This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 213.122.19.199 (talk) at 13:45, 7 November 2005. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 13:45, 7 November 2005 by 213.122.19.199 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Monday Club is a conservative British pressure group formed at the time of Harold Macmillan's "Winds of Change" speech in opposition to the drift of the Conservative Party towards liberalism. The Club's first pamphlet was against the "Winds of Change".
It was founded on 1 January 1961, by Paul Bristol, Ian Greig, Cedric Gunnery, and Anthony Maclaren. The 5th Marquess of Salisbury (d.1972) became its first President. By the end of 1963 there were 11 Members of Parliament in the membership, plus the former Colonial Secretary, Lord Boyd, who had become a patron.
It tended to be seen as the "authoritarian" wing of the party, and was very active on the issue of non-European immigration. Harold Wilson, twice British Prime Minister, called it "the conscience of the Tory Party".
However, it was always a pressure group remaining completely separate from the party. During the crisis in Rhodesia it strongly backed the government of Ian Smith, being seen as its strongest supporters in Britain. In November 1963 the Club hosted a huge Reception for Ian Smith.
The theme of the Club's 1966 Annual Dinner was 'The Preservation of our National Character', the dinner, at the Savoy, being sold out. Club member Ronald Bell, Q.C., M.P.for South Bucks, subsequently led the rebels in the Commons against the Race Relations Bill. In June 1967 the Club made a public pronouncement that "Tory policies were little different from neo-socialism".
In the 1970s the group had undoubtedly the largest membership of any conservative organisation outside the party itself, with around 10,000 members and over 40 Conservative MPs, with a similar number of peers. Opposition by the broad Left mounted. It was said by opponents of the Club that many members had drawn closer to the National Front, though this was hotly disputed by the administrators of the Club. It was then (wrongly) claimed that some National Front members stewarding a Club anti-immigration rally in September 1972. Violence by the extreme left followed. At Leeds University, a protest against a visit by Sir Patrick Wall, M.C.,M.P., a leading light and later Chairman of the club, turned violent and Mrs. Wall was knocked to the ground and kicked.
Nevertheless, the next year there was an open clash for the control of the group between the faction led by Jonathan Guinness, son & heir of Lord Moyne, and a more radical faction led by George Kennedy Young former deputy director of MI6 who later set up Tory Action. Jonathan Guinness won the Club elections and became Chairman of the Monday Club for several years, later being replaced by Sir Patrick Wall, Westminster City Councillor & Tory PPC Sam Swerling, and David Storey.
The Monday Club were prolific publishers of booklets, pamphlets, policy papers, a regular newsletter, "Monday News" (edited by Stuart Notholt), an occasional newspaper, "Right Ahead", and a magazine, "Monday World" edited for some years by Eleanor Dodd, followed by Sam Swerling. The September 1984 edition of "Monday News" carried the headline 'Kinnock Talks to Terrorists', quoting former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock's declaration to the South African ANC's Oliver Tambo that 'liberation' movements in South Africa can expect financial and material assistance from a future Labour government. Other attacks were made upon the current London mayor Ken Livingstone's support for the IRA.
Due to degrees of inactivity, inertia, and the Thatcher government, membership plummetted in the mid-1980s, reaching just under 600 in 1987. In 1988 a group of longstanding members led by Gregory Lauder-Frost, the Club's Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, succeeded in getting elected to the key posts, with Dr.Mark Mayall as Chairman. Frantic activity from that point onwards to restore the club's position as a key political player ensued, with some success, and by 1992 the membership was over 1600 again.
During this period, Lauder-Frost chaired a packed dinner in June 1989 in London for Dr. Andries Treunicht, Leader of the South African Conservative Party (South Africa) . On September 7, 1989 the Club denounced "the disgraceful Anglo-Irish Agreement". cf:"The Sun". With the question of German reunification to the fore, an article in The Independent on Sunday on March 4, 1990 quoted a document circulated to all Tory MPs by Lauder-Frost on behalf of the Monday Club calling for the restoration of the German borders as they were on January 1, 1938.
The Club were firm opponents of the European Union, which Lauder-Frost termed "the new Soviet bloc", and in October 1990 he shared an anti-EU platform with Enoch Powell at a packed Monday Club meeting at the Empire Hotel, Blackpool, during the Conservative Party Conference, which was filmed and featured on BBC TV's Newsnight programme.
On April 4, 1991 the London Evening Standard carried a front-page attack by Monday Club, against the proposed appointment of thrice-married-before-40 Janet Street-Porter as the BBC's Head of Arts and Culture. The media enthusiastically reported this debate and a large piece appeared the following day in the Daily Mail where Tory MP and Club member John Carlisle also said she should not be appointed. That consequently Miss Street-Porter did not get the job was seen by some as a victory for the traditionalists, and particularly Lauder-Frost, who initiated the protests.
In October 1991 a Monday Club delegation travelled to observe the war between Serbia and Croatia, the first British political delegation to observe that conflict. Tory MPs Andrew Hunter (Club member) and Roger Knapman then a junior minister in the Conservative government,(now leader of the UK Independence Party), and Count Nikolai Tolstoy, were part of the delegation which was entertained by President Franjo Tudjman and the Croatian government in Zagreb. A report was agreed and handed in to Number 10 Downing Street by Andrew Hunter.
On 7th December 1991 The Monday Club held a seminar at Westminster Central Hall attended by over 100 people. The two main topincs were 'British Identity' and 'British Sovereignty'. On 21st January 1992 Tory M.P., Alan Clark, then a junior minister, addressed a standing room only parliamentary meeting of the Club in a committee room at Westminster.
A personal domestic crisis forced Lauder-Frost's departure on 31st May 1992, and with that and the Conservative Party's poor re-election, the Club descended into in-fighting, with more departures and failed expulsion attempts costing it huge court costs. Control passed effectively into the hands of W.Denis Walker, a former junior minister in the Rhodesian Government. He changed the role of the club from a pressure group to a Conservative Party support group, bringing in a rule that all members must firstly be members of the party, something that prior to 1992 had been constantly and unanimously opposed.
Viscount Massereene and Ferrard, the club's current president (as was his father before him), has been quoted as saying, "If you say I am a racist, yes I certainly am, and proud of it". Part of its agenda stresses support for traditional Conservative values, including "resistance to 'political correctness'". But importantly, most traditionalists who left or lapsed after 1992 have been refused re-entry to the Club and even to its occasional meetings. The current club chairman is the 7th Baron Sudeley.
In October 2001, Conservative Party chairman David Davis "formally suspended" the Party's affiliation with the Club, due to the Club's perceived inflammatory views on race. The Club, however, had always been entirely autonomous and their views on immigration had not changed for decades. Many therefore saw this as a meaningless media stunt by the Party, but to 'modernisers' and liberals it was a sign that the Conservatives were cleaning up their image. Three MPs Andrew Hunter, Andrew Rosindell and Angela Watkinson, were ordered to resign from the Monday Club.
The Monday Club, having changed its original raison d'être as a pressure group, and whose membership is now said to be back below 600, now has very little influence on the agenda of the Tory Party. Many of its former members are now in the Conservative Democratic Alliance.