Corruption and Deceit of the MP Freemasons - Google Groups Corruption and Deceit of the MP Freemasons Showing 1-1 of 1 messages It seems highly unlikely that Freemasons are an alien race of shape-shifting lizard-people, or had any involvement in the JFK assassination. However, there is enough information on the internet suggesting that the Freemasons would be the correct organization to join, were someone hoping for an invite to the Bilderberg Group or wishing to become part of the Illuminati, that it would be surprising if the Masons were not attracting the sort of people desperate for power, influence and money. Now, if someone asked you "What is a Mason?". Maybe you'd think, as we used to believe, that Freemasonry is simply a secretive organization for starchy old men with nothing better to do, that consists of rolling up your trouser legs, wearing a leather apron and giving funny handshakes. Some people have argued that Freemasons shouldn't be criticised because they raise large sums of money for charitable causes (something which is certainly very commendable).

But then, plenty of other organisations have also raised a lot of money for charity - without feeling any need to indulge in secret rituals, award each other grandiose titles, or swear oaths to cover each other's backs. Further, we must also be careful that charity fundraising is not being abused as a cover for sexual abuse, as seems to have been the case with Jimmy Savile, during his lifetime. For most of us, charity means giving help to those in need - regardless of race, gender, sexuality or skin colour - but studying the Freemason organization, charity for them seems to mean manipulating Gift Aid and the favourable tax treatment afforded to charities, so that they can give more to themselves and their friends. To illustrate this, if you visit the United Grand Lodge of England webpage, you can click on the "Charitable Work" link, and discover that Freemasons channel their charitable efforts through four charities. Then, if you check the eligibility requirements for each of those supposed charities, you will see that they all restrict their help to Freemasons, former Freemasons and close dependents of Freemasons.

Therefore, if you give money to one of the Freemason's Charities, you might believe that you are supporting worthy local causes, but in fact all you are likely doing is making a payment into some Mason's Healthcare scheme, Insurance or Pension fund, etc. Researching a little deeper into Freemasonry, we find that the Masons are to be found behind a number of scandals and outrages over the years - Mozart's death, Licio Gelli and the Propaganda Due outrage, the murder of Roberto Calvi (God's Banker), the disgraceful treatment of former Chief Inspector Brian Woollard, whilst just recently it has transpired that Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik is also a Freemason. A hint to the skulduggery indulged in by Freemasons is given in the writings of Albert Pike, who penned the Masonic guidebook "Morals and Dogma", in which he affirms: Masonry [...] conceals its secrets from all except the Adepts and Sages, or the Elect, and uses false explanations and misinterpretations of its symbols to mislead those who deserve only to be mislead; to conceal the Truth, which it calls light, and draw them away from it.

[pages 104-5] Regardless of what you believe, the Freemason's United Grand Lodge of England claims to have about 400,000 members throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland; a high percentage of which turn out to be Public servants, or Members of Parliament (Two Masonic Lodges operate in the Palace of Westminster, and nearly every Lord Mayor of London since the start of the last century has been a Freemason). Oftentimes, these characters also turn out to have rather dubious personal histories. It's also undisputed that Freemasons spend a lot of their time adorning themselves with vainglorious titles, Masonic medals, robes and finery. Then, in everyday life, they will use Square and Compasses jewellery, along with similar accessories, to covertly indicate their Masonic membership to other Freemasons, and thereby surreptitiously be able to obtain preferential treatment, to the detriment of the Profane (the label that Freemasons give us non-Masons).

Most importantly, Masonic Public servants - who should be putting the interests of the British public first in their day-to-day duties, will have taken blood-curdling oaths to always put the interests of other Freemasons before anyone else, when they were initially recruited into the organization - under no less penalty than ritual murder, mutilation and being disappeared like the victim of a South American Death squad. In fact, Cecil Rolph Hewitt, Criminologist, Author, Journalist and former Vice-President of the Howard League for Penal Reform, who joined the City of London Police in 1921, and writing as C. H. Rolph, in an article for the weekly news magazine Police Review in September 1981, said: I saw enough chicanery and favouritism fostering Freemasonry in the Police service to satisfy me that it ought to be barred. It wasn't so much that the Masons got actual preferment (though I'm sure some of them did); they believed they would, and the belief devalued their characters in a way that was as odd as it was disturbing.

Previous to that in 1969, David Thomas, a former Head of Monmouthshire CID, stated: [T]he insidious effect of Freemasonry among the Police has to be experienced to be believed. More recently, PC Kitit Gordhandas, from West Yorkshire Police, wrote to Police Review saying: I feel that Freemasonry stands for white, male, middle-class members working for the advancement of themselves and their fellow Masons. It appears highly likely then, that Freemasons do perform acts of mutual advancement and improper favour-swapping. Both of which are actions that any right-minded person would agree are incompatible with being a Public servant, and which should preclude that person from taking part in any sort of Public Office. As the old saying goes "No man can serve two masters". To solve similar problems, millions of Public servants sign the Official Secrets Act, which curbs their right to publish, discuss or otherwise disseminate information which they may learn in the course of their work. Additionally, members of the Armed forces and the Police surrender their civil liberty to withdraw their labour and go on strike. Whilst no Civil servant or Policemen is allowed to stand as a candidate in local or national elections without first having resigned from his or her employment.

Therefore, imposing a similar curb on members of the Police service and Civil servants in respect of Freemasonry has an undeniable precedent. People would retain the right to join shadowy organizations that swear oaths to support their own members ahead of everyone else, such as the Freemasons, the Knights of St. Columba or the Order of the Eastern Star - but they would then lose the right to remain as Policemen or Civil servants, etc. This same rule could then be imposed upon other Public servants, such as MPs, Judges, Magistrates and Local Councillors - After all, these selfsame officials are frequently telling us "Those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear". So, until this happens, it is not enough for Public servants to claim that they behave with integrity. They must been seen to be doing so too. Therefore, since most of the general public still knows very little about who is or isn't a Freemason, they are being kept in the dark as to whom they can trust, when it comes to dealing with MPs, Judges, Lords, Magistrates and members of the Police, etc. Masonry ought forever to be abolished. It is wrong - essentially wrong - a seed of evil, which can never produce any good.

~~ former U.S.

President John Quincy Adams A list of past and present MPs who are Freemasons or Bilderberg attendees (These lists are currently being researched - keep checking back for the latest information.)Name Constituency / Comments Source of evidence / Member's Masonic Lodge Tony Baldry Banbury (Conservative) Hansard, 6 April 1989 Ed Balls Morley & Outwood (Labour Co-op); Economic Secretary to the Treasury Bilderberg participant (2001-03,2006-07) John Baron Basildon & Billericay (Conservative) Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums William Wither Beach Conservative MP for North Hampshire (1857-85); Andover (1885-1901) Hampshire & IOW Masonry website Anne Begg Aberdeen South (Labour) Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums Stuart Bell Middlesbrough (Labour) Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums Sir Frederic Bennett Conservative MP for Torbay (1955-87) Bilderberg participant (1963,1965-75,1977-80) Brian Binley Northampton South (Cons

ervative) Biography at Conservative Party website Bob Blackman Adulterous, homophobic MP for Harrow East (Conservative) Kenelm Lodge, No.8255 Tony Blair Former Prime Minister; Labour MP for Sedgefield (1983-2007) Internet forums suggest Studholme Lodge, No.1591; Bilderberg participant, 1993 Nick Boles Grantham & Stamford (Conservative) Bilderberg participant (2012) Andrew Bridgen NW Leicestershire (Conservative) Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums Gordon Brown Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath (Labour) Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums; Bilderberg participant (1991) Vince Cable Twickenham (Liberal Democrat) Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums Alun Cairns Vale of Glamorgan (Conservative) Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums David Cameron Witney (Conservative) Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums Edward Hamer Carbutt Tory MP for Monmouth Book: "Secret Society of the Freemasons in Bradford" Sir Fred Catherwood Vice President of the European Parliament (198

9-1992) Bilderberg attendee (1971) David Chaytor Labour MP for Bury North (1997-2010); jailed for 18 months after making false Parliamentary expenses claims Claimed as Liberty Lodge, No.5573 in internet forums Winston Churchill Tory Prime Minister (1940-45 & 1951-55) [Note: The Churchill Society points out that he publicly resigned as a Mason in 1912] Studholme Alliance Lodge No.1591; Rosemary Lodge No.2851 Kenneth Clarke Rushcliffe (Conservative); Lord Chancellor & Secretary of Justice Bilderberg participant (1993,1998-00,2003-04,2006-08,2012) Clement Davies Liberal MP for Montgomeryshire (1929-62); Former leader of the Liberal Party Bilderberg participant (1954) Geraint Davies Swansea West (Labour Co-op) Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums Edmund Dell Labour MP for Birkenhead (1964-79) Bilderberg attendee (19

78) Jim Devine Labour MP for Livingston (2005-10) jailed for 16 months after making false Parliamentary expenses claims Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums Sir Herbert Dunnico Labour MP for Consett (1929-31) Founder of New Welcome Lodge, No.5139 Sir Tony Durant Tory MP for Reading North (1974-83); Reading West (1983-97) Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums Sir Peter Emery Conservative MP for East Devon (1959-2001) The Independent, 31 October 1995 William Forster Conservative MP for Bradford (1861-1886) Pentalpha Lodge, No.974; book: "Secret Society of the Freemasons in Bradford" John Foster Conservative MP for Northwich (1945-1974); Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Commonwealth Relations Bilderberg attendee (1954) William Henry Foster Conservative MP for Lancaster (1895-1900) Book: "Secret Society of the Freemasons in Bradford" Sir Anthony Gadie Conservative MP for Bradford

 Central (1924-29) Temple Lodge, No.4963 Hugh Gaitskell Labour MP for Leeds South (1945-63); Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Bilderberg attendee (1954,1958) Phil Gallie Conservative MP for Ayr (1992-97) (later MSP) The Scotsman, 2 February 2002 Jo Grimond Liberal MP for Orkney and Shetland (1950-83) Bilderberg attendee (1958) Arthur Greenwood Labour MP for Nelson & Colne (1922-31); Wakefield (1932-54) Hugh Dalton makes the claim in his memoir "The Fateful Years" William Hague Richmond(Yorks) (Conservative) Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums; Bilderberg participant (1998) Keith Harding Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland & Fife (1999-2003) The Scotsman, 2 February 2002 Edward Heath Conservative MP for Old Bexley & Sidcup (1950-2001) Bilderberg participant (

1963,1967,1969) Joseph Hiley Conservative MP for Pudsey (1959-74); involved in the Shire Oak scandal Leeds Other Paper, 12 December 1986 Stuart Holland Labour MP for Vauxhall (1979-89) Bilderberg attendee (1970) John Horam Labour MP for Gateshead West (1970-83); Conservative MP for Orpington (1992-2010) Bilderberg attendee (1975) Douglas Hurd Conservative MP for Mid Oxfordshire (1974-83); Witney (1983-97) Bilderberg attendee (1980-81) H.

Montgomery Hyde Ulster Unionist MP for Belfast North (1950-59) Bilderberg attendee (1954,1957) Eric Illsley Labour MP for Barnsley Central (1987-2011); jailed for 12 months after making false Parliamentary expenses claims Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums Bernard Jenkin Conservative MP for Harwich & North Essex Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums Aubrey Jones Conservative MP for Birmingham Hall Green (1950-65) Bilderberg attendee (1974) David Jones Clwyd West (Conservative) Welsh Assembly Register of Members interests Gwilym Jones Conservative MP for Cardiff North (1983-97) Dinas Llandaff Lodge, No.8512 Ruth Kelly Labour MP for Bolton West (1997-2010); Opus Dei member The Scotsman, 21 January 2005 Sir Edwin Leather Conservative MP for North Somerset (1950-64) The Telegraph, 6 April 2005 Jack Lopresti Filton & Bradley Stoke (Conservative) Mr Loprest

i is outed in a Bristol Indymedia podcast, 15 January 2012 Niall Macdermot Labour MP for Derby North (1957-70) The Independent, 31 October 1995 Angus MacDonald Scottish National Party MSP for Falkirk East Scottish Parliament Register of interests; Lodge Zetland, No.391 Sir John Major Former Tory Prime Minister (1990-97) Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums Jamie McGrigor MSP for the Highlands & Islands (Conservative) The Scotsman, 2 February 2002 David McLetchie Former leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, who resigned after a taxi expenses scandal The Telegraph, 7 February 2002 Reginald Maudling Conservative MP for Chipping Barnet (1950-79) Numerous sources list Mr Maudling as a Freemason; Bilderberg attendee (1965,1967,1970-71,1973) Brian Monteith Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife (1999-2007) The Scotsman, 2 February 2002 Elliot

 Morley Labour MP for Scunthorpe (1987-2010); jailed for 16 months after making false Parliamentary expenses claims Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums Robert Neill Bromley & Chislehurst (Conservative) New Statesman, 12 June 2006; Greater London Lodge, No.2603 Anthony Nelson Conservative MP for Chichester (1974-97) Martin Short claims that Mr Nelson told him that he was a Freemason Allan Noble Conservative MP for Chelsea (1945-59) Bilderberg attendee (1957) John Nott Conservative MP for St.

Ives (1966-83); Secretary of State for Defence during the Falklands War Bilderberg attendee (1977) John James Oddy Conservative MP for Pudsey (1908-10) Book: "Secret Society of the Freemasons in Bradford" George Osborne Tatton (Conservative); Chancellor of the Exchequer Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums; Bilderberg attendee (2006-09,2011) Ian Paisley North Antrim (Democratic Unionist) Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums John Storey Penleaze Liberal MP for Southampton (1833-5) Hampshire & IOW Masonry website Sir Ian Percival Conservative MP for Southport (1959-87) New Welcome Lodge, No.5139; Canada Lodge No.3527; County Palatine Lodge No.2505 Enoch Powell Ulster Unionist Party MP for South Down (1950-87) Bilderberg participant (1968) Christopher Price Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr (1966-70), Lewisham West (1974-8

3) Bilderberg attendee (1970) Sir Malcolm Rifkind Kensington (Conservative); Former Foreign Secretary Bilderberg participant (1986,1996) Sir George Robertson Liberal MP for Bradford Central (1906-16) Book: "Secret Society of the Freemasons in Bradford" Peter Rost Conservative MP for Erewash (1970-92) Martin Short claims that Mr Rost told him that he was a Freemason Michael Russell Scottish National Party MSP for Argyll & Bute Scottish Parliament Register of interests; Kyles of Bute Lodge, No.1120 John Smith Labour MP for Monklands East (1970-94); Former Labour Party leader Bilderberg participant (1986,1989,1991) Rory Stewart Conservative MP for Penrith & The Border Bilderberg participant (2011) David Sumberg Conservative MP for Bury South (1983-97); now an MEP dubbed "UK's laziest MEP" Smith Child Lodge, No.2064 Shirley Summerskill Labour MP for Halifax (1964-83) Bilderberg attendee (1972

) Sir Charles S.Taylor Conservative MP for Eastbourne (1935-74) 1985 Masonic Year Book Norman Tebbit Former MP for Epping (1970-74), Chingford (1974-92); Former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Bilderberg attendee (1985) Stefan Terlezki Conservative MP for Cardiff West (1983-97) Dinas Llandaff Lodge, No.8512 Sir Neil Thorne Conservative MP for Ilford South (1979-92) Leyton Grange Park Lodge, No.5473 Sir David Trippier Conservative MP for Rossendale & Darwen (1979-92) Keystone Lodge, No.363 Sir Neville Trotter Conservative MP for Tynemouth (1974-97) Suggested as a Freemason in internet discussion forums Sir Peter Vanneck Conservative MEP for Cleveland & Yorkshire North The Independent, 31 October 1995 Sir Gerard Vaughan Conservative MP for Reading East (1983-97) The Independent, 31 October 1995 Sir Alfred Cecil Walker Democratic Union

ist MP for Belfast North (1983-2001) Martin Short claims that Cecil Walker told him that he was a Freemason Gary Waller Conservative MP for Keighley (1979-97) Clifton Lodge, No.7112 Sir Francis Watson Conservative MP for Pudsey & Otley (1923-29) Book: "Secret Society of the Freemasons in Bradford" Sir John Wells Conservative MP for Maidstone (1959-87) The Independent, 31 October 1995 [Masonic MPs who have subsequently become ennobled are listed in the Peers section of this website.] © 2013 Falling Masonry.

We know that some information is a little sketchy, but since Freemasons are so secretive, it's difficult to discover exact details of who they are or what they do. So, this is where you can help, if you know better sources of evidence, have corrections, updates or even information about people wrongly described as Masons, then do contact us in confidence. -- Fear not therefore: for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; and nothing hid that shall not be made known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in the light and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. Matthew 10:26-27 Die Pride and Envie; Flesh, take the poor's advice. Covetousnesse be gon: Come, Truth and Love arise. Patience take the Crown; throw Anger out of dores: Cast out Hypocrisie and Lust, which follows whores: Then England sit in rest; Thy sorrows will have end; Thy Sons will live in peace, and each will be a friend.

I am grateful for the opportunity...: 26 Jun 2001: House of Commons debates - TheyWorkForYou TheyWorkForYou 8:44 pm, 26th June 2001 I am grateful for the opportunity to make my maiden speech . I tend to the view that representing a constituency such as Orkney and Shetland , I can probably lay a better claim than many hon. Members, if not most, that mine is truly a rural constituency, and one that by virtue of its geography gives rise to more transport issues than can really be properly addressed in a 10-minute speech. There will, of course, be future debates in which those issues can be raised, and I give the House fair warning that I fully intend to do so. It is traditional in this House to pay tribute to one's predecessor. It occurs to me, having observed the debate on the Queen's Speech over the past few days, that this is perhaps a tradition which it is open to some hon. Members to observe through gritted teeth and with their fingers crossed behind their back.

I consider myself particularly fortunate to have had two Liberal predecessors--which makes me unique as a Liberal MP in this House--to whom I can pay fulsome and handsome tribute. The late Lord Grimond of Firth, or Jo Grimond , as he was better known in the House and the constituency, served as the Member of Parliament for Orkney and Shetland between 1950 and 1983. He was leader of the Liberal party for 11 of those years, and the fact that he remains a substantial figure, regarded in the communities of Orkney and Shetland with great respect and affection, is an eloquent tribute to the many great statesmanlike qualities that he possessed. I am acutely aware that Jo Grimond joined a parliamentary party of five Liberal Members in this House, and that it is my privilege to be a member of a parliamentary party of 52. It was Jo Grimond who really started the long, slow haul back for Liberalism in Scotland. Of course, that was not an event but a process, and in 1983 the mantle of that process was handed on to my immediate predecessor, Jim Wallace .

Jim Wallace served the constituency of Orkney and Shetland with remarkable diligence and distinction for the past 18 years. I consider myself particularly fortunate still to have readily available to me his active participation and counsel, as he remains the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Orkney, as well as being its Deputy First Minister and Minister for Justice . When Jo Grimond made his maiden speech in the House, he described our constituency of Orkney and Shetland as "two little worlds of their own, far away between this country and Norway, very different from each other even in their own land and their own economic affairs, but certainly very different from things down here."--[ Hansard, 10 March 1950; Vol. 472, c. 626 .] That is as true today as it was in 1950. Our staple industries remain farming and fishing, and they face many of the difficulties that are born well beyond Orkney and Shetland. Again, there will no doubt be future occasions when I shall be able to discuss those difficulties in the House.

More recently, we have seen a much greater dependence on the oil industry, with the substantial oil terminal facilities at Sullom Voe and at Flotta. In recent years, we have also seen the growth of aquaculture in the constituency. Many hon. Members have no doubt enjoyed holidays in either Orkney or Shetland. They will be aware of the warmth of the welcome that the people offer, and the spectacularly, sometimes breathtakingly, beautiful scenery that our islands have to offer. I urge those hon. Members who have not yet availed themselves of the opportunity of visiting my constituency to do so as soon as possible. I ask them not to be put off by air fares that might take them to the other side of the world, should they be inclined to go there. I also ask hon. Members not to be put off by the fact that planes travelling to and from Orkney and Shetland have a nasty habit of "going technical"--as the ground staff have to put it--suspiciously often when only three or four passengers are booked to travel on them. Hon.

Members should also not be put off by the fact that when they get there, they will be charged an extra 10p to 15p a litre of petrol compared to the cost on the mainland. I assure hon. Members that these are all mere distractions that we shall resolve in time, and that it is worth taking the trouble to get there. I approach this speech today with an acute sense of my part in a long history of radical Liberal tradition from Orkney and Shetland. In the 19th century, we suffered, like so many parts of the highlands and islands, at the hands of landlordism--landlords who exercised draconian powers from a great distance with no consideration for the needs or wishes of the local communities. For many people, that caused tremendous hardship and suffering that ended only with Gladstone's Crofting Act 1886, which introduced security of tenure and shifted the balance from favouring the landlord to favouring local people. As we enter the 21st century, there seems to be a clamant need for a new Crofting Act, but this time a Crofting Act of the sea bed. Hon.

Members who are students of history will find disturbing echoes of 19th-century landlordism in the Crown Estate Commission 's treatment of the sea bed and the surrounding communities who rely on it. The words "remote, imperious, unresponsive and having no regard for islanders' wishes" spring to mind. It is expected that, this year alone, the Crown Estate Commission will take £1 million from the fish farming industry in Shetland alone. Fish farmers in my constituency and elsewhere face a levy that is based, uniquely, not on area but on production. It has made the difference between a business breaking even and a business going into the red. It is a payment for which no service is given in return. Another example of such unfairness is the project currently being promoted by the Shetland Islands council charitable trust to lay a fibre optic cable from Shetland through Orkney to the Scottish mainland. Such a cable would allow my constituents proper access to the electronic communications that the constituents of other hon. Members undoubtedly take for granted and would immensely benefit my constituency. Hon.

Members can therefore imagine our frustration at discovering that our operating costs of £100,000 annually are likely to be increased by no less than another £64,000 annually, simply for the privilege of laying the cable on the sea bed. There is something profoundly obnoxious and objectionable about a system that allows the extraction of money from island communities for the right to use the sea bed. Although we, with our need for piers and harbours, cannot exist without that sea bed, it is of no use to anyone else. In the general election campaign there was a great deal of talk about stealth taxes, but I believe that the Crown Estate Commission's levies and rents are the oldest and most obnoxious form of stealth tax. They are a relic of our feudal past and the time has come for them to go. It is my privilege to represent in the House a constituency that is independently minded and deeply self-reliant. I have not been sent here to ask for any special favours, and I am not here to beg for any handouts; I am here merely to ask that my constituents be allowed the same opportunities to develop the potential of their communities that are given to other hon.

Members and their constituents in the rest of the country. It is a case that is based on simple fairness and equality of opportunity. It is my devout hope that any case so based will always be well received. House of Commons Hansard Debates for 26 Jun 2001 (pt 26) Home Page Mr. Alistair Carmichael (Orkney and Shetland): I am grateful for the opportunity to make my maiden speech. I tend to the view that representing a constituency such as Orkney and Shetland, I can probably lay a better claim than many hon. Members, if not most, that mine is truly a rural constituency, and one that by virtue of its geography gives rise to more transport issues than can really be properly addressed in a 10-minute speech. There will, of course, be future debates in which those issues can be raised, and I give the House fair warning that I fully intend to do so. It is traditional in this House to pay tribute to one's predecessor. It occurs to me, having observed the debate on the Queen's Speech over the past few days, that this is perhaps a tradition which it is open to some hon.

Members to observe through gritted teeth and with their fingers crossed behind their back. I consider myself particularly fortunate to have had two Liberal predecessors--which makes me unique as a Liberal MP in this House--to whom I can pay fulsome and handsome tribute. The late Lord Grimond of Firth, or Jo Grimond, as he was better known in the House and the constituency, served as the Member of Parliament for Orkney and Shetland between 1950 and 1983. He was leader of the Liberal party for 11 of those years, and the fact that he remains a substantial figure, regarded in the communities of Orkney and Shetland with great respect and affection, is an eloquent tribute to the many great statesmanlike qualities that he possessed. I am acutely aware that Jo Grimond joined a parliamentary party of five Liberal Members in this House, and that it is my privilege to be a member of a parliamentary party of 52. It was Jo Grimond who really started the long, slow haul back for Liberalism in Scotland.

Of course, that was not an event but a process, and in 1983 the mantle of that process was handed on to my immediate predecessor, Jim Wallace. Jim Wallace served the constituency of Orkney and Shetland with remarkable diligence and distinction for the past 18 years. I consider myself particularly fortunate still to have readily available to me his active participation and counsel, as he remains the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Orkney, as well as being its Deputy First Minister and Minister for Justice. When Jo Grimond made his maiden speech in the House, he described our constituency of Orkney and Shetland as "two little worlds of their own, far away between this country and Norway, very different from each other even in their own land and their own economic affairs, but certainly very different from things down here."--[Official Report, 10 March 1950; Vol. 472, c. 626.] That is as true today as it was in 1950. Our staple industries remain farming and fishing, and they face many of the difficulties that are born well beyond Orkney and Shetland.

Again, there will no doubt be future occasions when I shall be able to discuss those difficulties in the House. More recently, we have seen a much greater dependence on the oil industry, with the substantial oil terminal facilities at Sullom Voe and at Flotta. In recent years, we have also seen the growth of aquaculture in the constituency. Many hon. Members have no doubt enjoyed holidays in either Orkney or Shetland. They will be aware of the warmth of the welcome that the people offer, and the 26 Jun 2001 : Column 593 spectacularly, sometimes breathtakingly, beautiful scenery that our islands have to offer. I urge those hon. Members who have not yet availed themselves of the opportunity of visiting my constituency to do so as soon as possible. I ask them not to be put off by air fares that might take them to the other side of the world, should they be inclined to go there. I also ask hon.

Members not to be put off by the fact that planes travelling to and from Orkney and Shetland have a nasty habit of "going technical"--as the ground staff have to put it--suspiciously often when only three or four passengers are booked to travel on them. Hon. Members should also not be put off by the fact that when they get there, they will be charged an extra 10p to 15p a litre of petrol compared to the cost on the mainland. I assure hon. Members that these are all mere distractions that we shall resolve in time, and that it is worth taking the trouble to get there. I approach this speech today with an acute sense of my part in a long history of radical Liberal tradition from Orkney and Shetland. In the 19th century, we suffered, like so many parts of the highlands and islands, at the hands of landlordism--landlords who exercised draconian powers from a great distance with no consideration for the needs or wishes of the local communities.

For many people, that caused tremendous hardship and suffering that ended only with Gladstone's Crofting Act 1886, which introduced security of tenure and shifted the balance from favouring the landlord to favouring local people. As we enter the 21st century, there seems to be a clamant need for a new Crofting Act, but this time a Crofting Act of the sea bed. Hon. Members who are students of history will find disturbing echoes of 19th-century landlordism in the Crown Estate Commission's treatment of the sea bed and the surrounding communities who rely on it. The words "remote, imperious, unresponsive and having no regard for islanders' wishes" spring to mind. It is expected that, this year alone, the Crown Estate Commission will take £1 million from the fish farming industry in Shetland alone. Fish farmers in my constituency and elsewhere face a levy that is based, uniquely, not on area but on production. It has made the difference between a business breaking even and a business going into the red. It is a payment for which no service is given in return.

Another example of such unfairness is the project currently being promoted by the Shetland Islands council charitable trust to lay a fibre optic cable from Shetland through Orkney to the Scottish mainland. Such a cable would allow my constituents proper access to the electronic communications that the constituents of other hon. Members undoubtedly take for granted and would immensely benefit my constituency. Hon. Members can therefore imagine our frustration at discovering that our operating costs of £100,000 annually are likely to be increased by no less than another £64,000 annually, simply for the privilege of laying the cable on the sea bed. There is something profoundly obnoxious and objectionable about a system that allows the extraction of money from island communities for the right to use the sea bed. Although we, with our need for piers and harbours, cannot exist without that sea bed, it is of no use to anyone else. 26 Jun 2001 : Column 594 In the general election campaign there was a great deal of talk about stealth taxes, but I believe that the Crown Estate Commission's levies and rents are the oldest and most obnoxious form of stealth tax.

They are a relic of our feudal past and the time has come for them to go. It is my privilege to represent in the House a constituency that is independently minded and deeply self-reliant. I have not been sent here to ask for any special favours, and I am not here to beg for any handouts; I am here merely to ask that my constituents be allowed the same opportunities to develop the potential of their communities that are given to other hon. Members and their constituents in the rest of the country. It is a case that is based on simple fairness and equality of opportunity. It is my devout hope that any case so based will always be well received. 9.4 pm Mr. Hilton Dawson (Lancaster and Wyre): May I say what a pleasure it is to follow the elegant maiden speech by the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Carmichael)? He has a long line of illustrious predecessors to live up to, but everything that he said, and the way in which he said it, indicates that he too will make a very significant mark in this place. It was good to hear about the delights of Orkney and Shetland and South Antrim.

Every speech I make in this place tends to be a travelogue about Lancaster and Wyre, which is the most glorious constituency in the land. However, it is good to know that if I did not have an imminent date with a hot Greek beach very early in August, I would have two such excellent alternatives for holidays. Orkney and Shetland and South Antrim will have to go down for future breaks. It is a particular pleasure to speak in this debate because Lancaster and Wyre is a very rural constituency--the 44th most rural in the country, according to the Library. I am the first Labour Member of Parliament ever to be re-elected for any part of the constituency where the boundaries have changed considerably, certainly not to Labour's advantage, over recent decades. It is good to be back representing such a rural constituency. Let us not beat about the bush. Our rural areas and particularly our agriculture industry have faced the hardest of hard times in recent years. The Government came in in 1997 with the appalling legacy of BSE. Since then, farmers have had desperate times; they have seen very low prices, huge falls in prices and difficult times. Now we have the dreadful occurrence of foot and mouth disease.

My constituency has had two cases of foot and mouth disease, which have been devastating for those concerned and their neighbours, but the whole area has suffered from the restrictions that have been put in place. At the moment, the area lives in what can only be described as fear, given the proximity of foot and mouth in the Ribble valley. No human being who has come into contact with people involved in farming in recent years could fail to be moved by the distress of that community. It is a strong community, but it is facing appalling times. In that context, how did a Labour Member come to be re-elected in a constituency where Labour has not been strong in the past and where that rural community has faced such difficult times? It is instructive that the rural area that I represent has benefited from the Government's 26 Jun 2001 : Column 595 investment in education and village schools. Kirkland and Catterall school in my constituency received £500,000 only a few months before the election to deal with major repairs and redevelopment that had originally been plotted in 1976. In 1997, that school finally got the money.

There is also the horrendous problem of the moss roads in my constituency--roads built across the marsh, which have been neglected for years and are in danger of being closed, cutting off rural communities. Under the Government's investment in highways, we now have a three-year, £4 million plan to reconstruct and redevelop those roads, relinking rural communities and rural businesses. We also have the Garstang Super 8, the future of rural public transport--flexible and accessible. A minibus based in Garstang, it covers the rural area to the east and west in a figure of eight and supplies an excellent service six days a week to villages that had been completely denuded of public transport during the 18 years of the previous Government. During the Government's first term, there was a lot of scaremongering from the Opposition about the future of parish councils. My opponent at the general election told people that they were about to be abolished. That is not going to happen--instead, the role of parish councils will be strengthened in terms of planning and developing, and in terms of transport improvement, finance and support. Pilling, in my constituency, is one of the largest villages in England.

Local people have developed the Pilling appraisal--their own planning document which, as well as being an interesting and powerful record of what Pilling is like in 2001, will be an important tool for planning in the future. We have great hopes for the future in Lancaster and Wyre. Myerscough college is one of the major agricultural colleges in the country. The area has also seen the development of farmers markets, co-operatives and farm shops, with people selling produce over the internet. The future of quality produce is very good. We have the possibility of developing sports facilities in Over Wyre as a result of the Government's neighbourhood programme. We also have the possibility of developing the facilities of Garstang as a market town. Important initiatives are coming from the north-west region, such as regional planning guidance and rural development programmes. However, there are still real difficulties in farming. Only yesterday I was at Claughton Green farm, talking to Mr. Alf Noblett, one of my constituents, and some of his colleagues. It is instructive that they are not asking for more money from the Government. They recognise that the Government have made a huge investment in farming over the past four years.

However, I would second their wish that we should be more robust about the future of British farming, the quality of British produce, some of the strictures from Europe and regulations on imports. They want us to be particularly robust in relation to supermarkets and dairy companies. I do not believe that British farmers and the farmers of Lancaster and Wyre get a fair deal. It is essential that the Government stand up for them. Lancaster is a great, historic city with a wonderful economic future, but it is bedevilled by transport problems. It needs a sustainable integrated transport plan. We need substantial investment in a bypass, park-and-ride schemes, public transport, a range of facilities to improve safety in 26 Jun 2001 : Column 596 home zones, and many other measures to reduce car parking. We need to take a radical approach to enhance the city of Lancaster and its advantages of art, culture, history and economic development with the safe, sustainable, clean and green transport system that it deserves.

Jo Grimond (Lord Grimond), 1913-1993 · Liberal History By Joyce, Peter · Sell, Geoffrey Regarded by many contemporary Liberals as their spiritual leader and mentor, Jo Grimond was a figure of great magnetism and intellectual originality. He was once described as a politician on whom the gods smile, and inspired a rare degree of public affection. Within the Liberal Party, neither of his successors, Jeremy Thorpe nor David Steel enjoyed the same rapport with party members as he did. As former Liberal MP Russell Johnston said: ‘Liberals are not natural leader-worshippers, but we were captivated and proud’. Grimond’s leadership of the Liberal Party from 1956-67 made a difference not just to the fortunes of his party but to British politics, helping to end the two-party mould into which Britain had seemed to settle. He made the most substantial contribution to Liberal Party politics of any post-war Liberal politician, taking over an ailing party and transforming it into a formidable force.

His idealism, his imagination, his ability to communicate, his freshness, made him the personification and the hope of post-war Liberalism; it was quite impossible, from the early 1960s onwards, to think of the Liberal Party without thinking of him. Joseph Grimond was born on 29 July 1913 in St Andrews, Fife, the son of Joseph Bowman Grimond, a jute manufacturer, and Helen Lydia Grimond (ne Richardson). The family could trace their connection with textiles back to the start of the nineteenth century. His father died in 1928, shortly after the family business was absorbed into Jute Industries – a transaction that left Grimond with a lasting bias in favour of small industrial units. He was sent to a preparatory school near London and then to Eton. This played an important role in shaping the adolescent Grimond, for there he became both an intellectual leader and a social success. He fell under the influence of Robert Birley, an inspiring history teacher with a strong sense of idealism. Grimond was imbued with enthusiasm and curiosity about politics, reflected in his involvement in the schools Political Society, of which in 1932 he became President.

After Eton, Grimond elected to read Modern Greats (philosophy, politics and economics) at Balliol College, Oxford, where he took a first. He made his first political speech in the general election of 1935, in support of Arthur Irvine, the Liberal candidate for Kincardine & West Aberdeenshire. It was largely due to Irvine that his interest in politics flowered and blossomed. Three years later Grimond’s marriage to Laura, youngest daughter of Lady Violet Bonham Carter and granddaughter of H. H. Asquith helped to underline his potential. Lady Violet was the formidable high priestess of Liberalism. She took a proprietorial interest in the Liberal Party and the political hopes that she had once entertained for herself were transferred to Grimond. Lord Esher, a contemporary and close friend, felt that Grimond took a pretty relaxed view of politics until his marriage: Laura not only brought him into the Asquithian inheritance but also confronted him with her (and her mother’s) stronger feelings and more concentrated ambitions. After Oxford, Grimond studied for a legal career as a barrister, being a pupil in the same chambers of which Quintin Hogg was a member.

He was called to the bar (Middle Temple) in 1937. He joined the 2nd Fife and Forfar Yeomanry three days before the outbreak of war and served in Northern Ireland and Europe, rising to the rank of major. He first stood for Parliament in 1945; undoubtedly the patronage of the Liberal leader, Sir Archibald Sinclair , helped to secure him the candidacy of Orkney & Shetland. The seat had been Liberal-held until 1935 and was one of the few winnable ones in Scotland. Grimond, however, did not rate his chances of winning highly, and failed to attend the count. Later he was to kick himself when he discovered he was only 329 votes behind the successful Conservative candidate. Nevertheless, a life-long connection with this constituency, the most distant from Westminster, began. Its remoteness and sturdy sense of independence helped to fortify his Liberalism – though these characteristics also made it more difficult for him to understand the realities of life in industrial Britain. It would be impossible to exaggerate the importance of Orkney & Shetland to Grimond.

Not only did he relish its inhabitants; he found in their small self-sufficient communities paradigms against which he measured the lunacies of central government and the welfare state. After the election he was only too happy to be seconded to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) set up by the Allies to help countries devastated by the war and their refugees. Although Grimond was able to do little for them, the experience served to intensify his distrust of bureaucracy and large organisations. He left UNRRA on demobilisation in 1947 and became Secretary of the National Trust for Scotland. He stood again for Orkney & Shetland at the 1950 general election, and captured it with a majority of 2,956. Despite the occasional fluctuation in his vote thereafter, his hold on the seat was never seriously threatened. Within two days of his election, Grimond became Liberal Chief Whip. His standing was further enhanced in the 1951 election when he doubled his majority even though the Liberal vote in the country collapsed.

He realised that the Liberal Party had to change, needing to discard its shibboleths and becoming relevant to modern politics – in other words, it needed modernising. Grimond was able to put this into practice when Clement Davies resigned the leadership in 1956. His resignation was not unwelcome; there was a mood for change amongst many leading activists, who had lost faith in Clement Davies’ increasingly emotional and rambling oratory. Grimond became leader of a party close to extinction, commanding the support of little more than two per cent of the electorate and securing the return of only three MPs to Westminster without the benefit of local pacts. In only fifteen constituencies at the 1955 general election did Labour and Conservative candidates not finish first and second. The parliamentary party was rumoured to hold its meetings in a telephone kiosk, and Conservative MP Sir Gerald Nabarro dubbed them the shadow of a splinter. Grimond, however, rejected any thought that the Liberal Party should be satisfied with a role as a brains trust standing on the sidelines of politics shouting advice to Tories and Socialists alike. He gave it a long-term aim, power, and first halted and then reversed the seemingly remorseless process of electoral decline.

At his first assembly as Leader, Grimond proclaimed, in the next ten years it is a question of get on or get out. Under his leadership the first Liberal revival since 1929 occurred, giving early indications that the hegemonic two-party system was showing signs of strain. Grimond could do what no Liberal had done for many years: appeal to the younger generation of voters, who, as the first products of the Butler Education Act and of post-war universities and polytechnics, were not necessarily committed to the apparently class-dominated major parties. This was his first achievement and it was made possible largely by his enthusiasm and charm. He made the party a respectable political organisation to join, and attracted experts who contributed to a real renaissance in Liberal thinking. In his books, The Liberal Future (1959), and The Liberal Challenge (1963), and in numerous pamphlets, he gave political liberalism a new direction and purpose, based on a reassertion of the traditional liberal insistence that ideas and principles were more important than interests. He set about making the party a pacemaker for such ideas as entry into the Common Market and non-socialist planning.

It was due to his leadership that the party supported the abolition of Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent. He deserves credit for placing on the political agenda issues such as how Britain should handle her relative decline in the world and how government should be brought closer to the people; he was a long-term supporter of Scottish home rule (by which he meant self-government within the confines of a federal system). Celebrating his tenth anniversary as leader of the Liberal Democrats in 1998, Paddy Ashdown paid tribute: Jo Grimond has always been my guiding star. He established the Liberals as the radicals and thinkers of British politics. The ideas he proposed are now the agenda of government. Grimond was a long-term opponent of statism, the view that social advance could only be brought about through the action of the state. He joined fellow Liberals who agreed with his views in the Unservile State Group and contributed a chapter on the reform of Parliament to that body’s key publication, The Unservile State (1957).

His opposition to state action was partly based on the belief that this enhanced the power of bureaucracies, transforming those who received state services into the passive recipients of handouts, devaluing their humanity by depriving them of the ability to take decisions which affected their everyday lives. His firm belief in the importance of participation and the need for individuals to possess freedom of choice resulted in him viewing communities as the key social unit in which individuals could intellectually develop their full potential by sharing in the pursuit of common goals. Grimond also gave the Liberal Party a sense of political direction which it had previously lacked. Realignment of the left, the uniting of Britain’s progressive forces around the nucleus provided by the Liberal Party, was a central theme of his leadership. In this he was percipient but premature, anticipating the split in the Labour Party which was not to become open for another twenty-five years. Nonetheless, he sowed the seeds of realignment, the fruits of which were reaped at the 1983 general election. Roy Jenkins generously paid tribute to Grimond, claiming that he was the father of the Alliance. The byelection capture of Orpington in 1962 seemed to prove his strategy right.

Anticipating the outcome of the next election, he made probably his most famous speech to the 1963 assembly: ‘In bygone days, commanders were taught that when in doubt, they should march their troops towards the sound of gunfire. I intend to march my troops towards the sound of gunfire’. The 1964 general election indeed saw the Liberal vote rise above the three million mark for the first time since before the war. The Liberal Party took over eleven per cent of the votes cast and won nine seats; the size of the Liberal support in English county and suburban seats showed that the party had re-established itself as a vital force in British politics. Paradoxically, however, this election also dashed Grimond’s hopes, for the narrow Labour victory rendered the essential element in his strategy inoperative. Instead of the Labour Party splitting to allow the hoped-for realignment of the left, it was to hold office for eleven of the next fifteen years. Moreover, Grimond received little support and much misunderstanding for his overtures to the Wilson government in 1965. The 1966 general election spelt the end of Grimond’s hopes of achieving realignment.

It gave, as Liberal MP Emlyn Hooson put it, ‘Lib/Labbery the axe once and for all’. Labour’s substantially increased majority meant that that Grimond’s dramatic 1965 assembly speech about the Liberal teeth being in the real meat of power seemed remote. Grimond, believing that he had run out of ideas and exhausted his potential, resigned the leadership in January 1967. A new era dawned, where ideas were subordinated to tactics. Grimond made a brief come-back as leader in May 1976 for several months after the party was wracked by the Thorpe scandal. In his brief period in charge, he settled the party’s nerves and oversaw a clean and confidence-restoring leadership election that culminated in the election of David Steel as leader. When Steel took the Liberals into a formal pact with Labour in 1977, ironically, Grimond was the only dissentient among Liberal MPs, believing on principle, that Labour was undeserving of support, and that in any case the Liberals would not profit from such an agreement. After thirty-three years service as MP, Grimond stood down at the 1983 general election.

Later that year, in defiance of earlier pronouncements, he was created a life peer as Baron Grimond of Firth in the County of Orkney. He had been made a Privy Councillor in 1961. Throughout his career he was an enthusiastic lecturer abroad and travelled widely. He became a director of the Manchester Guardian and Evening News Ltd. in 1967. He was actively involved in higher education, serving as rector of the Universities of Edinburgh (1960-63) and Aberdeen (1970) and as Chancellor of Kent University (1970-82). He also chaired a committee to look into the constitution and workings of Birmingham University (1971). Grimond died, aged eighty, on 24 October 1993 in Orkney following a stroke. He left a widow, two sons and a daughter. One son had predeceased him.

He was the author of a number of key works, the most important being The Liberal Future (1959), The Liberal Challenge (1963), The Common Welfare (1978), Personal Manifesto (1983) and The St Andrews of Jo Grimond (1992). He wrote his own autobiography, Memoirs (1979), and collaborated with Brian Neve on The Referendum (1976). He wrote a large number of pamphlets; key works include The New Liberalism (1957) and A Roar For the Lion (1976) (in which he put forward his solution to the then current West Lothian question). A brief assessment of his political career is provided in Peter Joyce, Giving Politics a Good Name (1995). There is also a unpublished PhD thesis, Liberal Revival: Jo Grimond and the Politics of British Liberalism 1956-1967 by Geoffrey Sell (University of London, 1996). The Grimond papers are in the National Library of Scotland. Peter Joyce was teaching in the Politics and Philosophy Department of Manchester Metropoloitan University at the time of writing this piece.

Geoffrey Sell is a college lecturer and member of the Liberal Democrat History Group executive. He completed a PhD thesis entitled: Liberal revival: British Liberalism and Jo Grimond 1956-67 in 1996 (see above) Related People

Question: Who was MP for Orkney and Shetland from 1950 to 1983 leading his party for over 10 of those years?
Answer: JO GRIMOND