Norman Tebbit

The Right Honourable The Lord Tebbit CH PC
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 2 September 1985 – 13 June 1987
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	The Earl of Gowrie
Succeeded by	Kenneth Clarke
Chairman of the Conservative Party
In office 2 September 1985 – 13 June 1987
Leader	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	John Gummer
Succeeded by	Peter Brooke
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
In office 11 October 1983 – 2 September 1985
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Cecil Parkinson
Succeeded by	Leon Brittan
Secretary of State for Employment
In office 14 September 1981 – 16 October 1983
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	James Prior
Succeeded by	Tom King
Member of Parliament for Chingford
In office 28 February 1974 – 9 April 1992
Preceded by	Constituency Created
Succeeded by	Iain Duncan Smith
Member of Parliament for Epping
In office 18 June 1970 – 28 February 1974
Preceded by	Stan Newens
Succeeded by	Constituency Abolished
Personal details
Born	29 March 1931 (1931-03-29) (age 80) Ponders End, United Kingdom
Political party	Conservative

Norman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit, CH, PC (born 29 March 1931), is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet from 1981 to 1987 as Secretary of State for Employment (1981-83), Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1983-85), Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1985-87) and Chairman of the Conservative Party (1985-87). He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1992, representing the constituencies of Epping (1970-74) and Chingford (1974-92). In 1984, he was injured in the Provisional Irish Republican Army's bombing of the Conservative Party Conference in Brighton, and his wife Margaret was left permanently disabled.^[1]

Early life

Born into a working class family^[2] in Ponders End, Middlesex, Tebbit went to Edmonton County School, an academically selective state school in north London. He was then a journalist for the Financial Times before serving with the Royal Air Force. During four years of National Service he flew Meteor and Vampire jets and once had to break open the cockpit canopy of a burning Mosquito aircraft to escape from it.^[3] 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 Feb 1974. He is recorded as an MP member of the Conservative Monday Club in 1970.^[4]

Member of Parliament

In 1975, six men (the 'Ferrybridge Six') were dismissed from their jobs because of the introduction of a closed shop and were denied unemployment benefit. The Secretary of State for Employment Michael Foot commented: "A person who declines to fall in with new conditions of employment which result from a collective agreement may well be considered to have brought about his own dismissal". Tebbit accused Foot of "pure undiluted fascism and [it] left Mr. Foot exposed as a bitter opponent of freedom and liberty".^[5] The next day (2 December) The Times first leader —titled "IS MR. FOOT A FASCIST?"—quoted Tebbit and went on:

Mr. Foot's doctrine is intolerable because it is a violation of the liberty of the ordinary man in his job. Mr. Tebbit is therefore using fascism in a legitimate descriptive sense when he accuses Mr. Foot of it. We perhaps need to revive the phrase "social fascism" to describe the modern British development of the corporate state and its bureaucratic attack on personal liberty. The question is not therefore: "is Mr. Foot a fascist?" but "does Mr. Foot know he is a fascist?"^[6]

During the Grunwick dispute—where workers struck over pay, working conditions and the owner George Ward's refusal to recognise their trade union—there was a split in the Conservative Shadow Cabinet between the conciliatory approach of Jim Prior, the Shadow Employment Secretary, and Keith Joseph. Tebbit involved himself in that dispute by making a controversial speech on 12 September 1977, in which he said:

Inside Britain there is a...threat from the Marxist collectivist totalitarians...Just to state that fact is to be accused of 'union-bashing'...Such people are to be found in the Conservative, Liberal and Labour Parties. Their politics may be different but such people share the morality of Laval and Pétain...they are willing not only to tolerate evil, but to excuse it...Both Jim Prior and Keith Joseph know that George Ward and Grunwick are not perfect, nor was Czechoslovakia perfect in 1938. But if Ward and Grunwick are destroyed by the red fascists, then, as in 1938, we will have to ask, whose turn is it next? Yes, it is like 1938. We can all see the evil, but the doctrine of appeasement is still to be heard.^[7]

Tebbit was accused of comparing Prior to Laval and at that year's Conservative Party conference Tebbit attempted to avoid personalising the issue, and openly splitting the party, without retracting what he had said. Tebbit said of these differences: "I'm a hawk — but no kamikaze. And Jim's a dove — but he's not chicken".^[8]

During a debate in Parliament on 2 March 1978 Michael Foot labelled Tebbit a "semi-house-trained polecat" in response to a question from Tebbit asking if he accepted that the legislation being proposed that made it compulsory for people to join a Trade Union was an act of Fascism.^[9] Later in the debate Tebbit asked Foot whether he would "put a bridle on his foul-mouthed tongue".^[10]

The 1979 government

After the Conservative Party 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 introduced the Employment Act 1982 which raised the level of compensation for those unfairly dismissed from a closed shop and prohibited closed shops unless 80% of relevant workers approved the arrangement in periodic ballots. It also made trade unions liable for civil damages if they incited illegal industrial action. In his memoirs Tebbit said that the 1982 Act was his "greatest achievement in Government".^[11]

In the aftermath of the 1981 (1981 Handsworth riots and the Brixton riot), Tebbit responded to a suggestion by a Young Conservative (Iain Picton) that rioting was the natural reaction to unemployment:

I grew up in the '30s with an unemployed father. He didn't riot. He got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking 'til 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, although this interpretation is arguably what he was implying. He was always portrayed as a sinister, leather-clad bovverboy by the satirical TV puppet show, Spitting Image. The Professor of English at University College London, John Mullan, has written: "In Spitting Image and probably the middle-class imagination, Norman Tebbit was given an Essex drag on his vowels which he hardly possessed. He should speak in that way because of what he represented".^[12] The former Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan once remarked of Tebbit: "Heard a chap on the radio this morning talking with a cockney accent. They tell me he is one of Her Majesty's ministers".^[13][14] Dr Peter Dorey of the Cardiff University wrote: "...it was Norman Tebbit...who was perhaps the public face or voice of Essex Man, and articulated his views and prejudices".^[15]

The 1983 government

The Nuffield study of the 1983 general election found that Tebbit was the second most prominent Conservative on radio and television news broadcasts during the campaign with 81 appearances (after Thatcher's 331 appearances).^[16]

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.^[17]

Tebbit was injured in the IRA's bombing of the Grand Hotel, Brighton during the 1984 Conservative Party conference (he still has a slight limp, but was largely protected by a mattress falling on him).^[18] His wife, Margaret, was permanently disabled.

In 1985, Tebbit was appointed Chairman of the Conservative Party and 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 opposed the American bombing raid on Libya from British bases and objected to Thatcher's refusal to consult the Cabinet fully on the matter. However, he did criticise the BBC for its supposedly biased reporting of the raid.

During the same year, he disbanded the Federation of Conservative Students for publishing an article, penned by Harry Phibbs, following Nikolai Tolstoy's accusation that former Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was complicit in the forced repatriation of Serbian Cossack prisoners of war in the aftermath of the Second World War.^[19]

On 13 April 1986, Tebbit and his chief of staff Michael Dobbs visited Thatcher at Chequers to present her with the results of polling by Saatchi and Saatchi which found that with inflation down and the trade unions weakened, "the Prime Minister's combative virtues were being received as vices: her determination was perceived as stubbornness, her single-mindedness as inflexibility, and her strong will as an inability to listen".^[20] Tebbit and Dobbs told her this was becoming known as the "TBW factor": TBW standing for "That Bloody Woman". They recommended Thatcher take a lower profile in the upcoming general election. Tebbit gave an interview a few weeks later to John Mortimer for The Spectator where he said of Thatcher: "It's a question of her leadership when our aims aren't clearly defined. When people understand what she's doing there's a good deal of admiration for her energy and resolution and persistence, even from those people who don't agree with her. Now there's a perception that we don't know where we're going so those same qualities don't seem so attractive".^[21] Thatcher disagreed and her biographer claims she was suspicious of Tebbit's motives. Furthermore, Thatcher commissioned the firm Young and Rubicam to carry out their own polling, which concluded that Thatcher's leadership was not the problem. Throughout the rest of 1986 and into the 1987 election Thatcher continued to use Young and Rubicam, which eventually caused tensions with Tebbit during the election campaign.^[21]

For quite a while Tebbit was seen as Thatcher's natural successor as Party leader. During early 1986, when Thatcher's popularity declined in the polls, commentators began to suggest that the succession of the Conservative leadership would lie between Michael Heseltine and Tebbit.^[22]

At the 1986 Conservative Party Conference in Bournemouth Tebbit—along with Saatchi and Saatchi, Dobbs and the Conservatives' Director of Research, Robin Harris—came up with the next party slogan—'The Next Move Forward'. The Conservatives for the first time employed pre-conference advertising to publicise the new-style conference. Tebbit persuaded Thatcher that ministers would state their objectives that they would achieve in the next three years; Saatchi & Saatchi would use these to design posters, leaflets, and brochures to be deployed as each minister finished their speech. The aim "was that in 1986 the media should reflect the image I wanted – of a Government confident, united, clear in where it was going – and determined to get there".^[23] According to Tebbit the conference "was more successful than I had dared to hope...the opinion polls which had us 7% behind in June and still 5% down in September now put us back into first place – a position we never relinquished from then right through the election campaign. The Prime Minister's ratings were immediately restored".^[24]

A MORI opinion poll in March 1987 saw Tebbit as second-favourite amongst voters as Thatcher's successor (Heseltine: 24% vs Tebbit: 15%); however, amongst Conservative voters, Tebbit was the front-runner with (Heseltine: 14% vs Tebbit: 21%).^[25] In October 1988 MORI asked the same question, with similar results (Heseltine: 22% vs Tebbit: 15%) and (Heseltine: 20% vs Tebbit: 26%) amongst Conservative voters.^[26] However Thatcher apparently once told Rupert Murdoch: "I couldn't get him elected as leader of the Tory party even if I wanted – nor would the country elect him if he was".^[27]

On the 6 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 Guardian apologised, published a retraction and paid £14,000 in libel damages in an out-of-court settlement.^[28]

During the 1987 general election, Tebbit and Saatchi & Saatchi spearheaded the Conservative campaign, focusing on the economy and defence. However, when on 'Wobbly Thursday' it was rumoured a Marplan opinion poll showed a 2% Conservative lead, the 'exiles' camp of David Young, Tim Bell and the Young and Rubicam firm advocated a more aggressively anti-Labour message. This was when, according to Young's memoirs, Young got Tebbit by the lapels and shook him, shouting: "Norman, listen to me, we're about to lose this fucking election".^[29][30] In his memoirs Tebbit defends the Conservative campaign: "We finished exactly as planned on the ground where Labour was weak and we were strong – defence, taxation, and the economy".^[31] During the election campaign however Tebbit and Thatcher argued.^[32] Tebbit had already informed Thatcher at the beginning of the campaign that he would leave the government after the election in order to care for his wife.^[33] Thatcher said to her friend Woodrow Wyatt on the Sunday after polling day: "He'll carry the scar of that Brighton bombing all his life. I didn't want him to go. Whenever he is away from her he can't even attend to business properly. He's always ringing up to find out if the nurses are looking after his wife all right".^[34] In her memoirs Thatcher said she "bitterly regretted" losing a like-minded person from the Cabinet.^[35]

Backbenches

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 achieving through a back-bench amendment.^[36]

Tebbit was also prominent in an unsuccessful Conservative back-bench rebellion against the Bill to give 50,000 households (around 250,000 people) from Hong Kong British citizenship.^[37][38]

Tebbit caused a great amount of controversy when in April 1988, in front of an audience of South African dignitaries, he accused critics of South African apartheid of cowardice and stinking hypocrisy. He stated that, although black critics attacked apartheid in South Africa, they did not speak out against violence among black tribes in South Africa. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was visiting London at the time and called on Mrs. Thatcher to repudiate the remarks; she in fact defended Tebbit.^[39]

In April 1990, he proposed the "Cricket test", also known as the "Tebbit Test", where he argued that whether people from ethnic minorities in Britain supported the England Cricket team (rather than the team from their country of ancestry) should be considered a barometer – but not the sole indicator – of whether they are truly British: "A large proportion of Britain's Asian population fail to pass the cricket test. Which side do they cheer for? It's an interesting test. Are you still harking back to where you came from or where you are?"^[40]

Tebbit told Woodrow Wyatt in 1991 that he did not think certain immigrant communities would assimilate "because some of them insist on sticking to their own culture, like the Muslims in Bradford and so forth, and they are extremely dangerous". Owing to this, he is now widely regarded by many as a bigoted racist, whether that is true or not.^[41] 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.^[42]

In a conversation with Woodrow Wyatt on 19 December 1988, Tebbit said he would not go back into politics unless Thatcher "was run over by the proverbial bus and he didn't like the look of the person he thought might get her job and destroy the work they've done".^[43] On another occasion (22 February 1990) Tebbit said to Wyatt he would stand for the Conservative leadership if Thatcher suddenly resigned but when Alec Douglas-Home suggested that Thatcher would not stand at the next election because she must be tired, Tebbit disagreed: "She has got amazing stamina".^[44]

After Geoffrey Howe's resignation from the government in November 1990 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.^[45] During the 1990 Conservative Party leadership election Tebbit was on Thatcher's campaign team with the job of assessing her support amongst Conservative MPs.^[46] According to one of Thatcher's biographers, Tebbit was "her most visible cheerleader...who characteristically took the fight to Heseltine by holding a cheeky press conference on his Belgravia doorstep".^[47] After the first ballot but before the results became known, Tebbit wanted Thatcher to make a clear commitment to fight the second ballot if her vote fell short of the amount needed to win out-right.^[48] When Tebbit saw Thatcher on 21 November he told her she was the candidate with the best chance of beating Heseltine.^[49] However Thatcher withdrew from the contest the next day. Tebbit wanted to stand, but never did. Tebbit then switched his support to John Major.^[50]

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 before 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^{[citation needed]}. In September 2007 he addressed the club in the House of Lords^{[citation needed]}.

After Major came back from Maastricht with an opt-out from the Social Chapter and the single currency, Tebbit was one of the few MPs to criticise the new powers the Community would acquire in the debate on 18 December 1991. He claimed the government had been on the defensive against "federalist follies" and that Maastricht had seen "a series of bridgeheads into our constitution, into the powers of this House, and into the lives of individuals and businesses".^[51]

After leaving the House of Commons

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 in 1997 with Woodford Green in boundary changes and was held for the Conservative Party by his successor and protégé Iain Duncan Smith. Tebbit famously said: "If you think I'm right-wing, you should meet this guy".^[52]

Tebbit resumed his fight against the Maastricht Treaty. On 11 August 1992 Wyatt noted in his diary: "[Thatcher] also seems to have formed a new alliance with Tebbit who stirs her up and talks a lot of nonsense".^[53] 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, described as "young, in t-shirts, aggressively self-confident – the lager louts of our party" in the diary of the Conservative Party chairman of the time.^[54] 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. Gyles Brandreth, a Conservative whip, wrote in his diary:

"The talk of the town is Norman Tebbit's vulgar grand-standing barn-storming performance on Europe. He savaged Maastricht, poured scorn on monetary union, patronised the PM...and brought the conference (or a good part of it) to its feet roaring for more. He stood there, arms aloft, acknowledging the ovation, Norman the conqueror".^[55]

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.^[56]

Tebbit privately said of Major on 17 November 1994: "He has the mulishness of a weak man with stupidity". When asked what would it take for him to support Major, Tebbit responded: "Have an entirely new department, the sole job of which would be to deal with the Brussels machinery in every aspect. I agree that we don't want to leave the EU, but we've got to manipulate it and block every single advance we don't like. No, no, no must be his weapon. Veto everything he disapproves of or that we disapprove of".^[57]

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

Speaking in the Lords on 26 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".^[58]

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph on 2 November 1998 Tebbit said homosexuals should be barred from being Home Secretary.^[59] A Conservative Party spokesman said Tebbit was "out of touch" and William Hague's official spokesman said Hague disagreed with Tebbit.^[60]

In October 1999 he spoke out against the plans to abolish the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Tebbit said he was against throwing the Constabulary's name and badge "into the modernisation trash can" and that the RUC had been "the thin green line standing between bloody anarchy and the rule of law". Tebbit also mocked Blair's pledge at the Labour conference to "set people free": "He has set them free. More than 250 terrorists, bombers and extortionists. Kneecappers, kidnappers, arsonists and killers have been set free. But their victims remain imprisoned. Some are imprisoned within broken bodies. Some imprisoned in grief for their loved ones. Some imprisoned by death in their graves".^[61]

In an interview for the New Statesman magazine in June 2000, Tebbit praised Hague's right-ward shift and revealed that he had "never been a [Michael] Portillo fan". He also mused on not standing for the Conservative leadership after Thatcher's resignation: "When I look at what happened to the party, I tell myself that perhaps I failed in a duty. I suppose I am one of those who have it on my conscience that I allowed Mr Blair to become prime minister". When asked if he regretted also allowing Major to become Prime Minister, Tebbit responded:

"I helped him. If I'd opposed him, he wouldn't have been on the radar screen. I'd have been opposing Michael Heseltine. I had to make the decision quickly. I didn't want to go back on my word to my wife that I'd retired from front-line politics. How would it all work? Was No 10 suitable for someone in a wheelchair? All these things go through one's mind. Then if Michael had won...he would have had to ask me to join his government, and I didn't want that. I asked myself: why am I risking all this? And I made my decision...I might have been an absolute disaster in the job. It's possible. So I am left there. You can't rewrite it. You can't rerun it."^[62]

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 United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). Tebbit called for an independent enquiry into the matter.^[63][64][65]

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.^[66] 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 Lady Thatcher publicly said she was "appalled" at attempts to have Tebbit expelled and telephoned him to say that she was "four square behind him".^[67]

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 his own party, for allowing PC language and ideas to take hold in Britain by default.^[68]

In 2004 he opposed the British Government's Gender Recognition Act 2004 and Civil Partnership Act 2004.

Tebbit backed David Davis for Party leader during the 2005 Conservative leadership election.^[69]

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'".^[70]

In March 2007 he became patron of the cross-party Better Off Out campaign which advocates British withdrawal from the EU.^[71] Tebbit issued a statement explaining his support:

"From being a supporter of British membership of the Common Market in 1970 I have come to believe that the United Kingdom would be Better Off Out of the developing European Republic of the 21st century. We British have a thousand year history of self-government. We have been free and democratic longer than any other nation. The European Union is too diverse, too bureaucratic, too corporatist and too centralist to be a functioning democracy. We are happy to trade with our European friends and the rest of the world – but we would prefer to govern ourselves."^[72]

In an interview with The Times in September 2007 Tebbit said the Conservatives lack somebody of the standing of Thatcher, and claimed that although it did not matter if Cameron's team were educated at Eton, "what a lot of people will suggest is that they don't know how the other half lives. David and his colleagues – the very clever young men they have in Central Office these days – are very intellectually clever, but they have no experience of the world whatsoever. He has spent much of his time in the Conservative Party and as a public relations guy. Well, it's not the experience of most people in the streets. That's the real attack and that's damaging to him, I think".^[73][74]

In February 2008, after a sympathetic magazine article written by shadow education secretary Michael Gove, Tebbit publicly criticised what he characterised as "the poisonous tree of Blairism", which he claimed had been "planted" in the Conservative Party front bench.^[75]

In May 2009, Norman Tebbit urged voters to snub the main three political parties in the upcoming EU Parliament election. Tebbit, who in March 2009 revealed that he would vote for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), said "Local elections, the great British public should just treat as normal", but suggested using the European election to send a message to the implicated parties. Tebbit pointed out that there were a series of smaller parties people could vote for in addition to UKIP, including the Green Party, but he urged against voting British National Party.^[76]

On 23 February 2010, the Daily Mail reported that Tebbit was alleged to have attacked a ceremonial Chinese dragon during a Chinese New Year parade. He is said to have been unaware it was Chinese New Year and to have "kicked the rear of a child who was dressed in the traditional costume of a dragon". An onlooker said: "This old man came running towards the dragon on the parade. He grabbed the drum and cymbal being played and then started violently kicking the dragon itself. Inside the costume was an adult at the front wearing a dragon mask and a child at the rear. He seemed upset about the noise". Tebbit later said: "I don't think my reaction was extreme at all. I placed my hand on the drum so I could diminish the noise and asked the drummer what was going on and got a rap on the knuckles for my pain. I was then barged by the dragon. I barged it back and might have done something like kick it. I wasn't sure how to deal with it. I've never been barged by a dragon before". A local Conservative town councillor, Mr Chung, visited Tebbit the day after the incident and received an apology. Chung said: "I said his actions were upsetting. He apologised. He only then understood what he had done".^[77]

In 2011, Tebbit criticised the Conservative-led coalition government's proposed reforms to the National Health Service, describing himself as "a staunch supporter of the principles of the NHS, whatever its difficulties and problems".^[78]

Tebbit is the vice-president of the Conservative Way Forward group. He currently lives in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

Personal life

Tebbit is an agnostic. He remarked tongue-in-cheek in a March 2011 interview about the existence of God, "I’m not sure. He ought to. Things would work better."^[79]

In the media

Tebbit was interviewed about the rise of Thatcherism for the 2006 BBC TV documentary series Tory! Tory! Tory!. In 2011, writing in his Telegraph blog, he uncharacteristically praised an article in The Guardian by Michael White. Tebbit cited White's article (an account of Pauline Pearce's visit to the 2011 Tory party conference) as being "a perfect illustration of my theory of the common ground of politics."^[80]

In the Young Ones episode "Oil," Rick is heard to say, "Watch out, Norman Tebbit!" as he urges flatmate Neil on to a house revolution against the oppressive reign of "El Presidente," fellow flatmate Mike.

Tebbit was also depicted as a violent skinhead biker, beating up fellow cabinet members and keeping order in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet, in the TV series Spitting Image.

Books

• Norman Tebbit, Britain's Future: A Conservative Vision (1985) ISBN 0-85070-743-9
• Norman Tebbit, Britain in the 1990s (1986) ISBN 0-86048-006-2
• Norman Tebbit, Values of Freedom (1986) ISBN 0-85070-748-X
• Norman Tebbit, New Consensus (1988) ISBN 1-871591-00-7
• Norman Tebbit, Upwardly Mobile (Futura, 1991) ISBN 0-297-79427-2
• Norman Tebbit, Unfinished Business (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1991) ISBN 0-297-81149-5
• Lindsay Jenkins Disappearing Britain: The EU and the Death of Local Government (Britain in Europe) (2005) ISBN 0-9657812-3-2. Foreword by Norman Tebbit.
• Norman Tebbit, The Game Cook (2009) ISBN 978-1906779115

Notes

1. ^ The Independent Tebbit interview with Deborah Ross 3/10/2009
2. ^ Kavanagh, Dennis (1998). A Dictionary of political biography. Oxford: Penguin. ISBN 0192800353. 
3. ^ Mortimer, John (1986). Character Parts. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-008959-4. 
4. ^ Copping, Robert, The Story of The Monday Club – The First Decade, London, April 1972: 21
5. ^ Norman Tebbit, Upwardly Mobile (Futura, 1991), p. 192.
6. ^ "Is Mr Foot a Fascist?". The Times (UK): p. 13. 2 December 1975. 
7. ^ Tebbit, pp. 194–5.
8. ^ Tebbit, p. 196.
9. ^ "Michael Foot's 'polecat' jibe demeaned him but boosted my career". The Daily Telegraph (London). 7 March 2010. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/normantebbit/100028735/michael-foots-polecat-jibe-demeaned-him-but-boosted-my-career/. 
10. ^ HC PQ [Business of the House, | Margaret Thatcher Foundation
11. ^ Tebbit, p. 233.
12. ^ John Mullan, 'Lost voices', The Guardian, 18 June 1999
13. ^ Chris Moncrieff, 'When Labour MPs wore miners' helmets', The Guardian, 10 May 2001
14. ^ Don Grant, 'CLUBBING: Pratts? If you say so, sir', The Independent on Sunday, 26 October 2003
15. ^ British Politics Group Newsletter, Spring 2005
16. ^ John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady (Jonathan Cape, 2003), p. 194.
17. ^ Campbell, pp. 205–206.
18. ^ The Independent, Tebbit interview with Deborah Ross 3/10/2009
19. ^ http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001216.php
20. ^ Campbell, p. 499.
21. ^ ^{a b} Campbell, p. 500.
22. ^ Campbell, p. 498.
23. ^ Tebbit, p. 319.
24. ^ Tebbit, p. 320.
25. ^ Alan Watkins, A Conservative Coup. The Fall of Margaret Thatcher (Duckworth, 1992), p. 88.
26. ^ Watkins, p. 93.
27. ^ Andrew Neil, Full Disclosure (Macmillan, 1996), p. 236.
28. ^ Tebbit, p. 328.
29. ^ Campbell, p. 522.
30. ^ Oborne, Peter (2005). "Has Gordon Brown delivered his last Budget? The truth is that Blair hasn't yet decided". The Spectator. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_200503/ai_n13506050. 
31. ^ Tebbit, p. 336.
32. ^ Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 584.
33. ^ Tebbit, p. 332.
34. ^ Woodrow Wyatt, The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt. Volume One (Pan, 1999), p. 371.
35. ^ Thatcher, p. 587.
36. ^ Watkins, p. 91.
37. ^ Whitney, Craig R., 1990-01-10. Big British Fight Shapes Up On Hong Kong Emigre Plan. Retrieved 2008-07-08
38. ^ Rule, Sheila. 1990-04-20. Britain Will Offer Refuge to 50,000 Successful Hong Kong Families. Retrieved 2008-07-08
39. ^ The Sydney Morning Herald – 22 April 1988
40. ^ John Carvel, ‘Tebbit's cricket loyalty test hit for six’, The Guardian 8 January 2004.
41. ^ Woodrow Wyatt, The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt. Volume Two (Pan, 2000), p. 530.
42. ^ 'Tebbit: 'Cricket test' could have stopped bombings'
43. ^ Wyatt, Volume One, p. 692.
44. ^ Wyatt, Volume Two, pp. 244–5.
45. ^ Thatcher, p. 835.
46. ^ Thatcher, p. 846.
47. ^ Campbell, p. 724.
48. ^ Campbell, p. 731.
49. ^ Thatcher, p. 847.
50. ^ Watkins, p. 215.
51. ^ Christopher Booker and Richard North, The Great Deception. A Secret History of the European Union (Continuum, 2003), p. 276.
52. ^ "Thursday 25 July". BBC News. 25 July 2002. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/2152093.stm. Retrieved 20 May 2010. 
53. ^ Woodrow Wyatt, The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt. Volume Three (Pan, 2001), p. 83.
54. ^ Norman Fowler, A Political Suicide (Politico's, 2008), p. 133
55. ^ Gyles Brandreth, Breaking the Code: Westminster Diaries, 1992–97 (Phoenix, 2000), p. 124.
56. ^ John Major, The Autobiography (HarperCollins, 2000), p. 861.
57. ^ Wyatt, Volume Three, pp. 437–8.
58. ^ The Daily Telegraph, 27 November 1996
59. ^ Oborne, Peter. "George Jones, 'Keep gays out of top Government jobs, says Tebbit', The Daily Telegraph, 2 November 1998". London. Archived from the original on 23 May 2003. http://web.archive.org/web/20030523052202/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1998/11/02/nteb02.html. Retrieved 2 June 2009. ^{[dead link]}
60. ^ Oborne, Peter. "Robert Shrimsley, ‘Tory leaders reject Tebbit's views on gays’, The Daily Telegraph, 3 November 1999". London. Archived from the original on 12 May 2003. http://web.archive.org/web/20030512012645/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/htmlContent.jhtml?html=/archive/1998/11/03/nteb03.html. Retrieved 2 June 2009. ^{[dead link]}
61. ^ George Jones, Polly Newton Andrew Sparrow, 'Tebbit launches bitter attack on Patten's proposals for RUC', The Daily Telegraph, 6 October 1999
62. ^ New Statesman – The New Statesman Interview – Norman Tebbit
63. ^ Tebbit, Norman (2001). "UKIP: Is there a hidden agenda?". The Spectator. http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_200105/ai_n8953434. 
64. ^ "Tebbit secret agent claim". BBC News. 23 May 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/vote2001/hi/english/newsid_1348000/1348222.stm. Retrieved 20 May 2010. 
65. ^ Weekly Worker 386 Thursday 31 May 2001
66. ^ [1] Telegraph.co.uk 18 August 2002
67. ^ . http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20021012/ai_n12657726. ^{[dead link]}
68. ^ Press Gazette, London, 21 February 2003.
69. ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,59-1861876,00.html Timesonline
70. ^ The Daily Telegraph, 30 January 2006.
71. ^ "Tebbit supports EU exit campaign". BBC News. 30 March 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6511701.stm. Retrieved 20 May 2010. 
72. ^ Supporters
73. ^ http://www.ginnydougary.co.uk/2007/09/29/the-torchbearer/ Ginny Dougary, Norman Tebbit discusses Cameron, loss and multiculturalism, The Times
74. ^ Philip Webster, 'Tebbit hits out at Tories and names Brown as Thatcher's natural heir', The Times, 26 September 2007
75. ^ Andrew Porter "Lord Tebbit warns on worship of Tony Blair", Daily Telegraph, 18 April 2008. Retrieved 8 July 2008
76. ^ Matthew Moore (12 May 2009). "MPs' expenses: Lord Tebbit says do not vote Conservative at European elections". The Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5311556/MPs-expenses-Lord-Tebbit-says-do-not-vote-Conservative-at-European-elections.html. Retrieved 13 May 2009. 
77. ^ Levy, Andrew (24 February 2010). "'I may have kicked him a bit': Norman Tebbit admits losing temper over Chinese New Year dragon". Daily Mail (London). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1253066/Norman-Tebbit-attacks-child-dressed-dragon-Chinese-New-Year.html. 
78. ^ "Norman Tebbit: Don't let David Cameron destroy our NHS". http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/04/04/norman-tebbit-don-t-let-david-cameron-destroy-our-nhs-115875-23036253/. 
79. ^ Gordon, Bryony (1 April 2011). "Lord Tebbit: why I admire Clegg more than Cameron". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8422956/Lord-Tebbit-why-I-admire-Clegg-more-than-Cameron.html. 
80. ^ Tebbit, Norman (October 7, 2011). "Betraying savers and law-abiding citizens is neither modern nor compassionate". The Daily Telegraph. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/normantebbit/100109560/tory-conference-it-is-not-modern-or-compassionate-to-betray-savers-and-law-abiding-citizens/. Retrieved October 20, 2011. "In that mood I feel I should break with my normal habit and praise an article in the Guardian of Wednesday 5th October by Michael White. His account of the visit of Pauline Pearce (the heroine of the Hackney riots) to the Tory Conference is a fair-minded and perceptive “must read”. It also is a perfect illustration of my theory of the common ground of politics." 

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Norman Tebbit
• An electoral curse yet to be lifted
• What is the Conservative Party for?
• Tebbit: They are out to get me
• Tebbit will stay, says Tory leader
• TUC poster blaming Thatcher and Tebbit for rising unemployment
• TUC poster against Tebbit's 1982 Employment Act
• Tebbit on the front cover of the Private Eye
• Norman Tebbit | What England Means to Me

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Stan Newens	Member of Parliament for Epping 1970–1974	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Chingford 1974–1992	Succeeded by Iain Duncan Smith
Political offices
Preceded by Jim 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 The Earl of Gowrie	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1985–1987	Succeeded by Kenneth Clarke
Party political offices
Preceded by John Gummer	Chairman of the Conservative Party 1985–1987	Succeeded by Peter Brooke

Persondata
Name	Tebbit, Norman
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	29 March 1931
Place of birth	Ponders End, United Kingdom
Date of death
Place of death