Eric Forth (9 September 1944 – 17 May 2006) was a British

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

politician. He served as

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(MEP) for Birmingham North from 1979 to 1984. He then served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Worcestershire from 1983 to 1997. Finally, he served as MP for Bromley and Chislehurst from 1997 until his death in 2006. Forth served as a junior minister in the governments of

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 th ...

and

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 Ton ...

between 1988 and 1997. In his obituaries, he was described as "colourful", "flamboyant", "provocative" and a "right-wing libertarian". He was noted for his colourful ties and waistcoats.

Early and private life

Forth was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. His father was a harbourmaster. He was educated at the Jordanhill College School and the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, where he was awarded a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in politics and economics. Before entering politics, he worked in junior managerial roles at

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...

, Rank and

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

before becoming a

management consultant Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultant ...

with Deloitte and Dexion.

Political career

After standing as a communist at a mock school-election and flirting with distributism at university, Forth developed both conservative and libertarian leanings. Forth was elected as a councillor for the Pilgrims Hatch ward on the Brentwood Urban District Council from 1968 to 1972. He contested the safe Labour seat of Barking at both the

February February is the second month of the year in the Julian calendar, Julian and Gregorian calendars. The month has 28 days in common years and 29 in leap years, with the February 29, 29th day being called the ''leap day''. February is the third a ...

and October 1974 general elections, where on both occasions he was defeated by Labour's Jo Richardson. He was the secretary of Llandeilo Conservative Association from 1975 to 1977, and chairman of the Ross-on-Wye Conservative Political Committee from 1978 to 1979. He was elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

as the member for Birmingham North in 1979. He remained in

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and

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

until 1984, where he founded and chaired the backbench committee of the European Democratic Group. Originally in favour of membership of the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

, he later became a staunch Eurosceptic. He was elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

at the 1983 general election with a majority of 14,205 votes for the new seat of Mid-Worcestershire. His political views were apparent from his maiden speech, in which he attacked the Sex Equality Bill, and he was an early member of the No Turning Back group. Following boundary changes to his constituency, he was not selected to fight the new seat with the same name, losing out to the sitting MP for Worcester, Peter Luff. Forth found a safe seat in the Outer London suburbs for Bromley and Chislehurst in the heart of the large London Borough of Bromley. He was elected to represent the seat in 1997,

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

and

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

. In Parliament, he served on the

Employment Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a cor ...

select committee in 1986 until later in the year when he was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Angela Rumbold at the Department for Education and Science. He entered the government of

when she appointed him as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry in 1988, as minister for consumer affairs. He was moved by

in 1990 to the same position at the Department for Employment and at the Department of Education following the 1992 general election. He was promoted to Minister of State for Education in 1994 and became a member of the Privy Council in 1996, shortly before leaving office in 1997.

The awkward squad

Forth had hoped to support Michael Portillo for the leadership of the Conservative Party, to follow Major, but Portillo famously lost his seat in the 1997 general election. Forth was then Peter Lilley's campaign manager until the latter withdrew, then supported John Redwood, and finally backed eventual winner William Hague. Forth refused the offer of a place in the Conservative shadow ministerial team and instead became a leading backbench irritant to the Labour government, engaging in "a Parliamentary form of

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrori ...

". Initially acting as a loner and concentrating on private members bills to which he objected, Forth soon gathered a small group around him known as "the awkward squad". In 1997, with senior Conservative MPs David Maclean and Patrick McLoughlin, he established the Policy Research Unit, a subscription briefing service available to any MP as a means of countering the briefings that government ministers receive from the civil service. Disliking e-mail, he would send brief written notes to like-minded MPs to say "I am given to understand that the Powers That Be think that Wednesday's business will go through easily", and his group would ensure that Wednesday's business did not go through easily. Forth's speciality was the

filibuster A filibuster is a political procedure in which one or more members of a legislative body prolong debate on proposed legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent a decision. It is sometimes referred to as "talking a bill to death" or "talking ...

: as Labour MPs found themselves often required to remain in Parliament past midnight, they called him "Bloody Eric Forth" (a reaction Forth welcomed). Iain Duncan Smith appointed Forth Shadow Leader of the House of Commons in 2001. Forth backed David Davis to replace Duncan Smith in 2003: Davis refused to stand, and Forth was dismissed from his front-bench position by Michael Howard. He served on many Parliamentary committees and his last role was chairing the statutory instruments committee. He was a member of the speaker's Panel of Chairmen. Forth was in favour of capital punishment, but opposed corporal punishment in schools. After William Hague announced his support for an "election compact" promoted by the Commission for Racial Equality in 2001, Forth was quoted as saying at a private dinner: "All this sucking up to minorities is ridiculous; there are millions of people in this country who are white, Anglo-Saxon and bigoted and they need to be represented." He opposed the BBC's spending money on a Nelson Mandela concert in 1988, saying "those who want the arts and who support them should pay for them themselves". He also opposed the government spending on AIDS treatment, saying that the disease was "largely self-inflicted". He was a fan of

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...

and treasurer of the all-party Music Appreciation Group, and a couple of Presley's songs were played at Forth's memorial service in October 2006.

Personal life

Forth was married to Linda St. Clair on 11 March 1967 and they had two daughters before their divorce in 1994; he remarried later that year to Carroll Goff, gaining a stepson. Forth died from cancer at Charing Cross Hospital on 17 May 2006, at the age of 61.

Publications

* ''Regional Policy: A Fringe Benefit?'' by Eric Forth, 1983, Conservative Central Office, CCO508912

References

Sources

Obituary
''

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 si ...

'', 19 May 2006
Obituary
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'', 19 May 2006
Obituary
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 19 May 2006
Obituary
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 21 May 2006

External links

Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Eric Forth MP

TheyWorkForYou.com – Eric Forth MP
*
Ex-Tory minister Eric Forth dies

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, 18 May 2006
Family values MP dies
Pink News, 18 May 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Forth, Eric 1944 births 2006 deaths Alumni of the University of Glasgow British libertarians British management consultants Conservative Party (UK) MEPs Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Conservative Party (UK) councillors Councillors in Essex Deaths from bone cancer in England Deloitte people Ford people MEPs for England 1979–1984 Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People from Bromley Politicians from Glasgow UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 Xerox people British Eurosceptics