Michael Meadowcroft
Encyclopedia
Michael James Meadowcroft (born 6 March 1942) is a politician and political affairs consultant in the United Kingdom
.
He was a Liberal
Member of Parliament
for Leeds West
from 1983 to 1987, and founder of the "continuing" Liberal Party
in 1989 following the party's merger with the Social Democratic Party
to form the Social & Liberal Democrats. He has been a member of the Liberal Democrats since September 2007.
and was educated at King George V Grammar School. In 1958, he left school to work as a bank clerk, and joined the Liberal Party. He became Chairman of the Merseyside
Region of the National League of Young Liberals in 1961.
. In 1968, he was elected to Leeds City Council
, on which he served until 1983. He also served on West Yorkshire
County Council
in 1973–76 and 1981–83.
In 1970, he was appointed assistant secretary of the Joseph Rowntree Social Services Trust. In this role, he had contact with Africa
n liberation movements, and travelled several times to central and southern Africa. He attended the University of Bradford
beginning 1975, and was awarded an MPhil in 1978 for a thesis on the political history of Leeds from 1903–26.
's flirtation with Thatcherism
for his voters' disaffection with the SDP-Liberal Alliance
.
He served as general secretary of the Bradford Metropolitan Council for Voluntary Service until 1983, and as chairman of the Liberal Assembly
Committee from 1976–81.
In 1986 he with two other MPs Archie Kirkwood MP and Simon Hughes
MP and the NLYL and other parts of the party produced the booklet Across the Divide Liberal Values on Defence and Disarmament This was the rally call that defeated the party leadership in the debate over the issue of an independent nuclear deterrent.
He was the party's President-elect in 1987, but the merger prevented him taking office.
Meadowcroft wrote extensively on Liberal philosophy from his base in community politics, and became a critic of the party's leadership, whom some accused of seeing radical liberalism as an electoral liability.
He was profoundly suspicious of the proposed alliance with the Social Democratic Party in 1981, writing a sceptical pamphlet, "Social Democracy – Barrier or Bridge?", for the radical magazine Liberator
.
He was elected to the Liberal/SDP merger negotiating team, but was among the Liberal negotiators who walked out in January 1988 over what they were convinced were the deal's unacceptable terms. At the Blackpool special assembly later that month, he led the campaign opposing the merger. He briefly stayed on to help Alan Beith
's unsuccessful campaign to become leader of the merged party.
. The political and financial difficulties of the Social and Liberal Democrats led many to believe that the Liberal Party had good prospects. But his party needed parliamentary defections in order to attract wider support, and these did not materialise. The SLD's adoption of the name "Liberal Democrats" in autumn 1989 encouraged most Liberals to remain in the party rather than leaving to join Meadowcroft's party. Since then, it has held a few dozen council seats consistently, and fought enough general election seats to secure broadcasting time, but has only very rarely won enough votes to qualify for a refund of the candidate's deposit. Its annual assembly seldom exceeds a hundred attendees.
Meadowcroft ceased to be President of the independent Liberal Party in 2002, and was succeeded by Councillor Mike Oborski. Spending most of his time abroad, he had been able to spend less and less time involved in running the party. He fought Leeds West for the Liberal Party in 1992, being narrowly beaten into fourth place by the Liberal Democrats, but has contested no subsequent elections. On 5 October 2007, it was announced that he had joined the Liberal Democrats.
He married Elizabeth Bee in 1987, and has a son, Andrew, and a daughter, Ruth, from his dissolved first marriage.
in 1989, and became Chairman of the Electoral Reform Society
. This coincided with the fall of the Iron Curtain
and sudden demand for expertise in political campaigning and election organising in eastern Europe and the Third World
. He set up ERS's international consultancy and has since been on forty-eight missions to thirty-five countries, assisting the transition to democracy, including Bosnia, Bulgaria
, Cambodia
, Congo
, Malawi
, the Palestinian territories
and Russia
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
He was a Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Leeds West
Leeds West (UK Parliament constituency)
Leeds West is a borough constituency in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire which is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
from 1983 to 1987, and founder of the "continuing" Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK, 1989)
The Liberal Party is a United Kingdom political party. It was formed in 1989 by a group of individuals within the original Liberal Party who felt that the merger of the party with the Social Democratic Party, to form the Liberal Democrats, had ended the spirit of the Liberal Party, claiming that...
in 1989 following the party's merger with the Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party (UK)
The Social Democratic Party was a political party in the United Kingdom that was created on 26 March 1981 and existed until 1988. It was founded by four senior Labour Party 'moderates', dubbed the 'Gang of Four': Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams...
to form the Social & Liberal Democrats. He has been a member of the Liberal Democrats since September 2007.
Early life
Meadowcroft grew up in SouthportSouthport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...
and was educated at King George V Grammar School. In 1958, he left school to work as a bank clerk, and joined the Liberal Party. He became Chairman of the Merseyside
Merseyside
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...
Region of the National League of Young Liberals in 1961.
Joining Liberal Party
Meadowcroft joined the Liberal Party’s full-time staff in 1962 as a local government officer. In August 1967, he became the party’s full-time regional officer in YorkshireYorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
. In 1968, he was elected to Leeds City Council
Leeds City Council
Leeds City Council is the local authority for the City of Leeds metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England.-History:The city council was established in 1974, with the first elections being held in advance in 1973...
, on which he served until 1983. He also served on West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....
County Council
County council
A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries.-United Kingdom:...
in 1973–76 and 1981–83.
In 1970, he was appointed assistant secretary of the Joseph Rowntree Social Services Trust. In this role, he had contact with Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n liberation movements, and travelled several times to central and southern Africa. He attended the University of Bradford
University of Bradford
The University of Bradford is a British university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The University received its Royal Charter in 1966, making it the 40th University to be created in Britain, but its origins date back to the early 1800s...
beginning 1975, and was awarded an MPhil in 1978 for a thesis on the political history of Leeds from 1903–26.
Member of Parliament
Meadowcroft had fought Leeds West in both 1974 general elections, but stood down in 1979. He was readopted for 1983 and won the seat. He served as health spokesman for the Liberal Party in Parliament, and was a whip. He lost his seat in 1987, and later publicly blamed SDP leader David OwenDavid Owen
David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen CH PC FRCP is a British politician.Owen served as British Foreign Secretary from 1977 to 1979, the youngest person in over forty years to hold the post; he co-authored the failed Vance-Owen and Owen-Stoltenberg peace plans offered during the Bosnian War...
's flirtation with Thatcherism
Thatcherism
Thatcherism describes the conviction politics, economic and social policy, and political style of the British Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990...
for his voters' disaffection with the SDP-Liberal Alliance
SDP-Liberal Alliance
The SDP–Liberal Alliance was an electoral pact formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party in the United Kingdom which was in existence from 1981 to 1988, when the bulk of the two parties merged to form the Social and Liberal Democrats, later referred to as simply the Liberal...
.
He served as general secretary of the Bradford Metropolitan Council for Voluntary Service until 1983, and as chairman of the Liberal Assembly
Liberal Assembly
The Liberal Assembly was the annual party conference of the British Liberal Party before its merger with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats; the name is still used by the continuity Liberal Party created as its replacement...
Committee from 1976–81.
In 1986 he with two other MPs Archie Kirkwood MP and Simon Hughes
Simon Hughes
Simon Henry Ward Hughes is a British politician and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats. He is Member of Parliament for the constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark. Until 2008 he was President of the Liberal Democrats...
MP and the NLYL and other parts of the party produced the booklet Across the Divide Liberal Values on Defence and Disarmament This was the rally call that defeated the party leadership in the debate over the issue of an independent nuclear deterrent.
He was the party's President-elect in 1987, but the merger prevented him taking office.
Meadowcroft wrote extensively on Liberal philosophy from his base in community politics, and became a critic of the party's leadership, whom some accused of seeing radical liberalism as an electoral liability.
He was profoundly suspicious of the proposed alliance with the Social Democratic Party in 1981, writing a sceptical pamphlet, "Social Democracy – Barrier or Bridge?", for the radical magazine Liberator
Liberator (magazine)
Liberator is a radical liberal United Kingdom magazine associated with but not officially connected to the Liberal Democrats. Founded in 1970 as the magazine of the then Young Liberals, it has often published articles critical of the party leadership, in particular over the Liberal Party's debacle...
.
He was elected to the Liberal/SDP merger negotiating team, but was among the Liberal negotiators who walked out in January 1988 over what they were convinced were the deal's unacceptable terms. At the Blackpool special assembly later that month, he led the campaign opposing the merger. He briefly stayed on to help Alan Beith
Alan Beith
Sir Alan James Beith is a British Liberal Democrat politician and Member of Parliament for Berwick-upon-Tweed.-Early life:Alan Beith was born in 1943 in Poynton, in Cheshire...
's unsuccessful campaign to become leader of the merged party.
Leader of re-founding of Liberal Party, 1989
In the early spring of 1989, Meadowcroft announced the refounding of the Liberal PartyLiberal Party (UK, 1989)
The Liberal Party is a United Kingdom political party. It was formed in 1989 by a group of individuals within the original Liberal Party who felt that the merger of the party with the Social Democratic Party, to form the Liberal Democrats, had ended the spirit of the Liberal Party, claiming that...
. The political and financial difficulties of the Social and Liberal Democrats led many to believe that the Liberal Party had good prospects. But his party needed parliamentary defections in order to attract wider support, and these did not materialise. The SLD's adoption of the name "Liberal Democrats" in autumn 1989 encouraged most Liberals to remain in the party rather than leaving to join Meadowcroft's party. Since then, it has held a few dozen council seats consistently, and fought enough general election seats to secure broadcasting time, but has only very rarely won enough votes to qualify for a refund of the candidate's deposit. Its annual assembly seldom exceeds a hundred attendees.
Meadowcroft ceased to be President of the independent Liberal Party in 2002, and was succeeded by Councillor Mike Oborski. Spending most of his time abroad, he had been able to spend less and less time involved in running the party. He fought Leeds West for the Liberal Party in 1992, being narrowly beaten into fourth place by the Liberal Democrats, but has contested no subsequent elections. On 5 October 2007, it was announced that he had joined the Liberal Democrats.
Personal life
He is a traditional jazz clarinettist and saxophonist, and for some years led his own "Granny Lee’s All-Stars" troupe. He has also been a director of the Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House.He married Elizabeth Bee in 1987, and has a son, Andrew, and a daughter, Ruth, from his dissolved first marriage.
Consulting career
Meadowcroft was appointed a senior visiting fellow of the Policy Studies InstitutePolicy Studies Institute
The Policy Studies Institute is a British think-tank. It was formed in 1978 through the merger of the former Centre for the Study of Social Policy and Political and Economic Planning. Since 1998 it has been an independent subsidiary of the University of Westminster...
in 1989, and became Chairman of the Electoral Reform Society
Electoral Reform Society
The Electoral Reform Society is a political pressure group based in the United Kingdom which promotes electoral reform. It is believed to be the oldest organisation concerned with electoral systems in the world.-Aims:...
. This coincided with the fall of the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
and sudden demand for expertise in political campaigning and election organising in eastern Europe and the Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
. He set up ERS's international consultancy and has since been on forty-eight missions to thirty-five countries, assisting the transition to democracy, including Bosnia, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
, Malawi
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...
, the Palestinian territories
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
Publications
- "Success in Local Government" (1971)
- "Liberals and a Popular Front" (1974)
- "Bluffer’s Guide to Politics" (1976)
- "Liberal Values for a New Decade" (1980)
- "Social Democracy – Barrier or Bridge?" (1981)
- "Liberalism and the Left" (1982)
- "Liberalism and the Right" (1983)
- "Liberalism Today and Tomorrow" (1989)
- "The Case for the Liberal Party" (1992)
- "Focus on Freedom" (1997)
External links
- Michael Meadowcroft's personal website
- Catalogue of the Meadowcroft papers at the Archives Division of the London School of EconomicsLondon School of EconomicsThe London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
.