Neil Kinnock may never have reached Britain's political pinnacle, but he'll be relieved to see his daughter-in-law make PM
A close family life has helped sustain Glenys and Neil Kinnock through the ups and downs of 40 years in public life. So any private wistfulness at this week's twist of fate will be overwhelmed by the relief that their daughter-in-law, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, is poised to become Denmark's new social democratic prime minister after a tough, closely fought election.
Her "red bloc" coalition of parties won a slim five-seat majority in Copenhagen's 179-seat parliament early on Friday, ousting the right-leaning coalition of Lars L�kke Rasmussen after 10 years in power. It was a rare victory for the centre-left and left in an EU where the 2007-09 banking crisis has strengthened the right's hold in power despite the evident market failure. Yet a touch of wistfulness would be justified.
As British Labour's glamorous young power couple in the 1980s, the Kinnocks have been close to wielding executive power for decades. Yet it has usually eluded them. Neil Kinnock was Labour leader for nine gruelling years, the leftwing but pragmatic reformer who painfully laid the foundation for Tony Blair's triple election win. But after losing a second general election in 1992 he resigned.
Two-year terms as a mid-ranking EU commissioner, working alongside his election nemesis, Tory Chris Patten, helped assuage defeat and showed he could run departments. Kinnock came home to chair the British Council, cultural arm of the Foreign Office and take a peerage ? where he later supported his wife, MEP turned Gordon Brown's last Europe minister, from the Lords backbenches. There could be no job offer for him. Fleet Street would be furious.
In a highly political family, daughter Rachel also worked for Brown at No 10 while her older brother Stephen ? born in 1970, a few months before his father, only child of a mining family from the closely knit Welsh valleys, became an MP ? carved out a post-Cambridge career with the British Council. The interconnectedness of their public lives ? and salaries ? enraged Tory tabloids who had long engaged in a running vendetta against the couple. It was reciprocated.
En route Stephen met Helle, another ambitious young European, three years his senior, who became an MEP in 1999, then party leader in 2005. They have two children.
As the Danish election campaign looked set to deliver her victory ? her party actually lost ground ? it got dirtier. She was accused of abusing his tax status as a director of the World Economic Fund in Switzerland. He was accused of spending enough time in Denmark to pay taxes there and of spending so much time apart that he must be gay.
Personal abuse and tax rows are a familiar menu to the Kinnocks, whose ambiguous tax policies contributed to Labour's defeat in 1992. Even Stephen Kinnock, by choice a low-key figure, attracted controversy when the Russian authorities targeted the British Council's St Petersburg office for closure during a 2008 espionage dispute with Whitehall. It became mixed up with a drink-driving row and the council's alleged non-payment of tax. He moved to Sierra Leone.
Now at last they have the prospect of a prime minister in the family, though Thorning-Schmidt has first to form her coalition, then to keep her troublesome left wing in order. The parents-in-law may be able to advise her about that too, though Danish voters are unlikely to hear about it. Loyalty to party as well as to family is another strong trait.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/16/neil-kinnock-danish-victory-pm
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