Ralph Harris

"I am very critical of democracy. Politics has meant unlimited democracy and unlimited claims on the national income." - Ralph Harris

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Ralph Harris discusses the Institute's meetings with Milton Friedman in Adam Curtis's 1992 documentary Pandora's Box. His long time collaborator Arthur Seldon is seating beside him.

Ralph Harris, Lord Harris of High Cross (born 10 December 1924 - 19 October 2006), who described himself as a 'radical reactionary', was a founder of the seminal neoliberal think-tank the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). He was General Director of IEA from 1957 to 1987.

Biography

Harris was born on 10 December 1924. He attended Tottenham Grammar School and Queens’ College, Cambridge. He was a Lecturer in Political Economy at the University of St. Andrews from 1949 to 1956 during which time he twice stood as a Conservative MP, first in 1951 in the constituency of Kirkcaldy, and then in Edinburgh Central in 1955. He was not elected.

In 1956 he joined the Glasgow Herald as its Leader-writer and a year later was appointed director of the Institute of Economic Affairs, libertarian think-tank he founded with Arthur Seldon. From 1980 to 1995 he was a Council Member at the University of Buckingham – Britain’s only private university which was closely affiliated with the IEA - and was a Director of Murdoch's Times Newspapers Holdings Ltd from 1988-2001.

Views

In his obituary the Guardian described Harris as having been, 'the high priest of the libertarian right, whose creed included full-blooded monetarism, the unleashing of market forces, sharp tax cuts, unrestricted Sunday trading, the castration of trade unions and the abolition of minimum wages, nationalised industries and inflation-proof pensions.'

Free to Choose

In his autobiography the neoliberal fundamentalist Milton Friedman notes the role that Harris played in finding a television production team for his 1980 neoliberal polemical film Free to Choose:

[We] felt that it was essential that the producer have his heart and not merely his technical skills in the project. In an effort to find such a producer, I called my friend Ralph Harris, the director and one of the founders of the Institute of Economic Affairs, the pre-eminent free-market think tank in Britain. He suggested several possible names and promised to explore these and other possibilities.

Bob had been planning a trip to London to talk to the BBC about its interest in acquiring the program when it was completed and to talk with possible producers. The extra stimulus from Ralph’s encouraging reaction led Bob to take off for London on August 10… By far the most important interview was with Antony Jay, recommended by Ralph Harris as “a Friedman fan” (initially from reading my Playboy interview). Jay was a partner in Video Arts, a television production company formed by ex-BBC employees who had wanted to escape bureaucracy… [Later] Bob and I took off on September 20 for London, where we had extensive discussions with Antony Jay and two of his partners who were to be the most closely involved in the production of Free to Choose, Michael Peacock, managing director and Robert Reid, chairman. In addition, Peacock arranged for us to interview Michael Latham as a potential producer. Unlike the producers we had interviewed in the United States, both the Video Arts trio and Michael Latham were sympathetic to our philosophy and enthusiastic about producing a documentary to present it.

Bankrolling Neil Hamilton MP

Harris raised around £100,000 for the right-wing Conservative MP Neil Hamilton to bring a libel action against the BBC over the Panorama programme Maggie's Militant Tendency. The programme, which was based on an official investigation by the Conservative Party, detailed infiltration of the Tory party by rightwing extremists. It was broadcast on 30 January 1984 and provoked a furious reaction from the Tory right-wing. Harris has said: 'I remember at the time Neil came to me and raised the question of financing the libel action. I managed to raise around £100,000, enabling Neil at the time to go after the BBC.' A major donor to the fund was the right-wing financier Sir James Goldsmith. The case came to the High Court in October 1986 and the BBC subsequently settled, according to the BBC Director-General Alasdair Milne because he was instructed to by the Governors. It cost the BBC £50,000 in damages and £250,000 in costs after "the governors instructed me to pull out". This was followed by a Commons motion signed by 100 Tory MPs calling on the Director-General to resign.

In the late 1990s Harris led a network of right-wingers raising money to support for Neil Hamilton, who accused of having received money from the Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed in return for asking questions on his behalf in the House of Commons. Harris first appealed for funds to help Hamilton take on Fayed, through a letter to the Daily Telegraph. He worked closely with the far right activist Norris McWhirter. They reportedly raised £410,000 for the fund; £50,000 from the right-wing socialite and columnist Taki Theodoracopulos, and the Earl of Portsmouth said he had made a 'substantial donation'.

Legacy

On 20 February 2007 dozens of right-wing activists and friends of the late Ralph Harris attended celebration of the life and work of Lord Harris held at St John's, Smith Square, an historic venue in Westminster generally used for classical concerts. An excerpt from the film A Conversation with Lord Ralph Harris and Arthur Seld on was shown. The speakers were the Thatcerite Minister Geoffrey Howe, the businessman Nigel Vinson, the Daily Mail columnist Andrew Alexander, Russell Lewis, Brian Kingham of Reliance Security Group, the journalist John O'Sullivan, Edwin J Feulner Jr of the Heritage Foundation, the former MP Neil Hamilton, the libertarian French economist Pascal Salin, the Daily Telegraph journalist Simon Heffer and the Italian libertarian Alberto Mingardi. According to The Times the guests included:

Margaret Thatcher, Mr and Mrs Roland Triponel (son-in-law and daughter), Anna Triponel, Fleur Triponel, Sonya Triponel and Marion Triponel (granddaughters), Doreen Harris (sister-in-law), Keith Harris, Kevin Harris, Melloney Barker, Ena Tucker, Georgina Jeffery, and Robert Jeffery, and Jim Jeffery, and J Lewis, Jacquie Roffe, Kym Roffe-Flaye. John Francis, John Biffen, Geoffrey Borwick (Modec Vehicles), Terence Burns, Lady Butterworth, John Cope, John Cuckney, Basil Feldman, Greville Howard, Elspeth Howe, William Howie, Patrick Jenkin, Lord Kal, Norman Lamont, Rodney Leach (Jardine Matheson Holdings), Peter Blaker, Lord Monson, John Moore, Lord and Lady Palmer, Malcolm Pearson, Maurice Peston, Robin Renwick, Maurice Saatchi (M&C Saatchi), Robert Skidelsky, David Stevens, Ian Stewart, David Stoddart, Norman Tebbit, Francis Tombs, David Trimble, John Walton. David Davis, MP, Michael Howard, QC, MP, Sir Geoffrey Pattie (Terrington Management), Sir Rocco Forte (Rocco Forte Hotels), Bernard Jenkin, Sir John Nott, Sir Neville Bowman-Shaw, Sir Douglas Hague, Sir John Hoskyns, Sir Anthony Jay, Sir Peter Tapsell, Professor Sir Bryan Thwaites. Mr and Mrs William Ada, Professor Correli Barnett, Peter Bowring, Dr Barry Bracewell-Milnes, Professor and Mrs John Burton, Margaret Butt, Douglas Caeswell, MP, Christopher Chope, MP and Mrs Chope, Mr and Mrs William Clarke, Karen Colognese, Peter Cropper, Jonathan Djanogly, MP, Dr Iain Elliot, Teresa Gorman, the Rev Professor Richard Griffiths, Dr Andrew Giffiths, Neil Hamilton, Professor John Hibbs, Gerald Howarth, MP, Martin Howe, QC, Professor George Jones, Professor and Mrs Nathaniel Lichfield, Tom Loughton, MP, Brian Monteith, Charles Moore, David Nicholson, John Padovan, Professor Gordon Pepper, Enoch Powell, Andrew Rosindell, MP, Canon and Mrs S H Speers, Michael Thomas, QC, David Willetts, MP, Silvie Young, John Blundell (director-general, Institute of Economic Affairs) Mr and Mrs Blundell with other members of the institute; Les Hinton (executive chairman, News International representing the chairman of News Corporation), Martin Ivens (Sunday Times), Dr Digby Anderson (Social Affairs Unit) and Mrs Anderson, Dr Eamonn Butler (Adam Smith Institute), Ken Costa (UBS Investment Bank) and representatives of other organisations having connections with Lord Harris.

Affiliations

Milton Friedman, friend
Mont Pelerin Society, member