Montgomery Fellow Lord Roy Jenkins of Hillhead -- a member of Britain's House of Lords and the chancellor of Oxford University -- delivered an hour-long speech yesterday afternoon in 105 Dartmouth Hall in which he praised Prime Minister Tony Blair and sought to explain his landslide election victory last May.
Jenkins's speech, which was called "Blair's Britain: Is it the Equivalent of an American 1932 or a British 1945?" was delivered to a crowd of nearly 300 people, comprised mostly of adults.
Jenkins argued that former President Franklin D. Roosevelt's election in 1932 and former Prime Minister Clement Attlee's election in 1945 are both similar to Blair's election on May 1 of this year.
He noted that these events "all occurred after long periods of domination by the other party." This year's election of a huge Labor majority follows an 18-year control by the Conservative Party. This represented "the longest period of same party rule for a century and three quarters," according to Jenkins.
Jenkins told The Dartmouth in an interview earlier this week, "I am pleased with the result of the 1997 elections. England desperately needed a change."
The biggest change seems to be the election of Tony Blair himself. Blair is young and, according to Jenkins, "certainly enjoys governing." The previous Conservative government headed by John Major, on the other hand, had fallen out of favor -- and Blair's landslide win was greeted with a public "euphoria."
Blair, as Jenkins noted, is only the second Prime Minister who "had not previously held even the most minor title in British politics before his election as Prime Minister," an unusual occurrence in British politics.
Commenting on the new Prime Minister, Jenkins said, "I like him very much ... I want him and his government to succeed."
Jenkins is currently the Leader of the Social and Liberal Democrats, a party which he helped found in 1981, in the House of Lords. Jenkins' party is currently allied with the Labor Party, and together they comprise a 62 percent majority.
Jenkins, a former senior member of the Labor Party, said he formed the new party because, "In the early 1970s, I became seriously disenchanted with Labor, which was increasingly anti-European." Jenkins believed that Labor was traveling to "the shores of lunacy" under the control of the party militants.
Blair seems to have "made the Labor party change with him." said Jenkins. Under Blair's organization, the fear of the Labor Party was removed -- one factor in Labor's win and Blair's popularity. Labor is now internationally oriented and focused, according to Jenkins, "towards a class unified, rather than divided." Jenkins even stated that, surprisingly, the Labor party is now "too cautiously moderate for my taste."
Jenkins said he hopes the 21st century will not be a repeat of the Conservative-dominated 20th century caused by the split on the left between the center and the left. He would also like to see a reform of the current voting system.
