Geoffrey Howe

Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon (2011)

Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon , CH , Kt , PC , QC (born December 20, 1926 in Port Talbot , Wales , †  October 9, 2015 in Idlicote , Warwickshire ), commonly known as Sir Geoffrey Howe until 1992 a British Conservative politician .

He was Margaret Thatcher's longest-serving minister, who held the posts of Chancellor of the Exchequer and Minister of Foreign Affairs and was most recently Deputy Prime Minister. His resignation on November 1, 1990 was widely viewed as an acceleration of Thatcher's own fall three weeks later. In the film Die Eiserne Lady from 2011 he is played by the actor Anthony Head .

Life

Howe was educated at Winchester College and at Trinity Hall in Cambridge Jura . From 1946 to 1948 Howe served as a lieutenant in the British Intelligence Forces in East Africa . In 1952 he was admitted to the bar and in 1965 was privy councilor . In the 1960s he became chairman of the Bow Group, a think tank of young modernizers within the Conservatives, and published the magazine "Crossbow".

Howe represented the constituency of Bebington in the House of Commons from 1964 to 1966. During this period he was opposition spokesman for labor and social affairs from 1965 to 1966. From 1970 to 1974 he represented the constituency of Reigate , between 1974 and 1992 Surrey East. In 1970 he was promoted to a Knight Bachelor degree and was appointed Assistant Attorney General in Edward Heath's cabinet. He had already made it to one of the two crown attorneys in England and Wales . In 1972 he became Minister of State for Trade and Consumer Protection in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, with a seat in the cabinet, a role he held until Labor came to power in March 1974.

During the Conservative opposition from 1974 to 1979 Howe was one of Margaret Thatcher's competitors for the Conservative party leadership in 1975. In the crucial election round in February 1975, Thatcher received 146 of the 274 votes cast and Howe came up with 19. Thatcher was elected and then appointed him Chancellor of the Shadows. He was the spiritual father for the development of a new economic policy, which was laid down in a mini-manifesto of the opposition under the title " The right approach in the economy ". Labor Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey described the attack of his Tory opponent as the " raging attack of a dead sheep ".

With the conservative victory in the 1979 general election, Howe was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer himself. His tenure was characterized by radical steps to clean up public finances, fight inflation and liberalize the economy. Moving from direct to indirect taxation , developing medium-term financial planning , abolishing exchange controls, and creating tax-free corporate zones were some of his most significant decisions during his tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Some commentators consider him the most successful Chancellor of the Exchequer of his era.

After the general election in 1983 , Thatcher appointed Howe to succeed Francis Leslie Pym as Secretary of State, a position he held and enjoyed for over six years. He developed a close working relationship with his US counterpart , George Shultz , in which the Reagan- Thatcher duo coordinated with one another. Howe negotiated with the government of the People's Republic of China the treaties signed in 1984 for the return of the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China .

Based on his staunch loyalty to NATO , Howe launched a diplomatic offensive against the Warsaw Pact states , in which he demanded the obligations of the Helsinki Act with regard to human rights and fundamental rights to free movement . During his tenure as Foreign Minister, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev visited Great Britain. Behind the scenes, tensions grew between Howe and the Prime Minister, particularly over issues of stance on South Africa and Britain's relations with the European Union . In June 1989, Howe and his successor as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson , secretly agreed to threaten their resignation if Thatcher should reject British membership in the exchange rate mechanism in the European Monetary System .

In July 1989 the inexperienced John Major unexpectedly succeeded Howes as Secretary of State. Howe himself was appointed Lord President of the Privy Council , Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the House of Commons . The government reshuffle was a communicative disaster; Howe was offered the post of Home Secretary, but he declined. Howe's return to domestic affairs was widely perceived as a negation, especially after Thatcher's press secretary Bernard Ingham downplayed the deputy prime minister's importance at the morning press briefing the next day. Downing Street's skeptical attitude towards Howe was widely viewed as a political weakening - even if it was due to fears of promoting him as a possible successor - a problem that was compounded by the resignation of Nigel Lawson that same year. During his tenure as Deputy Prime Minister Howe Thatcher called several times for a revision of her line of government, which suffered from the increasing unpopularity due to the poll tax , towards a "listening government", economic and social liberalism at home with an internationalist one Should connect foreign policy.

Howe resigned on November 1, 1990, under increasing pressure on Thatcher on various fronts thanks to the Prime Minister's isolation after the meeting of the European Council in Rome, at which she declared that Britain would never join the euro , the single currency . In his letter of resignation, he attacked your position on Europe and your dealings with European partners. In an apt resignation speech in the House of Commons on November 13, he offered the astonished MPs a cricket metaphor for the British negotiations in Europe: “ It's like sending your batsman to the line just so that the team can find out before the first balls that their clubs were broken by the team captain. "He called on others to" seek their own answer to the tragic conflict of loyalty that I may have wrestled with for too long. “Howe's attack was widely seen as an important factor in the catalytic effect of Michael Heseltine's challenge a few days later and Thatcher's resignation on November 22, 1990 after the first round of voting.

Two years later Howe retired from the House of Commons and was raised for life Baron Howe of Aberavon , of Tandridge in the County of Surrey, and thereby a member of the House of Lords . Shortly afterwards he published his memoir under the title "Loyalty Conflict". He has held a variety of corporate board positions and legal and academic advisory roles, including international political advisor to the major US law firm Jones Day . His wife Elspeth Howe , a former chairman of the Broadcasting Commission, was raised in 2001 as Baroness Howe of Idlicote in her own right to a noblewoman.

Lord Howe had been a member of the UK Metric Association , a lobby group since 1965 , advocating the full introduction of the metric system in Britain. He was a close friend of Ian Gow , the former parliamentary private secretary and personal confidante of Margaret Thatcher, who was murdered by the IRA in the summer of 1990.

On May 19, 2015, Howe voluntarily retired and left the House of Lords under the rules of the House of Lords Reform Act 2014 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Geoffrey Howe in the catalog of the German National Library
• Geoffrey Howe at Hansard (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Former Chancellor Lord Howe Dies Aged 88
2. ↑ Geoffrey Howe dies aged 88
3. ^ Philip Cowley, Matthew Bailey: Peasants' Uprising or Religious War? Re-Examining the 1975 Conservative Leadership Contest . In: British Journal of Political Science . tape 30 , no. 4 . Cambridge University Press, October 2000, pp. 599-629 , JSTOR : 194287 (English).