Had Jonathan Calder made reference to people because of their colour, religion, sexual orientation or disability in what he presumably thought were “jokes” in his House Points column in issue 799 there would have been outrage from Liberal Democrats.
The fact that he used the word “Essex” instead of any of the descriptive words which would have been deemed to be offensive does not make his jokes “acceptable”.
Some of us have grown tired of the insulting “Essex jokes”, generally aimed at women, which have no place in civilised society and certainly not in the national newspaper of a political party which professes to deplore discrimination and derogatory comments.
I trust there will be no more offensive and insulting references about Essex and those of us who hail from the county.
Bob Russell MP, Colchester, Essex
Letters 23 April 2004
The blogosphere knows Jonathan Calder only as the author of the interesting Serendib. Most Lib Dems know him as the diarist of Lord Bonkers, and LDYS members remember him fondly as someone who was once incredibly rude about Matthew Platts (Heh. Bit of an in-joke there, sorry). But in print (Liberator's Passports to Liberty No. 5 to be precise) he has written passionately about the quite worrying Big Brother mindset behind much of Labour's child protection strategy.
See this page for reviews of my essay in Liberator’s Passports to Liberty series.
The party's anarchic side survives despite attempts to replace
their sandals with Jimmy Choos. The 14th edition of a song book by
the Liberator ginger group (foreword by Lord Bonkers - presumably a
colleague of Rennard) contains foot tappers such as Losing Deposits,
The Canvasser Cometh, and Song in Praise of Charles Kennedy.
24
September 2003
“I really should have pointed this out before, but Lord Bonkers probably counts as the UK’s first blogging peer? I mean, okay, he doesn't have a blog, he dictates his diary to a journalist, and it is normally found in print, but apart from that, right?”
Mr. Green: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way, since he purported to represent my views. I feel that I should draw his attention to Liberal Democrat News of 30 May 2003. It is a publication that I read sporadically. This edition is particularly interesting because it makes the following thoughtful point:
“Damian Green’s idea of getting rid of tuition fees, and financing the move by scrapping plans to extend the number of students even further, has a lot to be said for it.”
I always welcome support from Liberal Democrat News, and I hope to get it from the Liberal Democrat Front-Bench spokesmen, as well.
Mr. Willis: May I say to the hon. Gentleman that that was a most unfortunate intervention, because I shall now put into my speech a section on his policy? I know that he searches far and wide for policy initiatives, but Liberal Democrat News was one place to which I did not think he would go.
* * * * * *
Mr Boswell. As my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford said, Liberal Democrat News provided a ringing endorsement of our policies in the shape of Jonathan Calder's article, which explained that my hon. Friend’s idea of
“getting rid of tuition fees, and financing the move by scrapping plans to extend the number of students even further, has a lot to be said for it.”
I agree. It is useful to have allies on occasion.
Mrs. Angela Browning (Tiverton and Honiton): Can we have a debate next week on the middle classes? I am sure that the Leader of the House will have noted that in Liberal Democrat News of 30 May, Jonathan Calder, who is a member of the party's federal policy committee, wrote an article about the Conservative policy of scrapping tuition fees. He says that it
“has a lot to be said for it”,
but goes on to say:
"If the Conservatives do not speak for the stupid middle classes, who do they speak for?"
We should like to debate that rather old-fashioned concept with them.
Dr. Reid: That was obviously written for a member of the working class, since we have come to expect the Liberals to say to the working class that the middle class is stupid and to the middle class that the working class is stupid. That is in the nature of Liberal politics. I shall do what I can, however, because I think that we should always try to make opportunities to bring class analysis into these matters.
“Satire at its best.”
“Humour of a high calibre.”
“Funny and enlightening!”
Alan Duncan’s brave, if rather
unnececessary, declaration that he is gay has not gone unnoticed by
Lord Bonkers, below, the (fictional) diarist of Liberator
magazine. Bonkers, who once stood against Bill Rodgers for the
leadership of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords - using the
catchy slogan: “Don’t be plonkers, vote for Bonkers”
– takes a special interest in Duncan’s doings, as the
Tory MP’s constituency is Rutland, an area Bonkers claims to
have represented between 1906 and 1910. “I had my suspicions,”
Bonkers tells me, “as I noticed that he always took a box at
the Rutland National Ballet. But one of his predecessors kept a harem
of choice dancing boys at a hunting lodge just outside Cropwell
Bishop, and no one thought any the worse of him.”
Independent
on Sunday, Sunday 4 August 2002
“The UK’s most outspoken fictional member of parliament.”
The contest to elect the next Liberal Democrat leader in the House of Lords could prove more interesting than expected. Many, including that venerable sage Anthony Howard, assumed that Shirley Williams was bound to succeed Bill Rodgers in the post. However, far from the job being in the bag for Baroness Williams, I hear that the hot money is on her opponent, Tom McNally. “There’s going to be a hustings for the first time,” a senior Lib Dem source tells me. “A lot of the new entrants in the Lords say they will vote for Tom, and so will quite a few of her former SDP colleagues, although lots of the women will vote for Shirley.” McNally may not strike such a chord as Williams, whose mildly chaotic appearance and obvious sincerity have long earned her a fond place in the public’s heart, but he’s an operator with a long track record. An adviser to Jim Callaghan when he was Prime Minister, McNally is also of a different, younger generation. “The feeling is that he is more in tune with leading an opposition party in the Lords,” I’m told. “And there is a question mark over Shirley’s commitment to the post.” Remember, you read it here first.
At least in this contest there is no sign of
Lord Bonkers, the fictional diarist of the radical periodical
Liberator. When Bill Rodgers was making up his mind whether
to run for Lib Dem leader in the Lords in 1997, he faced strong
opposition from Bonkers supporters. At that year's party conference,
they were to be seen sporting badges with the catchy slogan “Don’t
be plonkers, vote for Bonkers.”
Independent,
23 October 2001
The reference yesterday to Lord Bonkers,
fictional diarist of the Liberator magazine and sometime contender
for the post of leader of the Liberal Democrat peers, prods the noble
lord into action. “Bonkers here,” he booms down the
phone, explaining that while many people have asked him to stand
against Shirley Williams and Tom McNally for the peers’
leadership he has decided against it. “Politics is a long
game,” he says, “and it’s important not to peak too
soon.” Lord Bonkers then tells me why both candidates are
top-hole. “Shirley Williams is a very popular politician. In
fact she must be the most popular politician to be defeated in three
consecutive general elections. And Tom McNally used to be Jim
Callaghan's adviser. When you remember what happened to his
government you realise what good advice it must have been.”
Thank you, Lord Bonkers, and goodbye.
Independent,
24 October 2001
BONKERS, 38th Lord cr 1067 (Rutland); Grand Cross of Rutland (with oak leaves), OM, PC, MC. Ambassador of Rutland to Court of St James's, Liberal Democrat Spokesman on Outer Space in Lords. b St Pancras Day 18--. Son of 37th Lord Bonkers. Educ. Uppingham and University of Rutland at Belvoir; honorary degrees from Oxford, Luton, Cambridge, Smarkand, Harvard, St Petersburg, Sorbonne, etc. etc. Married. First Lady Bonkers (Harlequins and England) 1905. Heir. Viscount Barking. Career. Statesman, Soldier, Diplomat, Philosopher, Traveller, Industrialist, Author, Philanthropist and All Round Good Egg. Party history. Chairman, Rutland Young Liberals 1892-1905; MP Rutland South-West 1906-10; Local Councillor (Bonkers Hall Ward) 1910- ; Liberal and Liberal Democrat Spokesman in Lords on innumerable subjects 1910- ; Unsuccessfully contested Liberal Democrat leadership in Lords 1997. Recreations. Cricket, reading Liberator, firing ink pellets at Lord Steel of Aikwood. Special interests. THIS SECTION HAS BEEN DELETED ON LEGAL ADVICE. Publications. Memoirs (95 volumes from 1902), Thoughts on Free Trade (1906), The Glory of the British Constitution (1910), The Case for Electoral Reform (1911), An End to War (1914), The Coming Propserity (1929), Edward the Great: Our New King (1936), An End to War - second edition (1939), The Death of Socialism (1944), The Death of Conservatism (1950), Jo Grimond: Our Next Prime Minister (1963), Jeremy Thorpe: Our Next Prime Minister (1969), David Steel (1982), Paddy Ashplant: Our Next Prime Minister (1996), Charles Kennedy: Our Next Prime Minister (2001). Clubs. MCC, National Liberal, Reform, Rutland County Cricket, Harpo’s, Mashie-Niblick. Address. Bonkers Hall, Rutland. Tel. Rutland 7
The Liberal Democrat party agonised at its annual conference in Eastbourne last week over whether it wanted to pursue power through constructive partnership with Labour, or retain its traditional role as the awkward, ideolgically pure conscience of centre-left opposition. Its health team seemed to suggest it could do both.
On the one hand, health team leader Simon Hughes was consensual and diplomatic, inviting Labour to join a “coalition to secure the future of the NHS”. On the other, his deputy, Evan Harris, scorned Labour’s health policy as “New Labour, New Tories”. Both revieved rapturous receptions.
The effect was not unlike the analysis of
Lib Dem-Labour relations as told to The Guardian by conference
“character”, the self-styled Lord Bonkers: “By all
means we talk with the new (Labour) party where we agree with it:
where we do not, let us continue to indulge in acts of random
violence.”
Health Service Journal, 2 October 1997
Lord Bonkers, a crusty Edwardian peer and MP for Rutland from
1906-10, emerged as the star of the first day, after launching his
campaign to become Liberal Democrat leader in the Lords. Bonkers, a
spoof character created by Liberal firebrand Jonathan Calder, was
winning great support among delegates, including some of the
fresh-faced newly elected MPs who sported “I’m Backing
Bonkers” badges. If only they realised Bonkers campaign is a
mischevious attempt to embarrass the party leadership on the thorny
question of who replaces Lord Jenkins as the party’s top peer.
Jenkins, a founder member of the SDP, “emerged” as Lib
Dem leader in the Lords in what MPs described as a “papal
election”. “Jenkins seems determined that he should be
succeeded by another SDP-ite, and that almost certainly means (Lord)
Bill Rodgers,” said one leftwinger.
Financial Times, 23
September 1997
The liveliest contest has already begun. Lord Jenkins
faces a challenge as Lib Dem Leader in the Upper House from one Lord
Bonkers who claims to be the last survivor of the 1906 landslide.
Bedecked in splendid nylon handlebar moustache, painted eyebrows and
ear trumpet, Bonkers, aka activist Jonathan Calder, says his rival is
"getting on a bit" and should make way for a younger man.
Under the slogan “Don’t be Plonkers, Vote for Bonkers,”
he is offering his own services – compete with a manifesto
pledge to invert the Millennum Dome “and use the resultant bowl
to house the world’s largest ever trifle”.
22
September 1997
By popular demand, another extract from the manifesto
of Lord Bonkers, the Lib Dem “character” seeking to
challenge Roy Jenkins for the party's leadership in the Lords. “A
lot of people ask me if I believe in Europe,” writes the
verteran peer. “Believe in it? I’ve been there.”
23
September 1997
A final word from Lord Bonkers, the self-styled
centenarian anxious to stop Lord Rodgers replacing Roy Jenkins as Lib
Dem leader in the Upper House. Complete with blue blazer, walrus
moustache and ear-trumpet, my friend has made quite a splash at
Eastbourne. Asked about co-operation with Labour, Bonkers is
succinct. “By all means let us talk with the New Party where we
agree with it; where we do not let us continue to indulge in acts of
random violence.”
24 September 1997
Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank has fought many heroic battles in his time. But these pale into insignificance compared with his forthcoming attempt to succeed Lord Jenkins as leader of the Liberal Democrat peers in the House of Lords. Rodgers is being fiercely challenged – by Lord Bonkers.
Lord B is the – fictional – diarist for Liberator, the radical Liberal periodical. Bonkers believes that when Jenkins steps down at the start of the new parliamentary session there should be a proper contest. And – like many of the party’s diehard beard-and-sandal brigade – he objects to Rodgers's past membership of Labour and the SDP.
“I fear the pure milk of Liberalism is in danger of being watered down,” declares Bonkers in his manifest, which is being distributed at the party's Eastbourne conference.
An Old Liberal whispers: “We need a proper Liberal to lead the party in the Lords. We’re trying to persuade William Wallace to stand, but unless he does Lord Bonkers will carry the banner for Liberalism.”
Rodgers is stoical about the challenge. “I haven’t read the Bonkers manifesto,” he tells me magisterially. “I haven’t said I'm going to stand, but many of my colleagues are urging me to do so.”
Hundreds of conference-going Lib Dems are now wearing badges proclaiming their new campaign slogan: “Don’t be plonkers, Vote for Bonkers.”
The Londoner thought that had always been their
battle-cry.
Evening Standard, 24 September 1997