Merlyn_Rees_appearing_on_After_Dark Open Media Ltd.derivative work: Begoon, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons Lord Merlyn-Rees who has died at the age of 85 following a long struggle with Parkinson's Disease, was one of the last of the long line of Leeds Labour Members of Parliament who were national figures rather than local politicians. He himself followed Hugh Gaitskell, winning the by-election which was a consequence of Gaitskell's sudden death from a mystery virus, and was a constituency neighbour of Denis Healey for almost thirty years until they both retired from the House of Commons in 1992. Merlyn Rees was a popular parliamentarian, respected by colleagues in all parties. He had a friendly and open personality and was wholly unaffected by high office. For over twenty years he put up with the inevitable and pervasive presence of Special Branch detectives with patience and gratitude. They were the inevitable consequence of his years as Northern Ireland Secretary. Their attendance in Wesley Street, Beeston, where Merlyn Rees maintained a typically modest constituency residence, could never be entirely invisible but his neighbours tended to enjoy the furtive indications of their MP's presence.

Rees was born in Cilfynydd, Taff Vale, South Wales, the son of a miner who moved to Wembley following the 1926 General Strike. Rees studied at the London School of Economics, and then gained a further qualification at Goldsmith's College, but his entry into the teaching profession was interrupted by distinguished war service in the RAF. On demobilisation he went to teach economics and history at Harrow Weald Grammar School, where he himself had earlier studied.

Merlyn Rees' pedigree ensured that he would be active in the Labour party, and he contested Harrow East three times in the 1950s, coming within 2,000 votes of winning the seat at the 1959 by-election. On Hugh Gaitskell's death in 1963 Rees won the ensuing by-election in Leeds South and remained as MP for the area until his retirement in 1992. He then went to the House of Lords taking a title that reflected both his Welsh birthplace and his adoption by Leeds. In 1964, one year after his first election he became Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, James Callaghan, in the first Wilson government. Between 1965 and 1970 he held junior ministerial posts successively at the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office.

In 1972, following election to the Shadow Cabinet, Rees began the close connection with Northern Ireland for which he became best known, first as opposition spokesman and then, after Labour's General Election victory in February 1974, as Secretary of State. He came into office with Bloody Sunday still casting a dark shadow over the province. It was an impossible task, both from a political perspective and also from a personal point of view, with the Secretary of State having to react continually to appalling acts of terrorism and having to implement measures alien to his personality. Throughout his time in Northern Ireland Merlyn Rees maintained a civilised calmness and dependability. It was largely due to his conciliatory style and his obvious sincerity that the bipartisan attitude on Northern Ireland issues survived for so long in Parliament.

Those close to him were aware that his quiet style and disdain for rhetoric hid a warmth and a passion for justice and fairness which an occasional public comment would reveal, such as his comment in a House of Lords debate in May 1999 on protection for those giving evidence in Northern Ireland: "some of us have emotions about this matter. My father was a private soldier in Dublin in 1916. When I was studying Irish affairs in school, my father said to me, 'I realise what a mess the British Government made of it in 1916, by executing the mutineers.'"

Some commentators, both inside and outside of politics, believed that being, in Callaghan's words, "essentially a conciliator" ensured that Merlyn Rees was too gentle to be effective in Northern Ireland. The Irish writer Tim Pat Coogan said that he was "weak and faltering." The truth was that he could be tough when he needed to be - he admitted to signing personally over four hundred detention orders - but he believed that toughness in the province tended to be one-sided and to be counter productive. As he said in 1998, "there's only one way to end the violence, by talking not by killing. I was prepared to talk with anybody who was working for peace."

Merlyn Rees' biggest test in Northern Ireland came in May 1974 with the loyalist Ulster Workers' Council strike, provoked by the all-Ireland dimension of the previous government's Sunningdale agreement and aimed at bringing down the power sharing executive led by moderate unionist Brian Faulkner. Opinions then differed, and to some extent still do, as to whether the government could have faced down the strike and to have saved the executive and thus avoided direct rule. Rees' own account ten years later set out the grim reality of the developing crisis. The loyalists' control of power supplies was the determining factor and Rees made it clear that, even had it been possible to defeat the strike by force, it would not have been possible to run the power stations. He wrote, "I feel strongly that there was, and is, no way of putting down an industrial/political dispute supported by a majority in the community."

Such was Rees' standing in the Parliamentary Labour Party that it was to him alone that Harold Lever confided in December 1975 that Harold Wilson intended to resign. Rees then encouraged Jim Callaghan to stand for the party leadership and acted as his main lieutenant. When Callaghan did take over as Prime Minister from Harold Wilson in April 1976, Merlyn Rees volunteered to stay on in Northern Ireland, not only from a sense of duty but also because "I was hooked on Northern Ireland and I wanted to get back there to carry on the work of direct rule." This was despite the fact that loyalist paramilitaries had tried to assassinate him in 1974. Later, in July 1976, had it not been for Mrs Thatcher's ruling that the ending of Commons pairing arrangements applied to Northern Ireland ministers, forcing him to be in Westminster to vote, Merlyn Rees would have been in Dublin and travelling in the British Ambassador's car that was blown up by the Provisional IRA, killing the Ambassador, Christopher Ewart-Biggs, and his secretary, Judith Cook. It is probable that the IRA knew of his intention to travel with the Ambassador but were unaware of his cancellation.

Two months later Rees became Home Secretary and became increasingly drawn into difficult law and order issues linked with industrial action during the "winter of discontent". Typically, despite being a life long trade unionist, he found himself instinctively out of sympathy with union militancy and he was outspoken against pickets for their violent behaviour against the police. He was also attacked by the left for deporting Agee and Hosenball, two American journalists who exposed British intelligence secrets. The decline of the Callaghan government up to its fall in 1979 filled Rees with increasing despair. Despite, as Callaghan commented, being an amusing raconteur, Rees "would fall into a typical gloom from time to time." His essential problem was that, being a rational and fundamentally decent man, he found it difficult to understand why those with whom he dealt often had very different standards and motivations. In his "personal perspective" of Northern Ireland he comments on the pleasure of being able to spend more time with his wife, Colleen, when he ceased to be Secretary of State.

During the first Thatcher government Rees was briefly Shadow Home Secretary and then spent three years as opposition spokesman on energy. Thereafter he became somewhat of an elder statesman, serving on the Falkland Islands Inquiry Committee, becoming Chancellor of the University of Glamorgan, and serving as a trustee of the Groundwork Foundation which had projects in South Leeds. He also undertook a review of the circumstances in which an NHS "whistle blower" at Leeds General Infirmary had lost his job. On his retirement from Parliament in 1992 he became a Life Peer and played an active role in the House of Lords until Parkinson's Disease made it too difficult.

Jim Callaghan was right in saying that Merlyn Rees was "an instinctive politician" who "underrated his own strength." In one sense, as a calm and dogged conciliator, with a huge sense of duty, he was exactly the right man to take on the Northern Ireland job; but, from a different perspective, as a gentle person who much preferred the velvet glove to the iron fist, he held the job at the wrong time. In due course the historians will have the task of evaluating how much Rees' years in Northern Ireland contributed towards the eventual Good Friday agreement.

Certainly his many friends and colleagues always enjoyed his company and appreciated his obvious sincerity.

Lord Merlyn-Rees, Merlyn Merlyn-Rees, politician, born December 18 1920, died January 5 2006.

Official portrait of Baroness Maddock Photo: Chris McAndrew, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons Diana Maddock, who has died aged 75, arrived on the UK political scene in 1993 following a most unlikely Liberal Democrat byelection victory in Christchurch, Dorset, which, just a year before, had polled the ninth highest Conservative vote in the country.

Her win, and the scale of it, was a devastating blow to the Tories at the time, but then almost 12 months elapsed before the Lib Dems were able to win another byelection, in Eastleigh, Hampshire, and the momentum waned.

In the House of Commons Maddock concentrated on the subjects she was most comfortable with, particularly housing and energy conservation, although in a parliamentary party of only 22 she often had to speak on a range of other issues. Among her most notable achievements was the passage of her private members' bill on energy conservation, which drew cross-party support and which she piloted into law as the 1995 Home Energy Conservation Act. This placed a duty on local authorities to report to government on the measures being taken to improve home energy efficiency by more than 30% over a 10 to 15 year period.

Maddock was assiduous with her constituency casework and in making links with local organisations and campaigns, but at the subsequent general election in 1997, 10,000 Conservative voters returned to the fold and that was enough for her to lose by just over 2,000 votes. Six months later she was created a life peer, and in the House of Lords she continued with her specialist interests and became the party's spokesperson on housing.

Latterly she was the Lib Dems' deputy chief whip in the Lords. From 2014 she served on the Lords' works of art committee, and she was also chair of a number of all party parliamentary groups in the housing and energy fields. Outside parliament she became president of the National Home Improvement Council from 2016 until her death.

Born in Lymington, Hampshire, Diana was the daughter of Reginald Derbyshire, who worked for the Atomic Energy Authority, and his wife, Margaret (nee Evans), who ran a home for Dorset county council. Diana went to Brockenhurst grammar school and then to Shenstone teacher training college in Bromsgrove, followed by Portsmouth Polytechnic (now the University of Portsmouth).

From 1966 to 1991 she taught English at girls' schools in Southampton, and then English as a foreign language in private colleges around the area. For three years from 1969 she taught English as a foreign language for the extra-mural department of Stockholm University.

In 1976 Maddock joined the Liberal party, and after a couple of token municipal contests as voted in as the second Liberal councillor in Southampton in 1984. Two years later she became the leader of the quartet of Liberal councillors, a post she maintained for six years, holding her seat in 1988. Her then husband, Bob Maddock, whom she had married in 1966, was an IT specialist and ensured the efficient administration of the local party. But Maddock also had considerable organising ability and a great skill in recruiting party workers, as well as in persuading others to take on jobs.

It was this proficiency that almost kept her in a backroom role rather than becoming the byelection candidate. Following the death of the Conservative MP for Christchurch, Robert Adley, in May 1993, the Conservative party moved the byelection writ almost immediately and Maddock was quickly engaged in telephoning potential candidates. However, a number of those she phoned told her that she ought to stand herself, and eventually, at the last minute, she contacted party headquarters to put her name forward.

The selection process proceeded at a rate of knots, and she soon emerged as the party's choice. Although Christchurch was only 25 miles from Southampton, Maddox found it difficult to claim any concrete connection with the constituency, aside from her ownership of a beach hut at Mudeford. But that made no difference to the electorate.

The Lib Dems had won the Newbury byelection just two months before, and the party's faithful simply moved on to Christchurch. A party organiser estimated that on one weekend there were 800 workers there. Maddock's genuine concern for individuals extended to making sure that the party hordes were welcomed and looked after. After victory in July there was a frustrating delay in getting to the Commons, as the byelection had been held immediately before the summer parliamentary recess and she could not take her seat until October.

Both during her stint at the Commons and afterwards, Maddock remained popular with party members and workers. She was always conscious of her ability to carry out important political roles but had no sense of self-importance and throughout her life quietly carried out the mundane tasks of organisation and social events. When she was elected as the party's president (1998-99) the move was welcomed by party members who identified her as "one of us".

In 2001, her marriage to Bob having ended in divorce, she married Alan Beith, the former Deputy Liberal and Lib Dem leader. Typically, she threw herself into party work in Beith's constituency of Berwick-upon-Tweed, becoming a one-term councillor on Northumberland county council (2005-08) and on Berwick borough council (2007-09). After Beith retired from the House of Commons in 2015 and became a life peer, they were able to continue to work closely together in parliament while maintaining a home in Berwick.

She is survived by Alan, her two daughters, Becki and Anna, from her first marriage, and four grandchildren.

Diana Margaret Maddock, Lady Maddock, politician, born 19 May 1945; died 26 June 2020

Official portrait of Lord Maclennan Photo: Chris McAndrew, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Robert Maclennan was a politician of exquisite paradoxes: a man of immense principle and steadfastness and yet lacking in political judgement on a great many individual issues. He was a man who had a deep appreciation for the fine arts and for music and yet he gave the appearance of stern aloofness. He was manifestly shy and was nervous about difficult speeches but his commitment to deeply held beliefs forced him to step forward. He was possessed of a deep sense of duty which impelled him into politics; but, in reality, he was never a natural politician. Even the fact of being known to most friends and colleagues as 'Bob' was slightly curious - his serious demeanour and his lawyer's forensic approach would more naturally have suggested 'Robert'. The final paradox was that having defeated George Mackie, the sitting Liberal MP for Caithness & Sunderland,¹ in a hard-fought campaign, by the slender majority of just sixty-four votes in 1966, the two became friends and allies, particularly as Liberal Democrat colleagues in the House of Lords.

To his family, friends and those who worked for him, Bob Maclennan was clearly a warm and personable individual, and all the personal comments following his death bear this out. It is when one has to assess him as a politician, particularly in that highly fraught period following the 1987 general election, that the difficulties arise.

The Butler and King book on the 1966 election² described Bob Maclennan as the ideal Labour candidate for the massive and sprawling constituency of Caithness and Sutherland. In addition to Maclennan's appeal to the Scottish respect for lawyers,³ his father was a respected and titled gynaecologist and the family had an association with the little Sutherland village of Rogart. He was helped by the development of the Dounreay nuclear power station in the constituency which produced an influx of working men more inclined to vote Labour. He later remarked to a colleague that had he not won in 1966 he would have given up the idea of a political career.

Within a year he had gained the first step in a parliamentary career by becoming parliamentary private secretary to George Thomson, Commonwealth Secretary, followed by two junior ministerial posts. He was a consistent and committed supporter of British entry into the European Common Market (the European Economic Community (EEC)), later the European Union, and was one of the sixty-nine pro-Europe rebel Labour MPs, led by Roy Jenkins, who in 1971 voted for Edward Heath's paving bill to join the EEC, against the Labour whip. At the time he was committed to remaining within the Labour Party and hoped that Roy Jenkins would gain the leadership. In 1973, Dick Taverne, Labour MP for Lincoln, had finally made up his mind to resign from the party and to force a by-election (which he won) but he states that, at the last minute, Bob Maclennan 'came perhaps nearest of anyone to shaking my determination, with his quiet but forceful arguments'.⁴

In 1979, after Labour's defeat in the general election - as the party continued its slide to the left and the efforts to manipulate the rules for the election of the party leader - Maclennan was an early supporter of Jenkins' moves to set up what became the Social Democratic Party, although he did make an approach to join the Liberal Party, being 'strongly discouraged' by David Steel.⁵ Although, according to David Owen he vacillated over leaving Labour, he was one of the first tranche of Labour MPs to join the SDP on its formation in 1981 and was on its steering committee.⁶ He was the chief architect, together with William Goodhart, of the SDP's constitution, skilfully drafted to maintain a balance between the rights of MPs and of party members. Many features of the SDP constitution - some may say too many - were imported into the Liberal Democrats' constitution seven years later.

He easily held his seat at both the 1983 and 1987 elections and played an active role in parliament as an SDP and an Alliance spokesman; but it was in the struggles over the creation of the merger between the SDP and the Liberal Party, following the 1987 election, that Maclennan demonstrated the personal and political dilemmas that manifested the different aspects of a tortured personality, torn between a duty to his party and a need to follow his conscience. In effect he went from being the SDP MP most opposed to merger - even including David Owen - to being the party leader who, in effect, forced it through.

David Owen's relationship with Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers - his three colleagues in the SDP's Gang of Four- was always fraught, largely because Owen believed that the party should have a distinct focus and thus lead the political agenda, whereas the other three saw that the only way to change politics was to work closely with the Liberals. As leader throughout the 1983-87 parliament, Owen single-handedly drove the party with remarkable energy and attention to detail; however, following the disappointing result of the 1987 election, Owen regarded David Steel's attempt to bounce the two parties into a single, merged entity as unacceptable. With his parliamentary colleagues John Cartwright and Rosie Barnes, he set about ensuring that the SDP would stay out of the merger even though the vote of SDP members over the summer had favoured merger, and resigned as leader in August after the result of the vote was declared. He encouraged the SDP to split so that those who favoured merger with the Liberals could do so, while those who, like Owen, wished to have a separate SDP still had a political home. This left just two SDP MPs, Charles Kennedy, who favoured merger, and Bob Maclennan - who had opposed it but accepted the party vote - out of his calculations. Owen calculated that, as the SDP constitution laid down that the party leader had to be a member of parliament, neither of them would take this on, thus leaving him a clear run. However, Charles Kennedy urged Maclennan to take on the role. He agreed and, after the Liberal Assembly had agreed to the principle of merger in September, opened negotiations over the form of the new party.

Maclennan was seen by everyone as a committed opponent of merger with the Liberal Party. David Owen saw him as 'robustly opposed to merger' and states that Maclennan told him that he 'would leave politics rather than join a merged party'.⁷ Crewe and King in their definitive book on the SDP describe Maclennan as 'speaking out more vigorously against merger than anyone else.'⁸ What turned Maclennan into the leader determined to create a merged party - as far as possible akin to an 'SDP Mark 2'? First, it was, typically, a matter of conscience and loyalty to accept the party's vote and to take on its mandate; but, secondly, and much more significantly, it became increasingly apparent that his aim was to produce from the negotiations a party that would be sufficiently aligned to David Owen's well-known blueprint for the SDP as to bring him back into the mainstream and thus enable the third force to succeed. This personal Maclennan crusade was not apparent to the negotiating teams at the beginning and, in fact, it only began to dawn on the Liberals when the SDP were insisting that the inclusion of a commitment to the UK's membership of NATO had to be included in the new party's constitution, which would itself be modelled on the SDP's original version, as largely drawn up by Maclennan. His aim was exposed publicly in the evening of 18 January 1988, immediately after the successful conclusion of three and a half months of negotiations, by his capricious and perverse sudden expedition - accompanied by the hapless Charles Kennedy - to Owen's home to beg Owen to join the new party. If he had had even a modicum of political judgement, he would have known that this was bound to be a fruitless mission that would humiliate him and his cause.

Maclennan was completely unsuited to the rough and tumble of leadership and the unremitting demands it made for immediate comment and for maintaining a semblance of unity amongst unruly and unhappy colleagues. And the need to lead the SDP team in the inevitably incendiary and perilous merger negotiations with the Liberals multiplied his problems. Comments at the time and subsequently were unkind but accurate. Alan Beith described him as 'an awkward speaker, not an obvious leader, and a difficult and strangely emotional negotiator.'⁹ Shirley Williams said that he was 'thin skinned … not cut out for the sour and savage politics of the 1980s.'¹⁰ David Steel was more diplomatic, saying that he 'belonged to a more genteel era.'¹¹ Des Wilson was typically forthright: 'The SDP elected Robert Maclennan as their leader, a bizarre choice … an uptight, tortured-looking character, [who] had no leadership qualities whatsoever.'¹² At the end of it all, David Owen commented, 'the embarrassment of Bob's leadership [is] mercifully over.'¹³

Maclennan's behaviour during the almost four months of negotiation was sometimes very strange and occasionally bizarre. He swung between giving ultimatums and suddenly giving way. There were even genuine concerns about his mental stability. When the former MP John Grant resigned from the SDP negotiating team late in the process, saying that there was 'no meeting of hearts and minds',¹⁴ Maclennan broke down in tears and said, 'I can't go on.' He then walked out slowly, followed one by one by the rest of his stunned team.

When the constitutional details were completed, including the controversial preamble, NATO and all, there remained the question of a joint policy statement as a key accompaniment, which had, in effect, lain on the table during the long negotiations on everything else. The Liberals were relaxed about this, delegating it to the two leaders, believing, with the experience of the joint 1987 election manifesto, that an acceptable document could be put together swiftly with a consensus of the negotiators on board. This proved to be exceptionally naive. Maclennan laid great store by this document, which he saw as the means of setting out an Owenite prospectus that would draw Owen into the party. Two aides were tasked with writing a forthright policy statement. They consulted widely and, at this point no alarm bells rang to disabuse the Liberals from believing that the outcome would be broadly acceptable. In any case, David Steel would have to sign it off and would thus prevent anything unacceptable appearing. This view did not take into account Steel's notorious antipathy to giving detailed attention to lengthy policy papers and the final document was thus essentially a Maclennan draft. Once key Liberals had seen it, they immediately realised that much of it was completely unacceptable, including a hawkish defence policy, the extension of VAT to children's clothing and support for civil nuclear power.

Maclennan refused to accept this and insisted that it had to go forward, making various threats, including that he would present it alone. Eventually he was forced to realise that his document was not acceptable, whereupon he collapsed into tears and had to be physically prevented from leaving the meeting. It took Charles Kennedy twenty minutes to calm him down in a quiet corner of the room and to persuade him that another document could be quickly written that would keep merger on track. Three senior members from each side produced a somewhat more anodyne version, and thus the whole process to form the merged party was finally signed off - and Maclennan called John Grant to ask him set up an immediate meeting with David Owen. Grant got the impression from Maclennan that he was about to reject the whole package and duly briefed Owen along this line. To Owen's astonishment, Maclennan's mission was to commend the package to Owen and to invite him to sign on to it. After a few brief minutes Maclennan and Kennedy were shown the door and a furious Owen immediately briefed the press on what had transpired, saying that the visit 'reeked of insincerity'. Owen believed that Maclennan was close to a nervous breakdown.¹⁵

The merger was concluded with votes of both parties in January and February, and the Social & Liberal Democrats was formally launched on 3 March 1988. Maclennan announced that he did not intend to be a candidate for the leadership of the new party and became a loyal supporter of Paddy Ashdown. He embarked on a much more congenial and productive role in parliament and in the party. He was elected as party president in 1994 and was a key figure in the development and success of the party in the country. In parliament he became the party's spokesman on the arts and on home and constitutional affairs - both subjects on which he had personal interests and practical views. Above all, Ashdown used Maclennan for what was one of the very few benefits that came out of his relationship with Tony Blair. He was appointed to work with Robin Cook on constitutional reform proposals. These were launched in March 1997 and included freedom of information legislation, devolution to Scotland and Wales (with proportional representation elections), an elected authority for London, removal of the hereditary peers from the House of Lords, proportional representation for the European Parliament elections, and a referendum on voting reform for Westminster elections.¹⁶ Most of these were enacted after Labour's victory in 1997, and Maclennan joined the Joint Cabinet Committee reviewing a range of constitutional items.

Bob Maclennan retired from the House of Commons in 2001 after thirty-five years as the MP for his huge Highlands constituency. It was a tribute to his relationship with his constituents that he was elected under three different political labels. He was immediately created a Liberal Democrat life peer and continued to use his interests and experience in European matters.

The trials and tribulations he suffered in the later years of the SDP were certainly uncongenial for such a thoughtful and gentle man, but they stemmed directly from his sense of duty. A senior party officer shrewdly said of him that 'his career has often been more successful than visible' and that he was 'more of a renaissance man than a career politician.'¹⁷ Shirley Williams described him as 'a serious man and an extraordinarily conscientious one.'¹⁸

His last years were blighted by dementia but he will be remembered as a friendly, intelligent and sensitive colleague and friend.

Robert Adam Ross Maclennan, Lord Maclennan of Rogart, born 26 June 1936, died 18 January 2020. Married 1968 Helen Noyes (née Cutter) who survives him, as do their children, Adam and Ruth, and a stepson, Nicholas.

¹ The constituency had been held from 1922 to 1945 by the former Liberal leader, Sir Archibald Sinclair, later Lord Thurso, and was held following Maclennan's retirement in 2001 through to 2015 by John Thurso, the grandson of Archibald Sinclair.

² D. E. Butler and Anthony King, The British General Election of 1966 (Macmillan, 1966), article on the constituency by Ian Grimble.

³ He had been called to the Bar, Gray's Inn, in 1962.

⁴ Dick Taverne, The Future of the Left: Lincoln and After (Jonathan Cape, 1974), p. 84.

⁵ David Torrance, David Steel: Rising Hope to Elder Statesman (Biteback, 2012), p. 136.

⁶ David Owen, Time to Declare (Joseph, 1991), pp. 203, 472 and 487.

⁷ Ibid., pp. 709 and 726.

⁸ Ivor Crewe and Anthony King, SDP: The Birth, Life and Death of the Social Democratic Party (OUP, 1995), p. 388.

⁹ Alan Beith, Alan Beith: A View from the North (Northumbria University Press, 2008), p. 114.

¹⁰ Shirley Williams, Climbing the Bookshelves (Virago, 2009), p. 316.

¹¹ Torrance, David Steel , p. 236.

¹² Des Wilson, Memoirs of a Minor Public Figure (Quartet Books, 2013), p. 248.

¹³ Owen, Time to Declare , p. 736.

¹⁴ Rachael Pitchford and Tony Greaves, Merger - The Inside Story (Liberal Renewal, 1989), p. 95.

¹⁵ Owen, Time to Declare , p. 738.

¹⁶ Robin Cook and Robert Maclennan, Looking Back, Looking Forward: The Cook-Maclennan Agreement on Constitutional Reform, Eight Years On (New Politics Network, 2005).

¹⁷ Helen Bailey, entry for Robert Maclennan in Duncan Brack (ed.) Dictionary of Liberal Biography (Politico's Publishing, 1998).

¹⁸ Williams, Climbing the Bookshelves, p. 316.

My friend David Morrish, who has died aged 86, was a committed Liberal and local politician. He combined warmth and oratory with a quick smile and a telling anecdote - all delivered in his attractive Devonian burr - which ensured his constant election over 50 years from the same community on the Exeter city council or the Devon county council. David also unsuccessfully contested nine parliamentary elections, plus one European parliament contest.

Although David's main political activity was focused on local government, he was a passionate internationalist. This was very much of a piece with his attachment to the Society of Friends as was his support for the peace movement. In 1956 he refused to do national service, instead choosing to register as a conscientious objector.

David was also a supporter of electoral reform, and specifically the single transferable vote. He told me, after we met through the Liberal party in 1962, that he had joined what is now the Electoral Reform Society as a teenager, even before he had joined the Liberals in 1956.

In 1987 David and I found ourselves in a minority within the party, opposing the leaders' proposal to form a merged party with the Social Democrats. Rather than abandon the cause we became part of a small continuing Liberal party, huddling together for mutual warmth and comfort. Some 20 years later I made the decision to join the "mainstream" Liberal Democrats but, typically, David remained loyal to the "mighty handful" to the end of his life.

He was born in Plymouth, son of Gwendoline (nee Opie), who worked in a stationers, and Frank Morrish, a shipwright, and attended Sutton high school, Plymouth. He obtained his degree in geography and geology, then a teaching qualification and a master's, at Exeter University. He received a Rotary Foundation fellowship for further study abroad, and went to Wisconsin University in the US, returning to Exeter in 1956 at the age of 24.

His first job was with the UN in Iran later that year. He taught temporarily at Bromley grammar school, but his first - and last - teaching post was as a geography tutor at St Luke's College, now part of Exeter University, where he stayed from 1959 until his retirement in 1990. His professional life was as an educator, particularly in the training of teachers.

He was a member of Exeter city council from 1961 until 1974 and 1996 until 2011, and a member of Devon county council from 1973 until 2004. He fought the Exeter constituency in 1970, in February and October 1974, and in 1997 and 2001; and Tiverton in 1979, 1983, 1987 and 1992. His service was recognised by being made a freeman of the city of Exeter in 2011.

His wife, Joan (nee Squire), whom he married in 1959, was also a firm Liberal and an Exeter city councillor. She died just six weeks after David. They are survived by a daughter, Claire, and a granddaughter, Emma.

Mary Ness, a stalwart of the Leeds Library has died aged 87. She joined the Library in 1992 having bought share number 382 in the days when it was still a proprietory library and before it became an open charity in 2008. Mary was a committee member from 1997 and continued as a Trustee of the charity until 2017. She was also one of the select group of library members who made loans to it to assist the purchase of the new building. She was a forthright member of the Library’s book group and was never reticent at expressing her views on books being read, or, indeed, on her fellow members.

By profession she was a nurse and it was at a Leeds hospital that she met her husband, anaesthetist Alan Ness from whom she was eventually divorced. Their two sons are both medics. I very much enjoyed her company and she was a very convivial lunch companion until her advancing arthritis inhibited her movements and latterly forced her to be housebound. Mary was a voracious reader until, latterly, as her eyesight deteriorated, she was unable to cope with print. This and her immobility hugely frustrated and depressed her, even to the point of considering making use of Dignitas.

Her peaceful death at home is a fitting end to a full, practical life, committed to causes she enjoyed and supported.

Leeds Honorary Alderman Brooke Nelson has died at the age of 84 after a short illness. He served as a Liberal councillor for the Armley ward from 1973 to 1983. He was a member of the Armley Common Rights Trust for some forty years, including serving as its Chairman. He also served for many years as a member of the Civic Arts Guild and the Leeds Children's Holiday Camp management committee.

Alderman Nelson was not often a contributor to City Council debates but he was as assiduous committee member. As an Armley man and a local contractor he knew the area exceptionally well and this enabled him to be a local ward Councillor respected for his attention to casework on behalf of his constituents.

He leaves a wife, Joan, a daughter, Kay, and a son, Mark.

Honorary Alderman Brooke Nelson. 19 June 1933 to 31 May 2017

Dadabhai Naoroji 1889 See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsUnlike the majority of London clubs, the National Liberal Club (NLC) from its beginning welcomed Asian members and it was somewhat of an anomaly that hitherto all its portraits were of white British politicians. This has now been rectified with the acquisition of a commissioned portrait of Dadabhai Naoroji. He has a special place in British political history being the first Asian Member of Parliament when he was elected as the Liberal MP for the Central Finsbury constituency at the 1892 election, having fought Holborn unsuccessfully in 1886. Prior to coming to England he had been a distinguished academic and statesman in India, and was an advisor to Ghandi in his early years.

His agent at his successful election was the Club's first secretary, William Digby, who was a consistent agitator for Indian rights. Ironically Digby despite getting Naoroji elected, was himself twice an unsuccessful Liberal candidate in London. Naoroji narrowly lost his seat in the Conservative landslide of 1895.

When he joined the NLC in 1886 he was one of twelve Indian members. His Proposer and Seconder, W Martin Wood and Major Evans Bell respectively, were both prolific writers on Indian issues. Naoroji was a very active member of the Club and served on its General Committee for fifteen years, from 1890 to 1905.

The jazz world is full of extremes of ages, from those who die criminally young such as Bix and, in the UK, Johnny Haim, to those who live - and play - into remarkable old age. Ed O'Donnell, who has died at the age of eighty-seven, was certainly one of the latter. At his death he had a programme of gigs extending well into the future.

He seemed indestructible and it is difficult to imagine the Yorkshire jazz scene without Ed O'Donnell. For almost seventy years, from 1946 to just a few weeks ago, Ed's trombone playing was an "ever present" in and around Leeds. His commitment to New Orleans jazz and to playing tailgate trombone from the early days of the revival of this great music right up to today's more depleted enthusiasts was legendary. There was hardly a venue in the Leeds area that Ed didn't play at, or a band he hadn't played with. What is more, listening again to his early recordings, one realises that his style and enthusiasm stayed pretty much the same over the decades. As he once remarked he was "trying to play like Jim Robinson."

Ed's first band in 1946 was the Vernon Street Ramblers, the name coming from the address of the Leeds College of Art where Ed was studying and, in fact, where he later worked for many years. He became a member of Bob Barclay's Yorkshire Jazz Band in early 1949 along with Dick Hawdon and fellow art college students Diz Disley and Alan Cooper, and recorded with them for Tempo. He left after two years and formed the Paramount Jazz Band and then led the Black Eagles Band.

Ed's brief claim to national fame came when Ken Colyer parted company with Chris Barber and the rest of the band that had been formed by Barber to welcome Colyer back from his illicit trip to New Orleans. Ed, and the pre-Acker, Bernard Bilk, were recruited by Colyer in June 1954. Ken's brother, Bill, knew of Ed and had written to him with information on the Guvnor's return. Fellow Leeds trombonist, Mac Duncan, aimed to be Ken's new bandsman but Ed landed the job. Ironically Duncan replaced Ed some months later at Ed's suggestion.

Ed has written that it was thought that he had taught Duncan whereas, "He taught me. He was far better." He was paid £6 a week with the Colyer band and they rehearsed every day in a studio near to Kings Cross. To survive financially most of the band shared a flat in Fulham, with Ken, Acker Bilk and Ed even sharing a bed!

Ed toured with Colyer for six months and then returned to Leeds. The disc "Back to the Delta" was produced whilst Ed was with Ken Colyer, (the session has been reissued by Paul Adams as part of Lake LACD 209). He didn't like London, "it was a drag," and, crucially important, "you can't get a decent pint of Tetley's further south than Wakefield."

Back in Leeds, Ed briefly led the White Eagles Marching Band before forming his own New Orleans Jazzmen which has continued up to the present day. Not one to suffer musical fools gladly, Ed was regarded with immense affection by the jazz public in the North of England who willingly forgave his peccadillos for the sake of his loyalty to the music and his willingness to turn out and help colleagues on every occasion. In September 2009, for instance, he turned out in the band at his old Yorkshire Jazz Band colleague's Dick Hawdon's funeral, saying, "I had to be here for Dick." Ed's regular signing off comment at the end of a gig was, "Remember the Ed O'Donnell band - it's the only game in town." For many jazz fans it was just that for very many years.

Ed had recently been ill and was awaiting further surgery. He had seemed ageless and will be much missed. His funeral was held in Leeds on 4th March. The band that led the procession to the crematorium was included members of Ed's current band, including Arthur Stead (trumpet), Tony Denton (clarinet), Jim Wright (banjo) and Annie Hawkins (bass) and was followed by a celebration at the Leeds Jazz Club. Everyone's sympathies are with his wife, Anne, whom he married in 1959, and his daughters, Frances and Kate.

Dominic Edward (Ed) O'Donnell, born 13 February 1927, died 14 February 2014.

My long-standing political colleague Mike Oborski has died at the age of 60. Michael Maciek George Oborski held dual Polish and British nationality. He maintained his contact with his Polish family and, with his wife Fran, was in Poland when its final Communist government fell. In 1996 Mike became the Honorary Polish Consul for the West Midlands. His affinity and passion for Poland and its culture was always evident in the many duties and projects he took up. A passionate European, Mike was the organiser of the "Poland Comes Home" committee which campaigned for Polish membership of the European Union and of NATO.

Mike Oborski was an instinctive political animal. He fought his first election, unsuccessfully, in Worcester, at the age of 21. He was elected to the Hereford and Worcester County Council in 1973 and to the Wyre Forest District Council a few years later.

At the time of the Liberal/SDP merger in 1988 he joined the new party saying that he "thought he could live with it as the only practical vehicle to deliver some form of Liberalism." By the autumn of 1995 he had become disillusioned with what he saw as the illiberalism of the local Liberal Democrats and he rejoined the Liberal Party. In 2005 he took over from me as President of the ongoing Liberal Party.

When the Labour party lost overall control of the district council Mike was the leader of the three strong Liberal Group. Despite this being the smallest party group he was called upon by the parties to a "Rainbow Coalition" to take on the leadership of the Wyre Forest council, a position he held for two years. He was also Chairman of the Council on three separate occasions.

A teacher by profession he took early retirement in 1996 after 26 years service on an offer he said "only a fool would reject."

Mike was a very shrewd political operator who didn't miss a trick but was recognised as having great integrity. When, typically, Mike announced publicly at a council meeting in 2005 that he was about to undergo surgery for cancer of the colon, his political opponents were open with their sympathy. One Conservative Councillor commented that, "Mike is a giant in Wyre Forest politics and a gentleman to boot."

Together with Fran, also a local Councillor, he was prominent in the local hospital campaign that led to the election in 2001 of Dr Richard Taylor, parliament's only independent MP.

Down to earth and very approachable, Mike Oborski was always prepared to work with those of goodwill, whatever their politics, if it would bring improvements to his community and to his town.

He appeared to have recovered from his initial cancer only to find himself with cancer of the lung and liver. He is survived by his wife Fran, whom he married in 1968.

Mike Oborski, born 18 August 1946, died 11 February 2007

See also The Guardian.

Jack Prichard, Labour Party activist and councillor, was the epitome of the solid, unassuming but determined Labour activist on which the party depended until the advent of new Labour and its emphasis on presentational skills attuned to the television age. Born in the Cross Gates district of east Leeds he won one of the rare scholarships to Leeds Grammar School. He went on to Leeds University where he achieved a Master of Commerce degree. He developed an early interest in politics and joined the Labour League of Youth where he met his future wife Doris.

His first job after leaving university was as Organising Tutor for the Workers' Educational Association in the Cleveland district, based on Redcar - a position to which he was seconded by Leeds University's Extra Mural Department. Some four years later Prichard returned full-time to the university department, as lecturer in Economic and Social History. As its name indicates, this department had and has a strong emphasis on working within the community, and, from his home in Wrenthorpe, near Wakefield, Prichard travelled across the West Riding to lead evening classes for miners and to teach at summer schools.

Jack Prichard was a pacifist and, at the outbreak of the Second World War, he became a conscientious objector and was despatched to work in lime quarries in Horton-in-Ribblesdale. As with many of his generation, the end of the war was the catalyst for Prichard to become immersed in politics and he acted as Denis Healey's agent in the Pudsey and Otley constituency. Between them they cut the majority to 1400 votes in what was regarded as a safe Conservative seat. He and Healey maintained a close friendship thereafter.

As with so many political figures, family life took somewhat of a backseat - a tendency which was not always appreciated by Prichard's wife Doris and his two sons, John and David. He toyed with the idea of standing for parliament but ultimately felt that it would entail too much of a sacrifice of family life. For similar reasons it was some time before he stood for election to Leeds City Council, initially in the Headingley ward, following his move there. In 1964 he was elected for the Osmondthorpe ward but lost his seat in the Labour debacle of 1968 when the party returned only twelve councillors out of the 99 seats on the city council. Prichard achieved the distinction of being the only Labour gain in the municipal elections the following year.

He remained as councillor for the same area of Leeds following local government reorganisation, retiring in 1982. Two years later the City Council recognised his service by making him an Honorary Alderman. He had been Leeds' Deputy Lord Mayor in 1978-79 and had also served as chairman of the Planning Committee.

Jack Prichard was no rabble rouser but invariably prepared his speeches carefully and always endeavoured to develop a logical case. One sometimes felt that he regarded the City Council meeting as another WEA class but his earnestness and sincerity were appreciated. Jack Prichard had few political enemies. Prichard was actively involved in the co-operative movement and for a time was chairman of the Leeds Co-operative Society's Education Committee.

Labour party politics in the late 1970s and the1980s were increasingly uncomfortable for Prichard, who found himself out of sympathy with the vociferous Left. Sent as a delegate from the Leeds North West party to the party conference with a mandate to vote for Michael Foot for leader he voted instead for his friend Denis Healey. The local Left caucus was not amused and responded by circulating a rumour that Prichard was threatening to join the Liberal party if he was not elected Lord Mayor.

Jack Prichard had a wide range of other interests including sport, music, walking and travel. Whenever possible Doris - known as Dot - accompanied him to political and social events and they were seen very much as a couple who seemed very comfortable with each other. His skill as a raconteur belied his somewhat serious demeanor, and he never ducked a political challenge. Jack Prichard was appreciated in Leeds civic life as an honest and dedicated politician. He struggled with Parkinson's disease for a number of years and died in a Headingley nursing home.

William John (Jack) Prichard, died 4 August 2004, aged 89.