{"id":5698,"date":"2011-04-02T21:43:50","date_gmt":"2011-04-02T21:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=5698"},"modified":"2011-04-02T21:44:47","modified_gmt":"2011-04-02T21:44:47","slug":"norman-tebbit-80","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/norman-tebbit-80\/","title":{"rendered":"Norman Tebbit, 80"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Cross-posted over at the Corner<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Daily Telegraph <\/em>is running an interview <\/a>with Norman Tebbit, one of the Thatcherite greats, who turned 80 this week. You don\u2019t always have to agree with him (I don\u2019t, not always) to find it a cause for celebration that he is still around and about, busy blogging <\/a>(a must read) and constantly doing his best to remind David Cameron of what a Conservative party should be.<\/p>\n

Contrary, perhaps, to his somewhat feral reputation (one infuriated Labour politician famously described him as a \u201csemi house-trained polecat\u201d) and obvious delight in provocation, Lord Tebbit is a thoughtful man even if he would probably be embarrassed to admit it. I had the honor of hosting one of the first (possibly even the first) of his public engagements after the hideous IRA Brighton bombing that nearly killed him and left his wife paralyzed. The pair of them had spent hours trapped under the rubble. He had had there, he told me quietly, \u201cplenty of time\u201d to think. And then he changed the subject. His wife, the Daily Telegraph<\/em> writer notes, quickly realized that she had been paralyzed (she was a former nurse), \u201cbut she did not want to worry her husband so she made no mention of it. When they were finally pulled out on live television, her condition became clear. Lord Tebbit, often described as the greatest prime minister we never had, left mainstream politics to look after her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some extracts:<\/p>\n

It is not a surprise that Lord Tebbit cannot find it in himself to forgive Magee [the Brighton bomber]. Does he think God exists? \u201cI\u2019m not sure. He ought to. Things would work better. I said to someone the other day that it\u2019s up to God whether he forgives him [Magee], not for me. All I\u2019d like to do is accelerate the time of the interview\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026 Lord Tebbit has been cast as a T-Rex, but, as he points out, Tories do not tend to be right-on youths. \u201cThey tell me that Conservatives are dying out, that we need to modernise, but we keep burying old people and funnily enough there are more the next year. It amuses me that when I go out people will come up to me and say, \u2018When I was 20 I loathed you and everything you stood for. Now I find myself thinking, My God! I am getting just like him!\u2019\u2009 \u201d Lord Tebbit argues that the priorities of government are defence, enforcing law and looking after the economy and infrastructure, and that it should not get involved with social mores. \u201cAttitudes change a lot over time, go back and forth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2026He says he is more of a Conservative than David Cameron. The Big Society is just a \u201cbuzzword. It\u2019s a logo looking for a product\u201d. He wants to turn the party back to being nationalist and jokes that he would like it to go into coalition with the UK Independence Party\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026What does he feel Mr Cameron really believes in? \u201cI\u2019m not sure what he believes in. Let me put it tactfully like that.\u201d Later he quotes Corinthians: \u201c\u2009\u2019If the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall follow?\u2019 David was more concerned about being prime minister than what he was going to do as prime minister. I think that\u2019s the heart of it.\u201d Lord Tebbit does concede some admiration for Mr Cameron for getting the UN resolution over Libya. But even this comes with a caveat. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it was wise to do so is another matter. I have the gravest doubt that what follows Gaddafi will be sweetness and light.\u201d Of the rush to war, Lord Tebbit says that \u201cit was thoughtless\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes one has to ignore the call of \u2018do something\u2019 in favour of sitting down and working out what it is that needs to be done.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Many more years, please. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted over at the Corner: The Daily Telegraph is running an interview with Norman Tebbit, one of the Thatcherite greats, who turned 80 this week. You don\u2019t always have to agree with him (I don\u2019t, not always) to find it … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[741,468],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5698"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5702,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5698\/revisions\/5702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}