I shan't be walking down any dark alleys in the next few days. It seems I have upset Norman Tebbit. In my Telegraph column a couple of weeks ago I warned Tories that they should be disciplined during their conference. During the article I wrote this...A speech by Sir Bufton Tufton (the politician formerly known as Michael Ancram) hinting at the need for a different course will make front-page headlines in the Mirror. Be warned. It will happen...Every politician has a ''naughty brain", the one that craves attention. (Norman Tebbit, are you listening?) It's so much easier to say what you think and hang the consequences.
Michael Ancram thought it hugely funny, but not, I'm afraid, Lord T. He had, you may remember, given an interview to the Times on the eve of the conference in which he was not very complimentary David Cameron and rather too complimentary about Gordon Brown.
Anyway, I got a letter this morning which was, well, very Norman-esque. It started...
I realise that in a desire to be noticed, little known columnists write silly
things to attract attention to themselves, but your remarks about me last week
were really rather too silly...
Ouch. He continues...
You may be unaware that any craving I might have had to be taken notive of has
been more than satiated over my three or four decades of public life. Indeed, I
sometimes find that being noticed can be a bit of a bore these days...
Well that's me banged to rights. I should make clear that I adore Norman Tebbit. He's an icon to those of us who learned our politics in the 1980s. Had things been different he could well have succeeded Margaret Thatcher in 1990. The point I was making, was that interventions like Norman's can be highly damaging and that if in 1987, when he was Party chairman, Ian Gilmour had done something similar, Norman would righty have strung him up from the nearest lamppost.
I was sitting next to Lord T at a dinner a couple of years ago and the speaker was droning on about the Conservative Party needing to attract more celebrities like Jonny Wilkinsonto support it. Norman leaned over and whispered in my ear... "yes, at least he knows how to kick balls." Quite.
46 comments:
Yup, I think Norman Tebbit is the best PM we never had.
But you are not "banged to rights" are you?
You are correct.
Although in the end it had no impact, Tebbit should indeed have kept his trap shut!
Let's see. Tebbit criticises Cameron for abandoning the true tory path. He then goes on to praise a man who has doubled the tax take in a decade, intruded into every part of public and private life with quangos, 5 a day inspectors, cctv and the like and who seeks to take Britain further into the EU quagmire without a referendum.
It's a little like criticising a sinner whilst lauding Satan.
It's the likes of Tebbit who brought the tory party to its knees prior to this near-miraculous conference season. Let's hope he now has the sense to shut up and keep it shut...
I've always had my doubts about Tebbit, a man more prone to posturing than action in my opinion and grossly over-rated within the Tory party.
With Tebbit I always got the impression it was about HIM rather than the interests of the party or the country. He's allowed his ego to take him over and I, for one, would wish he would just shut up and go away.
all seems fair comment from Tebbit to me.
More about respect for somebody who served their country at such a high level.
Presumably Times asked him for a comment and he gave it. What's the problem.
Bet he could kick you fat arse in a little mano-a-mano.
More likely a punch rather than a kick?
How to sum up Norman Tebbit:
posturing, self-satisfied, enormously overrated, vacuous, disingenuous, egotistical, boring, vainglorious, a sham, and most of all insufferably smug though he certainly has nothing to feel smug about.
Norman Tebbit should keep his mouth zipped.
Schtummm.
Nada.
It would be better for all involved if Tebbit gave up his press career altogether - it's cringeworthy!
I always take issue with MP's who say that they are "serving their country" or such like. It's not like they are doing it for free, is it.
I forgot one:
pompous!
He was a litle man who found himself in the right place at the right time. He hung onto Thatcher's coat-tails and when she went he was finished as a serious player.
Here's a message Norman as I know you'll be reading this:
FOAD
Tebbit was finished as a serious player by the foul injuries he and his wife sustained in the Brighton bombing.
You don't know the extent of his family's sufferings, and he would not thank anyone for publicising them.
That man really is a prize c- sorry, forgot the rule...
Judith.. "and he would not thank anyone for publicising them"
Isn't that what you've just done?
Geddit :
Harsh but unfortunately also quite fair
I would defend you there Iain . I am also a great admirer of Norman Tebbit but he clearly knew he had gone too far. He himself took the trouble to write to the Telegraph "Clarifying " (as in apologising) for appearing to support Gordon Brown.
I was relieved to see it. I would not like to see this good man blot his copy book in a way I , for one , would find it hard to forgive .
I treasure a memory of Norman Tebbit , who I met at a Bruges Group meeting. He dealt with infinite patience and sense with a raving Islamic extremist who appeared , to create friction and headlines .To listen to the contrast between the violence of the one and calm intelligence of the other was an education and an inspiration
Given his history particularly .
Still , even Homer sleeps , he was out of line , you were not seeking notoriety and he would have been better advised to leave it .
Why not take the chance to get him on Doughty Street . he is still a brilliant speaker and talker ?
Good grief! Where did all these brain-dead cretins spring from? As Judith pointed out, his public life was effectively stopped by that other bunch of f*ckwits previously known as the IRA. It would make an interesting slice of "what-if" history to speculate on life if Norman had been able to carry on. I'm not sure if he'd have made PM, but pricks like Heseltine, Clarke etc would have been kept in check at least; Mrs T would not have been deposed; we might have been spared Blair even.
Such things as dreams are made of indeed......
kafka,
Take your blinkers off. Tebbit was a cardboard cut-out right-winger. A poseur who basked in Thatcher's enormous talent. Without her he would have been nothing.
You might not agree with Heseltine and Clarke's version of Toryism but compared to Tebbit they were men of immense ability and now carry quite some gravitas unlike Tebbit, who simply comes across as a pompous, tetchy and resentful nonentity.
I am rather pleased that u upset the old pompous fool.
Why can't yesterdays men shut up and go away. Let us remember them for the excellent work they did and not as a "moaning minney" or a bitter old man.
Of course when Ted Heath berated the Thatcher Government, who was one of the first to complain - stop forward Norman Tebbitt.
Clarke and Hezza stand head and shoulders above Tebbit.
Tebbit would have appeared out of step in the Victorian, never mind today.
What vitriol! As ill-advised as his comments were he is a great man and a true gentleman. Pompous and a nonentity are the last words I would use to describe him.
Have some respect.
I thought at the time your comments were exactly right Iain and events since then have not made me change my view.
Yes, Lord Tebbit was misrepresented in the press, but the timing of his comments was not helpful. I am surprised he was so stung by your comments that he chose to raise them with you in writing.
I agree. My post was (12.56) stern but I recognise that he was a great figure and still is. I consider his recent comments ill advised but don't agree with those who have gone further.
I've no respect for Tebbit. He's never known when to keep his gob shut, he's a completely self-centred pompous prat.
A man with a vastly over-inflated sense of his own importance and intellect. He is now largely a spent force. He's had his fifteen minutes of fame - and more.
If he doesn't feel happy with the way things are in the Conservative Party he can always leave and set up his own. Certainly the Conservatives would be well rid of a man who puts his (silly) points of view before any real tangible support for his chosen political party.
Well the left wing nasty squad and the modernising new model army have finally found someone to vent their bile on.
Norman Tebbit is a courteous gentleman whose only offence is to have seen through and exposed in debate some of the most overblown windbags the modern political scene has had to offer.
Heseltine and CLarke single-handedly destroyed the Conservative Party's best post-war leader, just for having the temerity to have the same views on Europe as most of the British people and, in Heseltine's case, occupying the job he wanted and had schemed for.
'FOAD' ???
To the man who as a Government Minister was blown up by marxist terrorists? Hang your head in shame 'Geddit'; knuckle dragging neanderthals would have better manners.
You might not agree with Heseltine and Clarke's version of Toryism but compared to Tebbit they were men of immense ability and now carry quite some gravitas unlike Tebbit, who simply comes across as a pompous, tetchy and resentful nonentity.
What nonsense; I guess one cannot expect anything better from someone whose homepage is "housepricecrash.co.uk" (and you're not a Tory anyway). Without Tebbit masterminding the 1987 election victory Heseltine and Clarke would have been footnotes in history. Clarke is a has been and Heseltine (no matter how much he craved the leadership) is a never been. I have immense respect for Tebbit considering all he's done for the party and what he's been through in its service. He is more of a Tory than those who trash him and Thatcher ever will be.
Iain, had things been different, we would have won the World Cup in 1970 and in 1990 and Hitler could have won WW2 and Julius Ceasar not been assasinated. Had things been different!
From some anonymous comments here anyone would understand that Tebbit was the only person to have been 'Blown up by marxist terrorists'. How pathetic. What about the other poor sods who were actually killed - and not just those at Brighton but in the grim realities of Northern Ireland?
Tebbit the good-mannered hero? Don't be so bleeding silly. Since when has heroism or good manners been prime requirements for leadership of a nation? What's needed is real political ability - and Tebbit is showing none of that right now. The fact that he's chosen to voice some extremely debatable opinion at this particular moment speaks volumes as to his motives and sense.
Iain, I can't believe you are crawling back to apologise to this sorry excuse for a human being.
He is the one, let us not forget, who describes homosexuals as 'deviants'.
And showed zero sympathy for the high levels of unemployment occasioned by the Tory Party [once described as a 'price worth paying' by someone] by saying that his father 'got on his bike and looked for work'. Well that is fine if the jobs are there, but if they ain't it is rather like re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.
I am very sorry for what happened to his wife, and I'm sure in his airline pilot days he used to be a tolerably pleasant human being. But he does, I'm afraid, illustrate too well the sort of stuck in the fifties [1950s] dinosaurs which made the Tory Party their spiritual home for far too long, and damaged their electoral prospects.
Cameron should not under any circumstance be pandering to these people - to coin a phrase, they are the 'past, not the future'.
Tebbit has always come across as a courteous, articulate and fairly bright politician.
Anyone with a shred of humanity can also feel for what he and - more especially - his wife suffered at the hands of the IRA.
That does not disbar one, even a conservative, from finding some of his political views poisonous.
Both some of his detractors and his hagiographer here should learn that you don't have to play the man and not the ball the whole time
Iain, Iain, Iain, you must stop deluding yourself. There was never any chance Maggie would allow her successor to be anybody who might have proved competent.
Iain, you got a letter ? really ? That's a headline in itself ! We haven't had any letter for days and days....
I reckon Lord Tebbit and I would get on like a house on fire.
...still smarting from the thrashings you got at the hands of norman then!!!!!
..and then you got Blair. Not been a good lifetime to be a trot has it??
...still smarting from the thrashings you got at the hands of norman then!!!!!
..and then you got Blair. Not been a good lifetime to be a trot has it??
You don't need to be defensive about Tebbit Iain. He did a great job for the party in his day and I, for one, hoped he would succeed Margaret Thatcher.
Following the Brighton bomb, it wasn't to be. He's not an active player now and he should be showing a little more loyalty to the current leadership.
Vanity is a curse.
I am afraid that the time may have come to lock both Tebbit & Thatcher up in a 'secure' retirement home. (and throw the key away !)
Anonymous 1.21 wrote:
'Presumably Times asked him for a comment and he gave it. What's the problem.'
The problem is that he didn't say 'No comment' as experienced politicians not wishing to cause trouble would do. He knew exactly what he was doing.
emporer tebbit has no clothes [1.43 PM] You say, "He was a litle man who found himself in the right place at the right time."
A singularly insensitive remark, considering what happened to him and his wife at Brighton.
Remember when he was on the front bench? He was one of the very few politicians the opposition was reluctant to question, because his quick-witted retorts were often devastating.
Norman Tebbit was around in the late 70's and early 80's when politics was rough and tough. He earned his wings or in the rugby idiom he was a Brian Moore/Vickery who kept order when the Jim Prior's in the partty were losing their nerve. Those under 40 will only know him as a bore which is what we all become in the end.
[tony] "I am surprised he was so stung by your comments that he chose to raise them with you in writing."
Well, as my mum used to say, 'If the cap fits, wear it..'
Thinking about this , I wonder if the old chap was actually a bit upset at the reaction to his intervention . Tony is quite right is was unhelpful and frankly disloyal.He shoud be helping
Norman who????
Iain: You should sit down with Norman and have a chat about his pet topic: buggery. See how much common ground there is between you then.
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