Donald McIntosh Johnson
Encyclopedia
Dr Donald McIntosh Johnson (17 February 1903 – 5 November 1978) was a British
general practitioner
, author and politician who was a Member of Parliament
for nine years. He regarded himself as a 'Cassandra
' (one whose prophecies were true but never believed), and he was described by one observer as "an eccentric man of considerable personal charm and egotistical obstinacy" who had failed to prove it was possible to be both a Conservative
and Independent
MP at the same time.
family and was sent to Cheltenham College
(an Independent school
), where he did well, and Gonville and Caius College
, Cambridge
, where he read medicine and obtained a first class honours degree. Interested in entering the profession of medicine, he went on to St Bartholomew's Hospital
on an Entrance Scholarship.
Donald Johnson was married twice and fathered three children, two boys and a girl (Carol). His second wife, Betty, who he met at the Marlborough Arms (see below), died in 1979.
Expedition of 1926; when he returned, he took up the post of Casualty Officer at the Metropolitan Hospital in London. In 1927 he was House Physician at the East London Hospital for Children
. In 1928, his love of travel having again taken him away from Britain, he was Medical Officer to the Harrington Harbour Hospital in Quebec
, which was run by the International Grenfell Association, a charity.
Johnson returned to become a General Practitioner
at Thornton Heath
in Croydon
, south London
, from 1930. In that year he was also called to the Bar, although he never practised. He became interested in politics and active in the Liberal Party
, and in the 1935 general election
he was the Liberal Party's candidate in Bury
.
retired and was given a Peerage. With the Labour Party
not fielding a candidate, the Liberal camp felt optimistic. Johnson was beaten by 6,543 votes, in a constituency
in which Baldwin had been unopposed at the two previous elections.
at Oxford University
from 1937. As war threatened in July 1939 he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps
(TA), being commissioned as a Captain and serving in Bristol
. During the Blitz
on London, Johnson's Belgian
first wife Christiane Coussaert whom he had married in 1928 was killed by German bombs.
Johnson himself moved to Woodstock, Oxfordshire
where he bought the Marlborough Arms Hotel. He remained interested in politics and at the Liberal Party Assembly in 1941 he protested against the "generally stagnant state" of the party, as well as the effects of the political truce. This position was held by a group of other Liberals and after the speech Johnson found himself made Chairman of the "Liberal Action" group (later known as "Radical Action") which they formed. He was a member of the Liberal Central Council.
was vacated by the death of Victor Cazalet
in an aircraft crash, he decided to fight the resulting by-election
as an unofficial Liberal candidate. As with other wartime by-elections, a large part of the electorate was engaged in war service and in Chippenham most of the rest were involved in agriculture. Johnson fought a vigorous campaign, asserting that victory was close and asking whether victorious troops would "return to a Tory-controlled world of unearned privilege on the one hand and frustrated ambitions and 2,000,000 unemployed on the other?" Due to the electoral truce, the Conservative candidate was officially supported by the leader of the Liberal Party, Sir Archibald Sinclair
, and by the Communist Party of Great Britain
, which Johnson attacked as "unwarrantable interference". The result gave the Conservative candidate David Eccles
a majority of only 195; Johnson believed the Sinclair letter had been decisive in losing him the seat.
In the aftermath of Chippenham, Johnson had serious thoughts about fighting the next by-election, in Peterborough. However, a local unofficial Labour candidate was found and Johnson abandoned his campaign. In the 1945 general election
Johnson fought Chippenham again. Although selected as an official Liberal candidate, he presented himself to the electors as an "Independent Liberal". He came bottom of the poll, beaten by Eccles and Labour candidate Andrew Tomlinson; Johnson had tried to persuade the Labour Party to stand down in his favour again, but without success.
and to join the Conservatives from David Eccles, who had beaten him in Chippenham. "After months of agonising reappraisal" he decided to join the Conservatives, recruited by their slogan "set the people free".
In 1946 Johnson wrote a book called "The End of Socialism", subtitled "The reflections of a radical". It was described as "an essay in anti-collectivist philosophy". He had revised his views since 1943 and had joined the Society of Individualists, which was later to become Society for Individual Freedom
. In 1947 he signed a statement of principles in a pamphlet called "Design for Freedom" published by individual members of the Conservative and Liberal Parties with a view to merger. The idea of a merger of the parties was strongly resisted by the Liberal leadership. Johnson was approved on the list of Conservative Parliamentary candidates, but found difficulty in getting approval from selection committees which he felt was down to his Liberal background.
Johnson became a publisher in the late 1940s, setting up his own company specialising in travel and cricket
books. Among his authors were S. P. B. Mais, and Johnson himself wrote an epilogue for Jonathan Swift
's "A Voyage to Laputa" asking whether Swift had predicted the end of socialism. He married his second wife, Betty Plaisted, in 1947. Among his own full works were "A Doctor Regrets" (1948), "Bars and Barricades" (1952) and "Indian Hemp, a Social Menace" (1952).
During this period, Johnson was appointed as a member of the Croydon Medical Board by the Ministry of Labour and National Service in 1951. He was an active member of Sutton and Cheam
Conservative Association, and in 1951 he was elected a member of Sutton and Cheam borough council
.
candidate for Carlisle
, a constituency held by Labour. He achieved a swing of 4% and won the seat by 370 votes; Carlisle was one of only three seats which the Conservatives won with a swing of over the average.
He began his Parliamentary career by campaigning for the continued prescription of heroin to addicts who presented for treatment, in the light of the ban that was then in prospect. His maiden speech
was not until February 1956, in which he called for a standstill in wage increases and dividends in the short term, and wage increases tied to production increases in the long term. He soon made his mark as a rebellious MP, who voted against the Government's Coal Industry Bill which allowed increased borrowing by the National Coal Board. He openly criticised the Government for not making any mention of health in the 1956 Queen's Speech.
One long campaign by Johnson was to improve psychiatric
services on the National Health Service
. He also took up the cause of mental hospitals, to which he believed too many old people were being wrongly committed. He pressed for restrictions on the pharmaceutical industry, arguing that old-fashioned remedies such as Sodium bicarbonate
and Epsom salts often worked just as well.
, Johnson became the first person in either House of Parliament to raise the possible appointment of an Ombudsman
in a written question answered on 5 November 1959. He strongly opposed a proposal to introduce merit awards and differential payments for doctors. He was derisive about a Government proposal to allow "healers who claim to cure disease by super-normal means" to practise in hospitals in 1960.
Johnson had kept up his output of books up, including "A Doctor Returns" (1956) and "A Doctor in Parliament" (1958). He had supported the Net Book Agreement
by which resale prices of books were fixed and after Penguin books
were acquitted of publishing an obscene
book in Lady Chatterley's Lover
, he asked for a system in which publishers could voluntarily submit books for clearance which would be an absolute defence. In April 1961 he broke the Conservative whip to support the return of corporal punishment
.
s in Carlisle in 1916, retaining ownership ever since. Johnson urged that this experiment be ended. He served on the Standing Committee debating the Licensing Bill in 1961, and persuaded the Government to accept a clause requiring that drinking water be available in all licensed premises. He also succeeded in getting other operators allowed to open licensed premises in Carlisle, and the Government pledged to look at the future of the experiment.
Johnson took up his campaign for an Ombudsman again in May 1961, initiating a debate on 19 May, working together with Labour MP Hugh Delargy
. This was the first debate on the proposition. In February 1962 he sought leave to introduce a Bill to make vaccination
compulsory, but found the suggestion resisted and lost the vote by 186 to 77. He wrote "Welcome to Harmony" (1962) and the provocatively-titled "The British National Health Service: Friend or Frankenstein?" later that year.
's response to the Profumo Affair
. 26 other Conservatives abstained, which reduced the Government's majority to 69; Johnson was much taken by his friend and fellow Conservative MP Henry Kerby
's pointing out the sexual connotations of the number, later commenting "I am not sure what the late Professor Jung
would have made of this one".
Outside the House of Commons, Johnson declared that he could not possibly fight his constituency if Macmillan remained as Prime Minister, and later called for Lord Home to take over the premiership.
This demonstration of disloyalty was badly received by the executive of Carlisle Conservative Association, who voted to begin to select a different candidate. Although Macmillan did resign and Home was appointed as his successor, Johnson declared that he was considering resigning his seat, because he had been "shot out as if I were an office boy"; however he admitted that friends in Parliament were urging him to stay. When the Association called a meeting to discuss his candidature for 30 December, Johnson declared that he wanted the press admitted. They were admitted, and at the end, the executive's vote of no confidence in Johnson was upheld by 138 to 31.
On 23 January 1964 Johnson gave up the Conservative Party whip
in the House of Commons
. He described himself as an Independent Conservative and in June sought leave to introduce a Bill to bring in the Single Transferable Vote
system; leave was refused by 137 to 20. Johnson made the case for the Bill as a way of reducing local party discipline over MPs, and shortly after published a pamphlet called "The Political Hatchet Men" which argued that the disciplinary powers of the Whips had been transferred to local constituency chairmen.
as a "Conservative and Independent
". He had a formidable campaign organisation but won only 2.9% of the vote, which experts described as "substantially below recent votes for rebel M.P.s".
In June 1966 Johnson settled a libel
action against the publishers of the "Cumberland Evening News" over a letter published two days before polling day in the 1964 general election. The letter had been from Trevor Rabbidge, who was Johnson's agent in 1955, and was described by Johnson's counsel as "[presenting] a distorted picture of the plaintiff's political and personal history".
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
general practitioner
General practitioner
A general practitioner is a medical practitioner who treats acute and chronic illnesses and provides preventive care and health education for all ages and both sexes. They have particular skills in treating people with multiple health issues and comorbidities...
, author and politician who was a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for nine years. He regarded himself as a 'Cassandra
Cassandra
In Greek mythology, Cassandra was the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Her beauty caused Apollo to grant her the gift of prophecy...
' (one whose prophecies were true but never believed), and he was described by one observer as "an eccentric man of considerable personal charm and egotistical obstinacy" who had failed to prove it was possible to be both a 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...
and Independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
MP at the same time.
Family and education
Johnson was from a LancashireLancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
family and was sent to Cheltenham College
Cheltenham College
Cheltenham College is a co-educational independent school, located in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.One of the public schools of the Victorian period, it was opened in July 1841. An Anglican foundation, it is known for its classical, military and sporting traditions.The 1893 book Great...
(an Independent school
Independent school
An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...
), where he did well, and Gonville and Caius College
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college is often referred to simply as "Caius" , after its second founder, John Keys, who fashionably latinised the spelling of his name after studying in Italy.- Outline :Gonville and...
, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, where he read medicine and obtained a first class honours degree. Interested in entering the profession of medicine, he went on to St Bartholomew's Hospital
St Bartholomew's Hospital
St Bartholomew's Hospital, also known as Barts, is a hospital in Smithfield in the City of London, England.-Early history:It was founded in 1123 by Raherus or Rahere , a favourite courtier of King Henry I...
on an Entrance Scholarship.
Donald Johnson was married twice and fathered three children, two boys and a girl (Carol). His second wife, Betty, who he met at the Marlborough Arms (see below), died in 1979.
Early career
In 1926 Johnson qualified as a doctor. His first medical job was as Medical Officer on the Cambridge University East GreenlandGreenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
Expedition of 1926; when he returned, he took up the post of Casualty Officer at the Metropolitan Hospital in London. In 1927 he was House Physician at the East London Hospital for Children
Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children in London, England was formed from the 1942 merger of the Queen's Hospital for Children in Bethnal Green and the Princess Elizabeth of York Hospital for Children, Shadwell. The Shadwell site was closed in 1963. In 1996 the hospital became part of The Royal...
. In 1928, his love of travel having again taken him away from Britain, he was Medical Officer to the Harrington Harbour Hospital in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, which was run by the International Grenfell Association, a charity.
Johnson returned to become a General Practitioner
General practitioner
A general practitioner is a medical practitioner who treats acute and chronic illnesses and provides preventive care and health education for all ages and both sexes. They have particular skills in treating people with multiple health issues and comorbidities...
at Thornton Heath
Thornton Heath
Thornton Heath is a district of south London, England, in the London Borough of Croydon. It is situated south-southeast of Charing Cross.-Geography:...
in Croydon
Croydon
Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
, south London
South London
South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...
, from 1930. In that year he was also called to the Bar, although he never practised. He became interested in politics and active in the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
, and in the 1935 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1935
The United Kingdom general election held on 14 November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Conservative Stanley Baldwin. The greatest number of MPs, as before, were Conservative, while the National Liberal vote held steady...
he was the Liberal Party's candidate in Bury
Bury (UK Parliament constituency)
Bury was a borough constituency centred on the town of Bury in Lancashire. It returned one Member of Parliament ) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
.
By-election candidate
In 1936 Johnson retired from full-time work to devote himself to politics. In May 1937 he was chosen as the Liberal candidate at the Bewdley by-election, caused after Prime Minister Stanley BaldwinStanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC was a British Conservative politician, who dominated the government in his country between the two world wars...
retired and was given a Peerage. With 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...
not fielding a candidate, the Liberal camp felt optimistic. Johnson was beaten by 6,543 votes, in a constituency
Bewdley (UK Parliament constituency)
Bewdley was the name of a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1605 until 1950. Until 1885 it was a parliamentary borough in Worcestershire, represented by one Member of Parliament; the name was then transferred to a county constituency from 1885 until...
in which Baldwin had been unopposed at the two previous elections.
Wartime activities
Johnson worked as a part-time Demonstrator of AnatomyAnatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
at Oxford University
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
from 1937. As war threatened in July 1939 he enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...
(TA), being commissioned as a Captain and serving in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
. During the Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
on London, Johnson's Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
first wife Christiane Coussaert whom he had married in 1928 was killed by German bombs.
Johnson himself moved to Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Woodstock, Oxfordshire
Woodstock is a small town northwest of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. It is the location of Blenheim Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Winston Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace in 1874 and is buried in the nearby village of Bladon....
where he bought the Marlborough Arms Hotel. He remained interested in politics and at the Liberal Party Assembly in 1941 he protested against the "generally stagnant state" of the party, as well as the effects of the political truce. This position was held by a group of other Liberals and after the speech Johnson found himself made Chairman of the "Liberal Action" group (later known as "Radical Action") which they formed. He was a member of the Liberal Central Council.
Chippenham by-election
In 1943, when the constituency of ChippenhamChippenham (UK Parliament constituency)
Chippenham is a parliamentary constituency, abolished in 1983 but recreated in 2010, and 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...
was vacated by the death of Victor Cazalet
Victor Cazalet
Colonel Victor Alexander Cazalet MC was a British Conservative Party Member of Parliament .Cazalet was commissioned into the Queen's Own West Kent Yeomanry in 1915 and reached the rank of Captain, winning the Military Cross in 1917...
in an aircraft crash, he decided to fight the resulting by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
as an unofficial Liberal candidate. As with other wartime by-elections, a large part of the electorate was engaged in war service and in Chippenham most of the rest were involved in agriculture. Johnson fought a vigorous campaign, asserting that victory was close and asking whether victorious troops would "return to a Tory-controlled world of unearned privilege on the one hand and frustrated ambitions and 2,000,000 unemployed on the other?" Due to the electoral truce, the Conservative candidate was officially supported by the leader of the Liberal Party, Sir Archibald Sinclair
Archibald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso
Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso KT, CMG, PC , known as Sir Archibald Sinclair, Bt between 1912 and 1952, and often as Archie Sinclair, was a British politician and leader of the Liberal Party....
, and by the Communist Party of Great Britain
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
, which Johnson attacked as "unwarrantable interference". The result gave the Conservative candidate David Eccles
David Eccles, 1st Viscount Eccles
David McAdam Eccles, 1st Baron Eccles and 1st Viscount Eccles, CH, KCVO, MP, PC was an English Conservative politician....
a majority of only 195; Johnson believed the Sinclair letter had been decisive in losing him the seat.
In the aftermath of Chippenham, Johnson had serious thoughts about fighting the next by-election, in Peterborough. However, a local unofficial Labour candidate was found and Johnson abandoned his campaign. In the 1945 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1945
The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...
Johnson fought Chippenham again. Although selected as an official Liberal candidate, he presented himself to the electors as an "Independent Liberal". He came bottom of the poll, beaten by Eccles and Labour candidate Andrew Tomlinson; Johnson had tried to persuade the Labour Party to stand down in his favour again, but without success.
Political shift
After his defeat in 1945, Johnson resigned from the Liberal Party, due to "disappointment at the hopelessness of the Liberals". He received invitations to join the Labour Party from Frank PakenhamFrank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford
Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford KG, PC , known as the Lord Pakenham from 1945 to 1961, was a British politician, author, and social reformer...
and to join the Conservatives from David Eccles, who had beaten him in Chippenham. "After months of agonising reappraisal" he decided to join the Conservatives, recruited by their slogan "set the people free".
In 1946 Johnson wrote a book called "The End of Socialism", subtitled "The reflections of a radical". It was described as "an essay in anti-collectivist philosophy". He had revised his views since 1943 and had joined the Society of Individualists, which was later to become Society for Individual Freedom
Society for Individual Freedom
The Society for Individual Freedom is a United Kingdom-based association of libertarians, classical liberals, free-market conservatives and others promoting individual freedom....
. In 1947 he signed a statement of principles in a pamphlet called "Design for Freedom" published by individual members of the Conservative and Liberal Parties with a view to merger. The idea of a merger of the parties was strongly resisted by the Liberal leadership. Johnson was approved on the list of Conservative Parliamentary candidates, but found difficulty in getting approval from selection committees which he felt was down to his Liberal background.
Johnson became a publisher in the late 1940s, setting up his own company specialising in travel and cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
books. Among his authors were S. P. B. Mais, and Johnson himself wrote an epilogue for Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
's "A Voyage to Laputa" asking whether Swift had predicted the end of socialism. He married his second wife, Betty Plaisted, in 1947. Among his own full works were "A Doctor Regrets" (1948), "Bars and Barricades" (1952) and "Indian Hemp, a Social Menace" (1952).
During this period, Johnson was appointed as a member of the Croydon Medical Board by the Ministry of Labour and National Service in 1951. He was an active member of Sutton and Cheam
Sutton and Cheam (UK Parliament constituency)
Sutton and Cheam is a 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. The current MP is Paul Burstow of the Liberal Democrats, first elected at the 1997 general election...
Conservative Association, and in 1951 he was elected a member of Sutton and Cheam borough council
Municipal Borough of Sutton and Cheam
Sutton and Cheam was a local government district in north east Surrey, England from 1882 to 1965.Sutton Local Government District was formed on 20 December 1882, when the parish of Sutton adopted the Local Government Act 1858...
.
Carlisle MP
In February 1954, Johnson was chosen as prospective Conservative PartyConservative 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...
candidate for Carlisle
Carlisle (UK Parliament constituency)
Carlisle is a 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. It was a Labour seat from 1964 until 2010, although the Conservatives came close to victory in the elections in...
, a constituency held by Labour. He achieved a swing of 4% and won the seat by 370 votes; Carlisle was one of only three seats which the Conservatives won with a swing of over the average.
He began his Parliamentary career by campaigning for the continued prescription of heroin to addicts who presented for treatment, in the light of the ban that was then in prospect. His maiden speech
Maiden speech
A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament.Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country...
was not until February 1956, in which he called for a standstill in wage increases and dividends in the short term, and wage increases tied to production increases in the long term. He soon made his mark as a rebellious MP, who voted against the Government's Coal Industry Bill which allowed increased borrowing by the National Coal Board. He openly criticised the Government for not making any mention of health in the 1956 Queen's Speech.
One long campaign by Johnson was to improve psychiatric
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
services on the National Health Service
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
. He also took up the cause of mental hospitals, to which he believed too many old people were being wrongly committed. He pressed for restrictions on the pharmaceutical industry, arguing that old-fashioned remedies such as Sodium bicarbonate
Sodium bicarbonate
Sodium bicarbonate or sodium hydrogen carbonate is the chemical compound with the formula Na HCO3. Sodium bicarbonate is a white solid that is crystalline but often appears as a fine powder. It has a slightly salty, alkaline taste resembling that of washing soda . The natural mineral form is...
and Epsom salts often worked just as well.
Ombudsman campaign
After re-election with an increased majority of 1,998 in the 1959 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1959
This United Kingdom general election was held on 8 October 1959. It marked a third successive victory for the ruling Conservative Party, led by Harold Macmillan...
, Johnson became the first person in either House of Parliament to raise the possible appointment of an Ombudsman
Ombudsman
An ombudsman is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing not only but mostly the broad scope of constituent interests...
in a written question answered on 5 November 1959. He strongly opposed a proposal to introduce merit awards and differential payments for doctors. He was derisive about a Government proposal to allow "healers who claim to cure disease by super-normal means" to practise in hospitals in 1960.
Johnson had kept up his output of books up, including "A Doctor Returns" (1956) and "A Doctor in Parliament" (1958). He had supported the Net Book Agreement
Net Book Agreement
The Net Book Agreement was a British fixed Book Price Agreement between publishers and booksellers which set the prices at which books were to be sold to the public....
by which resale prices of books were fixed and after Penguin books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
were acquitted of publishing an obscene
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
book in Lady Chatterley's Lover
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Lady Chatterley's Lover is a novel by D. H. Lawrence, first published in 1928. The first edition was printed privately in Florence, Italy with assistance from Pino Orioli; it could not be published openly in the United Kingdom until 1960...
, he asked for a system in which publishers could voluntarily submit books for clearance which would be an absolute defence. In April 1961 he broke the Conservative whip to support the return of corporal punishment
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...
.
Licensing
One constituency concern was over licensing, because the government had nationalised all the public housePublic house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
s in Carlisle in 1916, retaining ownership ever since. Johnson urged that this experiment be ended. He served on the Standing Committee debating the Licensing Bill in 1961, and persuaded the Government to accept a clause requiring that drinking water be available in all licensed premises. He also succeeded in getting other operators allowed to open licensed premises in Carlisle, and the Government pledged to look at the future of the experiment.
Johnson took up his campaign for an Ombudsman again in May 1961, initiating a debate on 19 May, working together with Labour MP Hugh Delargy
Hugh Delargy
Hugh James Delargy was an Irish British Labour Party politician and MP.He was born in County Antrim.Delargy was educated in England, Paris and Rome and worked as a teacher, journalist, labourer and insurance official...
. This was the first debate on the proposition. In February 1962 he sought leave to introduce a Bill to make vaccination
Vaccination
Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...
compulsory, but found the suggestion resisted and lost the vote by 186 to 77. He wrote "Welcome to Harmony" (1962) and the provocatively-titled "The British National Health Service: Friend or Frankenstein?" later that year.
Position within the Conservative Party
Johnson was highly critical of the Government for its response to the spy scandals of the early 1960s, and abstained rather than endorse Harold MacmillanHarold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
's response to the Profumo Affair
Profumo Affair
The Profumo Affair was a 1963 British political scandal named after John Profumo, Secretary of State for War. His affair with Christine Keeler, the reputed mistress of an alleged Russian spy, followed by lying in the House of Commons when he was questioned about it, forced the resignation of...
. 26 other Conservatives abstained, which reduced the Government's majority to 69; Johnson was much taken by his friend and fellow Conservative MP Henry Kerby
Henry Kerby
Henry Briton Kerby was a British Conservative Member of Parliament for Arundel and Shoreham. He won the seat in a 1954 by-election, and served until his death at the age of 56 in Chichester in 1971. For a time he was associated with the National Fellowship group.Before joining the Conservative...
's pointing out the sexual connotations of the number, later commenting "I am not sure what the late Professor Jung
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
would have made of this one".
Outside the House of Commons, Johnson declared that he could not possibly fight his constituency if Macmillan remained as Prime Minister, and later called for Lord Home to take over the premiership.
This demonstration of disloyalty was badly received by the executive of Carlisle Conservative Association, who voted to begin to select a different candidate. Although Macmillan did resign and Home was appointed as his successor, Johnson declared that he was considering resigning his seat, because he had been "shot out as if I were an office boy"; however he admitted that friends in Parliament were urging him to stay. When the Association called a meeting to discuss his candidature for 30 December, Johnson declared that he wanted the press admitted. They were admitted, and at the end, the executive's vote of no confidence in Johnson was upheld by 138 to 31.
On 23 January 1964 Johnson gave up the Conservative Party whip
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
. He described himself as an Independent Conservative and in June sought leave to introduce a Bill to bring in the Single Transferable Vote
Single transferable vote
The single transferable vote is a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation through preferential voting. Under STV, an elector's vote is initially allocated to his or her most preferred candidate, and then, after candidates have been either elected or eliminated, any surplus or...
system; leave was refused by 137 to 20. Johnson made the case for the Bill as a way of reducing local party discipline over MPs, and shortly after published a pamphlet called "The Political Hatchet Men" which argued that the disciplinary powers of the Whips had been transferred to local constituency chairmen.
1964 general election
Johnson decided to defend his seat in the 1964 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1964
The United Kingdom general election of 1964 was held on 15 October 1964, more than five years after the preceding election, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party had retaken power...
as a "Conservative and Independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
". He had a formidable campaign organisation but won only 2.9% of the vote, which experts described as "substantially below recent votes for rebel M.P.s".
In June 1966 Johnson settled a libel
Slander and libel
Defamation—also called calumny, vilification, traducement, slander , and libel —is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image...
action against the publishers of the "Cumberland Evening News" over a letter published two days before polling day in the 1964 general election. The letter had been from Trevor Rabbidge, who was Johnson's agent in 1955, and was described by Johnson's counsel as "[presenting] a distorted picture of the plaintiff's political and personal history".
Later writing
Johnson's memoirs, "A Cassandra at Westminster", were published in 1967. They gave his side of the dispute with the association but were regarded as demonstrating an excessive sense of personal grievance, and by dwelling on trivial matters: for example, Johnson regarded it as significant that the Government's majority on the Profumo Affair was 69. His final book, "A Doctor Reflects", was published in 1975; it was in effect the fifth volume in his autobiographyAutobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
.
External links
- Johnson papers at the London School of EconomicsLondon School of EconomicsThe London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
- The last Liberal Imperialist: the career of Donald Johnson by Robert Ingham: Journal of Liberal History, Issue 25, Winter 1999-2000