Norman Tebbit

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Norman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit, CH, PC (born 29 March 1931) is a British Conservative politician and former MP for Chingford, who was born in Southgate in Enfield. His wife became permanently wheelchair-bound after the Provisional IRA bombing of the 1984 Conservative party conference in Brighton.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Born into a working class family, Tebbit went to Edmonton Grammar School, an academically selective state school in north London. He was then a journalist for the Financial Times before serving with the RAF, flying Meteor and Vampire jets during four years of National Service. On leaving the RAF he joined BOAC in 1953 as a pilot, during which time he was an official in the British Air Line Pilots Association. He was elected MP for Epping in 1970 and then for Chingford in 1974. He is recorded as an MP member of the Conservative Monday Club in 1970.[citation needed]

[edit] Member of Parliament

Tebbit was a close ally of Margaret Thatcher and served as her Secretary of State for Employment, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and President of the Board of Trade (October 1983 - September 1985), as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and as party chairman (1985 - 1987).

In 1975 six men (the 'Ferrybridge Six') were dismissed from their jobs because of the introduction of the closed shop and were denied unemployment benefit. The then Secretary of State for Employment Michael Foot said that anyone who "declines to fall in with new conditions of employment...may well be considered to have brought about his own dismissal". Tebbit then accused Foot of "pure undiluted fascism and [it] left Mr. Foot exposed as a bitter opponent of freedom and liberty". Foot once labelled Tebbit a "semi-house-trained polecat".[2]

After the Conservatives won the general election of 1979 Tebbit was appointed Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Trade.

In the September 1981 Cabinet reshuffle Mrs. Thatcher appointed Tebbit as Employment Secretary. This was seen as a shift to a 'tougher' approach to the trade unions than had been the case under Tebbit's predecessor, James Prior. Tebbit had previously likened Prior's conciliatory approach to the trade unions in a speech as 'the morality of Pétain and Laval'. Tebbit introduced the Employment Act 1982 which raised the level of compensation for those unfairly dismissed from a closed shop and introduced the requirement that where a closed shop operated it could only stay if 85% of workers voted for it in periodic ballots. It also removed trade union immunity from civil action for damages if it authorised illegal industrial action. In his memoirs Tebbit said that the 1982 Act was his "greatest achievement in Government".[1]

In the aftermath of urban riots (Handsworth riots and Brixton riot) in the summer of 1981, Tebbit responded to a suggestion that the rioting was caused by unemployment by saying:

I grew up in the 1930s with an unemployed father. He did not riot. He got on his bike and looked for work, and he went on looking until he found it.

This exchange was the origin of the attribution to Tebbit of the slogan On yer bike!. Tebbit is often misquoted as saying directly to the unemployed "get on your bike and look for work" as a consequence of his speech.

In the post-election October 1983 reshuffle Tebbit was moved from Employment to become Trade and Industry Secretary to replace Cecil Parkinson, who had resigned. Thatcher had actually wanted Tebbit to become Home Secretary but William Whitelaw vetoed this.[2] He was seriously injured in the IRAs bombing of the Grand Hotel, Brighton during the 1984 Conservative Party conference and his wife, Margaret, was permanently disabled.

Tebbit was appointed Chairman of the Conservative Party in 1985 along with being Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster as Thatcher wanted to keep him in the Cabinet. During the Westland affair Tebbit was against the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation taking over Westland Aircraft. In 1986 Tebbit was against the American bombing raid of Libya from British bases and of Mrs. Thatcher's refusal to fully consult the Cabinet on the matter. However he did criticise the BBC for its supposed biased reporting of the raid. During the same year he disbanded the Federation of Conservative Students because he thought it was being taken over by people who he thought were too libertarian and because they called for Harold MacMillan to be tried as a war criminal. At the 1986 Conservative Party Conference in Bournemouth Tebbit came up with that year's Party slogan—'Our Next Move Forward'. For quite a while he was seen as Thatcher's natural successor as Party leader.

On the 6th January 1987 the journalist Hugo Young published a quote attributed to Tebbit in The Guardian newspaper. Tebbit's Chief of Staff, Michael Dobbs, responded by writing a letter to the newspaper citing Young's dislike of Tebbit, adding "Perhaps this explains the invention of the quotation he [Mr. Young] attributed to Mr. Tebbit". The quote was "No-one with a conscience votes Conservative". Before this letter was published, however, the words "the invention of" had been removed. Despite publishing this letter The Guardian subsequently repeated the quote and Young again attributed it to him in a letter to The Spectator. Tebbit feared that if no action was taken against The Guardian the Labour Party would use this quote against the Conservatives in the upcoming general election. With Thatcher's consent Tebbit threatened the newspaper with legal action if they did not retract the quotation and apologise to Tebbit. The case continued until 1988 when the The Guardian apologised, published a retraction and paid £14,000 in libel damages in an out-of-court settlement.[3]

During the 1987 general election Tebbit, along with Saatchi and Saatchi, spearheaded the Conservative campaign, focusing on the economy and defence. During the election campaign however Tebbit and Thatcher argued. A few months after the general election Tebbit stood down as Party Chairman to spend more time with his disabled wife. In late 1987 and 1988 Tebbit formed a temporary alliance with Michael Heseltine in campaigning for the abolition of the Inner London Education Authority, which they succeeded in doing through a back-bench amendment.

In 1990 he proposed the "Cricket test", also known as the "Tebbit Test", where he suggested that people from ethnic minorities in Britain should not be considered truly British until they supported the England cricket team, as opposed to the country of their or their ancestors' birth. In August 2005, after the 7 July 2005 London bombings, which were carried out by three young men of Pakistani descent and one of Jamaican descent, Tebbit claimed vindication for these views.

After Geoffrey Howe's resignation from the government in November 1990 Mrs. Thatcher asked Tebbit to return to the Cabinet to be Education Secretary but he refused on the grounds that he was looking after his wife.[4] During the 1990 Conservative Party leadership election Tebbit was on Mrs. Thatcher's campaign team with the job of assessing her support amongst Conservative MPs.[5] During the campaign he held a press conference outside Heseltine's house in Belgravia. Tebbit wanted to stand, but never did. When Thatcher resigned Tebbit switched his support to John Major.

Tebbit had formally accepted an invitation to speak at a Conservative Monday Club dinner in June 1991 on 'the Future of Conservatism'. However he sent a message to the Charing Cross Hotel, just one hour prior to the dinner saying that the Government Whips were demanding he (and all other Conservative MPs in the House) stay and vote on the Dangerous Dog Bill. It was the only occasion in the Club's history where someone had failed to honour their engagement.

[edit] A Peerage and after

Tebbit decided not to stand in the 1992 election, in order to devote more time to caring for his disabled wife. After the election he was granted a life peerage and entered the House of Lords as Baron Tebbit, of Chingford in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. His former seat of Chingford was aggregated with Woodford Green in boundary changes and was held for the Conservative Party by his successor and protégé Iain Duncan Smith.

At the October 1992 Conservative Party Conference in Brighton, Tebbit embarrassed John Major's government when he made a speech attacking the Maastricht Treaty. As he walked up onto the podium he was applauded by some sections of the audience. Holding aloft a copy of the Treaty, Tebbit asked the conference a series of questions about the Treaty; did they want to see a single currency or be citizens of a European Union? The audience shouted back 'No!' after each question. Tebbit received a tumultuous standing ovation and walked into the centre of the Conference hall waving amongst the cheers. In his memoirs Major accused Tebbit of hypocrisy and disloyalty because Tebbit had encouraged Conservative MPs to vote for the Single European Act in 1986 but was now campaigning for Maastricht's rejection.[6]

In 1995 Tebbit publicly backed John Redwood's bid for the Conservative Party leadership, praising his "brains, courage and humour".

Speaking in the House of Lords on 26th November 1996, Lord Tebbit attacked aid to Africa, saying that most aid sent to Africa goes down a "sink of iniquity, corruption and violence" and does little to help the poor. A spokesman for the charity Oxfam said Tebbit's view was "simplistic and unhelpful". Later Lord Tebbit defended his statement that most money went "into the pockets" of politicians "to buy guns for warlords". ([7]).

In an article for The Spectator in May 2001 Tebbit claimed that retired British security service agents from the Foreign Office had infiltrated James Goldsmith's Referendum Party in the 1990s and then later infiltrated UKIP. Tebbit called for an independent enquiry into the matter [8][9][10].

In August 2002 Tebbit called on the then leader of the Conservatives, Iain Duncan-Smith, to 'clear out' Conservative Central Office of 'squabbling children' who were involved with infighting within the Party [11] He named Mark MacGregor, a former leader of the Federation of Conservative Students which Tebbit disbanded for 'loony Right libertarian politics', as one of them. Then in October the same year Tebbit accused a group of Conservative 'modernisers' called The Movement of trying to get him expelled from the Party. Tebbit said that The Movement consisted of a 'loose' grouping of thirteen members who had previously supported Kenneth Clarke and Michael Portillo for Party leader. Duncan-Smith subsequently denied that Tebbit would ever be expelled and Baroness Thatcher publicly said she was 'appalled' at attempts to have Tebbit expelled and telephoned him to say that she was 'four square behind him' [12].

In February 2003 Lord Tebbit, speaking to an audience of the Chartered Institute of Journalists at London's Reform Club in Pall Mall, urged journalists to reject political correctness in favour of "open, honest and vigorous debate". He blamed "timid" politicians, including members of this own party, for allowing PC language and ideas to take hold in Britain by default. (Press Gazette, London, 21st February 2003).

In 2004, he continued to provoke strong reactions with his outspoken opposition to the British Government's Gender Recognition Bill and Civil Partnership Bill.

Tebbit backed David Davis for Party leader during the 2005 Conservative leadership election [13].

Tebbit is the vice-president of the Conservative Way Forward group. He remains a Eurosceptic and his outspoken views on race and immigration throughout his career have brought him both support and opprobrium.

On 30 January 2006 he accused the Conservative Party of abandoning the party's true supporters on the Right, and opposed the new Leader David Cameron's attempts "to reposition the party on the 'Left of the middle ground'". (Daily Telegraph, 30 Jan 2006).

He currently lives in Mannings Heath, West Sussex.

[edit] Quotes

Said to Tom Litterick, a Labour MP, during a Commons debate in the late 70s (he died of another heart attack soon after this):

Go away and have another heart attack! [14]

On the BBC:

A typical piece of BBC anti-Tory propaganda.

(From an article published in a 1985 edition of the Monday Club magazine 'Right Ahead' which was heavily critical of the BBC and of what Tebbit regarded as the corporation's left-wing bias. Tebbit was referring to an episode of the popular BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who entitled Pyramids of Mars which he had recently seen - he perceived a "wasteland version of 1980" featured in the episode to be a symbolic, allegorical and propagandistic attack on the Thatcher government. Tebbit was apparently completely unaware that the episode in question was actually filmed in 1975, four years before Thatcher had even come to power.) [15]

(24 February 1990):

The word 'conservative' is used by the BBC as a portmanteau word of abuse for anyone whose views differ from the insufferable, smug, sanctimonious, naive, guilt-ridden, wet, pink orthodoxy of that sunset home of the third-rate minds of that third-rate decade, the nineteen-sixties.

On John Major (17 November 1994):

He has the mulishness of a weak man with stupidity. [Source: The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt: Volume 3, p. 437.]

About Tony Blair (1 May 2005):

I don't think he's a liar, just a fantasist. He says whatever he likes, and then he believes it. [16]

On Islam and the West (19 August 2005):

The Muslim religion is so unreformed since it was created that nowhere in the Muslim world has there been any real advance in science, or art or literature, or technology in the last 500 years...we've leapt ahead in all material terms, but the Muslim world would say we have fallen down in all spiritual and moral terms. We have to accept our share of the blame and they have to accept theirs. [17]

On changing the rules of the House of Lords on reporting debate (15 November 2005):

My Lords, would it not be a good idea if the Chairman of Committees and all Members resisted the mad idea of this House being dragged into this century? It is a very disagreeable century. Would it not be a better idea to drag us back perhaps into the 19th century, which in many ways was a very much better one for this country? [18]

On claims that he is a racist:

I haven't got a racist bone in my little finger.[19]

On Muslim women wearing the veil:

If they wish to cover their faces and isolate themselves from the rest of the community and so thoroughly reject our culture then I cannot imagine why they want to be here at all. Perhaps they should just push off back to their own countries.

[20]

[edit] Books

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Norman Tebbit, Upwardly Mobile (Futura, 1991), p. 233.
  2. ^ John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady (Jonathan Cape, 2003), pp. 205-206.
  3. ^ Tebbit, p. 328.
  4. ^ Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 835.
  5. ^ Ibid, p. 846.
  6. ^ John Major, The Autobiography (HarperCollins, 2000), p. 861.
  7. ^ Daily Telegraph, 27 Nov 1996
  8. ^ http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_200105/ai_n8953434
  9. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/vote2001/hi/english/newsid_1348000/1348222.stm
  10. ^ http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/386/mi6-ukip.html
  11. ^ [1] Telegraph.co.uk 18 August 2002
  12. ^ http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20021012/ai_n12657726
  13. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,59-1861876,00.html Timesonline
  14. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,444195,00.html
  15. ^ Eric Luskin, Doctor Who in the 80s (Virgin, 1996), p. 89.
  16. ^ http://politics.guardian.co.uk/backbench/comment/0,14158,1474838,00.html
  17. ^ http://www.epolitix.com/EN/Interviews/200508/88b20915-9848-4644-8f17-97ca62e4e341.htm
  18. ^ http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldhansrd/pdvn/lds05/text/51115-03.htm
  19. ^ Private Eye, No. 1169, October 2006
  20. ^ Private Eye, No. 1170, October 2006

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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Arthur Stanley Newens		 Member of Parliament for Epping
1970–February 1974		 Succeeded by
constituency abolished
Preceded by
new constituency		 Member of Parliament for Chingford
February 1974–1992		 Succeeded by
Iain Duncan Smith
Political offices
Preceded by
James Prior		 Secretary of State for Employment
1981–1983		 Succeeded by
Tom King
Preceded by
Cecil Parkinson		 Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
1983–1985		 Succeeded by
Leon Brittan
Preceded by
John Gummer		 Chairman of the Conservative Party
1985–1987		 Succeeded by
Peter Brooke
Preceded by
The Earl of Gowrie		 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1985–1987		 Succeeded by
Kenneth Clarke
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