Richard Body

Richard Body
Member of Parliament for Boston and Skegness Holland with Boston (1966-1997)
In office 31 March 1966 – 7 June 2001
Preceded by	Herbert Butcher
Succeeded by	Mark Simmonds
Member of Parliament for Billericay
In office 26 May 1955 – 8 October 1959
Preceded by	Bernard Braine
Succeeded by	Edward Gardner
Personal details
Born	18 May 1927 (1927-05-18) (age 84) Berkshire
Nationality	British
Political party	UK Independence Party
Other political affiliations	Conservative
Religion	Quaker

Sir Richard Bernard Frank Stewart Body (born 18 May 1927) is an English politician, and was Conservative Member of Parliament for Billericay from 1955 to 1959, for Holland with Boston from 1966 to 1997, and for Boston and Skegness from 1997 until he stood down at the 2001 general election. He was a long-standing member of the Conservative Monday Club and came second in its 1972 election for chairman. He also served as President of the Anti-Common Market League.^[1]

Berkshire-born, Body was an early supporter of environmental causes within the Conservative Party. Coming from an agricultural background, he was highly critical of many aspects associated with the heavily subsidised agriculture associated with the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Economic Community (EEC). In 1983 he wrote Agriculture the Triumph and the Shame, a book exposing the folly of the CAP, followed by Farming in the Clouds in 1984. Also critical over the use of pesticides in agriculture he led an inquiry on the issue in 1986-87. The enquiry produced a draft report which contained 45 recommendations, mostly influenced by his support for organic farming and use of such methods on his own farms. The report was ignored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, who made no response and did not attempt to alter their own favoured methods as a result.

Generally regarded as located on the Old Right of the Conservative Party, Body found himself in disagreement with the Thatcher government and those influenced by it, who had come to dominate the parliamentary Conservative Party by the late 1990s. He made such views clear in March 2001, shortly before he retired as an MP, writing in the parliamentary magazine The House that the rural and specifically the agricultural communities of Britain were the victims of major changes to the culture at Westminster in his time in the Commons, as the number of Tory MPs from landowning backgrounds had declined and the number of self-made men from the suburbs on the Tory benches had increased.

In his later years as an MP Body clearly distanced himself from an ever more economic rationalist and internationalist Tory party by associating himself with a number of environmentalist groups who disapproved of large national or free-trade groupings and supported smaller, more "natural" and "organic" communities. He has been associated with such long-standing figures of the green movement such as Teddy Goldsmith, John Seymour, and John Papworth. Unlike the vast majority of Conservative MPs, Body voted in favour of legalising gay sex at 16, and also supported the legalisation of cannabis. Body was for a time a member of the UK Independence Party but has now joined the English Democrats.^[2] He has called for an English Parliament in his book published in April 2001 entitled England For The English.

Body's fervent Euroscepticism led to him being numbered amongst the rebellious "bastards" condemned by John Major in 1993.^[3] His actions regarding Europe eventually led to his resigning the Tory whip for a temporary period.

In November 1999 Sir Richard Body put forward an Early Day Motion in support of the writer Robert Henderson, who believed that his mail and telephone line had been interfered with by the security services after he had written allegedly threatening letters to Tony Blair, his wife Cherie, and various Labour MPs. This followed an article by Henderson in Wisden Cricket Monthly in 1995 entitled "Is it in the blood?" which suggested that only "unequivocal Englishmen" should play cricket for England and was widely considered racist. Body's Motion not only defended Henderson and accused Blair of interfering with Henderson's activities, but referred to "publicly reported incidents of racism within the Labour Party". This may have been an allusion to some controversial remarks about "blue-eyed, blonde Finnish nurses" made by the black Labour MP Diane Abbott, who had earlier accused Henderson of racism.

He is a vice-president of the Society for Individual Freedom.

His written works on eurosceptic themes include A Europe of Many Circles and The Breakdown of Europe (which purposefully echoed Leopold Kohr's book The Breakdown of Nations).

References

1. ^ Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations, 2002, p. 129
2. ^ http://www.totalpolitics.com/history/149237/where-are-they-now-sir-richard-body.thtml
3. ^ Wynn Davies, Patricia (12 November 1993). "Decision day for popular rebel on Major's 'barmy' list:". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/decision-day-for-popular-rebel-on-majors-barmy-list-patricia-wynn-davies-reports-on-the-fate-of-sir-richard-body-1503654.html. Retrieved 24 November 2009. 

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Richard Body

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Bernard Braine	Member of Parliament for Billericay 1955–1959	Succeeded by Edward Gardner
Preceded by Herbert Butcher	Member of Parliament for Holland with Boston 1966–1997	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Boston and Skegness 1997–2001	Succeeded by Mark Simmonds

Persondata
Name	Body, Richard
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	18 May 1927
Place of birth	Berkshire
Date of death
Place of death