We came here from London today, having been in the Potteries for two weeks over Xmas. I intend to write my next Five Towns novel, "Clayhanger", here and had been gathering all the information I needed in Burslem, mainly from Joseph Dawson.
Our first stroll along the front impressed me very favourably this afternoon. But I am obsessed by the thought that all this comfort, luxury, ostentation, snobbishness and correctness, is founded on a vast injustice to the artisan-class. I can never get away from this. The furs, autos, fine food, attendance, and diamond rings of this hotel only impress it on me more. I might have Edwin Clayhanger, the main character in my new book, come here and contrast in his own mind, as I am doing, this place and Burslem.I left behind me in Burslem a sort of political manifesto. It came about when I was in Dawson's printing office acquiring stuff for "Clayhanger". Edmund Leigh called, and he orated for an hour with such persuasive effect that in the end I vounteered to write a personal manifesto, as a sort of exercise in thinking things through. I wrote it easily and read it out to them, to great effect, a few days later. The printing of it was put in hand instantly but it hadn't been finished when I came away so I have no copy to hand. Dawson is as remarkable as ever. He is as young at sixty as I am at forty. He told me once that he could never read Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" without tears coming into his eyes. Fancy that for a hard-nosed Potteries tradesman!
The main points were:
1) A written constitution is essential as the basis for law;
2) There should be an elected Head of State; there can be no justification in the 20th. century for an hereditary system;
3) Universal suffrage;
4) Elections by proportional representation; the present 'first past the post' system is undemocratic and tends towards unnecessarily violent swings in policy;
5) End of patronage, privilege and titles, and the House of Lords; how ludicrous they seem, 'Lord' this, 'Lady' that, 'Duke and Duchess' the other, like persons in a comic opera;
6) Universal education to age 16, and abolition of the so-called 'Public' schools;
7) Entrance to universities by merit in competitive examination, not by grace and favour;
8) Disestablishment of the Church of England;
9) A national insurance scheme funded from taxation to provide basic health care and retirement for all.
There was more but these were the main items. It occurs to me as I write them here that when the document is printed it may spontaneously combust. Or if not it is likely to produce conflagration in those who read it.
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