Paddy Ashdown

Paddy Ashdown (1941- ), British politician, leader of the Liberal Democrats (1988-1999) and High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2002-2006). He was born Jeremy John Durham Ashdown in New Delhi, where his father was an officer in the Indian Army, and he was raised in Northern Ireland. He was a Royal Marine officer from 1959 to 1971, serving in East Asia (where he learnt to speak Mandarin Chinese) and in Northern Ireland.

Ashdown was a Labour Party supporter until the struggle over the 1969 Labour White Paper “In Place of Strife” persuaded him that the party was a hostage to the trade unions. He joined the Liberal Party in 1976, abandoning a fledgling diplomatic career to enter politics, and captured a traditional Conservative Party seat at Yeovil for the Alliance (Liberals and Social Democrats) in the general election of 1983. Five years later, in the wake of the Alliance’s election losses, Ashdown took over from David Steel as the first elected leader of the Liberal Democrats, with over 70 per cent of the vote. Created a privy counsellor in December 1988, he supported the Gulf War in 1990-1991, urged a referendum on the Treaty of Maastricht, and presided over a string of by-election victories for his party. In December 1991, Ashdown achieved the highest opinion poll popularity ratings of any party leader, but in the April 1992 general election the Liberal Democrat vote slumped to 18 per cent, with 20 seats in the House of Commons. (This was 5 per cent less than the Alliance vote of 1987, and came about largely because John Major, the Conservative Party leader, convinced voters that a LibDem choice would let the Labour Party in.) Ashdown subsequently focused strongly on the issues of the Treaty of Maastricht (the 19 votes of his party swung the Commons vote on the Maastricht paving debate in favour of ratification) and on the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian War (in which he strongly favoured coordinated European Union and United Nations military action against the Serbs).

In the 1997 general election campaign Ashdown stressed his party’s positive agenda, calling for constitutional change and higher spending on education and health through tax increases, in contrast to the combative campaign styles of John Major and Tony Blair. His strategy was rewarded at the May 1, 1997, general election with the Liberal Democrats’ greatest success since their party’s formation in 1988, more than doubling their representation in the House of Commons. However, Prime Minister Blair did not offer any Cabinet seats to Liberal Democrats, as had previously been mooted. Nonetheless, common ground on constitutional reform was established, including Liberal Democrat participation in discussions about reform of the electoral system along the lines of proportional representation. However, in January 1999 Ashdown announced his intention to step down as his party's leader after the European elections in June, and as an MP at the next election. He cited his age (58 at the time) as the principal factor, and stated his wish to give his successor time to ready the Liberal Democrats for the next general election. He was duly succeeded as leader of the Liberal Democrats by Charles Kennedy, MP for Ross, Skye, and Inverness West since 1983.

In May 2002 Ashdown became the high representative of the Peace Implementation Council (established by signatories of the Dayton Peace Accord) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, an appointment that empowered him to ensure that the terms of the peace agreement were put into effect. In March 2003, in a co-ordinated effort between Ashdown, the United States government, and NATO forces, pressure was intensified on Bosnian Serb authorities to hand over leaders accused of war crimes during the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian war, most notably Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić. At the same time Ashdown used his powers as commissioner to freeze the assets of suspected supporters of Karadžić and to remove the pro-Karadžić mayor of Pale, in the Bosnian-Serb statelet. The following year he dismissed 59 officials in the statelet, accusing them of protecting suspected war criminals. Despite these efforts, at the end of Ashdown’s tenure in January 2006 both Karadžić and Mladić remained at large. Ashdown was succeeded as high representative by the German politician Christian Schwarz-Schilling. In January 2008 Ashdown was lined up to take on the job of co-ordinating the work of international agencies in Afghanistan. However, the appointment was ultimately vetoed by the country’s president, Hamid Karzai, apparently because Ashdown would have had too much power.

Ashdown was knighted in 2000 in recognition of his political and public service. He was elevated to the House of Lords (as Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon) in the dissolution honours of June 2001. At the 2006 New Year’s Honours, Ashdown was awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in recognition of his service as high representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His autobiography, A Fortunate Life, was published in April 2009.