I’m very sad to report the death of John Blundell, the former General Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs, for ConservativeHome this morning.
The excellent Atlas Network obituary of Blundell describes how he helped to build up the IEA as a force for ideas. I didn’t know Blundell well, but remember him as one of the people who helped to make the Thatcher revolution possible.
Atlas Network details the two books that he wrote about Mrs Thatcher (as she was), and confirms his status as a leading Thatcherite – or, rather, a pre-Thatcherite, since he was expounding free market policies before she was Conservative leader, during the days of the Heath Government.
Blundell was part of the Conservative student network at the same time as David Davis, to whom I spoke a few moments ago. Davis and Blundell were Tory student national chairmen nationally and in London at about the same time – and close friends. The former was best man at the latter’s wedding.
One of Blundell’s works was called: Waging the War of Ideas. The title sums up in those familiar five words the counter-revolutionary flavour of the period to which he contributed so much. He had a wife and two sons. May he rest in peace.