Owen/Steel
| Owen/Steel | |
|---|---|
| |
| David Owen / David Steel | |
| Name | Owen/Steel |
| Description | Two souls united by their love for David Owen |
Possibly the first fanonical pairing in Lolitics fandom, David Owen/David Steel has been shipped ever since the Liberal Party and the SDP formed a political alliance and Spitting Image stuck the leaders in bed together. Owen/Steel isn't so much a pairing as a love triangle between Steel, Owen, and Owen's planet-sized ego, but like all great tragedies, their doomed romance makes for entertaining viewing, and Steel's sweet-natured devotion in the face of Owen's indifference and cruelty is sure to melt the most cynical of loliticians' hearts.
History[edit | edit source]
David Steel believed that if the Liberal Party was to make progress, it needed to form a coalition with another, more electable party, because it had no future if it was merely a protest party and it had no prospect of winning enough votes to form a government on its own. After a brief dalliance with Jim Callaghan's minority Labour Government, he settled on the newborn SDP as the party he wanted to spend the rest of his political life with.
The son of a minister, strait-laced Steel wanted a merger and a ring. Owen was less enthusiastic about commitment, leading to this rather humiliating rejection on Question Time:
David Steel: I don't propose to conduct a love-in with Dr. Owen on [this] program, and certainly not to live in sin with him or anybody else, but a marriage is a possibility I think we should look towards.
David Owen: There's no question of a marriage. There may well be a need for an electoral arrangement whereby you don't fight each other.
Steel was crushed, but like every Liberal leader he was an optimist, and he persevered, forming the SDP-Liberal Alliance and contesting the 1983 and 1987 general elections at the side of the tall, manly, erudite and oh so handsome Owen. They had many happy times together on the campaign trail and mucking about in boats, although Steel was haunted by his portrayal on Spitting Image.
In the rosy glow of new love, Steel was so optimistic about their prospects that he famously told his party conference to go back to their constituencies and prepare for government, but his enthusiasm for the SDP-Liberal Alliance was not shared by the voters, at least not for long. Polls in 1981 showed the SDP-Liberal Alliance comfortably ahead of both major parties, but on election day in 1983 they secured only 25% of the vote, and only 23 seats. In 1987 they did even worse, with the SDP losing three of their eight seats.
In the wake of their 1987 defeat the SDP disbanded. Steel pressed for the merger he had always wanted. Still terrified of commitment, Owen refused, but this time Steel stood firm and merged the parties over Owen's objections, creating the Liberal Democrats we know and love. Owen walked out on him, breaking up the slashiest political couple ever to grace the Westminster stage and effectively ending his own political career.
Support[edit | edit source]
Aside from that ridiculously slashy quote on Question Time, we must also consider the sheer delight on David Steel's face every time he is in the presence of Owen:
Note also the intent way Owen stares at Steel's neck:
We also have the Ettrick Bridge "Incident", wherein David Steel essentially attempted a coup against Roy Jenkins about a week before polling day, providing him with the "abdication papers" that would have made Steel the effective leader of the Alliance. This move was greeted with unhappiness and embarrassment from Jenkins, and fury from Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams. David Owen reacted, um... differently. Rodgers remembers: "As we discussed the events of the day, and Steel's provocative performance, David Owen suddenly said: 'I didn't know he had it in him!' I glanced at David in the passenger seat beside me and caught a half-smile of genuine admiration, perhaps his first and last for David Steel in the six years of Alliance". Aww.
And then there was their post-merger/breakup lunch. Steel told journalists, "Well, I think you know that we've decided not to enlarge on what was a very happy meeting. It was a private lunch... We still agreed to differ but we're going to agree to differ pleasantly", thus leaving the door open for post-merger slash.
Fanon[edit | edit source]
In Culture[edit | edit source]
Spitting Image[edit | edit source]
The relationship of the two Davids is portrayed in loving detail on the program, and is explicitly slashy- they share a bed, Steel frequently asks Owen to hold him, and during their breakup Owen says he's seen enough of what's under Steel's kilt over the past few years. In all likelihood, this was an attempt by the satire to exploit viewers' homophobia to humiliate the Davids, and indeed Steel does feel that being written as the simpering bottom in the most stereotypical seme/uke relationship this side of Japan undermined his credibility and hurt the SDP-Liberal Alliance's electoral prospects. Owen, however, holds that this was better for the Alliance than being ignored, and that it was "very funny", though "not a true picture of our relationship". Quite the concession. Either way, the depiction also seated the slash goggles firmly on the noses of hundreds of little loliticians. On the show, the relationship is either abusive or kinky or both- Owen is constantly insulting or hitting a fawning, masochistic Steel, and seems to view his partner with a weary contempt. Steel adores Owen, and it's unclear whether he enjoys the abuse or invites it because any form of attention from his partner is better than none.
The Meme[edit | edit source]
Thus far the Owen/Steel fic produced by the meme has followed roughly the same lines as their relationship on Spitting Image with an indifferent, contemptuous Owen and a besotted Steel, although it tends to be more generous to Steel than the show was, portraying him with more Liberal fire and less bedwetting.
