P for Politics

Four hectic years, three failed marriages, one lost job.

Towards the end of L for Liberal I left open the questions of how four Liberals with the balance of power on a large county council would cope with the pressure, how my own possible political career would develop and how it would all impact on my personal life. In this piece I will attempt to answer those questions.

At that time in England, county councils had responsibility for Education, Social Services (which included services for the very young, the very old and individuals with physical or mental impairment), they also had oversight of the police and fire services, major roads, weights and measures, libraries and leisure services, and economic development. In our case, the latter included management of a small regional airport. Housing, local planning, local roads, refuse collection and local leisure services were overseen by district councils of which there were nine in the county.

The county spanned 3,500 square kilometres and held a population of around 850,000 of which more than a quarter lived in the city of Kingston-upon-Hull.

The political administration was delegated to eight committees each responsible for a service department. That meant that each of us four would need to take a place on two committees.

The other three members were John, the youngest, Tim, and Phil, the eldest. Only John had any previous political experience, as a member of Hull City Council. We therefore agreed that he would be our leader. The rest of us had much more knowledge and understanding of the world of commerce. Phil was a professional glass blower with a contract to produce glass vessels for use in the laboratories of an oil refinery. Tim was a commercial vehicle salesman and I had, by then, over two decades of experience working on, and latterly, managing engineering projects in a variety of industrial settings.

I volunteered to take on responsibility for education and economic development. John had negotiated with the two other party leaders an agreement under which the chairs of committees, who traditionally would have been the political voice of their service, would instead share that role with the spokesmen from each of the other parties. No decision could be taken without the support of at least one other spokesman.

On the face of it the work load associated with this level of responsibility was manageable. The full council met only four times a year. Before each of those meetings the service committees would also meet. One meeting per month, even if each lasted a full day, did not add up to a lot of time off from work. Fortunately my employer had a policy of allowing time off for public duties which could accommodate this. Of course, there would also be a lot of reading and research to do in my own time in order to prepare for the meetings.

It quickly became obvious that this was merely the tip of an iceberg of subsidiary activities. Education, for example, was split between schools (primary and secondary) and 'post-compulsory' which included sixth forms, further and higher education, and adult education. Each had its own sub-committee which added another two days of meetings to the quarterly cycle. The airport management committee likewise met additionally to the full Economic Development committee.

And then there were district consultative committees – I was expected to attend any of these that served the part of the county south of the Humber estuary. There were appointment panels, disciplinary hearings, school governors' meetings and the discretionary grants panel described under E for Education. In addition it was incumbent upon a councillor who took his or her responsibilities seriously to visit council facilities in their area, including police and fire stations, council run old peoples' homes and children's homes as well as schools.

The Education Committee sent political representative to two annual conferences, the national and the northern regional, each lasting two or three days and an important opportunity to keep abreast of government thinking as well as networking with party members serving in other councils.

Soon I was spending more time away from my desk than behind it. My employer tolerated this situation for over a year. In October of 1986 I was offered a severance package that was too good to turn down. It included a pension enhancement that I am still benefitting from.

I was now, at 45, free to pursue politics full time. The local party was already gearing up for the district council election in May of 1987 and the probability that it would be followed by a Parliamentary election. A candidate had been selected and agreed to work full time on promoting the party and its policies and I joined him as unpaid agent and P.A. (See O for Outing).

By the time those elections were over it was obvious that I could not maintain the standard of living I was used to on council allowances. I needed another source of income. Writing was attractive but very unsecure. My wife had retail experience and we had a substantial lump sum from my severance package. We decided to invest in a shop. Our attempt to run a successful retail business is another story however.

The procedure for becoming a Liberal Party candidate for Parliament had two stages. The first was to obtain approval from a regional panel of experienced representatives. Once past that hurdle it was necessary to apply to constituencies seeking prospective candidates. This entailed not only another interview before a selection panel but a series of 'hustings' at which you presented your vision to a full meeting of the constituency members. I attended several such meetings without success.

Meanwhile, following the disappointing result of the 1987 Parliamentary election the two parties each agreed to merge, forming what came to be known as the Liberal Democrats. Within the membership of each party there was sufficient opposition to this move that a rump of each remained active and stood candidates in subsequent by-elections. Support for the Liberal Democrats hit rock bottom, as did their finances. In the county council election of May 1989 I lost my seat and concluded that my political career was over. I urgently needed to find a 'proper' job.

Only one of the four Liberals elected in 1985 retained his seat. Of those original four only I was still married to the same person. The legacy of that four years therefore included three broken marriages and at least one lost job. John moved to London and became a councillor in Camden where he served for many years. So far as I know, Phil returned to full time glass blowing. I am not sure what happened to Tim as a Liberal councillor under a Labour majority. The council ceased to exist in 1996 when it was superseded by four unitary authorities, each taking on the responsibilities previously exercised by the county and district councils.

But my political career was not quite over. One of my key political interests was the concept and actuality of European Union. As an approved parliamentary candidate I was eligible to put my name forward for election to the European Parliament. Some time in 1988, in the absence of any other interested individuals, I was chosen as the dummy whose name would appear for the Liberal Democrats on the ballot for MEP for the Humberside constituency.

Having lost my county council seat, I offered to stand down. That offer was rejected as there was no time to find a replacement. To take part required a £1,000 deposit. Nine other people each agreed to guarantee £100 of the deposit on the assumption it would not be needed.

No significant campaigning was expected or took place. I remember a couple of public meetings alongside one or two of the other candidates, and a discussion forum on local radio. The only literature was a reminder included in the newsletters of those Liberal and SDP councillors who produced them that June. With both Liberal and SDP candidates on the ballot, as well as Green, it was inevitable that the Liberal Democrat would come nowhere near a majority. I failed to reach the necessary threshold and lost my £100. I'm not sure how many of the other guarantors coughed up. I suspect that the agent took a much bigger hit than I. You could call it my political swan song, except that I still had two years to serve as a district councillor, a task that involved only evening meetings.