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Revision as of 17:10, 23 April 2004 by JASpencer (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Monday Club is a British Conservative pressure group formed at the time of Harold Macmillan's "Winds of Change" speech in opposition not only to that but to the drift of the Conservative Party towards liberalism.
It was founded on 1 January 1961, with the Marquess of Salisbury as its President. 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 Rhodesian Crisis it strongly backed the goverment of Ian Smith, being seen as its strongest supporters in Britain. In the 1970s the group had thousands of members and over 40 Conservative MPs, with a similar number of peers. It was said by opponents of the Club that many members drew closer to the National Front, with National Front members stewarding a Monday Club anti-immigration rally in September 1972. This infiltration was hotly disputed by the administrators of the Club.
Nevertheless, the next year there was an open clash for the control of the group between the faction led by Jonathan Guinness, son 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 and became Chairman of the Monday Club for several years,later being replaced by Sir Patrick Wall, MC,MP, Westminster City Councillor & Tory PPC Sam Swerling, and David Storey.
Due to inactivity, inertia and the Thatcher government, throughout the 1980s membership plummetted, reaching 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.
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 unanimously opposed.
The club now effectively does nothing, and the Conservative Party under Ian Duncan Smith very publicly cut all ties or involvememt with it. Its membership is said to be around 600.