Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W)
#0127b* –
John Prendergast GOURIER 01-Jun-1935 – 04-Sep-2010 Age 75.
John Prendergast Gouriet
Died ONE Year Ago Today.
John Gouriet, who died on September 4 aged 75, was a pioneering campaigner in the 1970s against the abuse of power by Britain’s trade unions; the lawsuits he brought paved the way for Margaret Thatcher to clip their wings.
Gouriet, a former Army officer, was a Thatcherite before Thatcherism. He worked to halt the advance of “communo-socialism” in Britain; campaigned against Soviet “oppression”; fought sanctions against South Africa; and latterly was preparing to challenge the legality of Britain’s membership of the EU.
Though Gouriet campaigned throughout his entire post-military life, he was at his most effective as director of the National Association for Freedom (Naff), which he founded with Norris McWhirter after the IRA’s assassination in November 1975 of McWhirter’s twin brother, Ross.
His signal achievement was to persuade the Court of Appeal to allow him to launch legal action against Post Office unions blocking phone calls and mail to South Africa – despite attempts by Labour Attorney General, Sam Silkin, to prevent such an injunction.
Though the ruling was overturned by the House of Lords, it humiliated Silkin and caught the imagination of Mrs Thatcher, then leader of the Opposition, who attended Naff’s victory banquet. Handing down the decision, Lord Denning memorably declared: “Be you ever so high, the law is above you. The Attorney General has no prerogative to dispense with or suspend the law of England.”
John Prendergast Gouriet was born in London on June 1 1935, the only son of a survivor of the Somme who went on to fly fighters in combat; John’s mother was the daughter of an eminent Winchester Cathedral organist.
Educated at Charterhouse, where he was an all-round sportsman, he was commissioned from Sandhurst into the 15th/19th King’s Royal Hussars at the end of 1955, joining his regiment on active service in Malaya. For a year until their disbandment in 1960, he was second-in-command of a company of the Somaliland Scouts; during this period he raised an orphaned cheetah cub in his bedroom.
Gouriet was adjutant of the Trucial Oman Scouts until 1963, then served as GSO3 Intelligence to the director of operations in Borneo. After Staff College he passed up promotion from major to become a squadron leader with his old regiment in Germany. He retired from the Army in 1973 when deputy assistant adjutant and quartermaster-general at the MoD.
He then joined the merchant bank Rea Brothers as assistant to Sir Walter Salomon. On a grouse-shooting trip as Britain’s economic and union problems intensified, he told his fellow guns: “It’s no use complaining, then doing nothing” – and there and then decided to “take up the cudgels”.
His first – non-political – venture was Young Enterprise. Gouriet set up companies with a nine-month life cycle, during which young people were taught the basic principles of business from flotation to liquidation.
Gouriet consulted Ralph Harris (later Lord Harris of High Cross) at the Institute of Economic Affairs about a coordinated opposition to the erosion of personal liberties. Harris introduced him to Ross McWhirter; at the 1975 Conservative Party conference Gouriet and McWhirter leafleted every seat.
He launched his first legal challenge when P&O ferry workers, sacked on returning to Southampton, stranded passengers’ cars on board. Gouriet persuaded a publican whose car was at the very back of the queue to launch a test case; before it came to court P&O struck a deal with the union.
Next Gouriet tried to persuade the Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins, to offer a £50,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of IRA terrorists. When Jenkins refused, McWhirter launched the appeal himself – only to be killed on his doorstep by the IRA.
A week later, on December 2 1975, Naff was launched at the Savoy, with Gouriet as campaign director and Norris McWhirter as vice-chairman. Its first act was to pay for six parents of children in Tameside, Greater Manchester, to intervene against a move by the Education Secretary to force the borough’s schools to go comprehensive.
With the Labour government spurning the unveiling of a memorial in London to Polish victims of the wartime Katyn massacre for fear of offending the Kremlin, Naff formed the unofficial British party; Gouriet was decorated by the Polish government-in-exile.
Most of Naff’s campaigning revolved around the Post Office. At Christmas 1976 it supported a Broadstairs woman who set up her own delivery service, challenging the Royal Mail’s monopoly.
Weeks later, Post Office unions decided to block all communications to and from South Africa as a protest against apartheid. Gouriet sought an injunction under the Post Office Act, which made it an offence to tamper with the mail. Silkin refused his consent and Gouriet challenged this in the High Court, losing but on appeal being granted a temporary injunction by Lord Denning.
Silkin told the Court of Appeal that it had no power to examine his reasons for refusing Gouriet consent. Lord Justice Lawton said: “All we are concerned about is whether Mr Gouriet has a right to stop himself being interfered with by what on the face of it appears to be plainly political conduct.” After a four-day hearing the court ruled for Gouriet. Naff’s membership shot up overnight; Silkin was greeted in the Commons by shouts of “Resign!”
The Lords reversed the decision, and Naff was left with costs totalling £90,857; the money was raised after Gouriet warned that failure to pay would “spell the end of Naff and probably any organised resistance to the advance of communo-socialism in Britain”.
Meanwhile, Gouriet was taking a key role in the Grunwick dispute, over the refusal of a north-west London photo-processing firm to recognise a trade union. The ensuing strike brought violence on the picket line and entrenched attitudes on both sides, particularly when George Ward, Grunwick’s owner, refused to accept a ruling by Acas and recognise the union.
Advising Ward, Gouriet took legal action to stop the Post Office unions blacking mail for Grunwick. He then, in July 1977, orchestrated “Operation Pony Express”. At 1am on a Saturday, two articulated lorries swept through the picket line to collect a backlog of 100,000 processed films. The packages were taken to a depot where stamps were stuck on them; 250 volunteers drove them to be posted at boxes throughout the country.
Gouriet left Naff suddenly in June 1978, having fallen out with its chairman, Viscount de Lisle. It was renamed the Freedom Association that winter. He became chairman of Stevens-Lefield Foods, which made pouch meals for yachtsmen. From 1991 he was a director and consultant to General Portfolio.
His campaigning continued unabated, though without an organisation behind him he achieved less.
He pressed Mrs Thatcher to support Ian Smith’s internal settlement for Rhodesia, and after Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan co-founded the Campaign Against Soviet Oppression, lambasting “those manic geriatrics in the Kremlin”.
He demanded the full rigour of the law against whomever in the Libyan People’s Bureau had shot and killed WPc Yvonne Fletcher.
Gouriet twice threatened to stand against John Browne, his local Conservative MP. He urged Tories to rally behind Mrs Thatcher as the party’s MPs moved to depose her, and as the rebellion grew against the Maastricht treaty, hailed the dissenters as “the real heart of the Tory party”.
In 1997 he stood for the Referendum Party in West Derbyshire, polling 2,499 votes. Two years later he ran the Earl of Burford’s Kensington & Chelsea by-election campaign against Tony Blair’s “treasonable” exclusion of most hereditary peers from the Lords. Gouriet tried to challenge Lords reform in the courts, and was left with a hefty legal bill.
Gouriet joined forces with Norris McWhirter again in 2002, founding Defenders of the Realm. He chaired the group until his death, appealing for funds to mount a judicial review of EU membership for violating Magna Carta, the Declaration of Rights and the 1688 Coronation Oath Act.
In 1981 he published a novel, Checkmate, Mr President!, emphasising the West’s lack of strategic minerals. Hear, Hear! (2010) brought together more than 700 letters – many to The Daily Telegraph – and articles he wrote during the Blair-Brown years.
A bon vivant whose company was valued by both friend and foe, Gouriet also took a great interest in natural history, in particular ornithology, and in field sports.
Gouriet survived heart attacks in 1993 and 2007; after open heart surgery he praised the care he received from the NHS.
He married, in 1963, Sarah Barnett, who survives him with their three sons.
To view the original obituary CLICK HERE
I first met John through Peter Watson & Harry Randall in the days of Sovereign Britain and also with Elizabeth Beckett who died in February 2009, also in association with other friends Idris Francis and Ashley Mote – I was interested to be asked by John to help with the setting up of The F&M Campaign with Salmons in Bristol and took that forward with Val Lusmore and Tony York, Cristopher Booker & Richard North, Mark Oliver and also Peter Troy and his relentless partner the inexhaustible Elaine, those who were involved might care to spare a thought for the sterling work and generosity of spirit of Val Sinclaire who achieved so much who has been cruelly zapped too young with a brain stem stroke from which she is fighting back as one would expect but hugely disadvantaged and with great loss of sight!
John and I had very different values, but perhaps they complimented each other!
John’s, Memorial Service is at 12 noon Friday 22-Oct-2010
At: All Saints’ Church, Westbury, BA13 3BT (jpgmem@hotmail.co.uk)
I have been asked to circulate the following:
Gouriet in 2010
You may be unaware of John Gouriet’s sad and sudden death on Saturday 4th September 2010, as a result of heart failure.
Please, therefore, be advised that this email address will no longer be in operation and we would therefore be grateful if you would delete it from your mailing list with immediate effect.
Many thanks and kind regards
R Gouriet
INDEPENDENT Leave-the-EU Alliance
&
Work With THE MIDNIGHT GROUP to
Reclaim YOUR Future
&
GET YOUR COUNTRY BACK
Write Upon Your Ballot Paper at EVERY election:
(IF You Have No INDEPENDENT Leave-the-EU Alliance Candidate)
Ukip-vs-EUkip 
Comment by Joe Thorpe (@JoeThorpe1963) August 31, 2011 @ 9:17 am
“Democracy is a form of government in which all people have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives”
Comment by tonyegghead August 31, 2011 @ 9:39 am
silly fellow – we shoot, bomb, maim and kill people in sovereign foreign Nations to force such a concept upon them.
The are obliged to accept OUR definition of a democracy down the barrel of a gun or be killed.
Britain on the otherhand is denied such a concept as it would overturn the corruption that is managed and controlled by the self serving politicians and their parasites.
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
Comment by Greg_L-W. August 31, 2011 @ 9:49 pm
Comment by Josh O’Nyonsosdh August 31, 2011 @ 9:49 am
http://eyetube.me/play.php?vid=360
Comment by Sue August 31, 2011 @ 12:01 pm
This blog post appears to be nothing more than another ‘tick in the box’, the latest in a long line of gestures that do nothing other than convince your supporters you are ‘sound’ on the EU subject. More people are beginning to ask, to coin a phrase, where’s the beef?
You like to highlight and explain things, so why not post a piece on here explaining to your supporters why you are comfortable with Conservative MPs who claim to be opposed to our EU membership voting in favour of integrationist measures in the House?
Are they just a faction, or are all Tories completely untrustworthy and impotent when it comes to doing what the people they represent want them to do?
Comment by Autonomous Mind August 31, 2011 @ 2:53 pm
You are referring to Roger supporting Chris Heaton-Harris and his initiative to promote an anti-EU group amongst tory MPs. You shot from the hip then without bothering to check your facts – are you now embarrassed by your journalistic failure and doing whatever you can to paper over the cracks?
I have in the past had respect for your blog – but I’m losing that, fast.
What exactly do you suppose Roger can do? It’s a matter of record that Roger has lost the whip in the past for his stance. He is a conscience politician who is not afraid to speak it like it is. But he’s not superman!
What should be obvious to you right now is that Cameron and Osborne do not listen to anybody so why moan at Roger because he hasn’t persuaded them to change their mind? What can he do that you can’t? Why haven’t you as an influential political blogger forced Cameron into an EU referendum? Where, Autonomous Mind, is your beef?
Comment by tonyegghead August 31, 2011 @ 3:24 pm
I expect Roger, as an elected and lavishly remunerated representative with all his democratic legitimacy, to further the wishes of the people who elected him because they want the UK to leave the EU. Instead he is supporting the Whip-inspired initiative of George Eustice and Chris Heaton-Harris – two MPs who do not want the UK to leave the EU, because they cling to the delusion that the EU can be reformed and that we should remain within it and further integrate with it. Does that policy sound familiar to you? It should, it is David Cameron’s.
So, how does Roger’s support for the Eustice / Heaton-Harris agenda square with his public pronouncements about being Better Off Out of the EU? On that we still await a definitive answer.
I make no apology for scrutinising the actions of our MPs and MEPs and comparing them to their pledges in an frank and open manner. If that causes you to lose respect for me or my blog then I shall have to live with the disappointment.
Roger cannot have it both ways. If he supports this new Tory ‘mainstream Eurosceptic’ grouping as he has said he does then he is advocating an approach to the EU that runs counter to the BOO position. Genuine Eurosceptics, those who want the UK to leave the EU, need to know and understand that.
Comment by Autonomous Mind September 1, 2011 @ 5:11 pm
Comment by Roger Helmer MEP August 31, 2011 @ 4:01 pm
http://www.parker-joseph.com/pjcjournal/2011/08/31/esm-treaty-eu-commission-mafia-at-work/
You have to admit, this is corruption of democracy on a massive scale
Comment by Sue August 31, 2011 @ 4:06 pm
although you still boast of your status as a EUrosceptic as tolerated by your corrupt Party in the certain knowledge of your lack of achievement over many years perhaps as a Plastic EUrosceptic acting as a Judas Goat for the Tory pro EU membership stance – in complete variance with its own voters – you would be so good as to provide the URL of the stance of which you boast.
Having not read it clearly you are correct – I read very little of your output as I am well aware, sadly, of how irrelevant and duplicitous you are in the battle to Leave-The-EU. Having achieved absolutely nothing at vast cost in over 12 years as the record shows.
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
Comment by Greg_L-W. September 2, 2011 @ 1:46 pm
Let him know that he will have the core support until then, but at the next election it’s time for heads to roll, a fresh cabinet or, like Sinclaire (who is quite an example of UKIP right now, everyone out for themselves – Farage is especially under the cosh) go it alone and only lend support when it meets your needs.
Conservatism is lost right now, you’re in power (how could you not be) but you’re not at the same time. That cabal of members pushing for a vote are mostly up and coming future front line Tories, but that’s not soon enough, they need as much support as possible and while you are “just” and MEP you could support them in debasing Cameron.
Oh and give my regards to that turncoat Bannerman.
Comment by Tony August 31, 2011 @ 3:29 pm
I am fascinated by the fact that oft times, said public opinion when as forceful as this, turns out to be right.
Let’s face it, is it likely that so many people could be wrong?
It only takes someone to formulate and present a plan for the safe and economically acceptable withdrawal of England (the UK?) from the EU and there would be even fewer dissenters to the idea of a referendum on the subject and fewer people who want to be European.
Comment by Heather Alibakir August 31, 2011 @ 9:14 pm
I wonder howmany remember the ‘trustees’ in Auschwitz – as Jews aiding their captors they survived for as long as they willingly filled and emptied the the ‘showers’ and the incinerators.
Perhaps they were hoping that the SS would have a change of heart in 40 or so years time!
It is now over 40 years since we first heard the mantra that ‘we mustn’t startle the horses’ and ‘we can change the party’.
I wonder howmany others see something of a similarity!
The Tories even came up with the ludicrous slogan:
‘In EUrope but not ruled by Europe’.
I expect many of the ‘trustees’ had their cantors chanting:
‘In the gas chamber but not breathing’, for them!
Perhaps Helmer would care to tell us all EXACTLY what he has achieved in his 12 years as a Judas Goat.
We are all well aware of the very generous bribes and expenses he has received for doing his JOB in those 12 years.
Clearly he has utterly failed to convince EUroRealists, he has duped very few Eurosceptics and it is self evident that he and his cronies have achieved absolutely nothing to Leave-The-EU.
Unable to convince their own side it is hardly surprising they have failed to convince anyone else!
It is our own politicos and their hirelings and parasites in the Kleptocratic QUANGOcracy who are the Looters and OUR-ENEMY-WITHIN
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
Comment by Greg_L-W. August 31, 2011 @ 10:08 pm
You say that many Euro-sceptics do not have a strategy. That is a rather insightful point.
So, what is yours? Do you support an In/Out Referendum? Is failure to provide for one a resigning issue?
At what point will you say no mas on Tory-led EU integration? What measures do you have planned? What strategic alternatives do you have?
From where I type, I suspect the exact same criticism can be leveled at you, but I will await your response(s).
Comment by Dead Dog Bounce September 1, 2011 @ 4:56 pm
And in reply to the GLW — no, Greg, I’m not a Nazi goat. And I think that over the last dozen years I, along with others, have done much to educate the public about the evils of Brussels, so I don’t consider my time or effort wasted.
Comment by Roger Helmer MEP September 2, 2011 @ 3:32 pm
Helmer it is irrefutable that you are dishonest.
Nowhere did I EVER accuse you of being a ‘Nazi’ Goat.
Disgusting as I may find the views of ‘Nazis’ they were at least honourable. They believed something, all be it disgusting, and they acted accordingly.
You clearly do not understand the origins of the nomenclature which I attributed to you which was ‘Judas Goat’ which has absolutely nothing to do with ‘Nazis’.
Perhaps a brief scan of history and you will become aware that the great changes for the better in the ranks of mankind have NEVER been politically led – They have, almost without exception been forced upon the self serving politicians by the wishes, demands and actions of the people.
The morality of the people has almost without exception been the catalyst to overturn the corruption and betrayal of the self enriching politicians.
I and it seems the majority in these United Kingdoms who have not been drugged to apathy or given up and think only of themselves do not share your quite idiotic belief that there is any chance whatever that the congestion of self seekers in westminster of whatever stripe will act honourably in the interests of these United kingdoms and its people and Leave-The-EU it is our own politicians who are OUR-ENEMY-WITHIN for sadly the system is designed to protect the corrupt status quo and in that static state clearly scum rises!
You may duck and weave but ultimately you can not hide from the fact that you have been greatly enriched from the public purse and you have delivered absolutely nothing of consequence – you have not one inch of movement towards the wishes of the electorate to Leave-The_EU.
So far you have duplicitously insulted and tried to defame me and dishonestly misquoted me – I await your next political stunt to avoid answering the questions on this thread and on this topic.
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
Comment by Greg_L-W. September 2, 2011 @ 6:29 pm
Comment by James A. Hutchinson September 1, 2011 @ 10:28 pm
No I am not a Europhile as it happens but neither do I believe that your unionist, royalist and ‘the rich get richer at the poors expense’ capitalist policies are the answer for or England either.
The sooner we extract ourselves from both Evil Unions the better for the future of England and her people.
Comment by englishliberationfront September 1, 2011 @ 11:22 pm
sorry to be picky but 66% is an overwhelming majority in a given group.
52% is a clear majority when that against the 52% is an accurately polled and researched 30% only.
That Governments are elected with a mere 25% or less of the electorate and can be elected in a fair democracy by 1% or even a single vote must be noted.
I would contend your comment to be a strawman argument – as with the idiotic idea of breaking up these United Kingdoms is clearly ill conceived and crass in every respect.
As shown by the very reasons they came together – unlike The EU which is unlawful and founded on a pack of lies, a lack of democracy and an arcane and now failed experiment.
There is no middle way and Britain will Leave-The-EU not if but when – interestingly the politician who leads us out will be long remembered after the snivelling dweebs who betray us and their Judas Goats hidden behind Plastic EUrosceptic claims and efforts to change the meaning to suit their Aesopian agenda of treachery.
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
Comment by Greg_L-W. September 2, 2011 @ 5:58 pm
Comment by Lazarus September 3, 2011 @ 12:00 am
indeed democracy is wonderful – would that we had it in Britain where the poll clearly showed that only 30% of the populace of all parties and none would vote in favour of membership of The EU and 52% said they would actively vote against.
Where 66% of those who actually voted Tory said they would vote to Leave-The-EU.
I trust this helps you to understand the importance of the concept of democracy which we are denied yet which Mr. Cameron has proved happy to slaughter and maim Libyans to POSSIBLY achieve in what was Africas stablest, most literate major Country with its free health service, education for all, sound housing stock and clean water for all with petrol at 14c a GALLON.
All achieved under the rule and guidance of Qaddaffi.
Indeed isn’t democracy a wonderful concept and you might care to consider the economic plight and the choir of castrati at Westminster since we surrendered our democracy and permitted the obscene and arcane failed experiment that is the undemocratic centralised dictatorial EU to rule us directly.
Sadly the Tory Party has permitted a claque of Judas Goats to lead the sheeple into the belief that they are in some way EUrosceptic because they want to be in The EU and tweak it a bit whilst 66% of their electorate wish unequivocally to Leave-the-EU and thus it is clear that those who support The Tories from within and are tolerated are OUR-ENEMY-WITHIN – numerous of them fulfilling the role of Judas Goats as Plastic Pretend EUrosceptic.
They are of course required, and aided by the party, as thus the public may be duped. Thick as many of these Judas Goats are I can not for a moment believe that Roger Helmer, Dan Hannan, Carswell, Chris Heaton-Harris or even ex Open EUrope ex UKIP little George EUstace are so thick they do not know the role they are allowed to take and aid in in return for their bribes and expenses.
Could it be hubris, arrogance and self interest that is the venal motivation for such betrayal of these United k
Kingdoms?
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
Comment by Greg_L-W. September 3, 2011 @ 2:42 am