David Owen
| David Owen | |
|---|---|
|
| |
| Name | David Anthony Llewellyn Owen (born 2 July, 1938) |
| Nicknames | Dr. Death (Dennis Skinner and other detractors), King Trash (Tumblr) |
| Politics | |
| Party | Social Democratic Party (1981-1990) Labour (1960 - 1981) |
| Constituency | Plymouth Devonport (1974 - 1992) Plymouth Sutton (1966 - 1974) |
| Positions | • Leader, SDP (1983 - 1987, 1988 - 1990) • Foreign Secretary (1977 - 1979) |
| Likes | Himself, proportional representation, poetry, helmets, burning bridges, the EU, boating |
| Dislikes | Unilateral disarmament, AV, teamwork, commitment, the Euro |
| Friends | Currently back on good terms with Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers |
| Enemies | At various stages, just about everyone in Parliament |
| Relationships | |
| Partners | Deborah Schabert (married December, 1968) |
| Children | Tristan (1970), Gareth (1972), Lucy (1979) |
| Personal Attributes | |
| Nationality | English, of Welsh descent |
| Religion | Agnostic |
| Sexuality | Straight |
| Height | 5' 10" |
| Eye Colour | Grey |
| Handedness | Right |
| Accent | Received pronunciation |
| Languages | At least some Welsh |
When he was born all the good fairies gave him every virtue: "You'll be beautiful, you'll be intelligent, you'll have charm and charisma". And the bad fairy came along and tapped him on the shoulder and said, "But you'll be a shit". That was his trouble.~ Denis Healey
Youngest Foreign Secretary since Anthony Eden, co-founder of the Social Democratic Party, and David Owen's #1 Fan. He has his own website here. All quotes (and much of the information) taken from his memoirs (Time to Declare) unless otherwise cited.
Life and Career[edit | edit source]
Early Life[edit | edit source]
Born in Plympton (later became part of Plymouth) to John and Molly Owen, the second of two children (his sister Susan is two years older). His father was a doctor and his mother a dentist and (Independent) city councillor. The young David enjoyed family Gilbert & Sullivan sing-a-longs, being the center of attention, and riding on the handlebars of his blind grandfather's bicycle (though his mother holds this never actually happened, it was real to him). He attended two boarding schools, the latter of which brought upon him such troubles as a cane-happy headmaster and "constant homosexual talk" to which he "fell victim" (and the attendant teasing). He strenuously denies these allegations, even though he was barely pubescent when they were leveled. It's just something he feels very strongly about.
Pre-political Career[edit | edit source]
David Owen attended medical school at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he achieved a Second. He began practice at St. Thomas's Hospital in 1962 and became Neurology and Psychiatric Registrar there from 1964 to 1966, and a Research Fellow for the medical unit from 1966 to 1968. He joined the Labour Party and Fabian Society in 1960, though his primary focus was still on medicine, and he intended to go into psychiatric research before the whole "Member of Parliament" thing crept up and got in the way.
Early Political Career[edit | edit source]
During his first by-election campaign (Torrington, 1964), he provoked the wrath of fifty-odd mothers through his incompetent judgment of a baby show. He did not win this election. In 1966 he was selected over Betty Boothroyd as Labour candidate for Plymouth and went on to win the election, somewhat unexpectedly. He continued as a (paid) doctor and MP for two years, then stopped taking pay as a doctor, at which point politics started taking precedence, in spite of (what he professes was) a continued preference for medicine.
Parliamentary Career[edit | edit source]
Early in his career as an MP, he supported David Steel's Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill in the Commons and served on the committee for it, which was probably about the last time he ever shared a goal with David Steel. Throughout his parliamentary career, he formed and reconsidered many opinions about such issues as nuclear disarmament, devaluation of the pound, and the extent of UK involvement with Europe. He resigned his position as Shadow Defence Spokesman in Harold Wilson's cabinet (with Roy Jenkins) in 1972, in protest of Labour's opposition to joining the European Community, thus beginning an illustrious career of (self-)righteously resigning from things.
He returned to the Cabinet when Labour resumed power in 1974 as Health Minister, and was appointed Foreign Secretary by Jim Callaghan in 1976- the youngest in about half a century. He is fully aware of how special this makes him.
Owen was one of the Gang of Four who resigned from the Labour Party and formed the SDP, concerned about the Labour's leftward drift after Michael Foot was elected Leader. Owen succeeded Roy Jenkins as SDP Leader in 1982, by then stuck in an alliance he wasn't terribly happy about with David Steel's Liberals. The two Davids had some minor disagreements on such trivialities as nuclear disarmament, who (besides them) would be best suited to be Prime Minister, and if/when to merge their two parties, with Owen generally appearing well to Steel's right. They also had rather different leadership styles that Richard Holme described "in marital terms" as "one partner who is given to periodic explosions of temper and throwing crockery but then calms down and goes sulky, and one partner who smiles and carries on."[1]
Guess which one he was!
Bill Rodgers said of his leadership, "David believed not only in rebuke but in punishment", regarding those he believed had wronged him in some way.
At any rate, in 1987, Steel insisted on a merger, backed by the other three-fourths of the original Gang of Four. Owen and his supporters abstained from the vote, and Owen went on to lead the remainder of the independent SDP (both of them). When they polled behind the Monster Raving Loony Party in 1990, he was finally compelled to call it quits. He served as an Independent MP until ascending to the Lords in 1992, where he sits as a crossbencher, when he bothers to turn up. He's served on a number of international bodies, perhaps most notably as EU co-chair on the Conference for Former Yugoslavia.
Most recently, he was politically active in the "No to AV, yes to PR" initiative. Whether this was because he has a knack for being uncompromising about his earnestly-felt principles, or just because he likes being difficult is for history to decide.
He has also continued his work in psychiatry, and has recently published a book and several academic papers on a psychological illness he has dubbed "Hubris Syndrome", an acquired personality disorder which afflicts powerful politicians and causes them to make poor decisions due to excessive self-confidence, a desire for glory and self-aggrandisement, and a contempt for the advice of others. He does not, of course, suffer from this condition himself.
| Full List of Appointments |
|---|
| • Parliamentary Private Secretary to Minister of Defence (1966 - 1968) |
| • Undersecretary of State for the Royal Navy (1968 - 1970) |
| • Opposition Spokesperson for Defence (1970 - 1972, resigned) |
| • Minister of State for Health (1974 - 1976) |
| • Minister of State for the Foreign Office (1976 - 1977) |
| • Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1977 - 1979) |
| • Principal Opposition Spokesperson for Energy (1979 - 1980, resigned) |
| • Deputy Leader, SDP (1982 - 1983) |
| • Leader, SDP (1983 - 1987; 1988 - 1990) |
| • European Union Co-chair, International Conference on Former Yugoslavia (1992 - 1995) |
| • Director, Center for International Humanitarian Cooperation (1996 - present) |
Personal Life[edit | edit source]
Owen met his wife Deborah (Debbie) in New York in 1968. When he returned to England a week later, he proceeded to write a series of heartfelt (some would say "cringeworthy") love letters that he was evidently quite proud of and felt were worthy of publication, because a number of them appear in his autobiography. They married later that year, "having seen each other for only twenty-four days", and have three children.
Sexuality/Appearance/Ideology[edit | edit source]
David Owen is a man of many apparent contradictions who summarized his political ideology during the SDP-Liberal Alliance years as "tough and tender". Some say he's too contemplative and too prone to openly changing his mind for his own good; others say he's just a relentlessly opportunistic egomaniac. But whether you love him or loathe him, you have to agree: that is one fine head of hair.
A motorbike accident in college left him with "the knee of a seventy-year-old" for the rest of his life. It acted/acts up in bad weather, apparently. The incident's other legacy was a lifelong belief in the importance of compulsory motorbike helmet laws.
Potentially worth noting for fanfiction purposes is his conviction that it is possible to be in love with multiple people at once. And potentially worth noting for porny fanfiction purposes is that in his early years at St. Thomas's, he was evidently rather good at/enjoyed doing cataract surgery, a procedure that, in his words, "requires considerable precision".
Portrayal[edit | edit source]
In the Media[edit | edit source]
For a time, he was the bright, young, (handsome) face of Labour/the SDP, representative of fresh starts and new hopes. This rather lessened as time went on.
In Culture[edit | edit source]
Probably most famously/influentially, David Owen was a recurring puppet on Spitting Image. When not preoccupied with being in an abusive and/or kinky relationship with David Steel, he spent a lot of time running from one end of the House of Commons to the other, hanging out in other people's Cabinets, being sexually generous, morphing into (or spontaneously cosplaying as?) Mrs. Thatcher, and, ultimately, paying John Cleese by the minute for ego-boosts.
In Fanon[edit | edit source]
So far, the fandom consensus surrounding David Owen is essentially that he is a giant, feral ego barely contained in a charming (if domineering) human shell.
... and there's a good reason for that.
Meme[edit | edit source]
Shipping[edit | edit source]
Most commonly paired with David Steel (Owen/Steel).
