Editing Roy Jenkins (section)

==Early political career (1945–1965)==
Having failed to win [[Solihull (UK Parliament constituency)|Solihull]] in [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945]], after which he spent a brief period working for the [[Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation]],<ref name=saunders /> he was elected to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] in [[1948 Southwark Central by-election|a 1948 by-election]] as the Member of Parliament for [[Southwark Central]], becoming the "[[Baby of the House]]". His constituency was abolished in [[Boundary commissions (United Kingdom)|boundary changes]] for the [[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950 general election]], when he stood instead in the new [[Birmingham Stechford (UK Parliament constituency)|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 the title ''Purpose and Policy''.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 105.</ref> 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'').<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 105–106.</ref> The reviews were generally favourable, including [[George Orwell]]'s in ''[[Tribune (magazine)|Tribune]]''.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 106.</ref>

In 1950, he advocated a large [[capital levy]], abolition of [[Public school (United Kingdom)|public schools]] and introduction of a measure of [[industrial democracy]] to nationalised industries as key policy objectives for the Labour government.<ref name=saunders /> In 1951 ''Tribune'' published his pamphlet ''Fair Shares for the Rich''.<ref name="Campbell126">Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 126.</ref><ref name="Jenkins85">Jenkins, ''A Life at the Centre'', p. 85.</ref> 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.<ref name="Campbell126"/> 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 the monolithic public corporation behind us and look for more intimate forms of ownership and control".<ref>Roy Jenkins, ''Fair Shares for the Rich'' (Tribune, 1951), p. 16.</ref> He later described this "almost [[Robespierrean]]" pamphlet as "the apogee of my excursion to the left".<ref name="Jenkins85"/>

Jenkins contributed an essay on 'Equality' to the 1952 collection ''New Fabian Essays''.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 128.</ref> In 1953 appeared ''Pursuit of Progress'', a work intended to counter [[Bevanism]]. Retreating from what he had demanded in ''Fair Shares for the Rich'', Jenkins now argued that the redistribution of wealth would occur over a generation<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 137.</ref> and abandoned the goal of public school abolition.<ref name=saunders /> 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".<ref>Roy Jenkins, ''Pursuit of Progress'' (London: Heinemann, 1953), p. 96.</ref> He also opposed 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".<ref>Jenkins, ''Pursuit of Progress'', pp. 44–45.</ref> Jenkins argued that the Labour leadership needed to take on and defeat the neutralists and pacifists in 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".<ref>Jenkins, ''Pursuit of Progress'', p. 37.</ref>

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 the abolition of capital punishment.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 153, p. 182.</ref> ''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]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 148.</ref> After a suggestion by [[Mark Bonham Carter]], Jenkins then wrote a biography of the Victorian radical, Sir [[Charles Dilke]], which was published in October 1958.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 149, p. 151.</ref> Between 1955 and 1958 Jenkins served on the Board of Governors of the [[British Film Institute]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Campbell |title=Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life |pages=75}}</ref>

During the 1956 [[Suez Crisis]], Jenkins denounced [[Anthony Eden]]'s "squalid imperialist adventure" at a Labour rally in Birmingham Town Hall.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 187.</ref> 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 the consequences, as was well deserved, were humiliating and disastrous".<ref>Roy Jenkins, ''The Labour Case'' (London: Penguin, 1959), p. 14.</ref>

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).<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 181.</ref> With much of the economy now nationalised, Jenkins argued, socialists should concentrate on eliminating the remaining pockets of poverty and on the removal of class barriers, as well as promoting libertarian social reforms.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 181–182.</ref> 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.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 182–186.</ref>

In July 1959, [[Penguin Books|Penguin]] published Jenkins' ''The Labour Case'', timed to anticipate the [[1959 United Kingdom general election|upcoming election]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 197.</ref> 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 the power giants of the modern world".<ref>Jenkins, ''The Labour Case'', p. 11.</ref> 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".<ref>Jenkins, ''The Labour Case'', p. 74.</ref> 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 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:

<blockquote>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 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.<ref>Jenkins, ''The Labour Case'', p. 146.</ref></blockquote>

In the aftermath of Labour's 1959 defeat, Jenkins appeared on ''Panorama'' and argued that Labour should abandon further nationalisation, question its connection with the trade unions and not dismiss a closer association with the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 204.</ref><ref name="Jenkins130">Jenkins, ''A Life at the Centre'', p. 130.</ref> 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''.<ref name="Jenkins130"/><ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 205–206.</ref> His ''Spectator'' article also called for Britain to accept its diminished place in the world, to grant [[Decolonisation|colonial freedom]], to spend more on public services and to promote the right of individuals to live their own lives free from the constraints of popular prejudices and state interference.<ref name="Jenkins130"/><ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 206.</ref> Jenkins later called it a "good radical programme, although...not a socialist one".<ref>Jenkins, ''A Life at the Centre'', pp. 130–131.</ref>

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.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 212.</ref> In July 1960 Jenkins resigned from his frontbench role in order to be able to campaign freely for British membership of the Common Market.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 212–213.</ref> At the 1960 Labour Party conference in [[Scarborough, North Yorkshire|Scarborough]], Jenkins advocated rewriting [[Clause IV]] of the party's constitution but he was booed.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 210–211.</ref> 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 the country—and to offer the prospect of attracting enough marginal support to give that half some share of power".<ref>Roy Jenkins, 'And Fight Again', ''The Spectator'' (11 November 1960), p. 8.</ref>

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 the Labour Common Market Committee.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 214.</ref> At the 1961 Labour Party conference Jenkins spoke in favour of Britain's entry.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', pp. 214–215.</ref>

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 (1887–1948)|Venetia Stanley]].<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 236.</ref> [[Kenneth Rose]], [[Michael Foot]], [[Asa Briggs]] and [[John Grigg]] all favourably reviewed the book when it was published in October 1964.<ref name="Campbell, p. 239">Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 239.</ref> However, Violet Bonham Carter wrote a defence of her father in ''The Times'' against the few criticisms of Asquith in the book,<ref>Violet Bonham Carter, 'Asquith Revealed By Events', ''The Times'' (2 November 1964), p. 11.</ref> 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 a [[Graham Sutherland|Sutherland]]: but we have got an [[Annigoni]]".<ref>Robert Rhodes James, 'Last of the Romans?', ''The Spectator'' (6 November 1964), p. 23.</ref> John Campbell claims that "for half a century it has remained unchallenged as the best biography and is rightly regarded as a classic".<ref name="Campbell, p. 239"/>

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.<ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 230.</ref> After the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|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 the [[Department for Education and Science]]; however, he declined it, preferring to stay at Aviation.<ref name=autobiography>{{cite book|title=A Life at the Centre|first=Roy |last=Jenkins|year=2006 |isbn=978-1-84275-177-0|publisher=Politico's}}</ref><ref>Campbell, ''Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life'', p. 249.</ref>