Oliver Piers Stutchbury (January 1927 – February 2011) was a British politician. Born in

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, Stutchbury was educated at Radley College. During World War II, he served with the Grenadier Guards, becoming a lieutenant, then he attended King's College, Cambridge. He became a solicitor's clerk, and joined the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

. He stood in Rhondda East at the

1951 United Kingdom general election The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held twenty months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats. The Labour government called a snap election for Thursday 25 October 1951 ...

, taking second place but only 10.3% of the vote.
, '' The Guardian'', 28 February 2011 Later in the 1950s, Stutchbury became concerned about nuclear proliferation. He left the Conservatives and joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament; by the 1960s, he had also joined the Labour Party. He worked at the Save and Prosper unit trust fund, the largest in the City of London, became its Chief Executive, and wrote ''The Management of Unit Trusts'', an influential textbook. However, he resigned from his job in 1966 to work as a volunteer fundraising adviser to the Labour Party, also completing a PhD at King's College. This was soon published as ''Use of Principle'', in which he argued that all lies were unethical. In 1970, Stutchbury resigned from his fundraising role, complaining that his ideas were not being taken up, and instead sought a winnable Parliamentary seat. He failed to be selected, and although he was shortlisted for the post of General Secretary of the Labour Party in 1972, he also failed to be selected for that post. Instead, in 1973, he stood in the

1973 Greater London Council election The fourth election to the Greater London Council was held on 12 April 1973. Labour won a large majority of 58 seats to 32 for the Conservatives; the Liberals also won their first two seats on the council. Electoral arrangements As there had b ...

, in Ealing. Although narrowly defeated, he was appointed as an alderman. However, he decided that the council was ineffective, resigned and published ''Too Much Government? A Political Aeneid''. He launched the GLC Abolitionist Campaign, which attracted defectors from parties as diverse as the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

and the National Front. It stood 31 candidates in the

1977 Greater London Council election Elections to the Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a muc ...

, but attracted few votes. Stutchbury moved to Devon, where he ran a business. In 1980, he was linked to the formation of the Association of Democratic Groups, led by Colin Phipps.Lindsay Mackie, "Centre party 'plans' revealed", '' The Guardian'', 25 September 1980 This achieved little, and the Abolitionist Campaign was revived as "Abolish the GLC" for the

1981 Greater London Council election There was an election to the Greater London Council held on 7 May 1981. Councillors were elected to serve until elections in May 1985. Those elections were cancelled and the term was extended until 1 April 1986. The leader of the Labour GLC gro ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stutchbury, Oliver 1927 births 2011 deaths Alumni of King's College, Cambridge British Army personnel of World War II Conservative Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Grenadier Guards soldiers Labour Party (UK) councillors Members of the Greater London Council People educated at Radley College