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. 

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!

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. 

The People's Insurance, by David Lloyd George

I was very pleased today to receive The People's Insurance by David Lloyd George. Originally published in 1912 it explains the scheme of National Insurance and National Health Insurance introduced by the Liberal Government in 1911. As well as speeches by Lloyd George both in the House and in the country, it includes extracts from explanatory memoranda issued by the government, as well as the text of the Act.

My copy is a modern print-on-demand facsimile produced by Gyan Books in India. Usually I prefer to buy originals, but this work is vanishingly rare. It's a handsomely produced volume, leather-bound, and clearly printed. The binding is sewn, and it lies flat. It makes an attractive addition to my shelves. I must say I am impressed, and shall be seriously considering further books from them - both for works I cannot find (or afford) originals of, and for reading copies of some of my more fragile books.

Lloyd George Knew His Father

While browsing The Times digital archive the other day I came across a letter calling for a memorial to the poet Edward Thomas. It particularly caught my eye as it was signed by Stanley Baldwin and David Lloyd George, two very unlikely bedfellows. I asked the Edward Thomas Fellowship if they knew anything more about it. They were able to tell me both that this was the appeal which led to the memorial on Shoulder of Mutton Hill, above Thomas's home in Steep, and that Lloyd George knew Edward Thomas's father. Philip Henry Thomas, a civil servant, was a Liberal, standing for Clapham in the 1918 general election. He had known Lloyd George for some time before this, and they even used to travel together into London to work. 

Lloyd George was also to write a foreword to John Moore's Life and Letters of Edward Thomas in 1939. I shall have to look out for a copy. 

In Memoriam: Easter 1915

The flowers left thick at nightfall in the wood

This Eastertide call into mind the men,

Now far from home, who, with their sweethearts, should

Have gathered them and will do never again

Books and rumours of books

One of the most frustrating things about book collecting is chasing books which turn out to (probably) not exist at all. You see them as results in Amazon searches, but they are never available, they may even be even cited in other works, but you find no trace of them in any copyright library. You may even find an ISBN or an entry in a publisher's catalogue - but even those trails peter out eventually.

For the student of David Lloyd George this adds to other frustrations - the unfortunate deaths of various biographers before they complete their planned series, the lack of bibliographical information about Lloyd George's own works (let alone an index of his numerous writings for newspapers and magazines), and the shear volume of works about him over the years. Just the other day I found a reference to The Future of Liberalism, a pamphlet of speeches by Lloyd George in Manchester, Oxford, and Llandrindod Wells, which not only had I never heard of before, but of which I can find no trace beyond its advertisement in the Lloyd George Liberal Magazine. At thruppence a copy post free it sounds like excellent value.

Two books, or rumours of books, stand out in particular. Collected Speeches of David Lloyd George, and Collected Correspondence of David Lloyd George and Winston S. Churchill, 1904-1945, both by Ian Hunter (whose Winston and Archie: The Letters of Winston Churchill and Archibald Sinclair certainly exists and which I have just ordered). Both would be of immense value to anyone interested in Lloyd George, the history of Liberalism and the Welfare State, and indeed to Churchill aficionados. I once saw the Collected Correspondence advertised on (I think) Portuguese Amazon, but I lacked the funds at the time for the £80 asked.

Still, I suppose it gives one something to hope for - one day a lucky google, or the back room of a dusty bookshop, will turn up something I had become convinced did not exist.