Career
What first interested you in politics?
That's easy. My father was a frustrated MP, a would-be MP, he never had enough money to really have a go at it, although he was asked to. He grew up in a Welsh mining town in the bad years after the First World War, where everybody was socialist, and he remained a staunch socialist to his dying day.
How did you begin your political career?
Well, I was always, because of my mother to some extent, politically aware and interested. That carried me through posh boarding schools when I was the only person in the school who supported Labour. Then at university, which of course was wonderful because it's a fantastic hotbed of political talk and activism, I joined all three political parties there to get the best out of each. When I came down, I had already gotten to know the Labour agent Bruce Denyer and he, in desperation when a candidate fell out just before the 1970 election, rang me up and said, "Will you stand?" I said, "I can't possibly, I just started on my own with my own law firm" but then I did of course and that was the start.
If you could have chosen any other career what would it have been?
Well, I must say having had a career as a Solicitor, it's been a wonderful career. I have to say, absolutely wonderful. I wouldn't swap it. But, if I had to swap it, I would either be a G.P. doctor or an architect.
What made you join the liberal democrats?
Well, as I say, I got expelled (rather careless of me, was it not?) in ‘73 when I was a Labor candidate up in North Norfolk. Basically, because I'm too stubborn and independent of view in a way that doesn't fit well with machine politics has developed. Perhaps that's an arrogant way of putting it, other people would say I'm just pigheaded. But I thought they were going completely the wrong way after the 1970 election and said so in print and that was my death-knell. So I thought I'd give politics a miss, but I was sucked back into it. One of the reasons I was chucked out of the Labor Party is I've never been a doctrinaire socialist. I've never believed in calls for nationalization, for example as a sort of end in itself and given that the “Lib Dems” have a long and distinguished record of progressive politics within what you might call a traditional framework, it was actually a natural home for me. The reason that I didn't go there originally was the reason that none of my generation went there, which is it seemed a no hope cause. They only had five MP's when I first started involvement; they've now got 65 MP's. So, that's the long and short of it.
What has been the most exciting aspect of your legal career?
Both the clients and the people I've worked with in it. The huge advantage I've had is that I started in general practice here in Sudbury with my dad in his small country practice. And in a way, I've never had better years, because you're in the middle of the community, you act for everybody - rich and poor, fat and thin - the whole, across the board. But then I set up on my own, as I say, in London. I'd had principally a charity law practice, which is rather odd, but also had done a lot of commercial work, defamation, all sorts. I'm a generalist by nature, I think. I've had wonderful clients. If you set up on your own, nobody comes to you by reputation, because you haven't got one. So I've had this luxury of acting virtually all my life for people I've wanted to act for, and wanted me to act for them. The second advantage has been that I've been able to select my own staff. The secretary's as important as the solicitors, and that's been fantastic. I have an endless curiosity about people, and electing staff is something I carried on long after I went into the House of Lords. It's the one thing I hung onto. And so it has been a great, great life.
What has been the highlight of your political career?
That is hard to say because, conventionally, I have had a very failed political career. I mean, I fought five times to get into Parliament, four times for the Commons, first is Labor. Then when they expelled me, for the Lib Dems, or the Liberals as they were, and then the Liberal Democrats. A forty European election - the first European election in, what was it, '79? So I have had, in that sense, a failed career, because I wanted to be a Commons man. Having said that, the fact that I was forced to live my life outside Westminster has led me into other opportunities, enjoyments, and fulfilments. It is very difficult for me to say what has been the most memorable of those. I think my last eight years I had in the House of Lords from '98 until last year, they were fascinating. So, too, was setting up a law firm and developing it. So, too, was I set up, I think three charities in my life, and they have been hugely influential with me. So, I am a lucky bunny really.
