Recent content by Lucon50

As Sinn Féin travelled into the spotlight, it began to rapidly increase its electoral mandate. In November 1983, Gerry Adams MP had become its President and he steered the party back into mainstream politics. The UK and Irish governments were very concerned that Sinn Féin's Republican ideas...

On hearing the Government's bulletin that it would introduce a flurry of liberal-conservative pet projects, Tory MPs grew nervous as they watched party membership numbers drop. Former representative Peter Walker, defeated in 1983, finally switched to the SDP to join mentors Ted Heath, Ian...

In amidst a sensational environment of leadership defenestrations and new parties, the fledgling Alliance juggled its own set of personal relationships (which moved up and down regularly) and Government policy trade-offs. Even since the SDP's experimental plane took off in 1981 and the pact with...

Tony Benn used a widely trailed speech in Liverpool to launch a direct attack on the British media, winning loud applause for his assertion that newspaper owners "campaign single-mindedly in defence of their commercial interests and the political policies which will protect them". He was never...

Front-bench team of Enoch Powell, 1985:

During the early weeks of 1985, candidates toured the length and breadth of Britain and Northern Ireland on the final stretch of a dramatic race to become the first elected Leader of the Unionist Party. At a hustings in Essex, Norman Tebbit claimed that his new political home would not be a...

Shadow Cabinet of Michael Heseltine, 1 February 1985:

Throughout his career in front-line politics, Michael Heseltine had argued for a centre-right, liberal form of conservatism. He was very much in favour of further European integration and a fierce supporter of Margaret Thatcher's 'right to buy' scheme, which he introduced as Environment...

After a dreadful time for Willie Whitelaw, precipitated by the defection of 24 MPs to form the Unionist Party, conspirators still on the Conservative backbenches now wondered if they should mount a coup against their leader. Letters of no-confidence were soon flying in to the chair of the 1922...

Enoch Powell took the fight to Norman Tebbit on 7 January 1985. With assistance from Jill Knight, the front-runner unleashed an attack on Tebbit's record in government and policy acumen. Mr Powell had built a nativist, right-libertarian and British unionist coalition with anti-EEC and anti-US...

We'll find out soon enough. ;)

The Unionists might have rocked the political world in defying the Government with a hard-line policy on Northern Ireland and defections from the Conservatives in Parliament, but the party was now bitterly divided. After Norman Tebbit's statement of intent to challenge Jim Molyneaux for the...

The Chancellor, Bill Rodgers, offered a helping hand to the working poor while reassuring middle earners on 19 February 1985 when the Alliance's third budget heralded radical reform of industry and a concerted attack on poverty. Standing outside No. 11 Downing Street brandishing his red box, Mr...

Action on the next round of Liberal/SDP bills for the Queen's Speech came in January 1985. David Steel took command of his approximately 40-seat working majority with a programme that promised "the necessary mixture of idealism and realism" to upgrade Britain in the name of economic efficiency...