April 2017 7 9
Michael Howard
The Right Honourable The Lord Michael Howard of Lympne CH
PC QC, born 1941, Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader
of the Opposition from 2003-5 when he lost the election to
Gordon Browne following a campaign which he focused on
immigration and asylum seekers, though he was the child of
Romanian immigrants himself, Home Secretary in 2005 where
he reduced the right to silence of defendants and infamously
failed to answer questions from 'Newsnight'ā€™s Jeremy Paxman
as to whether he had intervened when a prison governor was
sacked, leading Ann Widdecombe, his former minister of state
to say there was "something of the night" about him, Minister
for Water where he privatised water in England and Wales,
Secretary of State for Employment in 1990 where he abolished
the closed shop, Minister for Local Government in the late 1980s
where he accepted the amendment which would become
Section 28, prohibiting local governments from the "promotion"
of homosexuality and defended its inclusion and introduced the
poll tax, which brought down Margaret Thatcher, and Secretary
of State at the Department of Trade responsible for the Big Bang
in 1985.
Apparently invoking the spirit of Thatcher during the Falklands
War the week after the UK formally started the Brexit process,
Lord Howard told Sky News on 2 April: ā€œThirty-ļ¬ve years ago this
week, another woman Prime Minister sent a taskforce halfway
across the world to defend the freedom of another small group
of British people against another Spanish-speaking country,
and Iā€™m absolutely certain that our current Prime Minister will
show the same resolve in standing by the people of Gibraltarā€.
Of course, the Prime Minister sought to defend Lordī˜“Howard. Her
ofļ¬ce said all the Conservative grandee was doingī˜“was trying
to establish "the resolve" that Theresa May's administration has
to defend the sovereignty of the territory in negotiations with
the EU over Brexit. Spain and the UK are both members of NATO
whose members dedicate themselves to preparing to attack
non-members but not each other.
April 2017