Reading Ulysses

I've started on James Joyce's Ulysses. I've long enjoyed Anthony Burgess, and he was a great admirer of Joyce, so I suppose it was inevitable. I'm not trying to spot every reference, or look up every obscure word, but just to read it like any other story book. Analysis can come later, if I fancy, and my old copy of Burgess's Here Comes Everybody: An Introduction to James Joyce for the Ordinary Reader will no doubt come in handy. 

I see fiction as entertainment and escapism - you're not going to discover the meaning of life, or your place in the Universe, or anything else "deep and meaningful" from it. If you want Truth go outside and it's right there in front of you. But if you're lucky you'll find a book that just takes you out of yourself for a while. It might be Burgess, it might be Biggles. And, if you're into that sort of thing, and it grabs your interest, then you can look into all the allusions and quotations and places and everything else in it, and fair play to you.

And is it as hard a read as we are told? Well, I've only read the first six episodes so far, and no, it isn't. I am cheating - but only slightly. RTE made a full-cast reading a few years ago, that is to say a reading of the text, not a dramatisation, but with a full cast doing all the different voices. Play the dramatisation along with reading the book, and it'll help you along. But I do find I gradually tune out the sounds, and listen to the text in my head instead, and I am enjoying it.

Damian Collins on David Lloyd George, Tuesday 12th May 2026

As part of the Fleet Street Quarter Festival of Words 2026 Damian Collins, author of Rivals in the Storm: How Lloyd George Seized Power, Won the War and Lost his Government, and a speaker at this year's Cymdeithas Lloyd George / Lloyd George Society meeting, will be in conversation with Richard Rhys O'Brien, long-standing Society member and biographer of Dame Margaret Lloyd George. They will be asking the question "Today, with crises at home and around the world, do we need leaders like Lloyd George who are unafraid to find unorthodox ways to take on important challenges?"

The event is on Tuesday 12th May, at Temple Church, and is sponsored by Cymdeithas Lloyd George / The Lloyd George Society. Signed copies of Rivals in the Storm by Damian Collins and The Campaigns of Margaret Lloyd George by Richard Rhys O'Brien will be available.

For further information and to book your place see here.

I hope to see you there! 

"But I walked home through the rain crying..."

On Sunday 12 April 1908 David Lloyd George was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. It was less than five months after the death of Mair, his eldest daughter and best-beloved child. Her death, aged 17, was probably the worst personal loss of his life. He cursed god, when not denying him altogether. For months he was liable to burst into tears at the unexpected sight of a picture of her in a friend's house, and he refused to return to live at the home they had shared, sleeping instead in his office at the Board of Trade where Willie Clark, his private secretary, would keep an eye on him, fearful for his sanity and his safety.

Following the advice of his old friend, and political foe, A. G. Edwards the Bishop of St Asaph, he found some relief in work. As President of the Board of Trade Lloyd George was promoting the creation of the Port of London Authority, and was also often called upon to mediate trade disputes - settling a cotton strike on the day after Mair's funeral, for example.

But to return to the 12th of April. Frank Owen, in Tempestuous Journey: Lloyd George, His Life and Times writes:

"Long and hard indeed Lloyd George had been labouring in these latter months. In the press of his work, he had found solace, or at least for a time, forgetfulness. He seemed to become again the same kind of man that he had been, though larger. A great tomorrow was promised to Lloyd George.

But the sorrow abided within. The evening of the day in April that he went to Buckingham Palace to see the King, on becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer, he wrote to his brother, William, describing the kindly welcome he had received. 

"But I walked home through the rain crying, because I knew my little Mair would not be there to receive me." 

And another new Lloyd George Book!

A very welcome arrival this week - Paul Spackman's Lloyd George - Welsh Radical, World Statesman, published by Barnthorn Publishing. The first full-length "life" for many years, it is the result of seven years research, and aims to give a more holistic portrait of the politician and the man.

Paul's approach is to "explore the specific and distinctively Welsh roots and influences" that shaped Lloyd George. He highlights the social reforms that laid the foundations of the Welfare State, Lloyd George's vital replacement of Asquith in the Great War, his treatment of Germany at Versailles, the Irish settlement, and the years after his all from power, with his development of creative and practical policies to address the great problems of the 1920s and 1930s. Lloyd George's legacy - and popular misconceptions of it - are re-examined, and Dame Margaret's important role is given proper attention.

It's a big book - over 700 pages, but then Lloyd George, for all his physical shortness, was a big man. Aneurin Bevan called him "a bigger man than Churchill", and in his parliamentary tribute "the most iridescent figure that ever illumined the British political scene". I shall read it with great pleasure and interest. 

New Lloyd George book

G. H. Bennett's Lloyd George and the Coalition Liberal Party - The Papers of Lieutenant-Colonel Scovell, General Secretary of the Party, 1919-1922 arrived at Ducky Towers yesterday. It's a welcome addition to the literature, looking at the role played by a much-neglected figure in the working of the Coalition Liberals, and giving a fuller picture of the workings of the party leading up to the 1922 general election. Dr Harry Bennett is Associate Professor in History at the University of Plymouth. His previous books include Hitler's Admirals, Hunting Tirpitz, and Destination Normandy: Three American Regiments on D-Day. Of particular interest to "Lloyd Georgians" are his British Foreign Policy during the Curzon Period, 1919-24, The Royal Navy in the Age of Austerity 1919-22: Naval and Foreign Policy under Lloyd George, and The 1922 General Election Reconsidered - High Politics and the Birth of the Modern British Election.

The Cymdeithas Lloyd George / Lloyd George Society website has details of a discount kindly arranged by Professor Bennett with his publishers, Boydell & Brewer. 

13 March 1915 - intimations of December 1916

On 13th March 1915 Sir George Riddell recorded golfing and lunching with David Lloyd George (then Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Rufus Isaacs (Lord Reading, the Lord Chief Justice). Isaacs had spent the weekend at Walmer with the prime minister, H. H. Asquith, and told Riddell that Asquith's great responsibilities sat lightly on him "except for two hours dealing with business ... he barely mentioned the war". 

Riddell asked Lloyd George if he thought the war was being prosecuted with sufficient energy, and was Asquith too easy going. LlG replied "Things are very unsatisfactory in that respect. Winston [Churchill] said to me the other day, 'We ought to make you a sort of Government Whiteley [the great department store], charged with the duty of providing each department with all the difficult and odd things it requires'". Isaacs replied "They should make you something more than that. A general supervisor and stimulator is badly needed".

All this was two months before Lloyd George became Minister of Munitions in response the the Shell Crisis, and a year and nine months before he was to replace Asquith as Prime Minister. 

Why we should not leave Twitter

There is a tendency among liberal-minded people to leave Twitter, saying they cannot justify being in such a toxic environment any more, it has become too right-wing, too Musky. Off to Bluesky, or for a brief time before that, Mastodon, they go. I'm on both, as well as Twitter. But I don't see me making either my primary venue for mumbling into the aether. Not only because some of the most interesting people are still on Twitter, but there is anothe rreason.

I think it's a mistake to leave - and worse, I think it is playing into the hands of the extremists to go. We might feel like we are crying in the wilderness, but surely that is our duty? Someone needs to be a voice for liberalism, for reason, for humanity. And as Granny used to say, "Well Duncan, are you someone or are you no-one?" To leave is to admit defeat, and to surrender the field to the forces of evil. 

In the aftermath of the failed revolutions of 1848 and the crushing of Chartism, Arthur Hugh Clough wrote "The Struggle". It is as relevant now as it was then.

Say not the struggle naught availeth,

The labour and the wounds are vain,

The enemy faints not, nor faileth,

And as things have been they remain.

 

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;

It may be, in yon smoke conceal'd,

Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,

And, but for you, possess the field.

 

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,

Seem here no painful inch to gain,

Far back, through creeks and inlets making,

Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

And not by eastern windows only,

When daylight comes, comes in the light;

In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!

But westward, look, the land is bright!

Last Two Days!

 Not of this blog.., but the last two days to respond to the Lloyd George Society questionnaire. It's to help us plan the 2026 weekend. If you are interested in attending please do take a couple of minutes to answer the questions. You can find the questionnaire on the Society website at this link

Max Beerbohm and David Lloyd George

Max Beerbohm, essayist, caricaturist, and parodist, was born on this day 1872. Here is "Mr Lloyd George and his Guardians", from his 1914 book "Fifty Caricatures". David Lloyd George is seen between Charles Masterman and Rufus Isaacs.

Masterman had worked closely with Lloyd George on the People's Budget of 1909 and the National Insurance Act 1911. Isaacs, later the 1st Marquess of Reading, was Lord Chief Justice of England, Viceroy of India, and Foreign Secretary, the last Liberal to hold that post. The second practising Jew to be a member of the British cabinet (the first being Herbert Samuel, Isaacs was the first Jewish Lord Chief Justice, and the first British Jew to become a marquess. He was Leader of the Liberal Party in the House of Lords from 1931 to 1935.

Lloyd George Society weekend 2026

Planning has started for the 2026 Lloyd George Society weekend school. We are considering a slightly later date, 7th to 8th March, and a new venue, the Lake Country House Hotel and Spa, at Llangamarch Wells.

You can read more about the proposals at the Society website here

Lloyd George's reading

One of the criticisms of David Lloyd George made by his enemies was that he "did not read". It was, of course, a nonsense. In Lord Riddell's War Diary on the 29th July 1918 Riddell notes Lloyd George reading from and discussing the speeches of John Bright, the letters of Byron, and Macaulay's Essays - "a favourite book of his. He reads well and his comments are fresh and interesting". Lloyd George said of Macaulay "His first object was to be interesting, his second to hit hard". 

A new biography of David Lloyd George

A new biography of David Lloyd George will be released soon. Written by Paul Spackman and published by Barnthorn Publishing, it aims to correct oft-repeated misunderstandings and misconceptions of the true nature of the man and of his policies. I'm looking forward to reading it. You can read more about Paul, and his book, on Barnthorn's website. 

Lloyd George's Last Vote

David Lloyd George cast his last vote in the House of Commons on 18 February 1943. It was against the government, and for the Beveridge Plan. It was a fitting end to his long Parliamentary career. Lloyd George's National Insurance Act 1911, along with a raft of other Liberal welfare reforms, had laid the foundations of the welfare state, providing protection from sickness, disability, and unemployment. Beveridge, who was to be elected as a Liberal MP in 1944, proposed extending and universalising the existing schemes. The Daily Telegraph described it as completing the revolution begun by Lloyd George. 

Cymdeithas Lloyd George, the Lloyd George Society

Cymdeithas Lloyd George, the Lloyd George Society is a loose combination of like minds that meets in Wales for a weekend school on topical subjects, historical issues (particularly those relating to David Lloyd George) or interesting questions affecting Welsh life and culture, all from a liberal perspective.

You can book now for 2025's Lloyd George Weekend School in Llandrindod Wells Our venue this year is the Hotel Commodore. 

February 22 & 23 2025 - Limited Spaces Left. 

Full details on how to book and Programme for the School: on our website

Speakers include: Adam Price MS - Former Plaid Cymru leader and Shadow Justice Minister. 

Ann Davies MP - Plaid Cymru MP for Carmarthenshire. 

David Chadwick MP - Liberal Dem MP for Brecon, Radnor & Cwm Tawe 

Mark Williams - Former Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Ceredigion.

Michael Meadowcroft - historian & former Liberal MP. 

Dr Luca Trent - Assoc. Professor, Swansea University.

Rev. Richard Walker - JMK Expert. 

Dr Jonathan Kirkup - Senior Lecturer, Cardiff Uni. 

Prof. Tony Claydon - Bangor University 

Dr Charles Smith - Wales European Movement.

The Society website is https://lloydgeorgesociety.org.uk/, and our new social media accounts are:

X (formerly Twitter) – @LloGeoSocNew

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/groups/454477021058445

Bluesky – @lloydgeorgesociety.bsky.social

Please do follow us, and I hope to see you in February.

Save the Date!

The next Lloyd George Society Weekend will take place on the weekend of 22nd February 2025.

Further details coming soon. 

A Liberal Mystery - Peter Bessell, Isaac Foot, and the Black Cat of Pencrebar

 In March 1961 the Cornish Guardian reported that Peter Bessell, the prospective Liberal candidate for the Bodmin division, had been presented with Isaac Foot's lucky black cat mascot.

Isaac Foot

Foot, who had died in 1960, was given the cat by an enthusiastic supporter in 1923, at the outset of his successful re-election campaign. From then on it accompanied him to all political meetings in the constituency, as well as the annual Liberal rallies at Foot's house, Pencrebar.

Pencrebar House, Callington

When not campaigning the cat sat opposite a bust of Oliver Cromwell in the entrance hall at Pencrebar.

Peter Bessell

Bessell was presented with the cat by Ewart Tamblyn, the divisional chairman, acting on behalf of Mrs Foot. Bessell said the cat would be his most treasured possession, and that "I can assure the Foot family that it will go on being the mascot of Liberalism".

So what became of the cat? Did it help Bessell in his successful 1964 and 1968 campaigns? Was it passed on to Paul Tyler in 1970? Have you seen an old black cat wearing Liberal colours?

I would love to know!

When you find No Highway more...

 Nevil Shute's 1948 novel No Highway starts with three stanzas from John Masefield, who died this day 1967.

Therefore, go forth, companion: when you find

No Highway more, no track, all being blind,

The way to go shall glimmer in the mind.

Though you have conquered Earth and charted Sea

And planned the courses of all Stars that be,

Adventure on, more wonders are in Thee,

Adventure on, for from the littlest clue

Has come whatever worth man ever knew;

The next to lighten all men may be you . . .

The acknowledgments say they are from The Wanderer. I've been looking for the original poem for years, Masefield did write a poem "The Wanderer", but they are not from that. Last night I tried again and found a presentation by Ken Croasdale to a Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers function, identifying the source as Masefield's book The Wanderer of Liverpool. In that book they form part of a longer poem "The Ending", which tells of the end of the ship The Wanderer. 

The poem ends:

"Adventure on, companions, the attempt 

At high adventure brings reward undreamt. 

The raging sea is grim with reefs un conn’d : 

There is a way, a haven is beyond. 

Way for yourself, a harbourage for you, 

Where every quarry spirit can pursue 

Is, in the glory of the dream come true."

So singing, she wanders the waters with white wing on wing 

Star-lighted, star-guided, the sea-gleaming beautiful thing.

The Wanderer

Archive.org has The Wanderer of Liverpool, the poem "The Ending" is here, pages 76-87

David Lloyd George 1863-1945

David Lloyd George died this day, the 26th of March 1945.

Countless words have been written about him, and he has defeated all his biographers - I think perhaps Peter Rowland's 1975 effort is the best. He really needed - needs - a Martin Gilbert to take him on. 

I want today to concentrate on just a couple of episodes in his long and eventful life.

He was perhaps the most outspoken British opponent of the Boer War, speaking out against both its origins and its conduct. When he learnt of the concentration camps into which the British Army corralled Boer women and children he said "If I were to despair for the future of this country it would not be because of trade competition from either America or Germany, or the ineffectiveness of its army, or anything that might happen to its ships; but rather because it used its great, hulking strength to torture the little child". 

On 18th December 1901 Lloyd George went to Birmingham to speak against the War. Why Birmingham? It was the power-base of Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary,  responsible for starting the War and whose family firms, including Kynoch's, were not only major employers there but also made millions supplying both British and Boer with ammunition.

Some 50,000 (some estimates say up to 200,000) supporters of Chamberlain and the War turned out armed with knives, bricks, and hammers. Amidst cries of "Kill 'im! Kill the bloody traitor" the town hall was attacked and the platform rushed. Lloyd George tried to speak, but eventually had to retreat, disguised as a policeman. Every window in the town hall was smashed by the crowd, two people were killed, and Joseph Chamberlain "openly regretted Lloyd George's escape". 

PC William Thomas's helmet and whistle, worn by Lloyd George in his escape 

Lloyd George was burnt in effigy in his constituency, his primary source of income (MPs were unpaid) the law practice of Lloyd George & George lost clients, and his family were ostracised. His son Richard was bullied so badly that he had to change school. 

Lloyd George shewed great courage - moral and physical - in his opposition to the Boer War. He did so not out of any anti-British or even anti-Imperial sentiment, but out of a belief that Britain should be better. As Marvin Rintala put it "Sympathize with the enemy Lloyd George certainly did, because he was human, and ashamed of British behavior in South Africa he certainly was. Anti British he was not. He merely expected more from the Britain he loved. The British flag was not, in his view, Joseph Chamberlain's pocket-handkerchief".

The other is his burial.

In 1944 Lloyd George moved back to his childhood village of Llanystumdwy, and he died there on this day 1945. His old friend, colleague, and rival Winston Churchill had offered him a state funeral and burial at Westminster Abbey, among the great and good of the nation, the resting place of Kings and of the Unknown Warrior of the Great War - a fit end for "the Man who Won the War". 

Lloyd George refused. Many years before he had chosen the place he wanted for his grave. It was to be a boulder on the banks of Afon Dwyfor, a place he had sat and played as a child. He once told Lucy Masterman "If we had kept the law about trespassing when we were children we would have had nowhere to play but a dusty strip of grass by the highroad" and she was to say that "I never remember during all our visit passing a 'trespassers will be prosecuted' notice without him remarking “I hate that sort of thing”". 

His choice of burial place, and his attitude to "Keep Out" and "No Trespassing" signs say something to me about the man. As a young boy I lived in a little village on the north coast of Cornwall. We never concerned ourselves too much with such signs, and I hope that children still ignore them. 

Lloyd George standing by the boulder under which he was to be buried

 

Old Library Books

 As an avid reader of limited financial means I often find myself buying ex-library books from various websites. I understand that libraries have limited space and funds, and need to dispose of some books to free up the shelves and raise some money for new acquisitions.

But some of the books I've bought in this way make me stop and think about the way disposals are done.

My copy of Through Terror to Triumph, speeches by David Lloyd George in 1914 and 1915, has the bookplate of Manchester Central Library Reference Library - the Neville Laski Collection. 

Neville Laski was a member of the Laski family of Manchester, chairman of the Manchester Victoria Memorial Jewish Hospital, secretary of the Manchester Jewish Community Council, and a host of other appointments including President of the Board of Deputies. His family were closely involved in Manchester's public life - his mother Sarah being a councillor and later alderman on Manchester City Council for many years, and a strong advocate for women, children, and the poor.

So the Neville Laski collection could represent a significant insight into the life and works of one of Manchester's notable sons. Alas, I can find no mention of it on the Manchester Libraries website, and indeed the only trace seems to be in booksellers' catalogues. 

When a library disposes of a collection like this it breaks a link with the past - not only the library's past, but the past of the community. It erases a collective memory.

So what to do? At the least I would suggest keeping a catalogue of special collections, bequests, and the like. To know what was in the Neville Laski Collection - even if the books in it needed to be disposed of by Manchester - would enable anyone to recreate it in their own library - whether of physical books or electronic media. This is the sort of thing that volunteers can do - and do well. For example, the book cataloguing website LibraryThing has "Legacy Libraries" - catalogues of famous readers, authors, politicians, etc. 

Let Them Eat Kale

The LibDem official Twitter account has been tweeting against allowing the "Eat Out to Help Out" scheme being used for McDonald's, KFC, and the like. Apparently having a cheap treat in the midst of one of the most miserable periods of post-war history will bring the NHS crashing down and cause everyone to suddenly become morbidly obese and die of Coronavirus, or something like that.

On the 4th of July Munira Wilson, LibDem spokesperson for Health and Social Care, tweeted about a lovely meal she'd had with her family, including those well-known heath foods, burgers, waffles, and icecream. The restaurant (which is now taking part in Eat Out to Help Out) charges over £14 for burger and chips (service not included). The wine list on their website doesn't give the prices, but I suspect the Veuve Cliquot Yellow Label is rather more than the £1.69 McDonald's charge for a milkshake. 

Now I've nothing against Munira enjoying a good meal out with her family, and I'm genuinely happy for her that she can afford to spend so much money on a treat. I wish more people could. What I can never accept is a policy directly targeting poorer people, seeking to deny them choices that the well-off take for granted, and shaming them for "eating the wrong things". 

Some of us remember the ideal of the "Free Breakfast Table" and, going further back, the campaign against the Corn Laws. We as a Party have a proud tradition of trying to make food more affordable for the people who struggle the most. Let's not abandon that for a joyless, puritanical, and frankly mean-spirited "we know better than you" policy.