Biography
The Rt. Hon. John Smith QC MP
The leader
John Smith was one of the outstanding British political personalities in the latter part of the 20th Century. He became leader of the Labour Party at a time when it was still struggling to recover from ideological divisions that had led it to suffer four consecutive electoral defeats and to remain in opposition for eighteen years. By bringing to his leadership a remarkable combination of political awareness, tactical judgement, clarity of thought, simplicity of language, and a winning personality, he won the trust of politicians and the public alike.
The loss
He achieved such success in the two short years of his leadership that it was widely expected that he would be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the event of there being a change of government after the next General Election. Tragically, he died suddenly in May 1994 at the very moment that the British public had come to realise that John Smith was a person in whom they could confidently place their future.
The achievement
John Smith was not in the ordinary mould of political leaders in the United Kingdom; but his rise to the top was a tribute to the democratic society in which he passionately believed. He came from a modest background, without patronage, and succeeded in breaking into politics by his intellect, his debating skills, his hard work and his capacity for achieving practical compromises that preserved the principles that underlie democracy. He created the unity that was necessary for a party that believed in and sought to advance social justice, but which had too often been diverted from its ends by internal disagreements about the means.
A living memorial
The Rt. Hon. Tony Blair M.P., who succeeded John and became Prime Minister in 1997, and many others in other political parties, and in public life generally, have repeatedly acknowledged that the John Smith Memorial Trust has come to represent the values that John believed in most and was expressing so clearly during his time in Parliament. The Trust, especially through the Fellowship Programme, has grown to be an outstanding living memorial to those values: openness, honesty, tolerance, respect for the dignity of others and an all-pervading passion for social justice.
In John's own words,
"[We] are living at a time of great change, a time of enormous challenge and opportunity. It is this generation that must shape the new post-Cold War world....We are the architects of the 21st century...and if we are to provide a blueprint for a better future, we must be ready to change and to think how things could be different. An instead of asking 'Why?', ask, 'Why not?' - 6 November 1992
"We ought to approach our politics with a sense of optimism for the future. There is so much of good that can be done if we seize the opportunities which a modern world makes available... The is so much we can do; there is so much we need to do." Reclaiming the Ground, 1993
Our aim
What the Trust seeks to do is to enable those who believe in democratic principles to find the practical means to introduce change into their own societies and to find their own routes to democracy and social justice.