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Home , Roy Jenkins, Tony Blair

him to return from exile to British politics. reviews It was the outcome of the gen- eral 1979 election – when he did not vote – that provoked Jenkins’ change of mood and led to his Dim- A Well-Rounded Life bleby lecture, ‘Home Thoughts John Campbell, : A Well-Rounded Life (Jonathan from Abroad’ of November 1979. The language of the lecture was Cape, 2014) hardly a battle cry but it struck a Reviewed by Bill Rodgers sympathetic note for those who were despairing between Tony n the final chapter of this fell apart. Roy Jenkins resigned Benn’s far-left Labour and Marga- absorbing and perceptive book, his deputy leadership and a fissure ret Thatcher’s doctrinaire Tory- IJohn Campbell describes Roy opened in the Labour party over ism. When the Gang of Four Jenkins’ last political initiative in Europe. A cartoon in Campbell’s came together early in 1981, it was trying to persuade the new prime book shows Wilson and Jenkins mainly Jenkins who brought the minister, , to com- together and Jim Callaghan hid- so-called political virgins into the mit himself to proportional rep- ing behind with the caption saying, new centre-left SDP. When Jenkins resentation. When Blair became ‘Heir , gone tomorrow …?’ fought a by-election at , the Labour leader in 1995, Jenkins Jenkins spent four more years in a working-class northern town, hailed him as ‘the most exciting parliament including a further stint the sketch writer Frank Johnson Labour choice since the election of as but when Wil- said, ‘the surprising news’ was that ’ forty years earlier. son resigned, Callaghan was elected ‘people rather liked Mr Jenkins.’ As Campbell says, he saw Blair as the Labour leader with Jenkins in Far from a remote grandee, he was the man to forge a united moderate, third place, below . As energetic, relaxed and sociable and progressive front and ‘realise the Campbell says, this marked the end never talked down to the voters. thwarted ambition of the SDP.‘ But of Jenkins’ ‘dwindling hope of the By November after Shirley Wil- that was not to be. Blair rejected premiership.’ it remains to be seen liams had won Crosby, the polls the outcome of whether Jenkins would ever have were showing that the SDP/Liberal Commission on the Voting System, reached No. 10, given the crum- Alliance was overtaking both the chaired by Jenkins. And ‘The Pro- bling and divisive Labour party of Labour party and the Conserva- ject’, the bridge between the prime the late 1970s. tives, reaching over 50 per cent. minister and , the As it was, he chose to give up In March 1982 Jenkins fought Lib Dem leader, never became a his long parliamentary career to another by-election and won route to political partnership. become the president of the - For Roy Jenkins there had been pean Commission. John Campbell two peaks and two troughs in his says that once he had made up his career between his arrival in 1948 mind to go to Brussels, Jenkins felt at the House of Commons at the liberated by the prospect of escap- age of 28 and his appointment in ing the drudgery and dishonesty 1993 aged 73 to the of domestic Labour politics. Given which Campbell calls the seal of that not much more than thirty Jenkins’ status as part of ‘the great pages of Campbell’s book cover panjandrum of the British Estab- Jenkins’ presidency, I would recom- lishment’. During the 1960s, Jen- mend that a student of this period kins had been a young, reforming read Jenkins’ 600 pages of his own home secretary (sometimes said to European Diary 1977–1981. But sum- be his greatest achievement) and ming up, Campbell says that Jenkins then a chancellor of the exchequer could claim that he was the godfa- who had pulled around the Labour ther of the euro but in hindsight he government after the 1967 devalu- ‘must bear some of the blame for ation. When Labour lost the 1970 foisting a flawed vision on the conti- election and George Brown his nent before it was ready for it.’ parliamentary seat, Roy Jenkins Shortly after Jenkins had been was elected the deputy leader of the installed as president of the Com- Labour party. The old ‘conscience mission I called on him at his new and reform’ Gaitskellites seemed to Brussels home. He glanced ruefully be coming back to power. If Jen- at the half-empty red despatch box, kins could work reasonably well a memento of his years as chan- with , he would cellor. There were no manuscript become his successor and, in due notes lying on the table, and the course, prime minister. telephone did not ring. We talked But within less than two years, about domestic politics but only in in an extraordinary transforma- a desultory way. Few of his former tion of fortunes, this expectation parliamentary colleagues expected

42 Journal of Liberal History 86 Spring 2015 reviews

Glasgow Hillhead. John Camp- John Camp- exchequer, a liberal home secre- index at the end of the 818 pages of bell says that ‘On a personal level tary and, briefly, foreign secre- Campbell’s book. Jenkins’ victory at Hillhead was bell has writ- tary. In retirement, Butler became I first met Roy Jenkins in July perhaps the high point of his politi- Master of Trinity College, Cam- 1951 when he interviewed me cal life.’ He was now to be seen as ten a fine bridge and wrote an elegant for an appointment. So ‘Jenkins’ prime minister designate and he personal memoir. But this was became ‘Roy’ for more than fifty pencilled-in a putative Alliance book fully nothing compared with Jenkins’ years. I was very fond of Roy and I Cabinet including as busy social life and writing nine thought of him as my elder brother home secretary and leader of the reflecting books, and a tenth – about Frank- in politics. Sometimes we shared house, as foreign lin Delano Roosevelt – published our holidays in Tuscany and in secretary and me, to my pleasure, both on Roy after his death, making twenty- later years we talked regularly on as chancellor. This was the second two in all. His books on Gladstone the telephone on Sunday morn- peak of Jenkins’ career – but all too Jenkins’ dis- and then on Churchill were out- ing. On the last occasion we met, soon followed his second trough. standing, building on his experi- shortly before Christmas 2002, my He was elected leader of the SDP tinguished ence in writing Asquith (1964), the wife and I enjoyed lunch with Roy but with a much smaller margin royalties of which had enabled him and Jennifer at one of his favour- over than had been public career to buy his modest but comfortable ite country . Clearly he was expected. He found difficulty in and his inti- country house in East Hendred, unwell and due to enter hospital adjusting to the Commons because Oxfordshire, which he made his after the holiday season but I was for many years he had spoken with mate per- principal home. dismayed when his son Charles gravitas and authority to a respect- In writing Asquith and drawing telephoned me on the morning of ful House. But now it was a less sonal on Asquith’s love letters to Vene- Sunday 5 January 2003 to say that disciplined place, with Labour and tia Stanley, he came up against the Roy had died. After a gap of ten Tory MPs determined to make his and life. formidable years, John Campbell has written life as hard as possible. In addition, who did not approve the publica- a fine book fully reflecting both on as Campbell puts it, on television tion of these matters. Very differ- Roy Jenkins’ distinguished - Jenkins ‘looked and sounded old, ently, Jennifer Jenkins, his wife lic career and his intimate personal flabby and long-winded’: nor was – also formidable – has allowed style and life. he good at ‘the quick-fire exchange John Campbell to write freely of pithy soundbites’ in which David about her husband’s adolescent Bill Rodgers (Lord Rodgers of Quarry Owen and David Steel excelled. In sexual relationship with Tony Cro- Bank) was a member of the ‘Gang of the middle of the 1983 election, the sland and his affaires with his adult Four’ who founded the Social Demo- Liberal hierarchy tried, although girlfriends. All of this can be found cratic Party in 1981. He led the Liberal unsuccessfully, to replace Jenkins in the impressive, comprehensive Democrat peers from 1997 to 2001. with Steel as the Alliance leader. In perspective, the 1983 election result was far from a disaster for the SDP–Liberal Alliance. Its share of the vote was 25.4 per cent (against Minded to slay national ignorance the previous Liberal high-water- mark of 19.3 per cent in 1974), only James Dixon, Out of : George Dixon (1820–98), 2.2 per cent short of Labour at 27.6 ‘Father of Free Education’ (Brewin Books, 2013) per cent. Nearly 8 million votes had been cast for either of the two Alli- Reviewed by Tony Little ance parties and it could be seen as a remarkable achievement. But that is hen Tony Blair chose minister. But Forster was not acting not how it felt. With David Owen ‘education, educa- in a vacuum. Vigorous campaign- pressing for his immediate resigna- Wtion, education’ as the ing had created the environment tion, Jenkins accepted the verdict, mantra for his government’s pri- in which the government felt com- remaining in the House of Com- orities, he unintentionally echoed pelled to take action and campaign- mons until he was defeated at Hill- George Dixon’s ‘educate, educate, ing had also fashioned the choices head in 1987. educate’, while also demonstrating and compromises by which the A few weeks earlier, Jenkins the enduring importance of state government modified its propos- had been elected Chancellor of schooling within political debate als; compromises which dictate that Oxford University. When he was more than 140 years after the pas- we still have church schools and installed in June, he wrote that sage of the Gladstone administra- that education has largely been a ‘Nothing in my life has been given tion’s 1870 Education Act. That act responsibility of local authorities me greater pleasure.’ It was, says enabled the provision of govern- despite the depredations of Blair, John Campbell, the perfect retire- ment elementary schooling, a field Gove and Laws. ment for him. But far from retire- that till then had been largely a George Dixon was pre-eminent ment, Jenkins continued to enjoy matter for private enterprise, chari- among those crusading for educa- his well-rounded life for another ties and the churches. tion to be provided by the nation fifteen years. In some ways, Jen- The 1870 Act is usually, and for all children whatever their fam- kins’ political career had been a rightly, credited to W. E. For- ily income. Dixon is now largely parallel to R. A. Butler’s, as But- ster who introduced the bill to the forgotten, or at least largely for- ler had been chancellor of the House as the appropriate junior gotten outside Birmingham, the

Journal of Liberal History 86 Spring 2015 43