Thorneycroft THE YOUNG TORY AND ‘DESIGN FOR FREEDOM’

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28491, 22 January 1958, Page 10

Thorneycroft THE YOUNG TORY AND ‘DESIGN FOR FREEDOM’

ISpecially written rm “ The Press “J

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DAVID GOLDBLATT]

I

In. midsummer. 1945, was held Britain's first General Election, for 10 years. In it her greatest son led his party to defeat. Winston Churchill, contrary to advice, broke up the war-time coalition and formed a caretaker government in full qonfldence. Within a few weeks he received a dusty, answer. He was lauded as a leader in war but rejected as a Prime Minister in peace. In the fight he lost some of his nominated Cabinet and dashed the hopes of the young men of his party who had not yet succumbed to its ruling malady, the hardening of the mental arteries, a complex which sustains conservatism through the ages. Among the defeated in a Midland Division was Peter Thorneycroft. He had been allotted a seat during the political truce of the war years. He had the necessary background. Eton was his school, the Bar his profession, in which he carried on without disr tinction, perhaps bolstered by a competence derived from an iron foundry already some generations old. The army had enveloped him in war at his urgent request. He was wounded and invalided out. He was ripe for politics. His training was adequate, his personal qualities appeared to guarantee “soundness.” the touchtone of every Tory selection committee. To them brains are suspect, for they can create the deviationist; it is enough to be true blue. Thorneycroft appeared to fit the bill. In a few months he made his mark by concentrating on transport. His first reward was junior office in the Ministry of Transport in the caretaker government. A Second Chance

However, the 1945 election brought his first setback and his second reward. He was given another chance almost at once, showing he was among the esteemed. He was marked out as "up and coming,” and he showed great quality in a stern but successful by-election at Monmouth. He was back in the Charmed Circle, and now imbued with a sense of importance and destiny. It so happened that the young Tories were above the normal. Forward' looking, they harked back to Disraeli, the old Jew who had in his time brought new ideas, though as old as his race, into the party which used him and forgot him but for his link with the simple primrose so prolific in the environs of Hughenden, his estate, and Wycombe, his seat. The Old Man had, without success, exhorted his party to fuse the Two Nations into a contented whole where the field-marshal’s baton might be included in the equipment of every cradle. It may have been foreign to Tory language, but it was worth a trial in terms of slogans and lasted while their exotic leader lived to expound this idea. As a concept it rested untended until its revival by the Tory Reform Group of the post-war Parliament.

Such groups have ever been tolerated by Tory headquarters. Like sport, they use up surplus energy, and can be relied upon to amuse exigent youth till it ripens into solid maturity and good party stalwarts; it is a happy way of sowing political wild oats, and insures against rebellion, which can be disconcerting, if not disastrous. It was only half a generation since one, Macmillan, had tired of Tory whip allegiance, and it had not been easy to manage his return. Such conduct was better left to the Left, with its intelligentsia and its Stafford Cripps. Better by far to let the youngsters play in the nursery of a reform circle, where social contact and good form and the weekend house party could be relied upon to guard against a break. The Tory Reform Group of 1945 went about its mission with gusto. With Quintin Hogg, now Lord Hailsham, as its chairman, and Thorneycroft as its dynamo, it essayed into publications of quality, not hesitating to go outside established Tories for writers, with freedom as the theme. Among contributors was George Schwartz who, though Cassell Reader at the London School of Economics had strongly and publicly supported the Liberal candidate at North Finchley, where he lived. The name of the candidate may be of interest as this story unfolds—David Goldblatt "All Liberals Now”

Towards the end of 1945 a letter appeared in the “Spectator” over the signature of Quintin Hogg, then M.P. for the City of Oxford. Its line was unusual, not so much in intention as in expression. It was a new twist on an old theme. It examined the Tory debacle of the summer, and deplored “the internecine warfare” which, in the writer’s words, had brought it about, “for we are all Liberals now.” As a letter it was either very naive or clever. To zne Liberal who had no intention of being a victim of seduction it was worth study and analysis It either represented Hogg in person or as the mouthpiece of his group, and only as the second was it of interest. The way to resolve this point was to meet and probe the attitude of the other members. At a luncheon, four Liberals headed by David Goldblatt, met four Young Tories led by. Peter Thorneycroft. Among these latter were three Ministers of both the Eden and Macmillan Administrations, obviously marked out even in 1945 for office as and when their party succeeded to power. That day was formed the "Design for Freedom” committee. There was no equivocation among the Liberals. They were there to see whether Quintin Hogg was fairly representing his group and were not prepared or even contemplating joining the Tory party. Action was decided upon. They would fashion a document to be offered to the public in which their common ground would be frankly stated and since “we are all Liberals now” its common ground must be impeccably Liberal. The Liberals had no need to yield. The Tories had been converted to the Liberal creed as evinced in their leader’s letter. It remained but to commit the matter to considered writing and then to offer it for approval and signature to any who cared and

had the courage to advertise their adherence. There were obvious risks. "The Essential of Freedom’’ The work -spanned most of ]j months. The heads of Liberal faith were epitomised in a metn. orandum which was the synopsis of the booklet projected. This epitome was the work of David Goldblatt. It was scrutinised for weeks, probed word by word and finally agreed. Then came the task of putting flesh upon thd skeleton. No greater tribute can be paid to Peter Thorneycroft than to giv» him his due place in this work. There were corrections and amendments but many of the trench; ant yet simple phrases which adorn the opening and crucial half of this book are his and his alone.

Outstanding is this passage, extending over more than two pages, of his exposition of the essential freedom, the free access of man and his products to his fellows. He makes the “ase tor the world and for Britain in sentences which evince understanding and faith. Whatever may have been his beliefs when ha entered politics, the printed wort stands as an indelible witness. This was for him the point of no return. His responsibility for much of the writing became known, for “Design for Freedom" was given a full measure of press notice to the annoyance of two headquarters. To ths Tories the old device of Young Tory Groups was wearing thin, and this time not effective. To the Liberals it appeared as yet another splinter. They were both to be pleasantly surprised.

Meantime, the success was astounding. The final list of assenting signatories mounted to 106—53 Tories and an equal number Of Liberals. The names included many who were to take office in 1951. The first of me is of interest, D. 1 Heathcote Amory, for the names are in alphabetical order for obvious reasons. Queltin Hogg is there, as well as Reginald Maudling, now in the throes of integrating Britain in the European Common Market. There art others, too, whose present petition in the Tory party, shows that they too have arrived.

Impact of Booklet The slender book made its bow at a time utterly inauspicious. Coal shortage had left 50,000,000 people at the mercy of the rigours of a miserable icy winter in February, 1947. Power was cut, print-, ing curtailed by Cabinet decree. Britain’s mind was on things . mundane—warmth and shortages. Despite every handicap, this, work sold in its thousands and more than covered the cost of production at this expensive moment It was subject to comment and criticism.- For a week/ it looked like revolution and success. but the forces of respect > ability, using every artifice, final!; downed it. Order was restored ii both camps. There was i»kwir ■’» farewells; even a cocktail with, pretty speeches. Tb - Anointed .breathed again and mrt friendships melted. All that wa . left was the hope that aomethin would stiek and linger. The Tor Reform Group carried on pianiM simo. The Liberals retired it rebuff—an oft-repeated expert; ence. The incident was over; but it I soul went marching on. The Tone dare not slough off the cream o their younger sons. They wen taken back with a wry smile their records marked, “Handl with care," and in IMI when Labour was retired from offic the junior, government posts wer used to give some their first tast of responsibility, the age-old specific for conditioning the awk« ward. For some there was Cabinet rank—Heathcoat Amory to the Land, Quintin Hogg to Education, Peter Thorneycroft to Trade, while Oliver Poole was called in to head the party or; ganisation. The lads who five years previously were naughty oa the quarter-deck were now promoted to duties on the bridge, not without a murmur or two among their fellows whose records were unimpeachable if undistinguished, and unending broadsides "expressly” commanded by the "Beaver,” who saw in them the , end of his m jrage of' Empire isolated and insulated. (To be Concluded.)