Nigel Lawson: Innovative chancellor who ushered in an economic shift
A man of powerful intellect, Nigel Lawson, who enjoyed one of the longest tenures of any post-1945 chancellor, provided the underpinnings and coherence for Thatcherism. The latter was a collection of values and instincts which the leader had gained in Grantham and Lawson is one of a handful of politicians who, without becoming prime minister, significantly shaped the British political agenda.At the time of his tax-cutting Budget in 1988, Thatcher hailed him as a financial genius. He was delivering tax cuts, low inflation and falling unemployment and had pioneered privatisation. In many respects he was the architect of mid-term Thatcherism. But when he resigned 18 months later, his relationship with Thatcher had collapsed and the verdict of the Daily Mail was that he had become a “bankrupt chancellor”. “The Lawson boom” was a painful legacy for his successors, and Labour politicians made mileage out of the “Tory years of boom and bust”. Lawson was born in March 1932, the only son of a prosperous tea merchant, a Lithuanian who had fled Russia’s pogroms in the 1890s. His mother’s family were wealthy stockbrokers. He was bright enough to win a scholarship to Westminster and then gained a first in PPE at Christ Church, Oxford, specialising not in economics but philosophy. After graduating, he spent two years with the navy, becoming commander of his own ship. The noted talent-spotter, Gordon Newton of the Financial Times, recruited Lawson to the paper. He then moved on to the Sunday Telegraph as City editor, inventing its City page, returned to the FT in 1965 and became editor of The Spectator in 1966 in succession to lain Macleod. At university, Lawson had shown more interest in acting and playing poker than politics. He ignored the Oxford Union and the university’s Conservative Association, both magnets for would-be Tory politicians. But he was on the right and was recruited as a speechwriter for the new Conservative prime minister, Alec Douglas-Home, in 1963. He fought and unexpectedly lost the winnable Eton and Slough in the 1970 general election and had some difficulty finding a safe Conservative seat. Finally, he was chosen for and won the safe Blaby constituency in Leicestershire, in the 1974 election.As a young man, Lawson had seemed to be assured of a golden future. He was an innovative journalist, his brain power was widely remarked, and aged 23 he had married the 19-year-old Vanessa Salmon. But the loss of The Spectator post in 1970 and election defeat that same year was followed by the failure of his marriage. His wife went off with Sir Alfred Ayer, the philosopher. He had also speculated and lost large sums of money in the 1974 stock market crash.Before the “who governs?” election in February 1974, he had been taken on at the Conservative Research Department to help with political strategy. He was the first influential adviser to advocate an early general election because of the worsening economic situation. The good days were now over and the government should prepare the public for economic sacrifice. After much discussion, Heath called an election, but too late to catch the favourable tide in public opinion. More
