reviews annoyed his coalition partners Maundy Gre- the end he was fined £50 plus 50 therefore forced repeatedly to by retaining control of the Fund guineas costs, and gaoled for two revert to speculation about what personally and by using the award gory remains months. He remains the only per- might have happened. Worse, he (or the sale) of honours to poach son ever to have been convicted speculates at considerable length Unionist supporters, and annoyed the only under the 1925 Act. about things that Gregory might the King because of the charac- Gregory faced the possibility of have been involved in, but almost ter of many of those ennobled. person ever a further enquiry over the death certainly was not, including the Despite mounting parliamentary of Edith Rosse, an actress and forging of Roger Casement’s dia- and press criticism, Lloyd George to have been friend who had altered her will in ries in order to discredit him as a and the Unionist leader Austen his favour a few days before her closet homosexual, the still unex- Chamberlain doggedly refused convicted death. The enquiry was delayed, plained disappearance of the one- to establish a public enquiry. however, until after his release time Independent Labour Party This contributed to the political under the from gaol and flight to France, MP and suspected Soviet spy Vic- crisis of October 1922, when the and in the end, although Rosse’s tor Grayson in 1920 (to which an Unionists decided to withdraw 1925 Honours body was exhumed on suspicion entire chapter is devoted), and the from the Coalition, overthrowing of poisoning, nothing could be forged Zinoviev Letter of 1924, both Lloyd George and Cham- (Prevention proved. Cook hints that Gregory used to discredit the first Labour berlain in the process. of Abuses) was being protected, but, as usual, government. The following year, under fails to supply any evidence. Similarly, extensive but often a new government, the Royal Act. Gregory lived the rest of his essentially irrelevant details Commission on Honours life in France, receiving a pen- are provided about Gregory’s reported, recommending that all sion, probably from the Conserv- acquaintances and contemporar- names included on an honours ative Party, on condition that he ies and general political develop- list should be accompanied by a revealed nothing about his past. ments; an awful lot of the text statement from the Prime Min- He kept his side of the bargain, is basically padding. Combined ister ‘that no payment to a politi- and eventually died in September with the author’s prolix style this cal fund was associated with the 1941 after being interned after the makes the book an uphill struggle recommendation’ (p. 111). Such German invasion. to read. But for anyone wanting a complete end to the old system The main problem with Cash to find out what is known about was not particularly welcome to for Honours is that there is simply Maundy Gregory, his life and the new Prime Minister, Stanley not enough known about Gre- career and involvement with the Baldwin, and legislation was gory – or not enough of interest, honours scandal behind the Lloyd delayed for two years. And in the at any rate – to fill a decent-sized George Fund, it is a highly useful end the 1925 Honours (Preven- book, and too many details – source. tion of Abuses) Act left a number such as the names of those who of loopholes and made the per- paid for honours – have never Duncan Brack is the Editor of the son who had paid money in the been revealed. The author is Journal of Liberal History. expectation of an honour liable to prosecution along with the offi- cial or middleman who had sold the honour. As Cook observes, this provision effectively deterred recipients from ever admitting Northern Liberal what had happened. Although Gregory’s role , A View from the North (Northumbria University diminished substantially after Press, 2008) Lloyd George’s departure from office, he continued to take Reviewed by Michael Meadowcroft payments, often in advance of honours that were never in the end awarded. In 1932, however, have an immense personal component. Consequently, in the he tried to sell Lieutenant Com- regard for Alan Beith and for summer of 1988 I campaigned mander Billyard-Leake a knight- Ihis long years of service to the for him to become leader of the hood, or baronetcy, for £12,000. cause of Liberalism. Following new party. Had he succeeded it Leake was not interested but the miseries of the merger nego- would have been impossible to strung him along and informed tiations and vote, I believed that have remained outside the party. the authorities. In February 1933 the only chance for the Liberal That didn’t happen, alas, and it Gregory was charged under the cause to be safeguarded was for has taken a somewhat long and Honours Act. After some initial Alan to become the leader of the winding road to be back in the blustering, he eventually pleaded new party. It needed someone same party. guilty, possibly being persuaded who not only was an instinctive His chapter on Liberal phi- to do so by the Conservative Liberal but who also knew Liberal losophy and beliefs, included Party to avoid revealing embar- history and had the intellectual deliberately to give positive rassing details in court, or pos- depth, plus the tactical skills, to reasons why Liberals and Liberal sibly as a plea bargain in order to keep the party relatively sound, Democrats continue to put such avoid a long prison sentence. In despite its social democratic time and energy into a cause

48 Journal of Liberal History 66 Spring 2010 reviews which provides so little political process came to a halt so that a been achieved with the right tac- return but which is so fundamen- single Member could go home tics. He does, however, hint that tally important to the kind of to a sick child. It wouldn’t hap- he was in favour of Steel formally society that is in harmony with pen often but even one example taking over from Jenkins as leader human talents and aspirations, is deserves recognition. of the Alliance campaign at the an excellent exposition. Russell Alan also writes very directly Ettrick Bridge meeting in the Johnston’s perorations made the of his Christian beliefs and the middle of the 1983 general elec- same points in magical language simple linking of that faith with tion campaign. that sent one out to continue the his personal tragedies contributes Beith’s account of the facts unequal struggle with renewed to the whole picture of him as an relating to ’s pur- vigour; Alan Beith chooses to set individual. No one, on any side ported ‘sabbatical’ at the start of out the case in measured terms of politics, could be other than the 1983 parliament are, I think, that are equally needed and no delighted with his recent rela- put on the record for the first less persuasive. tionship and marriage to Diana time. Only a few of us, mainly Not least from his decade as Maddock. He also mentions his those of us in the Whips’ Office, Chief Whip Alan knows more musical background – trumpet- knew that Steel had formally than most where the bodies are playing – and his linguistic skills resigned as leader. Beith states buried and has been privy to – Norwegian and Welsh! that he still has the resignation many of the internal party tor- There are some tantalising letter ‘which I retrieved from ments. I therefore grabbed his political tidbits. I do not recall the Party President, John Grif- autobiography hot from the seeing before the detail of the fiths’. I’ll bet John kept a photo- press, so to speak, pausing only to Parliamentary Party vote in copy. Amazingly the press never check the letter M in the index, favour of Jeremy Thorpe resign- cottoned on to this story – yet in order to delve into the key ing the party leadership after the another ‘what if’ occasion. passages. Alas, most of my hopes Scott allegations becoming pub- Commenting on David Pen- that this would be a key work of lic. Incidentally, Alan is wrong in haligon’s tragic death in a car autobiographical political refer- saying that ‘Richard Wainwright accident just before Christmas ence remain unfulfilled. There made public his insistence that 1986, Beith tells of his close- are certainly some valuable expo- Jeremy should go.’ That certainly ness with Penhaligon and of the sitions but in most cases Alan was the message between the eventual problem of how, if at remains too polite and skates over lines of Richard’s BBC Radio all, they could both compete important issues. In that sense this Leeds interview but his actual for the party leadership. I was is only a partial contribution to statement was that Thorpe must unaware that the two of them Liberal history. sue for libel or face the implica- were so close and completely I suspect that Alan himself tions of not doing. oblivious to the fact that they did not intend it to be primarily On the Lib-Lab Pact Beith were both already making their a political work. It is much more writes that ‘with a confidence the story of a personal voyage, motion coming up, Callaghan illustrated from his political approached the Liberals’, whereas life, written for a wide circle of the received truth has always been friends, and, as such it very much that Cyril Smith made the initial succeeds. He writes well and his approach to Callaghan and that recounting of the deaths of his Cledwyn Hughes followed it up wife, Barbara, and then his son, with Steel. Beith makes no com- Chris, are movingly done with ment on the background to David no mawkish sentiment but with Steel’s failure to make Callaghan an open heart and a willing- insist on a whipped Labour vote ness to share on the page feel- on proportional representation ings which Alan understandably for the European elections on largely kept to himself whilst 1979. Both David Owen and having to maintain a public Chris Mayhew believed that presence. Labour’s determination to retain As it happens, whilst I was power would have made them Alan’s deputy whip, I had evi- accept a whipped vote had Steel dence of the decency of John insisted on it. Major, who was then a gov- Beith’s account of the Alli- ernment whip, on this matter. ance includes no comment on Major and I were whipping an the background to the Liberal environment bill on the floor by-election victory in October of the House – report stage, I 1981 at Croydon North West think – and John approached where David Steel’s crass attempt me: ‘I understand that Alan’s to bounce Shirley Williams into son is rather ill.’ ‘That’s right,’ I the nomination there highlighted responded. ‘Well, let us adjourn his failure to woo Bill Pitt and the the House early so that he can go Liberal Party into giving way – a home.’ The whole parliamentary course of action that might have

Journal of Liberal History 66 Spring 2010 49 reviews dispositions on a future leader- His chapter skill enabled [it] to win battles that ‘he might not have won the ship contest. It would have been which it would have been better leadership under the old sys- yet another case of the need for on Liberal for [them] to lose’. tem, in which only the MPs had a combination of the diverse and Beith’s comments on the sub- votes’. Alan makes it clear that, very different talents of two key philosophy sequent leadership contest are as Deputy Leader, he knew of protagonists! interesting: ‘There was no way the Ashdown ‘project’ with Blair Beith’s treatment of the 1986 and beliefs, David Steel could win Liberal and that he was relaxed about it, defence debate at the Liberal support to lead the new party not least because he ‘thought that Party’s Eastbourne Assembly included … [H]e had acquired far too the coalition was never going to is unsatisfactory. It is a longer much unwelcome baggage in happen’. story than can be dealt with in deliberately the merger negotiations, and All in all, this is a biography a book review and, fortunately, his mishandling over the policy worth reading for its humanity there are two accounts available: to give posi- document was the last straw, par- and for its occasional political mine in Journal of Liberal History, ticularly for many of his parliamentary aperçus, but it is not for those who No 18, spring 1998 (and on my tive reasons colleagues’ [my italics]. Those of expect to find the insider view website http://www.bramley. us who had been conscious of on the past thirty years of Liberal demon.co.uk/liberal.html ‘Alli- why Liberals similar political weaknesses in history. ance – Parties and Leaders’) and Liberal our esteemed leader for many and in Radical Quarterly, No 5, years, and who had struggled to Michael Meadowcroft joined the autumn 1987. Suffice to say here Democrats keep the party united in the face Liberal Party in 1958. He has been a that Beith’s implication that the of much provocation, would have full-time party official and a national political debacle was caused by continue welcomed parliamentary party officer. He was a - ‘the presence within the Liberal action much earlier. lor, a West Yorkshire Metropolitan Party of a substantial minority of to put such He is very loyal to Paddy Ash- County Councillor and, from 1983– unilateralist views’ is incorrect. down as leader, and recognises 87, MP for Leeds West. He has writ- The eventual post-Assembly time and his later leadership skills, but ten extensively on Liberal philosophy fudge, which I introduced into a makes the accurate comment and history. Commons debate in December energy into a 1986, was almost identical in its essence to a draft Assembly cause which motion put to the Policy Com- mittee in advance by William provides so Wallace and rejected by David Eight case studies of notorious political Steel who wanted, fatally, to go little politi- for the high-wire act. rivals Beith regards the account cal return of the merger negotiations in John Campbell, Pistols at Dawn: Two Hundred Year of Political Rachael Pitchford’s and Tony but which Rivalry, from Pitt and Fox to Blair and Brown (Jonathan Cape, Greaves’ book, Merger – The is so funda- Inside Story, as ‘fairly accurate.’ 2009) By and large Alan Beith’s role mentally Reviewed by Dr J. Graham Jones within the negotiations was as a solid and dependable Liberal important to colleague, and was an impor- tant antidote to Steel’s way- the kind of ohn Campbell first made his mistress of thirty years’ stand- ward and undependable role, his (indelible) mark as the ing. As a full-time writer, the but he fails to mention that at society that Jauthor of Lloyd George: the author is especially well-placed to the key moment when John Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–31 produce these magisterial tomes. Grant resigned from the SDP is in harmony (1977), a groundbreaking study For the present book Campbell team and then Bob Maclennan of Lloyd George’s declining years presents his readership with eight walked out saying he couldn’t go with human which has well stood the test of notorious case studies of political on – to the surprise of his own time. Subsequently he has pub- rivalry – from Charles James Fox colleagues, who were forced to talents lished a masterly, well-received and William Pitt the Younger follow him rather sheepishly – it clutch of political biographies, in the late eighteenth century to was Alan who asked the Lib- and aspira- of Lord Birkenhead (1983), Roy Tony Blair and Gordon Brown eral team, ‘What can we give Jenkins (1983), Aneurin Bevan in very recent years. In this last them to get them back to the tions, is an (1986), the award-winning study chapter he comes close to writing table?’ It was a moment when of Ted Heath (1993), and Mar- the ‘instant history’ so beloved of the Liberal team could have excellent garet Thatcher (two volumes, many contemporary historians. ensured that there was a formula exposition. 2000 and 2003). His most recent Whereas in If Love Were All the that would have retained party work, If Love Were All: the Story of author went to enormous lengths unity, and it muffed it. Ironically Frances Stevenson and David Lloyd to quarry all the relevant primary Beith approvingly quotes Wil- George (2006) (reviewed in Journal source materials, in this book lie Goodhart, a key SDP team 52, autumn 2006), was the ulti- he relies mainly on secondary member, as saying that ‘the SDP mate detailed account of Lloyd works. He makes good use of his team’s more effective negotiating George’s intense relationship with own biographies and has read

50 Journal of Liberal History 66 Spring 2010