Gleanings & Memoranda: Conservative Party Archive

Further resources: Suffragette interviews on Radio 4

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:32:00 +0000

Those of you interested in the suffragette movement may enjoy 'The Lost World of the Suffragettes' from Archive on 4 on BBC's Radio 4. In the 1970s, Sir Brian Harrison recorded interviews with women who had been a part of the early 20th-century suffragette movement, and the audio files are discussed and aired as a part of discussion with Dan Snow (the great great grandson of Liberal Prime Minister Lloyd George), Sir Brian, Baroness Brenda Dean. Director of Liberty Shami Chakrabarti and suffragette historian Elizabeth Crawford.

The tapes include the statements of ordinary women who openly discuss their own experiences as well as views of suffragette leaders such as the Pankhursts.

The programme is available for the next few days at the Archive on 4 site.

For more on suffragettes in the CPA, see previous blogposts on the Conciliation Bill, the history of women's suffrage through the CPA part one and part two, and CPA resources for the study of women's suffrage.

35 years ago: Death of Harold Macmillan

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:36:00 +0000

On 29 December, 1986, Macmillan died peacefully at his home in East Sussex. He was buried 35 years ago, in January 1987. Although Macmillan had remained active in public life until his death, his admirers were offered a unique chance to praise him 1963, just before and after he resigned from the office of Prime Minister.

Macmillan took ill just before the Conservative Party Conference in October 1963 and was rushed to the hospital, where he was incorrectly diagnosed with inoperable cancer. He stepped down on the grounds of ill health (leading some to call for greater concern over the 'heavy strain of modern conditions'), making way for Sir Alec Douglas-Home to become Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party.

During his health scare and directly after, the members of the Party attending the conference commented in speech after speech on the dedication of the Prime Minister and their appreciation for him. The Conference as a whole, of course, agreed upon a message 'expressing our very deep affection and our admiration and our best wishes' (1963 Conference Proceedings, NUA 2/1/69). The Earl of Home noted that Macmillan's 'sole concern is for the nation and the Party', while the Chairman closed the conference with the words, 'I think we have felt steadily a growing appreciation of what a wonderful Prime Minister he was.'

Macmillan had taken office in January 1957 during a particularly difficult time for the Party. Socialist opposition was stronger than ever, and Lord Salisbury told the Party,

'I do not believe that any Prime Minister of the past has ever had such complex problems to tackle ... the problem of how to harmonize any new relationships with Europe with our existing relationships in other parts of the world; the problem of how to combine the paramount needs of our solvency with the equally paramount need of national defence; the problem of where best should the cuts in national expenditure be made which must be made; the problem of what is of relative importance at the present time between guns and butter...'
(PUB 221/15)

Others believed the PM would be only a 'caretaker', unable to stand up to the Socialists in what was believed to be a looming election.

Weekly News Letter, Vol. 19 (26 October 1963) (PUB 193/19)

Yet Macmillan did win the next election, and served as Prime Minister for over six years. He certainly faced disappointments - the UK's attempt to join Europe was vetoed, and his government was discredited over the Profumo affair - but his wealth of varied experience stood him in good stead as he negotiated issues of world peace and domestic economics, from the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to independence in Africa.

Macmillan in a 1955 PPB for the Conservative Party.
Macmillan proved adept at charming his country via television.

Over 200 attended his funeral in January 1987, and thousands his memorial service at Westminster Abbey.

Memorial Service Programme (Bodleian Library, 13984 d.71)

BBC Radio 4's The Prime Ministers series includes a 15-minute segment on Macmillan, which is available on BBC iPlayer:

The Prime Ministers: Harold Macmillan

Merry Christmas from the Archive!

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:45:00 +0000

A Christmas cartoon (with a little protectionism thrown in) from The Man in the Street, December 1925 (PUB 210/2)

Today in 1936: Edward VIII relinquishes the throne

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 09:00:00 +0000

Instrument of Abdication, from The National Archives

From Politics in Review, Oct.-Dec. 1936 (PUB 220/81):

In the Commons, December 10, 1936, the Prime Minister brought a message from His Majesty King Edward VIII, which the Speaker read, as follows: -

‘After long and anxious consideration, I have determined to renounce the Throne to which I succeeded on the death of my father, and I am now communicating this, my final and irrevocable decision.

Realising as I do the gravity of this step, I can only hope that I shall have the understanding of my peoples in the decision that I have taken and the reasons which have led me to take it.’

The decision, however, cannot have been an easy one, and it had thrown the nation into confusion and turmoil. Edward’s abdication – primarily to allow him to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson – created political, constitutional and religious uproar.

A young Edward (1925) (The National Archives)

Edward’s relationship with Wallis Simpson, though conspicuously withheld in the British press, generated what Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin called ‘perturbation and uneasiness’ across the Atlantic and in Europe. After the abdication, Baldwin spoke to Parliament of the strength of the monarchy and the respect upon which this strength depended; he had told the King, ‘It might not take so long, in the face of the kind of criticisms to which it [the monarchy] was being exposed, to lose that power far more rapidly than it was build up.’ Marriage to Mrs. Simpson would require the British public to accept her as their Queen, and neither the King’s advisors nor the Government itself were at all sure that the public was willing to do so. Nor, perhaps, were the Church of England or the English courts, whose views on divorce may have blocked any marriage between the King and a twice-divorced woman with living ex-husbands.

The situation broke in the British press in early December 1936. Initially stubborn, Edward eventually responded to criticism by telling Baldwin, ‘I am going to marry Mrs. Simpson, and I am prepared to go.’ Other options were considered, including a morganatic marriage (in which the King would have been free to marry Mrs. Simpson but she would not have been Queen), but it soon became clear these would not have been ideal, and the King had to make a decision between remaining King and giving up his relationship and leaving the kingdom to his brother.

The King chose the latter, and by 11 December all the nations of the Commonwealth (with the exception of Ireland, which took another day) had approved the Abdication Bill. The former King addressed his people on 11 December:

‘A few hours ago I discharged my last duty as King and Emperor, and now that I have been succeeded by my brother, the Duke of York, my first words must be to declare my allegiance to him. This I do with all my heart.

…I want you to understand that in making up my mind I did not forget the country or the Empire which as Prince of Wales, and lately as King, I have for 25 years tried to serve. But you must believe me when I tell you that I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.’ (PUB 220/81)

Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister during the abdication crisis (PUB 210/1)

The press reacted fairly positively to the solution, although they were shocked and frustrated at the crisis that it had caused. Stanley Baldwin was heralded for his negotiations – ‘his courage and firmness’. The former king's younger brother became King George VI on 11 December and ruled until his death in 1952.

Dole Queues and Demons on Huffington Post

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:32:00 +0000

Dole Queues and Demons: British Election Posters from the Conservative Party Archive was featured in a brief Huffington Post piece and slideshow on 'The Art of Elections'. It offers a sneak peek into a few of the posters we included in the book, which is now available through the Bodleian Library Bookshop as well as other major retailers.

Image © Conservative Party Archive Trust

Parliament Week

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:35:00 +0000

Just a quick note to say that the CPA featured prominently as a part of the Bodleian Libraries' participation in UK Parliament Week. Parliament Week is a new national initiative supported by both Houses of Parliament that aims to increase awareness of Parliament and its work as well as encourage participation in the democratic process.

The theme for this year was ‘Stories of Democracy’, and the Libraries highlighted items and collections relating to democracy and Parliament in the United Kingdom, from the Magna Carta to the Conservative Party Archive.

All the week's posts can be found on the Libraries' Parliament Week pages. The CPA features in the following:

Prime Ministers' Papers (CPA images in gallery; the Archive naturally holds papers related to the work of Prime Ministers)
Conservative Party Archive (about the Archive)
Suffrage in the UK (the CPA holds related material)

In addition, Conservative Party Archivist Jeremy McIlwaine spoke to Culture 24 about the work and contents of the Archive; the interview is up on the Culture 24 website.

Dole Queues and Demons: British Election Posters from the Conservative Party Archive

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 10:19:00 +0000

Just in time for the Conservative Party Conference (and early Christmas shopping):

Dole Queues and Demons: British Election Posters from the Conservative Party Archive

Text: Stuart Ball
Foreword: Maurice Saatchi

Published 3 November 2011; see a preview copy and place your order at the Conservative Party Archive stand at the Party Conference, 2-5 October.

Pre-order form available

A unique blend of graphic design, bold art or photography and cunning psychology, election posters are an unsung art form, stretching back to the dawn of the twentieth century. Exploiting the Conservative Party Archive's collection of over 700 posters, this book charts the evolution of the Conservatives' election posters. Divided into chapters along political periods, the book highlights the changing fashions in and attitudes to advertising, political ideology, slogans, combativeness and above all, propriety. Each chapter includes a brief introduction discussing the major themes of the period as well as captions explaining specific issues related to the individual posters. Lavishly illustrated, Dole Queues to Demons gives a fascinating insight into the issues and strategies of the Conservative Party throughout the twentieth century, and up to the present day. A foreword by advertising guru Maurice Saatchi discusses the posters from a communication and design perspective. This book will fascinate anyone interested in social and political history and modern communications. Published at a time when the advent of new media threatens to herald the end of traditional forms of mass communication, this book takes a timely retrospective look at this enduring feature of the British electoral landscape.

100 years ago: Constitutional Crisis and the Parliament Act of 1911

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 09:10:00 +0000

In 1909, Lloyd George’s ‘People’s Budget’ caused three years of turmoil in the political nation. It eventually led to the assertion – one hundred years ago – of the law-making supremacy of the House of Commons over the House of Lords.

When he presented his controversial budget in 1909, Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George wrote,

‘This is a war Budget. It is for raising money to wage implacable warfare against poverty and squalidness. I cannot help hoping and believing that before this generation has passed away, we shall have advanced a great step towards that good time, when poverty, and the wretchedness and human degradation which always follows in its camp, will be as remote to the people of this country as the wolves which once infested its forests.’
(from The National Archives).

The budget was extraordinarily divisive. Lloyd George aimed to augment the country’s provision of social services, and those in favour saw it as a way to redistribute taxation and living costs more equally. Those who would be taxed more heavily, however, were wary of the Budget and especially of the land tax it included; many ‘Conservative peers and many of the party’s MPs saw the budget as heavily redistributive (especially its land clauses and supertax) and thus as a direct attack on the wealthy.’ (Conservative Century, p. 27).

When the House of Lords – of which many members would be directly affected by the proposals – vetoed Lloyd George’s budget in 1909, the Liberals cried for reform, and a constitutional crisis was born that would take its toll on politicians from both parties. Liberal Prime Minister Asquith turned to King Edward VII for help, but the King was hesitant to give it without a mandate from the people. An early election was called in January 1910, resulting in a hung parliament - the Conservatives, led by Arthur Balfour, and their Liberal Unionist allies won the popular vote, while the Liberals, led by Asquith, returned more MPs. A coalition between the reigning Liberals and the Irish Nationalists allowed the Budget to push through; the Lords grudgingly accepted the Budget following the removal of the land tax stipulation.

The conflict was not over, however, and another battle loomed over the issue of House of Lords reform. King George V had ascended to the throne in May 1910, and he was – after some hesitation – willing to pack the House of Lords with Liberal peers if necessary to ensure the vote would swing their way. When the Lords (quite expectedly) voted against a Liberal effort to reduce their powers, a second election was called for December 1910.

The Liberal Coalition (supported by the Irish Nationalists) maintained power, and they continued to push for reform; Lloyd George wrote in the Yorkshire Observer of November 12, 1910,

‘Having in vain used every endeavour through conciliatory methods to win equal rights for all Britons, we are now driven to fight for fair play in our native land. We repudiate the claim put forward by 600 Tory Peers that they were born to control the destinies of 45,000,000 of their fellow-citizens, and to trample upon their wishes for the good government of their country.'
(noted in NUA 2/1/31 [1911 conference minutes], p. 9-10).

The Parliament Act narrowly passed a vote in the House of Lords in August 1911. It essentially removed the House of Lords’ power to veto acts sent from the House of Commons, allowing them only to delay bills (with some exceptions regarding time and bills that try to extend the length of Parliament’s term). A 1949 Act amended that of 1911 by limiting the power of the Lords to delay one year rather than two.

The Conservatives were still smarting from the defeat at their autumn 1911 conference, where they spoke of the election campaign as ‘a prodigality of misrepresentation’, citing the glaring absence of Home Rule mentions in the opposition’s rhetoric:

‘Nothing can illustrate the Election policy of the Government better than the fact that the real motive for the Election – the plot to smuggle Home Rule through Parliament – was not even mentioned in the Election Addresses of the large majority of the Minsters.’
(NUA 2/1/31, p. 10).

House of Lords reform remains a prominent and divisive issue today. The 1911 Parliament Act had stated:

‘whereas it is intended to substitute for the House of Lords as it at present exists a Second Chamber constituted on a popular instead of hereditary basis, but such substitution cannot be immediately brought into operation…’

Although as of 2011 that substitution had still not been enacted, work has begun in earnest over the past decade to define what the second chamber should look like. Since the Life Peerages Act of 1958, the shape of the Lords had begun to change, and in 1999, the House of Lords Act abolished hereditary peers (with a few exceptions), reducing the size of the House of Lords by nearly half. A Royal Commission was appointed to examine the issue in that same year, and various public consultations conducted and white papers released since then. The Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition established with the 2010 election made an elected chamber a priority (see the Coalition's Programme for Government), and a House of Lords Reform Bill was proposed in 2010 and is working its way through committee. The draft bill can be viewed online.

50 years ago today: Britain applies for membership in the EEC

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:05:00 +0000

Although the United Kingdom didn’t join the European Economic Community until 1 January 1973, Harold Macmillan’s Conservative government had applied to join the group as early as 10 August 1961.

Ted Heath, then Lord Privy Seal and charged with EEC negotiations, spoke to the assembly at Brussels in August 1961:

"These discussions will affect profoundly the way of life, the political thought and even the character of each one of our peoples... The British Government and the British people have been through a searching debate during the last few years on the subject of their relations with Europe. The result of the debate has been our present application. It was a decision arrived at, not on any narrow or short-term grounds, but as a result of a thorough assessment over a considerable period of the needs of our own country, of Europe, and of the free world as a whole. We recognise it as a great decision, a turning point in our history, and we take it in all seriousness. In saying that we wish to join the EEC, we mean that we desire to become full, whole-hearted and active members of the European Community in its widest sense and to go forward with you in the building of a new Europe."
(Address given August 1961, requoted in address given 29 January 1963 at the 17th ministerial meeting between the Member States of the European Economic Community (EEC) and the United Kingdom; a draft version of Heath's 1963 speech forms part of the Edward Heath archive, which was acquired by the Bodleian Library earlier this year and will be available to readers following cataloguing (see story and image of Heath's notes).)

The front page of the Weekly News Letter (August 1961; PUB 193/17)

The United Kingdom’s membership in the EEC/EU has sparked much debate and discussion over the years. Its initial application was part of Macmillan’s efforts to develop fresh policies for the Conservative Party; the application “acknowledged that Britain’s standing as an independent great power, and its emphasis on empire, were all but over, which were bitter pills for the right to swallow.” (Seldon and Ball, 1994, p. 51).

However, this first bid was unsuccessful; it was officially and harshly vetoed by French President Charles de Gaulle in 1963 and again following the United Kingdom’s second application in 1967; de Gaulle claimed that Britain displayed a distinct “lack of commitment” and refused very publicly to countenance the union. In a public statement in January 1963, he said:

“She [Britain] did it [asked to join] after having earlier refused to participate in the communities we are now building, as well as after creating a free trade area with six other States, and, finally, after having — I may well say it (the negotiations held at such length on this subject will be recalled) — after having put some pressure on the Six to prevent a real beginning being made in the application of the Common Market. If England asks in turn to enter, but on her own conditions, this poses without doubt to each of the six States, and poses to England, problems of a very great dimension ... In short, the nature, the structure, the very situation (conjuncture) that are England’s differ profoundly from those of the continentals.”
(Press conference held by General de Gaulle, 14 January 1963; Audio version available in French)

European Policy (a paper by the Conservative Research Department outlining possibilities and policies for another EEC entry attempt; LCC 1/2/17)

It was only after a change of power in France and the further negotiation of the EEC's agricultural policies that the United Kingdom's bid was finally successful (along with those of Ireland and Denmark), and the nation was welcome into the EEC on 1 January 1973, under the premiership of Ted Heath.

An August vignette

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:14:00 +0000

From The Man in the Street, August 1926 (PUB 210/1)

Iron Lady on the big screen

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 10:57:00 +0000

Thatcher enthusiasts, British political historians and children of the Thatcher era might all be interested in an upcoming feature film entitled The Iron Lady. The film follows the life of Margaret Thatcher as she broke down the barriers that made her entry into politics a difficult one.

The film stars Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep as Lady Thatcher herself, as well as Jim Broadbent as Denis Thatcher. It is a joint production of Pathé, Film4, and the UK Film Council. More information is available from The Iron Lady website.

Preserving a Digital Past

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 08:10:00 +0000

We've come a long way since the 1920s...

The Conservative Party Archive regularly receives deliveries of material from Central Office and various other Party operations. Even ten years ago, these were almost exclusively in paper form. Today, we get film clips, audio files, digital documents and more. Sometimes they've been created recently and come on DVD or in up-to-date formats, but often they are dated and harder to deal with - we have Betamax tapes, Dictabelt sheets, cassette tapes, floppy disks and more.

Dealing with audio-visual and digital material is one of the biggest challenges facing archives around the world. Archival material on paper may present its own set of problems (storage space, at the very least!), but even left to its own devices in a reasonably controlled climate, it often lasts for centuries, and it's easy to get it out and show it to someone. VHS tapes, on the other hand, may degrade after a matter of decades, their data lost forever. It often requires 'specialist' equipment (once standard!) to even see what's on the tapes, much less transfer them to a computer. Organisations such as the UK's Digital Preservation Coalition and Digital Curation Centre have been working to provide training and research to help archives deal with our digital future, but it's not always easy work.

The Mellon Foundation-funded futureArch project has been addressing these issues at the Bodleian for a number of years; the project aims to develop a framework for preserving, storing and providing access to born digital and hybrid material. This means researching, testing, and developing strategies for everything from transferring audio from cassettes to allowing researchers access to material created in obsolete formats.

Because the Conservative Party Archive has begun to receive a fairly substantial amount of digital material (and expects that to increase as more Party work is done online only), we began to liaise with the futureArch project for advice on transferring and preserving AV files. The last thing we want is for our digital material to become totally obsolete or degrade before we can transfer it and make it available to readers. We need to make sure that our material is stored in a format that will last - or that someone responsible and knowledgeable is making sure it is transferred between formats where appropriate. We have also been involved in a pilot project at the Bodleian to archive websites, providing long-term access to online ephemera surrounding the Party.

A few weeks ago, we went to visit the futureArch project team to discuss the work they were doing with our material as well as sit in on a meeting with a JISC representative on formats for video preservation. We ran through the process for transferring optical media - CDs and DVDs, in this case - and using digital forensics tools to retrieve data. Digital forensics tools have been adopted by the archival world as the forensics community deals with many of the same problems, especially the variety of formats and quality levels of the data we address.

There is no easy solution to preserving digital data, but there is a lot of hard work going into the question. The Archive's material is being handled by information professionals at the forefront of digital preservation research. Our hope is that we can make the Archive's audio, visual and born digital material available in the future in a way that will eliminate barriers to readers such as obsolete formats and allow us to continue to provide access no matter how technologies shift.

Bodleian Libraries acquire Sir Edward Heath archive

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 09:41:00 +0000

1970 election poster from the Conservative Party Archive Poster Collection

Last month, the Bodleian Libraries, with support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) acquired the archive of former Conservative Prime Minister, Sir Edward Heath (1916-2005). The collection comprises almost 1,000 boxes and includes rich and diverse papers from his time in office and the shadow cabinet, as well as personal papers from his early life including his time as an undergraduate at Balliol College and his active role in student politics during the 1930s.

A Young Conservatives flyer from the Conservative Party Archive

An Oxford alumnus, Sir Edward Richard George 'Ted' Heath, KG, MBE (9 July 1916 – 17 July 2005) served as Conservative Prime Minister from 1970 to 1974 and was Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. He continued to have a major influence on British politics throughout his life and was Father of the House from 1992-2001.

The Heath Archive complements other holdings of modern British political papers within the Bodleian’s Department of Special Collections, including our material in the Conservative Party Archive.

The archive will be made available to scholars and researchers following cataloguing.

On this day in 1954: Food rationing ends after 14 years

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 09:07:00 +0000

'Rationing ends this weekend. Appropriate enough, the first day of freedom is July 4th - Independence Day.

Gone are coupons, counterfoils, ration periods, registrations, and all the paraphernalia of Food Office rule. Here at last is the 'Victory Day' for housewives, wistfully anticipated by Dr. Edith Summerskill when she was at the Ministry of Food in 1946. Under a Conservative Government scarcity has been replaced by abundance, austerity by variety, restriction by choice, and frustration by freedom.

(CCO 4/6/342)'

At midnight on 3 July, the rationing limits initiated in January 1940 finally ended. Members of the London Housewives Association held a ceremony in Trafalgar Square to commemorate the occasion, while Minister Geoffrey Lloyd burned his ration book.

Rationing began in the UK on 8 January 1940 with limits on butter, bacon and sugar. Wartime efforts - including the North Sea blockade - made it difficult to ensure the availability of certain everyday provisions. Petrol had been rationed since 1939, and button and bacon were soon followed by meat, tea, eggs, sweets and more. By the end of the war, most common foodstuffs were limited as well as clothing, cigarettes and other necessities. Ration books (click here for examples) were issued to all citizens based on age and status (pregnant mothers, for instance, were often granted higher rations).

Weekend Talking Point addressing reactions to the end of rationing (CCO 4/6/342)

Citizens were encouraged to do their part on the 'Kitchen Front' and grow their own food; price gauging and unlawful rationing were subject to heavy fines. Nevertheless, people quickly tired of shortages. Rationing continued post-war as industrial action and rebuilding efforts in Europe disrupted the food supply. The Conservatives' 1950 general election manifesto urged the end of rationing, which they portrayed as an effect of a Socialist government and 'incompetence.' Following a Conservative return to power in 1951 and the stabilization of the European economy, rationing was slowly phased out; meat was the last product to become freely available.

On this day in 1983: Thatcher and Conservatives win second election

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 08:05:00 +0000

On 9 June 1983, just after 11pm, Margaret Thatcher left 10 Downing Street for her constituency in Finchley. She remarked, 'We think this will be our home for the next five years' (The Times, 10 June 1983). It was indeed; Thatcher and the Conservative Party won a landslide victory - the most decisive election victory since 1945.

Thatcher's popularity had waned during her first two years in office; unemployment had risen to pre-WWII levels and inflation persisted. Victory in the Falklands, however, gave the Conservatives a decisive jump in the polls, as did Labour's internal divisions and a Labour manifesto dubbed 'the longest suicide note in history' by Labour MP Gerald Kaufman.

The Party's manifesto laid out a slightly more radical programme of reforms, including abolishing the Greater London council and the Metropolitan County Councils and privatising certain key British corporations.

The Party won a third election in 1987, and Thatcher remained in office as Prime Minister until 1990.

Further reading:
The 1983 Conservative Party Manifesto
Interview for Carol Thatcher’s Diary of an Election

60 years ago this month: Festival of Britain opens to public

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Fri, 27 May 2011 12:52:00 +0000

1951 should be the starting point from which will develop many new and good things to stimulate and enrich our national life.
(Festival Information Summary, p. 1, [CCO 4/4/88])

The Festival of Britain of 1951 gave the British public a chance to revive a nation still haunted by war. Held 100 years after the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Festival was a celebration of Britain’s progress; Festival organiser and Labour Deputy Leader Herbert Morrison described it as ‘tonic for the nation’.

Although the centre of the Festival was the 30-acre site at South Bank and the Pleasure Gardens at Battersea, events were held all over the country between May and September 1951. As the ‘Information Summary’ pointed out, ‘The Exhibition of 1851 was confined to London. The Festival of Britain 1951 will be spread over the whole of the United Kingdom, and every locality will be encouraged to participate and add its own spontaneous and individual activity to the national events’ (CCO 4/4/88). Two travelling exhibitions were sent by land and sea to reach those unable to visit the capital, and over 10 million national and overseas visitors paid admission to see the six main exhibitions, which ranged from ‘live architecture’ in Poplar, London to Industrial Power in Glasgow. The main exhibitions were planned as follows:

‘This summer there will be local activities in connection with the Festival in practically every town and village in Britain. In addition there will be the following activities sponsored by the Festival office:

(1) An exhibition of industrial power and heavy industry in Glasgow.

(2) Exhibitions of Scottish books, arts and traditional crafts in Edinburgh.

(3) An ‘Ulster Farm and Factory Exhibition’ in Belfast.

(4) A model rehabilitation scheme for three hill farms at Dolhendre in Wales, open to inspection as an exhibition.

(5) A land travelling exhibition visiting Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham.

(6) A seaborne travelling exhibition visiting Southampton, Dundee, Newcastle, Hull, Plymouth, Bristol, Cardiff, Belfast, Birkenhead and Glasgow.

(7) ‘Festivals of the Arts’ in twenty-five towns.

(8) London activities, the most important of which are:

a. The South Bank Exhibition

b. The exhibition of ‘live’ architecture in Poplar

c. Exhibitions of science and books in South Kensington.’

(CRD 2/23/35)

Images: Festival schedule from Information Summary (CCO 4/4/88)

The Festival was relatively successful and certainly popular, but it did raise some financial concerns; a great deal of the Festival-related material in the Conservative Party Archive concerns the overspending of Festival contractors. A number of bills provided authorization of and funding for the events, beginning with the Public Works (Festival of Britain) Bill in February 1949 and requiring two supplementary bills to add funding in 1949 and 1951. The initial South Bank site chosen for the main London event was soon deemed too small to safely accommodate the rush of expected visitors; ‘The Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police is said to have told the Government that he could not be responsible for public order if there was not an additional show in connection with the South Bank Exhibition in order to filter off some of the rougher elements’ (Letter to Duncan Sandys, 21 March 1951, CRD 2/23/34). The Battersea Pleasure Garden site was added to the mix, but at additional cost. The central London locations required significant investment in the city’s infrastructure, leading to complaints that ‘throughout 1950 London’s streets were a chaotic jumble of large-scale excavations’ (CRD 2/23/35). The Festival construction was a massive undertaking, with an estimated 343,000 square feet of plywood, 19,000 tons of cement, 3,960 tons of steel and 960,000 bricks used at South Bank alone (Letter to Councillor John Grant, Oxford, 8 May 1951, CRD 2/23/35). Images of Festival construction on The Telegraph website show the sheer scale of the building projects.

Although the Conservatives fully supported the Festival itself and encouraged their agents in London and elsewhere to organize local Festival events, they believed ‘this should not prevent our criticising the mismanagement by the Socialists of the Festival activities in London’ (Letter to Duncan Sandys, 21 March 1951, CRD 2/23/34). Cost estimates for the Festival varied, and there was some confusion over how the money was being spent; the Conservatives did not oppose House Bills connected with the Festival, but they did ask for clarification on funds on a number of occasions (see Notes on Current Politics 1951, No. 10, p. 46 [PUB 221/9]). There was also concern that the Festival would become a ‘Festival of Socialism,’ but the general consensus was the Festival was a worth event and it would be a shame if Conservatives were not ‘at least as active as Socialists in making the whole show a success’ (The Councillor, Vol. 3, No. 8, March 1951, p. 8 [PUB 193/2]). The National Women’s Advisory Council participated in the National Council of Women’s information office, which was open for 22 weeks (see CCO 3/3/25: Women’s Hospitality Committee).

To celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the Festival, the Southbank Centre is holding a summer of Festival-related events. Please visit the Southbank Centre website for more information.

The AV ‘what if…?’ story of 1918

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Fri, 06 May 2011 10:01:00 +0000

With the result of yesterday’s AV referendum eagerly awaited, Gleanings & Memoranda takes the opportunity to look back to 1918 when the switch to AV seemed inevitable, even passing the House of Commons by a small majority, only to be blocked by the House of Lords.

Although the Representation of the People Bill of that year contained clauses which finally gave the vote to women for the first time, what proved most controversial in its passage through Parliament and nearly caused a constitutional crisis was its proposal to replace ‘first-past-the-post’ with elections by the Alternative Vote and Proportional Representation (Single Transferable Vote) methods.

Surprisingly this radical change to the voting system had already been recommended by both the Royal Commission on Electoral Systems in 1910 and the (cross-Party) Speaker’s Conference early in 1917. The Bill subsequently presented before Parliament included AV as the method for election in single-member constituencies and PR in seats returning more than two members.

Reminiscent of today, the then Conservative-Liberal coalition decided to allow a free vote in the Commons on the Speaker’s Conference recommendations (although in the special circumstances of the First World War, 160 MPs were absent on active military service). But in marked contrast to 2011 and perhaps reflecting more the apathy of today, the Prime Minister Lloyd George declared no interest in the result:

I express no personal opinion upon it. I have not got any. I never made up my mind, and I really have no time to make up my mind upon it. Unless I am really forced to do so, I do not propose even to study it during the War.

[House of Commons Debate on the Electoral Reform Conference, 28^th March, 1917; Hansard, vol . 92 col. 492]

Difficulties arose, and a constitutional crisis only narrowly averted, as Conservatives in the House of Commons repeatedly amended the Bill to replace its PR components with AV, only for the Lords to re-instate PR. An angry resolution was passed at a Special Conference of the National Unionist Association of Conservative & Liberal Unionist Organizations convened on 30^th November, 1917, and cabled to Lloyd George, then in Paris,

...that before the Representation of the People Bill comes into operation, it is essential that the Government should give effect to the preamble of the Parliament Act by establishing a reformed second chamber possessed of adequate powers immediately….

[Minutes of the Special Conference, 30th November, 1917; Shelfmark: NUA 2/1/35]

The amendments and counter-amendments between the two Houses continued right up until the last day of the Parliamentary Session on 6^th February 1918, amidst fears that the Bill might be lost completely:

The Chamber was crowded from end to end. There have not been so many members in attendance on the last day of a Session for many years. Some had even come from the front in response to urgent “whips”, including Sir John Simon, who, to gain time, had made the journey across the Channel in an aeroplane.

[The Times, Thursday, 7th February, 1918; pg. 7]

In order to save the Bill, the Commons was forced to capitulate and agreed to the complete removal of the AV provisions while agreeing to allow discussion of an experimental scheme whereby 100 MPs might be elected by PR. Amid angry recrimination of the Lords, Bonar Law made the Government’s position clear during the Commons debate:

I do not believe that the country cares twopence one way or the other about either proportional representation or even the alternative vote, but I do say that the country does care about the passing of this Bill. I do say that, whatever might have been the effect at the beginning, if the Bill fails to go through now it will produce a feeling in the country which I am afraid to contemplate…..It cannot go backwards and forwards between the two Houses indefinitely, without the Bill being destroyed. There is only one way, in my opinion, in which the knot can be cut. That is by the Government taking the responsibility of saying, "If we cannot save it in any other way we will use the whole machinery of the Government to bring this conflict to an end." Sooner or later we must do that. Otherwise the Bill is endangered. Well, we are not going to do it on this Amendment.

[House of Commons Debate on the House of Lords Amendment, 6^th February, 1918; Hansard, vol. 101 col. 2281-83]

Perhaps it was revenge, but the proposed experiment in PR was subsequently quashed in the Commons in May 1918. And so PR (with the exception of its application to the university constituencies) was deleted along with AV from the final wording of the Act which passed into law later that same day, and first-past-the-post has remained firmly in place ever since.

[Churchill held out the carrot of PR in return for Liberal support after his return to power in 1951. But despite some discussion of it in the 1920s it never again received such widespread acceptance as it had done in 1917/18, and was rejected at Speaker's Conferences in 1944 and 1965-8 ]

An Easter cartoon

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:59:00 +0000

We've been a bit snowed under here in the Archive. A full post is forthcoming, but until then we thought we'd leave you with an Easter cartoon depicting Stanley Baldwin 85 years ago:

From The Man in the Street, April 1926, p. 3 (PUB 210/2)

Conservative Women After Suffrage (Part Three): Resources for further study

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:51:00 +0000

It may be impossible to provide a comprehensive listing of resources in the Archive related to women and the Party, but following our previous posts we thought it might be useful to highlight some key areas and resources for users interested in the subject.

Key areas to investigate before suffrage include the Primrose League, trade organisations and other satellites of the Party. After 1918, the Women’s Unionist Organisation (later the Women’s National Advisory Committee in various manifestations) handled a great deal of educational and canvassing issues; it also organised an annual Women’s Conference. The majority of this material is held in CCO 170, including:

Minutes, 1935-1965 [CCO 170/1]

General Purposes Committee minutes, 1944-1951 [CCO 170/1]

Outside Organisations Subcommittee minutes, 1944-1977 [CCO 170/1]

Parliamentary Subcommittee minutes, 1946-1948 [CCO 170/1]

Annual Conference handbooks, 1939-1991 [CCO 170/3]

Other papers, c1928-1986 [CCO 170]

There is also some information in the area files relating to individual committees Area level records:

Greater London: Minutes, 1966-1986 [ARE 1/11]

North West Minutes, 1933-1953 [ARE 3/11]

Midland: Minutes, 1887-1890; 1947 [ARE MU 11]

West Midlands: Minutes, 1925-1982 [ARE 6/11]

Eastern: Minutes, 1920-1984 [ARE 7/11]

South East: Minutes, 1920-1976 [ARE 9/11]

Wessex: Minutes, 1920-1962 [ARE 11/11]

As mentioned previously, the WUO/WNAC was responsible for a number of publications, some of which are available in the CPA:

Home & Politics, 1922-1929 [PUB 212]

Home Truths, 1949-1951 [PUB 146]

Madam Chairman, 1957-1966 [PUB 136]

Onward (with a ‘lady’s page’), 1953-57 [PUB 215]

Some material is held elsewhere in the Archive, among the papers of other committees or meetings:

Organisation Department papers on the WNAC, 1946-1968 [CCO 500/9]

Chairman’s Office papers on women’s organisations/conference, 1962-1971 [CCO 20/36]

Various files in the CCO Filing Registry, 1948-1975 [CCO 4]

A few other individual files may also be useful. PUB 244 has now been created for women’s organisation publications, and there are a handful among the publications of other groups. PUB 182/4, for instance, contains Hats Off! … to Conservative Women, by Elizabeth Hodder (1990). CCO 500/1/5, Chamberlain’s reports on CCO reorganisation, mentions the Women’s Department and the changes to women’s organising (1930s). The Conservative Agents’ Journal [PUB 2-13] can be trawled for its various references to women’s roles in the Party.

The papers of Lady Emmet and Lady Young, although not contained in their entirety within the CPA, are also particularly illustrative of a Tory woman’s career. Some of Lady Emmet’s papers are contained within those of the International Department (CCO 507) and Lady Young’s within CCO 60 (uncatalogued). Further collections of Lady Emmet’s papers can be found in the Bodleian via the Special Collections Reading Room.

Of course, there are many other resources, both within the Bodleian Libraries and without, that may help researchers in women’s history in the Conservative Party. A quick search on SOLO (our catalogue tool) for ‘women “conservative party”’ turns up 48 items. And although their material is often designed with school curricula in mind, the National Archives have some particularly interesting document links on their education pages.

If you have any questions about our material, or indeed think we’ve missed anything in this short guide, do get in touch with us; click on the 'About Me' tab to access our email information.

Conservative Women after Suffrage (Part Two): Women in the Party

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 15:45:00 +0000

Women’s organising was an evident part of party politics from the inception of the Primrose League in the 1880s. The Ladies’ Grand Council, set up in 1885, allowed thousands of women (generally upper-class) to participate in canvassing and other political work. Women’s organisations outside the official workings of the Party itself flourished throughout the first two decades of the 20th century. Other distinctly political organisations such as the Women’s Tariff Reform Association (founded in 1905) provided a concrete way for women to enter the political arena, but the organisations and their participants were often relegated to a ‘quiet’ role and kept behind the scenes.

When women over 30 were granted the vote in 1918, the Party restructured itself to encompass these already-established women’s groups. The first Conservative women’s organisation – the Women’s Unionist Organisation – was founded in 1918/1919. Not only were women now allowed to play a real and tangible role in political organisation, the Qualification of Women Bill allowed female MPS; three female Conservative MPs took office in the first four years after the Bill, in 1919 (Lady Astor), 1921 (Margaret Wintringham) and 1923 (Mabel Hilton Philipson). In fact, the Party was concerned at the 1921 Conference that it not be seen to lag behind the Labour and Liberal Parties in putting forward female candidates (NUA 2/1/37, p. 31); Lady Astor, MP, responded by pointing out that women ‘are your great bulwark against Bolshevism’. George Younger remarked, ‘She is quite equal to it [working as an MP] … but she requires support’.

A November 1931 photograph featuring the national women MPs on the terrace of the House of Commons. The women were being filmed for a 'talkie' film. From left to right: Lady Iveagh, Irene Ward, Thelma Cazalet-Keir, Mavis Tate, Ida Copeland, Lady Astor, Sarah Ward, Florence Horsbrough, Mary Pickford, the Duchess of Atholl, and Norah Runge. (Barratt's; from the Conservative Party Archive Photograph Collection)

Not all factions of the party were comfortable with female participation. Some who supported suffrage and women’s rights pointed out that giving too much power to a separate women’s organisation in effect divided the Party to its detriment (see letter from ‘Darius’ – aka Robert Topping – in the Conservative Agents’ Journal, August 1922, p. 9, PUB 3/3). Others replied, ‘Women have become part and parcel of our organisation system, and that they are out to help us men, if we will only let them help us’ (letter from ‘B.M.’ in September 1922 issue, p. 20). Another writer stated, the success of mass politics ‘stands or falls on … whether or not there is a good women’s organisation in the constituency’ (CAJ, April 1923, p. 68). This argument continued throughout the 1920s, with regular articles in the Journal criticising the segregation of men and women.

The Report of the Council to the Annual Conference indicates that a Women’s Conference was held in April 1921 in London. Elizabeth Hodder writes:

‘London under siege’ was how one Tory woman delegate described the Conservative Women’s Conference in 1921. Hatted women from all corners of the land packed to overflowing the largest hall available.

(PUB 182/4: Hats Off! ...to Conservative Women, p. 8)

Empire was a significant issue in the first part of the century, and Viscountess Elvedeen, Chairman of that first Conference, spoke to the women of their focus on unity and equality:

Unionism sounds for unity, for the unity of our Empire, for that unity which alone makes for strengths, which stands for unity between classes, the greatest good for the greatest number, not the greatest good for any section of the community.

(Hats Off, p. 13)

In 1928, the conference and the Women’s National Advisory Committee were officially recognised by the Party; that year the Prime Minister addressed their Conference at Royal Albert Hall. The Countess of Iveagh told the 1928 Women’s Conference that the Women’s Unionist Organisation had a membership of over one million already (CCO 170/4/11, p. 5). We do know that the annual expenditure allowed to women’s organisation had increased by astronomical amounts; in 1924, the spending totaled £425, but by 1930 it had reached £3,800 (CCO 500/1/5).

The Women’s Unionist Organisation worked hard at bringing women into the political arena. It produced its own publication from 1921-1930, called Home and Politics. The journal proved far more popular than some of the men’s equivalents, and by 1928 its circulation had topped 2.5 million! The WUO/WNAC called for more women’s education and requested speakers from Central Office, particularly in areas such as economics. Women travelled to the Conservative Party College for training, and study groups formed throughout the country, offering courses on everything from canvassing to foreign policy.

[PUB 212]

Although it can be by no means said that the struggle of women for equal rights ended in the 1930s, by that decade Conservative women had fostered a groundswell of support and organisation. A report to Neville Chamberlain indicated that by 1931, 'So great has been the advancement … it was decided to omit any provision as to the ratio of men and women representatives to be elected by the constituencies to the Conferences and Council' (CCO 500/1/5). In 1939, the WNAC had over 1.5 million members, 474 Divisional Committees and well over one hundred paid organisers. They ran weekend courses, study schools, and other training sessions. Home and Politics had given way to Home and Empire, and they produced numerous other smaller publications.

The 1958 Conservative Women's Conference, held at Westminster. (Keystone Photos; from the Conservative Party Archive Photography Collection)

Gender equality may still be an issue in both the political and social sphere, but the Conservative Women’s Organisation (as it is known today) is still going strong after over 90 years. It provides a network for supporting women in the Party as well as encouraging campaigning and political activity, and it still holds an annual conference. More information about the Organisation’s current activities can be found at http://www.conservativewomen.org.uk.

The Conservative Party and Libya: Before Gadaffi

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:00:00 +0000

The recent events across the Middle East and North Africa, and particularly the current upheaval within Libya, make it a topical time to look back at the Conservative Party’s dealings with and attitude towards this country up to Gaddafi’s seizure of power in September 1969.

Newly-independent from an Anglo-French UN trusteeship in December 1951, the outlook for the country was grim:

Raw materials being almost completely lacking, the outlook for industrial development is dim. Over-population and under-employment are certain to be increasingly difficult problems, and there is a cancerous growth of petty officialdom.

[Reports by the Conservative Commonwealth Council*, 1955 and 1956: CCO 507/3/1].

Libya’s viability was ensured in the short-term only by the signing of a 20-year mutual defence treaty with Churchill in July 1953 which allowed the establishment of a British military base in the country, as well as a similar agreement with the United States for a massive US Air Force base:

Libya’s principal asset is her strategic position, and military facilities her most saleable commodity, without which her financial position would be hopeless…What Libya receives in return, directly and indirectly, represents 50% of her total national revenue.

It must be stressed that even where Britain, the liberator of Libya is concerned, it is sheer economic necessity that leads the Libyan Government to exploit its strategic position for financial ends.

However, in reviewing the future of Britain’s military position in the Middle East, the outlook was already pessimistic:

Politically, Libya is still in its infancy, with no innate stability. Lacking strong guardianship, it is moreover already the cockpit of conflicting interests and ambitions. The recent murder of the Minister of Court, who was the power behind the Throne, has spotlighted the dissensions that exist among the ruling family, with its ailing King, who is shortly expected to abdicate.

Although the author of the report was 14 years premature in his anticipation of the King’s abdication, he went on to list a number of additional factors affecting Libya’s stability, including Egyptian expansionism and The preaching of emancipation from all Western influence by the numerous Egyptians in Libya; Soviet encouragement of nationalist extremism throughout Libya and French North Africa; and the lack of any real affinity between Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, which may easily lead to the break-up of the union, a goal apparently being encouraged by the growing Italian influence within the country. That Libya, not yet an oil producer, might discover its own resources, would however, render her independent of British financial support and would tend to intensify the struggle for political predominance, both internal and external.

Libya in the 1950s was considered simply as a client state during the Cold War struggle for influence between East and West. Interestingly, noting that the Government has recently revoked licences for the sale of arms to Libya during today’s troubles in the country, the view in 1956 was that,

A great deal of resentment is caused in Arab countries by hesitation or delay in supplying them with the arms to which they believe themselves entitled. Every Arab country desires an army, as an expression of its independence, and will have it by hook or by crook, as surely as a Bedouin will have a gun.

With a certain amount of resignation, the report concluded that,

As things are, it would certainly be hazardous to take for granted that no situation will supervene which is likely to jeopardise our treaty rights….So long as Libya is financially dependent on Britain and the United States, and so long as the present King is on the throne, it is unlikely that our position is in immediate danger.

The predictions proved correct. Oil reserves were soon discovered, and the King’s death precipitated the coup which brought Gaddafi to power in September 1969; British and American treaty rights were soon abrogated.

In Opposition at the time of the coup, the main issue of concern before the Conservative Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee was the Libyans’ recent acquisition of British-made Chieftain tanks and the risk of them coming into the hands of the Russians, whose,

influence was spreading along the North African coast towards Tunisia

[Minutes of the Foreign Affairs Committee, 16^th December, 1969: CRD 3/10/16].

In attempting to guide future British policy in the region, the Conservative Commonwealth and Overseas Council* argued in 1971 that support to the countries of North Africa and the Middle East for,

their genuine independence, free of all binding ties with larger powers… was likely to be ‘the most fruitful policy for Britain to pursue….

But that Libya was,

going through a period of uncertainty, initiated by the revolution of September 1969, which brought President Qaddafi to power….Some little time must pass, however, before the country settles into a pattern whose development can be reasonably predicted.

[Report entitled, ‘Britain’s role in a changed world’, March 1971: CCO 507/3/3].

Below, extracts from Overseas Review (No. 65, Aug/Sep 1971) - the monthly commentary on foreign affairs published on behalf of the Conservative Overseas Bureau - featuring a review of ‘recent’ unrest across the Middle East, between May-September 1971, including attempted coups in Egypt, Morocco and the Sudan, as well as conflict in Jordan, and union between Egypt, Libya and Syria instigated by Col. Gaddafi, which provided for intervention in another member country to restore a regime which had been overthrown [PUB 135/2]:

*[The Conservative Commonwealth Council (from 1966, the Conservative Commonwealth & Overseas Council) was a group of Conservative parliamentarians and Party members set up in 1953 with the approval of Conservative Central Office, with the purpose of 'stimulating study and activity within the Party on Commonwealth and Colonial matters, and would become a rallying-point for anti-Communists and anti-Socialists in the Commonwealth.' Records of its deliberations can be found in the Conservative Party Archive]

Conservative Women after Suffrage (Part One): The Handbook for Women Organisers and Workers

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:51:00 +0000

This post is part of a three-part series that will provide brief insights into the changes in the party after the enfranchisement of women. This post, which takes an introductory look at the women's organisations through the Handbook for Women Organisers and Workers, will be followed by an exploration of the ways in which women changed and used the Party's organisational structure. A final post will provide some guidance on Archive material for further research.

While sorting files returned by one of our readers, we came across a 1928 Handbook for Women Organisers and Workers, published by the Women’s Unionist Organisation under the authority of the Conservative and Unionist Central Office. The Party produced quite a few of these sorts of guides, and they provide fascinating insights into the ways by which various facets of the Party worked.

By 1928, all women over the age of 21 could vote, and the Party was keen to attract what it saw as an enthusiastic but untapped segment of the electorate – as well as to show it was including women in its politics (see our post in two week's time for more on the history of women in the Party). It was still the 1920s, however, and women often joined separate groups:

The Women’s Unionist Organisation formed in 1918/1919 (it became the Women’s National Advisory Committee in 1928); the Handbook states on its first page:

It is essential that the Conservative and Unionist Party should adopt every possible means to interest the women of the country in public affairs, and to ensure their close co-operation with men in political work. (PUB 190/5)

The Handbook also points out that women were often able to meet at different hours, preferred different issues (especially education), and were extraordinarily successful fundraisers.

The earlier 1925 edition of the Handbook (PUB 203) is slightly more anxious that women be educated in the political sphere. Suffrage was still an issue, and the book states that although ‘Increasing numbers of women are anxious to improve their political education … many women electors do not yet realise the importance of the vote and the responsibility it imposes.’ It goes on: ‘Experience has proved that amalgamated associations of men and women do not enable either section of the electorate to develop its full efficiency in constituency work.’

The Conservative (or Conservative and Unionist Party) was fairly well organised, and it supplied a great deal of literature for both men and women on running constituency organisations, elections and other events. The Handbook covers everything from keeping track of finances and canvassing to sample agendas and branch rules. It also includes advice on a number of miscellaneous projects, including Empire Day (women’s organisations were expected to organise something in celebration) and, most importantly for any good British organisation, tea. On page 83, the Handbook reads:

Tea is an established feature at almost all ordinary branch meetings, and most branches have a regular Tea Committee … Tea should not be given free … It should not be served during the address; and care should be taken not to interrupt the speaker or entertainer by the clashing of tea cups.

The importance of tea is not something to be laughed at, however, as many attribute the enormous success of the WUO to the social opportunities it provided. From tea to outings to educational opportunities, social occasions were an enjoyable way to meet candidates and proved successful fundraising and Party-building opportunities.

Next post: Women and Party Organization in 1910-1920

February 1986: European Integration Moves Forward

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 09:39:00 +0000

Convinced that the European idea, the results achieved in the field of economic integration and political co-operation, and the needs for new developments correspond to the wishes of the democratic peoples of Europe, for whom the European Parliament, elected by universal suffrage, is an indispensable means of expression…
Preamble to Single European Act

Leadership is what is required in the Community. The leaders of the Ten must agree upon the direction of the Community in a spirit that wields and transcends individual national self-interest. Let us raise our heads above the petty squabbles of the past and lead the Community into new enterprises and fresh ventures, for the sake of both ourselves and the Community.
Ted Heath, Europe – The Next Ten Years, at Conservative Group for Europe Annual Conference, March 1984 (IDU 32/2)

By the early 1980s, discontent and frustration were growing among the member states of the no-longer-fledgling European Community. The Treaties of Paris and Rome in the 1950s had set the integration ball rolling, but barriers remained and made economic movement difficult.

Captain Europe attempts to educate British voters about the European Community

A number of camps formed among European nations to discuss future changes (including the famous Crocodile Club and Kangaroo Group). At the same time business pressures grew; Jacques Delors took office as president of the European Commission, making his primary purpose work towards a single market. Negotiations between member states began to create pressure to work towards an agreement.

In 1984, the member states gathered at Fontainebleau (see photo of the Heads of State at the Fontainebleau Summit of 25 and 26 June 1984) and commissioned the Dooge Committee to research the issue, and a white paper on the completion of the European Market was presented by Jacques Delors and the Commission to the European Council in 1985 (see also the House of Commons discussion of the report). The ten leading member states convened in Milan in June 1985 to discuss a possible treaty. Consensus proved difficult, however, as many of the member states had severe misgivings about proposed changes. Britain, as a traditionally hesitant member, was unwilling to accept any stipulation that might prevent a nation from protecting its own interests.

Despite misgivings from a number of nations, a conference was convened and the text of the Act was finished in December 1985. A complicated signing process followed, including national referendums in Denmark and Ireland; the Act came into force on 1 January 1987.

The Act itself set out one of the most important provisions of today’s European Union: the European single market. In order to make way for the establishment of a single market by 1992, the Act touched upon the movement of refugees, tax barriers, VAT rates and other important elements to establishing a free trade area, and it institutionalized European monetary policy. The Act didn't limit itself to finance and trade issues, however, and it set out goals for European social cohesiveness. The Act also established the European Court of First Instance, which would act as a filtering court and take some of the workload from the Court of Justice. To make these changes (and future decisions) work smoothly, the Act set extended Qualified Majority voting.

As Jacque Delors summarized:

The Single Act means, in a few words, the commitment of implementing simultaneously the great market without frontiers, more economic and social cohesion, an European research and technology policy, the strengthening of the European Monetary System, the beginning of an European social area and significant actions in environment.
From Europa

European Conservative Brief, January 1988 (CCO 508/11/60)

Not everyone was thrilled with the Act. Although the provisions it made were monumental, Thatcher herself called its impact 'modest'. Indeed, it was a modest version of the original; negotiations had been forced to make it palatable to all member states. But it set the Community on its way; by 1992, a huge number of barriers had been removed, and the member states signed the Maastricht Treat, setting out goals for the European Monetary Union.

That did not stop the UK's Conservative Party from shifting to what Margaret Thatcher called a Eurosceptic stance in the late 1980s. In September 1988, Thatcher gave what is now called her 'Bruges Speech' to the College of Europe. She affirmed: 'Britain does not dream of some cosy, isolated existence on the fringes of the European Community. Our destiny is in Europe, as part of the Community.' At the same time, however, she passionately declared:

To try to suppress nationhood and concentrate power at the centre of a European conglomerate would be highly damaging and would jeopardise the objectives we seek to achieve ... Europe will be stronger precisely because it has France as France, Spain as Spain, Britain as Britain, each with its own customs, traditions and identity. It would be folly to try to fit them into some sort of identikit European personality.

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 12:04:00 +0000

A little note from Stanley Baldwin for you...

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (The Conservative Party Archive) — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 15:51:00 +0000

1938. Christmas. Hitler and Chamberlain?

Oh, hindsight.

The card was found amongst the papers of Percy Cohen, a prominent Jewish Conservative believed to be a former member of the Conservative Research Department. The card is signed by RJ Rosie. It is not known if the card was an official one or personally commissioned.