Oliver Smedley

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Oliver Smedley (* 1911 ; † 1989 ) was a British entrepreneur and politician. He belonged to the economically liberal, far right-wing spectrum of the liberal movement and was considered a supporter of the teachings of Friedrich August von Hayek . His father was one of the directors of The Gramophone Company .

During World War II , Smedley served in the British Army Airborne Forces. He achieved the rank of major . For his participation in the landing in Normandy he was awarded the Military Cross .

Smedley was one of the founders of the pirate station Radio Atlanta , which later merged with Radio Caroline to become Radio Caroline South. Until the 1980s he competed in elections for small parties that spoke out against the common EC / EU market, for example in 1980 for the "Anti Common Market and Free Trade Party". However, he never won a seat in parliament .

Political activity

Smedley initially belonged to the Liberal Party . He was a co-founder of numerous political organizations and think tanks that spoke out against any government intervention in the economy; so the "Cheap Food League", which was directed against subsidies and regulation of agriculture. As a member of the "Society of Individualists" (later: "Society for Individual Freedom"), a radical market organization, he met Antony Fisher , with whom he founded the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in 1955 . In 1962 he resigned in protest from the Liberal Party, as it was in favor of Great Britain joining the EEC , and founded the anti-European "Keep Britain Out" movement. His companies also included a Reliance School of Investment, whose degrees had dubious worth.

Smedley considered himself a nonconformist. He is credited with saying that he feels an overwhelming urge to do things in a perfectly legal way that are actually prohibited by law. He expressly named tax and broadcasting law as fields of activity. Smedley was an opponent of the broadcasting monopoly of the BBC , which he saw as a restriction of the flow of information and exemplary for state tutelage. The IEA, which he co-founded, published the publication “Competition in Broadcasting” in 1965, which contained a chapter called “Piracy as a Business Force”.

Project Atlanta Limited

Smedley was influenced by Hayek's teaching that an economy regulates itself through the exchange of information and signals from market participants. He viewed the state broadcasting monopoly as a harmful and unjustified interference that inhibits the exchange of information. Since 1963 he participated in a consortium around a company called CBC Plays Limited , which was led by the music publisher Allan Crawford and the actress Dorothy Black. The purpose of the company was to operate a ship on which a private radio transmitter was to be set up. Smedley founded Project Atlanta Limited in 1963 to support this goal. He managed to raise a start-up capital of £ 150,000 from various interested parties . The investors are said to have been individuals, including boxing and wrestling promoters and Conservative MPs, but also corporations such as people from Trinity House and a pension fund of the Port of London Authority . Smedley said his planned radio station "Radio Atlanta" would be "the last bastion of freedom should the country become communist."

After buying a ship, Smedley was suddenly faced with competition from Ronan O'Rahilly , who had pursued the same plan. An agreement was finally reached and merged to "Radio Caroline", whereby O'Rahilly's ship "Radio Caroline North" and Smedley's "Radio Caroline South" was.

Killing Reg Calvert

In 1966, Smedley had merger talks with radio pirate Reg Calvert , but they stagnated. As a result, there was an escalation in the course of which Smedley shot Calvert . Smedley was acquitted and the court ruled in self-defense .

Books and writings

  • The Abominable No-Men. (The answer to Bevan, Beaverbrook, Beveridge and Butler), Alexander Publications, London 1952
  • What is happening to the British economy ?, Saffron Walden: Reliance School of Investment, Distribution: Unwin Brothers Ltd., 1976, ISBN 9780950481708
  • Out! UK in EEC spells disaster, London 1986, ISBN 9780951154304
  • Gold: the only honest money, Saffron Walden: Free Trade Anti-Common Market Party, 1990, ISBN 9781870512015
  • How parliament nearly lost control of the purse strings, publication dates unknown, OCLC no. 786168029

literature

Adrian Johns: Death of a Pirate: British Radio and the Making of the Information Age , WW Norton & Co, New York, 2011, ISBN 978-0393068603

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Andrew Roth: Lord Harris of High Cross. In: The Guardian . October 20, 2006, accessed October 22, 2017 .
  2. ↑ a b c Brian Lister: Pirate Gold, 2017, ISBN 9780244017187 . P. 41ff
  3. ↑ Andrew Hirst: Amazing story of pop band and pirate radio station manager Reg Calvert who was shot dead in 1966. The Huddersfield Examiner, October 8, 2014, accessed October 22, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b c Adam Curtis: THE CURSE OF TINA. BBC , September 13, 2011, accessed October 22, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Smedley, Oliver
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British entrepreneur, politician and radio adviser
DATE OF BIRTH 1911
DATE OF DEATH 1989