Standing for Justice: A biography of Andrew McClaren MP
John Stewart
Shepheard-Walwyn £18.95 hardback
Andrew McLaren was equipped with a talent for public speaking and fired by a passion for education and the arts.
It was as he stepped from a platform in 1908 that he was commended for his oratory but was advised that his content was less than convincing. It was suggested that McLaren read Henry George's Progress and Poverty. McLaren accepted George's diagnosis of the cause of poverty, his conclusions and, unlike Winston Churchill, never departed from them in his life of 92 years, of which two decades between the Wars were spent in the House of Commons.
McLaren disapproved with pained distaste of any description of himself as a politician. Yet he was a proud constitutionalist in the House throughout his two decades as an MP between the wars. His role in the House was as the lightning conductor (and sometimes the thunder as well) that brought down political humbug. He was a tireless teacher who opposed confused thinking by returning to the beginning of political thought: man needed “air, sunshine, water and land to sustain life. There are some key faults in this biography. Most importantly, the author does not highlight or fully explain his subject's political principles. McLaren constantly stressed that history was concerned not with events or personages, but with ideas which changed cultures and civilisations. Much of the greater part of his political thought he owed to Progress and Poverty.
Stewart omits McLaren's moment of conversion, which set him to venture beyond his parish in Glasgow and find his way into Parliament. McLaren owed much the greater part of his political thought to George's book.
Another flaw is the ponderous style and the over-simplicity of the political reflections. Many quotations are too long to convey the essence of a character as immediate as McLaren's. Politics is a fast flowing river. The changing events and the needs of the hour make it appear that the essential quality needed in politics is flexibility and pragmatism. As Turgot remarked, the pragmatist reflects every image in front of him as faithfully as a pane of glass but he retains nothing. McLaren concentrated, as did George, not on the structure of society but upon its foundation the base of political architecture.
This biography offers a warm and well-researched portrait, of interest to those fortunate enough to encounter this teacher of political thought.
Malcolm Hill
Malcolm Hill is the author of Enemy of Injustice, Othila, 1998, £7.95.
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