Lives in Cricket No 15 - Michael Falcon

campaign he was greatly aided by Mr Reginald Neville and Sir John Green. 24 Captain Falcon campaigned on his work for the constituency since 1918. For example, he had obtained a government grant of £3,000 for the Fleggs 25 in relief of unemployment and, in Blofield, when the Ministry of Health refused permission for the local authority to proceed with its housing scheme, he had lobbied hard and managed to secure approval for at least half the plan. He continued to campaign hard on the issues of agriculture and fishing, stating that farm labourers were especially deserving of government support but warning that it would be unwise to raise labourers’ wages before agriculture was restored to a sound enough footing. Referring to a recent conference held in Norwich between landowners, farmers and labourers with the object of restoring prosperity to agriculture, Falcon stated that, if re-elected, he would support the proposals arising from this meeting to help get farming back on its feet. At this point in the hustings, Captain Falcon was the subject of some hard criticism, in the form of a letter to the Eastern Daily Press written by the Liberal candidate, Mr Seely, who attacked his attendance record in the House of Commons. He defended his absences from the House, saying that he was always ‘paired’, a response which didn’t entirely placate Mr Seely. Speaking of the accusation made by the Liberals that he voted to repeal the Agriculture Act, he denied the claim point-blank, saying that ‘I was in Norfolk attending to my constituency – not playing cricket – and I paired with another member who was in favour of repealing the Act.’ By referring to his cricketing activities explicitly, Captain Falcon was acknowledging that balancing his parliamentary duties with his role as Norfolk skipper was a genuine issue. In 1922 he played 14 times for Norfolk and was also involved in one first-class game. However this was the only time in either the 1922 or 1923 election campaigns in which his potential conflict of interests was raised. Despite Mr Seely’s letter the Eastern Daily Press was moved to say that the contest in East Norfolk ‘was marked by the utmost good humour on all sides and might be described as a model At Westminster 49 24 Falcon’s voting record had shown himself to be of an independent mind: when he did not agree with the official Coalition policy he voted against it. If the Coalition had remained in being this free-thinking might have attracted strong criticism, but the Unionists had no qualms about re-adopting him as their own candidate. 25 The Fleggs are the area to the north of Great Yarmouth.