Tag Archives: james davidson

A bit of Lib Dem history

Embed from Getty Images

The sad passing of Jim Davidson recently brings back memories, as I write this here in Aboyne in  the heart of his former constituency.

“We can’t have another Welshman as leader of the Liberal Party” said Jo Grimond. When Jo resigned as leader in 1967, there were two contestants to replace him: Emlyn Hooson and Jeremy Thorpe. The electorate was the Parliamentary Party of twelve Liberal MPs. Initially, Hooson had the support of  six of them which, if he voted for himself, would make him the clear winner.

Jo took aside Jim Davidson, the pleasant and talented recently elected Member for Aberdeenshire West, who was a Hooson supporter. Jo’s wife Laura had not forgiven the Welsh wizard, David Lloyd George, for supplanting her grandfather, Herbert Asquith, as Prime Minister in 1916 and splitting the Party.  Another Welshman as Leader was unthinkable. Jim succumbed to Jo’s pressure and with misgivings, as a memoir of Jo and Laura revealed in 2000, promised his vote for Thorpe.

Posted in Liberal History | Also tagged and | 15 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • David Allen
    @Peter, Fair points about PIP - but I'm afraid that your conclusion that the answer is "allowing workers decent wages" won't fly. How exactly could we polit...
  • nigel hunter
    David Raw.I agree with you...
  • nigel hunter
    Rather than 'renovating 'the country, privatisation bled us dry .Bled us our ability to defend ourselves thru our own resources. The wheel has gone full circle ...
  • Jana
    “ I’d call this organisation DRAKE, after the man who understood that protecting British waters…” Drake may have been an English hero but lived long ...
  • Peter Martin
    @ David, I did say "*trying* to eliminate poverty through ever higher benefit payments...." 'Trying' is not the same as succeeding. You make the point th...