Lord Holme
Your Memories
09.05.2008 : Christina Tyree wrote
I knew Richard from 1976 when I was a young volunteer with Liberal Action for Electoral Reform based in a broom cupboard sized office at top of the National Liberal Club. Richard had set up the all party Campaign for Electoral Reform. Rather than get caught up in a debate the type of electoral system he felt the way forward was to campaign for "Fair Votes".The logo was a green oak tree on a cream background. He organised and spoke at a packed rally in Victoria and organised a large lobby of Parliament to get PR for the Direct Euro Elections sadly we are not successful that time. I also helped him in his campaign to become Liberal Party President. He took the trouble to send me a personal thank you letter which I have kept to this day. This is a great loss to the Party. The campaign for Fair Votes has still not been won and I hope Lib-Dems will honour his memory by carrying the campaign forward. A true Liberal and a gentleman. My sympathy to family and Party friends. R.I.P.
Add memory |
Request removal
Debonair star of the Liberal Party and key adviser for the Lib Dems
Richard Holme, Baron Holme of Cheltenham, who died on 4 May, 2008, was a respected Liberal politician and a valued adviser to the leadership of the Liberal Democrats, noted for his urbane manner and restive enthusiasm.
He was a member of the Liberal Party for nearly three decades serving as its president for two years, running for Parliament five times and playing a key role in the merger with the Social Democratic Party in 1988.
He was made a non-hereditary peer in 1990, taking on the barony of Cheltenham. He sat in the Lords for the Liberal Democrats and continued to advise the party’s leadership, helping them make great progress in the Commons. In 2000 he was made a member of the Privy Council.
Richard Gordon Holme was born in London on 27 May, 1936. His father’s membership of the Freemasons opened the doors to the Royal Masonic School in Hertfordshire. During the 1950s he served for three years with the Gurkhas in Malaysia before going to Oxford where he studied law theory at St John’s College.
After graduating he worked for Unilever, Cavenham Foods and Penguin books. He would spend most of the rest of his life working in the publishing business, chairing and directing several firms.
He joined the Liberal Party in 1959 having been a member of several political societies at university. His ebullience quickly made him a star within a party very much in the shadows of British politics. He was handsome (some compared his looks to Clark Gable), quick-witted and well-read, but also a fervent believer in the central ideals of the liberal movement.
He was vice-chairman of the party’s executive by the age of 30 and worked closely with the David Steel who would later lead the party for 12 years. In 1980 he was made party president but it would be as Steel’s – and later Paddy Ashdown’s – adviser that he would prove most useful to the party.
He shaped policies, drafted speeches and most notably helped orchestrate the merger with the SDP. When Mr Ashdown took over the leadership of the nascent Liberal Democrats in 1988, Mr Holme continued to be a key figure, collaborating on campaigns for electoral reform and building closer relationships with Labour.
Around this time, rivals sniped that it was difficult to tell the difference between the leader and his counsel. They were also accused of being too eager for power following several compromises in policy designed to give the party greater centre appeal. When Holme was given his life peerage in 1990, critics raised concerns about a man who had previously unsuccessfully contested seats in East Grinstead, Braintree and Cheltenham being given an unelected position within the political system.
Nevertheless, the fact that he was the first Liberal given such a title in 10 years showed the esteem in which he was generally held. He became the Lib Dems’ spokesman on Northern Ireland, contributed to election manifestos and brokered crucial talks with Tony Blair ahead of the 1997 election, a contest that saw the party double its seats.
In 1999 he was appointment chairman of the Broadcasting Standards Commission, but stepped down in shame less than a year later after the News of the World revealed sordid details of an extra-marital affair. Despite this, Lord Holme rode the wave of the scandal with typical suavity and wit and was made a Privy Counsellor shortly afterwards.
He was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2007, but served out his time as chairman of the House of Lords Constitution Committee, eventually relieving himself of responsibility in October. He was survived by his wife of 50 years, Kathleen, their two sons and two daughters.
Paddy Ashdown was among the first to pay tribute to him: "My heart and thoughts go out to his wife and family. Richard was a man of outstanding talent, who was liberal to the core of his being. He was widely respected and shaped the course of British politics as no other non-elected Liberal has achieved."
Another former Lib Dem leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, said: "He was one of the most perceptive analysts of politics in this country. His advice was almost always right and his judgment impeccable."