Stanley Thorne

Nov 29 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

THE generous and sometimes menacing clouds, which puffed from his trusty pipe, added greatly to the “smoky rooms”, then the inevitable plotting dens of leftward-leaning politicians.

In fact, our man leaned so far to the left that some wondered why he didn’t bruise his shoulder on the Kremlin.

Certainly that is what some of the parents thought on the occasion of the annual speech day at Liverpool Institute, then a traditional grammar school of ink pots, mortarboards and swishing gowns.

Many of the mothers and fathers gathered there in December, 1963, had light pockets after rewarding their sons with bikes for passing the 11-plus.

Cllr Stanley (Stan)Thorne was on the stage as chairman of the city’s secondary education sub-committee, along with the revered headmaster, Malcolm Smith.

The idea that grammar schools should be replaced by comprehensives was high on the political agenda.

Mr Smith spoke his mind and Cllr Thorne thought he should reply in favour of abolition. “Selective education of which we have heard so much tonight is on the way out,” he said.

Parents booed and shouted “sit down”.

Calm was restored when the choir began singing Dem Dry Bones, a solution which would perhaps not have been available in similar circumstances today.

But it tells of a time when the party divisions in British politics were wide and passionately felt.

Thorne, the son of a dressmaker and a postman, was born in Donaghee, County Down. The family moved to Manchester, where he attended the Junior Commercial School, qualifying for the series of clerical jobs he would have on Merseyside over the next 30 years.

In common with many young people, Thorne joined the Communist Party, but left disillusioned by the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary and other ideological matters.

In 1959, he joined the Labour Party, then jousting with the Conservatives for control of Liverpool City Council. Despite early electoral defeats, he represented the Old Swan ward for several years.

Wide-smiling but serious, Thorne, who gained a diploma from Ruskin College, Oxford, and a BA honours from Liverpool University, was elected MP for Preston South in 1973 and Preston from 1983 to ’87.

Married with five children, Thorne then retired to pursue his hobbies of dancing, bridge, chess and golf. He was not by calling a New Labour man.

Stanley Thorne, politician; born July 22, 1918, died November 26, 2007.