The Richard Dimbleby Lecture — Season 1, Episode 8: Roy Jenkins - Home Thoughts from Abroad

Episode synopsis

The Rt Hon Roy Jenkins, President of the European Commission and formerly Home Secretary, and Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, gives the eighth in this annual series of lectures. 'As a forum of national debate, the House of Commons has declined. The great clashes of party principle and the conflicting convictions of major personalities have mostly given way to a sterile exchange of unconvincing slogans and mutual recrimination, to a background of unedifying noise. Roy Jenkins examines the present state of the British political system. He questions whether our traditional stability has now turned into rigidity, and asks how we could improve the form and content of our politics.

About The Richard Dimbleby Lecture

The Richard Dimbleby Lecture was founded in the memory of Richard Dimbleby, the BBC broadcaster. It has been delivered by an influential business or political figure almost every year since 1972.

More episodes from Season 1

• E11972: Lord Annan - What are Universities for, Anyway?
• E21973: Sir Robert Mark - Minority Verdict
• E3Lord Goodman - Housing - Who is to Blame?
• E41975: Sir Huw Wheldon - The British Experience in Television
• E51976: Lord Hailsham - Elective Dictatorship
• E6Jack Jones - The Human Face of Labour
• E71978: Lord Rothschild - Risk
• E91980: Lord Denning - Misuse of Power
• E101982: Garret FitzGerald - Irish Identities
• E111983: Sir Peter Parker - Missing Our Connections
• E121984: David Sheppard - The Other Britain
• E131985: Baroness Warnock - Teacher, Teach Thyself