New names of CCHQ rooms confirmed

As mentioned in the Pandora column recently, CCHQ is naming one of the few rooms it has in Millbank that isn't part of the open plan office after suffragette Emily Pankhurst. We can now reveal the names of the other Conservative social reformers honoured with room names: Churchill, Disraeli, Butler, Wilberforce, Thatcher and Shaftesbury.

A memo from Francis Maude describes the reasoning behind each one:

"Known for his war leadership, Churchill’s stoic defence of liberal democracy preserved the legacy of freedom we enjoy today. No Conservative HQ could be complete without a Churchill Room.

Disraeli was of course one of the Party’s defining Leaders. As Prime Minister from 1874 to 1880 he pushed through the largest tranche of social reform legislation in the nineteenth century.

Emmeline Pankhurst was both a pioneering suffragette and subsequently a Parliamentary Candidate for the Conservatives. Her role in securing women’s right to vote is genuinely historic.

Rab Butler ensured a secondary education for every British child, regardless of social class or ability to pay. The 1944 Act that bears his name was a defining moment in the twentieth century.

William Wilberforce was of course the man who ended the slave trade, and by involving black abolitionists in his campaign was instrumental in the earliest stages of a long process in which black people eventually achieved equal rights.

Margaret Thatcher gave the poorest in society a way to buy their own homes and an opportunity to own shares; her 1988 Royal Society Speech put environmentalism and global warming on the political agenda; and her Scarman Enquiry began to engage Britain’s disaffected inner city youth.

Lord Shaftesbury’s campaigns for legislative reform improved access to education, improved conditions in factories and restricted child labour."

A great blend of tradition and "modern compassionate conservatism".

Deputy Editor

Comments

[RobC]

What?! What a disgrace! How come no rooms have been named after Iain Duncan Smith.

Have they named the Gents yet?

[Paul Oakley]

A respectable range of names, but why on earth are the achievements of Disraeli, Butler and Thatcher described only in cuddly, lefty terms?

Glad there's no Heath Room mind you.

[Steven Bainbridge]

The reasoning behind the Thatcher room is unsurprisingly weak.

Why not mention privatisation? Curbing the trade union domination? Standing up to Europe? Rolling back the frontiers of the state?

Are these things which the "Cameron Conservatives" don't wish to remember anymore? Obviously...

[Umbrella man]

I agree Steven. The citation for Maggie T focuses on her subsidiary rather than her principal achievements.

[Andy Peterkin]

Where is the Iron Duke?

[The Countess Markovich]

It's disgusting that a room name has not been reserved for Enoch Powell.

Shame on CCHQ.

[Simple sword of Truth]

"Margaret Thatcher gave the poorest in society a way to buy their own homes and an opportunity to own shares"

Bollocks!

[Disraeli]

A good choice of rooms and names. A Macmillan room would have been good but I understand their reasons for going for Butler.

Steven Bainbridge - would 'standing up to Europe' mean signing the Single European Act and guillotining the debate in Parliament?

[Disraeli]

Simple Sword of Truth - I'm not sure why you define that as b**locks. Spreading wealth from the few to the many was a magnificent achievement and helped those who would previously not have had the means to fulfil their dreams of home ownership and gain a stake in a share owning democracy.

[Gordon Pearce]

As you describe these rooms as the few that aren't part of the open plan office, it's another meaningless (and literally peripheral gesture) unless the open plan office itself is dubbed.

It can only be... the Cameron Room. A large, vaccuous space devoid of ideas, intelligence or individuality, all under the creepy gaze of Big Brother Maude.

[Anon]

She sunk the Belgrano, the wets and the Labour Party (RIP FCS).

[Deputy Editor]

RobC, I understand there was talk of a Duncan-Smith room but they decided against it as he was still active in politics.

[Rob Largan]

No room named after Peel? What outrage is this!

[Umbrella man]

Few have done more to stand for compassionate conservatism than IDS.

[Kevin Davis]

Why is naming a bunch of rooms important? Where are supposed to be a political party not interior decorators!

[Colonel Hayes]

Nice one, RobC, but why name only the gents after Duncan Smith in this age of all-embracing Tory inclusivity?

As there were, of course, two brothers involved in the Duncan Smith Farce, according to Paul Merton, i.e. Iain and Duncan Smith, I propose the Iain Gents and the Duncan Ladies.

Not forgetting the Smith Disabled.

[Sibthorp]

It's a grave oversight that we don't have a Lord Eldon room.

[Lewis Julian]

I support the campaign to name the gents after IDS, but as long as they're for Quiet Men only. No turning up the volume, it's not appealing in there (or on conference platforms).

[Colonel Hayes]

What other rooms would be appropriate for the honour of association with our great, fallen, bald leader?

Ideas on a postage stamp, please.

I'll start the ball rolling with the Duncan Smith Broom Cupboard.

[Billy Baldygrave]

Colonel Hayes, surely you mean the IDS Closet, in honour of the man who paved the way for all things Cameroonian?

[Veruca Tilliers]

I propose the Duncan Smith Garden Shed.

[Lewis Julian]

Excellent idea from the Colonel.

The Iain Duncan Smith Smoking Room sounds about right. And stop, before you all try to tell me that it wouldn't be allowed anymore, because you see that is exactly why it would be suitable.

[Donal Blaney]

The Norman Tebbit On Yer Bike Racks?

[TFA Tory]

I propose a Ted Heath cottage to be donated by Brian Coleman!

[Billy Baldygrave]

Veruca, are you sure about that garden shed idea? I don't think CCHQ has a garden other than Starbucks Back Yard.

It may have a few artificial flowers around the place though.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I declare the Duncan Smith Plant Pot open.

[Colonel Hayes]

Billy, don't be so disparaging about Starbucks Back Yard. You can make good use of anything with a little resourcefulness.

The IDS Rubbish Skip, for example.

[Lewis Julian]

Plant pot?
Shurely the IDS Teapot!

[Donald Jeffreyson]

I would suggest the Duncan Smith Creche, preferably one of those playpens filled with balls. But it would be full of CCHQ staff all the time.

[Ruth Lea Oswald]

The Iain Duncan Smith Fire Escape (with genuine rust) - all the way to the bottom.

[Editor]

You have made your point Ruth Lea Oswald/ Donald Jeffreyson/ Lewis Julian/ Billy Baldegrave/ Veruca Tillers. Very funny and funny how you all have the same IP address.

[Londoner]

The reason for the strange citation for Mrs Thatcher is that they decided the rooms should be named after social reformers but, to ensure they didn't get protests, they had to have a room named after her anyway. Even though her greatest achievements were not social reforms but economic and deregulatory ones. Council house and share sales did not help "the poor" but expanded the middle ranks - a very worthwhile thing but not the same.

However, I agree that the omission of Peel is a blunder. Not only did he push through the crucial repeal of the corn laws (an economic measure but with huge beneficial social consequences and undertaken from deep compassionate motives) but also set up the Met police, a key element in establishing urban order; as well of course actually being, by most historians' lights, the founder of the Modern Conservative Party with the Tamworth Manifesto. Any controversy from his followers (including Gladstone) having drifted away from the party after his demise is presumably water under the bridge, but maybe someone in Central Office still bears a grudge from the 1850s. Or, more likely, the person drawing up the list was a spin doctor rather than a historian.

[Phil Whittington]

I worked for Iain Duncan Smith at the CSJ for a few months last year and while I came to disagree, sometimes quite significantly, with the CSJ's way of viewing things, I don't doubt that IDS's intentions are honourable.

It is possible that he will be remembered more fondly than perhaps he is at the moment for his period as leader. Either way, it's sad to see people attacking him like this in public.

Re Thatcher - yes, I think it is a real shame that the justifications weasels out of lending support to her main achievements. From a PR point of view, perhaps it would have been better just to pick the names and let people project their own justifications onto them.

If one had to pick achievements, I think a rescue of this country's economic position, increasing social mobility and allowing people to work in an environment where they are no longer controlled by the unions (all of which are kind of related, I guess)

PW

[James Tumbridge]

I wondered if they even thought to honour Lord Salisbury? He was responisble for launching a land reform programme which helped hundreds of thousands of Irish men gain land ownership. He also had great concern to see provision for the poor of India whilst Secretary of State, feeling great shame for the failure to take more positive action over the drought and subsequent famine of 1866. Like Thatcher his greatest achievements were not in social reform but he was probably the greatest Conservative leader of the 19th Century.

[Steven Bainbridge]

Greg Dyke Media Room, anyone?

[ACT]

Maybe there should have been a 'Liverpool' room, honouring political endurance and simultaneously apologising yet again for Boris? Or perhaps a Hague Room, where Steve Hilton could sit whenever he needs to brief against a member of the front bench?

[M Burgess]

During World War I Pankhurst toured the country, making recruiting speeches. She and her supporters handed white feathers to every young man they encountered wearing civilian dress, for whom they demanded internment.

[garypowell]

Thatcher gave the country back to its people. Thus prooving what all right wing libertarians take for granted. That it is people, freely interacting, that make a country rich prosperous and keep it free and tolerent. Not governments and least of all socialist goverments of any type or political wing.

This alone is more important than all the social reforms made by old Toffs in the Conservative party except Churchill. Who is the father and savior of the modern British nation. This because these other social reforms you state would have happened anyway at a later date.

Without the 1975 Thatcher revolution the Conservative party would now only be a footnote in an history book, and written out of all new ones entirely.

[garypowell]

What a shame that Pankhurst believed in the rights of women to take resonsibility for buggering up the place along side men.

But did not think rights extended to young men not wishing to die a horrible death trying to stop a German foot, from standing on a bit of muddy Belgium instead of a French one.

[comstock]

Margaret Thatcher gave the poorest in society a way to buy their own homes and an opportunity to own shares

OH MY GAWD........1984 has finally arrived. Talk about re-writing history.

I mean, come off it. You could try and make a case that there needed to be changes and sadly some of those changes impacted on the poorest, but to actually claim Thatcher was a friend of the poor?!?!

Gobsmacked doesn't even come close!

[Geoff]

Can't face the truth, comstock? I understand that you would rather not accept it, but it it true.

[Londoner]

As a Thatcher fan until my dieing day, I agree that Comstock at 21:17 is right. "The poorest in society" never bought their Council houses or bought shares. If it had said "gave many their first opportunity to buy their own homes and to own shares" or "radically increased the proportion of those with a stake in capitalism by..." it would be right, but wouldn't have necessarily fitted this "social reforming" theme. But, if the Party stays in their new building for more than the five minutes they've stayed in some of their recent ones (is it deliberate so party members don't know how to write in to complain any more?), people will soon forget the theme and enjoy the Thatcher room. After a bit maybe someone could smuggle in a framed collage of the front pages of all the major privatisation prospectuses to go on its walls.

[James Maskell]

Silly little stunts like this completely detract from the serious business we should be devoting ourselves. Less style, more substance please...

[congacong]

I'm thinking of starting a synchronised throwing up team, everytime CCHQ make an announcement like this, we could run to CCHQ and vomit all over the pavement in front of it. I wonder how long their silly stunts would continue.