Federation of Conservative Students

The Federation of Conservative Students (FCS) was the student organisation of the British Conservative Party from the late 1940s to 1986. It was created to act as a bridge between the student movement and the Conservative Party.

In its final years it became known colloquially as "Maggie's Militant tendency",^[1] this being a reference to then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher and to a divisive group within the Labour Party. It was disbanded by Party Chairman Norman Tebbit in 1986 and replaced by the Conservative Collegiate Forum.^{[citation needed]}

History

The organisation was created in the late 1940s to act as a bridge between the student movement and the Conservative Party, It was initially named the Federation of University Conservative and Unionists Associations (FUCUA). By the late 1970s the organisation had moved considerably left of the Conservative party.^[2]

Paradigm shift

The policies of Margaret Thatcher had a polarising effect on British politics and the student left moved towards radicalism in their response to them. Many students' unions would pass motions instituting a policy of "No Platform for Racists or Fascists". Starting in the early 1980s, the organisation adopted a more confrontational approach toward the left-leaning National Union of Students. Leaders, most notably from Scotland, started advocating "voluntary students' unions". They organised campaigns aimed at disaffiliating individual students' unions from the NUS to weaken the so-called block vote, and deprive it of taxpayers' money which the NUS used for various causes.^[3] Posters and other publicity material became much more provocative and hard-hitting^[2].

Factionalism

In its last years, the FCS, perhaps reflecting the debate within the Conservative party of the 1980s and the generally fractious nature of student politics, was notably prone to factionalism. The three main factions were:

• An authoritarian faction
• A libertarian, or "sound", faction
• A wet faction

Authoritarians

The authoritarian faction centred around the student Monday Club, and was known for its more traditional British nationalism, an isolationist posture in relation to foreign affairs, opposition to immigration, (as espoused by Enoch Powell), scepticism about liberal economics, and staunch support for the Union.^[4]

Libertarians

The Libertarian faction (the "Libs") was closely linked to the Libertarian Alliance run by Chris Tame,^[5] and the Adam Smith Institute, run by Dr Madsen Pirie.^[2]

The libertarian faction was the largest faction in the FCS in its last few years. Its overall dominance is illustrated by the passage of a libertarian motion in favour of free migration at the Leicester conference, shortly before the demise of the FCS, which was opposed by both the wet and the authoritarian factions.^[6]

Under Glendening, elected Chairman in 1984, the FCS became more controversial than ever as it embraced social libertarianism in addition to the already established endorsement of economic liberalism; issues such as supporting the legalisation of drugs were no longer taboo."^[2]

Many former leaders of the libertarian faction, such as Mark MacGregor, have gone on to hold senior office in the Conservative Party. Other notable members of "the Libs" were: Brian Monteith,^[7] Lloyd Beat,^[8] Marc-Henri Glendening, Marc Gordon, Mark Allatt, Robbie Gibb, Adrian Lee, Steve Nicholson, Douglas Smith^[9][10] David Hoile,^[11] and Harry Phibbs.^[12] John Bercow and Andrew Rosindell were once also members, although they had also been part of the authoritarian faction.^[13]

Wets

The wet faction had controlled the FCS until the 1980s. Most of them were members of the Tory Reform Group (TRG). Despite a relatively high number of supporters and control of some large student bodies, they only really gained influence within the national federation through controversial alliances with the authoritarian faction.

Many of the wet chairmen joined the SDP in 1981.^[2]

In many universities the TRG organised itself as a complementary political society to the main Conservative group. This is a policy that the TRG has maintained since, although the last of these societies, the Oxford TRG Society, merged with Oxford's Conservative Association in 2007.^[14]

Controversy

Political stance

In the 1980s the FCS was noted for being more radical than the main party, more Thatcherite than Thatcher - ministers invited to speak at conferences were routinely chastised for not going far enough.^[2]

In addition to supporting no-holds-barred privatisation, controversial positions embraced included the support for American intervention in Grenada, RENAMO, the UNITA rebels in Angola, and the Contras in Nicaragua.^[12] "Hang Nelson Mandela" slogans^[15] were apparently worn by some leading members.^[11] The Federation made badges with the words "Nicaragua Must be Free". Ironically, some Labour students began wearing them without realising their origin and intended meaning.^[16]

Some delegates to the Loughborough conference wore T-shirts with the slogan "Morning Cloud, remember the Belgrano". In October 1985 they were accused of physically intimidating Edward Heath.^[17]

The satirical magazine Private Eye alleged that members of the FCS at Aberystwyth wore springbok jerseys, racially abused ethnic minority bar staff at the student bar and organised a night out in Aberystwyth town centre to celebrate the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany. Following the latter incident, all members of the FCS were banned from giving speeches or organising meetings at the institute under the students' union's 'No Platform for Racists or Fascists' policy.^[18]

Alleged riot at Loughborough University

There was some damage during the 1985 FCS conference at Loughborough University, leading to press reports of a "riot". The officers elected at that conference were mainly of the libertarian faction who espouse many of the controversial libertarian ideals which have embarrassed the party leadership.^[19] Although it was clear that some damage was done, the so-called riot was vastly exaggerated, the final bill for repairs that the University presented came to under £20, and there would not be enough evidence to close the FCS as the then Party Chairman John Selwyn Gummer wanted. Nevertheless, reports of "riots" in the media, including the Daily Star and the Daily Mirror, motivated Gummer immediately to suspend the FCS's £30,000 annual grant.^[19]

The Daily Telegraph wrote that the "students cleared up the mess after the offending party, and journalists who saw the room the morning after reported a damaged door handle, a missing light bulb and beer stains on the carpet in a corridor to be the only visible signs of damage."^[20] Inspector Patricia Perry of Loughborough Police Station said "there was no physical damage".^{[citation needed]} In a letter to The Times, Professor Peter Havard-Williams of Loughborough University stated "The damage itself was not more than that done by many other conferences and was not excessive."^[21] Mark MacGregor suggested that Gummer's actions were politically motivated: "Unfortunately, many of our supporters will see this as a move against the leaders they have elected. Our supporters are from working-class backgrounds, and the party establishment seems to feel that we don't quite fit in."^[21]

In The Observer, Toby Young wrote: "As nights of mob terror go, last Monday's party at the Federation of Conservative Students' Conference was pretty tame".^[22] Both Young and Sir Alfred Sherman believed that Gummer's actions were motivated by his opposition to the libertarian ideology of some of the FCS' members which closely resembled some of Mrs Thatcher's personal beliefs. Sherman wrote that Gummer's actions were "directed against the Prime Minister".^[23] Tim Hames and Nick Robinson later admitted that the bill presented for damage was less than £20,^[24] and that the media reports were as a result of an "astute spinning operation" by Wet delegates from the University of Oxford, who "directed journalists to students who offered harrowing accounts of the boorish behaviour of libertarian activists." ^[24]

Demise

The FCS was disbanded by Norman Tebbit, who succeeded Gummer as the party chairman. This was for publishing an article, penned by Harry Phibbs (now a Conservative Party councillor in Hammersmith & Fulham), following Nikolai Tolstoy's accusation that former Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was complicit in war crimes for his involvement in the forced repatriation of Cossack prisoners of war to Soviet Russia in the aftermath of World War II.^[25][2]

Past chairmen

• Michael Hooker (194?)^[26]
• Antony Buck (194?)^[27]
• Mark Carlisle (1953)^[28]
• John Magregor 1961
• Kenneth Clarke 1965
• Ian Taylor 1968
• David Davis (1973) ^[29]
• Michael Forsyth (1977?)
• Eddie Longworth (1978)
• Stuart Bayliss (1979)
• Peter Young (1980)^[2]
• Tim Linacre (1981)
• Brian Monteith 1982
• Paul Goodman (1983)^[2]
• Marc-Henri Glendening (1984)^[2]
• Mark MacGregor (1985)
• John Bercow (1986)^[30]

References

1. ^ Happold, Tom (2003-10-08). "Tory youth group accused of take-over plot". The Guardian Unlimited (London). http://education.guardian.co.uk/students/news/story/0,,1058776,00.html. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Phibbs, Harry (2006-10-30). "FCS twenty years on - Harry Phibbs remembers his days in the Federation of Conservative Students". http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001216.php. 
3. ^ "No2NUS". http://www.no2nus.co.uk/index2.html. 
4. ^ "Right Now! A forum for eugenecists". Searchlight magazine,hosted at the [http://www.ferris.edu/ISAR/ Institute for the Study of Academic Racism. July 1998. http://www.ferris.edu/ISAR/archives/genewar/ritenow.htm. 
5. ^ Glendening, Marc (2006-04-05). The Guardian. title=Chris Tame. 
6. ^ "The Federation of Conservative Students - Tory Diary". ConservativeHome. http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/2006/07/the_federation_.html. 
7. ^ Macleod, Angus (2005-07-12). "Tory turmoil as Monteith leaves post". The Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article542916.ece. 
8. ^ "Former Scottish Tory candidate found hanged". Evening News. 2000-08-16. http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/evening-news-edinburgh-scotland/mi_7832/is_2000_August_16/scottish-tory-candidate-hanged/ai_n32823294/. ^{[dead link]}
9. ^ "New Model Tories: Tory tribes". The Independent (London). 2006-09-24. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1639228.ece. 
10. ^ Elliot, John (2003-06-22). "Top Tory aide is king of the urban swingers". The Sunday Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1144426.ece. 
11. ^ ^{a b} Hyde, Marina (2001-09-27). The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/diary/story/0,,558760,00.html title=Diary. 
12. ^ ^{a b} Nadler, Jo-Anne (2004-12-04). "The curse of Tory Boy". The Guardian (London). http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,,1365643,00.html. 
13. ^ The Guardian. 2002-11-04. http://politics.guardian.co.uk/conservatives/story/0,,829851,00.html title=The most expensive MP at Westminster. 
14. ^ Wisnom, Selena (2007-11-28). "OUTRG merges with OUCA". Cherwell. http://cherwell.larrytech.com/index.php?news=1897. Retrieved 2007-12-15. 
15. ^ "Hang Nelson Mandela poster". from The South African Exiles Home Page. http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~springbk/enemy.html. 
16. ^ Jo-Anne Nadler. Too Nice to be a Tory: It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To. Simon & Schuster, 2004. p. 81. 
17. ^ Denham, Andrew; Garnett, Mark (2002). Keith Joseph. Acumen. p. 434. 
18. ^ ^{[Need quotation to verify]}. Private Eye. March 2007. p. 15. 
19. ^ ^{a b} Evans, Timothy (1996). Conservative Radicalism: A Sociology of Conservative Party Youth Structures and Libertarianism 1970-1992. Berghahn Books. p. 36 (footnotes 107 and 108, citing the Daily Telegraph of 4 April 1985). ISBN 1-57181-872-3. 
20. ^ Norman, Margot (1985-04-06). "unknown title". The Daily Telegraph: p. 37. 
21. ^ ^{a b} "Letters to the Editor". The Times. 1985-04-12. 
22. ^ "Letters to the Editor". The Observer. 1985-04-07. 
23. ^ "Letters to the Editor". Sunday Times. 1985-04-14. 
24. ^ ^{a b} Hames, Tim. "A Burst of Freedom". BBC Radio 4. http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/audio/41953000/rm/_41953300_burst.ram. 
25. ^ John Stevens (21 August 1986). "Tories sue student editor over Macmillan war crimes charges". Sydney Morning Herald: p. 9. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yapWAAAAIBAJ&pg=4507,3865568. 
26. ^ Archer, Graeme (2004-02-27). "Michael Hooker". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/28/db2802.xml. 
27. ^ "Sir Antony Buck". The Times (London). 2003-10-11. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1168065.ece. 
28. ^ "Lord Carlisle of Bucklow". The Times (London). 2005-07-20. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article545751.ece. 
29. ^ Pierce, Andrew (2005-06-17). "The backstreet bruiser hoping to knock sense into the Tories". The Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article534245.ece. 
30. ^ Kite, Melissa (2002-11-05). "Frontbencher refused to 'go missing' again". The Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article822283.ece.