Cliveden set

In November 1937, Claud Cockburn, editor of The Week, wrote and published a damning report on what he saw as the pro-German activities of Waldorf Astor, his wife, the politician Vicountess Nancy Astor and their circle of friends. He alleged that the group, who where often hosted by the Astors at their country residence, Cliveden in Buckinghamshire, were using their close political connections and media power (Waldorf owned The Observer) to influence the British Government into a policy of appeasement with Nazi Germany. Cockburn's article, accusing the Astors and their circle, was published just as the tide of public feeling was turning against appeasement, consequently, the story was picked up and embellished by newspapers all over the world, with the phrase 'The Cliveden Set' coined by another British publication. There remains, however, no evidence that the group acted in any way to actively distort British foreign policy, although some did hold pro-appeasement values, and Cockburn's theories are generally disregarded today.