|
Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff (27 March 1912 – 26 March 2005), often known as Jim Callaghan, was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980. Callaghan is to date the only politician in history to have served in all four of the "Great Offices of State", having been Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1964 to 1967, Home Secretary from 1967 to 1970, and Foreign Secretary from 1974, until his appointment as Prime Minister in 1976. Callaghan's period as Chancellor of the Exchequer coincided with a turbulent period for the British economy, during which he had to wrestle with a balance of payments deficit and speculative attacks on the pound sterling (its exchange rate to other currencies was almost fixed by the Bretton Woods system). On 18 November 1967, the Government was forced to devalue the pound sterling〔(Monatsbericht 12/1967, p. 104 ) der Bundesbank.〕 despite having previously denied that this would be necessary. Callaghan offered to resign over the matter, but instead swapped ministerial positions with Roy Jenkins to become Home Secretary. In that capacity, Callaghan took the decision to use the British Army to support the police in Northern Ireland, after a request from the Northern Ireland Government. After Labour lost the 1970 election, Callaghan played a key role in the Shadow Cabinet before returning to office as Foreign Secretary in 1974, taking responsibility for renegotiating the terms of Britain's membership of the European Economic Community, and supporting a "Yes" vote in the 1975 referendum for the UK to remain in the EEC. When Harold Wilson suddenly resigned as Prime Minister in 1976, Callaghan defeated five other candidates to be elected as his replacement. Labour had already lost its small majority in the House of Commons by the time he became Prime Minister, and further by-elections and defections forced Callaghan to deal with minor parties such as the Liberal Party, particularly in the "Lib-Lab pact" from 1977 to 1978. Industrial disputes and widespread strikes in the 1978 "Winter of Discontent" made Callaghan's government unpopular, and the defeat of the referendum on devolution for Scotland led to the successful passage of a motion of no confidence on 28 March 1979. This was followed by a defeat in the ensuing general election. Callaghan remained Leader of the Labour Party until November 1980, to reform the process by which the Party elected its leader, before returning to the backbenches where he remained until retiring as an MP in 1987. That year he was made a life peer as Baron Callaghan of Cardiff. He died in 2005, one day before his 93rd birthday. == Early life and career, 1912–44 == James Callaghan was born at 38 Funtington Road, Copnor, Portsmouth, England on 27 March 1912. He was named after his father, also James Callaghan (1877–1921), who was a Royal Navy Chief Petty Officer.〔Page 1, Callaghan: British Prime-Ministers of the 20th century, Harry Conroy, Haus Publishing 2006〕 His mother was Charlotte Callaghan (née Cundy; 1879–1961). His paternal grandmother was Jewish.〔Kenneth O. Morgan, Callaghan: A Life, 1997, p.5 "His father's mother was Elizabeth Bernstein, from Sheffield; he was, therefore, a quarter Jewish as well."〕 He had an older sister, Dorothy Gertrude Callaghan (1904–82). He attended Portsmouth Northern Secondary School (now Mayfield School). He gained the Senior Oxford Certificate in 1929, but could not afford entrance to university and instead sat the civil service Entrance Exam. At the age of 17, Callaghan left to work as a clerk for the Inland Revenue. While working as a tax inspector, Callaghan was instrumental in establishing the Association of Officers of Taxes as a trade union for those in his profession and became a member of its national executive. While at the Inland Revenue offices in Kent, in 1931, he joined the Maidstone branch of the Labour Party. In 1934, he was transferred to Inland Revenue offices in London. Following a merger of unions in 1936, Callaghan was appointed a full-time union official and to the post of Assistant Secretary of the Inland Revenue Staff Federation and resigned from his Civil Service duties. His union position at the Inland Revenue Federation brought Callaghan into contact with Harold Laski, the Chairman of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee and an academic at the London School of Economics. Laski encouraged him to stand for Parliament, although later on he requested Callaghan several times to study and lecture at the LSE. Callaghan joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve as an Ordinary Seaman in World War II from 1942 where he served in the East Indies Fleet and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in April 1944. While training for his promotion, his medical examination revealed that he was suffering from tuberculosis so he was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar in Gosport near Portsmouth. After he recovered, he was discharged and assigned to duties with the Admiralty in Whitehall. He was assigned to the Japanese section and wrote a service manual for the Royal Navy ''The Enemy Japan''. Callaghan would become (as of 2015) the last British Prime Minister to be an armed forces veteran. Whilst on leave, Callaghan was selected as a Parliamentary candidate for Cardiff South. He narrowly won the local party ballot with twelve votes against the next highest candidate George Thomas with eleven. He was encouraged to put his name forward for the Cardiff South seat by his friend Dai Kneath, a member of the IRSF National executive from Swansea, who was in turn an associate and friend of the local Labour Party secretary Bill Headon.〔Page 11, Callaghan: British Prime-Ministers of the 20th century, Harry Conroy, Haus Publishing 2006〕 During 1945 he was assigned to the East Indies Fleet and served on in the Indian Ocean. After VE Day, along with other prospective candidates he returned to the United Kingdom to stand in the general election. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「James Callaghan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|