The British Imperial Establishment, Post Imperial Era, and the ‘Churchillian’ World View, 1945-2016. (Adjustments & Challenges in Contemporary British Diplomatic Strategy)

196

may well
conclude that he was underestimated and undervalued by his
contemporaries.

Macleod. Iain N.
Secretary of State for Colonies 1959-61.

Iain
Macleod was by far the most radical of all pre-war Conservatives. He
believed that the State should be
responsible for protecting the whole nation
which included the poor. He believed that this should be, if
necessary, at the
expense of the rich. Therefore, after World War Two he was determined to
change the
pre-war Conservative Party’s image which to him was an ally of
business and the upper classes, without
and apart from the working man. Such an
attitude was also reflected in his subsequent careers, notably the
foundation of the
“one nation” group in 1950 with Angus Maude being the first one; also in a
more
positive and analytic approach than Labour had shown to social problems when
they were in power
between 1945-51; and finally when he became the Colonial
Secretary during the “wind of change”
period, when be considered himself the
protector of the Africans, who he saw as oppressed, mainly in Central
Africa. His
preoccupation with the poor and oppressed, which began in 1946 when he joined
Lord
Butler’s team at the Conservative Research Department until his death in
1970 when he was the Chancellor,
concentrated mainly on trying to produce a
“property owning democracy” through tax reform. He
wished to see problems
such se unemployment and child poverty tackled. Macleod believed in
an
aristocracy of merit with its privileges, responsibilities and duties, but not an
aristocracy of
blood. This was because he was not born into it, and because there
was something old-fashioned, hierarchical,
and paternalist about it. However, he
was educated at Cambridge University and was also attracted by Whites
Club and
the horse racing and country houses of the “ruling class” world.
Macleod’s
concern for ordinary people, his genuine feeling for people suffering hardship
and
exploitation and generally his liberal views made him a suitable person for the

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213