David Owen
David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen, PC (born July 2, 1938), is a British politician. In 1981 he was one of the founders of the Social Democratic Party, and was its leader from 1983 to 1987, and of the reformed SDP between 1988 and 1990. He was also the youngest person to hold the post of Foreign Secretary (1977-1979) for over forty years. For much of his career he has been a controversial figure, inspiring great devotion among a few close followers, but alienation among many others for perceived arrogance.
Owen trained as a doctor at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge before becoming MP for Plymouth, Devonport in 1966. He became Foreign Secretary in the Labour government of James Callaghan in 1977, becoming a byword for youthful dynamism. He went on to become joint author of the Vance-Owen Peace Plan to settle the conflict in Bosnia in 1992, but its failure, and accusations of being an apologist for genocide led to his forced resignation in 1995.
He is now leader of the No Campaign which campaigns against British membership of the Euro, and a life peer (Baron Owen), who sits in the House of Lords as a crossbencher. Though he has remained an independent since the dissolution of the SDP, he endorsed John Major in the 1992 general election and indicated he would be willing to serve in Major's cabinet, but not to join the Conservative Party. Major did not entertain this suggestion.
On August 17, 2003, just after Idi Amin's death, Lord Owen told an interviewer for BBC Radio 4 that while he was Foreign Secretary he had suggested the assassination of Amin to his cabinet colleagues in order to end his terror regime. His proposal was seen as an outrageous suggestion and rejected. Owen said "Amin's regime was the worst of all. It's a shame that we allowed him to keep in power for so long."
