By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Today's news is filled with stories about the fuel crisis (or non-crisis). The pattern of stories is as follows: Ministers told the public to stock up on petrol. So they did. But it turns out the strike was never a sure thing, there had simply been ballot action urging a […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Thatcher's tax settlement… Margaret Thatcher inherited economic ruin and high taxes, and the two were intimately connected to each other. The top rate of income tax was 83% and the basic rate was 33%. She believed that such rates thwarted enterprise, slowed growth, depressed revenues as avoidance thrived, and […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. David Cameron's much-previewed speech on "moral capitalism" is not particularly heavy on grand policy statements. Any policies on boardroom/executive pay have already been announced – earlier this month, Cameron told the Andrew Marr Show that shareholders should get a binding vote on executive pay scales, and that boardrooms should be more transparent. This […]
By Joseph Willits Follow Joseph on Twitter With the release of 'The Iron Lady' last Friday, political commentary has focused on feminism, and women in politics a great deal. This morning in a Telegraph blog, Cristina Odone discusses the superiority of Tory feminism. She writes: "Blue feminists don’t go in for the tokenism their red counterparts support. They […]
By Joseph Willits Follow Joseph on Twitter On this morning's Andrew Marr Show, Cameron reiterated his commitment to battle against "crony capitalism" and pursue a transparent agenda. Both the Observer and the Sunday Telegraph reported that the Prime Minister would personally back plans to make shareholder remuneration votes mandatory. Speaking to Andrew Marr, Cameron said that "pay going up […]
By Joseph Willits Follow Joseph on Twitter Ahead of this evening's European premiere at the BFI on London's Southbank, here is another opportunity to watch the trailer (ahead of Friday's release) of Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady, starrring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher. Before any Oscar nominations have been announced, Streep is already the bookies favourite to win […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter In the week we learnt that Margaret Thatcher is still the Tory grassroots' favourite politician we get more insight into her government today. Under the thirty year disclosure rule the National Archive has released documents related to her government of 1981. The newspapers' coverage of those documents is summarised below. […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter In another ToryDiary this morning I note that the Tory grassroots are much more satisfied with David Cameron's leadership after his popular decision to veto the EU Treaty. We also asked members to rate fifteen politicians on a scale of minus five (furthest from their political views) to plus five […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. "Dole Queues and Demons: British Election Posters from the Conservative Party Archive", a new book written by Stuart Ball, a Reader in Modern History at the University of Leicester, was released this month. The book contains nearly 200 of the 650 election campaign posters in the vast Conservative Party […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Lady Thatcher has been in the news this week given the impending launch of the Iron Lady movie (watch trailer). In the latest YouGov poll (PDF) for The Sunday Times, voters installed Lady Thatcher at the top of the league table for best post-war Prime Ministers: Margaret Thatcher: 27% Winston […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. We haven't seen Margaret Thatcher in public for some time but here's a photograph of her attending Liam Fox's fiftieth birthday party. She's looking well and the Defence Secretary is wearing a very shiny shirt! David Cameron was also in attendance. BBC report here.
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. This week's Spectator trails a Peter Oborne pamphlet for the Centre for Policy Studies. Oborne names the guilty men (and women) who attempted to lead Britain into the €urozone. He names prominent businessmen, politicians and other establishment figures. He pays particular attention to the BBC's dreadfully biased coverage at […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. The rebelliousness of many on the Tory backbenches has been well documented on ConHome's Parliamentary pages. We've also recorded the unhappiness of many Tory members about certain government policies (although not, significantly, its main priorities). One thing we've not really covered is the perhaps obvious but no less significant […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter It's the August Bank holiday, and what better way of enjoying politics this afternoon than watching this set of videos of the peerless Charles Moore discussing Lady Thatcher – whose authorised biography Moore is writing. He is interviewed by Peter Robinson, of Stanford University's Hoover Institution:
Pasted below are some highlights from a brilliant speech given by Lord Forsyth in Scotland to mark the thirtieth anniversary of Margaret Thatcher's election as Prime Minister. Baroness Thatcher, four hundred Scottish Tories, including Lord Lang, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, Annabel Goldie MSP and almost all the Conservative MSPs, several former Scottish MPs and many […]