Patten, Chris 1944-

PERSONAL:

Born May 12, 1944, in Blackpool, England; son of Francis Joseph (a music publisher) and Joan Patten; married Mary Lavender St. Leger (a lawyer), September 11, 1971; children: Kate, Laura, Alice. Education: Balliol College, Oxford, B.A., 1965. Politics: Conservative. Hobbies and other interests: Tennis, reading, browsing in bookshops.

CAREER:

Politician and civil servant. Campaign staffer for New York City mayoral candidate John V. Lindsay; Conservative Research Department, London, England, member, beginning 1966, director, 1974-80; British Cabinet Office, London, junior official, then official in the Home Office, 1970-72; personal assistant and political secretary to Lord Carrington, 1972-74; elected to House of Commons representing Bath, England, 1980-92; appointed governor of Hong Kong, 1992-97.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Coolidge Travelling Scholarship, 1965.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

The Tory Case, Longman (New York, NY), 1983.

Great Britain and the World: Three Talks at Berkeley, IGS Press (Berkeley, CA), 1990.

East and West: China, Power, and the Future of Asia, Times Books (New York, NY), 1998.

A New Beginning: Policing in Northern Ireland; The Report of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland, H.M.S.O. (Norwich, England), 1999.

Conflict Prevention and Peace-building, Centre for Security Analysis (Chennai, India), 2003.

Not Quite the Diplomat: Home Truths about World Affairs, Allen Lane (London, England), 2005, published as Cousins and Strangers: America, Britain, and Europe in a New Century, Times Books (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Chris Patten is an outspoken English politician who achieved international notoriety in 1992 when he was named governor of British Hong Kong. A moderate conservative in British politics, Patten had come into his own as a political operative in 1979. That year, he penned the Tory manifesto that helped sweep Labour officials from Parliament and conservative Tory Margaret Thatcher into the prime minister's office.

Despite his outsider status within his own Tory Party, Patten has held numerous posts during the course of his career. An early agitator of Thatcher, Patten was nevertheless respected enough by the former prime minister to win her confidence. Thatcher turned to Patten for empathetic lines in her speeches, and during her administration she appointed Patten as secretary of state for the environment in 1989. In that capacity, Patten worked to set limits on carbon dioxide emissions at an international conference in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, in 1989. In 1992, acting as campaign manager, Patten helped usher John Major into the position of prime minister, while at the same time being ousted from his House of Commons seat, where he had represented Bath for over a decade. Major then gave Patten three options for his next position, one of which was the governorship of Hong Kong. Patten took the governor's seat. With Hong Kong set for independence in 1997, Patten knew at the time that he would be serving as Hong Kong's last British overseer.

Patten is a renegade within the Tory Party, and his views reflect that role. His first book, The Tory Case, is an argument for a pragmatic, sensitive version of political conservatism wherein he calls for government to take an active role in managing the affairs of industry, supporting welfare programs, reworking representation to correlate to population proportions, and putting an end to partisan bickering between conservative Tories and the liberal Labour Party. Biddy Passmore of The Times Educational Supplement called The Tory Case "literate" and "leisurely," while an Economist contributor hailed the book as one of "enduring value," constituting "a cogent restatement of the traditional … ‘one nation’ Conservative philosophy." Patrick Cosgrave of Books and Bookmen asserted that the book is "written with entirely characteristic grace, lucidity and erudition."

East and West: China, Power, and the Future of Asia is partly Patten's account of his five years as Hong Kong's governor and partly a thorough look at Asia's development. During Patten's tenure as governor, he attempted to institute democratic reforms and, although he retained great respect for Hong Kong and its traditions, he refused to bow to conventions that he considered unnecessary. In East and West he debunks the myth that all Asian countries are alike and decries so-called "Asian values" such as cronyism, nepotism, and corruption. "Asian values," Patten writes, are nothing more than "a shorthand justification of authoritarianism, bossiness and closed collusion rather than open accountability." Patten saves his harshest criticism for China's leaders, who he maintains receive soft treatment from western politicians and businesspersons. Britain's Labour Party is also taken to task by Patten, especially for its refusal to sponsor a Geneva resolution on human rights in China. East and West, according to Colina MacDougall of the Times Literary Supplement, "presents a lively narrative and lively ideas."

In Not Quite the Diplomat: Home Truths about World Affairs, published as Cousins and Strangers: America, Britain, and Europe in a New Century in the United States, Patten offers his views on relations between the United States, Britain, and Europe after the Cold War. In the book, Patten argues for continuing cooperation between the three countries. The book is "a cocktail of autobiography, political analysis of the state of the world, and policy prescriptions, peppered with priceless anecdotes and incisive portraits," Stanley Hoffman wrote in his review of the book for Foreign Affairs. The Guardian's Martin Jacques felt that of the book's focal points, the United States, Europe, Britain, and the Conservative Party, "Patten speaks with real authority and intimate knowledge." Jacques added that in the book, "the recurring theme is the shift in American foreign policy under George [W.] Bush and what it means for Europe and the world. Patten, as a longstanding Conservative and supporter of the Atlantic alliance, is deeply troubled by the sounds and signals now emanating from Washington. At the outset he paints a revealing picture of the history of his own relationship with the United States." "Patten's sketches of statesmen at work are gems…. Yet his recollections about world leaders, while often revealing, take second place to his critique of U.S. foreign policy," observed America contributor John Coughlan. "Overall, Patten comes across as surprisingly open-minded, a witty writer who is clearly a lover of both America and Europe and whose generally optimistic view of the future, including the new economies of China and India, is an interesting read," praised Helen Hancox in her review of the book for Curled up with a Good Book.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America, August 14, 2006, John Coughlan, "On the State of World Affairs," p. 32.

Booklist, January 1, 2006, Jay Freeman, review of Cousins and Strangers: America, Britain, and Europe in a New Century, p. 35.

Books and Bookmen, August, 1983, Patrick Cosgrave, review of The Tory Case, p. 11.

Business Traveller Asia Pacific, March, 2006, James Moore, review of Not Quite the Diplomat: Home Truths about World Affairs, p. 14.

Contemporary Review, autumn, 2006, review of The Tory Case, p. 374.

Economist, April 30, 1983, review of The Tory Case, p. 121.

Foreign Affairs, March/April, 2006, Stanley Hoffman, review of Cousins and Strangers.

Guardian, October 8, 2005, Martin Jacques, review of Not Quite the Diplomat.

International Journal, spring, 2007, review of Cousins and Strangers, p. 438.

National Catholic Reporter, May 26, 2006, John H. Carroll, "A Life Lived on the World Stage," p. 7.

New Statesman, October 3, 2005, "Common Cause: The Tory Party Needs to Rethink Its Ludicrous Stance on Europe, Writes Douglas Hurd," p. 50.

New York Times, February 12, 2006, Josef Joffe, review of Cousins and Strangers.

Observer (London, England), October 16, 2005, Ian Black, review of Not Quite the Diplomat, p. 14.

Political Science Quarterly, winter, 2006, Jolyon Howorth, review of Cousins and Strangers.

Reference & Research Book News, November, 2006, review of Cousins and Strangers, p. 708.

Spectator, October 15, 2005, Robert Salisbury, "A Farewell Despatch," p. 59.

Times Educational Supplement, April 22, 1983, Biddy Passmore, review of The Tory Case, p. 27.

Times Literary Supplement, September 25, 1998, Colina MacDougall, review of East and West: China, Power, and the Future of Asia, p. 28.

ONLINE

Curled up with a Good Book,http://www.curledup.com/ (April 6, 2008), Helen Hancox, review of Cousins and Strangers.