Federation of Conservative Students

"Back in the 1980s, at the high noon of Thatcherism, tomorrow seemed to belong to her young zealots. Radical libertarianism captivated the youth wing of the Tory party, the Federation of Conservative Students. Some of the most prominent of them believed in taking the philosophy of personal freedom to what they saw as its logical conclusion, arguing for the legalisation of heroin and a free market in sexual services. That was too much for Margaret Thatcher as it was for her party chairman, Norman Tebbit, who, after an antic too many, closed down the FCS." Lord Harris of High Cross funded Neil Hamilton in the mid-Eighties to sue "the BBC over a documentary, Maggie's Militant Tendency, which suggested that the Conservatives were experiencing entryism from the extreme right."

The FCS was replaced by the Conservative Collegiate Forum.

History

 * Tim Evans, Conservative Radicalism: A Sociology of Conservative Party Youth Structures and Libertarianism 1970-1992 (Berghahn Books, 1996).

Related Sourcewatch

 * Marc-Henri Glendening - former chair
 * Mark Glendenning
 * Mark Prisk - former vice chair
 * Neil Hamilton - former vice chair
 * Conservative Way Forward
 * Guido Fawkes - former activist, in 1986 he produced The Right Handbook