to a reluctance to pan- the way for despotism, or at least a can priesthood. At the same time, der to public opinion, and who ‘demagogic democracy’. members of the old aristocracy ended up as a vociferous opponent This book will add much to our ‘brought themselves into the mod- of Gladstone over home rule. understanding of the nineteenth- ern world by accepting university His younger brother Leslie, the century British intellectual world, values and its indeterminate knowl- founding editor of the Dictionary of its opinions and thought processes. edge’. For example, Sir Charles National Biography, is often cited as If I have a reservation about Trevelyan, assistant secretary to an exemplar of nineteenth-century it, other than over the author’s the Treasury and joint author of intellectuals’ loss of faith. He annoying stylistic tick of using the Northcote–Trevelyan Report took holy orders in order to gain repetition for emphasis, it is about a Cambridge fellowship, but later how important the intellectuals renounced them, claiming to have depicted in this book actually were ‘never believed’. He is described by within Victorian Liberalism. Just Professor Lubenow as belonging to as one feels that the attitudes of the a ‘metropolitan but indeterminate Bloomsbury Group, who are also social world between the universi- much discussed in this volume, are ties and the state’. The DNB was often given too much prominence his ‘great history of liberalism’, in studies of the inter-war period, which ‘measured social worth by one is left feeling that the subjects the standards of imagination and of Professor Lubenow’s study were education’ rather than social class certainly clever and learned, but in or military achievement. Professor the end they didn’t matter all that Lubenow also devotes considerable much. attention to the world of Stephen’s The author acknowledges in daughter, Virginia Woolf and her the introduction to the book that fellow Bloomsbury Group mem- Liberal ideology also owed much bers, John Maynard Keynes, Lytton to ‘Whig aristocracy’, ‘Manchester Strachey and E. M. Forster, who in markets’ and ‘religious groups such many ways continued the spirit of as Unitarians’, although the latter secular Liberal intellectualism into were hardly typical of the noncon- the 1920s and beyond. formist churches whose members The author concludes with were so important to Liberalism. two chapters highlighting the It is a pity that the book makes so problematic relationships between little attempt to engage with these liberalism and, on the one hand, different crosscurrents of Liberal Roman Catholicism and on the thought. Similarly, it is curious other nationalism. He charts the (and the author admits as much)

50 Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 reviews that Conservatives such as Arthur the book would have been better Balfour, George Curzon and the titled ‘Secular intellectuals’ rather fourteenth Earl of Derby are also than ‘Liberal intellectuals’. roped into the ranks of Liberal intellectuals because they illustrate Iain Sharpe recently completed a ‘processes and procedures associ- University of London PhD thesis on ated with liberalism’. This does ‘Herbert Gladstone and Liberal Party leave the problem however, that Revival, 1899–1905’. He is a Liberal they were not actually Liberals. For Democrat councillor in Watford. all its undoubted merits, perhaps

For Gladstone and Henry George Paul Mulvey, The Political Life of Josiah C. Wedgwood: Land, Liberty and Empire, 1872–1943 (Royal Historical Society, 2010) Reviewed by Richard Toye

hen Josiah C. Wedg- individualist, making him difficult wood died at the age for historians to place; Mulvey’s Wof seventy-one, the achievement is, without making Canadian journalist J. F. Sander- exaggerated claims for his signifi- son recalled an episode he had cance, to show why he should be witnessed four years earlier, at taken seriously. the outbreak of the Second World Wedgwood is probably best War. After Neville Chamberlain remembered for his association made his formal declaration of with three ideas: land reform, pro- energy and enthusiasm created it, war, the air-raid warning sounded. gressive reform in India, and Zion- his carelessness, bellicosity and Wedgwood, at that time a Labour ism. He remained faithful to the sheer lack of management talent MP (he was ennobled in 1942), first of these causes after it went alienated the very people that he refused to follow the crowd into out of fashion, adopted the second needed to make it a success’ (p. the parliamentary bomb shelter. before it came into fashion, and 177). The balance of this assess- ‘He calmly announced that it was began advocating the third during ment, though, is perhaps not quite a practice raid because no bombs the First World War, exactly as it generous enough, given that His- would fall on London for six came into fashion. His combina- tory of Parliament Trust, freed months’ (Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, 30 tion of beliefs, some of which were from Wedgwood’s eccentric meth- July 1943). Other members argued ‘extreme and marginal’ (p. 204), odology and Whiggish ideological with him, but he put his money may have been idiosyncratic, but proclivities, carries out excellent where his mouth was and in due Mulvey places him convincingly work to this day. course won his bet. The story as one of the last exponents of a The book is billed as a politi- illustrates Wedgwood’s capacity once-powerful British tradition: cal life, but sufficient information for independent-mindedness and ‘He never ceased to believe that on Wedgwood’s private affairs is (at times) sound judgement but the Gladstonian radicalism of his included to illuminate his public also his foolhardy and obstreper- early years, suitably developed by career. The book is meticulously ous qualities. These help explain the ideas of Henry George, was researched, enjoyable to read and, both his ability to maintain a the key to human progress and at just over two hundred pages, longstanding, uninterrupted and prosperity’ (p. 208). Indeed, we exactly the right length for the sub- quite high-profile parliamentary are encouraged to believe that it ject matter. It can be recommended career (as a Liberal MP from 1906 may have been Wedgwood’s dif- warmly to anyone interested in the and as a Labour one from 1918) ficult personality rather than the politics of the period. and his failure to make it to the peculiarity of his ideas that kept front rank of politics. He did at him away from positions of greater Richard Toye is Professor of Modern one point become a member of prominence. Mulvey’s judgements History at the University of Exeter. His the Cabinet, as a Chancellor of the on his behaviour are robust, occa- most recent books are Lloyd George Duchy of Lancaster in the short- sionally verging on the brutal. and Churchill: Rivals for Great- lived Labour government of 1924, Thus Wedgwood’s fruitful efforts ness (2007) and Churchill’s Empire: but, as Paul Mulvey notes in this between the wars to establish the The World That Made Him and the excellent book, he had ‘little status History of Parliament project is World He Made (2010). and little to do’ in this role (p. 138) recognised his ‘greatest legacy’ but and, as was his habit, showed little also as ‘one of his greatest failures’. collegiality. He was above all an Mulvey explains: ‘while his great

Journal of Liberal History 73 Winter 2011–12 51 A Liberal Democrat History Group evening meeting whatever happened to ‘orpington man’? The Orpington by-election of March 1962 was a political landmark: a stunning victory for Jo Grimond’s Liberal Party, as Eric Lubbock turned a Conservative majority of 14,760 into a Liberal majority of 7,855. The term ‘Orpington Man’ was coined by the press to identify a new type of voter, young, white-collar, skilled, well-educated and upwardly mobile socially and economically a social group supposedly rejecting an old-fashioned and out-of-touch Tory party but not attracted to a cloth-cap, Clause IV Labour Party either.

But ‘Orpington Man’ never turned out to vote for the Liberal Party at the following general election. So what happened? Dennis Kavanagh, Emeritus Professor and Research Fellow in Politics and Communications at Liverpool University, and Dr Mark Egan, author of Coming into Focus: The Transformation of the Liberal Party, 1945–64, will explore the phenomenon of ‘Orpington Man’ from the by-election to the 1964 general election.

7.00pm, Monday 23 January 2012 (after the History Group AGM at 6.30pm) Lady Violet Room, National Liberal Club, 1 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2HE

A Liberal Democrat History Group fringe meeting winston churchill: tory or liberal? ‘I am an English Liberal. I hate the Tory Party, their men, their words and their methods.’ These were Winston Churchill’s own words in 1903. As a Liberal, Churchill held high government office and, along with Lloyd George, was regarded as one of the driving forces of Asquith’s reforming administration. Was Liberalism his true political ideology? Or should we judge his position from his re-ratting in 1924 and his long association and later leadership of the Conservatives?

Churchill’s party politics will come under the spotlight at the History Group fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat spring conference. Delivering their verdicts will be Professor Martin Pugh, formerly of Newcastle and Liverpool John Moores Universities. and Sir Alan Beith, Liberal and Liberal Democrat MP for Berwick-on-Tweed since 1973.

8.00pm, Friday 9 March 2012 Sage Centre, Gateshead (for room, check conference directory)