The Freedom Association
The Freedom Association is a pressure group in the United Kingdom that describes itself as "a non-partisan, classically liberal campaign group", which has links to the Conservative Party and UK Independence Party. TFA was founded in 1975 as the National Association for Freedom and gained public prominence through its anti-trade union campaigns. Its popularity grew after campaigning against perceived abuses to individual freedom including big business, big government, organised labour, and Irish political violence. By the end of the 1970s the organisation had around 20,000 members.
In the 1980s, TFA campaigned against sporting sanctions imposed on apartheid-era South Africa – earning a judicial rebuke after taking unsuccessful legal action to overturn the International Cricket Council ban on touring teams, which it saw as an imposition on cricketers' freedom. TFA has also campaigned against the UK's membership of the European Union and against perceived partiality at the BBC, having in the past exerted pressure to secure an "impartiality clause" in the Broadcasting Act 1990. The current Chief Executive of The Freedom Association is Andrew Allison.
Origin
The Freedom Association was founded in 1975 as the National Association for Freedom by the Viscount De L'Isle, Norris McWhirter, Ross McWhirter and John Gouriet. Ross McWhirter had drawn up a fifteen-point Charter of Rights and Liberties before being murdered by the Provisional IRA in November 1975. NAFF was renamed The Freedom Association in late 1978. Andrew Gamble reported shortly after that the renaming was undertaken in order to avoid confusion with the National Front.Political stance
The Freedom Association describes itself as "a non-partisan, classically liberal campaign group". In their study of the use of litigation by pressure groups, Carol Harlow and Richard Rawlings call TFA "an avowedly conservative group". Marina Hyde, writing in The Guardian, has called the organisation a "charmless libertarian pressure group".Principles
The organisation describes itself as having ten core principles, namely individual freedom, personal and family responsibility, the rule of law, limited government, free market economy, national parliamentary democracy, strong national defences, a free press and other media, freedom of religion and belief, freedom of speech, expression and assembly. Writing in 1989, Michael White differentiated between TFA's brand of libertarianism and that of civil liberties campaigners, arguing that: "The unavoidable fact is that TFA represents that ancient tradition of English concepts of freedom, easily traceable to Magna Carta, which see liberty in terms of freedoms from restraints and obligations, not civil rights and duties enunciated by Thomas Jefferson in the rebellious American colonies, by Thomas Paine and the revolutionaries of 1789".Party links
The group has no formal party political affiliations but historically most members of TFA have also been associated with the Conservative Party. In May 1978, this led to former Conservative minister William van Straubenzee accusing TFA of "extremist infiltration" of his party. TFA has been described as the "conservative wing of the Conservative Party". Since 2007, TFA has been running fringe events at the Conservative Party conference with speakers such as Daniel Hannan and John Redwood and groups including the Taxpayers' Alliance.Leadership
The Freedom Association's council includes Honorary Chairman: David Campbell Bannerman. Conservative members of parliament Sir Christopher Chope, Philip Hollobone, and Andrew Rosindell, former Conservative MEP Lord Hannan, former UKIP MEP Roger Helmer, former Conservative member of the Scottish Parliament Brian Monteith, Baroness Cox, Lord Pearson of Rannoch, a former leader of UKIP and Walter Sweeney, a former Conservative MP. The Chief Executive is Andrew Allison.Campaigns
Trade unions
In the 1970s, the founders regarded the power of the UK trade union movement as excessive and out of control. Soon after its formation the National Association for Freedom as TFA was then known became involved in a number of industrial disputes providing support to both employers and non-unionised workers to counter to the power of the Trades Unions. The best known of these actions was "Operation Pony Express" during the Grunwick dispute. Harold Walker, the Labour Secretary of State for Employment between 1976 and 1979, was strongly critical of NAFF's activities, claiming the group was an "ultra right-wing political organisation" which "sought to interfere in industrial disputes, with harmful consequences". Following the election of the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher, the Association "suffered a slow decline in membership". In January 1989, The Guardian's Michael White reported that TFA "no longer has the power or glory it enjoyed when it was Thatcherism's extra-parliamentary advance guard against a fading Labour government and its union allies."Apartheid-era South Africa
In the 1980s, TFA campaigned in support of the right of England cricketers to tour in apartheid-era South Africa. In 1989, when the International Cricket Conference passed a resolution formalising sanctions against players, coaches and administrators who worked in South Africa, Norris McWhirter described the decision as "a crushing blow against cricketers' freedom to trade". TFA had obtained a criminal summons against the ICC, alleging blackmail but this was subsequently quashed in the High Court, where the judge Lord Taylor ruled that TFA's application was "an abuse of the process of the court" and was "launched solely as a device to disrupt or embarrass the International Cricket Conference". The organisation was later revealed to have received funding from the South African government.In 1988, the association threatened to seek a legal injunction against the BBC to prevent the broadcaster from broadcasting the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute from Wembley Stadium. A group of Conservative MPs and TFA objected to the possibility that the broadcast would include a message from Mandela or "other anti-apartheid propaganda." The threat was dropped, "in the hope that the BBC not broadcast any attempt to use the concert for promoting the African National Congress or similar anti-apartheid bodies."
National identity cards
In 2010 the group campaigned against the proposed introduction of national identity cards, which they deemed to be a threat to civil liberties. Previously, in the 1980s, some prominent supporters of TFA, such as Rhodes Boyson had strongly supported the introduction of ID cards.Better Off Out
In April 2006 TFA launched Better Off Out, a campaign for the UK to leave the EU. This has attracted the support of one Labour, one UKIP and twelve Tory MPs, plus a number of MEPs, Peers, academics, journalists and influential business figures. It was officially launched in Parliament by Philip Davies, despite criticism from Conservative party leader David Cameron. Signatories to the campaign include Daniel Hannan, Douglas Carswell, Philip Hollobone, Jeffrey Donaldson, David Nuttall, Austin Mitchell, David Campbell-Bannerman, Nigel Farage, Gerard Batten, Roger Helmer and Patrick Minford.During the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, Better Off Out played a role in the campaign.