Jonathan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne
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Jonathan Bryan Guinness, 3rd Baron Moyne (born March 16, 1930) succeeded as 3rd Baron Moyne in 1992. He is the son of Bryan Guinness, 2nd Baron Moyne and Diana Mitford, and until his retirement was a merchant banker for Messrs Leopold Joseph.
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[edit] Conservative Party
Guinness twice stood as Parliamentary Candidate for the Conservative Party, including the Lincoln by-election of 1973, notable for the election of Dick Taverne. Here he gained the nickname "Old Razor Blades" when he was misquoted as saying murderers should have razor blades left in their cells to enable them to "do the decent thing." In fact, what he actually said was that convicted criminals should have razor blades in their cells, allowing them to be able to shave and stay "decent" i.e: clean shaven.
[edit] Monday Club
He was a long-standing and early member of the Conservative Monday Club, serving on several of its committees. He was a member of the Club's Executive Council in 1971, when he became Chairman of their 'Action Fund', and elected National Chairman on 5th June 1972, fighting off challenges from Richard Body MP, and Timothy Stroud. The Guardian and The Times referred to his election as "a right-wing victory". At the Club's Annual General Meeting in April 1973 Guinness retained the Chairmanship for another year, defeating George Kennedy Young. In mid-1974 he was invited to address Conservative students at Portsmouth Polytechnic, but was prevented from doing so by protesters.
On 10 October 1989, at the Conservative Party Conference, he chaired a controversial fringe meeting organized by the Young Monday Club, advertised as The End of the English? - Immigration and Repatriation. The other speakers were MPs Tim Janman and Nicholas Budgen.
As Chairman of the Club's Race Relations & Immigration Committee, he also wrote the same month to all Club members: "There has been a lot of ill-thought out agitation following events in China, urging the government to amend the British Nationality Act so as to give the right of UK residence to more than three million people from Hong Kong who hold British passports. At the time of writing the government has stayed firm on this, but it is under pressure. If you have not already done so, please write to your M.P., your local and national newspapers, or the Prime Minister expressing support for the government's stand. Remember, a passport is not a residence permit, but a travel document; and think of the sheer physical burden of housing and accommodating a sudden influx of this size."
He was also Club Vice-Chairman until late 1990 when he was replaced by Andrew Hunter, MP.
[edit] Controversy
[edit] Private life
In his private life Guinness was flamboyant. As well as being married, with children, he also had a mistress, Susan ('Shoe') Taylor (b.1944) (now deceased), and a further three children by her. Whilst Guinness resided in the "palatial family home, Osbaston Hall, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire" with his wife, also Sue, his second family lived outside Penzance in Cornwall. Guinness was eventually scandalised over this affair in The Sun newspaper (6 July 1989) which ran a double-page article with pictures entitled Always a Mistress - Never the Bride.
[edit] Trustor
Guinness was implicated in one of Sweden's biggest financial scandals of recent history. The case concerns a now defunct Swedish investment company, Trustor, in which Lord Moyne acquired a controlling interest in 1997. It was alleged that Guinness was involved in the disappearance of £50,000,000 from Trustor's accounts, £35,000,000 of which has never been located. Guinness maintained that he was innocent of any wrongdoing, claiming he has been "stitched up". During the proceedings, Swedish authorities were successful in obtaining a freezing order over his assets, denying him access to his wealth and forcing him to live for a period on £1000 a week.[1].
[edit] Defence of mother
Guinness and his daughter, Daphne, both had letters published in the same edition of The Daily Telegraph (16 August 2003) attacking the writer Andrew Roberts over his criticism in the same newspaper on the 13th inst., of Jonathan's mother, Diana Mitford, following the latter's death.
[edit] References and Publications
- Copping, Robert, The Story of The Monday Club - The First Decade, April 1972, and The Monday Club - Crisis and After May 1975, both published by the Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex, (P/B).
- Guinness, Jonathan, with Jeremy Harwood and John Biggs-Davison, M.P., Ireland - Our Cuba?, The Monday Club, London, 1970, (P/B).
- Guinness, Jonathan, Arms for South Africa - the Moral Issue, The Monday Club, London, 1971, (P/B).
- Courtney, Anthony T, OBE, RN (Retd), [M.P., for Harrow East 1959-1964], The Enemies Within, Foreword by the Hon. Jonathan Guinness, The Monday Club, London, 1972, (P/B).
- Guinness, Jonathan, with Catherine Guinness, The House of Mitford, Hutchinson & Co., London, 1984, ISBN 0-09-155560
- Guinness, Jonathan, Marx, the False Prophet, in Marx Refuted, edited by Ronald Duncan and Colin Wilson, Ashgrove Press Ltd., Bath, (UK), 1987, ISBN 0-906798-71-X
- Guinness, Jonathan, Shoe - The Odyssey of a Sixties Survivor, Hutchinson, London, c1989.
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: Bryan Guinness |
Baron Moyne 1992–Present |
Succeeded by: Current Incumbent |
