Alan Williams (politician)

Alan John Williams PC (born October 14, 1930 in Caerphilly , Wales , † December 21, 2014 in London ) was a British Labor Party politician who represented the constituency of Swansea West as a member of the House of Commons for 45 years , several times as Minister of State and most recently between 2005 and 2010 when Father of the House was the MP with the longest uninterrupted membership in the House of Commons and thus quasi-age-president.

Life

Studies, lecturer and member of the House of Commons

Williams, the son of a miner , completed after visiting the Cardiff High School to study at Cardiff College of Technology and at the University College Oxford and joined as a member in that time the Labor Party. In 1954 he was part of a delegation of members of the student association National Union of Students , a trip to the Soviet Union undertook after this by the death of Josef Stalin became possible. After completing his studies, he worked as a lecturer in economics at the Welsh College of Advanced Technology and as a radio host.

In the general election of October 8, 1959 , Williams ran in the constituency of Poole for the first time for a seat in the House of Commons, but was defeated by the constituency owner Richard Pilkington of the Conservative Party . In the next election on October 15, 1964 , he was elected MP in the Swansea West constituency. He defeated the conservative constituency holder John Rees and thus contributed to the paper-thin parliamentary majority of the Labor Party of just five votes, which led to Harold Wilson becoming the new Prime Minister . At the beginning of his membership in parliament he was a member of the Public Accounts Committee .

Junior Minister 1966 to 1970 and first years of opposition

Williams was one in due course to the large number of young aspiring politicians of his party and was following the early general election on March 31, 1966 , which expanded the majority of the Labor Party on 96 seats, Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Postmaster ( Postmaster General ) Edward Short . The following year he was in 1967 Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Economic Affairs ( DEA ) . After this ministry was dissolved in October 1969, he became Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Technology, headed by Tony Benn , where he was responsible for economic affairs and nationalized industries. In this function he announced the withdrawal of the pit horses (pit ponies) from all mines with the exception of those pits in which they could not be replaced by machines. In fact, the number of pit horses in British mines fell from 11,000 in 1957 to just 100 in 1980. At the same time, he had to defend a sharp cut in the supply of solid fuels such as coal , coke and charcoal .

After the success of the Conservative Party in the general election of June 18, 1970 and the inauguration of the Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath , Williams was the opposition spokesman for consumer protection and small businesses.

Minister of State 1974 to 1979

When Harold Wilson took over the post of prime minister again after the general election of February 28, 1974 , Williams became minister of state in the newly created Department of Prices and Consumer Protection , headed by the also moderate Minister Shirley Williams . In doing so, he played an instrumental role in perpetuating the Labor Party policy of controlling and subsidizing the prices of staple foods , which was later viewed by Shirley Williams as economic nonsense. On the other hand, he brought in the binding price indication for beverages and the establishment of a network of local consumer advice centers.

After James Callaghan became the new Prime Minister after the resignation of Wilson on March 16, 1976, Williams moved to the Ministry of Industry as Minister of State and was thus Deputy Minister of Industry Eric Varley . In 1977 he was also appointed a member of the Privy Council . In doing so, he focused on supporting the troubled industrial sector , which included the workers' cooperatives encouraged by Benn in the late 1960s. He also defended his ministry's refusal to allow Toyota to open a car import facility in Bristol in order to force the Japanese automaker to set up the facility in an economically underdeveloped region of the UK.

The weeks of the spring of 1979 before Callaghan's defeat in the general election of May 3, 1979 were difficult times for Williams. He had to admit that his attempts to promote British industry by the so-called "Winter of Discontent" ( Winter of Discontent ) undermined the year 1978/1979, which had led to production cuts of ten percent and the dismissal of 235,000 workers. At the same time he, like other members of the Labor government had against his personal conviction for propagated by Callaghan, unsuccessful Wales -Referendum (Welsh devolution referendum) vote on 1 March 1979 which in the end just as the Winter of Discontent cause of the defeat of the Labor Party in the subsequent general election.

Again opposition years 1979 to 1997

Front Bencher 1979 to 1988

In the general election of May 3, 1979 Williams was only able to defend his lower house mandate with 401 votes and initially took over the role of spokesman for his party for Wales in the subsequent opposition, before being replaced by the new Labor Party chairman Michael Foot in 1980. Minister for the Civil Service was appointed to his shadow cabinet . In this capacity, he accused the new Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of "vengeance" after the civil service workers who previously complained about their salaries were excluded from the usual New Year's honors. During the increasing shift to the left within the Labor Party, he remained in the party, whereas other right-wing politicians in his party joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP) founded on March 26, 1981 by Roy Jenkins , David Owen , Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams .

After the crushing defeat of the Labor Party in the general election of June 9, 1983 , Williams was appointed by new party chairman Neil Kinnock as opposition spokesman for trade and industry and campaign coordinator. He criticized the privatization of British Telecom initiated by Thatcher through the Telecommunication Act 1984 as “the largest donation in British economic history, since you could sell almost anything for half the price” ('the biggest giveaway in British commercial history - you can sell almost anything at half price '). In his additional function as deputy parliamentary group leader in the lower house and thus as deputy shadow leader of the house , he also played a key role in the debates about the so-called spycatcher affair , the uncovering of an espionage affair at the security service .

In 1987, Kinnock appointed him shadow minister for Wales, before a year later in 1988 he reappointed him exclusively as deputy group leader in the House of Commons, effectively downgrading him.

Backbencher from 1989 to 2005

A short time later, on January 9, 1989, he resigned from this office and became involved as a backbencher in his parliamentary group.

In 1990 he was again a member of the Public Budget Committee, which he had belonged to in the mid-1960s. He was a member of this committee until he voluntarily resigned his mandate in 2010, during which time he campaigned for an investigation by the National Audit Office into the costs of traveling by the royal family. This investigation, as he suspected, revealed the real cost of the royal yacht HMY Britannia . After the Labor Party's victory in the general election on May 1, 1997 , it was announced that the Britannia would be decommissioned, but not replaced by a new ship. The main reason for this decision was the running costs of around 30 million euros annually raised by UK taxpayers. The royal family refused to pay some or all of these costs themselves.

In addition to membership in this committee, he was also a member of the House Committee on Standards and Privileges (Standards and Privileges Committee) and since 1997 member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Privileges (Joint Committee on Privilege) . Between 2001 and 2010 he also acted as chairman of the so-called Liaison Committee , the liaison and advisory committee of the chairmen of the 32 standing committees of the lower house and the joint parliamentary committee on human rights.

Father of the House

After Tam Dalyell left the House of Commons after the elections on May 5, 2005 , Williams succeeded him as Father of the House , i.e. as the MP with the longest uninterrupted membership in the House of Commons, who was thus also the age president of the House of Commons.

As such, it fell to him to put the final question to Tony Blair before he stepped down as Prime Minister on June 27, 2007 and resigned from his mandate. Despite the different opinions of the two, Williams described Blair as “one of the outstanding prime ministers of my lifetime”.

Williams received his greatest attention in June 2009 when he became the Father of the House session to elect a new lower house speaker initiated after incumbent Michael Martin because by the daily newspaper The Daily Telegraph had resigned uncovered scandal involving expense reports by deputies. It was the first real election, as the previous system of declarations of intent in favor of a candidate had led to utter confusion, as most recently in the election of Martin on October 23, 2000. Former Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett of the Labor Party was considered the favorite, However, several Labor MPs decided to support John Bercow of the Conservative Party, known as a loner , who was ultimately able to prevail against his conservative party friend George Young with 322 to 271 votes .

After resigning from the May 6, 2010 elections , Williams resigned from the House of Commons after more than 45 years of membership. His successor as Father of the House was then Peter Tapsell of the Conservative Party, who belonged to the House of Commons between 1959 and 1964 and again since 1966, while Labor politician Geraint Davies was his successor with only 504 votes (1.4 percent) Became an MP in the Swansea West constituency .

Between 2000 and 2003 he was President of the Atlantic Treaty Association .

Web links

• Alan Williams at Hansard (English)
• Alan Williams - obituary in The Daily Telegraph December 22, 2014