Jack Straw (politician)
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| The Rt Hon Jack Straw | |
| Born | 3 August 1946 London |
|---|---|
John Whitaker Straw (born August 3, 1946) is a British Labour Party politician. He was Home Secretary from 1997–2001, and Foreign Secretary from 2001 to May 5 2006, when he was made Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal. He has been the Member of Parliament for Blackburn since 1979.
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[edit] Early career
Born in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, England and brought up at Loughton by a single mother on a council estate, he was educated at Staples Road School, Loughton, and Brentwood School (where he was already expressing political ambitions and took the name "Jack," allegedly after the 14th century peasant leader Jack Straw — although "Jack" is a common diminutive of "John") and read law at the University of Leeds. During his time at Leeds he was elected president of the students' union with the support of the Broad Left, a coalition including Liberal, Socialist and the Communist Societies. Having joined the Labour Society when he arrived at Leeds in 1964, Straw was elected chairman of the Society in 1966 at an annual general meeting packed with members of the Communist Society who had joined days earlier. The Society's name was immediately changed to Socialist Society to reflect the fact that it no longer supported the Labour Party. In 1966, when Straw disrupted a student trip to Chile, he was branded a "troublemaker acting with malice aforethought" by the Foreign Office [1].
In 1969 he was elected President of the National Union of Students after gaining a reputation for effective student militancy after he appeared to lead a successful occupation of Leeds University in 1968, though he initially opposed the protest and not one of the students' demands was conceded. He was regarded as a radical on issues of social equality and race, though he opposed the legalisation of drugs. He qualified as a barrister and practised criminal law. From 1971 to 1974 Jack Straw was a member of the Inner London Education Authority and Deputy Leader from 1973 to 1974. He served as political adviser to Barbara Castle at the Department of Social Security from 1974 to 1976 and then to Peter Shore at the Department for the Environment to 1977. He then worked as a researcher for the Granada TV current affairs series, World in Action.
During his time as political adviser, Straw was asked by Castle to examine the social security file of Norman Scott, who had claimed that the Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe was behind an attempt to murder him. Castle had been asked by Harold Wilson to investigate Scott's file to see if it contained any evidence that he was involved in a security conspiracy against Thorpe. Straw informed Castle that when he went to examine Scott's file, he found it was missing. The journalist Barrie Penrose has alleged that Straw subsequently leaked details from the file to the media. Straw remains silent on that matter. He has denied allegations by Joe Haines, Wilson's press secretary, that Wilson asked for Scott's file to be viewed for party political purposes, in the hopes of gaining information that could be used to damage Thorpe if he attempted to form a coalition government with Ted Heath. By the time he was asked to view the file, Heath had ceased to be leader of the Conservative Party. At the time of the scandal, the general view, promoted in particular by Private Eye, was that Wilson was using his influence to help and protect Thorpe and certainly not to smear him. Thorpe was cleared of any involvement in the attempt on Scott's life.
Straw was selected to run for Parliament in Blackburn, Barbara Castle's seat, in 1977 after Castle decided not to run again. He won the seat in 1979 and has held it since, also becoming honorary president of Blackburn Rovers. In the 1980s, he was an opposition spokesman on economic affairs and later on the environment before becoming Shadow Education Secretary in 1987. In this role, he called on Local Education Authorities to give private Muslim and Orthodox Jewish schools the right to opt out of the state system and still receive public funds. He also stated that the schools should be free to enter the state system. His comments came at a time of great controversy regarding the funding of Muslim schools. Straw argued that the controversy arose out of ignorance and stereotyping about women's role in Islam, pointing out that Muslim women acquired property rights centuries before European women. Straw played a significant role in articulating the Labour party's interest in and sensitivity to the issue.
Straw briefly served as Shadow Environment Secretary under John Smith from 1992 to 1994, speaking on matters concerning local government. When Tony Blair became leader after Smith's death, he chose Straw to succeed him as Shadow Home Secretary. Like Blair, Straw believed Labour's electoral chances had been damaged in the past by the party appearing to be "soft on crime" and he developed a reputation as being even more authoritarian than the Conservative Home Secretary Michael Howard. Straw garnered particular attention for comments condemning "aggressive beggars, winos and squeegee merchants" and calling for a curfew on children.
[edit] Cabinet career
[edit] Home Secretary
Appointed as Home Secretary after the 1997 UK general election, he brought forward the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, increased police powers against terrorism and proposed a reduction in the right to trial by jury. These policies were deemed excessively authoritarian by his former students' union which in 2000 banned him from the building — a policy which lapsed in 2003. However, he also incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into British law, and pressed for action on institutionalised racism in the police revealed by the Stephen Lawrence case.
In March 2000, Jack Straw was responsible for allowing Augusto Pinochet to return to Chile, despite requests from several countries for Pinochet to be extradited and face trial for crimes against humanity.
[edit] Foreign Secretary
Image:Jack Straw and Rice.jpg Expected by commentators to be demoted to Transport Secretary after the 2001 UK general election, there was some surprise when he was instead appointed Foreign Secretary succeeding Robin Cook. Within months Straw was confronted by the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks. He was initially seen as taking a back seat to Tony Blair in the 'war against terrorism'. According to polls, Straw is - along with Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and John Prescott - one of the few British government ministers who is recognised by a majority of the British public. On November 26 2003, he made an unannounced visit to Iraq.
In the run up to the 2005 UK general election Straw faced a potential backlash from his Muslim constituents over the Iraq war — the Muslim Public Affairs Committee UK attempted to capitalise on anti-war sentiment with 'operation Muslim vote' in Blackburn but Straw was re-elected on just a slightly reduced majority despite its best efforts. Speaking moments after his re-election during the BBC's election night coverage, Jack Straw called MPAC an 'egregious group' and expressed disappointment at its campaign tactics, which he saw as overly aggressive. Straw enjoys a reputation for involved local campaigning in his constituency despite his cabinet post, often spending many hours in the run up to elections literally standing on a soapbox in a high street area taking questions from the crowd and responding to criticism with a microphone.
On October 13, 2005 Straw took questions from a panel of (mostly anti-war) individuals in a Newsnight TV special on the subject of Iraq, addressing widespread public concerns about the exit strategy for British troops, the insurgency in Iraq and inevitably the moral legitimacy of the war. On several occasions Straw reiterated his position that the decision to invade was in his opinion the right thing to do, but said he did not 'know' for certain that this was the case. He said he understood why public opinion on several matters might differ from his own — a Newsnight/ICM poll showed over 70% of respondents believed the war in Iraq to have increased the likelihood of terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom, but Straw said he could not agree based on the information presented to him. He stated he could not 'know' the answer to this question with certainty either.
In February 2006 Straw attracted publicity after he condemned the publication of cartoons picturing Mohammed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.[citation needed]
In August 2006, it was claimed by William Rees-Mogg in The Times that there was evidence that Straw was removed from this post upon request of the Bush administration, possibly due to his expressed opposition to bombing Iran.[2] It has also been alleged that another factor in his dismissal was the large number of Muslims amongst Straw's Blackburn constituents, supposedly considered a cause for concern by the US.[3]
[edit] Leader of the House of Commons
After the Labour Party suffered major defeats in local elections on 4 May 2006, losing 317 seats in balloting for 176 councils, Tony Blair acted the following day with a major reshuffle (promotions, demotions and sackings) of his ministers during which he moved Straw from Foreign Secretary to Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal. Straw had apparently requested a break from high ministerial office after serving in two of the four great departments of state for nearly ten years. Straw's close relationship with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was said to have 'infuriated' number 10, with particular reference to her visit to Straw's Blackburn constituency which caused significant organisational difficulties. It is believed that Straw's public opposition to potential military actions in Iran during his tenure as Foreign Secretary was one of the main reasons behind his demotion. To lessen the apparent demotion, Blair gave Straw responsibility for House of Lords reform and party funding, issues which had been part of the portfolio of the Department for Constitutional Affairs. In addition, Straw was given the chairmanship of the Constitutional Affairs cabinet committee.<ref>The Guardian. "Clarke sacked in major cabinet reshuffle", 2006-05-05. Retrieved on 2006-05-05.</ref>
Some commentators even speculated that Jack Straw had been "fired" by the Bush administration.<ref>Times Online. "How the US fired Jack Straw", 2006-08-07. Retrieved on 2006-08-14.</ref>
[edit] 2006 veil controversy
In October 2006 Straw attracted controversy by suggesting to a local newspaper (The Lancashire Evening Telegraph) that women wearing a full-veil (niqab) can inhibit inter-community relations, though he denied the issue was raised for political gain, stating that he had raised the issue in private circles in the past and the issue had never progressed beyond a discussionary stage. Although he did not support a law banning a womans right to choose to wear the veil, he would like them to abandon it all together. Asked whether he would prefer veils to be abolished completely, Mr Straw said: "Yes. It needs to be made clear I am not talking about being prescriptive but with all the caveats, yes, I would rather."<ref>In quotes: Jack Straw on the veil - BBC News. October 6, 2006</ref> He said that he had asked women visiting his constituency surgeries to consider uncovering their noses and mouths in order to allow better communication. He claimed that no women had ever chosen to wear a full-veil after this request<ref>http://www.blackburncitizen.co.uk/news/newsheadlines/display.var.954145.0.straw_in_plea_to_muslim_women_take_off_your_veils.php</ref><ref>http://www.gm.tv/index.cfm?articleid=22773</ref><ref>BBC News – Straw's veil comments spark anger</ref>.
Nazreen Nawaz, a spokeswoman for the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir said: "The Muslim community does not need lessons in dress from Jack Straw, any more than it needs lessons in parenting from John Reid." <ref>http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/06/news/london.php</ref>
The Stop the War Coalition and the political party Respect both denounced Jack Straw's declarations, accusing him of pandering to anti-muslim prejudices. [citation needed]</sup>
There is debate within the Muslim community whether the Quran and hadith based sharia principles allow the full face to be visible or only allows the eyes to be visible, while most Muslims respect some form of veil as it was worn by the female members of the Prophet's family.
Tony Blair and Salman Rushdie have stated that they support Straw,<ref>Blair, Rushdie support former British foreign secretary who ignited veil debate The San Diego Union-Tribune. October 10, 2006</ref> while Ken Livingstone and Steven Berkoff have come out on the side of the Muslim minority. <ref>The evening Standard - October 10. Quote by Ken Livingstone; "Bearing in mind this person has come to you to ask for something, the power imbalance in that relationship means it’s completely unacceptable behaviour on Jack Straw’s part. I’m amazed by his insensitivity. That a powerful man can say to a completely powerless woman, I think you should take your veil off, I think is completely and utterly wrong and insensitive.</ref><ref>Letter to the Independent by Steven Berkoff reads "Sir: Oh dear, what a huge palaver about the Muslim veil. For everyone, it touches some little flame of anxiety. For Jack Straw it concerns his ability to read the mind on the human face. Can the voice alone not carry infinite shades of meaning? Was poor blind Mr Blunkett that much less capable of reading the inner thoughts of others? For the articulate Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (9 October) it carries an unending proliferation of horrors from sexual repression and slavery to the inability to go swimming. If that is what they wish then let them be, since I have to admit that they are still far more elegant and dignified than some Western women whose sense of self-respect and dignity has long been eroded by their slavish following of the most absurd iniquities of fashion. When I see young women in the street with their buttocks hanging out and their thongs almost obscenely exposed, it hardly inspires admiration, more, I’m afraid, a feeling of revulsion. I have to admit that the veil does not do this. Archaic it may be but certainly not sluttish or repulsive. There are so many abominations of human dress in the West that we may have just become adjusted to our own slovenliness. I would certainly put the fashion police on our own tacky style but I suppose everything’s up for grabs now in our terror-ridden society."</ref> Livingstone later said "I guarantee now getting Muslim women to give up the veil, which I suspect is something most people would like to see in the long-term, including myself, is not going to be done by old white male politicians telling them to do it" adding "And that is why it's important we should engage with the progressive elements and leaders in the Muslim community, rather than what the US has been doing over the last 30 years, which is alliances with say the Saudi [Arabian] royal family and the most backward and reactionary elements" <ref>Daily Mail</ref>
[edit] Family issues
In 1998, Straw was said to be embarrassed by newspaper revelations that his teenage son was dealing cannabis; Will Straw had apparently sold 1.92 g of cannabis resin to an undercover reporter[4], and was cautioned by police after his father turned him in.
There was further embarrassment in 2000 when Jack Straw's brother — also named William — was fined for indecently assaulting a 16 year old girl. <ref>CNN: UK minister's brother fined for sex assault</ref>
In June 2006 Private Eye magazine revealed that Straw's wife, Alice Perkins, joined the board of the country's largest airports operator BAA in March of the same year, shortly before it was taken over by the Spanish firm Ferrovial.
[edit] Trivia
[edit] Partial bibliography
[edit] Author or co-author
- Implementation of the Human Rights Act 1998: Minutes of Evidence, Wednesday 14 March 2001 (2001) ISBN 0-10-442701-9
- Making Prisons Work: Prison Reform Trust Annual Lecture (1998) ISBN 0-946209-44-8
- Future of Policing and Criminal Justice (Institute of Police & Criminological Studies Occasional Paper S.) (1996) ISBN 1-86137-087-3
- Policy and Ideology (1993) ISBN 0-9521163-0-8
[edit] Reports
- Reform of the Race Relations Act 1976: Proposals for Change Submitted by the Commission for Racial Equality to the Rt Hon Jack Straw MP, Secretary of State for the Home Department, on 30th April 1998 (1998) ISBN 1-85442-210-3
[edit] Footnotes
<references />
[edit] External links
- Online exhibition of the May 1968 student protest in Leeds
- 10 Downing Street - Foreign Secretary Jack John Whitaker Straw
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Jack Straw MP
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Jack Straw MP
- Open Directory Project - Jack Straw directory category
- NNDB profile (Notable names database)
- BBC Newsnight: Jack Straw
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: Barbara Castle | Member of Parliament for Blackburn 1979–present | Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by: ? | Shadow Secretary of State for Environment 1992–1994 | Succeeded by: Frank Dobson |
| Preceded by: Tony Blair | Shadow Home Secretary 1994–1997 | Succeeded by: Brian Mawhinney |
| Preceded by: Michael Howard | Home Secretary 1997–2001 | Succeeded by: David Blunkett |
| Preceded by: Robin Cook | Foreign Secretary 2001–2006 | Succeeded by: Margaret Beckett |
| Preceded by: Geoff Hoon | Leader of the Commons 2006–present | Incumbent |
| Lord Privy Seal 2006–present | ||
da:Jack Straw de:Jack Straw es:Jack Straw fr:Jack Straw ja:ジャック・ストロー no:Jack Straw pl:Jack Straw pt:John Whitaker Straw fi:Jack Straw sv:Jack Straw
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