Charmer who helped her trounce the Wets

THE death of the debonair and affable Cecil Parkinson is a sad event that brings old memories flooding back. The year 1981 was a turning point in the history of the Thatcher government. There were two key events. The first was Geoffrey Howe’s brave Budget in March, when taxes were raised and the deficit reduced in the depths of a serious recession, a decision that was to be totally vindicated by events in a way that is rare in the conduct of economic policy. The second was the Cabinet reshuffle in September, when the so-called wets — who had been critical of the Budget — were purged, and Cecil, Norman Tebbit and I were brought in to give Margaret, for the first time, a Cabinet with a Thatcherite majority. The three of us, though different in personality, formed a solid and happy alliance. Cecil was the smoothie of the three and Margaret particularly valued his skill at what she always called ‘presentation’, which is why she made him party chairman and a member of the small Falklands War Cabinet in 1982. His success in that role, coupled with his good looks, to which she was always susceptible, persuaded her to offer him the promise of becoming Foreign Secretary after the 1983 election. She withdrew the offer only because of the unfortunate Sara Keays affair and made him Trade and Industry Secretary instead, where he was able to launch the fundamental and much-needed reform of the Stock Exchange, and thus of the City as a whole, which came to be known as the ‘Big Bang’. Alas, the Press’s continued obsession with the Keays affair soon persuaded Mrs Thatcher — against my strong advice, but she was probably right — to dispense with his services altogether. Sadly, four years and another General Election victory later, when she felt able to bring him back into the Cabinet as Energy Secretary, much of the old sparkle, which had been so evident during his first term in the Cabinet, seemed (perhaps unsurprisingly) to have gone. But he made his contribution at a time when Margaret and, indeed, the entire Thatcherite agenda were weakest and in greatest need of support. His was invaluable.