Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 00:54, 26 May 2006

Michael Keith Smith (born 1953), commonly known as Mike Smith, is the chairman of the Conservative Democratic Alliance (CDA), and an activist in the United Kingdom Independence Party. He was formerly on the Executive Council of the Conservative Monday Club, of which he has been a member since the early 1970s. Professionally he is a Chartered Surveyor (See RICS).

Distinguished members of Smith's family include Francis Edward James Keith, the legendary Prussian Field-Marshal, and his brother George Keith, hereditary Earl Marischal of Scotland and intimate friend of Frederick the Great. Through his paternal grandmother he is descended from Frederick Philipse, Dutch-born merchant of New Amsterdam and son-in-law of Stephanus Van Cortlandt who, by the time of his death, had amassed a 52,000-acre estate centred on Philipse Manor Hall that encompassed the entire modern city of Yonkers, as well as several other Hudson River towns. The Philipses were prominent slaveowners in New York State. (See Misplaced Pages entry on Philipsburg Manor)

The Philipse family remined loyal to the Crown during the American Revolution and were persecuted by the rebels. Distinguished members of the family who subsequently made their future life in England included General Sir Frederick Philipse Robinson (1763-1852) of Virginia. In 1814 General Robinson commanded a brigade under Wellington in Spain. He subsequently took part in the War of 1812 and commanded a brigade at the Battle of Plattsburgh. He was a provisional Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada in 1815. Afterwards he was governor of Tobago.

Smith was a member of the Conservative Party for 32 years from 1970, attaining area rank and serving for several years as Vice-Chairman of Portsmouth South Conservative Association. In May 2002 he was expelled from the party for attacking Iain Duncan Smith in print and threatening to stand against an official Conservative Candidate. He subsequently challenged this unlawful expulsion with a Writ. He was readmitted before it reached court and his costs paid by Central Office.

On 27 June 2002, The Daily Telegraph carried a letter from the CDA, signed by Smith as its Chairman, attacking the Conservative Party and its Chairman Francis Maude for "the sleaze, double-dealing, arrogance, incompetence, Europhilia, indifference and drift with which the party is still associated. Voters", he said, "deserve a real alternative to Blairism and his 'straight kinda guy' chicanery. Mr.Maude and his C-Changing Tories are incapable of providing it."

In the 2005 General Election he stood as the United Kingdom Independence Party candidate for Portsmouth North. Both unsuccessful Tory candidate Penny Mordaunt and political commentator Richard North blamed Smith's intervention for the Tories' failure to win back the seat.

Smith, in concert with many right-wingers, is opposed to the Iraq War and what he sees as the Americanisation of the world generally, and the United Kingdom in particular. Some suggest these traditional views may increase the distance between him and the 'modernising' Conservative Party.

He was one of the top-table guests at the Traditional Britain Dinner held at Simpson's-in-the-Strand on 7 November 2003; and was present again on 8 February 2006 when the Guest-of-Honour was Simon Heffer, (Refer: The Daily Telegraph Court & Social pages, 8 November 2003 and 9 February 2006).

Michael Keith Smith recently won a major test case for libel over the internet against a former schoolteacher. He was awarded £10,000 plus £7500 costs.

Ē==References and Notes==

1. refer: The Independent, 18 May 2002
2. Refer: The Times, 21 March 2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2096902,00.html IT Week, and The Guardian, both 22 March 2006, http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1737001,00.html?gusrc=rss

• 19553 births
• United KKingdom Independence Party politicians