TLIAPOT: Blinded by the Light
- Thread starter Gonzo
- Start date
On that note @Gonzo, who would you consider the British version of Billy Graham?
Goodness, I'm not that sure - I have a few of the more "deplorables" ([/Clinton]) lined up - such as Paisley and his Scottish equivalent - Jack Glass.
Perhaps Cliff Richard goes into the Church?
Goodness, I'm not that sure - I have a few of the more "deplorables" ([/Clinton]) lined up - such as Paisley and his Scottish equivalent - Jack Glass.
Perhaps Cliff Richard goes into the Church?
I'm calling it, he's gonna re-establish the Scottish Democratic Fascist Party.
Erm no - it'll be the Liverpool Protestant Party!
And I thought the US had weird-sounding parties....
He's a virgin, you know.Goodness, I'm not that sure - I have a few of the more "deplorables" ([/Clinton]) lined up - such as Paisley and his Scottish equivalent - Jack Glass.
Perhaps Cliff Richard goes into the Church?
To be honest, having the Church of England clash against the social conservatives does sound a bit more interesting.
If you wanted to go that way you could have lots of fun. Archbishop Hugh Montefiore. Or Archbishop Mervyn Stockwood to cause tonnes of fun.To be honest, having the Church of England clash against the social conservatives does sound a bit more interesting.
Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)
Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)
In 1970 a young couple, Peter and Janet Hill, returned to the United Kingdom after a period of several years in India, where they had acted as evangelical Christian missionaries. When they returned to the United Kingdom they were shocked and surprised to be met by a society that was ‘at risk’ of becoming a far more permissive one than the one that they had left in the mid 1960’s. For them, and many other Christians and evangelicals, they saw Britain as being “one Government away from immorality and a permissive society of Malthusian proportions;” with the ‘horrors of humanity’ (abortion, homosexuality, contraception, drugs and other ‘immoral acts’) being legalised and incentivised by the Government; in a sort of ‘Brave New World’-esque society.
Hill imagined tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of young people and Christians marching on London to take a stand and to fight for Christian moral values and principals. The idea itself remained at just that, until Hill learned of a March of Witness in Blackburn, where 10,000 men marched calling for Christian moral standards to be maintained in the nation. Hill’s fears of a breakdown in traditional Christian values in the country were seemingly realised with the student protests and riots in the winter of 1970-1971. What more the addition of several high profile politicians and officials - namely the leaders of the Conservative and Liberal Parties at the rally in Trafalgar Square in November 1970; in Hill’s view - Britain was merely a Government or two away from a Sodom and Gomorrah situation.
Not long after this the Hills had formed contact with a wide network of individuals who shared their concerns and offered their encouragement and support. Among these were Malcolm Muggeridge, Mary Whitehouse, the Colonial Secretary Lord Longford and the novelist Anthony Burgess. There was also a formation of grassroots support from Anglicans, Baptists, Plymouth Brethren and Pentecostal church denominations.
A working committee was established by Hill with Colonel Orde Dobbie (a Social Services administrator), Eddie Stride (a former shop steward and trade unionist, later the Rector of Christ Church, Spitalfields), Gordon Landreth (general secretary of the Evangelical Alliance), Rev. Jean Darnall (Pentecostal evangelist), Nigel Goodwin (a professional Christian actor) and Steve Stevens (a missionary aviator). This working committee set about looking for ideas and proposals of what to call the group and to what it should exactly do and stand for. Additional input was received from a larger Council of Reference which included well-known politicians, lawyers, doctors, trades unionists, bishops, ministers, and other public figures such as Dora Bryan and David Kossoff from the acting profession. The name "Nationwide Festival of Light" was suggested by Malcolm Muggeridge. Additional support came from the Home Secretary, Bob Mellish who assured the organisers that a march on London would “not be impeded by the police;” Prince Charles sent “every good wish for the success of the Festival”
The movement itself had several expressed aims: firstly, to protest against ‘sexplotation’ in the media and the arts; secondly to offer the teaching of Christ as the key to recovering moral stability in the nation; thirdly to ensure that no Government would push for liberalisation of ‘moral laws’ in the country; and lastly to ensure that Christ and the Church remained an important part of everyday life in the United Kingdom. Plans were made for major public events, including the lighting of beacons on hilltops throughout the United Kingdom, and culminating in a massed march to a public rally in Trafalgar Square and an open-air concert of Christian music in Hyde Park.
The administrative task of enlisting and gaining the support of various Christian churches and denominations throughout the United Kingdom - with groups ranging from various Protestant denominations to several Catholic clergy and officials throughout the nation. There was also a necessity for public relations with the press, the Government and the general public. The movement already had enlisted the backing of the likes of the Daily Sketch, Daily Express, Daily Mail and The Times (with editor William Rees-Mogg writing favourably about the group in his editorials); the movement was however criticised by the likes of the Guardian and was openly mocked by the Labour supporting Sun as “Jesus nuts.” These various tasks preoccupied the committee and many of the grassroots volunteers throughout the first half of 1971.
On the 9th September, a initial rally was held in Westminster Central Hall, where the exploitation of sex and violence in the entertainment industry were denounced by the speakers assembled. The meeting itself was invaded by the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), who (in drag) released mice, sounded horns and turned off all the lights. Across the rest of the country nearly a hundred regional rallies followed. In Bristol the cathedral was filled to capacity, largely in reaction to the opening of a ‘sex supermarket’ in the city. A ‘nationwide day of prayer’ was observed on 19 September. The next day a large rally was held in Larne, where the likes of the Rev. Ian Paisley and Unionist Party right-wing leader, Bill Craig, addressed the many thousands assembled in a muddy field. On the night of 23 September bonfires and torches were lit on hilltops throughout Britain. In Sheffield a calor gas flare was lit by Cliff Richard. Local authorities were usually very cooperative, and individual opposition muted. There were probably about 500 such beacons, and on estimate claimed that anywhere from 150,000 to a quarter-of-a-million people took part in local events.
Then on the 25th September, the Trafalgar Square rally was held. Throughout the morning and into the early afternoon thousands of people began to converge on the Square, many people had travelled via coach from distant parts of the country - by 2:30pm the crowd has swelled to well over 50,000 people (police estimates state that this figure could be nearer to 65,000 people), easily filling the Square and clogging many of the side roads leading into it. A large raised platform and amplification equipment had been set up, and a large assortment of speakers took to the microphone, among them were Malcolm Muggeridge, Bill Davidson of the Salvation Army, Mary Whitehouse, Cliff Richard, and various politicians of all shades and colours.
Muggeridge exclaimed that “The purpose of the festival is that… the relatively few people who are responsible for this moral breakdown of our society will know that they are pitted against, not just a few reactionary people, but all the people in this country who still love this Light – the Light of the world.” The Tory MP for Chigwell, John Biggs-Davison stated that “It is not so much a permissive society as a licentious, callous and cruel society… The Christian strives to imitate Christ who calls him to heroic purity.” TV personality Bob Danvers-Walker said that “This is the age when men with dirty minds and tongues flourish because up till now there has been no militancy against those degenerates who befoul every form of art.” The Anglican bishop Trevor Huddleston meanwhile said that “For me the definition of pornography or obscenity is very simple. It is the abuse of what is made in the image and likeness of God for any end whatsoever.” Dagenham shop steward Frank Dees proclaimed that, “We ordinary people have allowed, through apathy, our television sets to become sewers… Our churches (and may God forgive them) have often been compromising, hesitant and plain scared to give a lead.” The Home Secretary, Bob Mellish was one of the ‘surprise’ speakers, he said that “in this day and age, people - generally young folk, are now finding solace from immorality, from drugs, from drink, from sex and from perversion - when they should be finding comfort and solace from their families, their friends, their religion and their institutions.” Mellish also revealed that he had ‘received’ a note which gave the Festival the ‘blessing’ of the Prime Minister, James Callaghan (; Callaghan himself was known to privately support the march and it’s aims - but was hesitant to publicly express these views - it has been claimed in the years after the former Prime Minister’s death that he was either an agnostic-theist or even a theistic-atheist - acknowledging the important bedrock that religion and the established church has in society - while not being a believer in their own right.) This gained large cheers from the crowd assembled.
A number of statements and proclamations were read out and received with applause by the crowd. Some called for a halt to the commercial exploitation of sex and violence. They warned that the "positive values" of love and respect for the individual and the family were under serious threat, and that once these were overthrown a safe and stable society could not long survive. They challenged the nation to recover "the pure idealism of Christ, the Light of world, who taught that real love always wants what is best for others and defends the weak against exploitation by the corrupt.” The speakers were of mixed ages, from many different walks of life. Some of the crowd heckled, but most cheered enthusiastically. Two thirds of those present were said to be aged under twenty-five.
After the speeches had concluded, the crowd began to march through the streets towards Hyde Park, singing Christian songs and hymns (such as ‘Onward Christian Soldiers.’) In Hyde Park they joined those unable to get into Trafalgar Square, swelling the numbers to around 120,000 (estimated by the London Times.) The rally in Hyde Park started at 4pm, where a number of Christian music groups proclaimed messages, echoing those made earlier in Trafalgar Square. Among the performers were Cliff Richard, Dana and Graham Kendrick. Rev. Jean Darnall led the rally. The main speaker in the park was Hollywood street evangelist Arthur Blessitt, famous for having travelled all over the globe carrying a 12 foot wooden cross. He said it was only by having "a personal relationship with Jesus" that the desire for "immoral entertainment and illicit behaviour" would be eliminated. He invited the crowd to kneel in Hyde Park and make a personal acceptance of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, and the vast majority did so.
The rally was met with generally positive responses in the media and in public circles. Perhaps the warmest support came from Roman Catholic periodicals. Vast quantities of mail continued to pour into the organisers' office, but once they had recovered from the effort entailed in the public events, there seemed a large measure of uncertainty about the next stage, if any. A periodical in the Sunday Telegraph wrote that ‘In the Festival of Light the silent majority has found it’s voice.’
The Festival stimulated some inter-denominational contact among evangelical Christians - bridging together many of the pre-existing divides between the various Christian denominations.
In the coming months the group held various other rallies up and down the country - which usually gained large support and crowds. The framework of the Festival of Light and the central committee - formed the basis of the 1976 ‘Religious Roundtable’ of various Christian thinkers and officials in the country - this in turn led to the 1977 foundation of the ‘Moral Majority’ group (formed between Muggeridge, Anglican Bishop of Truro Graham Leonard, the Rev. Ian Paisley, the Rev. Jack Glass and the Anglican Bishop of Chichester Eric Kemp); which aimed to provide and voice and a political vehicle for a more politicised version of Christianity in the United Kingdom.
The closeness among some of the leading Troika and it’s supporters led to a fallout (to an extent) among the Parliamentary Labour Party, some on the left - such as Michael Foot and Eric Heffer questioned the necessity of forging close links between the party and the Church. Some like Harold Wilson attacked in in a column in the Guardian; some in the Government were rather quiet in the opposition - such as the Foreign Secretary, Tony Crosland. The strongest critic of the proposals was the former Secretary of State for Education and Science, Roy Jenkins - who outlined his opposition to the group, it’s aims and the cordial relationship with various elements of the Government, in a very strongly worded letter. When he was effectively ‘fobbed off’ by the likes of Callaghan and Mellish, he announced that he had “no confidence” in the Prime Minister - he subsequently resigned the party whip not long before the October Party Conference in Brighton.
Then he dropped a bombshell on the day before the conference - he was to defect to the Liberal Party; where he was received with open arms by the Liberal leader, Eric Lubbock. In his speech at the press conference, held near the National Liberal Club in London, Jenkins stated that, “In Government, I hoped that a Labour Government would create a fairer and just society for all. Rather we have seen a Government which governs on behalf of the few - as opposed to all of us. What I support is called ‘permissive’ by some - but I call it a civilised society...”
The announcement appeared to hang over the party conference - but then again so did the recent death of the Tory Leader, Iain Macleod, this time running afoul of yet another heart attack - and once again putting into motion the third leadership race for the party, in under a decade.
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What do you call that rally? A countercounterculture?
Naturally a Cultured or Cultural rally.
Indeed and yes his health has eventually caught up to him, sadly.
shiftygiant
Gone Fishin'
No brakes.
Jenkins switch would mean the Liberals drift more firmly into Social Democracy, especially if others start jumping ship; given Jo Grimond's low opinion of it in his Party (IIRC, a major speech after his second retirement was urging the Liberals to not become Social Democrats), this will cause some issues, and make things interesting for the Party, in the Chinese sense. Disappointed he didn't go for the Leadership route, though now we have his ego clashing with Jeremy Thorpe's utter insanity if Thorpe can get back in (which, given his strong sense of destiny, isn't out the question).
Shame about Macleod, really, though like John Smith his ticker was going to give out eventually.
I am of course now anxious about who will lead the Conservatives. Perhaps their new Leader will adopt a 'Northern Strategy'
No brakes.
Jenkins switch would mean the Liberals drift more firmly into Social Democracy, especially if others start jumping ship; given Jo Grimond's low opinion of it in his Party (IIRC, a major speech after his second retirement was urging the Liberals to not become Social Democrats), this will cause some issues, and make things interesting for the Party, in the Chinese sense. Disappointed he didn't go for the Leadership route, though now we have his ego clashing with Jeremy Thorpe's utter insanity if Thorpe can get back in (which, given his strong sense of destiny, isn't out the question).
Shame about Macleod, really, though like John Smith his ticker was going to give out eventually.
I am of course now anxious about who will lead the Conservatives. Perhaps their new Leader will adopt a 'Northern Strategy'
Yeah - I see to have inadvertently created potential schisms in all three major parties. Plus, expect stiff opposition from the 'classical liberals' if Jenkins tries to run for the leadership.
Yeah - death always seems to catch up to him - like Hubert Humphrey.
I was legitimately asking a question out of interest! I swear!
shiftygiant
Gone Fishin'
Jenkins running for Leadership might have an issue because of his crossing the floor- unless an entire flood following him and entryism ensues, then he'll be viewed as an outsider by the Membership and Liberal MP's. Given his experience in Government, he'll get on the frontbench team, though.
And you know how Jenkins spent a few years trying to work out how to stab Wilson in the back without getting blood on himself? If Thorpe was the unnamed Liberal who won a seat in 1970, then imagine that those few years but if Jenkins seriously believed he was destined to become Prime Minister, had a Machiavellian streak, and wasn't above 'getting rid of him'.
I forgot to add to the main update - but David Marquand, will probably follow his mentor into the Liberals. He will be seen as an outsider - though a high profile one at that. He will be in conflict with the likes on Bonham-Carter and Grimond on the liberal versus social democratic scale of things. Lubbock acts as a bridge between the two camps - but if he goes, there could be problems.
Thorpe narrowly lost in 1966 ITTL to a Tory candidate, then the size of the swing between the Liberals and Tories, has ensured the fact he lost again. Perhaps one of the new MPs could be challenger come the time Eric goes? (I thought someone would have mentioned something about the new MP for Yeovil...)
I suppose you could say that - though less likely to lessens up with their heads on spikes outside the Tower of London.
I suppose you could say that - though less likely to lessens up with their heads on spikes outside the Tower of London.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww....
