Peter Baker (British Politician) - Political Career

Political Career

While a prisoner of war, Baker wrote an essay "in political diagnosis" to explain to a fellow prisoner why he supported the Conservative Party. After the war, he published the essay as "The Silent Revolution. He added an epilogue written late in 1945, giving some of his diary entries for the latter part of the war and reflecting on the impact of peace on the purposefulness of the wartime generation. At the same time he also completed his war memoirs, which he had begun writing while a prisoner of war; the resulting book was titled "Confession of Faith", and was also published by his own publishing company Falcon Press in 1946.

Persuaded by his friend James Thomas, at the time Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party, to enter active politics, Baker agreed to let his name go forward for selection as the Conservative Party candidate for South Norfolk. The South Norfolk division was near where he had grown up, but Baker found that the local Conservatives were divided between an official Conservative Association and an Independent Conservative Association. The South Norfolk Independent Conservative Association had been set up by supporters of John Holt Wilson in 1944, after a dispute over the previous selection. Although feelings between the two Associations were still tense, both participated in the selection. Baker won easily, beating Eric Smith and John Holt Wilson. He had already decided that he needed to reunify local Conservatives, and brokered a joint constitution in which officers of both would be represented at every level. His solution was accepted despite breaking most of the model rules sent by Conservative Central Office.