Thirty years ago today, I rang a hotel near Birmingham Airport, paid a few pounds by credit card and became a founder member of the new Social Democratic Party (or SDP).
The party was launched on 26 March 1981 by the so-called “gang of four” – Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams, following their breakaway from the Labour Party. They were eventually joined by around 24 other ex-Labour MPs, one Conservative MP and several Peers. Most significantly, perhaps, many of us who joined the party had not had any formal political affiliation before the birth of the SDP.
“The SDP exists to create and defend an open, classless and more equal society that rejects prejudices based on colour, sex, race and religion.”
Not a bad credo – even 30 years on.
Unfortunately, the SDP no longer exists. Following a decision by a majority of those voting in a membership ballot in 1988, the original party merged with the Liberal Party to form what is now the Liberal Democrats.
The 'continuing' SDP, led by David Owen, carried on for a further two years before calling it a day – believing, amongst other things, that parties which advocate the benefits of coalition politics (i.e. separate parties working together for a specific purpose) should not undermine that position by arguing that they could only operate effectively if they were to become a single party! It also seemed to us that the appropriate place for social democrats was in an avowedly social democratic party.
I have many memories from those years, mostly good. But I’ll just recall one.
It was the final day of the 1989 (and last) Conference of the continuing SDP, held in the Yorkshire coastal town of Scarborough. The week had been punctuated by several hoax bomb warnings - on one occasion leading to the night-time evacuation of the conference hotel. For this final session, I happened to be sitting alongside Party President John Cartwright on the front row of the platform. Earlier, I had taken a phone call backstage, where large numbers of police were searching for what we all took to be another hoax 'bomb'. In any event, just as John was about to begin his speech on Defence, we were told that the police thought that they might have found a bomb. It was, so they thought, immediately below where we were sitting! As a precaution, they said that the mechanism controlling the rise and fall of the speakers’ lectern would be immobilized – in case it triggered an explosion!
Pressing on regardless, John began his speech and continued for a few minutes before he received another, more urgent message to clear the hall. After some further delay, David Owen delivered his leader’s speech outside the conference hall, at the top of some steps leading to the beach – “the speech on the beach”, as it was dubbed at the time.
Sadly, that was my last experience of the ‘heady mix’ of sun, sea, sand - and social democracy.
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