Former Chancellor Nigel Lawson has died and the eulogies are misleading
Nigel, later Lord Lawson of Blaby, was Margaret Thatcher’s Chancellor of the Exchequer between 1983 and 1989. Much of the state of the UK today is his responsibility.
Was Nigel Lawson really a towering financial genius?
That’s not my memory, and I was around when he was Chancellor.
I appreciate that, now he has passed away at the age of 91, people will want to say kind words about him. But that doesn’t mean we should whitewash his career and ignore his mistakes.
That will just set up future generations to make them all over again.
So I tend to agree with Clare Hepworth:
The sanctification & cannonisation of Nigel Lawson has begun.
Launched by a fulsome eulogy on #r4today & will doubtless fill the pages of the weekend print press.
Still, one mustn't speak ill of the departed – except that many current problems can be laid firmly at his door.— Clare Hepworth OBE (@Hepworthclare) April 4, 2023
The economist Richard Murphy has provided some criticism, along with some of his Twitter followers:
He also managed to waste the North Sea oil revenues on tax cuts instead of building up a sovereign wealth fund, while encouraging artificially high rates of extraction to keep the price of oil down. Talk about short termism. That is what happens when journalists are in charge.
— Martin (@MartinRapier76) April 4, 2023
Nick Rider tweeted: “I remember hearing him on the radio, about 1988, saying for the first time, even more clearly than Thatcher, that the loss of manufacturing, thousands of people’s jobs, didn’t matter, because ‘services’ were the future. The architect of the low-wage economy.”
“Remember when he removed double income mortgage tax relief? It cause chaos in the housing market,” added Jane Clout.
The list goes on and on.
The privatisations of railways, water, power, and BP were all disasters.
He tanked the housing market.
He supported Brexit while living in France.
And in later years, he opposed action to prevent climate change, because he thought the economic cost of saving our environment would be too high. Think about that.
To those who genuinely liked him and want to praise him: I wish you well.
But please, praise him for praiseworthy acts – not for a career that has maimed the country he was supposed to be serving.
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical
3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com
5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
I don’t remember much detail about Lawson – it’s a long time since he hung up his boots, but most it is negative. He did little for ordinary people, but l seem to remember him being OK if you were wealthy, but needed a tax cut.