Norman Tebbit

Norman Tebbit played a key role in ruining the Conservative Party. It is customary to find something to praise in someone who has recently died, and to give him his due he was something of a trailblazer. He was basically the first right-wing populist to use the posing as an enemy of the establishment line as the chief selling point. It wouldn’t have been so obviously an easy way to power when he was doing it.

Prior to entering politics, Tebbit was a pilot in the Royal Air Force. His working-class background and straight-talking style endeared him to many Conservative voters and may even have won some former Labour voters over.

Let’s have a quick thumbnail to remind us of his career. Born in 1931, he is best known for his time as a cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher’s government during the 1980s. Tebbit served in several key positions including Secretary of State for Employment and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

Tebbit gained notoriety for his tough stance on the unions. His approach was emblematic of Thatcher’s wider policies of reducing the power of unions in Britain. He is also remembered for the “Tebbit Test,” a controversial measure he suggested to gauge the loyalty of immigrants by which cricket team they supported.

But the thing that he is best remembered for is telling the unemployed to get in their bikes and look for work. Here’s the full quote from the notorious conference speech. “I grew up in the Thirties with our unemployed father. He did not riot, he got on his bike and looked for work.”

Tebbit retired from active politics in the 1990s gradually, largely fading away as newer and nastier options popped up for the Europhobic and perpetually angry. I have sympathy for the loss his friends and family have just suffered – but for the rest of us his political legacy will live on to continue to blight our lives.