Nina Claire Temple (born 21 April 1956) is a British politician who was the last SecretaryTemple dropped 'General' from her job description, see Francis Beckett ''Enemy Within: The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party'', London: John Murray, 1995, p213 of the Communist Party of Great Britain and was formerly a

think-tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental ...

director in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Early life

Temple was born in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, the daughter of Barbara J. (Rainnie) and Landon Roy Temple. Born into a communist family (her father ran Progressive Tours and was a Communist Party of Great Britain member), she joined the

Young Communist League The Young Communist League (YCL) is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX (name of country) originates from the precedent established by the Communist Youth International. Examples of Y ...

when she was 13, later protesting in London against the Vietnam War. She has a degree in materials science from

Imperial College, London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a c ...

. She is the sister of film director Julien Temple and the aunt of actress

Juno Temple Juno Temple (born 21 July 1989) is a British actress. She has appeared in the films ''Notes on a Scandal'' (2006), ''Atonement'' (2007), '' The Other Boleyn Girl'' (2008), ''The Three Musketeers'' (2011), ''The Dark Knight Rises'' (2012), '' Ma ...

Communist Party of Great Britain

During the late 1970s she was general secretary of the Young Communist League and became a prominent member of the

Eurocommunist Eurocommunism, also referred to as democratic communism or neocommunism, was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more rele ...

grouping within the party. She became a member of the CPGB executive in 1979, and then a member of the Political Committee in January 1982. She was the Press and Publicity Officer of the CPGB from January 1983 until 1989, when she became the last (General) Secretary of the party in January 1990, aged 33. She pledged to make the party "feminist and green, as well as democratically socialist." In this role Temple became one of the leading proponents of the dissolution of the CPGB in November 1991 and the founding of its legal successor, the Democratic Left.

Think tanks

The Democratic Left continued through the 1990s, becoming the New Politics Network in 1999. Temple was its first director and worked for five years for the Make Votes Count Coalition. In June 2005 she started work as head of Development and Communications at the

Social Market Foundation The Social Market Foundation (SMF) is an independent British political public policy think-tank based in Westminster, London. It is one of the 'Top 12 Think Tanks in Britain' and was named 'UK Think Tank of the Year' by Prospect in 2012. Its pur ...

, a role she held until 2008.

Personal life

Temple has two children with a schoolteacher, a daughter born in 1987 and a son born in 1988. Temple became ill with

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

in 2000. She trained in counselling at the Gestalt Centre in Old Street, and in September 2003 founded Sing For Joy, a choir of people with chronic degenerative diseases.

References

External links

Photo of Nina Temple in March 1992
{{DEFAULTSORT:Temple, Nina Communist Party of Great Britain members Young Communist League of Britain members 1956 births Living people People with Parkinson's disease Institute directors Leaders of political parties in the United Kingdom Socialist feminists Alumni of Imperial College London