David Ian Marquand

FLSW The Learned Society of Wales () is a national academy, learned society and Charitable organization, charity that exists to "celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines", and to serve the W ...

(20 September 1934 – 23 April 2024) was a British academic and Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP).

Background and political career

Marquand was born in

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

on 20 September 1934. His father was

Hilary Marquand Hilary Adair Marquand, (24 December 1901 – 6 November 1972) was a British economist and Labour Party politician. Life and career He was born in Cardiff, the son of Alfred Marquand of Saint Peter Port, Guernsey, a clerk in a coal exporting ...

, also an academic and former Labour MP. His younger brother, the late

Richard Marquand Richard Alfred Marquand (22 September 1937 – 4 September 1987) was a Welsh film and television director active in both US and UK film productions, best known for directing the 1983 space opera '' Return of the Jedi'', the final film in the or ...

, and his nephew,

James Marquand James Elwyn Marquand (born 21 September 1964) is a British film editor and director. He was born in Hammersmith, west London, the son of Welsh director Richard Marquand ('' Jagged Edge'', ''Return of the Jedi''), and his first wife Josephine Elwy ...

, became film directors. Marquand was educated at

Emanuel School Emanuel School is a private, co-educational day school in Battersea, south-west London. The school was founded in 1594 by Anne Sackville, Lady Dacre and Queen Elizabeth I and today occupies a 12-acre (4.9 ha) site close to Clapham Junction ...

in Battersea, London,

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

St Antony's College, Oxford St Antony's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in international relations, economics, politic ...

, and at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. Marquand first stood for Parliament at the Welsh seat of

Barry Barry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name * Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 195 ...

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

, but lost to the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

incumbent

Raymond Gower Sir Herbert Raymond Gower, FInstD (15 August 1916 – 22 February 1989) was a British Conservative Party Member of Parliament for over 37 years, representing seats in Glamorgan from 1951 to his death in 1989. He was also a journalist and ...

. He was elected the MP for Ashfield in

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

and served in the House of Commons until 1977, when he resigned his seat to work as Chief Advisor (from 1977 to 1978) to his mentor

Roy Jenkins Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead (11 November 1920 – 5 January 2003) was a British politician and writer who served as the sixth President of the European Commission from 1977 to 1981. At various times a Member of Parliamen ...

, who had been appointed

President of the European Commission The president of the European Commission, also known as president of the College of Commissioners is the Head of government, head of the European Commission, the Executive (government), executive branch of the European Union (EU). The president ...

. During the 1970s split between " Croslandite" and "Jenkinsite"

social democrats Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, s ...

within the Labour Party, Marquand was part of the Jenkins group and joined the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

(SDP) when it was founded. Marquand sat on the party's national committee from 1981 until 1988 and was an unsuccessful candidate for the party in the High Peak constituency in the

1983 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1983. Africa * 1983 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1983 Equatorial Guinean legislative election * 1983 Kenyan general election * 1983 Malagasy parliamentary election * 1983 Malawian general elec ...

. When the SDP merged with the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

to form the Liberal Democrats, Marquand remained with the successor party until rejoining the Labour Party in 1995, following the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

Labour leader The ''Labour Leader'' was a British socialist newspaper published for almost one hundred years. It was later renamed ''New Leader'' and ''Socialist Leader'', before finally taking the name ''Labour Leader'' again. 19th century The origins of th ...

. In October 2016, it was reported that Marquand had left Labour once more, and had joined

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; , ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, and often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left, Welsh nationalist list of political parties in Wales, political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from th ...

, though he remained hopeful for anti-Conservative parties to work together in the aftermath of the vote for

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

. Marquand died on 23 April 2024, at the age of 89.

Academic career and writings

Marquand's academic career began as lecturer in Politics at the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

and included the occupancy of two chairs in Politics, first at

Salford Salford ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Greater Manchester, England, on the western bank of the River Irwell which forms its boundary with Manchester city centre. Landmarks include the former Salford Town Hall, town hall, ...

and then at

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

and finally as Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford. At the time of his death, Marquand was a visiting fellow in the Department of Politics at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

and Honorary Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield. Marquand's writings are broadly based upon issues surrounding British politics and social democracy. He is widely linked to the term "progressive politics" and the concept of a "progressive dilemma" in British politics, although while he continued to advocate the ideas behind the term, he later distanced himself from the shorthand term itself. Marquand wrote extensively on the future of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and the need for

constitutional reform A constitutional amendment (or constitutional alteration) is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly alt ...

in the United Kingdom. In the aftermath of Labour's defeat in the 1979 election, Marquand wrote "Inquest on a Movement: Labour's Defeat and Its Consequences" for the July 1979 issue of '' Encounter''. He argued that the influx of middle-class radicals into the Labour Party during the interwar years had transformed Labour from a

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

pressure group into the main progressive party. All of its leaders since

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * January 12 – Amelia Earhart ...

(when

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. At ...

took the helm) and many of its most prominent members had come from this class, crucially shaping the party's ethos. However, with Labour moving to the left in the 1970s, Marquand believed that the party was becoming intolerantly proletarian and attached to an old-fashioned

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

. This change in the party was symbolised by the 1976 election as party leader of

James Callaghan Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff ( ; 27 March 191226 March 2005) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the L ...

, the least intellectual of the six candidates. Marquand wrote that Labour had "outlived its usefulness" as a means to progressive social change and that middle-class radicals needed a new platform for their ideas. For this article Marquand was awarded (jointly with

E. P. Thompson Edward Palmer Thompson (3 February 1924 – 28 August 1993) was an English historian, writer, socialist and peace campaigner. He is best known for his historical work on the radical movements in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, in partic ...

) the

George Orwell Memorial Prize The George Orwell Memorial Prize was an annual prize awarded by Penguin Group, Penguin Publishing for articles or essays on current political, cultural or social issues.'Orwell prize for articles on world affairs', ''The Times'' (2 January 1976), p ...

for 1980. Marquand addressed Britain's relative economic decline in ''The Unprincipled Society'' (1988) and ''The New Reckoning'' (1997). He argued that this decline was caused by Britain's failure to become a

developmental state Developmental state, hard state, State-led developmentalism or in some cases Neo-developmental state, is a term used by international political economy scholars to refer to the phenomenon of state-led macroeconomic planning in East Asia in the la ...

like France, Germany and Japan. In those countries state intervention had encouraged industrial development and had facilitated the necessary adjustments to competition. Britain, however, was wedded to a rigid

economic liberalism Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalism ...

which prevented the state from undertaking the necessary measures to meet the country's developmental needs. In ''The New Reckoning'' Marquand wrote: "The economies that have succeeded more spectacularly have been those fostered by developmental states, where public power, acting in concert with private interest, has induced market forces to flow in the desired direction." Originally a tentative supporter of Tony Blair's

New Labour New Labour is the political philosophy that dominated the history of the British Labour Party from the mid-late 1990s to 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The term originated in a conference slogan first used by the ...

, he later became a trenchant critic, arguing that "New Labour has 'modernised' the social-democratic tradition out of all recognition", even while retaining the over-centralisation and disdain for the radical

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

of the old "Labourite" tradition. He was one of 20 signatories to the founding statement of the democratic left-wing group

Compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with No ...

. In August 2008, Marquand published an article in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' newspaper which was complimentary about Conservative Party leader

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

. Marquand called Cameron not a crypto-

Thatcherite Thatcherism is a form of British conservative ideology named after Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher that relates to not just her political platform and particular policies but also her personal character a ...

but a Whig and argued that Cameron "offers inclusion, social harmony and evolutionary adaptation to the cultural and socio-economic changes of his age." Marquand was among 30 people to sign a letter to ''The Guardian'', headlined "Lib Dems Are The Party of Progress," in support of the Liberal Democrats at 2010 general election but withdrew this support less than a month after the election. Marquand rejoined the Labour Party and came out in full support of the then leader

Ed Miliband Edward Samuel Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero since July 2024. He has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for D ...

. Marquand was elected a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

in 1998. He is recognised by the newly opened Marquand Reading Room at his old school,

in London. He was elected a Fellow of the

Learned Society of Wales The Learned Society of Wales () is a national academy, learned society and Charitable organization, charity that exists to "celebrate, recognise, preserve, protect and encourage excellence in all of the scholarly disciplines", and to serve the W ...

in 2013.

References

Bibliography

*''Ramsay MacDonald'', Jonathan Cape, 1977; reprinted Metro Books, London, 1997. *"Inquest on a Movement: Labour’s Defeat & Its Consequences," ''Encounter'', July 53, 1979 *''Parliament for Europe'', Jonathan Cape, 1979 *(w. David Butler), ''British politics and European elections'', Longmans, 1981 *(ed.) ''John Mackintosh on Parliament and Social Democracy'', Longmans, 1982 *''The Unprincipled Society'', Fontana Press, London, 1988 *(w. Colin Crouch (eds.)), ''The New Centralism: Britain Out of Step in Europe?'', Blackwell, Oxford, 1989 *(w. Colin Crouch (eds.)), The Politics of 1992: Beyond the Single European Market'', Blackwell, Oxford, 1990 *(w. Colin Crouch (eds.)), ''Towards Greater Europe? A Continent Without an Iron Curtain'', Blackwell, Oxford, 1992 *(w. Colin Crouch (eds.)), ''Ethics and Markets: Cooperation and Competition within Capitalist Economies'', Blackwell, Oxford, 1993 *(w. Colin Crouch (eds.)) ''Re-inventing Collective Action, from the global to the local'', Blackwell, 1995 *(w. Seldon A (eds.)), ''The Ideas that Shaped Post-War Britain'', Fontana Press, London, 1996 *'Community and the Left', in

Giles Radice Giles Heneage Radice, Baron Radice, (4 October 1936 – 25 August 2022) was a British Labour Party politician and author. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1973 to 2001, representing part of County Durham, and then as a life peer ...

(ed.), ''What Needs to Change: New Visions for Britain'', HarperCollins, London, 1996 *''The New Reckoning: Capitalism, States and Citizens'', Polity Press, Oxford, 1997 *
Must Labour win?
', Fabian Society, London, 1998 *"Premature Obsequies: Social Democracy Comes in From the Cold," ''The New Social Democracy'', Blackwell, Oxford, 1999 *''The Progressive Dilemma: From Lloyd George to Blair'', Phoenix Giant, London, 1999 *"Pluralism vs. Popularism," ''Prospect'', June 1999 *(w. Ronald Nettler), ''Religion and Democracy'', Blackwell, Oxford, 2000 *"Can Blair Kill off Britain’s Tory state at last?," ''New Statesman'', 14 May 2001 *''The Decline of the Public: The Hollowing Out of Citizenship'', Polity Press, Cambridge, 2004 *"The public domain is a gift of history. Now it is at risk," ''New Statesman'', 19 January 2004 *"A direct line to the Almighty," ''New Statesman'', 2 May 2005 *"A leader I’d have followed," ''New Statesman'', 15 August 2005 *"The betrayal of social democracy…," ''New Statesman'', 16 January 2006 * ''Britain Since 1918: The Strange Career Of British Democracy'', Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 2008 *"Mammon's kingdom: An essay on Britain, Now", Allen Lane, 2014

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Marquand, David 1934 births 2024 deaths Academics of the University of Salford Academics of the University of Sheffield Academics of the University of Sussex Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Alumni of St Antony's College, Oxford British republicans Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Learned Society of Wales Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Liberal Democrats (UK) politicians People educated at Emanuel School Politicians from Cardiff Principals of Mansfield College, Oxford Social Democratic Party (UK) parliamentary candidates UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts