Adrian Hilton
Encyclopedia
Adrian Hilton is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 politician who gained media attention during the 2005 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....

.

Hilton was acting assistant principal and faculty head (Politics & Philosophy) at Slough Grammar School
Slough Grammar School
The school is a Language College, a Science College, a Leading Edge School, an ICT-Focus School, a Training School, an International School under the International Baccalaureate Organization and a participant in the Primary Language Initiative. From September 2004 it has offered some International...

. He has written many magazine articles and The Principality and Power of Europe dealing with the constitutional issues raised by Britain's continuing relationship with the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

. The book carries a foreword by the former Speaker of the British House of Commons
Speaker of the British House of Commons
The Speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the United Kingdom's lower chamber of Parliament. The current Speaker is John Bercow, who was elected on 22 June 2009, following the resignation of Michael Martin...

 Viscount Tonypandy
George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy
Thomas George Thomas, 1st Viscount Tonypandy PC was a British Labour Party politician and Speaker of the House of Commons. Born in Port Talbot, Wales, he initially worked as a teacher in both London and Cardiff...

.

Along with Rodney Atkinson
Rodney Atkinson
Rodney Eric Bainbridge Atkinson is a British Eurosceptic conservative academic, political and economic commentator, journalist and author...

 and Norris McWhirter
Norris McWhirter
Norris Dewar McWhirter, CBE was a writer, political activist, co-founder of the Freedom Association, and a television presenter. He and his twin brother, Ross, were known internationally for the Guinness Book of Records, a book they wrote and annually updated together between 1955 and 1975...

, with whom he often shared political platforms, he has been vocal in his opinion of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

's policy of 'ever closer union'. He is a defender of the Act of Settlement 1701
Act of Settlement 1701
The Act of Settlement is an act of the Parliament of England that was passed in 1701 to settle the succession to the English throne on the Electress Sophia of Hanover and her Protestant heirs. The act was later extended to Scotland, as a result of the Treaty of Union , enacted in the Acts of Union...

. He holds a Guinness World Record for a non-stop recital of the Complete Works of Shakespeare
Complete Works of Shakespeare
Complete Works of William Shakespeare is the standard name given to any volume containing all the plays and poems of William Shakespeare. Some editions include several works which were not completely of Shakespeare's authorship , such as The Two Noble Kinsmen, a collaboration with John Fletcher, as...

, the idea for which came while "having a sauna
Sauna
A sauna is a small room or house designed as a place to experience dry or wet heat sessions, or an establishment with one or more of these and auxiliary facilities....

 with Roy Castle
Roy Castle
Roy Castle OBE was an English dancer, singer, comedian, actor, television presenter and musician. He attended Honley High School, where there is now a building in his name...

 during the summer of 1986".

Standing for Parliament

Hilton was selected as a parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party for Slough
Slough (UK Parliament constituency)
Slough is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...

 in the 2005 General Election.

He was asked to resign as a Conservative parliamentary candidate by Andrew MacKay following an article in the Catholic Herald
The Catholic Herald
The Catholic Herald is a London-based Roman Catholic newspaper, published in broadsheet format and retailing at £1.50 ....

which accused him of promoting anti-Catholic conspiracy theories. The newspaper cited material written by Hilton for The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...

two years earlier on the role of Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....

 in the EU and its implications for the British constitution, in which he had stated that the EU was "an amphictyony - a confederation of states established around a religious centre" in reaction to "the Pope's recent demand that 'God' be featured in the emerging European constitution" which had "been echoed by many leading Catholic politicians and bishops". Hilton had also said that the implication was that the Vatican "God" was what the Pope sought.

Hilton's article had been commissioned by The Spectator's editor, Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...

, then an MP and vice-chairman of the Conservative Party, in the context of the Pope's demands for 'God' to be featured in the then emerging Constitution for Europe
Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe , , was an unratified international treaty intended to create a consolidated constitution for the European Union...

. Its claims were criticised by Austen Ivereigh
Austen Ivereigh
Austen Ivereigh is a Roman Catholic journalist, commentator and campaigner. In he became coordinator of the Citizen Organising Foundation's Strangers into Citizens campaign and associate editor of the online magazine Godspy....

, spokesman for the Archbishop of Westminster
Archbishop of Westminster
The Archbishop of Westminster heads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Westminster, in England. The incumbent is the Metropolitan of the Province of Westminster and, as a matter of custom, is elected President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, and therefore de facto spokesman...

, who opined that "these views are bizarrely unhistorical and fundamentally erroneous. His case rests on an assumption that the English nation came into being only after the Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....

." Fraser Kemp
Fraser Kemp
Fraser Kemp is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Houghton and Washington East from 1997 to 2010, and had previously been a full-time employee of the Labour Party.-Early life:...

, who was involved in Hilton's opponent's campaign for the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

, argued that his "offensive opinions would not matter if he were simply a private citizen. But he is a candidate of a major political party trying to win a seat the Tories only lost in 1997."

Having refused to resign, Hilton was dismissed by Michael Howard
Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...

. When the Slough
Slough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...

 Conservative Association refused to deselect him, they were themselves suspended. Hilton was, however, supported by prominent Catholic journalist Charles Moore
Charles Moore (journalist)
Charles Hilary Moore is a British journalist and former editor of The Daily Telegraph.-Early life:He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge where he was awarded a BA in History and was a friend of Oliver Letwin.-Career:A former editor of The Spectator , the Sunday Telegraph and The...

 in The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

, who considered him a 'victim of religious persecution'. and said he had been sacked "unjustly", as the allegations against Hilton had already been made earlier on in the selection process and had been overruled. Theo Hobson
Theo Hobson
Theo Hobson is a British theologian. He was educated at St Paul's School in London; he read English Literature at the University of York, then theology at Cambridge University, where he was a member of Hughes Hall. He focused on the strongest voices of Protestant tradition: Martin Luther,...

 described the episode as evidence that "such blatant Romophobia is no longer tolerated", while Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...

 considered Hilton to have been "punished for thought-crime" and referred to the deselection as a "purge". In an article for The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

, Lord Rees-Mogg
William Rees-Mogg
William Rees-Mogg, Baron Rees-Mogg is an English journalist and life peer.-Education:Rees-Mogg was educated at Clifton College Preparatory School in Bristol and Charterhouse School in Godalming, followed by Balliol College, Oxford...

 criticised Michael Howard
Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...

 for not apologising to Hilton.

Later political career

In May 2006, Hilton was a candidate in the Slough local elections
Slough Council election 2006
Elections to Slough Borough Council were held on 4 May 2006. One third of the council was up for election. This was the 121st Slough general local authority election since Slough became a local government unit in 1863.Overall, the Labour Party gained three seats, the Conservative Party lost two...

 but failed to win the Cippenham
Cippenham
Cippenham is a suburb of the unitary authority of Slough in the county of Berkshire, England. It was transferred to Berkshire from Buckinghamshire in 1974.The name, Cippenham derives from the old English Cippan-ham, meaning Cippa's homestead....

 Meadows seat.

External links


  • Summary articles by Charles Moore in The Spectator, but require a subscription to read the entire article:


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