The One Nation Society

The One Nation Society seeks six suitably distinguished persons as Guardians, regardless of present party affiliation (if any). Each will set five policy priorities while remaining independent. Against those 30 priorities, parliamentary candidates will be rated, and those ratings made public in the run-up to each General Election. Eventually, the Society also hopes to meet candidates’ election expenses in accordance with their ratings.

The Guardians will be of six specific traditions.

First, the tradition of the trade unionists and Labour activists who in the early twentieth century peremptorily dismissed an attempt to make the Labour Party anti-monarchist.

Secondly, the tradition of the Attlee Government’s refusal to join the European Coal and Steel Community on the grounds that it was “the blueprint for a federal state”. Of Gaitskell’s rejection of European federalism as “the end of a thousand years of history” and liable to destroy the Commonwealth. Of the 66 Labour MPs who voted against Maastricht. And of Labour MPs’ eighteen unanimous annual votes against the Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies.

Thirdly, the tradition of Bevan’s ridicule of the first parliamentary Welsh Day on the grounds that “Welsh coal is the same as English coal and Welsh sheep are the same as English sheep”. Of those Labour MPs who in the 1970s successfully opposed Scottish and Welsh devolution not least because of its ruinous effects on the North of England. And of those Labour activists in the Scottish Highlands, Islands and Borders, and in North, Mid and West Wales, who accurately predicted that their areas would be balefully neglected under devolution.

Fourthly, the tradition of the Parliamentary Labour Party that voted against the partition of the United Kingdom. Of the Attlee Government’s first ever acceptance of the principle of consent with regard to the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. Of the Wilson Government’s deployment of British troops to protect Northern Ireland’s grateful Catholics precisely as British subjects. And of the Callaghan Government’s administration of Northern Ireland exactly as if it were any other part of the United Kingdom.

Fifthly, the tradition of the Labour MPs who fought tooth and nail against deregulated drinking and gambling. And of those who successfully organised against Thatcher’s and Major’s attempts to destroy the special character of Sunday and of Christmas Day.

And sixthly, the tradition of Attlee’s successful dissuasion of Truman from dropping an atom bomb on Korea. Of Wilson’s refusal to send British forces to Vietnam, but use of military force to safeguard the right of the people of Anguilla to be British. And of Callaghan’s successful prevention of an Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands.

So, Old Labour monarchism, Old Labour Euroscepticism, Old Labour Unionism in relation to Scotland and Wales (and England), Old Labour Unionism in relation to Northern Ireland, Old Labour moral and social conservatism, and Old Labour patriotism and foreign policy realism. In those traditions’ heartlands, turnout in 2005 was sometimes as low as one in three.

For reasons of cost, the Society will communicate only by email, initially davidaslindsay@hotmail.com