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57 Winter 2007 For the study of Liberal, SDP and Issue 57 / Winter 2007–08 / £6.00 Liberal Democrat history Journal of LiberalHI ST O R Y The greatest Liberal Duncan Brack and Graham Lippiatt The greatest Liberal John Stuart Mill Richard Reeves Learning the lessons of history John Stuart Mill and politics today Kenneth O. Morgan Lloyd George’s Flintshire loyalist Biography of John Herbert Lewis MP Barry Dackombe A fine and disinterested spirit Biography of Aneurin Williams MP Ian Millsted Man of mystery Biography of John Creasey Liberal Democrat History Group 2 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 Journal of Liberal History Issue 57: Winter 2007–08 The Journal of Liberal History is published quarterly by the Liberal Democrat History Group. ISSN 1479-9642 The greatest Liberal: John Stuart Mill 4 Editor: Duncan Brack Tom McNally, Paddy Ashdown, Richard Reeves and Kenneth Morgan put Assistant Editor: Lysianne Egan forward their candidates for the the title of greatest Liberal: Keynes, Gladstone, Biographies Editor: Robert Ingham Mill and Lloyd George. Report by Duncan Brack and Graham Lippiatt. Reviews Editor: Dr Eugenio Biagini Deputy Reviews Editor: Tom Kiehl Learning the lessons of history: John Stuart Mill 16 Patrons and politics today Dr Eugenio Biagini; Professor Michael Freeden; What would Mill make of today’s politicians? By Richard Reeves. Professor John Vincent Lloyd George’s Flintshire loyalist 18 Editorial Board The political achievement of John Herbert Lewis MP; by Kenneth O. Morgan. Dr Malcolm Baines; Dr Roy Douglas; Dr Barry Doyle; Dr David Dutton; Professor David Gowland; Dr Richard Grayson; Dr Michael Hart; Peter Hellyer; Dr Alison Letters to the Editor 31 Holmes; Ian Hunter; Dr J. Graham Jones; Tony Little; Lloyd George’s school (Graham Lippiatt); Prime Ministers’ wives (Sandy Professor Ian Machin; Dr Mark Pack; Dr Ian Packer; Dr Waugh) John Powell; Jaime Reynolds; Dr Andrew Russell; Iain Sharpe Old heroes for a new leader 32 Editorial/Correspondence Liberal Democrat leadership contenders’ political heroes; by Nick Clegg MP Contributions to the Journal – letters, articles, and and Chris Huhne MP. book reviews – are invited. The Journal is a refereed publication; all articles submitted will be reviewed. A fine and disinterested spirit 34 Contributions should be sent to: Barry Dackombe examines the life and activities of Aneurin Williams MP. Duncan Brack (Editor) 38 Salford Road, London SW2 4BQ email: [email protected] Man of mystery: John Creasey 42 Ian Millsted reviews the life of John Creasey, Liberal candidate and author of All articles copyright © Journal of Liberal History. almost 600 books. Advertisements Reviews 47 Full page £100; half page £60; quarter page £35. Discounts available for repeat ads or offers to readers Tregidga (ed.), Killerton, Camborne and Westminster: The Political Correspondence (e.g. discounted book prices). To place ads, please of Sir Francis and Lady Acland, 1910–29, reviewed by Richard Toye; Moore, The contact the Editor. Transformation of Urban Liberalism, reviewed by Iain Sharpe; Hughes, Cymru Fydd, reviewed by Dr J. Graham Jones. Subscriptions/Membership An annual subscription to the Journal of Liberal History costs £20.00 (£12.50 unwaged rate). This includes membership of the History Group unless you inform us otherwise. The institutional rate is £30.00. Non-UK subscribers should add £5.00. Online subscriptions cost £40.00 (individuals) or £50.00 (institutions). Instead of printed copies, online subscribers will be able to access online copies of current and all past Journals. Cheques (payable to ‘Liberal Democrat History Group’) should be sent to: Patrick Mitchell 6 Palfrey Place, London SW8 1PA; email: [email protected] Payment is also possible via our website, www.liberalhistory.org.uk Liberal Democrat History Group The Liberal Democrat History Group promotes the discussion and research of topics Cover design concept: Lynne Featherstone relating to the histories of the Liberal Democrats, Liberal Party, and SDP, and of Liberalism. The Group organises discussion meetings and produces the Journal and other occasional Published by the Liberal Democrat History Group, publications. c/o 38 Salford Road, London SW2 4BQ For more information, including historical commentaries, details of publications, back issues Printed by Kall-Kwik, of the Journal, and archive and other research sources, see our website at: 18 Colville Road, London W3 8DL www.liberalhistory.org.uk. January 2008 Chair: Tony Little Honorary President: Lord Wallace of Saltaire Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 3 So who was the greatest Liberal, as voted for by History Group members and Liberal Democrats at the autumn party conference? By THE GREATEST LIBERAL: now, you know the winner was John Stuart Mill but when the packed hustings meeting at Brighton gathered to hear the candidates’ champions, JOHN StUART Mill the question was very much still an open one. The meeting was one of the best the History Group has ever organised, not least because the speakers showed an enjoyable readiness to attack each other’s choices, as well as defend their own. In order that readers who were not present can enjoy it to the full, the report below reproduces the speeches more or less verbatim, including interjections and asides. Report of fringe meeting, 19 September 2007, Brighton, by Duncan Brack and Graham Lippiatt. 4 Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 THE GREATEST LIBERAL: JOHN StUART Mill our candidates were relevance. In the twentieth cen- Lords. He was principal adviser presented by lead- tury it was Keynes who provided to the Liberal Party when in ing academics and the theory, the practical policies 1929 it received 23 per cent of Lib Dems: Keynes, by and the intellectual firepower the vote and 56 seats, a result the Lord Tom McNally, which allowed the political lead- party was not to achieve again Fleader of the Liberal Democrats ers of the democracies to offer a for three-quarters of a century. in the House of Lords; Glad- third way when faced with the What is more, historians now stone, by Lord Paddy Ashdown, totalitarian alternatives of left agree that the Keynes-inspired leader of the part y 1988–99; Mill, and right. Today he remains Liberal manifesto of 1929 was by by Richard Reeves, a former a beacon of sanity for those far the most practical in address- Guardian journalist and author who do not believe that Adam ing the economic crisis then fac- of a biography of Mill (see page Smith’s hidden hand, or trickle- ing the country. 2 for a special offer for Journal down, will either provide social However, Keynes was not readers); and Lloyd George, by justice or remove the blights of just right about the response Lord Kenneth Morgan, the dis- poverty, ignorance and disease to depression, slump and high tinguished historian. The meet- from the world. unemployment in the 1930s. ing was chaired by Martin Kettle He also makes a direct claim Long before he wrote The Gen- of The Guardian. on this audience as a party activ- eral Theory of Employment, Inter- ist. We enjoy his inheritance est and Money, which was the Martin Kettle: We’ve got four top to this day through the Lib- embodiment of what we call speakers talking about four top Lib- eral Summer School, which he Keynesianism, it is amazing erals, and the first one is going to be founded and which today bears to see how often Keynes made Tom McNally, who is putting the his name. He very nearly stood policy proposals which were case for John Maynard Keynes. for Parliament in the party’s rejected at the time only to be interest on more than one occa- adopted later when other poli- sion. He was the intellectual cies had failed. Tom McNally: John Maynard driving force behind the ‘Yellow Keynes was advocating cen- Keynes Book’, still one of the most rele- Left: the final tral-bank control of interest rates My claim that John Maynard vant policy documents published four – top: and money supply eighty years Keynes is the greatest ever Lib- by any political party in British Gladstone, Lloyd before Gordon Brown – una- eral is based on both historical history, and he ended his days George; bottom: shamedly stealing Liberal Dem- perspective and contemporary as a Liberal peer in the House of Keynes, Mill ocrat policy – made it a reality. Journal of Liberal History 57 Winter 2007–08 5 thE GREATEST liBERAL: JOHN STUART mill As an adviser to the Paris underpinned the war aims of economic prosperity and social Peace Conference in 1919, after the democracies in the Second justice. It was at this point that, the First World War, he tried World War. Along the way, Key- to my mind, Keynes showed his hard to persuade the Americans nes had seen his advice rejected true greatness. Keynes’s response to stay in Europe and to use their in 1925 by Churchill, when as was The General Theory, a distil- strength and economic position Chancellor of the Exchequer lation of many of the ideas he to promote European recon- he made the disastrous decision had been proposing for thirty struction. Instead, and against to return to the Gold Standard; years. his advice, a punitive peace was and, as I’ve already indicated, Our modern world was cre- imposed which had within it the he again saw his advice rejected, ated by that book. It enabled seeds of future conflict. In one this time by the electorate, in the policy-makers after the Sec- of his first great contributions 1929 general election. ond World War to construct a to policy development, The Eco- A lesser man may have opted more durable and lasting peace nomic Consequences of the Peace, he then and there for the academic than had been made in 1919.
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