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94-531: Laura Spence was a pupil at Monkseaton High School , a state school in Whitley Bay , North Tyneside . In 1999, she applied for a place to read medicine at Magdalen College, Oxford . (There were 100 students in her school year, but she was the only one to apply for Oxbridge .) Spence had taken ten GCSEs , obtaining the top A* grade in each, and had been predicted (and later achieved) top A-level grades in chemistry, biology, English, and geography. Spence

188-422: A Liberal Democratic peer and then Chancellor of Oxford University, criticised Brown for his comments on student admissions, saying that "nearly every fact he used was false", and that Brown's speech on Spence had been a "little Blitzkrieg in being an act of sudden unprovoked aggression", but "The target was singularly ill-chosen." Conservative peer Baroness Young stated that it was "an ultimate disgrace to use

282-429: A Sutherland : but we have got an Annigoni ". John Campbell claims that "for half a century it has remained unchallenged as the best biography and is rightly regarded as a classic". Like Healey and Crosland, he had been a close friend of Hugh Gaitskell and for them Gaitskell's death and the elevation of Harold Wilson as Labour Party leader was a setback. For Jenkins, Gaitskell would remain his political hero. After

376-550: A $ 1,400 million loan from the International Monetary Fund . Following a further sterling crisis in November 1968 Jenkins was forced to raise taxes by a further £250 million. After this the currency markets slowly began to settle and his 1969 budget represented more of the same with a £340 million increase in taxation to further limit consumption. By May 1969, Britain's current account position

470-706: A $ 65,000 scholarship by Harvard University , where she later on studied biochemistry . A political row broke out after Labour MP and then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown (who later became Prime Minister ) commented on the decision at a Trades Union Congress reception. Brown accused the University of Oxford of elitism , saying that Spence's rejection was an "absolute scandal" and that he believed she had been discriminated against by "an old establishment interview system". Spence's headteacher, Paul Kelley, also said he believed Oxford

564-420: A dRMM design for the ideal school, the design of the school building has evolved into a building which is of a revolutionary design in terms of other secondary education buildings. The design, beyond the formal teaching spaces, incorporates a number of learning areas for students to study independent of teachers including computing. The light, airy feeling created throughout the school encourages 'open' learning and

658-572: A famous result. He became leader of the SDP ahead of the 1983 election , during which he formed an electoral alliance with the Liberal Party . After his disappointment with the performance of the SDP in the election, he resigned as leader. He subsequently lost his seat in Parliament at the 1987 election to Labour's George Galloway , and accepted a life peerage shortly afterwards; he sat in

752-468: A flattening process of assimilation but as equal opportunity, accompanied by cultural diversity, in an atmosphere of mutual tolerance. Before going on to ask: Where in the world is there a university which could preserve its fame, or a cultural centre which could keep its eminence, or a metropolis which could hold its drawing power, if it were to turn inwards and serve only its own hinterland and its own racial group? And concluding that: To live apart, for

846-544: A legitimacy that would have otherwise been absent had the issue been considered solely as a party political matter. However, he was now regarded by the left as a "traitor". James Margach wrote in the Sunday Times : "The unconcealed objective of the Left now is either to humiliate Roy Jenkins and his allies into submission – or drive them from the party". At this stage, however, Jenkins would not fully abandon his position as

940-625: A list of necessary progressive social reforms: the abolition of the death penalty, decriminalisation of homosexuality, abolition of the Lord Chamberlain's powers of theatre censorship, liberalisation of the licensing and betting laws, liberalisation of the divorce laws, legalisation of abortion, decriminalisation of suicide and more liberal immigration laws. Jenkins concluded: Let us be on the side of those who want people to be free to live their own lives, to make their own mistakes, and to decide, in an adult way and provided they do not infringe

1034-578: A meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on 19 July: "At conference the only alternative [to the EEC] we heard was 'socialism in one country'. That is always good for a cheer. Pull up the drawbridge and revolutionize the fortress. That's not a policy either: it's just a slogan, and it is one which becomes not merely unconvincing but hypocritical as well when it is dressed up as our best contribution to international socialism". This reopened

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1128-761: A person, a city, a country, is to lead a life of declining intellectual stimulation. By the end of 1966, Jenkins was the Cabinet's rising star; the Guardian called him the best Home Secretary of the century "and quite possibly the best since Peel", the Sunday Times called him Wilson's most likeliest successor and the New Statesman labelled him "Labour's Crown Prince". In a speech to the London Labour Conference in May 1967, Jenkins said his vision

1222-503: A political insider, and chose to stand again for deputy leader , an act his colleague David Marquand claimed he later came to regret. Jenkins promised not to vote with the government again and he narrowly defeated Michael Foot on a second ballot. In accordance with the party whip, Jenkins voted against European Communities Bill 55 times. However, he resigned both the deputy leadership and his shadow cabinet position in April 1972, after

1316-429: A proportion of GDP rose from 44 per cent in 1964 to around 50 per cent in 1970. Despite Jenkins' warnings about inflation, wage settlements in 1969–70 increased on average by 13 per cent and contributed to the high inflation of the early 1970s and consequently negated most of Jenkins' efforts to obtain a balance of payments surplus. After Labour unexpectedly lost power in 1970 Jenkins was appointed Shadow Chancellor of

1410-655: A result of this, the Government's current account entered a surplus in 1969. After Labour unexpectedly lost the 1970 election , Jenkins was elected as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 1970. He resigned from the position in 1972 after the Labour Party decided to oppose Britain's entry to the European Communities , which he strongly supported. When Labour returned to power following the 1974 election , Wilson appointed Jenkins as Home Secretary for

1504-586: A speech in Abingdon in July 1969, Jenkins said that the " permissive society " had been allowed to become a dirty phrase: "A better phrase is the 'civilized society', based on the belief that different individuals will wish to make different decisions about their patterns of behaviour and that, provided these do not restrict the freedom of others, they should be allowed to do so within a framework of understanding and tolerance". Jenkins' words were immediately reported in

1598-400: A temperate climate within the building. External shades control the impact of the sun on the building and spaces within. The project was led by Devereux Architects and involved the services of Parsons Brinckerhoff, Shepherd Construction Ltd . and Hacel. More recently in 2019 Monkseaton High School, under the leadership of head Jo Suddes, has found the school to be grade 2 'Good', whereas it

1692-604: A young girl, a sixth former, in this way". The Laura Spence affair recurred in the headlines in the UK throughout the summer of 2000 (both before and after Brown's speech) and is arguably one of the major events that pushed " widening participation " in higher education into the political spotlight in the United Kingdom. It also caused a party political row over a select committee report on higher education. Spence completed her studies at Harvard in 2004, and planned to return to

1786-455: Is a coeducational upper school situated in Whitley Bay , North Tyneside , England for 13- to 18-year-olds. There are 465 students on roll, over 150 of whom are in the sixth form . The school has initiated or led a number of local and national initiatives aimed at raising standards and promoting LGBT equality. Monkseaton High School is noted for its innovations in degree study in schools and primary modern languages. Originally based on

1880-556: Is a move away from traditional, 'institutional' school design. The ellipse shape of the school is very efficient in terms of space and land usage. It is aerodynamic and due to its position, reduces seasonal heating and cooling impact. On the exterior Devereux Architects, the architectural practice behind the Exemplar school, has strategically installed solar panels to provide tempered hot water. The school also benefits from natural ventilation, known as E-stack, which controls and maintains

1974-613: The 1964 general election Jenkins was appointed Minister of Aviation and was sworn of the Privy Council. While at Aviation he oversaw the high-profile cancellations of the BAC TSR-2 and Concorde projects (although the latter was later reversed after strong opposition from the French Government). In January 1965 Patrick Gordon Walker resigned as Foreign Secretary and in the ensuing reshuffle Wilson offered Jenkins

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2068-466: The 1970 general election . Historians and economists have often praised Jenkins for presiding over the transformation in Britain's fiscal and current account positions towards the end of the 1960s. Andrew Marr , for example, described him as one of the 20th century's "most successful chancellors". Alec Cairncross considered Jenkins "the ablest of the four Chancellors I served". Public expenditure as

2162-509: The Department for Education and Science ; however, he declined it, preferring to stay at Aviation. In the summer of 1965, Jenkins eagerly accepted an offer to replace Frank Soskice as Home Secretary. However Wilson, dismayed by a sudden bout of press speculation about the potential move, delayed Jenkins' appointment until December. Once Jenkins took office – the youngest Home Secretary since Churchill – he immediately set about reforming

2256-551: The House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat . Jenkins was later elected to succeed former prime minister Harold Macmillan as Chancellor of the University of Oxford following the latter's death; he would hold this position until his own death sixteen years later. In the late 1990s, he served as a close adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair and chaired a major commission on electoral reform . In addition to his political career, he

2350-883: The Labour Party and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and a peer for the Liberal Democrats , he was Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary under the Wilson and Callaghan Governments . The son of Arthur Jenkins , a coal-miner and Labour MP, Jenkins was educated at the University of Oxford and served as an intelligence officer during the Second World War . Initially elected as MP for Southwark Central in 1948, he moved to become MP for Birmingham Stechford in 1950. On

2444-529: The devaluation crisis of November 1967. Jenkins' ultimate goal as Chancellor was economic growth, which depended on restoring stability to sterling at its new value after devaluation. This could only be achieved by ensuring a surplus in the balance of payments , which had been in a deficit for the previous five years. Therefore, Jenkins pursued deflation , including cuts in public expenditure and increases in taxation, in order to ensure that resources went into exports rather than domestic consumption. Jenkins warned

2538-508: The upcoming election . Jenkins argued that Britain's chief danger was that of "living sullenly in the past, of believing that the world has a duty to keep us in the station to which we are accustomed, and showing bitter resentment if it does not do so". He added: "Our neighbours in Europe are roughly our economic and military equals. We would do better to live gracefully with them than to waste our substance by trying unsuccessfully to keep up with

2632-407: The 1980s Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit would blame Jenkins for family breakdowns, the decline of respect for authority and the decline of social responsibility. Jenkins replied by pointing out that Thatcher, with her large parliamentary majorities, never attempted to reverse his reforms. From 1967 to 1970 Jenkins served as Chancellor of the Exchequer , replacing James Callaghan following

2726-475: The 8 minute lesson method, and has taken a much more structured and enriching learning method. Roy Jenkins Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead , OM , PC (11 November 1920 – 5 January 2003) was a British politician and writer who served as the sixth President of the European Commission from 1977 to 1981. At various times a Member of Parliament (MP) for

2820-528: The Bevanites' neutralist foreign policy platform: "Neutrality is essentially a conservative policy, a policy of defeat, of announcing to the world that we have nothing to say to which the world will listen. ... Neutrality could never be acceptable to anyone who believes that he has a universal faith to preach". Jenkins argued that the Labour leadership needed to take on and defeat the neutralists and pacifists in

2914-605: The Chair, Professor David Reynolds. Monkseaton has developed spaced learning , based on the neuroscientific discoveries of Douglas Fields at the National Institutes of Health in the USA. Spaced Learning is delivering learning in a pattern of three repetitions separated by 10-minute gaps that distract the learners from the subject, and has been reported widely in the media as "8 minute lessons". The school no longer practices

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3008-535: The Commission in 1981, Jenkins announced a surprise return to British politics; dismayed with the Labour Party's move further left under the leadership of Michael Foot, he became one of the " Gang of Four ", senior Labour figures who broke away from the party and founded the SDP. In 1982, Jenkins won a by-election to return to Parliament as MP for Glasgow Hillhead, taking the seat from the Conservatives in

3102-668: The Common Market. At the 1960 Labour Party conference in Scarborough , Jenkins advocated rewriting Clause IV of the party's constitution but he was booed. In November he wrote in The Spectator that "unless the Labour Party is determined to abdicate its role as a mass party and become nothing more than a narrow sectarian society, its paramount task is to represent the whole of the Leftward-thinking half of

3196-593: The Commons that "the existing law on abortion is uncertain and...harsh and archaic", adding that "the law is consistently flouted by those who have the means to do so. It is, therefore, very much a question of one law for the rich and one law for the poor". When the Bill looked likely to be dropped due to insufficient time, Jenkins helped ensure that it received enough parliamentary time to pass and he voted for it in every division. Jenkins also supported Leo Abse 's bill for

3290-482: The Exchequer by Harold Wilson . Jenkins was also subsequently elected to the deputy leadership of the Labour Party in July 1970, defeating future Labour Leader Michael Foot and former Leader of the Commons Fred Peart at the first ballot. At this time he appeared the natural successor to Harold Wilson , and it appeared to many only a matter of time before he inherited the leadership of the party, and

3384-634: The House of Commons in January 1968 that there was "two years of hard slog ahead". He quickly gained a reputation as a particularly tough Chancellor with his 1968 budget increasing taxes by £923 million, more than twice the increase of any previous budget to date. Jenkins had warned the Cabinet that a second devaluation would occur in three months if his budget did not restore confidence in sterling. He restored prescription charges (which had been abolished when Labour returned to office in 1964) and postponed

3478-720: The Labour Common Market Committee. At the 1961 Labour Party conference Jenkins spoke in favour of Britain's entry. Since 1959, Jenkins had been working on a biography of the Liberal Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith . For Jenkins, Asquith ranked with Attlee as the embodiment of the moderate, liberal intelligence in politics that he most admired. Through Asquith's grandson, Mark Bonham Carter, Jenkins had access to Asquith's letters to his mistress, Venetia Stanley . Kenneth Rose , Michael Foot , Asa Briggs and John Grigg all favourably reviewed

3572-502: The Labour government. In 1951 Tribune published his pamphlet Fair Shares for the Rich . Here, Jenkins advocated the abolition of large private incomes by taxing them, graduating from 50 per cent for incomes between £20,000 and £30,000 to 95 per cent for incomes over £100,000. He also proposed further nationalisations and said: "Future nationalisations will be more concerned with equality than with planning, and this means that we can leave

3666-568: The Rich , Jenkins now argued that the redistribution of wealth would occur over a generation and abandoned the goal of public school abolition. However, he still proposed further nationalisations: "It is quite impossible to advocate both the abolition of great inequalities of wealth and the acceptance of a one-quarter public sector and three-quarters private sector arrangement. A mixed economy there will undoubtedly be, certainly for many decades and perhaps permanently, but it will need to be mixed in very different proportions from this". He also opposed

3760-479: The UK to pursue a medical career. She also encouraged more British students to study in the US, citing the "broader, more balanced curriculum" of a liberal arts education and the availability of scholarships and need-based financial aid to assist with fees that may seem "astronomically prohibitive". It was later reported that she was studying medicine at the University of Cambridge. In 2007 The Sunday Times revisited

3854-426: The US, does not offer medicine as an undergraduate degree . Spence later went on to study medicine at the University of Cambridge as a postgraduate .) Spence herself did not get involved in the arguments, subsequently saying that she tried to ignore the row by focusing on revision and not watching television for a week. In a House of Lords debate on higher education on 15 June 2000, Lord Jenkins of Hillhead ,

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3948-543: The abolition of capital punishment. Mr Balfour's Poodle , a short account of the House of Lords crisis of 1911 that culminated in the Parliament Act 1911 , was published in 1954. Favourable reviewers included A. J. P. Taylor , Harold Nicolson , Leonard Woolf and Violet Bonham Carter . After a suggestion by Mark Bonham Carter , Jenkins then wrote a biography of the Victorian radical, Sir Charles Dilke , which

4042-460: The affair, comprehensively reviewing the political statements at the time set against the facts of the case, and subsequent political and educational fall-out. It was highly critical of Gordon Brown's "spectacular own goal". On 25 October 2008, Spence graduated from Wolfson College, Cambridge , with a degree in medicine. Cambridge said she graduated from her medicine course with distinction. Monkseaton High School Monkseaton High School

4136-550: The book when it was published in October 1964. However, Violet Bonham Carter wrote a defence of her father in The Times against the few criticisms of Asquith in the book, and Robert Rhodes James wrote in The Spectator that "Asquith was surely a tougher, stronger, more acute man...than Mr. Jenkins would have us believe. The fascinating enigma of his complete decline is never really analysed, nor even understood. ... We required

4230-889: The bottom of the scale and by really taxing the wealthy". In his budget broadcast on 19 March, Jenkins said that Britain had been living in a "fool's paradise" for years and that it was "importing too much, exporting too little and paying ourselves too much", with a lower standard of living than France or West Germany. Jenkins' supporters in the Parliamentary Labour Party became known as the "Jenkinsites". These were usually younger, middle-class and university-educated ex-Gaitskellites such as Bill Rodgers , David Owen , Roy Hattersley , Dick Taverne , John Mackintosh and David Marquand . In May–July 1968 some of his supporters, led by Patrick Gordon Walker and Christopher Mayhew , plotted to replace Wilson with Jenkins as Labour leader but he declined to challenge Wilson. A year later his supporters again attempted to persuade Jenkins to challenge Wilson for

4324-773: The century, and had no intention of spending the rest of my life answering the question of what did I do in the great division by saying 'I abstained'. I saw it in the context of the first Reform Bill , the repeal of the Corn Laws , Gladstone's Home Rule Bills, the Lloyd George Budget and the Parliament Bill , the Munich Agreement and the May 1940 votes ". Jenkins' action gave the European cause

4418-414: The consequences, as was well deserved, were humiliating and disastrous". Jenkins praised Anthony Crosland 's 1956 work The Future of Socialism as "the most important book on socialist theory" since Evan Durbin 's The Politics of Democratic Socialism (1940). With much of the economy now nationalised, Jenkins argued, socialists should concentrate on eliminating the remaining pockets of poverty and on

4512-440: The country—and to offer the prospect of attracting enough marginal support to give that half some share of power". During 1960–62, his main campaign was British membership of the Common Market, where he became Labour's leading advocate of entry. When Harold Macmillan initiated the first British application to join the Common Market in 1961, Jenkins became deputy chairman of the all-party Common Market Campaign and then chairman of

4606-530: The decriminalisation of homosexuality, which became the Sexual Offences Act 1967 . Jenkins told the Commons: "It would be a mistake to think...that by what we are doing tonight we are giving a vote of confidence or congratulation to homosexuality. Those who suffer from this disability carry a great weight of loneliness, guilt and shame. The crucial question...is, should we add to those disadvantages

4700-474: The election of Harold Wilson after the 1964 election , Jenkins was appointed Minister of Aviation . A year later, he was promoted to the Cabinet to become Home Secretary . In this role, Jenkins embarked on a major reform programme; he sought to build what he described as "a civilised society", overseeing measures such as the effective abolition in Britain of both capital punishment and theatre censorship ,

4794-605: The first secular state school in the country. This would imply omitting the daily act of worship, which he felt was inappropriate at a school. Kelley said that the proposal, made during the latter days of the Blair premiership, was rejected as "politically impossible". Monkseaton became England's first Trust School in August 2007. The partners in the Trust are the school itself, Microsoft , Tribal Education, North Tyneside Council and

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4888-601: The first game of the season – and beating London Academy 2-1 at the Meadow Lane. In 2007, Monkseaton once again won the cup, defeating Millfield 4-0. Accounts of the approach to football at Monkseaton appeared in The Sunday Times . In 2008, the school won the cup again beating Gateshead College 1-0. In 2007, headmaster Paul Kelley (who stood down in February 2012 ) proposed that Monkseaton High School become

4982-634: The full rigour of the criminal law? By its overwhelming decisions, the House has given a fairly clear answer, and I hope that the Bill will now make rapid progress towards the Statute Book. It will be an important and civilising Measure". Jenkins also abolished the use of flogging in prisons. In July 1967 Jenkins recommended to the Home Affairs Select Committee a bill to end the Lord Chamberlain 's power to censor

5076-493: The monolithic public corporation behind us and look for more intimate forms of ownership and control". He later described this "almost Robespierrean " pamphlet as "the apogee of my excursion to the left". Jenkins contributed an essay on 'Equality' to the 1952 collection New Fabian Essays . In 1953 appeared Pursuit of Progress , a work intended to counter Bevanism . Retreating from what he had demanded in Fair Shares for

5170-539: The north east of England, and accepted a similar proportion from each. The admissions tutor at Magdalen, Andrew Hobson, also denied the claims, pointing out that he was from Newcastle . Colin Lucas , Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, said that Brown's remarks were "disappointing", and an unnamed Conservative spokesman reportedly told the BBC: "This is ignorant prejudice. Why doesn't Gordon Brown get on with delivering at least some of

5264-533: The number of separate forces from 117 to 49. The Times called it "the greatest upheaval in policing since the time of Peel ". His visit to Chicago in September (to study their policing methods) convinced him of the need to introduce two-way radios to the police; whereas the Metropolitan Police possessed 25 radios in 1965, Jenkins increased this to 2,500, and provided similar numbers of radios to

5358-712: The old Bevanite–Gaitskellite divide in the Party; Wilson told Tony Benn the day after Jenkins' speech that he was determined to smash the Campaign for Democratic Socialism. At the 1971 Labour Party conference in Brighton, the NEC's motion to reject the "Tory terms" of entry into the EEC was carried by a large majority. Jenkins told a fringe meeting that this would have no effect on his continued support for Britain's entry. Benn said Jenkins

5452-550: The operation and organisation of the Home Office . The Principal Private Secretary, Head of the Press and Publicity Department and Permanent Under-Secretary were all replaced. He also redesigned his office, famously replacing the board on which condemned prisoners were listed with a fridge. After the 1966 general election , in which Labour won a comfortable majority, Jenkins pushed through a series of police reforms which reduced

5546-404: The opportunity to become prime minister. This changed completely, however, as Jenkins refused to accept the tide of anti-European feeling that became prevalent in the Labour Party in the early 1970s. After a special conference on the EEC was held by the Labour Party on 17 July 1971, which Jenkins was forbidden to address, he delivered one of the most powerful speeches of his career. Jenkins told

5640-510: The partial decriminalisation of homosexuality , relaxing of divorce law , suspension of birching and the liberalisation of abortion law . After the devaluation crisis in November 1967, Jenkins replaced James Callaghan as Chancellor of the Exchequer . Throughout his time at the Treasury, Jenkins oversaw a tight fiscal policy in an attempt to control inflation, and oversaw a particularly tough Budget in 1968 which saw major tax rises. As

5734-448: The party committed itself to holding a referendum on Britain's membership of the EEC. This led to some former admirers, including Roy Hattersley , choosing to distance themselves from Jenkins. Hattersley later claimed that Jenkins' resignation was "the moment when the old Labour coalition began to collapse and the eventual formation of a new centre party became inevitable". In his resignation letter to Wilson, Jenkins said that if there were

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5828-615: The party leadership but he again declined. He later wrote in his memoirs that the 1968 plot was "for me...the equivalent of the same season of 1953 for Rab Butler . Having faltered for want of single-minded ruthlessness when there was no alternative to himself, he then settled down to a career punctuated by increasingly wide misses of the premiership. People who effectively seize the prime ministership – Lloyd George, Macmillan, Mrs Thatcher – do not let such moments slip". In April 1968, with Britain's reserves declining by approximately £500 million every quarter, Jenkins went to Washington to obtain

5922-460: The party; it would be better to risk a split in the party than face "the destruction, by schism, perhaps for a generation, of the whole progressive movement in the country". Between 1951 and 1956, he wrote a weekly column for the Indian newspaper The Current . Here he advocated progressive reforms such as equal pay, the decriminalisation of homosexuality, the liberalisation of the obscenity laws and

6016-461: The period 1936–7 to 1987–8. Thanks in part to these successes there was a high expectation that the 1970 budget would be a more generous one. Jenkins, however, was cautious about the stability of Britain's recovery and decided to present a more muted and fiscally neutral budget. It is often argued that this, combined with a series of bad trade figures, contributed to the Conservative victory at

6110-532: The power giants of the modern world". Jenkins claimed that the Attlee government concentrated "too much towards the austerity of fair shares, and too little towards the incentives of free consumers' choice". Although he still believed in the elimination of poverty and more equality, Jenkins now argued that these aims could be achieved by economic growth. In the final chapter ('Is Britain Civilised?') Jenkins set out

6204-419: The press as "The permissive society is the civilised society", which he later wrote "was not all that far from my meaning". For some conservatives, such as Peter Hitchens , Jenkins' reforms remain objectionable. In his book The Abolition of Britain , Hitchens accuses him of being a "cultural revolutionary" who takes a large part of the responsibility for the decline of "traditional values" in Britain. During

6298-442: The prison population by the introduction of release under licence, easier bail, suspended sentences and earlier parole. Immigration was a divisive and provocative issue during the late 1960s and on 23 May 1966 Jenkins delivered a speech on race relations, which is widely considered to be one of his best. Addressing a London meeting of the National Committee for Commonwealth Immigrants he notably defined Integration: ... not as

6392-555: The raising of the school leaving age to 16 to 1973 instead of 1971. Housing and road building plans were also heavily cut, and he also accelerated Britain's withdrawal East of Suez . Jenkins ruled out increasing the income tax and so raised the taxes on: drinks and cigarettes (except on beer), purchase tax, petrol duty, road tax, a 50 per cent rise in Selective Employment Tax and a one-off Special Charge on personal incomes. He also paid for an increase in family allowances by cutting child tax allowances. Despite Edward Heath claiming it

6486-456: The removal of class barriers, as well as promoting libertarian social reforms. Jenkins was principal sponsor, in 1959, of the bill which became the liberalising Obscene Publications Act , responsible for establishing the "liable to deprave and corrupt" criterion as a basis for a prosecution of suspect material and for specifying literary merit as a possible defence. In July 1959, Penguin published Jenkins' The Labour Case , timed to anticipate

6580-422: The rest of the country's police forces. Jenkins also provided the police with more car radios, which made the police more mobile but reduced the amount of time they spent patrolling the streets. His Criminal Justice Act 1967 introduced more stringent controls on the purchase of shotguns, outlawed last-minute alibis and introduced majority verdicts in juries in England and Wales . The Act was also designed to lower

6674-497: The right of individuals to live their own lives free from the constraints of popular prejudices and state interference. Jenkins later called it a "good radical programme, although...not a socialist one". In May 1960, Jenkins joined the Campaign for Democratic Socialism , a Gaitskellite pressure group designed to fight against left-wing domination of the Labour Party. In July 1960 Jenkins resigned from his frontbench role in order to be able to campaign freely for British membership of

6768-502: The rights of others, the code by which they wish to live; and on the side of experiment and brightness, of better buildings and better food, of better music ( jazz as well as Bach ) and better books, of fuller lives and greater freedom. In the long run these things will be more important than the most perfect of economic policies. In the aftermath of Labour's 1959 defeat, Jenkins appeared on Panorama and argued that Labour should abandon further nationalisation, question its connection with

6862-434: The second time. Two years later, when Wilson resigned as prime minister, Jenkins stood in the leadership election to succeed him, finishing third behind Michael Foot and the winner James Callaghan . He subsequently chose to resign from Parliament and leave British politics, to accept appointment as the first-ever British President of the European Commission , a role he took up in January 1977. After completing his term at

6956-575: The theatre. This was passed as the Theatres Act 1968 under Jenkins' successor as Home Secretary, James Callaghan. Jenkins also announced that he would introduce legislation banning racial discrimination in employment, which was embodied in the Race Relations Act 1968 passed under Callaghan. In October 1967 Jenkins planned to introduce legislation that would enable him to keep out the 20,000 Kenyan Asians who held British passports (this

7050-497: The things Labour were elected on, rather than telling universities which candidates they should pick for which courses, when he can't possibly know the full facts?" In the ensuing debate, those who disagreed with the Chancellor advanced a range of arguments: some believed there was no discrimination; some felt Brown did not have his facts straight and therefore should not have offered a public opinion; and some believed that Oxford

7144-515: The title Purpose and Policy . Attlee then granted Jenkins access to his private papers so that he could write his biography, which appeared in 1948 ( Mr Attlee: An Interim Biography ). The reviews were generally favourable, including George Orwell 's in Tribune . In 1950, he advocated a large capital levy , abolition of public schools and introduction of a measure of industrial democracy to nationalised industries as key policy objectives for

7238-435: The trade unions and not dismiss a closer association with the Liberal Party . In November he delivered a Fabian Society lecture in which he blamed Labour's defeat on the unpopularity of nationalisation and he repeated this in an article for The Spectator . His Spectator article also called for Britain to accept its diminished place in the world, to grant colonial freedom , to spend more on public services and to promote

7332-417: Was "missing out" and that he thought that Spence had been rejected because of her being from the north east of England . The University of Oxford rebutted all allegations of discrimination. The BBC reported that Magdalen College had offered only five places to study medicine but had received twenty-two applicants, and that Oxford received a similar number of applications from state schools and private schools in

7426-463: Was "the figure dominating this Conference; there is no question about it". On 28 October 1971, he led 69 Labour MPs through the division lobby in support of the Heath government's motion to take Britain into the EEC. In so doing, they were defying a three-line whip and a five-to-one vote at the Labour Party annual conference. Jenkins later wrote: "I was convinced that it was one of the decisive votes of

7520-410: Was a "hard, cold budget, without any glimmer of warmth" Jenkins' first budget broadly received a warm reception, with Harold Wilson remarking that "it was widely acclaimed as a speech of surpassing quality and elegance" and Barbara Castle that it "took everyone's breath away". Richard Crossman said it was "genuinely based on socialist principles, fair in the fullest sense by really helping people at

7614-533: Was also a noted historian, biographer, and writer. David Marquand described Jenkins's autobiography, A Life at the Centre (1991), as one which "will be read with pleasure long after most examples of the genre have been forgotten". Born in Abersychan , Monmouthshire , in southeastern Wales , as an only child, Roy Jenkins was the son of a National Union of Mineworkers official, Arthur Jenkins . His father

7708-496: Was correct in not offering Laura Spence a place. When the issue was raised at an Oxford edition of the BBC's political discussion show Question Time in October 2000, Professor Robert Winston controversially said that Spence did not deserve a place, because "you have to be committed to the course, and Laura Spence clearly wasn't committed because she didn't even end up studying medicine." (Harvard, along with most other universities in

7802-600: Was educated at Pentwyn Primary School, Abersychan County Grammar School , University College, Cardiff , and at Balliol College, Oxford , where he was twice defeated for the Presidency of the Oxford Union but took a first-class degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE). His university colleagues included Tony Crosland , Denis Healey and Edward Heath , and he became friends with all three, although he

7896-503: Was elected to the House of Commons in a 1948 by-election as the Member of Parliament for Southwark Central , becoming the " Baby of the House ". His constituency was abolished in boundary changes for the 1950 general election , when he stood instead in the new Birmingham Stechford constituency. He won the seat, and represented the constituency until 1977. In 1947, he edited a collection of Clement Attlee 's speeches, published under

7990-481: Was imprisoned during the 1926 General Strike for his alleged involvement in disturbances. Arthur Jenkins later became President of the South Wales Miners' Federation and Member of Parliament for Pontypool , Parliamentary Private Secretary to Clement Attlee , and briefly a minister in the 1945 Labour government . Roy Jenkins' mother, Hattie Harris, was the daughter of a steelworks foreman. Jenkins

8084-510: Was in surplus, thanks to a growth in exports, a drop in overall consumption and, in part, the Inland Revenue correcting a previous underestimation in export figures. In July Jenkins was also able to announce that the size of Britain's foreign currency reserves had been increased by almost $ 1 billion since the beginning of the year. It was at this time that he presided over Britain's only excess of government revenue over expenditure in

8178-442: Was interviewed by Magdalen College but she was not offered a place because – according to the college – other candidates, of whom there were twenty-two for five positions, had equally good qualifications and had performed better at interview. The reason given for Spence's rejection was, as one BBC report put it, that she "did not show potential". The same report said that Spence was one of ten British students to be awarded

8272-409: Was never particularly close to Healey. In John Campbell 's biography A Well-Rounded Life a romantic relationship between Jenkins and Crosland was detailed. Other figures whom he met at Oxford who would become notable in public life included Madron Seligman , Nicholas Henderson and Mark Bonham Carter . During the Second World War , Jenkins received his officer training at Alton Towers and

8366-488: Was of "a more civilised, more free and less hidebound society" and he further claimed that "to enlarge the area of individual choice, socially, politically and economically, not just for a few but for the whole community, is very much what democratic socialism is about". He gave strong personal support to David Steel 's Private Member's Bill for the legalisation of abortion, which became the Abortion Act 1967 , telling

8460-637: Was offered a £65,000 scholarship. She became an Academic All Ivy at Harvard and returned to the UK to continue her studies in medicine at Cambridge after completing her bachelor's degree at Harvard. In 2006, Monkseaton High School football academy won the All England Cup, a competition involving 2,836 sixth form teams across England. Monkseaton won the cup alongside the League Cup DIV1, League Cup DIV2, County Cup, North England Cup and Churchill Cup, playing 33 games, winning 32 and drawing 1 on

8554-556: Was passed four months later under Callaghan as the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 , which was based on Jenkins' draft). Jenkins is often seen as responsible for the most wide-ranging social reforms of the late 1960s, with popular historian Andrew Marr claiming "the greatest changes of the Labour years" were thanks to Jenkins. These reforms would not have happened when they did, earlier than in most other European countries, if Jenkins had not supported them. In

8648-515: Was posted to the 55th West Somerset Yeomanry at West Lavington, Wiltshire . Through the influence of his father, in April 1944, Jenkins was sent to Bletchley Park to work as a codebreaker ; while there he befriended the historian Asa Briggs . Having failed to win Solihull in 1945 , after which he spent a brief period working for the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation , he

8742-704: Was previously grade 1 'Outstanding'. The school was previously shortlisted for the 'Secondary School of the Year' award within the 2016 TES Awards . In 2000, Monkseaton High School became a focus for the national media during the Laura Spence Affair . This was a major political argument about elitism in University of Oxford admissions procedures, centring on Magdalen College 's decision to reject Monkseaton student Laura Spence's application to study medicine. Spence had been accepted by every other university she applied to, including Harvard University , where she

8836-652: Was published in October 1958. Between 1955 and 1958 Jenkins served on the Board of Governors of the British Film Institute . During the 1956 Suez Crisis , Jenkins denounced Anthony Eden 's "squalid imperialist adventure" at a Labour rally in Birmingham Town Hall. Three years later he claimed that "Suez was a totally unsuccessful attempt to achieve unreasonable and undesirable objectives by methods which were at once reckless and immoral; and

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