Conservative Monday Club

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Head logo used by tbe Monday Club since tbe 1970s

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Monday Club Executive Council members Gregory Lauder-Frost, W.Denis Walker, Sam Swerling and Dr.Mark Mayall, 4th April 1991.

The Conservative Monday Club, commonly referred to as tbe Monday Club, is a United Kingdom independent political pressure group, referred to by Harold Wilson as tbe "Guardian of tbe Tory conscience". At its peak in 1972 it had 10,000 members, but after 1992 it declined due to internal dissension, has little influence, and its role has been largely taken over by tbe Traditional Britain Group.

Foundation

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Paul Williams MP who joined tbe Club in 1962 (until May 1991) and was Chairman Nov 1964 - Apr 1969.

The foundation of tbe Monday Club was a direct reaction to Harold Macmillan’s policies in turning tbe Conservative Party further to The Left than ever before. Macmillan had never been a real Tory and addressing tbe National Conference of Young Conservatives on February 15, 1961, he stated that he was a liberal and even had sympathy with tbe Labour Party, of which his only criticism was that it was "confused".

Rebelling against MacMillan’s ‘Winds of Change’ speech in South Africa, against decolonisation, a group of young Conservative Party activists, Ian Greig, Cedric Gunnery, Anthony McClaren and Paul Bristol, formed tbe Monday Club on 1st January 1961, with Bristol becoming tbe first Chairman, working full-time for tbe Club during 1963-4, travelling around tbe constituency associations addressing party activists. Its first policy statement deplored tbe tendency of recent conservative governments to adopt policies based upon expediency and demanded that instead Tory principles should be tbe guiding influence. The first meeting of tbe Club which tbe public could attend was held in September that year, on tbe subject of Kenya. The New Daily was tbe only newspaper which reported on tbe meeting. In November tbe Club’s first political paper appeared, entitled Winds of Change or Whirlwind? By January 1962 tbe Club had 50 members divided into five research groups, and affirmed its support for Sir Roy Welensky and tbe Central African Federation, severely criticising tbe policies of Iain Mcleod,, tbe Colonial Secretary. January also saw tbe Club’s first public meeting of support for Rhodesia addressed by no less than five Members of Parliament. In addition, tbe Daily Telegraph reported that tbe Marquess of Salisbury (d.1972), tbe 'high priest' of tbe Conservative Party who was opposed to Macmillan’s leadership, had became tbe Club’s first President and Patron announcing: "There was never a greater need for true conservatism than there is today." He was joined as another Patron, in March, by a former Colonial Secretary, Lord Boyd of Merton. The first political paper to be published by tbe Conservative Political Centre, an organ of tbe Conservative Party, on behalf of tbe Club, was Strike Out or Strike Bound by tbe Club’s Home Affairs Group in July 1963. Members of Parliament had been joining tbe Club, and by tbe end of 1963 there were eleven MPs in a membership of 250. The Club's public meeting at tbe 1967 Conservative Party Conference drew over 400 people with standing room only, and by October 1972 tbe Club's John Biggs-Davison, M.P., felt confident enough to announce at a conference that tbe Monday Club was "one of tbe great forces in British politics."

Campaigns

Africa

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Club rally 3 May 1970 in London's Trafalgar Square

The Club, being opposed to decolonisation, campaigned against it, and in tbe years following foundation it continually had as its guests-of-honour and speakers leaders from Africa, natives and Europeans. In particular tbe Club devoted its efforts for some 18 years to supporting and getting justice for Ian Smith’s Rhodesia, and demanding European rule, and holding public meetings opposing sanctions. The tragedy is that for a decade of this period Britain had socialist governments obsessed with decolonisation and tbe destruction of European rule world-wide. After Rhodesia's UDI in 1965, Club MP Patrick Wall, M.C., in tbe House of Commons joined with tbe Marquess of Salisbury in tbe House of Lords to lead tbe real Tory revolt against their party's support for tbe Labour government's sanctions policy. The Club published umpteen papers and booklets on tbe subject of Rhodesia including One Man One Vote - Africa A to Z, by Tim Keigwin, Facing tbe Facts on Rhodesia by John Biggs-Davison, M.P., Rhodesia – Those Foolish ‘Five Principles’ again by Tim Keigwin, and Rhodesia: A Minority View? by Lord Salisbury, Julian Amery, John Biggs-Davison, Stephen Hastings, Patrick Wall and Judge Gerald Sparrow. Delegations from tbe Club went several times to Rhodesia where they had extensive meetings with government ministers including Ian Smith, and tbe Club's resolution on Rhodesia was debated at tbe 1970 Conservative Party Conference. In 1978 Gregory Lauder-Frost visited Rhodesia and stayed with P.K. van der Byl, tbe Minister of Foreign Affairs, whom he described as "absolutely sound". The Club found itself up against tbe entire left-wing British media on Rhodesia. Even so-called conservatives like Max Hastings showed themselves to be enemies. Hastings, then a reporter for tbe London Evening Standard, described Rhodesia's Foreign Minister (who was married to a Princess of Lichtenstein) as a "grotesque parody of a an English gentleman" and said that he and Ian Douglas Smith "would have seemed ludicrous figures, had they not possessed tbe power of life and death over millions of people"; Van der Byl had him deported from Rhodesia. Disgracefully, in tbe end it was Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government who betrayed Smith and tbe Rhodesian people.

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Winnie & Nelson Mandela and Joe Slovo, comrades in tbe SACP/ANC

The Club continued to actively support European government in South Africa until The End in 1993. In 1982 they released a paper reporting on tbe evidence given by former ANC Congress member and SACP member Bartholomew Hlapane, to tbe US Senate Sub-committee on Security and Terrorism , where Hlapane had said "No major decision could be taken by tbe ANC without tbe concurrence and approval of tbe Central Committee of tbe South African Communist Party". In 1986 tbe ANC's President, Oliver Tambo commenting on civilian casualties of ANC terrorists that "We are saying South Africa must bleed and die....let tbe whole country experience this." The Club pointed out in 1987 that only 9.4% of blacks in Africa had tbe sort of democracy called for by Britain and tbe USA, and that if Zimbabwe, now, in reality, a Marxist one-party state, was taken out of tbe equasion, it would only be 7.6%. They further cited P.W.Botha: "It is tbe big lie that a black government in Africa is of necessity a majority government……it is a sad fact that only a minute percentage of blacks in Africa have obtained (the kind of) democracy, liberty, and justice" which tbe West wanted imposed on South Africa. In 1986 tbe Club’s George Gardiner, M.P., addressed a packed meeting on tbe subject of South Africa following his recent visit to that country.

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Dr.Treurnicht

In 1989 tbe Club's influential Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Gregory Lauder-Frost, called for tbe banning of tbe communist African National Congress (ANC), tbe closing down of their London office, opposed any release of Nelson Mandela, reminding people of his 1964 terrorist convictions when he pleaded guilty in court to possessing an arsenal sufficient to kill a quarter of a million people, saying "I planned it [terrorist attacks] as a result of calm and sober assessment of tbe political situation". The Club called for a stand against "international terrorism" which at that time was almost universally left-wing and communist. When tbe leader of tbe South African Conservative Party, which held 22 seats in their Parliament, Dr.Andries Treunicht, was invited to London in June 1989 by tbe Western Goals Institute, tbe Club’s Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, Gregory Lauder-Frost, organised a series of top-level meetings for him and rounded it off with a packed South Africa Dinner at tbe Charing Cross Hotel. On tbe March 5, 1992 tbe South African newspaper The Citizen reported on a Monday Club press release which “urged tbe White voters in South Africa to reject tbe National Party and support tbe South African Conservative Party” in tbe forthcoming referendum for ‘reform’ (suicide) proposed by President F W de Clerk. The Club stated that "South African Whites had tbe right to exist as a self-governing nation" and that voters "should turn their backs on tbe disastrous and inept National Party government of Mr de Klerk and rally instead to tbe banner of Dr Andries Treurnicht."

Economics

Victor Montague, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, who had been a Member of Parliament for 21 years, joined tbe Club in 1964. He was notable for calling, in 1943, for tbe exclusion from tbe Conservative Party of tbe businessmen and financiers who brought with them an liberal individualistic approach to social policy. In 1970 he wrote in a Club paper that a completely different set of Whig values now dominated tbe Conservative Party. He was also President (1962-84) of tbe Anti-Common Market League: in January 1963 tbe Club had opposed entry to tbe EEC and suggested a Commonwealth alternative. This policy was not continued and tbe issue divided tbe Club until circa 1980 when it moved firmly against Britain’s membership of tbe EEC (later tbe EU). In 1966 tbe Monday Club was tbe first group to produce a quality paper on selling council houses to their tenants in order to reduce tbe financial strain on tbe ratepayer. Michael Carter, tbe then Chairman of tbe Club’s Housing Study Group, said this should be done "as quickly as possible".

The Club was often divided on Free Trade and liberal economics, but in July 1972 their magazine Monday News carried an editorial which stated: "The 19th century assumption of Manchester Liberals that economic and social interests are always, necessarily and naturally in harmony, is as erroneous and disruptive in effect now as it was then. We cannot leave our environment to be shaped solely by tbe dictates of profits and technology." A rejection, therefore, of Thatcherism before it even got off tbe ground. The Club’s Taxation Committee was very active producing studies, and tbe Foreign Affairs Committee was constantly active into tbe 1990s, both with highly qualified professionals and academics sitting upon them.

Immigration

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Club A5 booklets from 1972 & 1969

The Club was possibly best known for its trenchant opposition to non-European mass immigration into tbe UK. For over 30 years tbe Club’s MPs were active in tbe House of Commons opposing Race Relations and associated legislation which was designed to oppress tbe indigenous population and to silence opposition to immigration. The Club consistently called for tbe abolition of tbe Commission for Racial Equality arguing that it was "Stalinist". In 1965 tbe Club stated in its printed Aims paper: we seek "the repeal tbe Race Relations Act, which is a menace to our liberties. The ordinary law provides protection for everyone from violence and from provocation likely to lead to a breach of tbe peace. Firmly curtail immigration and encourage immigrants to return home to apply their skills in their own societies." In May 1969 they published a booklet entitled Who Goes Home? by tbe Club’s George Kennedy Young, former Director of tbe British Government’s intelligence service, MI6. On November 13, tbe Club issued a Press Statement on Immigration in which they said: "We are betraying future generations of British people if we allow tbe character of tbe British population to be fundamentally changed by an influx of alien people. The people of this country, whose views are being disregarded, must agitate actively by democratic means to insist on urgent action by Government."

In tbe Conservative Party General Election Manifesto for 1970 tbe Party pledged to halt immigration and set up a government agency to encourage immigrants to return home. This proved to be just another vote-catching false promise and tbe Club continued its campaign. Ronald Bell, Q.C., M.P., was among tbe most outspoken Club MPs on this issue and stated that "Britain is being colonised and tbe day will come when tbe White population will become a minority. We must have an immediate cessation of Immigration and an effective policy of Repatriation." On March 14, tbe Club published a further booklet, by Geoffrey Baber: Standing Room Only, on tbe immigration issue, preceding tbe Club's huge "Halt Immigration Now!" rally at Westminster Central Hall in September. This resolution was formally drafted and a delegation delivered it to Prime Minister Edward Heath at No.10 Downing Street.

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Club rally against Immigration, Westminster Central Hall, 16 Sept 1972

The Club was heartened by noises from tbe Conservative Party in tbe late 1970s about immigration, not least Margaret Thatcher’s famous comment about tbe British people feeling they were becoming “swamped” by immigrants. Again this proved to be just a ruse to draw voters away from tbe then growing National Front. The Club’s campaign continued. In October 1982 tbe Monday Club published its latest, slightly revised, policy on immigration. It called for:

• Scrapping of tbe Commission for Racial Equality and Community Relations Councils.
• Repeal of tbe Race Relations laws.
• An end to tbe use of race or colour as criteria for tbe distribution of state benefits & loans.
• An end to positive discrimination and all special treatment based upon race or colour.
• An end to all further large-scale permanent immigration from tbe New Commonwealth.
• An improved repatriation scheme with generous resettlement grants for all those from New Commonwealth countries who wish to take advantage of them.
• The redesignation of tbe Ministry of Overseas Aid as a Ministry for Overseas Resettlement.

The Club stepped up its calls for tbe Commission for Racial Equality to be abolished, launching scathing attacks upon it in April 1981 and October 1982. The next year tbe Club held a huge all-day public meeting on tbe subject in Westminster Central Hall, opposite tbe Houses of Parliament, addressed by a catalogue of MPs and important speakers. It was revealed at tbe same time in an opinion poll published in tbe News of tbe World that no less than 47% of tbe immigrant community favoured a well-financed resettlement programme and would be likely to take advantage of it.

An example of tbe political establishment’s opposition to tbe Club’s campaigns on this issue occurred in January 1989 when tbe young chairman, Anthony Murphy, and other members of tbe Monday Club’s Yorkshire branch were distributing Club leaflets in Bradford city centre headlined "Civil War in Bradford?" containing a montage of press cuttings from tbe Bradford Telegraph and Argus, The Spectator, and The Independent, and demanding an end to immigration. They added that tbe ever increasing numbers of Asian immigrants was having a detrimental impact on Bradford and that at present rates something akin to civil war would occur if something were not done. Enter Conservative Party Councillor Eric Pickles (today a Member of Parliament) but who came from a Labour family and who had seriously considered joining tbe Young Communists as a youth (his amazing reason for joining tbe conservatives was tbe 1968 Soviet invasion of Czecho-Slovakia) who had been, from 1982-87, Chairman of tbe Joint Committee Against Racism!). He and his so-called conservative friends on Bradford City Council began a successful campaign to have tbe Club's branch Chairman, who had been a prominent Party activist and local office-bearer, and who had stood tbe previous year as Conservative candidate for Bradford Wyke, expelled from tbe Party. The hard-left Leeds Other Paper reported that "Tory leader Eric Pickles announced his expulsion from Bradford Conservative constituencies". The Club’s feelings, however, appeared to be shared by tbe British people as tbe Daily Express headline on August 30, 1989 stated: "Blacks and Asians should be given government cash to return to their country of origin, say a majority of Britons."

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Club leaflet for 1992 UK General Election

On tbe 15th May tbe Club’s Foreign Affairs Committee had resolved that Hong Kong Chinese should not be permitted to settle in tbe UK and that tbe Club should oppose further mass immigration from that place once it was handed over to Red China, and actively campaigned on this issue. The Club issued a Press Release on tbe June 9, 1989, to this effect which was printed in full in tbe South China Morning Post. Gregory Lauder-Frost, then tbe Club’s Political Secretary, and Chairman of its Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote on their behalf to tbe Daily Telegraph on October 9, 1990 saying: "Most of tbe 50,000 refugees per year [to Britain] are economic migrants, and tbe government should deport them as soon as possible, just as they are deporting Vietnamese economic migrants from Hong Kong. We want tbe strictest possible entry to Britain for those of other cultures. Why do we accept people here from all over tbe world? Are we always tbe nearest ‘free’ country for refugees?"

The Club’s Executive Council wrote to The Observer newspaper on July 28, 1991 stating: "It is entirely legitimate to identify Europe and tbe British Isles as a distinctive cultural area, and unrestricted Third World immigration as a challenge to its existence." A Club Minute noted that in tbe Conservative Party Conference Handbook for October that year there were 14 Notices of Motions from grass-roots constituencies on immigration issues. Party officials would not permit any to be debated. The Club's position on immigration was reiterated in a letter in The Times from Lauder-Frost on tbe Club's behalf in October where he stated that tbe annual levels of immigration "were unacceptable"." On December 6 tbe Club’s Sam Swerling was cited in a large article on immigration in The Guardian newspaper saying "immigration has led to a sense of cultural disinheritance among Europeans", with Lauder-Frost adding "it bodes ill for tbe future to sit around and try and make excuses for immigrants to stay here."

The Club held meetings up and down tbe country on this subject right into tbe 1990s. In September 1996 tbe Club published a booklet on Immigration by their President, Viscount Massereene & Ferrard, in which he called for a "generous scheme for voluntary repatriation", tbe traditional position of tbe Club for decades. In 2013 Oxford Professor David Coleman produced a report stating: "White Britons will be a minority before 2070” because immigration had become tbe primary driver of demographic change."

Other

The Club was concerned with a wide range of issues and these included Ulster, defeating tbe IRA, anti-Communism, taxation, housing, law & order, industrial relations, media bias, educational subversion, immigration & repatriation and attacking tbe Conservative Party for not seriously opposing socialism. Despite tbe concerns of tbe Liberals at Conservative Central Office, tbe Club's influence was felt. Moreover, Central Office openly funded tbe Tory Reform Group which existed to move tbe party to The Left. In 1983 tbe Club’s Chairman, David Storey attacked tbe liberals within tbe Party who, he said, were chasing "the barren wasteland of consensus politics".

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Ukrainian issues highlighted in tbe Monday Club News, Oct 1972

As far back as June 1969 tbe Club held a packed conference at tbe Caxton Hall in Westminster on ‘’The Grip of The Left on tbe BBC and other media’’. The Club continued their reports in particular on tbe BBC which were usually conveyed to government ministers. In 1991 Lauder-Frost achieved considerable publicity for tbe Club in his attacks against tbe BBC. "What annoys us is that tbe BBC does not support tbe British people. It is another case of history being rewritten by Left-wing trendies" he had said about an anti-British "Timewatch" programme. About tbe same time tbe Club discovered that tbe BBC were aiming to appoint Janet Street-Porter, who Lauder-Frost described as "an awful promoter and purveyor of downmarket youth sub-culture programmes" with an enthusiasm for "fringe broadcasting", to tbe prestigious post of BBC Head of Arts. This attack received wide publicity including a full front page article in tbe London Evening Standard. One of tbe Club's members of parliament, John Carlisle, weighed in against her tbe following day.. She did not get tbe job.

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Club leaflet for Party's 1991 conference

The Club had long been anti-communist and gave its support to those countries seeking freedom from Communist tyranny and opposed tbe gross injustices of tbe post World War II settlements. Sir Victor Raikes, KBE, one of tbe Club's stalwarts and a former Chairman, had been Conservative Member of Parliament for South-East Essex 1931-45 and was one of tbe MPs who condemned tbe agreements of tbe Yalta Conference as "unfair and a disgrace". As far back as October 1972 Monday Club News had carried an article "Freedom for Ukraine!" Gregory Lauder-Frost secured his friend Count Nikolai Tolstoy, then embroiled in a libel action over his book, The Minister and tbe Massacres to speak to a capacity Club Foreign Affairs dinner in October 1988. With tbe reunification of Germany question looming, tbe Club's Foreign Affairs Committee, in February 1990, wrote to all Conservative Party MPs with tbe committee’s resolution calling for tbe restoration of tbe German borders as they were on 1st January 1938, until a Peace Treaty had been agreed, adding that this is what was called for at tbe Potsdam Conference. The committee's chairman, Lauder-Frost, had tbe final word: "there must be no gains for communism." In October 1991 tbe Club sent tbe first UK political delegation to Croatia, including two Members of Parliament, one of whom, Roger Knapman, was a junior government minister, to observe their war of independence, dining with tbe government and having a private audience with President Franjo Tudjman. Andrew Hunter M.P., presented both tbe Foreign Office and No.10 Downing Street with tbe Club's findings..

The Club's Annual Dinners, usually held at tbe Savoy, tbe Café Royal or latterly at tbe Charing Cross Hotel, were popular events invariably being sold out. Luminaries such as Julian Amery (1963), Sir Arthur Bryant (1966), Churchill’s favourite historian, who spoke on "the preservation of tbe national character and English traditions", Enoch Powell (1968), former Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home (1964 & 1969) and Geoffrey Rippon, Q.C.,M.P.,(1970) are examples of tbe quality of their guests-of-honour in that first decade. The Club also held what were always packed fringe meetings at Conservative Party conferences with important speakers. The Club, throughout its existence, was a prolific publisher. All these activities would continue into tbe early 1990s

Developments

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Kensington Cllr George Pole, Monday Club Chairman 1969-1972, when its membership peaked.

In 1966-67 it was decided to expand tbe membership and at tbe 1969 Annual General Meeting tbe Chairman, Paul Williams, announced that tbe membership now exceeded 1500. The Club had, from early days, a very active Universities branch network and ordinary members’ branches were also established throughout tbe U.K. By 1970 tbe Club had 35 MPs and 33 Lords in their ranks, and at tbe April 1971 AGM tbe new Chairman, George Pole, announced that "our membership is around 10,000 including 30 branches and tbe universities group", undoubtedly tbe largest membership of any conservative group, ever. Most of these members were active at all levels of tbe Conservative Party and many stood as councillors and Parliamentary candidates. Ian Waller, writing in tbe Sunday Telegraph commented that tbe Monday Club had "overtaken tbe Bow Group, that it was undoubtedly in tune with tbe current mood among conservatives, and that it is skilfully led and of wide appeal."

With tbe election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979, and especially after tbe British victory in tbe Falklands War, a great many members thought that with such a (perceived) right-wing Conservative Government that tbe Monday Club had lost its raison d'étre and tbe membership dropped away. The Club temporarily saw a reversal of this trend between 1988 and 1992 with tbe disillusionment of tbe Conservative Party in government and its liberal agenda. Under tbe leadership of some younger members and a more dynamic Executive Council membership doubled in this short period, despite tbe left-wing's serious attempts to get tbe Club bad publicity in 1990-1. Packed Conservative Party Conferences' fringe meetings tackled contentious issues tbe party refused to address; Club Seminars were held new publications on The UN, tbe NHS, Taxation, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, UK Foreign Policy, Defence, and Housing, contributed to this.

Like so many organisations of this nature, tbe Club had internal crisises, caused by 'the enemies within', in 1973, 1984, 1991 and finally, following Lauder-Frost's resignation at tbe end of May 1992 when a power struggle took place. These all resulted in expulsions, bad publicity and a loss of members. The resignation of tbe Chairman Dr. Mark Mayall at tbe 1993 AGM, and changes to tbe Executive Council that year, left tbe Club greatly changed and decimated of members and impetus, leading tbe Revolutionary Conservative Caucus to announce that "the Club should be effectively abandoned as an arena of Right-wing struggle and effort, and resources should be put into tbe pursuit of new vistas."