(Michael Heseltine has enjoyed one of the most colourful a...)
Michael Heseltine has enjoyed one of the most colourful and creative careers of modern British politics. In this forthright autobiography he tells the story not just of his political life but of his business career as well. However, above all, this is a tale of high drama and high politics - of the clash with Mrs Thatcher over Westland in 1986 which led to his walk-out from her Cabinet, of the duel between the two of them that brought about her downfall in 1990 and of his own restoration to favour in the Conservative Party culminating in his becoming Deputy Prime Minister in 1995. If the top office at Westminster always eluded him, nothing much else did - as this vividly told story of a 'doer' rather than a 'blower' in politics amply demonstrates.
(This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
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Michael and Anne Heseltine describe the ups and downs o...)
Michael and Anne Heseltine describe the ups and downs of how they set about transforming and expanding a wild, overgrown, and often dilapidated woodland into the magnificent garden they have today. The garden at Thenford currently has an arboretum which contains more than 3,500 different species of trees and shrubs, including rare plants which were wild-collected by well-known plantsmen including Roy Lancaster OBE, Allen Coombes, Keith Rushforth, and Chris Chadwell. It is also known for its sculpture garden, which has an eclectic collection of work ranging from a white marble Tazza fountain to an enormous statue of Lenin. Beautifully illustrated with both professional photographs and private family images, this personal story of the creation of an extraordinary garden will delight horticultural experts and novices alike.
(When Where There's a Will was published in the early Spri...)
When Where There's a Will was published in the early Spring of 1987 it received not only a highly favourable review coverage but, rarely for a work of political analysis, reached Number One in the Sunday Times best-seller lists.
Michael Heseltine revised the book including a totally new chapter, bringing his reflections up to date and giving his thoughts on events of the Spring and Summer of a highly political year. Where There's a Will is a personal testament, a book of ideas, an autobiographical reassessment. It includes many illustrations from Michael Heseltine's personal life and also his views on the need for a British industrial strategy, the real meaning of the North-South divide, the underlying challenge of the inner cities and the proper role and management of government in attacking these and other problems. He faces the reality of continuing high levels of unemployment, sets out his vision of our relationship with the Superpowers. His prescription is one of radical reform, carried out with energy, efficiency and a sense of genuine partnership.
Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, is a British Conservative politician and businessman.
Background
Michael Heseltine was born on March 21, 1933 in Swansea in Wales, the son of Eileen Ray (nee Pridmore) and Rupert Heseltine, a factory owner. He is a distant descendant of the composer and songwriter Charles Dibdin, honoured by one of his middle names, and at the time of his parents' marriage in 1932, his father gave his name as Rupert Dibdin-Heseltine. His father's ancestors were farm labourers in Pembrey.
His mother originated in West Wales, and his maternal great-grandfather worked at the Swansea docks, as a result of which Heseltine was later made an honorary member of the Swansea Dockers Club. His maternal grandfather, James Pridmore, founded West Glamorgan Collieries Ltd, a short-lived company that briefly worked two small mines on the outskirts of Swansea (1919–21). Eileen Pridmore was born in Swansea in 1907.
Education
Michael Heseltine went to a private boarding school, Shrewsbury School. This was followed by three years at Pembroke College, Oxford, where he took a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics and where his debating skills and already perceived business sense led to his becoming president of the Union in 1954.
After university he studied accountancy from 1955 to 1957 and set out early on a career that made him a millionaire property developer when he used a legacy to buy a house in an unfashionable part of London and rented rooms.
Career
After graduation he worked as a magazine publisher with Haymarket Publishing.
Tavistock, which he represented until 1974, then disappeared as a result of boundary changes, and he was selected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley, which he represented into the 1990s. A close ally of the left-wing Heathite Conservative Peter Walker, Heseltine first made his name in Parliament attacking the Labour government's transport legislation. During the Heath government he was a junior minister first in the Transport Department and then on Local Government before becoming minister for aerospace from 1972 to 1974.
In opposition from 1974 to 1979, he was successively spokesman for industry and for the environment, and when the Conservatives returned to power under Margaret Thatcher in 1979 he became secretary of state for the environment.
In an episode in May 1976 that has haunted his career since, he became infuriated when Labour leftwingers began singing the "Red Flag" in the Commons chamber after a key vote. Heseltine seized the ceremonial mace and swung it around his head, offering the symbol of parliamentary authority in mockery to the Labour benches. Fellow Tories were shocked and he had to apologize the next day.
But from then on the nickname "Tarzan, " occasioned also by his abundant blonde mane, stuck with him. About this time, too, Heseltine became a favorite of the Conservative Party conference, delighting party activists with an annual series of tub-thumping theatrical speeches attacking the Labour Party and extending well beyond his front-bench brief.
As secretary of state for the environment he was responsible for reducing the departmental workforce and introducing the MINIS (Management Information for Ministers) system, which set specific tasks and responsibilities for civil servants. Always a socially conscious politician, he was given specific charge of the Merseyside area after Liverpool riots in 1980.
He and the city made a considerable impression on each other as he sought to counter the deprivation, which had appalled him, with inner-city development plans and new initiatives for dockland areas involving private industry.
He was forced to back away from a plan he produced as environment minister for local referenda to be held before councils could impose extra rate (local tax)increases on residents. He set his face against the "poll tax" idea which, when introduced after he had left the Cabinet, caused major political problems for the Thatcher government.
In January 1983 Michael Heseltine was made defense secretary in the hope that he would succeed in reducing manpower and budgets at that department, too.
He became an enthusiastic crusader against the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and a strong supporter of the stationing in Britain of cruise missiles, part of the effort later held to have pushed the Soviet Union toward arms reduction talks. Conflict with Thatcher A keen supporter of the developing European Community, (European Union) Heseltine argued through the autumn of 1985 that the crisis in a small British helicopter-making company, Westland, should be solved by European co-operation.
Thatcher, with the support of other ministers, chose a rescue deal with the United States Sikorsky firm.
Heseltine quit the government in consequence, storming out in the middle of a Cabinet meeting in Downing Street in protest against the prime minister's style. Another minister, Leon Brittan, later to become one of Britain's EC commissioners, was forced to resign over the leaking of a critical letter about Heseltine from the solicitor general.
The affair produced a major crisis for Thatcher's government, and relations between her and Heseltine were bitter from then on. Instead of accepting obscurity on the backbenches, Heseltine became the highest-profile politician in his party, traveling ceaselessly around the country as a popular speaker at an endless round of Conservative functions in MPs' constituencies.
Offering general loyalty to the government's line but differing on certain specific issues, as in his enthusiasm for British participation in the European monetary system and for closer relations between business and government, Heseltine was able to take his Thatcherism "a la carte. " He remained an ever-present threat to Thatcher as the government ran into deep political difficulties in 1989 and 1990. As alternative leader in waiting, Heseltine finally challenged Thatcher for leadership of the party (and thus prime minister).
In an election limited to Conservative MPs on November 20, 1990, Heseltine received 152 votes. Thatcher received 204, but that was still four votes short of preventing a second round of balloting. Thatcher then resigned, forcing a wide-open election between Heseltine, Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, and Chancellor of the Exchequer John Major. Major won and promptly named Heseltine as secretary of state for environment and local government. Major later bestowed other titles on Heseltine: Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State, titles not held by one person since 1962.
He and Major discussed his role in the government before the election, and it appears that he was rewarded for encouraging his followers to vote for Major instead of abstaining. In exchange for his loyalty, Heseltine was rewarded a new suite of offices over twice the size of Major's. Heseltine also snagged a new press nickname to go with the job-"Lion King" instead of "Tarzan.
While in office, Heseltine met with Chinese Premier Li Peng in Beijing and Chinese President Jiang Zemin. While on the trip to China, wife Anne donated medical equipment and medicine to the Beijing Children's Hospital on behalf of the British Chamber of Commerce.
In May of 1997, Heseltine announced that he would not seek the post of prime minister because of poor health, although he was widely considered a front-runner to replace John Major. His decision not to run probably spelled the end of his career at the top of politics, political analysts said.
On 21 June 1993, Heseltine suffered a serious heart attack in Venice (especially worrying as Heseltine was sixty, and his father had died of a heart attack aged fifty-five). The pains had already stopped by the time he reached hospital. Heseltine was shown looking unwell and using a wheelchair – in fact the result of gout in his foot from the medication which he was taking.
He took four months off from work, and did not make a speech at the party conference in October 1993, instead amusing the audience by appearing on the platform and performing mock exercises with his arms.
In mid-1995 Major challenged his critics to "put up or shut up" by resubmitting himself to a leadership election in which he was unsuccessfully opposed by John Redwood the Secretary of State for Wales. There was speculation that Heseltine's supporters would engineer Major's downfall in the hope that their man would take over, but they stayed loyal to Major.
Heseltine had been listening to regular reports about his potential support from his lieutenants Keith Hampson, Richard Ottaway, Michael Mates and Peter Temple-Morris, and in the event of a second ballot hoped to receive Major’s endorsement. Peter Tapsell refused to support him because of the European issue. Hampson believed that Heseltine might have won, as did Philip Stephens of the Financial Times. Michael Crick does not agree, pointing out that many of Heseltine’s supporters from 1990 had retired from the Commons and the 1992 intake was more right-wing and eurosceptic.
Heseltine stood down from his Henley-on-Thames constituency at the 2001 election, being succeeded by Spectator editor Boris Johnson, but he remained outspoken on British politics. He was created a life peer on 12 July 2001 taking the title Baron Heseltine, of Thenford in the County of Northamptonshire.
In December 2002, Heseltine controversially called for Iain Duncan Smith to be replaced as leader of the Conservatives by the "dream-ticket" of Clarke as leader and Michael Portillo as deputy. He suggested the party's MPs vote on the matter rather than party members as currently required by party rules. Without the replacement of Duncan Smith, the party "has not a ghost of a chance of winning the next election" he said. Duncan Smith was removed the following year. In the 2005 party leadership election, Heseltine backed young moderniser David Cameron.
Following Cameron's election to the leadership he set up a wide-ranging policy review. Chairmen of the various policy groups included ex-Chancellor Kenneth Clarke and other former Cabinet ministers John Redwood, John Gummer, Stephen Dorrell and Michael Forsyth as well as ex-leader Iain Duncan Smith. Heseltine was appointed to head the cities task force having been responsible for urban policy twice as Environment Secretary under Thatcher and Major.
In 2008 Heseltine took part in the BBC Wales programme Coming Home about his Welsh family history. He said in this programme that he regarded Wales as his home and identified strongly with his Welsh ancestry.
In March 2011, he was asked to head an audit of the UK's industrial performance for Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and HM Treasury, upon which—after 11 years as a member of the House of Lords—he made his maiden speech in the chamber.
Heseltine was interviewed in 2012 as part of The History of Parliament's oral history project.
Achievements
He was a key figure in British politics from the 1980s into the mid-1990s, first as a member of the Thatcher governments, then as an alternative Conservative voice to that of then Prime Minister Thatcher, and later as a member of the John Major government. Michael (Ray Dibdin) Heseltine, having served as a junior and middle rank minister through the government of Edward Heath (1970 - 1974), became secretary of state for the environment when the Conservative Party returned to power in 1979 under Margaret Thatcher.
Later he was secretary of state for defense, but he left the government dramatically, walking out of a Cabinet meeting in January 1986 in protest at her style of running the government.
He then became on the backbenches a focus of an alternative Conservatism, preaching what he characterized as a "caring capitalism, " taking a more enthusiastically pro-European Community line than Thatcher, and opposing some of the government's more controversial policies, such as the (community charge) poll tax. He succeeded in defying the laws of gravity which normally ensure that ministers who resign office steadily disappear from public view. Instead, Heseltine toured the country speaking at countless Tory meetings, remaining through this period a likely successor to Thatcher as party leader.
He also founded there a non-establishment Tory society called the Blue Ribbon Club.
He had joined the Conservative Party in Swansea at age 17, and after only nine months of his two years of National Service Michael Heseltine took terminal leave in October 1959, as the rules allowed, to contest the parliamentary seat of Gower, a forlorn hope for the Tories.
He tried again in marginal Coventry North in October 1964 but by the next general election had been picked for the safe Tory seat of Tavistock, which he won in 1966.
Membership
He was a member of the Blue Ribbon Club.
Connections
Heseltine married Anne Harding Williams in 1962. They have three children: Annabel (born in 1963), Rupert (born in 1967) and Alexandra (born in 1966) and nine grandchildren. During the period Heseltine was the MP for Tavistock in Devon (from 1966 to 1974), Heseltine became part of a local 'fishing gang' with poet Ted Hughes. His wife was delighted, as an admirer of the poet, but Heseltine himself did not initially know who he was.
