Paddy Ashdown

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Paddy Ashdown

Paddy Ashdown.Profile.jpg

Name Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, GCMG, CH, KBE, PC (born 24 February 1941)
Nicknames Paddy (everyone) Paddy Pantsdown (The Sun)
Politics
Party Liberal Democrat
Constituency Yeovil (9 June 1983 – 7 June 2001)
Positions • Member of the House of Lords
• High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Leader of the Liberal Democrats
Likes Liberal Democrats
Dislikes Tories
Friends Most Lib Dems, Toyn Blair
Enemies Ditto
Relationships
Partners Jane Courtenay (1962–present)
Children 2
Personal Attributes
Nationality British
Religion ?
Sexuality straight
Height In feet and inches
Eye Colour ?
Handedness ?
Accent ?
Languages English, Malay, Bosnian, French, German, Mandarin Chinese

A quote about or by the person. It doesn't matter if you can't find one, just leave it blank. ~ The source, if known

Best known for being leader of the Liberal Democrats and having an affair.

Life and Career[edit | edit source]

Early Life[edit | edit source]

Paddy is the eldest of seven children: he has four brothers and two sisters. He was born in New Delhi, India, on 24 February 1941 to a family of soldiers and colonial administrators who spent their lives in India. He was largely brought up in Northern Ireland, where his father bought a farm in 1945 near Donaghadee. He was educated first at a local primary school, then as a weekly boarder at Garth House Preparatory School in Bangor and from age 11 at Bedford School in England, where his accent earned him the nickname "Paddy".

Pre-political Career[edit | edit source]

Paddy in uniform

Paddy left school before doing A Levels and joined the Royal Marines in 1959,[ serving until 1972, retiring with the rank of Captain. He served in Borneo during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation and the Persian Gulf before training as a Swimmer Canoeist in 1965, after which he joined the elite Special Boat Section and commanded a Section in the Far East. He then went to Hong Kong in 1967 to undertake a full-time interpreter's course in Chinese, and returned to Britain in 1970 when he was given command of a Royal Marine company in Belfast where he saw and dealt with a lot of shit.

He left the Royal Marines to join the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6). As diplomatic cover, he worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as first secretary to the United Kingdom mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. At the UN, Ashdown was responsible for relations with several UN organisations, involved in the negotiation of several international treaties, and some aspects of the Helsinki Conference. He could tell you about it, but he'd have to kill you.

Early Political Career[edit | edit source]

Initially a supporter of the Labour Party, Paddy changed his allegiance to the Liberals in the 1970s. It was the radial fuck ups of politics in the 70s (two elections within a single year, the three day week, terrible shits) that Paddy decided to quit his life as a super secret spy to become a politician. None of his friends thought it was a good idea but he did it anyway.

He was selected to fight the seat of Yeovil, where his wife had lived, and planned out a long campagin. Knowing the Liberal vote had been basically destroyed, Paddy began to focus on local issues, taking up a local job and becoming a youth worker too. From 1976 to 1983 he built up a network of local support and eventually entered parliament at the 1983 general election.

Parliamentary Career[edit | edit source]

Paddy was on the left of his party, strongly supporting the Lib-Lab pact and the Alliance.

He was appointed SDP–Liberal Alliance spokesman on Trade and Industry and then on Education and spent a lot of the 1980s having a go at Margaret Thatcher.

Leader of the Party[edit | edit source]

When the Liberal Party merged with the SDP to form the Liberal Democrats they decided that it would be a good time to have a leadership election. Paddy was subsequently elected leader of the new party and made a Privy Councillor.

Paddy led the party into both the 1992 and 1997 general elections. Under his watch the party grew in size, wining 46 seats in 1997, the highest number for the Liberals since the 1920s.

As leader, Paddy was also very in favour of New Labour and spent a lot of time secretly talking to Tony Blair. In the run up to the 1997 general election, when Tony wasn't sure he was going to win and outright victory, he and Paddy were in talks about the possibility of forming some sort of (formal or informal) coalition, including giving Paddy a seat round the Cabinet table. This didn't work out because New Labour basically took over the country in 1997 and didn't need the new Lib Dems to form a government, but Tony still kept in contact with Paddy as he valued Paddy's military experience and centre-left ideals. However, the new government in 1997 set up a commission to look into the idea of constitutional reform, in particular the issues of changing the voting system and bringing in an elected House of Lords. Paddy was very in favour of both the Commission and what was eventually the outcome, but, unfortunately, he had to stand down from the leadership before the Commission could complete its work. Paddy's successor for the leadership Charles Kennedy wasn't so keen on the Commission idea and let it slide.

Like a true Lib Dem, Paddy has had a number of strange photo shoots...

Paddy announced his intention to resign as Leader of the Liberal Democrats on 20 January 1999, departing on 9 August that year after 11 years in the role, and was succeeded by Charles Kennedy.

House of Lords[edit | edit source]

Paddy was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 2000 and was created a Life Peer as Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon in the County of Somerset in 2001. He was succeeded as MP for Yeovil by the Liberal Democrat David Laws.

In the House of Lords Paddy has been instrumental in pursuing electoral reform including an elected House of Lords.

When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister he offered Paddy a post in Cabinet as part of his GOAT (Government Of All Talents). Although the leader of the Liberal Democrats at the time ruled out any sort of merger or alliance, Paddy and Gordon continued talks in private. Eventually the talks came to nothing.

High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina[edit | edit source]

After leaving frontline British politics Passy was made High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. He spent a long time trying to help grown the state institutions in the region and create stability.

In 2002, Paddy testified as a witness for the prosecution at the trial of Slobodan Milošević at the International Criminal Tribunal. He said that he was on the Kosovo-Albania border near Junik in June 1998. From this location, through his binoculars, Paddy claimed to have seen Serbian forces shelling several villages. His testimony was disputed and many different sought of maps were produced to try and see if he was telling the truth or not.

Full List of Appointments
• Job 1 Title (Start date [day] [month], [year] - End date [day] [month], [year])
• Job 2 Title (Start date [day] [month], [year] - End date [day] [month], [year])
• Etc

Not everyone has great moments, but if they do, you can link to videos of them in the table below:

Greatest Moments
Date Summary Video Transcript
Date of video A summary Where can people find a transcript? If it's short- "He died, Jeremy, he tragically died."- just type it out. Otherwise link to Hansard or an interview transcript.

Personal Life[edit | edit source]

Paddy married Jane Courtenay in 1962. The couple have a son, Simon, and daughter, Katharine, along with three grandchildren.

He supports Yeovil Town F.C. and attends matches every so often. He also is a member of the National Liberal Club.

Affair[edit | edit source]

In 1992 following the press becoming aware of a stolen document relating to a divorce case, he disclosed a five-month affair with his secretary, Patricia Howard, five years earlier. He and his marriage weathered the political and tabloid storm, with his wife of 30 years forgiving him.

Portrayal[edit | edit source]

In the Media[edit | edit source]

Generally the left wing publications and media present more favourable coverage than the right wing, but most people respect hi military background enough to not piss him off to much.

When news of his affair came out, The Sun published it as a front-page splash with the headline "Paddy Pantsdown". Unfortunately for Paddy, this nickname has still stuck around.

In Culture[edit | edit source]

When Paddy was leader of the Liberal Democrats there was more coverage of him. However since then he has sort of obtained the role of elder statesman despite never actually being in Cabinet.

When the 2015 general election exit poll came out and predicted that the Lib Dems would be left with 10 seats Paddy went on TV and said he would "eat his hat" if that was true. When it turned out that the Lib Dems actually only had 8 seats after the election Paddy was followed around a lot and every time he appeared on TV he was told to eat his hat. In the end Question Time made him a chocolate hat cake and he ate some of that.


Paddy eating his hat

In Fanon[edit | edit source]

Fandom is generally in favour of Paddy or really scared of him or both.

Paddy Facts[edit | edit source]

In February 2011 for Paddy's 70th birthday the comm had a picspam. Attached to the picspam was a number of captions and the follow:

"Some Paddy Ashdown facts which, if you aren't aware of them, you really ought to be:

1) Before getting into politics, Paddy had a budding film career. He was in all 6 star wars films, as The Force.[1] 2) When Paddy served with the Royal Marines in Borneo, he was bitten on the leg by a cobra. After 5 days of excruciating pain, the cobra died. 3) In 1998, Paddy had a heart attack. His heart lost; no one beats Paddy. 4) Contrary to certain photos which appear to show him 'napping', Paddy does not sleep, he waits. 5) Paddy doesn't cheat death, he wins fair and square."

Meme[edit | edit source]

Paddy has appeared in a few fics mostly being a BAMF.

Shipping[edit | edit source]

Paddy has been shipped with many people, most notably with Nick Clegg.

Prominent Portrayals in AUs[edit | edit source]

If they appear in AU fics, or other elaborate or notable longfics, you can stick it all here with descriptors of what their role is.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. He has recently expanded his film repertoire with the latest Star Wars film.