Norman Tebbit
Norman Beresford Tebbit, Lord Tebbit of Chingford (born 29 March 1931) is a right-wing British politician. He was a key member of the second Thatcher government and was Secretary of State for Trade and Industry from 1983 to 1985 and chairman of the Conservative Party from 1985 to 1987. [1]
Contents
Biography
Tebbit worked as a journalist from 1947 to 1949 and then joined the RAF for two years before spending a period working in publishing and advertising (1951-53). From 1953 to 1970 he worked as an airline pilot before being elected as a Conservative MP. [2]
In the first Thatcher government Tebbit was appointed under sec of state for trade (1979-81) and then Minister of State for Industry (1981) before being appointed Secretary of State for Employment (1981-83) during the highest period of unemployment since the 1930s. [3] He was Secretary of State for Trade and Industry from 1983 to 1985.
In 1984 Tebbit was elected a member of the Other Club, a secretive dining society made up of powerful establishment figures from politics, business and to a lesser extent journalism and academia. [4] The Home Secretary Leon Brittan was also elected a member that year. [5]
In 1985 he became Chairman of the Conservative Party and was also appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster by Thatcher [6] – a position involving no official responsibilities but used to keep favoured figures in government.
Tebbit took up a number of corporate appointments after leaving politics. From 1987 to 1996 he was a director of the industrial conglomerate BET plc and the telecommunications group BT plc, which the Thathcer government had privitised. He was a director of the industrial conglomerate Sears plc until 1999 when it was acquired by Philip Green, and a director of the JCB subsidiary JCB Excavators Ltd from 1987 to 1991. [7]
From 1989 Tebbit took up a number of media positions. From 1989 to 2004 was a director of The Spectator (1828) Ltd, the publisher of the right-wing weekly The Spectator. He was a political commentator BSkyB from 1989 to 1997 and a columnist for The Sun from 1995 to 1997. [8] Both were controlled by the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch who had been supportive of Thatcher throughout the 1980s. He was columnist for the Mail on Sunday from 1997 to 2001. [9]
Affiliations
The Other Club, member since 1984
Resources
Glasgow University Media Group [On Norman Tebbit] 'Columnlist', The List, 14-27 November 1986
Notes
- ↑ Debrett's People of Today, The Rt Hon Lord Tebbit, CH, PC, [Accessed 5 January 2009]
- ↑ Debrett's People of Today, The Rt Hon Lord Tebbit, CH, PC, [Accessed 5 January 2009]
- ↑ BBC -On This Day 1950 - 2005 1982: UK unemployment tops three million, 26 January 1982
- ↑ John Lloyd. 'Secret members of the Other Club', The Times, 29 July 1997; p.13
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Debrett's People of Today, The Rt Hon Lord Tebbit, CH, PC, [Accessed 5 January 2009]
- ↑ Debrett's People of Today, The Rt Hon Lord Tebbit, CH, PC, [Accessed 5 January 2009]
- ↑ Debrett's People of Today, The Rt Hon Lord Tebbit, CH, PC, [Accessed 5 January 2009]
- ↑ Debrett's People of Today, The Rt Hon Lord Tebbit, CH, PC, [Accessed 5 January 2009]
