The memory of Nigel Lawson will always be a blessing. He was the embodiment of serious radicalism, a politician who changed Britain for the better – and for good.
When I became chancellor, I hung a picture of Nigel behind my desk in No. 11. It was a large photograph of him holding up his red Budget box. It was an image which summed up the intellectual confidence that he brought to the job. But it was also a reminder of the sheer amount of preparation, hard work and attention to detail that he had put in to get the party and the government into a position where it could do those radical things.
One lesson I take from Nigel’s life is that the greater the mission, the more thorough the preparation must be
He had an exceptional analytical brain and great political courage – the ability to diagnose what was wrong with our economy and the bravery to stay the course as he addressed these problems, despite the criticisms and brickbats he received along the way. He left us with a far simpler tax code and one that moved us away from the penally high rates that had become a feature of the postwar system.
One of the lessons I take from Nigel’s life is that the greater the mission, the more thorough the preparation must be. As financial secretary to the Treasury, he formulated the medium-term financial plan for Geoffrey Howe and Margaret Thatcher which was based on the premise that public spending and inflation must be controlled before taxes can be cut substantially.
When he became energy secretary, he did not plunge into head-on confrontation with the National Union of Mineworkers. Rather, he began the policy of stockpiling coal which allowed the country to make it through the miners’ strike and to defeat Arthur Scargill’s anti-democratic approach.
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