ianstone
09-04-2010, 02:04 PM
Cyril Smith dies, 82
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: 'Cyril was a colourful politician who kept the flame of Liberalism alive'
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/9/3/1283520414278/Cyril-Smith-centre-with-A-007.jpg Cyril Smith (centre) with Alan Beith (left) and Paddy Ashdown in 1987. Photograph: Rex Features The gentle giant of Rochdale, Sir Cyril Smith, has died aged 82 after a career in parliament which helped to rescue the Liberal party from the political fringe.
Outsized in every way, he defected from Labour in the late 1960s, bolstering the Liberals at a crucial time.
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: "Cyril was a colourful politician who kept the flame of Liberalism alive when the party was much smaller than it is today … I think we can safely say there will never be an MP quite like Cyril Smith again."
The UK's heaviest-ever MP when his weight, the result of a medical condition, reached more than 190kg (29st) in the 1970s, he carried immense clout in the north-west. As a Labour councillor he played a leading part in defeating the celebrity broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy who fought Rochdale for the Liberals at a byelection in 1958, and he was a popular mayor in 1966.
Smith never married and when elected Rochdale mayor in 1966 he chose his mother Emma, a cleaner at the town hall, as mayoress, while his brother Norman acted as driver, adviser and right-hand man. He never moved from Rochdale nor could see the slightest reason to do so, holding that it was the best place with the best people for anyone to born, settle down and in due course die.
In 1972 he went to the Commons with a landslide victory in Rochdale in another byelection.His off-message interventions sometimes embarrassed party leaders, including sallies in favour of capital punishment and against too much involvement with Europe. But the populism involved, abetted by his music hall appearance and debating style, won many new and often unexpected supporters.
This regional affection led him to call the Commons "the longest running farce in the West End" and he had no truck with metropolitan elites or the prospect of a seat in the Lords. He accepted his knighthood for public services in 1988, however, after receiving an MBE 22 years earlier.
Smith started political life as a Liberal, giving up his job in Rochdale tax office after making a speech in support of the party, which led his manager to say: you can be political or a taxman but not both. Smith left to work in a mill office and then a small engineering firm, but focused on local politics. He joined Labour in 1952 on the advice of Liberal friends who reckoned their own party doomed.
Smith never reached the summit of national affairs. His distaste for Labour meant that he was not central to James Callaghan and David Steel's Lib-Lab pact in 1977-8. But he served as Liberal chief whip and employment spokesman before retiring from Westminster in 1992.
Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale, called him "a towering figure in local politics," while Paul Rowen, the Liberal he defeated in May, said: "Cyril was an amazing ambassador for our town".
Norman Smith said: "Cyril passed away peacefully at a nursing home with family members around him. I couldn't have wished for a better brother."
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/03/cyril-smith-liberal-politics#history-link-box)
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: 'Cyril was a colourful politician who kept the flame of Liberalism alive'
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/9/3/1283520414278/Cyril-Smith-centre-with-A-007.jpg Cyril Smith (centre) with Alan Beith (left) and Paddy Ashdown in 1987. Photograph: Rex Features The gentle giant of Rochdale, Sir Cyril Smith, has died aged 82 after a career in parliament which helped to rescue the Liberal party from the political fringe.
Outsized in every way, he defected from Labour in the late 1960s, bolstering the Liberals at a crucial time.
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: "Cyril was a colourful politician who kept the flame of Liberalism alive when the party was much smaller than it is today … I think we can safely say there will never be an MP quite like Cyril Smith again."
The UK's heaviest-ever MP when his weight, the result of a medical condition, reached more than 190kg (29st) in the 1970s, he carried immense clout in the north-west. As a Labour councillor he played a leading part in defeating the celebrity broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy who fought Rochdale for the Liberals at a byelection in 1958, and he was a popular mayor in 1966.
Smith never married and when elected Rochdale mayor in 1966 he chose his mother Emma, a cleaner at the town hall, as mayoress, while his brother Norman acted as driver, adviser and right-hand man. He never moved from Rochdale nor could see the slightest reason to do so, holding that it was the best place with the best people for anyone to born, settle down and in due course die.
In 1972 he went to the Commons with a landslide victory in Rochdale in another byelection.His off-message interventions sometimes embarrassed party leaders, including sallies in favour of capital punishment and against too much involvement with Europe. But the populism involved, abetted by his music hall appearance and debating style, won many new and often unexpected supporters.
This regional affection led him to call the Commons "the longest running farce in the West End" and he had no truck with metropolitan elites or the prospect of a seat in the Lords. He accepted his knighthood for public services in 1988, however, after receiving an MBE 22 years earlier.
Smith started political life as a Liberal, giving up his job in Rochdale tax office after making a speech in support of the party, which led his manager to say: you can be political or a taxman but not both. Smith left to work in a mill office and then a small engineering firm, but focused on local politics. He joined Labour in 1952 on the advice of Liberal friends who reckoned their own party doomed.
Smith never reached the summit of national affairs. His distaste for Labour meant that he was not central to James Callaghan and David Steel's Lib-Lab pact in 1977-8. But he served as Liberal chief whip and employment spokesman before retiring from Westminster in 1992.
Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale, called him "a towering figure in local politics," while Paul Rowen, the Liberal he defeated in May, said: "Cyril was an amazing ambassador for our town".
Norman Smith said: "Cyril passed away peacefully at a nursing home with family members around him. I couldn't have wished for a better brother."
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/03/cyril-smith-liberal-politics#history-link-box)