Norman Tebbit

[scawsby steve]

Has finally got on his bike.

RIP.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Interesting one.

Listening to old friends and combatants talk about him, it sounds like on a one to one basis he was actually a kind, courteous, friendly soul who would discuss issues with an open mind. But he put on a different persona as the right wing hard man for the public.

There's a school of thought that reckons the reason why we never had any successful far right political parties in this country up until recently, unlike pretty much every other European country, is that the Tory party was significantly  further to the Right than the typical centre-right European parties. So, while the European centre-right opened a space for far right parties, the Tories were absorbing some very right wing voters and diluted their influence.

I heard a couple of interviews with Tebbit yesterday from 15-20 years ago which were very interesting - suggesting someone who understood that and worried that the Cameron move to make the Tories less of the "Nasty Party" would open up a space for Farage to fill. That was really interesting, and suggested Tebbit was actually quite a deep thinker who saw his role as being a lightning conductor for the "nastier" parts of Tory support.

[BobG]

Thank you Billy. I'd never considered that. Interesting indeed. I had tried to write a comment on this thread before. I'm glad I binned it. Lol.

BobG

[danumdon]

Interesting one.

Listening to old friends and combatants talk about him, it sounds like on a one to one basis he was actually a kind, courteous, friendly soul who would discuss issues with an open mind. But he put on a different persona as the right wing hard man for the public.

There's a school of thought that reckons the reason why we never had any successful far right political parties in this country up until recently, unlike pretty much every other European country, is that the Tory party was significantly  further to the Right than the typical centre-right European parties. So, while the European centre-right opened a space for far right parties, the Tories were absorbing some very right wing voters and diluted their influence.

I heard a couple of interviews with Tebbit yesterday from 15-20 years ago which were very interesting - suggesting someone who understood that and worried that the Cameron move to make the Tories less of the "Nasty Party" would open up a space for Farage to fill. That was really interesting, and suggested Tebbit was actually quite a deep thinker who saw his role as being a lightning conductor for the "nastier" parts of Tory support.

Ultimately being that lightning conductor for the nastier parts of Tory support didn't work out to well for the Tories. If anything the far right element should have gone their separate ways way back then.

Just think what the political landscape would be looking like right now!

[BillyStubbsTears]

In a FPTP system, if the Right vote had been split by just a bit, there's have been no Thatcher. That was the point that Tebbit understood, while the centre and left tore itself apart, despite always being the majority in the country.