‘We need free speech’: former Union president and historian on Prince Andrew, CUCA and historical censorship

“Meghan Markle was very harmful. She’s been described as a narcissistic sociopath, and I think that’s a pretty generous description of her.

Andrew Lowney continues to drop bombshell statements like this, a symphony to every student’s ears, throughout our conversation. In just twenty minutes we’re already covering the Queen’s funeral, Prince Andrew, populism and CUCA. Maybe Looney’s history books, especially Stalin’s Englishman and traitor king, are so popular because they use the same technique: surprising revelations and unexpected opinions. Yet Lowney’s views – ranging from condemning Meghan Markle to defending the crooks arrested at the Queen’s funeral – never fail to offend me.

He informed me that he had just returned from a visit to the British Library, where he was researching a biography of Prince Andrew – the first hint that the interview might take some controversial turns. “I think actually when people read my book they will find that Andrew is not the cartoon character that is portrayed in the press and one of his problems is that he never had his day in court, he was bad advised and he’s not very good at … reputation management, let’s say.” Lowney’s euphemistic speech, always polite, wryly recalls that Newsnight interview. I’m starting to fear he’s just another old-timers like Andrew who resists change and worries about newcomers like Megan. This seems to be borne out when he claims to the contrary that Meghan Markle has not actually been unfairly reported by the press; the press, after all, reports stories, not creates them, I’m reminded. I can only hope he means it.

But then Lowney appears to be a libertarian and almost – dare I say it – “woke” when he defends the right of carnivores to protest at the Queen’s funeral. “I think it’s shocking – it reminds me of what’s going on with Putin,” he says. “We have a long tradition of allowing people to protest peacefully in this country, and I think that while shouting things may have seemed out of place when he was grieving his mother, I’m afraid that comes with the territory … it’s horrible – the police should investigate crimes, not pick sticks and stones during a procession.

Lowney’s honesty and conviction in his beliefs amazes me. After all, most interviews with experienced scientists are painful behavior to avoid controversy and end up being nothing more than advertising for their latest book. But the historian, he tells me, works outside the establishment. He recently spent thousands fighting the University of Southampton for open access to Mountbatten’s archives, a lawsuit that appeared to have a personal meaning for Lowney. I was told that dealing with the Orwellian-sounding Knowledge and Management Department of the Cabinet Office had been painful and that “people are more prepared to have their archives censored by the government than I would like”.

The rights of the individual, honesty in governance and accountability in the face of corruption seem to be the guiding principles of the academic’s moral compass. When pressed about his exact political views, Lowney simply says, “I’m a one-nation conservative.” He laughs, admitting that his political views are now somewhat “independent” and that he has become more skeptical of power since his own (unsuccessful) bid for parliament as a Conservative candidate in 1992. His career seems to have gone left of steady a path from union president to backbench Tory.

Nevertheless, his political ideas were first stirred at Cambridge when Lowney was a student at Magdalen. “When I was at Cambridge in the early 1980s, it was the time of the SDP and it was very, very strong.” At the mention of CUCA, my ears perk up. “I don’t know how strong it is now, but [CUCA] it was one of the largest societies and it was also very, very powerful. The union had very strong CUCA elements in it; a lot of people ran CUCA who were also in the Union.” Some things, it seems, never change. However, he adds that “I think the Union is less important and taken less seriously now is the impression I get.”

Lowney’s time at Cambridge was filled with writing about university, presiding over the Union and joining odd societies, including the Disraeli Society where “the person who ran it every year was called the Earl of Beaconsfield” and yellow and green themed parties where the food, music and clothes were all – you guessed it – yellow or green. With his penchant for leadership roles, adoption of an unexpected point of view, and hints of a “slightly debauched” past, I can’t help but notice the parallels between Lowney and the anti-heroes he writes about. Regardless of his somewhat confusing political views, the conversation with Andrew Lowney was anything but dry.