| Leo Abse | |
|
Member of Parliament
for Pontypool |
|
| In office 1958 – 9 June 1983 |
|
| Preceded by | Daniel Granville West |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | Constituency Abolished |
|
Member of Parliament
for Torfaen |
|
| In office 9 June 1983 – 11 June 1987 |
|
| Preceded by | New Constituency |
| Succeeded by | Paul Murphy |
|
|
|
| Born | 22 April 1917 Cardiff, Wales |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | London School of Economics |
| Occupation | Author |
Leopold Abse (born 22 April 1917) is a British politician from Wales. Pontypool was a County constituency in the town of Pontypool in Wales. Year 1958 ( MCMLVIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 53 - Roman Emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia 62 - Claudia Octavia commits Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) (Daniel Granville West Baron Granville-West (March 1904 &ndash 1984 was a British Labour politician Torfaen is a County constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Events 53 - Roman Emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia 62 - Claudia Octavia commits Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) Events 1184 BC - Trojan War: Troy is sacked and burned according to the calculations of Eratosthenes. Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) Paul Peter Murphy (born 25 November 1948) is a British politician Events 1500 - Portuguese Navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral becomes the first European to sight Brazil. Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Cardiff ( 'kɑːdɪf) is the Capital and the largest city and county in Wales. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Labour Party is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the Alma mater is Latin for "nourishing mother" It was used in Ancient Rome as a title for the mother Goddess, and in Medieval The London School of Economics and Political Science, more commonly referred to as The London School of Economics or LSE, is a specialist college of the An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created Events 1500 - Portuguese Navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral becomes the first European to sight Brazil. Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located He was a Labour Member of Parliament for nearly 30 years, and is noted for promoting private member's bills to legalise male homosexual relations and liberalise the divorce laws. The Wales Labour Party, also known as Welsh Labour (Llafur Cymru is the part of the Labour Party which operates in Wales. A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a Parliament. A Private Member's Bill is a proposed Law introduced by a backbench member of Parliament, whether from the government or the opposition side to that Homosexuality refers to sexual behavior with or attraction to people of the same sex or to a Homosexual orientation. Divorce or dissolution of marriage is the termination of a Marriage. Since his retirement he has written political books based on his interest in psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis is a body of ideas developed by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and his followers which is devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior
Contents |
Family and background
Leo Abse was the son of Rudolf Abse, a Jewish solicitor and cinema owner who lived in Cardiff. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Cardiff ( 'kɑːdɪf) is the Capital and the largest city and county in Wales. His younger brother Dannie Abse is a well known poet; his older brother Wilfred Abse (1915-2005) was an eminent psychoanalyst. Daniel Abse, better known as Dannie Abse, (born 22 September 1923 is a Welsh Poet. David Wilfred Abse ( 1914 - November 4, 2005) was a Welsh psychiatrist Year 1915 ( MCMXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Abse attended Howard Gardens High School in Cardiff followed by the London School of Economics where he studied law. The London School of Economics and Political Science, more commonly referred to as The London School of Economics or LSE, is a specialist college of the Having joined the Labour Party in 1934, he clandestinely visited Spain during the closing months of the Spanish Civil War in 1939. The Labour Party is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the Year 1934 ( MCMXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted Coup d'état committed by parts of the army against the government of Year 1939 ( MCMXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
Political involvement
During World War II Abse served in the Royal Air Force. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including He was serving in Cairo in 1944 when the British forces stationed there set up a 'Forces Parliament' in which they debated the structure of society they wanted to see in the post-war world. Cairo () which means "the Vanquisher" or "the Triumphant" is the capital and largest city of Egypt. Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Abse's idealistic left-wing views were fully in tune with the majority opinion among the lower ranks but the existence of the Parliament disturbed the more senior officers; when Abse moved a motion to nationalise the Bank of England he was arrested and the Forces Parliament was forcibly dissolved. Nationalization, also spelled nationalisation, is the act of taking an industry or assets into the Public ownership of a national government The Bank of England (formally the Governor and Company of the Bank of England) is a state-owned institution and the Central bank of the United Kingdom
After the end of the war, Abse set up in practice as a solicitor in Cardiff. By 1951 he had a sufficiently good relation to establish his own law firm, Leo Abse and Cohen, which eventually grew to be the biggest in the City. Year 1951 ( MCMLI) was a Common year starting on Monday. Events of 1951 January He was also elected as Chairman of Cardiff Labour Party for two years from 1951, giving up the post when he was elected to Cardiff City Council. Abse fought the then safe Conservative seat of Cardiff North in the 1955 general election. Cardiff North ( Gogledd Caerdydd in Welsh) is an Borough constituency in the city of Cardiff. Results |} Total votes cast 26759729 All parties shown Conservatives include National Liberal Party and Ulster Unionists Votes
In Parliament
Daniel Granville West, the Labour MP for Pontypool, was awarded a life peerage in the first appointments in 1958. (Daniel Granville West Baron Granville-West (March 1904 &ndash 1984 was a British Labour politician Pontypool was a County constituency in the town of Pontypool in Wales. In the United Kingdom, life peers are created members of the Peerage whose titles may not be inherited (those whose titles are inheritable are known as Hereditary Although Pontypool was a South Wales valleys area, the National Union of Mineworkers was not in control of the nomination (Granville West was also a solicitor), since Pontypool was also a centre of the railway industry and its powerful unions, and Abse was selected to succeed him as the Labour candidate at the by-election. See also the National Union of Mineworkers (South Africa. Template talkInfobox Union A by-election or bye-election (called special election in the United States) is an Election held to fill a political office that has become vacant He easily retained the seat.
Abse swiftly acquired a reputation for independence of spirit. He made a point of dressing flamboyantly on Budget day, and liked to drop references from Freudian psychotherapy into his speeches which had partly been learned from Professor Wilfred Abse, his elder brother and a professional psychiatrist. Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded Psychotherapy is an Interpersonal, relational intervention used by trained psychotherapists to aid clients in problems of living A psychiatrist (also archaically called an alienist) is a Physician who specializes in Psychiatry and is certified in treating Mental disorders Although his abilities might have taken him to high office Abse had a complete lack of ambition and never desired anything more than to be a backbench MP. This factor, together with the fact that he had a safe seat, freed him from the restrictions which prevented other MPs taking up controversial subjects.
In 1963 he was selected in third place in the ballot for Private Member's Bills and introduced the Matrimonial Causes Bill which simplified and made easier the legal process of divorce. A Private Member's Bill is a proposed Law introduced by a backbench member of Parliament, whether from the government or the opposition side to that Divorce or dissolution of marriage is the termination of a Marriage. His effective advocacy of the Bill ensured that it passed and was made law.
In 1973, he also "requested that the government ban the group [the Alice Cooper group] from performing in England, claiming that Alice was 'peddling the culture of the concentration camp. Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier; February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer songwriter and musician whose career spans five Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people commonly in large groups without trial ' Said Abse, 'Pop is one thing, anthems of necrophilia are quite another'". Necrophilia, also called thanatophilia and necrolagnia, is the sexual attraction to corpses (Source: booklet of "The life and crimes of Alice Cooper" 4 CD box set. Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier; February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer songwriter and musician whose career spans five )
Homosexual law reform
In 1957 the Wolfenden report had recommended that the law be changed to legalise consenting male homosexual sex, but the government had taken no action. Year 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1957 Gregorian calendar) Homosexuality refers to sexual behavior with or attraction to people of the same sex or to a Homosexual orientation. Based on his knowledge of psychiatry, Abse could not understand the reason for prohibiting gay sex and began to promote a Bill to put the Wolfenden recommendations into law in February 1962. Year 1962 ( MCMLXII) was a Common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. He kept pressing the issue, and when Humphry Berkeley (Conservative MP for Lancaster) lost his seat in the 1966 general election Abse became the main sponsor for the legalisation. Humphry John Berkeley ( February 21, 1926 &ndash November 14, 1994) was a British politician noted for his many changes of parties The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is a Political party in the United Kingdom. Lancaster was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and National opinion poll summary Research Services: 3% swing to Labour (forecast majority of 101National Opinion Polls: 3 Although with the Labour landslide there was a majority for the Bill it was still vulnerable to procedural tricks; Abse managed to outwit opponents and persuaded Roy Jenkins to give the measure government time, which eventually saw the Bill through onto the statute book. Roy Harris Jenkins Baron Jenkins of Hillhead OM PC ( 11 November 1920 &ndash 5 January 2003) was a British
Abse's views on homosexuality were strongly influenced by his knowledge of psychotherapy. He argued that an obsession with the question of punishment of homosexuals "has hitherto prompted us to avoid the real challenge of preventing little boys from growing up to be adult homosexuals. Surely, what we should be pre-occupied with is the question of how we can, if it is possible, reduce the number of faulty males in the community. " Abse put his arguments in this way partly to ensure that those MPs who were inclined to vote for the Bill did not feel they were endangering their masculinity but mostly because he had a view that "those who do not procreate are deprived or stunted" (the analysis of Antony Grey, who was leading the lobbying efforts of the Homosexual Law Reform Society and worked closely with him). This article is about the Homosexual Law Reform Society in the UK
Other issues taken up by Abse included ending capital punishment. Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. During the Six Day War he made a passionate attack on those Labour MPs who had supported the Arab cause. Background Suez Crisis aftermath The Suez Crisis of 1956 represented a military defeat but a political victory for Egypt In 1968 he was appointed to a Home Office advisory committee on the penal system. Year 1968 ( MCMLXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for security and order As a sign of his popularity he was elected Chairman of the group of Welsh Labour MPs in 1971; he was already well enough known to write his autobiography Private Member in 1973. Year 1971 ( MCMLXXI) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1971 Gregorian calendar. Year 1973 ( MCMLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the 1973 Gregorian calendar.
Devolution
Abse was an opponent of devolution when it was proposed in the late 1970s. Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a State to government at subnational level He also proposed a separate referendum on whether the Shetland Islands ought to be part of a devolved Scotland. A referendum (plural referendums or referenda) ballot question, or plebiscite (from Latin plebiscita Shetland (formerly spelled Zetland, from etland; Old Norse non Hjaltland; Sealtainn is an Archipelago off the northeast coast of Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Abse was briefly Chairman of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee when it was first set up but resigned in November 1981. Year 1981 ( MCMLXXXI) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays the 1981
Welsh Language
One of the reasons he opposed devolution was because he thought some in Wales wanted to use devolution to promote the use of the Welsh language whom he described as 'fanatics'. Welsh ( cy Cymraeg or cy y Gymraeg, kəmˈrɑːɨɡ and {{IPA|[ə ɡəmˈrɑːɨɡ]}}, is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic He opposed in particular proposals for criminal juries comprising only Welsh speakers, and described Welsh language television as an 'expensive farce' and a 'gravy train'.
Abortion
Because of his position as an independent-minded backbencher, Abse was chosen to be Chairman of a Select Committee on abortion from 1975 to 1977. An Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Also 1977 (album by Ash. Year 1977 ( MCMLXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays His report advocated restrictions on abortion including a lowering of the time limit within which abortion was legal from 28 weeks. He fought in the House of Commons for the enactment of his committee's recommendations, and continued the fight in 1980 when Conservative MP John Corrie proposed a Bill along similar lines: he refused to compromise on a limit of 24 weeks. Year 1980 ( MCMLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar) John Alexander Corrie (born 29 July 1935) is a British Conservative Party politician
Other political stances
Abse added to his reputation for taking maverick stances by strongly urging British forces be withdrawn from Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland (Tuaisceart Éireann Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann) is a Country within the United Kingdom, lying in the northeast of He opposed nuclear power and nuclear weapons, and criticised Margaret Thatcher for insisting that Argentina unconditionally surrendered over the Falkland Islands. Nuclear power is any Nuclear technology designed to extract usable Energy from atomic nuclei via controlled Nuclear reactions A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Margaret Hilda Thatcher Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS (born 13 October 1925 For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Argentina topics. However, he supported British membership of the European Communities. The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in His support for liberal divorce laws led him to propose a new 'child-centred' divorce reform in the early 1980s; the Bill was piloted by Martin Stevens, Conservative MP for Fulham.
Later political and literary career
After fighting off unwelcome boundary changes in 1983, Abse was elected for the newly-named seat of Torfaen. Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) Torfaen is a County constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. He retired from Parliament in 1987 and in his retirement took to writing books based on his interest in psychoanalysis. Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) The first, Margaret, Daughter of Beatrice (1989), was a 'psycho-biography' of Margaret Thatcher, and took its title from the observation that while Mrs Thatcher frequently referred to her father, she claimed not to have had anything to say to her mother from the age of 15. Year 1989 ( MCMLXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar)
In Wotan, My Enemy (1994) Abse took a psychoanalytic approach to try to explain the origin of British hostility to Germany and the idea of the European Union. Year 1994 ( MCMXCIV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar) Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. In The Man behind the Smile, subtitled Tony Blair and the Politics of Perversion (1996), Abse adopted a similar approach to his biography of Margaret Thatcher, and highlighted some of the character aspects of Blair which were later to be cited by his opponents on the left (the book was revised in 2003 under the title Tony Blair: The Man who lost his Smile and the revised edition was published in the United States). Anthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair (born 6 May 1953 is a British Politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the
Abse took the opportunity of the reissued book to claim that he had paid off a blackmailer who had been targeting his fellow Welsh MP George Thomas (Speaker of the House of Commons from 1976 to 1983), on the basis of Thomas' homosexuality. Blackmail is the crime of threatening to reveal substantially true information about a person to the public a family member or associates unless a demand made upon the Thomas George Thomas 1st Viscount Tonypandy PC ( 29 January 1909 &ndash 22 September 1997) was a British Labour This revelation was criticised as being in poor taste by some of Thomas' friends who disputed that he was gay.
In Fellatio, Masochism, Politics and Love (1997) Abse drew attention to the fact that fellatio had been unspoken of a generation before but had since become an essential part of casual sexual relationships. Fellatio, also called fellation, is Oral sex performed upon the Penis. Sadism refers to Sexual or non-sexual gratification in the infliction of Pain or humiliation upon or by another person Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar He analysed the tendency for men to engage in risky behaviour by placing their trust in women whom they barely know, and also linked it to political developments. The book was published in the United States in 2000 shortly after the scandal of Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky had been revealed. 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19 1946 served as the forty-second President of the United States Monica Samille Lewinsky (born July 23, 1973) is an American woman with whom then- United States President Bill Clinton admitted to
Publications
- Private Member (Jonathan Cape, London, 1973)
- Margaret, Daughter of Beatrice (Jonathan Cape, London, 1989)
- Wotan, My Enemy (Robson Books, London, 1994)
- The Man behind the Smile (Robson Books, London, 1996)
- Fellatio, Masochism, Politics and Love (Robson Books, London, 1997)
- Tony Blair: The Man who lost his Smile (Robson Books, London, 2003)
References
- 'Leo Abse' in 'Parliamentary Profiles A-D' by Andrew Roth (Parliamentary Profiles Services Ltd, London, 1984)
- 'Peers, Queers and Commons' by Stephen Jeffery-Poulter (Routledge, London, 1991)
- 'Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation' by Antony Grey (Sinclair-Stevenson, London, 1992)
External links
- Coming out of the dark ages (article from The Observer, 24 June 2007, which includes an interview with Abse)
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Daniel Granville West |
Member of Parliament for Pontypool 1958–1983 |
Succeeded by (constituency abolished) |
| Preceded by (new constituency) |
Member of Parliament for Torfaen 1983–1987 |
Succeeded by Paul Murphy |
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