From the archives: Ridley was right

In July 1990, Nicholas Ridley told Dominic Lawson that monetary union was “all
a German racket designed to take over the whole of Europe”. He was immediately forced to resign from the Cabinet. In this week’s magazine, which hits newsstands today, Lawson says that Nicholas Ridley was right (subscribers click
here). Here, in full, is the article that ended his career:


Saying the unsayable about the Germans, Dominic Lawson, 14 July 1990



It is said, or it ought to have been said, that every Conservative Cabinet minister dreams of dictating a leader to the Daily Telegraph. Nicholas Ridley, the Secretary of State fro Industry is, so far as I am aware, the only one to have done so. It happened when the late Jock Bruce-Gardyne, long-time writer of the Telegraph’s economics leaders, was staying with Mr Ridley. The then deputy editor of the Telegraph, Colin Welch, rang up to urge Jock to file a promised leader for the next morning’s paper.