Many long standing members of the party will be very sad to hear of the death of Anthony (Lord) Jacobs last Saturday.
Anthony was a lifelong supporter of the party and served in many roles including Economics and Taxation Advisor from 1973 to 1978. He twice fought the Parliamentary Constituency of Watford increasing the Liberal share of the vote from 6% to 24%. In 1984, he was elected Joint Treasurer of the Party and was returned unopposed each year until he stepped down in 1987. He was a keen supporter of the merger of the Liberal Party and SDP and served as Chairman of the Party in England and Vice-President of the Federal Party. In 1988, he received a Knighthood and he became a life Peer in 1997.
He had a highly successful business career spanning thirty three years, during which time he was Chairman of three major companies. But his first love was always politics and he fought a long campaign to persuade politicians to adopt his highly innovative plan to make radical changes to the way in which taxation is raised in the UK.
Anthony was an incredibly generous and kind man and a true friend. He had an excellent brain and the rare ability to take complex subjects and describe them in simple language. He had a wonderful sense of humour and was fun to be around. His charitable giving was legendary and he made significant contributions in the fields of education and the arts. There are many individuals and charities whose lives and causes have been enhanced because of Anthony. He was quite simply a giant amongst men!
Anthony leaves behind his wife Evelyn, son Simon, daughter Nicola and his adored grandchildren.
* Dee Doocey and Monroe Palmer are Liberal Democrat members of the House of Lords
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6 Comments
Will obviously be sadly missed. I very much hope the Party can continue to attract the support and commitment of people of his calibre in the future as well.
Don’t forget that Lord Jacobs’ “long campaign” for tax reform was at least partly successful.
He was lobbying within the party for the £10,000 personal allowance back in 2005/6, because he believed it was a serious injustice to tax people working for the minimum wage. In 2009 that was finally adopted as LibDem policy, then became part of the Coalition agreement and finally came into force just in April this year.
It is probably the most obviously successful LibDem idea to come out of the Coalition, and it was Lord Jacobs who had the vision to propose it back when others dismissed it as an impossible pipe-dream. He was a great man and I am honoured to have known and worked with him.
Richard, it is good to learn the background to the personal allowance policy and a very typical story concerning Antony Jacobs. Successful people are very good at making or campaigning for what seem small changes but which when made have huge impacts. They are experts at getting more bangs for their bucks.
In the build up to the 1997 campaign the then Sir Anthony said, in effect, it’s the targic seats! And he took responsibility for that part of the campaign – and possibly funded a huge part of their externally funded activity.
I’d be interested to know now just how many seats and which ones he thought were viable ‘tagets’ in 2015 – I know that he wouldn’t waste a penny on any that didn’t need external assistance or a penny on any in which that assistance couldn’t make the difference.
Like others I can think of, his impact on the progress of our Party was never sufficiently appreciated.
During Anthony’s long membership of the Lords he was not a prominent member of the House, and in recent years sat on the Cross Benches for reasons I never quite understood but may have been connected with Israel/Palestine matters. His appearances in the House recently have indeed been few.
His main contribution in the Lords was probably on the Mull of Kintyre Chinook helicopter crash. He sat on a Lords committee of investigation and developed strong views that all was not right. The last speech I remember him making was on this question. A typically serendipitous House of Lords contribution.
I knew Anthony for a long time though never well, but he always treated me as an old friend in spite of our political differences over the years – as a member of the extended Liberal family going back decades.
I remember his conference speeches. Very passionate. The party owes him great gratitude. We benefitted from his business expertise, that is for sure. I extend my sincere sympathies to Lord Jacobs’ friends and family.
It is very fair to say that we would not have achieved so much in Watford if it wasn’t for his generosity over the years, especially in our impoverished days in the 1980’s. He never forgot us and always wanted to know how well we did each year.
For such a man, with so many other things to do in his busy and worthy life, it mean’t a lot to us. He seemed to have time for everyone he spoke to, made people feel their contribution was important and was a true thinking radical. He was a type of man who is now very rare in British politics.