|
The Downing Street Years
''The Downing Street Years'' is a memoir by Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, covering her premiership of 1979 to 1990. It was accompanied by a four-part BBC television series of the same name. History Thatcher's close friend Woodrow Wyatt recounted in his diary on 3 February 1989 a conversation he had with Rupert Murdoch who wanted Thatcher to write her equivalent of Mikhail Gorbachev's ''Perestroika'', explaining her philosophy and that John O'Sullivan could do all the "donkey work" for her. Wyatt countered this by stating that the chairman of the publishing house Collins had tried to get him to persuade Thatcher to publish her memoirs with Collins and Thatcher herself seemed favourable to this option. The next day Wyatt put Murdoch's idea to Thatcher but she claimed she did not have the time. On 29 November 1990, the day after Thatcher's resignation as Prime Minister, Wyatt told her of Murdoch's suggestion of O'Sullivan as a helper, to which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the List of prime ministers of the United Kingdom by length of tenure, longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the position. As prime minister, she implemented policies that came to be known as Thatcherism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. Thatcher studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, and worked briefly as a research chemist before becoming a Barristers in England and Wales, barrister. She was List of MPs elected in the 1959 United Kingdom general election, elected Member of Parliament for Finchley (UK Parliament constituency), Finc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservative Research Department
The Conservative Research Department (CRD) is part of the central organisation of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. It operates alongside other departments of Conservative Campaign Headquarters in Westminster. The CRD has been described as a training ground for leading Conservative politicians. Former CRD advisers to have served in the Cabinet include former Prime Minister David Cameron, former Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden, former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, former Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Letwin and former Health Secretary Andrew Lansley. After 1945, Enoch Powell, Iain Macleod, Reginald Maudling and Chris Patten passed through it. History Neville Chamberlain The CRD was established by Neville Chamberlain in 1929, to undertake detailed policy work for the leader of the Party (then Stanley Baldwin) and his principal colleagues. It was the first real think-tank on the right in British politics. For 50 years it occupied its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoffrey Howe
Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon, (20 December 1926 – 9 October 2015), known from 1970 to 1992 as Sir Geoffrey Howe, was a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1989 to 1990. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Margaret Thatcher's longest-serving Cabinet minister, successively holding the posts of chancellor of the Exchequer, foreign secretary, and finally leader of the House of Commons, deputy prime minister and Lord President of the Council. His resignation on 1 November 1990 is widely considered to have precipitated the leadership challenge that led to Thatcher's resignation three weeks later. Born in Port Talbot, Wales, Howe was educated at Bridgend Preparatory School, Abberley Hall School, Winchester College, and – after serving in the army as a lieutenant – Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he read law. He was called to the bar in 1952 and practised in Wales, after whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeffrey Archer
Jeffrey Howard Archer, Baron Archer of Weston-super-Mare (born 15 April 1940) is an English novelist and former politician. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Louth (Lincolnshire) from 1969 to 1974, but did not seek re-election after a financial scandal that left him almost bankrupt. Archer revived his fortunes as a novelist. His novel ''Kane and Abel'' (1979) remains one of the best-selling books in the world, with an estimated 34 million copies sold worldwide. Overall his books have sold more than 320 million copies worldwide. Archer was the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party from 1985 to 1986; he resigned after a newspaper accused him of paying money to a prostitute. In 1987 he won a civil case and was awarded large damages because of this claim. He was made a life peer in 1992 and subsequently became the first Conservative candidate to be selected as a candidate for mayor of London. He ended his candidacy in 1999 after it emerged that he had lied in the case ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Breakfast With Frost
''Breakfast with Frost'' is a Sunday morning BBC current affairs programme hosted by Sir David Frost. It covered the main political news of the day, with Frost interviewing key figures in the world of politics, and celebrity guests reviewing the Sunday papers. The programme was broadcast on BBC One from 1993 to 2005. History TV-am Frost was one of the original 'Famous Five' presenters and shareholders of the TV-am consortium, the first ITV breakfast franchise holder. Originally, Frost had promised 'sexual chemistry' as the co-presenter of the daily magazine programme '' Good Morning Britain'' with Anna Ford. However, its serious tone meant that within weeks of the station launching in February 1983, it faced poor ratings against the BBC's competing, lighter '' Breakfast Time'', which resulted in a major shakeup of TV-am's programming, management, and presenting line-up. After being dropped from the weekday morning slot, Frost was chosen to host the Sunday morning edition of ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Frost
Sir David Paradine Frost (7 April 1939 – 31 August 2013) was an English television host, journalist, comedian and writer. He rose to prominence during the satire boom in the United Kingdom when he was chosen to host the satirical programme '' That Was the Week That Was'' in 1962. His success on this show led to work as a host on American television. He became known for his television interviews with senior political figures, among them the Nixon interviews with US president Richard Nixon in 1977 which were adapted into a stage play and film. Frost interviewed all eight British prime ministers serving from 1964 to his death in 2013, from Alec Douglas-Home to David Cameron, and all seven American presidents in office from 1969 to 2008. Frost was one of the people behind the launch of ITV station TV-am in 1983. He was the inaugural host of the US news magazine programme ''Inside Edition''. He hosted the Sunday morning interview programme '' Breakfast with Frost'' for the B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Back To Basics (campaign)
Back to Basics was a political campaign announced by British Prime Minister John Major at the Conservative Party conference of 1993 in Blackpool. Though it was intended as a nostalgic appeal to traditional values such as "neighbourliness, decency, courtesy", the campaign was widely interpreted in the media as a campaign for socially conservative causes such as the traditional family. It became the subject of ridicule when a succession of Conservative politicians were caught up in scandals. The previous year of Major's premiership had been beset by infighting within the Conservative party on the issue of Europe, including rebellions in several Parliamentary votes on the Maastricht Treaty. He was also dealing with the fallout from the Black Wednesday economic debacle of September 1992. John Major's speech Major's speech, delivered on 8 October 1993, began by noting the disagreements over Europe: Major then changed the subject to "a world that sometimes seems to be changi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Heseltine
Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, (; born 21 March 1933) is a British politician. Having begun his career as a property developer, he became one of the founders of the publishing house Haymarket Media Group in 1957. Heseltine served as a Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001. He was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State under Major from 1995 to 1997. Heseltine entered the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet in 1979 as Secretary of State for the Environment, where he promoted the "Right to Buy" campaign that allowed people to purchase their council houses. He was considered an adept media performer and a charismatic minister, although he was frequently at odds with Thatcher on economic issues. He was one of the most visible Wets and dries, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simon Jenkins
Sir Simon David Jenkins FLSW (born 10 June 1943) is a British author, a newspaper columnist and editor. He was editor of the ''Evening Standard'' from 1976 to 1978 and of ''The Times'' from 1990 to 1992. Jenkins chaired the National Trust from 2008 to 2014. He currently writes columns for ''The Guardian''. Early life Jenkins was born , in Birmingham, England. His father, Daniel Thomas Jenkins, was a Welsh professor of systematic theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and a Minister in the Congregational and then United Reformed Church. He was educated at Mill Hill School and St John's College, Oxford, where he earned a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Career Journalism After graduating from the University of Oxford, Jenkins initially worked at '' Country Life'' magazine, before joining the '' Times Educational Supplement.'' He was then features editor and columnist on the ''Evening Standard'' before editing the Insight pages of ''The Sunday Times''. From ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (founded in 1821), are published by Times Media, since 1981 a subsidiary of News UK, in turn wholly owned by News Corp. ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times'' were founded independently and have had common ownership only since 1966. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. ''The Times'' was the first newspaper to bear that name, inspiring numerous other papers around the world. In countries where these other titles are popular, the newspaper is often referred to as or , although the newspaper is of national scope and distribution. ''The Times'' had an average daily circulation of 365,880 in March 2020; in the same period, ''The Sunday Times'' had an average weekly circulation of 647,622. The two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily Tabloid journalism, tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1903, it is part of Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), which is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its Masthead (British publishing), masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print circulation of 716,923 in December 2016, dropping to 587,803 the following year. Its Sunday sister paper is the ''Sunday Mirror''. Unlike other major British tabloids such as ''The Sun (United Kingdom), The Sun'' and the ''Daily Mail'', the ''Mirror'' has no separate Scottish edition; this function is performed by the ''Daily Record (Scotland), Daily Record'' and the ''Sunday Mail (Scotland), Sunday Mail'', which incorporate certain stories from the ''Mirror'' that are of Scottish significance. The ''Mirror'' publishes an Irish edition, the ''Irish Mirror''. Originally pitched to the middle-class reader, it was converted into a worki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Major
Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British retired politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. Following his defeat to Tony Blair's Labour Party (United Kingdom), Labour Party in the 1997 United Kingdom general election, 1997 general election, he became Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition, serving in this role from May to June 1997. He previously held Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet positions under Margaret Thatcher, his last as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1989 to 1990. Major was Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon (UK Parliament constituency), Huntingdon, formerly Huntingdonshire (UK Parliament constituency), Huntingdonshire, from 1979 to 2001. Since stepping down as an MP in 2001, Major has focused on writing and his business, sporting, and charity work, and has occasiona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
