David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen CHThe Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V in June 1917, as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry, or religion....
PCHer Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council is a body of advisors to the British Sovereign. Its members are largely senior politicians, who were or are members of either the House of Commons or House of Lords of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.The Privy Council, the...
FKC (born 2 July 1938) is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
politicianA politician or political leader is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making. This includes people who hold decision-making positions in government, and people who seek those positions, whether by means of election, coup d'état, appointment, electoral fraud, conquest,...
and
ChancellorChancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
of the
University of LiverpoolThe University of Liverpool is a university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group and the N8 Group for research collaboration, and founded in 1881 it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic universities...
.
He was one of the founders of the British
Social Democratic PartyThe Social Democratic Party was a political party of the United Kingdom that existed nationwide between 1981 and 1988. It was founded by four senior Labour Party 'moderates', dubbed the Gang of Four: Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams...
(SDP). He led the SDP from 1983 to 1987 and the
re-formed SDPA Social Democratic Party was formed in the United Kingdom in 1981 by a group of dissident Labour Party Members of Parliament : Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams, who became known as the "Gang of Four"....
from 1988 to 1990. He is also known for becoming the youngest person in over forty years to hold the post of British
Foreign SecretaryThe Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, commonly referred to as the Foreign Secretary, is a member of the Her Majesty's Government heading the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and responsible for relations with foreign countries, matters pertaining to the Commonwealth of...
(from 1977 to 1979) and as one of the authors of the failed Vance-Owen and Owen-Stoltenberg peace plans offered during the
Bosnian WarThe Bosnian War, also known as the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was an international armed conflict that took place between March 1992 and November 1995. The war involved several sides...
. He has been a controversial figure for much of his career, inspiring great devotion among close followers but also disaffection due to perceived arrogance. He sits in the
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
as a crossbencher.
Biography
Owen had long been regarded as a serial resigner. He had quit as Labour's spokesman on defence in 1972 in protest at the Labour leader
Harold Wilson'sJames Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, PC was a British Labour Party politician; one of the most prominent British politicians of the latter half of the 20th century, he served two terms as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, firstly from 1964 to 1970, and again from 1974...
attitude to the
EECThe European Community is the first of the three pillars of the European Union created under the Maastricht Treaty . It is based upon the principle of supranationalism and has its origins in the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the European Union. If the Treaty of Lisbon comes into...
; he left the Labour Shadow cabinet over the same issue later; and over
unilateral disarmamentUnilateral disarmament is a policy option, to renounce weapons without seeking equivalent concessions from one's actual or potential rivals. It was most commonly used in the 20th century in the context of unilateral nuclear disarmament, a recurrent objective of peace movements in countries such as...
in November 1980 when
Michael FootMichael Mackintosh Foot is a British politician and writer. He was leader of the Labour Party from 1980 to 1983.-Family:Foot's father, Isaac Foot, was a solicitor and founder of the Plymouth law firm, Foot and Bowden...
became Labour leader. He resigned from the Labour Party when it rejected "one member, one vote" in February 1981. He resigned as Leader of the Social Democratic Party which he had helped to found when the party's rank-and-file membership voted to merge with the Liberal Party.
Early life
Owen was born in 1938 in the town of
PlymptonPlympton, or Plympton Maurice or Plympton St Maurice or Plympton Erle, in south-western Devon, England is an ancient stannary town: an important trading centre in the past for locally mined tin, and a former seaport...
, beside
PlymouthPlymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
in
DevonDevon is a large county in England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, although that is an unofficial name, rarely used inside of the county itself and often indicating a traditional or historical context. The county shares borders with Cornwall to the west and Dorset and Somerset to...
, England. After schooling at Mount House School, Tavistock, and
Bradfield CollegeBradfield College is a coeducational public school located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire.The college was founded in the 1850s by Thomas Stevens, Rector and Lord of the Manor of Bradfield...
,
BerkshireBerkshire is a county in the South East of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1958, and Letters...
, he was admitted to
Sidney Sussex College, CambridgeSidney Sussex College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England....
, in 1956 to study
medicineMedicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
. He began clinical training at
St Thomas' HospitalSt Thomas' Hospital is a large NHS hospital in London, England. It is administratively a part of Guy’s & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. It has provided health care freely or under charitable auspices since the 12th century and was originally located in Southwark.St Thomas' Hospital is accessible...
in October 1959.
The Suez Crisis
Owen was deeply affected by the
Suez crisisThe Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, was a military attack on Egypt by Britain, France, and Israel beginning on 29 October 1956....
of 1956, when Anthony Eden's Conservative government launched a military operation to retrieve the Suez Canal from the Nasser's decision to nationalise it. At the time, aged 18, he was working on a labouring job before going to Cambridge.
'In 1956, when the Suez crisis broke, there was Gaitskell on television and in the House of Commons criticising Eden, and here were these men working alongside me, who should have been his natural supporters, furious with him. 'The Daily Mirror' backed Gaitskell, but these men were tearing up their Daily Mirrors every day in the little hut where we had our tea and sandwiches during our break.... My working mates were solidly in favour of Eden. It was not only that they taught me how people like them think; they also opened my eyes to how I should think myself. From then on I never identified with the liberal - with a small 'l'- establishment. Through that experience I became suspicious of a kind of automatic sogginess which you come across in many aspects of British life, the kind of attitude which splits the difference on everything. The rather defeatist, even traitorous attitude reflected in the pre-war apostles at Cambridge. I suppose it underlay the appeasement years. Its modern equivalent is a resigned attitude to Britain's continuous post-war economic decline.'
In fact Owen disagreed with them as the nationalisation was a 'confiscation' rather than an 'invasion', nevertheless the whole affair convinced him that 'politicians... able to stand up for Britain's interests even in the age of Imperial decline' and 'brought home' to him the 'robustness about the British people's character which is often underestimated by... the chattering classes'.[Kenneth Harris,
Personally Speaking Pan Books, 1987]
Medicine and politics
In 1960, Owen joined the
VauxhallVauxhall is an inner city area of South London in the London Borough of Lambeth.It has also given its name to the Vauxhall Parliamentary Constituency, which also includes parts of Brixton and Clapham....
branch of the
Labour PartyThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
and the
Fabian SocietyThe Fabian Society is a British intellectual socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up...
. He qualified as a doctor in 1962 and began work at St Thomas's Hospital. In 1964, he contested the
TorringtonTorrington was a county constituency centred on the town of Torrington in Devon. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1950 until it was abolished for the February 1974 general election....
seat as the Labour candidate against the
ConservativeThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
incumbent, losing in what was a traditional Conservative-
LiberalThe Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the mid 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become...
marginalA constituency is any cohesive body of people bound by shared identity, goals, or loyalty. Constituency can be used to describe a business's customer base and shareholders, or a charity's donors or those it serves...
. He was neurology and psychiatric registrar at St Thomas's Hospital for two years, as assistant to Dr.
William SargantWilliam Walters Sargant , was a British psychiatrist who is now famous for his work with shell-shocked servicemen during World War Two, and later for his book entitled Battle for the Mind in which he discusses the nature of the process by which our minds are subject to influence by others...
, then Research Fellow on the Medical Unit doing research into Parkinsonian trauma and neuropharmacology.
Member of Parliament
At the next
general election, in 1966The 1966 UK general election on 31 March 1966 was called by sitting Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Wilson's decision to call an election turned on the fact that his government, elected only two years previously in 1964 had an unworkable small majority of only 4 MPs...
, Owen returned to his home town and was elected Labour
Member of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of...
(MP) for the Plymouth Sutton
constituencyA constituency is any cohesive body of people bound by shared identity, goals, or loyalty. Constituency can be used to describe a business's customer base and shareholders, or a charity's donors or those it serves...
. In the
February 1974 general electionThe UK general election of February 1974 was held on 28 February 1974. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the only election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party, instead producing a hung...
he became Labour MP for the adjacent Plymouth Devonport constituency, winning it from the Conservative incumbent
DameDame is the female equivalent of address to Sir for a British knighthood. In the UK honours system, this can be the title of a woman who has been made a Dame Commander or Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Order of St Michael and St George, Royal Victorian Order, or Order of the British...
Joan VickersJoan Helen Vickers, Baroness Vickers, DBE was a British National Liberal and Conservative Party politician.Vickers was educated at St. Monica's College, Burgh Heath, Surrey and in Paris. She served with the Red Cross in South East Asia and was area welfare officer of the Social Welfare Department...
by a slim margin (fewer than 500 votes). He managed to hold on to it in the
1979 general electionThe United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 and is regarded as a pivotal point in 20th century British politics. The Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher defeated James Callaghan's incumbent Labour government in what would prove to be the first of four consecutive general...
, again by a narrow margin (1001 votes). From 1981, however, his involvement with the SDP meant he developed a large personal following in the constituency and thereafter he was re-elected (as an SDP candidate) with safe margins. He remained as MP for Plymouth Devonport until his elevation to a
peerageThe Peerage is a system of titles in the United Kingdom, which represents the upper ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system. The term is used both collectively to refer to the entire body of titles, and individually to refer to a specific title...
in 1992.
From 1968 to 1970, Owen served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the
NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
in
Harold WilsonJames Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, PC was a British Labour Party politician; one of the most prominent British politicians of the latter half of the 20th century, he served two terms as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, firstly from 1964 to 1970, and again from 1974...
's first government. After Labour's defeat in the
1970 General ElectionThe United Kingdom general election of 1970 was held on 18 June 1970, and resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, who defeated the Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The election also saw the Liberal Party and its new leader Jeremy Thorpe lose half their...
, he became the party's Junior Defence Spokesman until 1972 when he resigned with
Roy JenkinsRoy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead OM, PC was a British politician. Once prominent as a Labour Member of Parliament and government minister in the 1960s and 1970s, he became the first British President of the European Commission and one of the four principal founders of the Social...
over Labour's opposition to the European Community. On Labour's return to government in March 1974, he became Parliamentary Under-Secretary for
HealthAt the of the creation of the World Health Organization , in 1948, Health was defined as being "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity"....
before being promoted to Minister of State for Health in July 1974.
In Government
In September 1976, Owen was appointed by the new
Prime MinisterA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
of five months,
James CallaghanLeonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, KG, PC , was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980...
, as a Minister of State at the
Foreign OfficeThe Foreign and Commonwealth Office, commonly called the Foreign Office or the FCO, is the British government department responsible for promoting the interests of the United Kingdom overseas, created in 1968 by merging the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth Office.The head of the FCO is the...
and was consequently admitted to the
Privy Council of the United KingdomHer Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council is a body of advisors to the British Sovereign. Its members are largely senior politicians, who were or are members of either the House of Commons or House of Lords of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.The Privy Council, the...
. Five months later, however, the Foreign Secretary,
Anthony CroslandCharles Anthony Raven Crosland , otherwise Tony Crosland or C.A.R. Crosland, was a British Labour Party politician and author, and an important socialist theorist. He served as Member of Parliament for South Gloucestershire and later for Great Grimsby...
died suddenly and Owen was appointed his successor. Aged thirty-eight, he became the youngest Foreign Secretary since
Anthony EdenRobert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Foreign Secretary for three periods between 1935 and 1955, including during World War II...
in 1935 and was seen as the youthful dynamic face of Labour's next generation.
As Foreign Secretary, Owen was identified with the Anglo/American plan for what was then
RhodesiaWhen the former colony of Northern Rhodesia changed its name to Zambia on independence in 1964, the colony of Southern Rhodesia changed its name to just plain 'Rhodesia'. The change had not yet been officialy ratified when Rhodesia declared itself independent on 11 November 1965...
which formed the basis for the
Lancaster House AgreementThe negotiations which led to the Lancaster House Agreement brought Independence to Rhodesia following Ian Smith’s illegal Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965. The Agreement covered the Independence Constitution, pre-independence arrangements, and a ceasefire...
, negotiated by his Tory successor, Lord Carrington in December 1979. The
Contact GroupThe Contact Group is the name for an informal grouping of influential countries that have a significant interest in policy developments in the Balkans. The Contact Group is composed of United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia. It was first created in response to the war...
sponsored UN Resolution in 1978 on which Namibia moved to independence twelve years later. He wrote a book entitled
Human Rights and championed that cause in Africa and in the Soviet Union. He has admitted to at one stage contemplating the assassination of
Idi AminIdi Amin Dada , commonly known as Idi Amin, was the military dictator and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979....
while Foreign Secretary but settled instead to backing with money for arms purchases to
President NyerereJulius Kambarage Nyerere served as the first President of Tanzania and previously Tanganyika, from the country's founding in 1961 until his retirement in 1985....
of
TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in central East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.The United...
in his armed attack on
UgandaThe Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania...
which lead to the exile of Amin to
Saudi ArabiaSaudi Arabia , is an Arab country and the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south...
.
However, 18 months after Labour lost power in 1979, the staunchly
left-wingIn politics, left-wing, political left, leftist and the Left are terms used to describe a number of positions and ideologies. They are most commonly used to refer to support for changing traditional social orders or for creating a more egalitarian distribution of wealth and privilege...
politician
Michael FootMichael Mackintosh Foot is a British politician and writer. He was leader of the Labour Party from 1980 to 1983.-Family:Foot's father, Isaac Foot, was a solicitor and founder of the Plymouth law firm, Foot and Bowden...
was elected party leader, despite vocal opposition from Labour Party moderates (including Owen), sparking a crisis over the party's future.
Social Democratic Party and Liberal-SDP Alliance
Michael Foot's election as Labour party leader indicated that the party was likely to become more rather than less left-wing and in 1980 committed itself to withdrawing from the EEC without even a referendum (as Labour had carried out in 1975). Also, Labour endorsed unilateral nuclear disarmament and introduced an electoral college, for leadership elections, with 40% of the college going to a block vote of the trade unions. Early in 1981, Owen and three other senior moderate Labour politicians –
Roy JenkinsRoy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead OM, PC was a British politician. Once prominent as a Labour Member of Parliament and government minister in the 1960s and 1970s, he became the first British President of the European Commission and one of the four principal founders of the Social...
, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams – announced their intention to break away from the Labour Party to form a "Council for Social Democracy". The announcement became known as the
Limehouse DeclarationThe Limehouse Declaration was a statement issued on 25 January 1981 by four senior British Labour politicians, all MPs or former MPs and ex-Cabinet Ministers: Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams. In this document the so-called 'Gang of Four' signalled their intent to leave...
and the four as the "
Gang of FourGang of Four may refer to:Politics:* Gang of Four, Communist Party of China leaders arrested after Mao Zedong's death* Gang of Four , Generals Zia-ul-Haq, Akhtar Abdur Rahman, Rahimuddin Khan, and Zahid Ali Akbar of the 1980s military dictatorship....
". The council they formed became the
Social Democratic PartyThe Social Democratic Party was a political party of the United Kingdom that existed nationwide between 1981 and 1988. It was founded by four senior Labour Party 'moderates', dubbed the Gang of Four: Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams...
(SDP), with a collective leadership.
Twenty-eight other Labour MPs and one Conservative MP (
Christopher Brocklebank-FowlerChristopher Brocklebank-Fowler was a British politician, most notable for being the sole Conservative Member of Parliament to defect to the Social Democratic Party ....
) joined the new party. In late 1981, it formed the
SDP-Liberal AllianceThe SDP-Liberal Alliance was an electoral pact formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party in the United Kingdom which was in existence from 1981 to 1988, when the bulk of the two parties merged to form the Social and Liberal Democrats, later referred to as simply the Liberal...
with the
Liberal PartyThe Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the mid 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become...
to strengthen both parties' chances in the UK's "
first past the postThe plurality voting system is a single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member constituencies....
" electoral system. In 1982, uneasy about the Alliance, Owen challenged Jenkins for the leadership of the SDP, but was defeated by 26,256 votes to 20,864. In the following year's
General ElectionThe 1983 UK general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945.The opposition vote split almost evenly between the SDP/Liberal Alliance and Labour...
, the Alliance gained 25% of the vote, only slightly behind the Labour Party, but because of the "first past the post" system, it won only 23 out of 650 seats. Although elected, Jenkins resigned the SDP leadership and Owen succeeded to it without a contest among the 6 SDP MPs.
In 1982 during the
Falklands WarThe Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict/Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
, Owen spoke at the Bilderberg Group advocating sanctions against Argentina.
SDP leadership
Owen is widely regarded as having been, at the very least, a competent Party Leader. He had high popularity ratings throughout his leadership as did the SDP/Liberal Alliance. He succeeded in keeping the Party in the public eye and in maintaining its independence from the Liberals for the length of the 1983 Parliament. Moreover under him the SDP increased its representation from 6 to 8 seats via the by-election victories of Mike Hancock, at
Portsmouth SouthThe Portsmouth South by-election was held on 14 June 1984, following the death of Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Portsmouth South Bonner Pink....
(1984), and
Rosie BarnesRosemary Susan Barnes, née 'Allen, usually known as Rosie Barnes, is a British charity organiser and former politician. She became nationally known when she won a by-election in 1987 for the Social Democratic Party.-Early life:...
, at
GreenwichThe Greenwich by-election of 1987 was a closely fought by-election often credited with boosting the SDP-Liberal Alliance shortly before the 1987 UK general election...
(1987).
However the progress of the SDP/Liberal Alliance as a whole was hampered with policy splits between the two parties, first over the miners' strike (1984-5) where Owen and most of the SDP favoured a fairly tough line but the Liberals preferred compromise and negotiation. More significantly the Alliance had a dispute over the future of Britain's independent nuclear deterrent. Here Owen and the SDP favoured replacing of Polaris with Trident as a matter of some import, where most Liberals were either indifferent to the issue or committed disarmers. The SDP favoured a radical '
Social Market EconomyThe social market economy is the main economic model used in West Germany after World War II. It is based on the political philosophy of Ordoliberalism from the Freiburg School...
', while the Liberals mostly favoured a more interventionist, corporate style approach. The cumulative affect of these divisions was to make the Alliance appear less credible as a potential government in the eyes of the electorate.
Moreover, Owen, unlike Jenkins faced an increasingly moderate Labour Party under
Neil KinnockNeil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock of Bedwellty is a Welsh Labour politician, who was a Member of Parliament from 1970 to 1995, and was the Leader of the Opposition from 1983 to 1992, when he resigned after being defeated in the 1992 general election...
and a dynamic Conservative government. The
1987 general electionThe United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987 and was the third consecutive victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher...
was as disappointing for the Alliance as the 1983 election and it lost one seat. Nevertheless, it won over 23% of the vote, the second largest third force vote in British politics since 1929.
Full parties' merger
In 1987 immediately after the election, the Liberal leader
David SteelDavid Martin Scott Steel, Baron Steel of Aikwood, KT, KBE, PC is a British and Scottish politician and a Liberal Democrat member of the UK House of Lords...
openly suggested a full merger of the Liberal and SDP parties and was supported for the SDP by Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers. Owen rejected this notion outright, on the grounds that he and other Social Democrats wished to remain faithful to social democracy as it was practised within Western Europe, and it was unlikely that any merged party would be able to do this, even if it was under his leadership. Nevertheless the majority of the SDP membership supported the idea. The Liberal and SDP parties merged to form the Social and Liberal Democrats (SLD), soon renamed as the
Liberal DemocratsThe Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems or just Liberals, are a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom, formed in 1988 by a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party; the two parties had been in alliance for seven years, from shortly after the formation of...
. At the request of two of the remaining SDP MPs, John Cartwright and Rosie Barnes, Owen continued to lead a much smaller
re-formed SDPA Social Democratic Party was formed in the United Kingdom in 1981 by a group of dissident Labour Party Members of Parliament : Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams, who became known as the "Gang of Four"....
with three MPs in total. The party polled well at its first election, its candidate coming a close second in the 1989 Richmond
by-electionA by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections...
, but thereafter a string of poor and ultimately disastrous by-election results followed, including coming behind the
Official Monster Raving Loony PartyThe Official Monster Raving Loony Party is a registered political party established in the United Kingdom in 1983 by musician and politician David Sutch, also known as Screaming Lord Sutch .-History:...
in the Bootle by-election of May 1990, prompting Owen to wind up the party in 1990. Some branches, however, continued to function using the
SDP nameThe Social Democratic Party is a small political party in the United Kingdom. It traces its origin to the Social Democratic Party that was formed in 1981 by a group of dissident Labour Party politicians, all Members of Parliament or former MPs: Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley...
- notably
BridlingtonBridlington is a town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It has a population of over 33,000 . The town is a sister town with Millau, France, and Bad Salzuflen, Germany.-Geography:...
which was still extant in 2006.
Retirement from the House of Commons
After winding up the re-formed SDP, Owen announced his intent to stand down as an MP at the next General Election. He then served the remainder of his term as an independent MP and after the
1992 General ElectionThe United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party.John Major had won the leadership election in November 1990 succeeding the outgoing PM Margaret Thatcher....
was made a
life peerIn the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles may not be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as...
with the title "
Baron Owen, of the City of
PlymouthPlymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
", in
Letters PatentLetters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of an open letter issued by a monarch or government, granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or to some entity such as a corporation. The opposite of letters patent are letters close , which are personal in nature...
dated 30 June 1992. As a member of the
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
, he is called "Lord Owen" and sits as a crossbencher.
During the April 1992 election campaign, Owen in the
The Mail on SundayThe Mail on Sunday is a British newspaper, currently published in a tabloid format. First published in 1982 by Lord Northcliffe, it is Britain's second biggest-selling Sunday newspaper after The News of the World...
advised voters to vote Liberal Democrat where they had a chance of victory and otherwise to vote Conservative rather than let Neil Kinnock become Prime Minister. He maintained his long standing position that he would never join the
Conservative PartyThe Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservatives, the Conservative Party, or Tory Party is a conservative political party in the United Kingdom...
, although the memoirs of at least three of
John MajorSir John Major, KG, CH, ACIB , is a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and former Leader of the Conservative Party. He held these posts from 1990 to 1997....
's cabinet ministers refer to Major being quite keen to appoint Owen to his cabinet, but threats of resignation from within the Cabinet prevented him from doing so. When asked in a conversation with
Woodrow WyattWoodrow Lyle Wyatt, Baron Wyatt of Weeford , was a British politician, published author, journalist and broadcaster.-Early life :...
on 18 December 1988 whether she would have Owen in her government if approached by him,
Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She is the only woman to have held either post....
replied: "Well, not straight away. I don't think I would do it straight away. He was very good on the Northern Ireland terrorist business. He's wasting his life now. It's so tragic. He's got real ability and it ought to be used". In another conversation with Wyatt on 4 June 1990 Thatcher said Owen's natural home was the Conservative Party.
In May 2005, he was approached two days before the General Election by someone very close to Tony Blair to endorse Labour. He declined, because though he did not want a Conservative government, he wanted the Liberal Democrats to do sufficiently well to ensure a greatly reduced Labour majority.
In September 2007, it was widely reported in the British press that Lord Owen had met the new Prime Minister
Gordon BrownJames Gordon Brown is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party. Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming leader of the governing Labour Party...
and afterwards had refused to rule out supporting Labour at the next general election.
Subsequent international role
In August 1992, Owen was British Prime Minister John Major's choice to succeed Lord Carrington as the EU co-chairman of the Conference for the Former Yugoslavia, along with
Cyrus VanceCyrus Roberts Vance was the United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1980. He approached foreign policy with an emphasis on negotiation over conflict and a special interest in arms reduction. In April 1980, Vance resigned in protest of Operation Eagle Claw, the...
, the former U.S. Secretary of State as the UN co-chairman.
Private EyePrivate Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, currently edited by Ian Hislop. Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic of public figures deemed incompetent, inefficient or corrupt, and has become a self-styled "thorn in the side" of...
, the British satirical magazine, playfully alluded towards Owen's legendary tendency towards self-destruction. "It's a lost cause", says the bubble emanating from Major's mouth. "I'm your man", says the bubble from Owen's mouth. The Labour Shadow Foreign Minister,
Jack CunninghamJohn Anderson "Jack" Cunningham, Baron Cunningham of Felling, PC, DL is a British Labour politician and was Member of Parliament for Copeland until 2005.-Early life:...
, greeted Major's appointment of Owen in the British House of Commons by saying that the Prime Minister's choice "was regarded as somewhat eccentric by [MPs] and myself - he [Owen] is known for many qualities, but not as a mediator. Indeed he has Balkanised a few political parties himself" [
Unfinest Hour: Britain and the Destruction of Bosnia [2001]
Brendan SimmsBrendan Peter Simms, PhD is Professor of the History of International Relations in the Centre of International Studies at the University of Cambridge. Simms completed his doctoral dissertation, entitled "Anglo-Prussian relations, 1804-1806: The Napoleonic Threat", at Cambridge under the...
p137]
Owen became a joint author of the Vance-Owen Peace Plan [VOPP], in January 1993 which made a heroic effort to move away from the presumption of ethnic partition. [Balkan Tragedy (1995) Susan L. Woodward p304]. According to America's last Ambassador to Yugoslavia the Bosnian Government were ready to accept the VOPP but unfortunately the Clinton Administration delayed in its support for the Plan thus missing a chance to get it launched. [Origins of the Catastrophe (1999) Warren Zimmermann p222]. The VOPP was eventually agreed in Athens in May 1993 under intense pressure by all parties including Bosnian Serb leader
KaradžićRadovan Karadžić is a former Bosnian Serb politician, poet and psychiatrist. He is currently on trial in the United Nations Detention Unit of Scheveningen accused of war crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats, and other non-Serbs during the Siege of Sarajevo...
[but then rejected later by the Bosnian-Serb Assembly meeting in Pale, after Karadžić insisted that the Assembly had the right to ratify the agreement]. After Vance's withdrawal, Owen and
Thorvald StoltenbergThorvald Stoltenberg is a prominent Norwegian politician. He served as Minister of Defense and Minister of Foreign Affairs in two Labour governments....
brokered the EU Action Plan of December 1993. They both helped the Contact Group of the US/UK/France/Germany and Russia to present its plan in the summer of 1994.
In early 1994, the
European ParliamentThe European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union , it forms the bicameral legislative branch of the Union's institutions and has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
had voted by 160 votes to 90, with 2 abstentions, for Owen's dismissal but he was unanimously supported by the 15 EU Member State governments. There was a perception in America that Owen was "not fulfilling his function as an impartial negotiator.." [
Unfinest Hour, p167]. Owen was made a Companion of Honour for his services in the former Yugoslavia in 1994.
In January 1995 Lord Owen wrote to President
François MitterrandFrançois Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand served as the President of France from 1981 to 1995, elected as representative of the Socialist Party . First elected during the May 1981 presidential election, he became the first socialist President of the Fifth Republic and the first left-wing head of...
as President of the
EUThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
to say that he wished to step down before the end of the French Presidency. At the end of May 1995, he was succeeded by the former Swedish Prime Minister
Carl Bildt, Honorary KCMG is a Swedish politician, diplomat and nobleman. Formerly Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994 and leader of the liberal conservative Moderate Party from 1986 to 1999, Bildt has served as Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs since 6 October 2006...
. "Had I been younger, I would probably have resigned when the Americans ditched the Vance-Owen Peace Plan" [
Unfinest Hour p157-8].
He testified as a witness of the court in the trial of former Yugoslavian president
Slobodan MiloševićSlobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia...
.
Europe
Owen is a strong supporter of Britain's membership of the EU, but also opposes many of the more dramatic proposals for integration.
As chairman of New Europe, was the co-leader of the 'no to the euro' campaign with Business for Sterling, which ceased when the UK Government declared in 2005 that euro membership was off the agenda following the defeat of the EU Constitution in referendums in France and the Netherlands.
He has also called for a referendum before Britain's ratification of the Lisbon treaty, and expressed concerns about proposals for the creation of a European '
Rapid Reaction ForceA rapid reaction force is a military or police unit designed to respond in very short time frames to emergencies. When used in reference to police forces such as SWAT teams, the time frame is minutes, while in military applications, such as with the use of paratroops or other commandos, the time...
'.
He is a self-described Anti-Federalist.
Enterprises and affiliations
Lord Owen was chairman of Yukos International UK BV, a division of the former Russian petroleum company
YukosYukos Oil Company was a petroleum company in Russia which, until recently, was controlled by Russian billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky and a number of prominent Russian businessmen. Khodorkovsky was convicted and sent to prison. Yukos headquarters was located in Moscow...
, from 2002 to 2005. He is currently non-executive chairman of Europe Steel Ltd. and a member of the board of
Abbott LaboratoriesAbbott Laboratories is a diversified pharmaceuticals health care company. It has 72,000 employees and operates in over 130 countries. The corporate headquarters are in Abbott Park, Illinois, located near North Chicago, Illinois....
. In late 2009, Owen accepted a seat on the board of Texas-based Hyperdynamics Corporation, an oil concern with an exclusive lease to the entire offshore area of the Republic of Guinea in west Africa..
Owen is currently the Chancellor of the
University of LiverpoolThe University of Liverpool is a university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group and the N8 Group for research collaboration, and founded in 1881 it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic universities...
, a post he has held for over ten years.
Personal life
He married Deborah Owen (née Schabert), an American
literary agentA literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers and film producers and assists in the sale and deal negotiation of the same. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwriters and major non-fiction writers...
, in 1968. They have two sons and one daughter, Tristan, Gareth and Lucy.
Further reading
- David Owen, The Politics of Defence (Jonathan Cape and Taplinger Pub. Co, 1972)
- David Owen, Human Rights (Jonathan Cape and W.W. Norton & Company, 1978)
- David Owen, Face the Future (Jonathan Cape and Praeger, 1981)
- David Owen, A Future That Will Work (Viking 1984, Praeger, 1985)
- David Owen to Kenneth Harris, Personally Speaking (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987)
- David Owen, Our NHS" (Pan Books, 1988)
- David Owen, Time to Declare (Michael Joseph, 1992)
- David Owen, Balkan Odyssey (Victor Gollancz, Harcourt Brace 1995)
- David Owen, The Hubris Syndrome: Bush, Blair and the Intoxication of Power (Politico's, 2007)
- David Owen, In Sickness and in Power: Illness in Heads of Government During the Last 100 Years (Methuen, 2008)
External links
- The David Owen Archive at the University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool is a university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group and the N8 Group for research collaboration, and founded in 1881 it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic universities...
- David Owen resigns as SDP leader (BBC News
BBC News, formerly BBC News and Current Affairs, is the department within the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the corporation's news-gathering and production of news programmes on BBC television, radio and online....
On This Day webpage, including news report footage)
- Lord Owen's entry in the United Kingdom Parliament's alphabetical list of members of the House of Lords.
- Lord Owen's listing at dodonline.co.uk (online version of Dod's Parliamentary Companion
Dod's Parliamentary Companion is an annual politics reference book published in the United Kingdom.It provides biographies and contact information on members of the Houses of Parliament and the Civil Service...
).