Word: owen
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...Labor Party Leader Michael Foot are showing the lowest personal standings for any Prime Minister and party leader since the war. "Every day I pray that Margaret Thatcher and Michael Foot will be the leaders at the next election," says former Labor Foreign Secretary turned S.D.P. Leader David Owen, 42. "What could be better than to run against those...
...rose to address his colleagues in the House of Commons one evening last week, former Foreign Secretary David Owen's hands trembled visibly. Over the years he had spoken on countless occasions from his accustomed place on the Labor Party's front bench. This time, standing at a physical and political remove from his old colleagues, Owen launched the new Social Democratic Party, a movement that could change the face of British politics...
...previous day, Owen and eleven other Members of Parliament had resigned from the Labor Party. When they formally constitute themselves as the Social Democrats within the next month, they will become the first significant national party to be formed in Britain since Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists in 1932. For Labor, it was the most dramatic defection since 1931, when Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald led a walkout in order to head a national government...
...first to bolt was Shirley Williams, former Education Secretary and for years one of Labor's most popular front benchers. She resigned last month from the Labor national executive committee, declaring pointedly that "the party I loved and worked for no longer exists." She was followed by Owen, former Transportation Minister William Rodgers, and onetime Deputy Party Leader and Home Secretary Roy Jenkins. For the present, the four plan to share the new party's leadership...
...Parliament, where they rank as the third largest group, ahead of the Liberals (eleven seats) though far behind the Conservatives (337 seats) and Labor (255). At the party's seven-room London headquarters, plans are being pressed to enlist the aid of the "millions of people" who Owen believes will back the Social Democrats. A team of 25 volunteers were answering 30,000 letters from prospective party members. The total contributions to date...