The New Orbits Group, 1958 – C.1962
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Political thought and activism Trevor Smith looks at the purpose and achievements of the New Orbits Group The New Orbits Group, 1958 – c.1962 he New Orbits Group has been little rec- Unservile State Group (an intellectual group of ognised in the histories of the modern Liberals not formally attached to the party), was TLiberal Party. In two, otherwise rela- an English don at St John’s and author of a couple tively comprehensive, accounts – David Dut- of books on Liberalism. Moore became an adviser ton, A History of the Liberal Party (2004), and Roy to Jeremy Thorpe while the latter was leader, Douglas, Liberals: A History of the Liberal Party and Mirfin became secretary-general of the UK (2005) – no reference is made to the group. Arthur branch of Liberal International; both contested Cyr, in his Liberal Politics in Britain (1988), gives it many general elections. a sentence: ‘It was during this period (late 1950s/ I had joined the LSE Liberal Society in 1955, early 1960s) that the New Orbits Group, a discus- becoming first its chair and subsequently chair of sion club of younger Liberal Party activists, began UULS in 1958. I contrived to change the title of publishing periodic essays to promote thought UULS to the Union of Liberal Students (ULS) and controversy.’ At least he gave the group a as I thought a rather loose confederal organisa- mention, even though his description was in tion would make less impact than a more unitary error: it was not ‘a club’, being run under the joint one. I had succeeded Roger Straker, a scion of the auspices of the Young Liberals and Student Liber- well-known stationery and printing family firm. als. The two chairs of these integral parts of the He later gained a senior HR director’s position Liberal Party were co-vice chairs of the group, with London Transport. In turn, I was succeeded while Frank Ware was selected a ‘neutral’ chair by David (later Lord) Lea, also from Cambridge, between the two youth organisations. In its first who later joined the Labour Party and rose to four years, the group played a not insignificant become assistant general secretary of the TUC. role within the Liberal Party, which merits being At that time chairs of both NLYL and ULS more fully recorded. were ex-officio members of the Liberal Party The 1950s were a woeful time for the party. executive. Joining it in 1958, at the age of 20, I was It was reduced to five MPs, two of whom, Don- the youngest member, Barbara Burwell being ten ald Wade in Huddersfield West and Arthur Holt years older; the next youngest was Richard Wain- in Bolton East, held their seats by courtesy of a wright then aged 40. I found membership of the Lib–Con pact in both towns. The most promis- executive a rapidly maturing experience! NLYL What did the ing likely future leader, Frank Byers, had lost his and ULS worked closely together by means of a seat in Dorset in 1951 and the party continued to joint political committee (JPC), which had been New Orbits Group be led by the ageing and heavy-drinking Clem- formed in 1957. ent Davies. The only lively parts of the party The major precipitating event for the forma- achieve? It con- were the Radical Reform Group, led by Des- tion of the group was the Liberal Party conference mond (later Lord) Banks and Manuela Sykes (who of 1958, held in Torquay. It was an organisational tributed to the regularly contested Dingle Foot, the Labour MP fiasco and it was this which prompted the JPC to for Ipswich). The RRG met in her Covent Gar- attempt remedial action. Jo Grimond, the new- modernisation of den café after closing hours; she later joined the ish leader of the Liberal Party made an excellent the party under Labour Party. speech, but it was overshadowed by the quite dis- The other radically vibrant element was to be astrous chairmanship of Sir Arthur Comyns Carr, Grimond and found among the younger members of the party. QC. A distinguished lawyer and a very active In those days, Liberal youth was divided between Liberal, he had contested no less than eleven par- showed that the two organisations: the National League of Young liamentary seats, with a brief sojourn as an MP Liberals (NLYL) and the Union of University Lib- for a year between 1923 and 1924. He had been party was capa- eral Societies (UULS). Despite this formal divi- one of the leading prosecutors at the Japanese War sion, many young graduates joined the NLYL Crimes tribunals after the Second World War. By ble of imaginative which at the time had its main territorial strength 1958, however, he was 76 years old and long past in the north-west of England. Griff (later Lord) his prime. Nevertheless, he still behaved in ways policy-making Evans was its chairman who was succeeded in that had stood him in good stead throughout his across a broad turn by Barbara Burwell and then Timothy Joyce. career. He eschewed the use of a microphone, The UULS’ main strength derived from Cam- believing that his voice was resonant enough to range of the pub- bridge University and included such luminaries be heard throughout the large hall – it was not. as George Watson, Richard Moore and Derrick Appearing Emperor Hirohito-like, he wore a lic agenda. Mirfin. Watson, who became secretary of the wing-collared shirt, black jacket and striped 12 Journal of Liberal History 95 Summer 2017 The New Orbits Group, 1958 – c.1962 trousers and thus hardly presented the modern The New Orbits Group was the name given face of Liberalism which Grimond was trying to to the old JPC. Its senior participants comprised promote. a very talented group. It included Tony Miller, 1958 was exactly one year before the next gen- Tony Stowell, Tony Lloyd, James Crossley, Griff eral election was due. The one cause for optimism Evans, Barbara Burwell, Frank Ware and Ron- had been the election of Mark Bonham-Carter in nie Fraser. Undoubtedly, the finest mind was the Torrington by-election. The JPC was galva- that of Timothy Joyce, who was completing his nised into taking a new initiative in the wake of PhD in the Moral Sciences at Cambridge. He Torrington, but even more by the disastrous han- later became a very successful businessman in the dling of the 1958 Torquay Assembly. field of market research. He ultimately became It set up study groups amongst NLYL branches chief executive of J. Walter Thompson, selling and university societies during the autumn of the firm at a high price and buying it back at a 1958. The results of these were analysed and sum- low one, thereby making a personal fortune. He marised and brought together in a substantial had suffered from polio as a child which contrib- booklet of some seventy pages called New Orbits. uted to his all too premature death. Frank Ware, I had suggested the title as it reflected the main at the time, was the youthful head of the Liberal event of the time, which was the successful Soviet Party research department where he was assisted sputnik circumnavigation of the globe that was by James Crossley (who also died prematurely) soon to lead to Yuri Gagarin’s first human ven- and Peter Landell-Mills, who later founded a ture into space. The title sought, in a more modest successful agricultural economics international way, to capture a similar sense of experiment and consultancy firm. Another member was Sarah excitement within the Liberal Party. Myers, had been very active in the UULS while at The pamphlet was presented for discussion Oxford and later became a journalist on the Times and endorsement to what we called the Opera- Educational Supplement. tion Manifesto Congress in Manchester on 18 and A number of quite original policy papers were 19 April 1959, just five months before the general published as pamphlets in the subsequent next election in the following September. two years. The first was calledHigh Time for Rad- Manchester was a resounding success. It icals and was a collective essay by eight leading attracted many Young and Student Liberals and, members of the New Orbits Group; again, I had indeed, was addressed by Jo Grimond himself. suggested the title. It touched on a number of Anthony Howard, then a junior reporter and edi- themes, both of a policy kind and about how to torial leader writer at the Manchester Guardian, improve the professionalism of the party itself. Its was sent to cover the Congress. An ardent Labour sub-title, ‘A Discussion on the Future of the Left’, supporter and not in any sense a natural Liberal indicated that the group sought to be left of centre (he was later to become editor of the New States- in its orientation. There followed some ten pam- man), he nevertheless wrote an admiring leader and phlets on a wide variety of subjects, including: report of the congress in the newspaper, then edi- the Central African Federation; the role of trade torially committed to the aims of the Liberal Party. and aid in the world, to which John Williamson Jo Grimond (Leader of the Liberal Party, 1956–67) with Eric Lubbock, winner of the Orpington by-election in 1962 Journal of Liberal History 95 Summer 2017 13 The New Orbits Group, 1958 – c.1962 The advent of contributed (he was to become a leading inter- cricket team coming to Britain. He later became national economist); 5 Year Plan by Frank Ware; Labour MP for Neath, a cabinet minister and then the New Orbits New Unions for Old, dealing with the reform of the a life peer.