Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale

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Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale, PC (February 17, 1929 – March 4, 1993) was a British Conservative Party politician and government minister.

Ridley was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford. He became a civil engineer and company director. He served as secretary of the Canning Club, a councillor on Castle Ward Rural District Council and a member of the executive committee of the National Trust.

Contents 1 Political career 2 In government 3 After Parliament 4 Trivia 5 Notes 6 Offices held

[edit] Political career

At the 1955 general election, Ridley unsuccessfully contested the safe Labour seat of Blyth. He was elected member of Parliament for Cirencester and Tewkesbury at the 1959 election.

He was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary in 1962, and from 1964 he was a Select Committee member before joining the front bench.

He was a strong supporter in the Party of Margaret Thatcher. In 1973, he formed the Selsdon Group, which was opposed to the abandonment of the radical 1970 manifesto by Edward Heath. The members of the group were seen as disloyal at the time but their ideas came to dominate the Thatcher years.

[edit] In government

When the Conservatives were returned to office at the 1979 general election, Ridley was appointed to a series of government posts, including Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1981 to 1983.

After the 1983 election, Ridley joined Margaret Thatcher's cabinet as Secretary of State for Transport. In that role he played an important part in preparations for a possible coal strike, by way of stockpiling coal at power stations; this degree of foresight was an important factor in the UK miners' strike (1984-1985). The Ridley Plan to reduce the UK's dependence on deep-mined coal for energy was a prototype of later developments. Formative on the attitudes behind these ideas was the occasion, early in the Thatcher administration, when the government backed down from a confrontation with the miners, mindful of the end of Edward Heath's time in office. It is reported that Ridley's advice on avoiding a repeat had a major effect on the subsequent approach.

Never far from controversy, he had to apologise, following the sinking of the Channel ferry, the Herald of Free Enterprise in 1987, for remarking that he would not be pursuing a particular policy "with the Bow Doors Open" (The ship had capsized, with loss of 193 lives, as a result of sailing with its Bow Doors open).

As Secretary of State for the Environment from 1987 to 1989, he is credited with popularising the phrase NIMBY or Not In My Back Yard for those who as a reflex opposed any building development. It was soon revealed that Ridley opposed a low cost housing development near a village where he owned a property.

On July 14, 1990 he was forced to resign as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry after an interview published in The Spectator. He had described the proposed Economic and Monetary Union as "a German racket designed to take over the whole of Europe" and said that giving up sovereignty to Europe was as bad as giving it up to Adolf Hitler. The interview was illustrated with a cartoon depicting Ridley adding a Hitler moustache to a poster of the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. While Ridley was not one of the most powerful government members, his departure was a significant break in the Thatcherite ranks; Margaret Thatcher herself had to resign four months later. Some commentators point to Ridley's resignation, its manner, and the European issue at its core, as leading indicators for the next decade of Conservative Party politics.

[edit] After Parliament

On 28 July 1992, he was created a life peer as Baron Ridley of Liddesdale, of Willimontswick in the County of Northumberland. An unrepentant chain smoker for much of his life, Ridley died of lung cancer relatively soon after his elevation to the House of Lords. During a media launch event for an anti-litter campaign with Margaret Thatcher, Ridley was seen during the whole event with a cigarette in his mouth. Ridley's puppet on Spitting Image always had a cigarette in its mouth.

At the 1996 Nicholas Ridley Memorial Lecture, Mrs. Thatcher said of Ridley:

"Free-market economics was always Nick's passion. And he had a longer, better pedigree in that respect than most Thatcherites—or indeed I may add—than Thatcher herself. His first vote against a Conservative Government bailing out nationalised industries was in 1961. To be so right, so early on, is not to have seen the light—it is to have lit it...He would have been a superb Chancellor."^[1]

[edit] Trivia

Nicholas Ridley was the grandson of architect Edwin Lutyens, and is the father of distinguished historian and academic Dr Jane Ridley. He is also the uncle of scientist and broadcaster Matt Ridley.

Nicholas Ridley was a keen water colour artist, and photographer - he even took the cover photograph for the 1960s rock group the Swinging Blue Jeans first album.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Nicholas Ridley Memorial Lecture (22 November, 1996)

[edit] Offices held

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by William Morrison	Member of Parliament for Cirencester and Tewkesbury 1959–1992	Succeeded by Geoffrey Clifton-Brown
Political offices
Preceded by Nigel Lawson	Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1981–1983	Succeeded by John Moore
Preceded by Tom King	Secretary of State for Transport 1983–1986	Succeeded by John Moore
Preceded by Kenneth Baker	Secretary of State for the Environment 1986–1989	Succeeded by Chris Patten
Preceded by Lord Young	Secretary of State for Trade and Industry 1989–1990	Succeeded by Peter Lilley