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The '''Middle Classes Union''' was founded in February 1919<ref>The Globe, 27 February 1919, p.6</ref> to safeguard [[property]] after the [[Representation of the People Act 1918|Reform Act 1918]] had increased the number of [[working-class]] people eligible to vote. [[George Ranken Askwith|Sir George Ranken Askwith]] and [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] [[Member of Parliament|MP]] and [[Ireland|Irish]] landowner [[John Pretyman Newman|J. R. Pretyman Newman]] were both members.

==Development==
[[Robert Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood|Lord Robert Cecil]] described the MCU as a strike-breaking body designed to encourage "the smaller trading, propertied and professional [[Social class|classes]] [to] band themselves together to protect their interests ... and secure their property ... from [[revolution]] and extreme [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] demands".<ref>Maurice Cowling, ''The Impact of Labour. 1920-1924'' (Cambridge University Press, 1971), p. 65.</ref>

The group saw the [[middle class]]es being squeezed by not only a growing labour movement but also by a government that was taking on an increasing role in economic life and banded together with the aim of protecting middle-class interests against both potential enemies.<ref>Walter Garrison Runciman, ''Applied social theory'', Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 144.</ref> Its main pre-occupation was its opposition to [[socialism]] and in particular [[strike action]], although it also became associated with the policies of [[eugenics]] and sterilisation programmes as a means to reduce the population and as a result reduce poverty.<ref>Greta Jones, ''Social Hygiene in twentieth century Britain'', Taylor & Francis, 1986, p. 21.</ref> In opposing high taxation to pay for social reform the Union pre-empted the policies of the [[Anti-Waste League]], a party formed in 1921 from a similar middle-class basis which briefly threatened the hegemony of the Conservative Party on the political right.<ref>E. H. H. Green, ''Ideologies of Conservatism: conservative political ideas in the twentieth century'', Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 122-23.</ref>

George Ranken Askwith did not found the Middle Class Union. He became the president when it was re-organised under the name the National Citizen's Union in 1921 and attempted to attract a wider membership. ''The Times'' (6 March 1919) gives no mention of his name or that of his wife at the founding meeting in 1919. John Pretyman Newman was one of the founders and became its first chairman, a position he resigned when he was elected vice-president on 9 July 1922. Speaking at the meeting when the MCU was relaunched as the National Citizens Union in 1921 Askwith rather pointedly said "the Union supported the maintenance of representative government and would oppose direct action for political purposes" (''The Times'', 19 December 1921). Clearly the re-launch of the MCU under a new name had entailed some hard thinking on the part of its council.

==National Citizens Union==
It changed its name to the National Citizens Union in 1921 and under this name became associated with the emerging strand of British [[fascism]].<ref name="Lin"/> Pretyman Newman had spoken of his admiration for the ideology while [[Charles Rosdew Burn]] and [[Robert Burton-Chadwick]] both maintained dual membership of the Union and the [[British Fascists]] (as well as the Conservative Party, for which both men sat as MPs).<ref name="Lin"/> In 1927 the group even appointed as its chairman Colonel A. H. Lane, a man well known for his work with the strongly [[anti-Semitic]] [[The Britons|Britons]].<ref name="Lin"/> By the late 1930s the group was closely associated with the [[Militant Christian Patriots]], a minor group known for its anti-Semitism and fascist sympathies.<ref name="Lin">Thomas P. Linehan, ''British Fascism, 1918-39: parties, ideology and culture'', Manchester University Press, 2000, p. 45.</ref> It disappeared around the outbreak of the [[Second World War]].<ref name="Lin"/>

==See also==
* [[People's Union for Economy]]

==References==
<references/>

[[Category:Conservative political advocacy groups in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Organizations established in 1919]]

Middle Class Union - Revision history

imported>Chris the speller: cap