Nina Temple

Nina Claire Temple (born 21 April 1956^[1]) was the last Secretary^[2] of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and was formerly a think-tank director in the United Kingdom.

Early life

Born into a communist family (her father Landon Temple ran Progressive Tours and was a Communist Party of Great Britain member)^[2] she joined the Young Communist League when she was 13, later protesting in London against the Vietnam War.^[3] She has a degree in materials science from Imperial College, London.^[3][4] She is the sister of film director Julien Temple.

Communist Party of Great Britain

During the late 1970s she was general secretary of the Young Communist League and became a prominent member of the Eurocommunist grouping within the party. She became a member of the CPGB executive in 1979, and then a member of the Political Committee in January 1982.^[5]

She was the Press and Publicity Officer of the CPGB from January 1983 until 1989,^[6] when she became the last (General) Secretary of the party in January 1990, aged 33.^[3] She pledged to make the party "feminist and green, as well as democratically socialist."^[7] In this role Temple became one of the leading proponents of the dissolution of the CPGB in November 1991 and the founding of its legal successor, the Democratic Left.^[8][9]

Think tanks

The Democratic Left continued through the 1990s, becoming the New Politics Network in 1999. Temple was its first director^[8] and worked for five years for the Make Votes Count Coalition.^[10]

In June 2005 she started work as head of Development and Communications at the Social Market Foundation, a role she held until 2008.^[4]

Personal life

Temple has two children with a schoolteacher, a daughter born in 1987 and a son born in 1989.^[3]

Temple became ill with Parkinson's disease in 2000.^[4] She trained in counselling at the Gestalt Centre in Old Street, and in September 2003 founded Sing For Joy, a choir of people with chronic degenerative diseases.^[4][11][12]

References

1. ^ "Ms Nina Temple's Biography". Debretts. http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/t/14062/Nina%20Claire+TEMPLE.aspx. Retrieved 9 February 2010. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Temple dropped 'General' from her job description, see Francis Beckett Enemy Within: The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party, London: John Murray, 1995, p213
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Rule, Sheila (2 February 1990). "New Name and New Age (Is There a New Party?)". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/02/world/london-journal-new-name-and-new-age-is-there-a-new-party.html?pagewanted=1. Retrieved 9 February 2010. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Newman, Sara (10 July 2008). "Parkinson’s sufferers are in full voice!". Camden New Journal. 
5. ^ Bull, Martin J.; Paul Heywood (1994). West European Communist parties after the revolutions of 1989. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0312122683. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=83PAtao88PcC&pg=PA166. 
6. ^ Clark, William (29 December 1989). "Scottish Communist Party 'in good heart'". Glasgow Herald. http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=fRY1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=9KULAAAAIBAJ&pg=6762,2328713&dq=nina-temple&hl=en. Retrieved 9 February 2010. 
7. ^ "Communist Choice". Glasgow Herald. 15 January 1990. http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=dBM1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=zaULAAAAIBAJ&pg=6233,30847&dq=nina-temple&hl=en. Retrieved 9 February 2010. 
8. ^ ^{a b} Cohen, Nick (23 October 2000). "Up for grabs: £3.5m of Stalin's gold". New Statesman. http://www.newstatesman.com/200010230013. Retrieved 9 February 2010. 
9. ^ "British communists propose name change". Herald-Journal. 23 November 1991. http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=C7IeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8c4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6535,3072940&dq=nina-temple&hl=en. Retrieved 9 February 2010. 
10. ^ Tempest, Matthew (6 January 2003). "Voting change would be fitting legacy, say campaigners". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/jan/06/houseofcommons.uk. Retrieved 9 February 2010. 
11. ^ "Music a ‘mega-vitamin’ for the brain". CNN. 3 June 2009. http://www2.counton2.com/cbd/lifestyles/health_med_fitness/article/music_a_mega-vitamin_for_the_brain/29484/. Retrieved 9 February 2010. 
12. ^ Stretton, Penny (13 July 2007). "Singers discover the healing power of song". Ham & High. http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/content/camden/hamhigh/news/story.aspx?brand=NorthLondon24&category=Newshamhigh&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newshamhigh&itemid=WeED13%20Jul%202007%2011%3A23%3A40%3A343. Retrieved 9 February 2010. 

External links

• Photo of Nina Temple in March 1992

Party political offices
Preceded by Tom Bell	General Secretary of the Young Communist League 1979 - 1983	Succeeded by Douglas Chalmers
Preceded by Gordon McLennan	General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain January 1990 - November 1991	Succeeded by post abolished

Persondata
Name	Temple, Nina
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	21 April 1956
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death