How to complain?
Christopher Ward
Pressure Groups in Britain 1720-1970 Graham Wooton (Allen Lane E8.50) After which successful public protest was it said of the Government, "They have learned that there is in public opinion a power much greater than that which resides in any particular form of government." The Say-NoTo-Maplin campaign? The anti-sex-discrimination lobby? The self-martyrdom of the Clay Cross councillors?
None of these, actually. The speaker was John Bright, chairman of the Anti-Corn Law League which fought for seven years before succeeding in persuading the • Government to repeal the Corn Law in 1846. They would have won in half that time if Panorama and This Week had been around.
Graham Wooton has traced the growth and development of pressure groups in Britain from 1720 to 1970. In many ways it is a reassuring work because he shows that the well-ordered, well-supported democratic protest has, and still does, succeed. You don't have to have a just cause but, if you do, it helps. Pressure groups, of course, aren't only those publicity-catching, commando-like protesters who fight for a cause and then, win or lose, disband. They include dinosaur-like organisations such as the TUC, the CBI, the RSPCA, the Red Cross, who themselves need to be prodded into action by pressure groups from within. The author's list is by no means complete — group protest is, after all, one of the few booming, expanding businesses these days. But it is hard to imagine that there is a citizen, animal, bird or bush in Britain that doesn't have a pressure group of some sort rooting for his, her or its interests. And maybe that is why Britain is "drifting slowly towards ungovernability" in the opinion of CBS commentator Eric Sevareid whose remarks caused such a fuss recently. Perhaps Britain is now governed by corporate pressure groups. Perhaps, when Mr Heath went to the country to seek a mandate from the people, the Tory Government was just another pressure group — one that couldn't quite raise the required number of signatures on the electoral petition supporting its cause. Pressure Groups in Britain is an uncannily topical book. In 1721 the Government was successfully prevailed upon by the woollen and silk industries to ban the import of calico which was enjoying considerable popularity at the time. Might we soon hear similar representations about foreign cars from the shop flOor at British Leyland? And the double-standards of the Orange Order apply as much today as they did in 1829: "No man, unless his creed be Protestant, and his principles loyal, can associate with us . . . We reject also an intolerant spirit."
And anyone who thought environmental causes were the prerogative of the 'sixties and 'seventies ought to know that, without the Commons (Open Spaces and Footpaths) Preservation Society of 1865, Wimbledon Common, Hampstead Heath and Epping Forest probably wouldn't be with us today.
It's a pity that Mr Wooton's turgid academic style reflects so little of the panache and daring of the rebels he is writing about. More serious a criticism is that such a book, published in 1975, should virtually dismiss the Women's Movement in two pages — the only reference being an inadequate 1971 news report reprinted from the Times (Even the Engineering Employers' Federation gets three pages.)
Who will buy this book? Students of 'sociology and political history, obviously. But also, I suspect, the badgers and the badgered because, buried away in it, is all anyone needs to know about forming a successful pressure group. You must expect to encounter fierce opposition to your cause, as John Wesley did when attempting to abolish the slave trade in 1787. ("They will employ hireling writers, who would have neither justice nor mercy . . You must rally the Press on your side, as the Catholic Association of Ireland recognized in 1823 when they voted to admit reporters to all their meetings.
A petition is essential, and (like the Catholic Association) you must not worry too much if the petitioners have no idea what they're actually signing ("The greatest exertions should be made to obtain a number of signatures. Every person in the chapel, or in the parish, who can write should be called upon to subscribe his name . . .") However small your pressure group, form a council or committee even if you end up being chairman, secretary, treasurer. It makes people think you're stronger, better supported than you probably are.
Produce a campaigning leaflet setting out your aims and arguments and those of the opposition. An anti-Corn Law leaflet written in 1840 in the style of modern popular journalism serves as a marvellous blueprint of how to put an argument over. Find a rousing slogan. The anti-slave trade lobby would probably have taken ten years longer to win their victory were it not for their stirring watchword, "Man can hold no property in man." Identify your cause with a visual symbol or badge, as the Peace Movement did with the CND sign. Mr Wooton quotes an article in the New Daily which rightly describes the CND symbol as "the most successful symbol since the Swastika."
Pressure groups are inspired and organised by people, and unfortunately there is far too little evidence of human beings in this book. But occasionally they manage to fight their way through the text. When the battle is won, for instance, parting campaigners often suffer sweet sorrow. As John Bright said: " .. we are about to separate finally from friends with whom we have been long connected, and we have no longer in pursuit an object, which has been the most cherished of our lives." Though the author rightly observes that "organisations tend to live longer than the issues they originally encapsulated." Perhaps this is just as well. Sometimes it is not enough to win a battle once. You have to win it twice:
A massive campaign to win the hearts and minds of the British people for or against going into Europe is under way. It is likely to be the biggest exercise in public persuasion of its kind ever undertaken in Britain. At present it is a straight fight between those in favour and those against entry, but all shades of political opinion are involved because the issue cuts across party lines.
A recent report from the Times? It appeared in November 1970 when (as we now know) the pro and anti Marketeers were going through the dress rehearsal for this year's Referendum.
Christopher Ward, a columnist for the Daily Mirror, has most recently written How To Complain,
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