Roy jenkins biography

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    Roy Jenkins

    Roy Jenkins was probably the best Prime Minister Britain never had. But though he never reached 10 Downing Street, he left a more enduring mark on British society than most of those who did. His career spans the full half-century from Attlee to Tony Blair during which he helped transform almost every area of national life and politics.

    First, as a radical Home Secretary in the s he drove through the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the legalisation of abortion, abolished theatre censorship and introduced the first legislation to outlaw discrimination on grounds of both race and gender. Attacked by conservatives as the godfather of the permissive society, he was a pioneering champion of gay rights, racial equality and feminism. He also reformed the police and criminal trials and introduced the independent police complaints commission.

    Second, he was an early and consistent advokat of European unity who played a decisive role in achieving British membership first

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    Roy Jenkins

    (b. Abersychan, Monmouthshire, 11 Nov. ; d. East Hendred, Oxfordshire, 5 Jan. )

    British; Chancellor of the Exchequer –70, president of European Commission –81; Baron (life peer) Jenkins's father was a Labour MP, who served for a time as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Labour Prime Minister Attlee. In Jenkins was elected for a London constituency and, after that disappeared due to redistribution, he was elected for Birmingham Stetchford in He held the seat until his resignation in In the s Labour was in Opposition and Jenkins proved himself a skilful advocate for the party on television. He also was a highly regarded author. He supported the revisionist policies of the party leader Hugh Gaitskell. In he introduced the Obscene Publications Act, which eased censorship.

    Roy Jenkins entered the Cabinet in as Home Secretary in the efternamn government. He held this brev until and presided over the liberalization of laws on divorce, abortion, and homosexuality. Critics l

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    Journal of Liberal History

    By Neil Stockley

    Type Biography

    Roy Jenkins played a significant role in developing and articulating a new progressive vision of social, political and constitutional change. His reforms at the Home Office helped to transform Britain into a more modern, more civilised society. He was a successful, if orthodox, Chancellor of the Exchequer. He played an important and consistent role in taking Britain into Europe and, in doing so, did enormous damage to his own career. He was instrumental in founding the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and became its first leader. Although the SDP did not, in itself, break the mould of British politics, it helped to revitalise and develop the radical centre and to force the Labour Party to change itself. At his death, Roy Jenkins was a hero of the liberal and social democratic traditions &#; the great reformist Liberal Prime Minister Britain never had. Roy Harris Jenkins was born on 11 November , in Abersychan, South Wales
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