Politics Of Influence Ils 48 by Graham Wootton

Author:Graham Wootton [Wootton, Graham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781136233203
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2013-09-05T00:00:00+00:00

All-Party Groups

(a) Probably the first of these was the committee of all ‘Service’ Members of the House of Commons set up early in the life of the 1918 Parliament.2 While it would not be surprising to find that some of its members had served on the Unionist War Committee, which had had both service and non-service members,3 its immediate origin obviously lay in the influx of ex-service members from Lloyd George’s ‘khaki’ election. This was reflected in the composition of the Executive Committee. The chairman was Lt.-Col. Martin Archer-Lee (Unionist), who had been elected to Parliament in 1910, but almost all the other members of the Committee, including the secretary, Major Ralph Glyn, had come in on the 1918 wave.4

(b) From such a committee to a branch of the Legion is no great step, for all the formal difference in status. Some members took it in 1922, when the branch was founded as part of the N.E.C’s membership campaign.5 The branch survived until March 1955, when it reverted to a ‘Legion Parliamentary Group’, thus turning the wheel three-quarters circle. In the years between, the Legion had an official (if yet to Mr. Speaker as such and the Lord Great Chamberlain, a quite unofficial) foothold in the Palace of Westminster.

Of course, the House of Commons Branch of the Legion was ever a branch in a special sense, even more so than many Legionaries realized. It was not exactly ‘a Legion “Branch” in title only’:6 it was a ‘house’ branch (i.e., based on the place of work), a kind sufficiently common to provoke complaint at the 1922 Conference,7 and it embraced not only M.P.s but also the professional staff of the Commons.8 It was allocated to the Metropolitan Area for administrative purposes and its members paid affiliation fees—when the appropriate official succeeded in extracting the money from them. Some members paid regularly and willingly; others showed reluctance and took successful evasive action, claiming, no doubt correctly, that they had already paid ‘at home’ (Le. in their own ‘territorial’ branch or branches). But certainly it was no ordinary branch.

As with the Legion itself, Earl Haig, coaxed ‘upstairs’ by Major Brunei Cohen, undertook the launching ceremony.1 He persuaded those present that a Legion branch in the House would be an ‘immense advantage’ and a ‘great moral encouragement to the various branches in the country’.2 A branch was formed on the spot and officers appointed, and it was soon claimed that ‘a large number of members and officials’ had joined its ranks.3 Certainly by the autumn the membership had grown to ninety-nine, which was reduced to seventy-six by the ‘Carlton Club’ election. The losses, however, were soon made good. At a general meeting on 5th December 1922, Brunei Cohen (the real driving force) became chairman, with another Legion N.E.C. member—Douglas Pielou— as secretary. The treasureship went to Labour: J. J. Lawson, destined to become a Privy Councillor and a peer of the realm. The large executive committee included officials of the House as well as members.

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