The Vermin Club was an organisation of grassroots Conservative Party supporters in Britain in the late 1940s.
On the evening of 4 July 1948, Aneurin Bevan, the Labour Government's Minister of Health, addressed the annual Labour rally for the North of England at Belle Vue, Manchester, and described Conservatives as "lower than vermin".[1] Young Tories, disregarding the "lower than" part, took on the description with ironic self-deprecation and set up the Vermin Club.
Members took to wearing vermin badges (a chrome badge featuring a rat and the word VERMIN).[2] A whole hierarchy was established, so that those who recruited ten new party members wore badges identifying them as vile vermin; those who recruited twenty five were very vile vermin. Margaret Thatcher was an early member of the group[3] and rose through the ranks to become a "Chief Rat".[4] The club boasted a membership of between 105,000 and 120,000 at its height.[2]
See also
edit- Basket of deplorables, a similar disparagement that galvanised the political opposition
References
edit- ^ "Bevan's speech to the Manchester Labour rally 4 July 1948". Socialist Health Association. 5 July 1948. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
- ^ a b Martin, Paul (1997). "The Vermin Club, 1948–51". History Today. 47 (6). Retrieved 23 August 2015.
- ^ "£2,000 prize fund to launch creative internet campaigns". ConservativeHome. 26 April 2006. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
Margaret Thatcher was an early member of the Vermin Club.
- ^ Rowe, David (23 March 2015). "Politics – Flowers and Vermin". The A–Z of Curious Flintshire. The History Press Ltd. ISBN 978-0752493282.
One former Chief Rat was the late Baroness Thatcher.
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