working class, and had enjoyed a political relationship with the REPORT unions. Mill had established the Labour Representation League in 1869 to secure the election of working men to parliament, and Ownership for All: The Liberal Party, co- by 1885 eleven working men, ownership and industrial relations mostly miners, had been elected. Even the Labour Representation Evening meeting, 9 July 2012, with Tudor Jones and Committee had worked with the Liberals through electoral pacts, Andrew Gamble; chair: Chris Nicholson such as the one that had helped Report by David Cloke secure the election of Churchill in Dundee in 1908. The unions themselves displayed s I prepared this report and had always had a pioneering some ambivalence about whether Nick Clegg announced role in British politics, for exam- to seek representation through Athat he was intent on pro- ple over the minimum wage, tax the Liberal Party or aim for sepa- viding a distinctively Liberal Dem- credits or stakeholding. The most rate direct representation. The ocrat view on the economy. He notable ideas included the Man- Nicholson key issue, Gamble argued, was the could a lot worse than return to chester School’s concept of free political levy, as highlighted in the and revive the party’s policies on trade and the social liberalism of welcomed Taff Vale and Osborne judgements. co-ownership. Thankfully, if the Hobhouse, leading to the welfare Osborne, a Liberal trades union- opening remarks of the meeting’s state of Keynes and Beveridge. To the decision ist, objected to the political levy chair, Chris Nicholson, were any- have two such vibrant traditions in being paid to the Labour Party. thing to go by, then this is likely one party was remarkable. In more to hold a The Liberal Party in Parliament to be the case, given that the paper modern times these two traditions took a different view; the strategy produced by the Liberal Democrat had been characterised as indicative meeting on of the leadership was to accom- policy working group on this issue, of a split in the party, but the real- modate the new force, not to fight chaired by Nicholson, is about to be ity was more nuanced and complex. the subject, it, by extending legal immuni- debated at federal conference. Gamble highlighted the key role ties to trades unions, though it did Nicholson welcomed the deci- of Grimond in developing the new arguing that not seek to extend the legal rights sion to hold a meeting on the sub- liberalism of the 1950s and 1960s, of trades unions. Thus Church- ject, arguing that it was worth and noted the market liberalism of it was worth ill as Home Secretary reversed the reminding people how much the The Orange Book. remind- Osborne judgement through the concept of co-ownership was in the Within this broad picture the Trades Union Act 1912. DNA of Liberals, from John Stuart Liberals have had a rather ambiva- ing people Gamble argued that the period Mill to the ‘Yellow Book’ of 1928 lent relationship with the trades had held out tantalising possibili- and the Liberal thinkers behind the unions. For 100 years from the how much ties: was the rise of Labour inevita- welfare state. The policy had been 1880s, however, trades unions had ble and could it have simply become revived and renewed under Jo Gri- been a central feature of the politi- the concept an arm of the Liberal Party? He mond, but the party lost focus on cal economy and political parties noted that in the years up to 1914 it in later years. Nonetheless, there had had to come to terms with of co-own- there much fighting talk from had been some renewed focus on them. The rise of the trades union Liberals about absorbing Labour the concept in government, most movement had caused contrasting ership was and not surrendering to it. Lloyd notably in Nick Clegg’s ‘John feelings amongst Liberals. On the George had declared that: ‘if a Lib- Lewis’ speech at the beginning of negative side were concerns about in the DNA eral Government tackles the land- 2012, followed by the employee class-based politics and the political lord, the brewer and the peers as ownership summit convened by division between property-owners of Liberals, they have faced the parson and tried BIS minister Norman Lamb which and the property-less, and of trades to deliver the nation from the per- had in turn launched the review unions as a form of monopoly with from John nicious control of monopolies then by Graham Nuttall. This renewal the power of industrial blackmail. the independent Labour Party will of interest in co-ownership was More positively, recognising their Stuart Mill call in vain upon the working men picked up later in the meeting. local roots and identities, many of Britain to desert Liberalism that Andrew Gamble, Professor and Liberals welcomed the unions as to the ‘Yel- is gallantly fighting to rid the land Head of Politics and International a form of civil association and as low Book’ of of the wrongs that oppress those Studies at Cambridge University, a countervailing power to estab- that labour in it’. and author of the chapter on ‘Lib- lished interested and the organisa- 1928 and the Another aspect of the period up erals and the Economy’ in Vernon tion of capital. John Stuart Mill to 1914 was rising industrial unrest. Bogdanor’s book Liberal Party Poli- himself had talked about the need Liberal think- The Triple Alliance of miners, tics (1983), stated that his aim was for strong trades unions as a means railwaymen and transport work- to set the scene and provide the of achieving a more equal distribu- ers behind ers launched a series of syndicalist economic and political context to tion of wealth and power. strikes beyond the control of the the party’s adherence to co-own- Gamble noted that in the late the welfare Labour Party, thereby creating a ership. He noted that the Liberals nineteenth century, the Liber- quite different backdrop to politics were very good at generating ideas als were seen as the party of the state. at this time. Huge numbers were 44 Journal of Liberal History 76 Autumn 2012 REPORT: OWNERshiP FOR all involved – there were a million Amongst small owning class and the large risk-taking which is the essence of miners and 600,000 railwaymen in industrial working class. It declared a healthy economy’. Politically, the fifty different railway companies. the themes that the Liberal Party: ‘stands wider dispersal of power, and hence The First World War and the not for public ownership but for of responsibility, was a necessary split in the Liberal Party meant of the ‘Yel- popular ownership. Its goal is not condition of liberal democracy. that the division between capital to destroy the owner class but to Thus, Jones argued, the operation and labour emerged as the main low Book’ enlarge it’. of the principle of diffusion was basis for political parties in the By the early 1930s Elliott Dodds interlocked, noting that Dodds twentieth century. As a delegate of 1928 was had become the champion of the himself had said that ‘political to the Liberal Assembly remarked issue; it was he who coined the term democracy will not work satisfac- in the 1970s, the Liberal Party the diffusion ‘ownership for all’. In the tribute torily without economic democ- was stuck between – and Britain of owner- written to him in 1977 by Des- racy, and vice versa’. had a choice between – the party mond Banks and Donald Wade, In broader ideological terms of the managers and the party of ship aimed they observed that Dodds’ ‘aim Dodds had promoted the idea as an the trades unions. Since failing to was not to abolish private owner- essential aspect of a distinctive Lib- prevent the emergence of Labour at reducing ship nor to acquiesce in ownership eral conception of both economic as the second party, the Liberals for the few but to seek to spread organisation and of the wider had found it difficult to deal with the tensions property throughout the commu- industrial society. Co-ownership this new political divide and the nity so that everybody would have was an idea ‘as hostile to monop- extended state. between the the chance of owning something’. oly capitalism as it is to socialism Nonetheless, Gamble argued In 1938 Dodds chaired the party’s since it aims to distribute instead that social-liberal ideas had shaped small owning ‘Ownership for All’ committee. Its of concentrating political as well as much of the post-war settlement report, drafted by the economist economic power’. Workers would and had been at the forefront of class and the Arthur Seldon, later co-director of become citizens of industry, not those arguing for growth and mod- the Institute of Economic Affairs, merely hirelings of private employ- ernisation in the 1960s and for large indus- advocated the restoration of free ers or of the state. incomes policies in the 1970s. The trade, co-ownership and profit- Jones argued that co-ownership 1980s, however, had seen a further trial work- sharing schemes throughout British helped to underline the party’s ide- shift with a revival in economic lib- industry. ology and purpose when Liberal- eralism: Jo Grimond himself came ing class. Dodds went on to be the most ism was a declining force. It was a to argue that the size of the pub- articulate and prominent advo- distinctive and unifying policy and lic sector was itself a problem, and It declared cate of co-ownership in the 1940s cause when other issues, such as free that the monopoly power of trades that the Lib- and 1950s.