William Ewart Gladstone, David Lloyd George, John Maynard Keynes
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William Ewart Gladstone, David Lloyd George, John Maynard Keynes, John Stuart Mill – who is the greatest Liberal of all time? The Liberal thE SEARch FOR thE Democrat History Group’s poll for the greatest British Liberal in history is now entering its final stage. In July, Journal readers voted between fifteen potential candidates GREatEst LIBERal (plus an eclectic collection of write-ins). The result is given in summary below; the final four to emerge he case for each of the The first-stage ballot were Gladstone, Lloyd top four will be pre- Just under a hundred Journal George, Keynes and sented at the History readers voted in the first-stage Group’s fringe meet- ballot, over a fifth of our circu- Mill, with Asquith as ing at the autumn lation – not bad considering we TLiberal Democrat conference didn’t provide reply-paid enve- a fairly close runner- in Brighton (see back page for lopes. The count extended to up. In the next three details). Leading politicians and fourteen stages. The summary historians will make the case for result is given in the table; STV pages you will find each one of the four. aficionados can be sent a copy of concise biographies Enclosed with this Journal is the full count by emailing jour- a ballot paper, which if posted, [email protected]. of the four contenders must reach us no later than Tues- Journal readers were highly in the final stage, put day 18 September (it can also inventive in coming up with be emailed – see the paper for write-in candidates, including together by Duncan details). If you are attending Lib- some highly obscure characters Brack and York eral Democrat conference, you (mostly Whigs), and some we can hand in your paper to the were going to rule out for being Membery. Journal History Group stand in the exhi- alive, or for not being even readers, together with bition, by the end of Wednesday remotely Liberal; but perhaps 19 September, or at the fringe less smart when it came to vot- all Liberal Democrats meeting that evening. ing for them – the vast majority attending the party’s The exercise has generated were listed as lower preferences a surprising amount of interest than number 1, so of course autumn conference, from the media (surprising to were all eliminated, with zero now have to make us, anyway), with BBC Radio first preferences, when we (Today, Westminster Hour), The started knocking candidates off the final decision – Guardian, The Sunday Times and the bottom. the New Statesman all mentioning Below are summary biog- which of the four is the it. Look out for more coverage in raphies for the final four greatest? the run-up to the final result! candidates. 4 Journal of Liberal History 56 Autumn 2007 thE SEARch FOR thE GREatEst LIBERal W. E. Gladstone (1809–98) the Liberal Party, and nine years means were inadequate, such as William Ewart Gladstone was later became its leader. Under in education. the political giant of Victorian his four premierships, the Irish In the time left over from politics. He defined the Liberal Church was disestablished, the office, Gladstone collected Party of the second half of the secret ballot introduced, the china, wrote on Homer and par- nineteenth century: the party of purchase of army commissions ticipated in the religious contro- peace, retrenchment, reform and abolished, state primary educa- versies of his time. He was a man – above all – trust in the people. tion established and the franchise of immense physical and mental A minister by the age of reformed and extended. He pur- energy, chopping down trees twenty-five, he left office for sued a foreign policy guided by and reading books (20,000 of the last time at eighty-five. He the ‘love of freedom’ and action them, according to Roy Jenkins) served as Prime Minister on no through a ‘concert of nations’. for relaxation. He moulded and less than four occasions, three For Gladstone, politics was, embodied Victorian Liberalism. of them after his ‘retirement’ in above all else, about great moral He was not only a great Liberal; 1875. He was the leading ora- issues rather than selfish interests. he was a great human being. tor of his age, not only in Par- Hence his conversion to Irish liament but outside, regularly Home Rule – which, despite addressing audiences of 20,000 two attempts, he never achieved, John Maynard Keynes (1883– or more. splitting his party in the proc- 1946) Originally a Tory, he was ess. His preoccupation with As well as Liberal politicians, converted to the cause of free moral issues also explains his Liberal thinkers have helped to trade under Sir Robert Peel. opposition to radical ‘construc- shape government in twentieth- As Chancellor of the Excheq- tionist’ legislation, which could century Britain. Greatest among uer in the 1850s and 1860s, he too easily destroy incentives for them was Keynes, the most abolished tariffs, simplified self-help and voluntaryism. Yet influential and important eco- taxation, ended paper duties he was always a government nomic thinker of the century, to facilitate the growth of the activist willing to expand the whose ideas came to underpin press and established the Post role of the state, as a regulator Western governments’ post-war Office Savings Bank. With other (for example, in railway regu- economic strategy. Peelites, in 1859 he joined with lation, or Irish land reform), or Primarily a Cambridge Whigs and Radicals to create as a provider where voluntary academic, John Maynard Journal of Liberal History 56 Autumn 2007 5 thE SEARch FOR thE GREatEst libERal Far left: Keynes was also an active Gladstone, Liberal. He was a pioneer of the Keynes Liberal Summer School move- Left: Lloyd ment, a member of the Liberal George, Mill Industrial Inquiry, which pro- duced Britain’s Industrial Future, the famous ‘Yellow Book’ (1928), and part-author of the 1929 Liberal manifesto and of the accompanying Can Lloyd George Do It?, which explained the Liberal Party’s plans to cure unemployment. Like all great Liberals, Key- nes was essentially an optimist. Through his brilliant insights he showed how economics could be used to help create and maintain the conditions in which human beings could live civilised, crea- tive and passionate lives. David Lloyd George (1863– 1945) David Lloyd George is one of the greatest and at the same time one of the most controversial politi- cians in the history of the Liberal Party. He played a central role in the great reformist administra- tions of 1905–16. As party leader (1926–31), he introduced Key- nesian economics to the Lib- eral programme and to British politics. But his period as Prime Minister, from 1916–22, split the party into rival factions, presag- ing its catastrophic decline. Lloyd George grew up in North Wales in humble circum- Keynes worked for the govern- His most famous work, The stances, and qualified as a solici- ment in both wars. During the General Theory of Employment, tor before winning election as First World War he advised Interest and Money (1936), effec- MP for Caernarfon Boroughs in Lloyd George on war finance tively invented macroeconom- 1890. He rapidly earned a reputa- and the Versailles peace settle- ics. He showed that the price tion as a radical, and was promi- ment, resigning over its punitive system could not be relied nent in the opposition to the terms. In the Second, he was the upon to achieve an equilibrium Boer War. He entered the cabi- leading economic adviser to the that made full use of human net first as President of the Board Treasury (1940–46), and headed resources, and argued that gov- of Trade and then as Chancellor the British delegation to the ernments should manage the of the Exchequer. He established Bretton Woods talks in 1944, economy to eliminate unem- himself as a dynamic, radical which laid the foundations for ployment, especially by running force in the government, intro- the post-war international finan- budget deficits. The book reads ducing the major Liberal social cial and trading system. like a summary of all economics reforms, including old age pen- His economic works include written subsequently, though, sions, National Insurance and his Tract on Monetary Reform like the Bible and the works of the ‘People’s Budget’ of 1909. (1923) and On Money (1930), still Karl Marx, its very richness has He served as Minister of regarded as his major works by led to thousands of articles and Munitions and then Secre- many monetary economists. books disputing its meaning. tary of State for War in the first 6 Journal of Liberal History 56 Autumn 2007 thE SEARch FOR thE GREatEst libERal wartime coalition. In December 1916, after mounting concern Great Liberals: first-stage result over Asquith’s ineffectual lead- Candidate First preference votes Eliminated / elected at stage ership, he found himself facing H. H. Asquith 4 Runner-up irresistible pressure to take office William Beveridge 3 6 as Prime Minister. He proved an Violet Bonham-Carter 2 4 exceptionally able war leader, Henry Campbell-Bannerman 5 11 but the split of 1916 gravely Richard Cobden 3 9 wounded the Liberal Party and eventually led to its eclipse by Millicent Garrett Fawcett 2 5 Labour. Charles James Fox 2 4 Succeeding Asquith as leader W. E. Gladstone 37 1 in July 1926, Lloyd George used Jo Grimond 4 12 his famous Fund (accumulated Roy Jenkins 4 10 from the sale of honours) to John Maynard Keynes 6 14 finance a series of policy com- mittees. These produced, most David Lloyd George 6 13 famously, the ‘Yellow Book’, John Locke 3 7 Britain’s Industrial Future, which John Stuart Mill 9 8 proposed a radical programme Lord John Russell 1 3 of state intervention in the econ- Write-ins omy to reduce unemployment.