Alistair McAlpine, Baron McAlpine of West Green

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Robert Alistair McAlpine, Baron McAlpine of West Green , known as Alistair McAlpine (born May 14, 1942 in London , † January 18, 2014 in Italy ) was a British politician ( Conservative Party , Referendum Party ), life peer , author and businessman .

life and career

McAlpine was born in 1942 as the younger son of Edwin McAlpine, Baron McAlpine of Moffat (1907–1990) and Ella Mary Gardner Garnett (1910–1987). Sir William McAlpine, 6th Baronet , is his older brother. He attended the Stowe School in Buckinghamshire . He left this at the age of 16, with only three O-levels, mainly due to his dyslexia .

As the descendant of a family of building contractors who at that time also owned The Dorchester , McAlpine had worked in the family business since his school days, initially as a workshop clerk on the so-called South Bank Site. This was known for unofficial strikes , organized among others by the Communist Party and rival Trotskyists . McAlpine became director of Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons in 1964 .

He was a director of Newarthil plc. From 1972 to 1973 he was director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), from 1973 to 1980 then deputy chairman of the Contemporary Arts Society. From 1975 to 1983 he was director of George Weidenfeld Holdings Ltd. From 1974 to 1975 he was treasurer and from 1975 vice-president of the European League of Economic Cooperation.

McAlpine was close in his political views Margaret Thatcher , whom he met in 1975 at a dinner party. A few days later he was appointed treasurer of the party by her. He was honorary treasurer of the European Democratic Union from 1978 to 1988 and of the Conservative and Unionist Party from 1975 to 1990 and deputy party chairman from 1979 to 1983.

At TI Finance Ltd he was director from 1981 to 1990, then chairman from 1985 to 1990. McAlpine was a member of the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1981/82, the Council British Stage Company from 1973 to 1975 and from 1976 to 1991 at the Friends of Victoria and Albert Museum . From 1974 to 1980 he was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Opera House . He was the director of the Polytechnic of the South Bank from 1981 to 1982, and from 1981 to 1984 he held that position at the Stowe School. He was President from 1978 to 1981 and since 1981 Patron of the British Waterfowl Association. McAlpine held the office of vice-president in various institutions. McAlpine has been the patron of the SAVE Foundation in Australia since 1989 .

McAlpine made Thatcher's new headquarters on Great College Street available to Thatcher in the months after her election defeat. Later he took there on Conservative MPs who opposed the government's policy of John Major the Maastricht Treaty rejected publicly. As Treasurer of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990, he was responsible for most of the secret collections of party donations. This caused concern among members of the Select Committee on Home Affairs of the House of Commons in 1993 . In an interview with Independent Television News (ITN) he admitted that he had made the wrong decision by accepting donations from the Turkish tycoon Asil Nadir . He also admitted accepting money from US businessmen and Hong Kong residents. The money was smuggled through secret foreign accounts, which, according to him, exist in large quantities. In 1996, in an interview with BBC Radio 4 , McAlpine took the position that the Conservative Party should return the money received from Nadir. McAlpine was generally opposed to suggestions that the Conservative Central Office should disclose more financial transactions.

From 1993 to 1996 he was President of The Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital . He is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers. In Australia he made huge sums of money from property speculators. He spent three months a year there in the 1990s. He owns collections of Aboriginal , Celtic and Roman artifacts . McAlpine makes jewelry and owns a gallery on Cork Street. In the 1990s, his business enterprises in Australia suffered a financial collapse.

In November 2012, McAlpine was accused of being involved in a child sexual abuse scandal in North Wales. The BBC television program Newsnight mentioned the involvement of a high-ranking Conservative politician without McAlpine being named directly. However , his name was mentioned as a suspected suspect on Twitter and other social networks . However, it turned out that MacAlpine had been mistaken for the real perpetrator due to superficial similarities. The BBC was publicly criticized for its news policy in this matter and the responsible program director resigned. McAlpine received £ 185,000 in compensation from the BBC for this reputation damage donated to charity. McAlpine also took legal action against other news magazines and against individual Twitter users.

He was considered a bon vivant , stood up as a patron for the arts and was active as an author. He pursued these interests with considerable commitment. He founded his own publishing house in London in the 1960s and worked as an art dealer , collector, hotelier and zoo owner in Broome , Western Australia .

Membership in the House of Lords

McAlpine was named a Life Peer as Baron McAlpine of West Green , of West Green in the County of Hampshire on February 2, 1984 . On May 15, 1984, he gave his inaugural address in the House of Lords . He last spoke up on November 7, 1989. He last took part in a vote on February 8, 2010.

In 1996 he resigned from the Conservative Party and became a member of James Goldsmith's Referendum Party . After his death in 1997, McAlpine became party chairman there. In the House of Lords he sat for some time as an independent Conservative and then returned to the Tories.

He resigned from the House of Lords on May 21, 2010 to avoid UK taxation of his wealth .

family

McAlpine married Sarah Baron in 1964. In 1979 McAlpine and Baron divorced. McAlpine is the father of three daughters: two daughters come from his first marriage to Sarah Baron, another daughter from his second marriage to Romilly McAlpine. In 2002 McAlpine married Athena Malpas, who was 27 years younger than him, for the third time.

Publications

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Machiavelli, marketing, and management By Phil Harris, Andrew Lock, Patricia Rees Machiavelli, marketing, and management By Phil Harris, Andrew Lock, Patricia Rees at Google Books
  2. ↑ Tory grandee Lord McAlpine dies at home in Italy
  3. ^ The Lord McAlpine of West Green ( Memento December 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) www.Savefoundation.org.au.
  4. ^ Profiles: Lord Midas, his zenith and nadir: Lord McAlpine, party treasurer for Mrs Thatcher in: The Independent of June 19, 1993
  5. ^ McAlpine tells Tories to return Nadir cash in: The Independent, May 21, 1996
  6. ↑ David Leigh, Steven Morris, Bibi van der Zee: 'Mistaken identity' led to top Tory abuse claim. The Guardian , January 18, 2012, accessed January 18, 2014 .
  7. ^ Lord McAlpine of West Green - Director ( August 29, 2010 memento in the Internet Archive ) Biography at EHC International
  8. ↑ http://www.landscapeandlanguagecentre.au.com/landscape_old/v2_3docs/rabbitt.pdf Genealogie {Dead Link | url = http: //www.landscapeandlanguagecentre.au.com/landscape_old/v2_3docs/rabbitt.pdf | date = 2018 -08 | archivebot = 2018-08-23 07:48:28 InternetArchiveBot}} (link not available)
  9. ↑ Australia with Outback By Steffen Albrecht Australia with Outback By Steffen Albrecht on Google Books
  10. ↑ Tory donor Lord Ashcroft gives up non-dom tax status Article in: BBC News of July 7, 2010
  11. ↑ My wife nursed me as I lay dying. How did I repay her? By walking out in: Daily Mail, February 20, 2001
  12. ↑ Lord McAlpine's sexy little secret; She's 27 years his junior, and younger than two of his daughters. So how has the former Treasurer managed to marry his third heiress - and why did they have to hide their love from the world? in: Mail on Sunday of January 27, 2002
personal data
SURNAME McAlpine, Alistair, Baron McAlpine of West Green
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McAlpine, Robert Alistair, Baron McAlpine of West Green
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician and life peer
DATE OF BIRTH May 14, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 2014
Place of death Italy