Shortly after the war Milton Shulman, then a rising journalist on Lord Beaverbrook's papers, was taken out to lunch by a publisher who had a proposal to put to him. The idea, he said, would make their fortunes. The young Mr Shulman asked what it was. 'The Life of Clement Davies,' the publisher replied. Mr Shulman was disappointed. He declined the offer. The Life of Clement Davies, as far as I know, remains unwritten to this day, though the former Liberal MP, Lord Hooson, his successor in Montgomeryshire, has delivered a lecture on him. He was a most distinguished but rather dull Welsh barrister. He nevertheless deserves commemoration of some kind. It was he who, in 1940, persuaded Herbert Morrison to base the attack on Neville Chamberlain on a motion for the adjournment rather than of censure, which would have tended to unite the Conservatives behind their leader. As it was, the vote was won but the abstentions were many. A few days later Winston Churchill became Prime Minister. Just over 10 years after that Churchill offered him the Ministry of Education in his post-war administration, but Davies declined, so ensuring the continuance of the Liberals as an independent party until they merged with the Social Democrats in 1988.

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