James Spicer

Sir James Wilton Spicer ( October 4, 1925 - March 21, 2015 ) was a British Conservative Party politician who represented the constituency of Dorset West as a member of the House of Commons between 1974 and 1997 and was temporarily vice-chairman of the Conservative Party . In addition, he was a member of the European Parliament from 1975 to 1984 and the initiator of the sports hall in the lower house.

Life

Officer and unsuccessful House of Commons candidacy in 1971

Spicer, son of James Spicer and his wife Florence Spicer, joined the British Army in 1943 after attending The Latymer School , a grammar school originally founded in 1624, and served with the Royal Fusiliers during World War II . He took part in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944 as a platoon leader of the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry . In 1951 he joined the paratrooper regiment and served during the Suez Crisis in autumn 1956 as a major in the 1st battalion of this regiment. He then resigned from active military service in 1957, as he was deeply convinced that he refused military service during the Suez Crisis.

After retiring from active military service, he worked as a farmer and property owner. In 1966 Spicer was nominated as a candidate for the Conservative Tories for the constituency of Southampton Itchen . Holder of this constituency was the Labor politician since 1950 Horace King , who on September 2, 1965 Speaker (Speaker) was elected the House of Commons. The Conservatives then, with Spicer's consent, decided not to run against him in the general election on March 31, 1966 and June 18, 1970 .

Only after Horace King left the House of Commons on March 2, 1971, did he stand against the new Labor candidate Bob Mitchell in the by -election by-election on May 27, 1971, but lost significantly against this with 9,675 votes difference: During Mitchell Received 22,575 votes, Spicer received only 12,900 votes.

In 1968, the then party chairman appointed Edward Heath chairman of the Conservative Political Center , before becoming director of the Conservative Europe Group four years later in 1972, shortly before Great Britain joined the European Communities .

Member of the House of Commons 1974 to 1997

In the general election of February 28, 1974 , Spicer was elected for the first time a member of the House of Commons for the Conservative Party in the West Dorset constituency and thus the successor to his party friend Simon Wingfield Digby , who had held this constituency since a by-election on June 28, 1941. In his first election, Spicer was able to stand up to his opponents from the Liberal Party , R. Angus (14,183 votes, 32.12 percent) and the Labor Party, MF Cross (8,333 votes, 18.87 percent ) with 21,634 votes (49 percent) ) push through. In the subsequent elections he received clear, sometimes even absolute, majorities. Spicer represented the constituency of Dorset West for more than 33 years in the House of Commons before he gave up running again in the elections on May 1, 1997 and was replaced as constituency holder by his fellow party member Oliver Letwin .

Political opinions

Spicer was a fundamental supporter of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's policies and, like her, spoke out against sanctions against South Africa and a relaxation of immigration regulations. He was also a supporter of the reinstatement of the death penalty . In terms of European politics, he was convinced that Great Britain and its neighbors needed a strong and united voice and supported John Major in the internal party dispute over the Maastricht Treaty , although he rejected the federalist goals there.

He also supported Turkey's role in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus as Chairman of the British-Turkish Parliamentary Group . After the Falklands War Spicer received 1982 Sara Jones, widow of for his efforts at Goose Green posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross excellent Commanding Officer of the 2nd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment Lieutenant Colonel H. Jones , in the House and in the Congress of the Conservative Party.

Use for sport

As a member of parliament, Spicer, who was a fencer and pentathlon in his youth, was involved in the sporting activities of members of parliament and was the driving force of a sports hall for parliament after the first chairman of the Tories in the European Parliament , Peter Michael Kirk , at the age of 48 in 1977 died of a myocardial infarction . In a press conference at the Palace of Westminster on the risks of heart attacks, he said: “Basically, MPs drink too much and do too little exercise”. The sports hall, which opened in 1978 and of which Spicer became chairman, was moved to a larger building in 1990.

With two former officers, Spicer founded Fitness for Industry (FFI) in 1981 , a company developing gymnasiums for managers. The first hall was inaugurated in the Institute of Directors . FFI opened further fitness rooms in hotels and finally took over the operation of the sports hall in the lower house. He also belonged to the swimming team of the House of Commons and swam for it in 1994 as a 69-year-old through the Thames and then drank whiskey to kill the bacteria .

Pro-European stance and member of the European Parliament 1975 to 1984

After the Labor Party won the October 10, 1974 general election, Spicer accused the opponents of the single market of undermining Prime Minister James Callaghan's renegotiations on membership conditions. In 1975 he was heavily involved in the conservative “yes” campaign for the EC referendum.

In 1975 Spicer was also appointed a member of the European Parliament by the House of Commons, where he acted as the parliamentary director ( Whip ) of his party. In the following years he campaigned for better European fire protection conditions and completed an intensive French language course.

Before the 1979 European elections , he convinced Prime Minister Thatcher that the party would benefit if some of its MEPs had a “dual mandate”, with seats in Strasbourg and the Palace of Westminister. In the European elections on June 7, 1979, he was elected member of the 1st European Parliament for Wessex with a majority of 87,834 votes . After the dual mandate was abolished, however, he decided not to run again in the 1984 European elections and concentrated on his membership in the lower house.

Vice-chairman of the Conservative Party

After leaving the European Parliament, Spicer was appointed Deputy Executive Party Chairman (Party Vice-Chairman) from Margaret Thatcher and, as such, was also Chairman of the International Office and the Conservative Party's international offices. In this function, after a change in the electoral law, he tried to get supporters of the Conservative Tories living abroad to register for elections.

To do this, he traveled to Hollywood in 1986 to win British stars living there for this campaign. However, the campaign proved to be a " blow job " as only 66 of the roughly 500,000 British residents living in California registered and Joan Collins was the only star to support the campaign. However, Spicer's later efforts proved more successful after the law went into effect to allow Britons living abroad to register for the constituency in which they last lived.

Spicer, who was beaten to a Knight Bachelor degree in 1988 and henceforth had the suffix "Sir", was also founding chairman of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy , a non-partisan organization that, with the support of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) , helped former communist countries to establish democratic institutions. He was also parliamentary advisor to the war veterans organization Royal British Legion .

His marriage to Winifred Shanks in 1954 and who died in 2010 resulted in two daughters.

Web links

• James Spicer at Hansard (English)
• Sir James Spicer, politician-obituary. No-nonsense Tory MP and MEP who became party vice-chairman and founded the parliamentary gym . In: The Daily Telegraph, March 23, 2015
• Entry on James Spicer in the European Parliament 's database of MEPs