Keith Sinjohn Joseph, Baron Joseph, Bt.,
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....
, PC (17 January, 1918 – 10 December, 1994) was 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...
barristerA barrister is a lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions that employ a split profession in relation to legal representation. In split professions, the other types of lawyers are mainly solicitors...
,
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
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...
Cabinet MinisterIn the politics of the United Kingdom, the Cabinet is the collective decision-making body of Her Majesty's Government, composed of the Prime Minister and some 22 Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of government ministers.H.M...
under three different Ministries. He is widely regarded as the "power behind the throne" in the creation of what came to be known as "
ThatcherismThatcherism describes the ideology, political style and policies of the British Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990...
". He was known for most of his political life as
Sir Keith Joseph, 2nd Baronet.
Early life
Joseph was the son of a wealthy and influential Jewish family. His father,
Samuel JosephSir Samuel George Joseph, 1st Baronet was the 615th Lord Mayor of London.-Career:Samuel Joseph made a name for himself when in 1908, together with his cousin, Sydney Gluckstein, he acquired C. W. Bovis & Co., then a local builder, and expanded it into a major construction business...
, an active political kingmaker headed the vast family construction and development-finance company
BovisBovis Lend Lease is an international construction management company and subsidiary of Lend Lease Corporation.-History:The Company was established by Charles William Bovis in 1885 in London as C. W. Bovis & Co. It changed hands in 1908 when it was acquired by Samuel Joseph and his cousin, Sidney...
and was
Lord Mayor of LondonThe Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...
in 1942-1943. At the end of his term he was created a
baronetA baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown known as a baronetcy...
.
On the death of his father 4 October 1944, he inherited the baronetcy. He had attended Lockers Park Prep School,
Harrow SchoolHarrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London. Harrow has educated boys since 1243 but was officially founded by John Lyon under a Royal Charter of Elizabeth I in 1572....
and
Magdalen College, OxfordMagdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million....
where he studied
JurisprudenceLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
, obtaining first class honours. Shortly thereafter he was elected a Fellow of All Souls College.
During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he served as a Captain in the
Royal ArtilleryThe Royal Artillery is the common name for the Royal Regiment of Artillery, an arm of the British Army. Despite its name, it comprises a number of regiments.-History:...
, and suffered a minor wound during German shelling of his company's headquarters in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, as well as being mentioned in despatches. After the end of the war, he was called to the Bar (
Middle TempleThe Honourable Society of the Middle Temple is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn. It is near the Royal Courts of Justice, within the City of London.In the 13th...
). Following his father, he was elected as an
AldermanAn alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions. Historically the term could also refer to local municipal judges in small legal proceedings...
of the City of London. He was a Director of Bovis, becoming chairman in 1958, and became an underwriter at
Lloyd's of LondonLloyd's, also known as Lloyd's of London, is a British insurance market. It serves as a meeting place where multiple financial backers, underwriters, or members, whether individuals or corporations, come together to pool and spread risk. Unlike most of its competitors in the reinsurance market, it...
.
Member of Parliament
He failed to be elected to the marginal seat of Baron's Court in West London by 125 votes in the
1955 electionThe 1955 United Kingdom general election was held on 26 May 1955, four years after the previous general election. It resulted in a substantially increased majority of 60 for the Conservative government under Sir Anthony Eden against the Labour Party under Clement Attlee...
.
He was elected to parliament in a
by-electionA by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections...
for
Leeds North EastThe Leeds North East byelection of 9 February, 1956 was a by-election to the House of commons. It was caused when the sitting Member, Osbert Peake, was awarded a Viscountcy in the New Year's Honours list...
in February 1956. He was swiftly appointed as a Parliamentary Private Secretary.
In government
After 1959 Joseph had several junior posts in the
MacmillanMaurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was a British Conservative politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
government at the Ministry of Housing and the Department for Trade. In the 'Night of the Long Knives' reshuffle of July 13, 1962 he was made Minister for Housing and Local Government, a cabinet position. He introduced a massive programme to build council housing, which aimed at 400,000 new homes per year by 1965. He wished to increase the proportion of owner-occupied households, by offering help with mortgage deposits. Housing was an important issue at the
1964 electionThe United Kingdom general election of 1964 was held on 15 October 1964, more than five years after its predecessor, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party had first taken power...
and Joseph was felt to have done well on television in the campaign.
In opposition, Joseph was spokesman on Social Services, and then on Labour under
Edward HeathSir Edward Richard George Heath, KG, MBE , often known as Ted Heath, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975...
. Despite Joseph's reputation as a right-winger, Heath promoted him to Trade spokesman in 1967, where he had an important role in policy development. In the run-up to the
1970 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...
Joseph made a series of speeches under the title "civilised capitalism", in which he outlined his political philosophy and hinted of cuts in public spending. At the Selsdon Park Hotel meeting, the Conservative Party largely adopted this approach.
He was one of 12 founder member of the NCSWD, the National Council for Single Woman and Her Dependants on 15 December 1965. According to Tim Cook in his book
The History of the Carers' Movement, he and Sally Oppenheim were critical in raising funds from the
CarnegieCarnegie may refer to:*Andrew Carnegie, Scottish industrialist and philanthropist, after whom are named:**Carnegie Steel Company**The Carnegie Building, a building on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for which he provided funds....
Trust and other organisations, which enabled the carers movement to succeed and thrive through their formative years.
When the Conservatives won the election, Joseph was made
Secretary of State for Social ServicesThe Secretary of State for Social Services was a position in the UK cabinet, created on 1 November 1968 with responsibility for the Department of Health and Social Security...
, which put him in charge of the largest bureaucracy of any government department but kept him out of control of economics. Despite his speeches against bureaucracy, Joseph found himself compelled to add to it as he increased and improved services in the
National Health ServiceThe National Health Service is the name commonly used to refer to the publicly-funded health care services in Great Britain. In England the name National Health Service is used without further qualification whereas the services in Scotland and Wales are known as NHS Scotland and NHS Wales...
. However, he grew increasingly opposed to the Heath government's economic strategy, which had seen a 'U-turn' in favour of intervention in industry in 1972.
Following the
1974 election defeatThe 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...
, Joseph worked with
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....
to set up the
Centre for Policy Studies'The Centre for Policy Studies is a British policy studies think tank whose goal is to promote coherent and practical public policy, to roll back the state, reform public services, support communities, and challenge threats to Britain’s independence....
, a think-tank to develop policies for the new free-market Conservatism that they both favoured. Joseph became interested in the economic theory of
monetarismMonetarism is the view within monetary economics that variation in the money supply has major influences on national output in the short run and the price level over longer periods and that objectives of monetary policy are best met by targeting the growth rate of the money supply.Monetarism today...
as formulated by
Milton FriedmanMilton Friedman was an American economist, statistician and public intellectual, and a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics...
, and persuaded Mrs Thatcher to support it. Despite still being a member of Heath's Shadow Cabinet, Joseph was openly critical of his government's record. Joseph delivered his famous Stockton lecture on the economy
Monetarism Is Not Enough, where he contrasted wealth-producing sectors in an economy such as
manufacturingManufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to make things for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
with the service sector and government, which tend to be wealth consuming. He contended that an economy begins to decline as its wealth-producing sector shrinks.
Many on the right-wing of the Conservative Party looked to Joseph to challenge Heath for the leadership, but Joseph's chances of this were damaged by a controversial speech at
EdgbastonEdgbaston is an area in the city of Birmingham in England. It is also a formal district, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Edgbaston ward and the wards of Bartley Green, Harborne and Quinton....
on 19 October 1974. Covering a variety of social conservative topics, while drawing on an article written by
Arthur WynnArthur Wynn , was a prominent British Civil Servant and social researcher.Recruited by Edith Tudor-Hart in 1936, Wynn was the well know Soviet Union spy Agent Scott of the KGB...
and his wife which had been published by the
Child Poverty Action GroupChild Poverty Action Group is a UK charity that takes a leading role in campaigning for the abolition of poverty and social exclusion.The main aims of the CPAG are:* Raising awareness of the extent, nature and impact of poverty in the UK...
, he warned about single parents "who were first pregnant in adolescence in social classes 4 and 5", the traditional taboos against which were easing at the time. However, some of the references he made to the quality of "human stock" raised the spectre of
eugenicsEugenics is the study and practice of selective breeding applied to humans, with the aim of improving the species. Widely popular in the early decades of the 20th century, after having become associated with the Holocaust, it has largely fallen into disrepute.- Overview :As a social movement...
, and under fire for this, he accepted that he had no chance of winning and urged Mrs Thatcher to stand.
Joseph claimed he received 2,000 letters after this speech, with supporters outnumbering critics by 14 to one. The day after the speech
Mary WhitehouseMary Whitehouse CBE was a British campaigner for what she perceived to be values of morality and decency derived from her Christian beliefs. She began by focusing her efforts on the broadcast media, which she regarded as highly influential, and where she felt these values were particularly lacking...
, whom he mentioned favourably during it, said that she was "tremendously grateful" to Joseph and that "the people of Britain have been like sheep without a shepherd. But now they have found one."
Thatcher later referred to Joseph as her closest political friend. In 1975 he claimed that:
"It was only in April 1974 that I was converted to Conservatism. (I had thought I was a Conservative but I now see that I was not really one at all.)"
a remark that expressed Joseph's feeling of failure during the Heath government. When Heath and his cabinet took office, they followed the
post-war consensusThe post-war consensus is a name given by historians to an era in British political history which lasted from the end of World War II in 1945 to the election of Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1979....
and set up policies to stabilise the economy, retaining government control on industries and creating an intricate system to control wages and dividends. In the eyes of Thatcher and Joseph, this pragmatic approach was contrary to the "Conservative" ideology. As he had done a great deal to promote Mrs Thatcher, when she won the leadership in
1975Edward Heath, leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom had called and unexpectedly lost the February 1974 general election...
she determined to put him in a position to have a profound influence on Conservative Party thinking.
In Thatcher's
Shadow CabinetThe Shadow Cabinet is a senior group of opposition spokespeople in the Westminster system of government who together under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition form an alternative cabinet to the government's, whose members shadow or mark each individual member of the government...
, Joseph was given overall responsibility for Policy and Research. He had a large impact on the Conservative manifesto for the
1979 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...
, although frequently a compromise had to be reached with Heath's more moderate supporters such as James Prior. In government, he was appointed
Secretary of State for IndustryThe Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills is a cabinet position in the United Kingdom government. Its secondary title is the President of the Board of Trade...
. He began to prepare the many nationalised industries for privatisation by bringing in private sector managers such as Ian McGregor, but was still forced to give large subsidies to those industries making losses.
Secretary of State for Education and Science
As
Secretary of State for Education and ScienceThe Secretary of State for Education and Skills was the chief minister of the Department for Education and Skills in the United Kingdom government....
from 1981 he started the ball rolling for
GCSEThe General Certificate of Secondary Education is an academic qualification awarded in a specified subject, generally taken in a number of subjects by students aged 15–16 in secondary education in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland...
s, and the establishment of a national curriculum in England and Wales.
Mark CarlisleMark Carlisle, Baron Carlisle of Bucklow QC DL PC was a Conservative British politician and was Member of Parliament for Runcorn 1964-1983 and Warrington South 1983-1987...
, his predecessor in the new conservative government of 1979 had cancelled the plans of Shirley Williams, his predecessor but one, to merge O Levels and CSEs, but this was achieved during his time. Although not normally the responsibility of central government, he insisted on personally approving the individual subject syllabuses before the GCSE system was introduced.
His attempts to reform teachers' pay and bring in new contracts were opposed by the trade unions, leading to a series of one-day strikes.
In 1984 his public spending negotiations with his Treasury colleagues resulted in a proposed plan for extra research funding for universities financed through the curtailment of financial support to students who were dependent children of more affluent parents. This plan provoked heated opposition from fellow members of the Cabinet (in particular
Cecil ParkinsonCecil Edward Parkinson, Baron Parkinson, PC , is a British Conservative politician and former Cabinet Minister.-Early life:...
) and a compromise plan was found necessary to secure consensus. This involved the abandonment of Joseph's plan to levy tuition fees, while preserving his aspiration to abolish the minimum grant. The resulting loss to research funding was halved by a concession of further revenue by the Treasury team.
Joseph was one of the Tory ministers to survive the blast at the Grand Hotel while attending the Conservative Party Conference at Brighton in 1984.
In 1985 he published a White Paper on the university sector,
The Development of Higher Education into the 1990s, which advocated an appraisal system to assess the relative quality of research, and foresaw a retrenchment in the size of the higher education sector. Both proposals were highly controversial.
Backbenches, retirement and peerage
Joseph stepped down from the Cabinet in 1986, and retired from Parliament at the
1987 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...
. He received a life peerage as
Baron Joseph, of Portsoken in the City of London, in the dissolution honours list.
Legacy
Joseph's political achievement was in pioneering the application of monetarist economics to British political economics, and in developing what would later become known as '
ThatcherismThatcherism describes the ideology, political style and policies of the British Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990...
'. He knew his own limitations, remarking of the prospect of his becoming Leader of the Conservative Party that "it would have been a disaster for the party, country, and me", and he rated himself a failure in office. His political philosophy speeches, which led to him being nicknamed
"The Mad Monk", were ridiculed at the time but they were profoundly influential within the Conservative Party and in practice set the tone for politics in the 1980s. However, he was a publicly divisive figure.
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