Rev roy jenkins biography of alberta

He added that a new party could reshape politics and lead to the "rapid revival of liberal social democratic Britain". The Labour Party conference at Blackpool in September adopted a unilateralist defence policy, withdrawal from the EEC and further nationalisation, along with Tony Benn's demands for the mandatory reselection of MPs and an electoral college to elect the party leader.

This called for the "realignment of British politics". Jenkins delivered a series of speeches setting out the SDP's alternative to Thatcherism and Bennism and argued that the solution to Britain's economic troubles lay in the revenue from North Sea oilwhich should be invested in public services. Despite it being a defeat, the by-election demonstrated that the SDP was a serious force.

Jenkins said after the count that it was the first parliamentary election that he had lost in many years, but was "by far the greatest victory in which I have ever participated". At the SDP's first annual conference in OctoberJenkins called for "an end to the futile frontier war between public and private sectors" and proposed an "inflation tax" on excessive pay rises that would restrain spiralling wages and prices.

After achieving this, an SDP government would be able to embark on economic expansion to reduce unemployment.

Rev roy jenkins biography of alberta

In Marchhe fought the Glasgow Hillhead by-electionin what had previously been a Conservative-held seat. Polls at the beginning of the campaign put Jenkins in third place but after a series of ten well-attended public meetings which Jenkins addressed, the tide began to turn in Jenkins' favour and he was elected with a majority of just over on a swing of 19 per cent.

Jenkins, with excessive and almost unbearable gravitas, asked three very heavy statesman-like non-party-political questions of the PM. I suppose he is very formidable, but he was so portentous and long-winded that he started to lose the sympathy of the House about halfway through and the barracking resumed. The Lady replied quite brightly and freshly, as if she did not particularly know who he was, or care.

Whereas earlier in his career, Jenkins had excelled in the traditional set-piece debates in which he spoke from the dispatch box, the focus of parliamentary reporting had now moved to the point-scoring of Prime Minister's Questions, which he struggled with. Seated in the traditional place for third parties in the Commons the rev roy jenkins biography of alberta or third row below the gangwayand without a dispatch box and the gravitas it could have conferred, Jenkins was situated near and shared the same microphone with Labour's "awkward squad" that included Dennis Skinner and Bob Cryerwho regularly heckled abuse "Roy, your revs roy jenkins biography of alberta are undone".

Seven days after Jenkins' by-election victory Argentina invaded the Falklands and the subsequent Falklands War transformed British politics, increased substantially the public's support for the Conservatives and ended any chance that Jenkins' election would reinvigorate the SDP's support. Despite heavily campaigning in the Labour-held seat, the SDP candidate finished a poor third.

During the election campaign, his position as the prime minister-designate for the SDP-Liberal Alliance was questioned by his close colleagues, as his campaign style was now regarded as ineffective; the Liberal leader David Steel was considered to have a greater rapport with the electorate. According to Steve Richards while Jenkins rejected Steel's view, the meeting meant Jenkins' "confidence was undermined and he staggered to the finishing line with less verve than he had displayed in the early days of the SDP" and showed little sign of his earlier "exuberance".

While on the old boundaries the Conservatives had held the seat prior to Jenkins' victory, it was estimated by the BBC and ITN that on the new boundaries Labour would have captured the seat with a majority of just over 2, votes in Jenkins defeated Carmichael by 1, votes to retain his seat in the House of Commons. Following the general election, Owen succeeded him unopposed.

At heart, Jenkins remained an unrepentant Keynesian. It could not go along with the fatalism of the Government's acceptance of massive unemployment". Jenkins called for more government intervention to support industry and for North Sea oil revenues to be channelled into a major programme of rebuilding Britain's infrastructure and into educating a skilled workforce.

Inhe wrote to The Times to advocate the closing down of the political surveillance role of MI5. Inhe won The Spectator' s Parliamentarian of the Year award. Inappeared his biography of Harry S. Truman and the following year his biography of Stanley Baldwin was published. FromJenkins remained in politics as a member of the House of Lords as a life peer with the title Baron Jenkins of Hillheadof Pontypool in the County of Gwent.

Inhe fought and won an amendment to the Education Reform Actguaranteeing academic freedom of speech in further and higher education establishments. This affords and protects the right of students and academics to "question and test received wisdom" and has been incorporated into the statutes or articles and instruments of governance of all universities and colleges in Britain.

My broad position remains firmly libertarian, sceptical of official cover-ups and uncompromisingly internationalist, believing sovereignty to be an almost total illusion in the modern world, although both expecting and welcoming the continuance of strong differences in national traditions and behaviour. I distrust the deification of the enterprise culture.

I think there are more limitations to the wisdom of the market than were dreamt of in Mrs Thatcher's philosophy. I believe that levels of taxation on the prosperous, having been too high for many years including my own period at the Treasuryare now too low for the provision of decent public services. And I think the privatisation of near monopolies is about as irrelevant as and sometimes worse than were the Labour Party's proposals for further nationalisation in the s and early s.

A Life at the Centre was generally favourably reviewed: in the Times Literary Supplement John Grigg said it was a "marvellous account of high politics by a participant writing with honesty, irony and sustained narrative verve". In The Spectator Anthony Quinton remarked that Jenkins was "not afraid to praise himself and earns the right to do so by unfudged self-criticism".

Inhe was appointed to the Order of Merit. Although an admiring portrait overall, Cockerell was frank about Jenkins' affairs and both Jenkins and his wife believed that Cockerell had betrayed their hospitality. He argued that Blair should stick "to a constructive line on Europe, in favour of sensible constitutional innovation He added that he hoped Blair would not move Labour further to the right: "Good work has been done in freeing it from nationalisation and other policies.

But the market cannot solve everything and it would be a pity to embrace the stale dogmas of Thatcherism just when their limitations are becoming obvious". Jenkins and Blair had been in touch since the latter's time as Shadow Home Secretary, when he admired Jenkins' reforming tenure at the Home Office. He comes to me a lot for advice, particularly about how to construct a Government".

Before the electionBlair had promised an enquiry into electoral reform. In DecemberJenkins was appointed chair of a Government-appointed Independent Commission on the Voting System, which became known as the " Jenkins Commission ", to consider alternative voting systems for the UK. Blair told Ashdown that Jenkins' recommendations would not pass the Cabinet.

British membership of the European single currencyJenkins believed, was the supreme test of Blair's statesmanship. He told Blair in October "You have to choose between leading Europe or having Murdoch on your side. You can have one but not both". After Gordon Brown attacked Oxford University for indulging in "old school tie" prejudices because it rejected a state-educated pupil, Laura SpenceJenkins told the House of Lords in June that "Brown's diatribe was born of prejudice out of ignorance.

Nearly every fact he adduced was false". Jenkins wrote 19 books, including a biography of Gladstonewhich won the Whitbread Award for Biography, and a much-acclaimed biography of Winston Churchill His then-designated official biographer, Andrew Adoniswas to have finished the Churchill biography had Jenkins not survived the heart surgery he underwent towards the end of its writing.

Historian Paul Johnson called it the best one-volume biography on its subject. Jenkins underwent heart surgery in the form of a heart valve replacement on 12 October [ ] and postponed his 80th birthday celebrations whilst recovering, by having a celebratory party on 7 March He died on 5 Januaryafter suffering a heart attack at his home at East Hendredin Oxfordshire.

After his death, Blair paid tribute to "one of the most remarkable people ever to grace British politics", who had "intellect, vision and an integrity that saw him hold firm to his beliefs of moderate social democracy, liberal reform and the cause of Europe throughout his life. He was a friend and support to me". Roy Jenkins was both radical and contemporary; and this made him the most influential exponent of the progressive creed in politics in postwar Britain.

Moreover, the political creed for which he stood belongs as much to the future as to the past. Roy Jenkins was the first leading politician to appreciate that a liberalised social democracy must be based on two tenets: what Peter Mandelson called an aspirational society individuals must be allowed to regulate their personal lives without interference from the state ; and that a post-imperial country like Britain could only be influential in the world as part of a wider grouping the EU.

However, these extra-marital relationships were conditional on his lovers having a good relationship with his wife: he later stated that he "could not imagine loving anyone who was not very fond of Jennifer". She was made a DBE for services to ancient and historical buildings. They had two sons, Charles and Edward, and a daughter, Cynthia.

Early in his life, Jenkins had a relationship with Anthony Crosland. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item. British politician — The Right Honourable. OM PC. Harold Wilson James Callaghan. Shadow Cabinet offices.

Lord Temporal. Mary Jennifer Morris. Cardiff University Balliol College, Oxford. Early life — [ edit ]. Early political career — [ edit ]. Home Secretary — [ edit ]. Chancellor of the Exchequer — [ edit ]. Shadow Cabinet — [ edit ]. President of the European Commission — [ edit ]. Social Democratic Party — [ edit ]. Peerage, achievements, books and death — [ edit ].

Marriage and personal life [ edit ]. In popular culture [ edit ]. Works [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. The Glasgow Herald. Retrieved 24 August Britain in the Twentieth Century. ISBN The Guardian. Retrieved 26 September The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 5 November Reviews in History. Retrieved 20 October A Life at the Centre. Penguin Adult. Hansard, 3 July ".

A History of Modern Britain. Allen Lane. In Rosen, Greg ed. I still have the former, but don't recall what happened to the latter. The high humidity level caused the SLR's shutter to malfunction. I developed photos while I was there. When I found I'd lost a lot of valuable photos of my journey across the island, I was able to re-trace my steps and take another batch with the Ricoh.

Thankfully I had time and a hire car, having saved money from my travel grant by having local contacts offering me hospitality. All those photos are digitized from the original slides and reside somewhere in my archives. This evening I went to the beach nearby to watch the full moon rise and take photos. Unfortunately there was too much cloud and too little to capture anything of any interest.

Very disappointing, but a pleasant hour on the sea shore, listening to the waves on a mild evening, waiting to see the moon, nevertheless. Maybe tomorrow. Posted by Keith Kimber at Sunday, October 16, No comments:. Newer Post Older Post Home. Subscribe to: Post Comments Atom. It would have been particularly amusing watching the churches try to come up with a reason for being against it.

Skip to content. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like Loading Published by peterhearty Her experience of living in several different countries as well as that of being a woman in ordained ministry, has given her a particular interest in language and power. Roy Jenkins has presented All Things Considered for the past 30 years. He has interviewed a huge range of people with stories of faith, courage and controversy - from leading religious and political figures, to singers and writers, comedians, death-row campaigners and convicted killers.

A broadcaster sinceRoy has also been a newspaper journalist and a Christian minister, and has appeared regularly on Radio 4 and Radio 2, as well as on Radio Wales. Mary Stallard is the daughter of a scientist and a vicar and so was brought up in a household where there was great encouragement to ask questions about everything and to explore the world of faith.

She studied Theology at university and trained first as a teacher and then for Anglican ministry with education and faith-development remaining as key interests alongside reading, art and running.