Leo Abse
Leo Abse | |
---|---|
Chair of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee | |
In office 25 January 1980 – 20 November 1981 | |
Preceded by | Position Established |
Succeeded by | Donald Anderson |
Member of Parliament for Torfaen Pontypool (1958–1983) | |
In office 10 November 1958 – 18 May 1987 | |
Preceded by | Granville West |
Succeeded by | Paul Murphy |
Member of Cardiff City Council | |
In office 1953–1958 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Leopold Abse 22 April 1917 Cardiff, Wales |
Died | 19 August 2008 London, England | (aged 91)
Nationality | British |
Political party | Labour |
Alma mater | London School of Economics |
Occupation |
|
Leopold Abse (22 April 1917 – 19 August 2008)[1] was a British lawyer and politician. He was a British Labour MP for nearly 30 years, noted for promoting private member's bills to decriminalise male homosexual relations and liberalise the divorce laws. During his parliamentary career, Abse introduced more private member's bills than any other parliamentarian in the 20th century.[2] After his retirement from Parliament he wrote several books about politics, based on his interest in psychoanalysis.
Family and background
Leo Abse was one of the sons of Rudolf Abse, a
Abse married Marjorie Davies in 1955. They had two children: Tobias (now a Marxist historian) and Bathsheba. Marjorie died in 1996. His second marriage was to Ania Czepulkowska, in 2000, when Abse was 83 and Czepulkowska 33. Abse died on 19 August 2008. Some 10 years after her husband died, Mrs Czepulkowska-Abse broke her silence and spoke to the South Wales Argus and paid tribute to her husband. She confirmed that she is still living and working in London.[3][4]
Political involvement
During the Second World War Abse served in the
After the end of the war Abse set up in practice as a solicitor in Cardiff. In 1951 he established his own law firm, Leo Abse & Cohen, which eventually grew to be the biggest in the city. He was also elected as Chairman of Cardiff Labour Party for two years from 1951, relinquishing the post when he was elected to Cardiff City Council in 1953.[5][6] Abse fought the safe Conservative seat of Cardiff North in the 1955 general election, and was defeated.
In Parliament
In the House of Commons Abse swiftly acquired a reputation for independence of spirit. He made a point of dressing flamboyantly on Budget Day and liked to drop references from Freudian psychotherapy into his speeches. Abse made his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 22 January 1959 on the subject of education, mentioning that he had a primary school in his constituency which had two classes of over 50 pupils in one room.[7] Although his abilities might have taken him to high office, Abse remained a backbench MP. This factor, together with the safety of his seat, freed him from the restrictions that dissuaded many other MPs from taking up controversial subjects.
In 1963, Abse was selected in third place in the ballot for
In the mid-1960s, Abse began corresponding with members of the British Humanist Association and other MPs and peers who were non-religious and had shared ethical views and political ambitions. Together they founded the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group, whose concerns at that time included homosexual law reform, abortion law reform, and racial and religious equality.[8]
In 1957 the
In 1968 he was appointed to a Home Office advisory committee on the penal system. He was elected Chairman of the group of Welsh Labour MPs in 1971.
In 1973, Abse requested that the government ban the rock singer
Abse was chosen as chairman of a select committee on abortion from 1975 to 1977. His report advocated restrictions on abortion, including a lowering of the time limit within which abortion was legal from 28 weeks. He fought in the House of Commons for the enactment of his committee's recommendations, and continued the fight in 1980 when the Conservative MP John Corrie proposed a bill along similar lines: Abse refused to compromise on a limit of 24 weeks.
Abse was an opponent of
Abse added to his reputation for taking maverick stances by strongly urging that British forces be withdrawn from
Abse was elected for the renamed seat of Torfaen in 1983, but retired from Parliament in 1987. His nomination for a seat in the House of Lords was vetoed by Margaret Thatcher.[2]
Retirement and later writings
The first of the books Abse wrote following retirement, Margaret, Daughter of Beatrice (1989), is a "psycho-biography" of Margaret Thatcher, taking its title from the observation that while Mrs Thatcher frequently referred to her father, she claimed not to have had anything to say to her mother from the age of 15.
In Wotan, My Enemy (1994) Abse took a psychoanalytic approach to explaining the origin of British hostility to Germany and the idea of the European Union. In The Man behind the Smile: Tony Blair and the Politics of Perversion (1996), Abse highlighted some of the aspects of Tony Blair that were later to be cited by Blair's opponents on the left. A revised edition, Tony Blair: The Man who Lost His Smile (2003), was published in the United States. In this edition Abse took the opportunity to claim that he had paid off a blackmailer who had been targeting a fellow Welsh MP George Thomas (Speaker of the House of Commons from 1976 to 1983), on the basis of Thomas's (closeted) homosexuality.
Finally, in Fellatio, Masochism, Politics and Love (1997), Abse drew attention to the fact that fellatio had been unspoken of a generation before but had come to be seen[by whom?] as an essential part of casual sexual relationships. He analysed the tendency for men to engage in risky behaviour by placing their trust in women whom they barely knew and linked it to political developments.
Memorial
A bust of Abse was unveiled at the
In popular culture
Abse was played by actor Anthony O'Donnell in the TV series A Very English Scandal.
Publications
- Private Member (MacDonald, London, 1973)
- Margaret, Daughter of Beatrice (Jonathan Cape, London, 1989)
- Wotan, My Enemy (Robson Books, London, 1994)
- Tony Blair: The Man behind the Smile (Robson Books, London, 1996)
- Fellatio, Masochism, Politics and Love (Robson Books, London, 1997)
- Tony Blair: The Man who Lost his Smile (Robson Books, London, 2003)
- The Bi-sexuality of Daniel Defoe: a psychoanalytic survey of the man and his works (Karnac Books, London, 2006)
Further reading
- "Leo Abse" in Parliamentary Profiles A–D by Andrew Roth (Parliamentary Profiles Services Ltd, London, 1984)
- Peers, Queers and Commons by Stephen Jeffery-Poulter (Routledge, London, 1991)
- Quest for Justice: Towards Homosexual Emancipation by Antony Grey (Sinclair-Stevenson, London, 1992)
- "The Troublemakers..." by Stephen Cretney, in The Continuing Evolution of Family Law, edited by N. Lowe and G. Douglas (Jordans, Bristol, 2009).
- Family Law in the Twentieth Century: A History (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2003)
References
- ^ a b "Leo Abse: MP who fought to reform homosexuality and divorce laws". The Times. London. 21 August 2008. Archived from the original on 31 May 2010.
- ^ a b c d Goodman, Geoffrey (20 August 2008). "Leo Abse". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
- ^ "Leo Abse's widow breaks silence and pays tribute to husband in first interview since his death 10 years ago". South Wales Argus.
- ^ "Remembering the gay rights champion Leo Abse who died 10-years ago". South Wales Argus.
- ^ "Leo Abse". The Daily Telegraph. 20 August 2008. Archived from the original on 20 August 2008.
- ^ "Leo Abse: Labour MP whose parliamentary Bills helped liberalise". The Independent. 23 October 2011. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
- ^ "1959 Maiden Speech". ukpol.co.uk. 5 May 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
- ^ "Humanist Lobby". Humanist Heritage. Humanists UK. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
- ^ Patricia Brent and Leo Abse (20 December 1966). "Why should homosexuality be decriminalised?". BBC Archives. Archived from the original on 18 August 2011.
- ^ Source: booklet of "The life and crimes of Alice Cooper" 4 CD box set.
- ^ "Parliamentary career for Leo Abse - MPs and Lords - UK Parliament". members.parliament.uk. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
- ^ "Bust of radical MP Abse unveiled". BBC. 22 October 2009. Archived from the original on 25 October 2009.
Sources
- Goodman, Geoffrey (20 August 2008). "Leo Abse". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
External links
- Leo Abse- 50th Anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act - UK Parliament Living Heritage
- Leo Abse and his brother Dannie - a joint interview in The Times November 2006
- Obituary in The Independent by Tam Dalyell
- Times obit, August 2008
- Paul Flynn MP: Leo Abse - backbenchers’ backbencher - Chutzpah and contentment August 2008
- Coming out of the dark ages (article from The Observer, 24 June 2007, which includes an interview with Abse)
- Leo Abse Memorial
- Socialist Unity: Remember the good soldier, August 2008