Scottish Protestant League
The Scottish Protestant League was a political party in Scotland during the 1920s and 1930s. The League was led by Alexander Ratcliffe, who founded it in 1920.[1]
Scottish Protestant League | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Alexander Ratcliffe |
| Founder | Alexander Ratcliffe |
| Founded | 1920 |
| Dissolved | Late 1930s |
| Newspaper | The Vanguard |
| Ideology | Right-wing populism Religious conservatism Anti-Irish immigration Scottish Home Rule |
| Political position | Right-wing |
| Religion | Protestantism |
Growth and electoral success
Ratcliffe was elected as a councillor to Glasgow City Council in 1931 for Dennistoun (previously a safe Moderate Party seat) and the League won another seat in Dalmarnock (previously a safe Labour seat) by an ex-communist, Charles Forrester. The third seat it contested failed to unseat the Moderate but it did come second, pushing Labour into third place. In these three seats (which had the highest turn outs in the election) the League gained 12,579 votes (44%).[2]
In 1932 the League stood in eleven wards and gained one more seat (Kinning Park) and 12% of the total vote.[3]
In 1933 the League saw its greatest success when it stood in twenty-three wards and gained over 71,000 votes (23% of the total vote). Again the League did best in seats with the highest turn outs.[3] In the same year Ratcliffe joined the Scottish Fascist Democratic Party for a brief period, but left when the party softened its line on anti-Catholicism.[4] Following a visit to Nazi Germany in 1939 Ratcliffe became a fully fledged convert to fascism.[4]
Party platform
The main policy of the League was to campaign for the repeal of the Education (Scotland) Act 1918 and specifically Section 18 of that Act which allowed Catholic schools into the state system funded through education rates, which led to the slogan: "No Rome on the Rates!"[2] The League wished to stop Irish immigration to Britain, repatriate Irish immigrants already settled and deport Irish immigrants on welfare.[5] The League also opposed cuts in teacher's pay, campaigned for lower wages for top council workers, and was in favour of building more council housing and for reduced rents and rates.[3] Ratcliffe also voiced support for Scottish Home Rule, writing in the party organ Vanguard that "if Home Rule works in Ulster, why cannot it work in Scotland?" Ratcliffe argued that Home Rule would not undermine protestant interests in Scotland, and declared himself willing to support it in principle.[6]
Relationship with Ulster Unionists
The Scottish Protestant League inspired the formation of the Ulster Protestant League in Northern Ireland, after Radcliffe embarked on a speaking tour of Northern Ireland in March and April 1931.[7]
Relations between the SPL and UPL were therefore extremely close to begin with, however they soured after an incident on the afternoon of 2 May 1933, when SPL members Mary Radcliffe (wife of SPL leader Alexander Radcliffe) and Charles Forrester attacked and damaged a painting when being given a tour of the Northern Irish Parliament by John William Nixon. The painting depicted Pope Innocent XI celebrating King William's victory at the Battle of the Boyne, which although accurate, was deemed blasphemous by the SPL members (particularly given its location within the Northern Irish parliament).[7] Forrester threw red paint over Innocent XI, whilst Radcliffe slashed it with a knife. Both were arrested, before being fined £65. The painting had caused discord in the Northern Irish Parliament when first unveiled, due to the realisation that it featured the Pope, with Nixon raising the issue in the Northern Irish Parliament.[8][9]
Decline
However from 1934 the League declined. Protestant churches opposed it and internal splits hampered it.[10] The majority, including Ratcliffe, voted with Labour on the council, with two voting with the Moderates. After disagreements with Ratcliffe's control of the League, four councillors left and designated themselves independent Protestants.[11] Lord Scone, the League's honorary President resigned from the group in 1934.[6] In the 1934 election for Glasgow corporation the League only put up seven candidates and none were elected (Ratcliffe lost his seat even though there was no Moderate candidate and the independent Protestants lost their seats also), although they did gain a considerable number of votes.[11] In 1937, Ratcliffe failed to be elected for Camphill. Although there are reports that the League was virtually defunct by the late 1930s[12] its Vanguard newspaper was still running as late as 1939 and reporting that "Hitler and the Pope are a pair...much in common...plotting together with Mussolini, also in the plot, to smash Protestantism throughout Europe",[4] and as late as March 1945 a leaflet advertising Vanguard was being sent to politicians.[13]
Ratcliffe himself remained active during the Second World War; complaints were raised in Parliament in 1943 about an antisemitic pamphlet he had published,[14] though no action was taken against him.[15] He died in Glasgow in 1947.[16]
Notes
- J. J. Smyth, Labour in Glasgow, 1896-1936: Socialism, Suffrage, Sectarianism (Tuckwell, 2000), p. 194.
- Smyth, p. 195.
- Smyth, p. 196.
- Maitles, Henry (2003). "Blackshirts Across the Border: The British Union of Fascists in Scotland". Scottish Historical Review. 82: 92–100. doi:10.3366/shr.2003.82.1.92.
- Smyth, pp. 195-6.
- Protestant Extremism in Urban Scotland 1930-1939: Its Growth and Contraction pg.154
- Walker, Graham (December 1985). "'Protestantism before Party!': The Ulster Protestant League in the 1930s". The Historical Journal. 28 (4): 961–967. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00005161. JSTOR 2639331.
- Rutherford, Adrian (27 December 2013). "State papers: Ian Paisley demanded a picture of the Pope blessing King Billy for his office". Belfast Telegraph.
- "King Billy painting a 'mixed blessing'". BBC News. 18 August 2006.
- Paul Freston, Protestant Political Parties: A Global Survey (Ashgate, 2004), p. 51.
- Smyth, p. 199.
- Freston, p. 51.
- The Scotsman, Friday 30 March 1945
- "Anti-Semitic Pamphlet", Hansard, HC Deb 22 April 1943 vol 388 c1809
- The Scotsman, Friday 23 April 1943
- The Scotsman, Tuesday 14 January 1947
Further reading
- Steve Bruce, No Pope of Rome!: Militant Protestantism in Modern Scotland (Mainstream, 1989), pp. 42–82.