Nigel Lawson
Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby , PC (born March 11, 1932 in London ) is a British Conservative Party politician who was Chancellor of the Exchequer under Margaret Thatcher between June 1983 and October 1989 . His tenure was longer than that of any predecessor since David Lloyd George (1908–1915).
Career
The early years
After studying at Westminster School and Christ Church College , Oxford , Lawson began his career as a financial journalist and in 1961 reached the position of city editor for the Sunday Telegraph. Between 1966 and 1970 he was the editor of the Spectator before he became a member of the House of Commons in 1974 as a member of the House of Commons for the constituency of Blaby, Leicestershire . Lawson retained the mandate until his retirement in the 1992 general election . During the Conservative opposition , he coordinated with opposing backbenchers Jeff Rooker and Audrey Wise to negotiate legislation on automatic tax indexation limits to prevent a growing tax burden in the face of inflation (an average of 10% annually during that legislative period).
Following the election of Margaret Thatcher , Lawson was appointed Treasury Secretary of the Treasury. Although in the third-tier political position of the UK Treasury, Lawson energetically reconsidered measures such as the end of unofficial state controls over mortgages , the abolition of exchange controls (October 1979) and the publication of medium-term financial planning . This document set the course for the monetary and fiscal stance of the government's new economic policy, although the degree of subsequent policy change and its impact are still the subject of debate.
Minister of Energy (1981–1983)
In the cabinet reshuffle in September 1981, Lawson was promoted to the office of Secretary of Energy. In that role, his most significant action was preparing for what he saw as inevitable - a widespread coal mining strike (state-owned since nationalization by Clement Attlee's post-war cabinet ) to close deficit mines , the losses of which required state compensation.
Lawson was a major proponent of the Thatcher's cabinet privatization policies. During his tenure as Minister of Energy, he set the course for the later privatization of gas and electricity companies, and after returning to the Treasury, he worked closely with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on the privatization of British Airways and British Telecom .
Chancellor of the Exchequer (1983–1989)
After the government was re-elected in 1983, Lawson was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer to succeed Geoffrey Howe . Lawson's first years as Chancellor of the Exchequer were associated with tax reform. The 1984 budget reformed the corporate tax reform through a combination of reduced tax rates and reduced exemptions. The 1985 budget continued the trend of switching from direct to indirect taxation by reducing social security contributions for the low-wage earner by expanding the VAT base .
Lawson's public standing remained low during those two years, but from the 1986 budget (in which he reduced the standard income tax rate of 30% that Geoffrey Howe had lowered it to in connection with the 1979 budget), his reputation rose as unemployment fell from mid-1986 (unemployment had risen again for three years).
The change that the UK economy underwent from then on has been tellingly referred to as the " Lawson Boom " in reference to the " Barber Boom " which marked an earlier period of rapid growth in Anthony Barber's tenure under Edward Heath's Conservative cabinet describes. Lawson's critics point to the combination of abandoning monetarism , the assumption of a de facto exchange rate target DM: £ 3: 1 with an emphasis on rising interest rates and a spending-loving fiscal laxity (particularly in the 1988 budget), the inflationary spiral left the reins.
Lawson himself explained the boom mainly with the effects of various measures of fiscal deregulation . As far as Lawson admitted political errors, he attributed them to the 1986 error in rising interest rates and considered that if Thatcher had not vetoed Britain's entry into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in November 1985 , it would have been possible to maintain favorable exchange rates without the macroeconomic turmoil to be able to adapt better microeconomically . Lawson described the difficulty of effective monetary policy by resorting to Goodhart's Law , a socio-economic rule of thumb that states that any socio-economic indicator used to guide monetary policy becomes ineffective at the same moment.
Lawson was an opponent of the poll tax , which Margaret Thatcher was determined to enforce as a replacement for previous municipal tax receipts . His dissenting opinion on deregulation was known to a limited number of cabinet members, where he found few allies and was overruled by the Prime Minister and the ministerial team headed by the responsible Ministry of the Environment.
The EWS membership problem began to fester between Lawson and Thatcher and was compounded by the re-employment of Alan Walters as Thatcher's personal economic advisor. Lawson's policy style became controversial when, in August 1988, the foreign trade deficit made the measure of growth in domestic demand clear and credibility bolstered. As Orthodox monetarists, Lawson and Thatcher agreed on a steady rise in interest rates that should limit demand. After another year in office under these circumstances, Lawson found that public articulation of differences between exchange rate monetarists like himself and the views of Walters (who continued to favor a floating exchange rate ) would make his administration impossible, and resigned on October 26, 1989. He was succeeded by John Major .
retreat
After leaving the House of Commons in 1992 , he was promoted to Life Peer on July 1, 1992 as Baron Lawson of Blaby , of Newnham in the County of Northamptonshire, and thereby became a member of the House of Lords .
After retiring from the front line of politics, he followed his doctor's advice and tackled his weight problem. He lost 30 kg in a few months, which changed his appearance dramatically, and published a diet book that became a bestseller. In 1996, Lawson appeared on a BBC quiz show Have I got news for you , which was seen as a coup thanks to the fact that he held one of the top four cabinet positions.
Today Nigel Lawson is also known as a climate change denier. So he said u. a .: "The new religion of global warming ... is a huge story and a phenomenal bestseller. It contains a grain of truth and a mountain of nonsense. "
family
Lawson was married twice: between 1955 and 1980 he was married to Vanessa Salmon. From this marriage a son and three daughters were born. He has been married to Thérèse Maclear since 1980, with whom he fathered a son and a daughter. He is the father of journalist and cookbook author Nigella Lawson and Dominic Lawson, former editor of the Sunday Telegraph .
Web links
- Data on Nigel Lawson on parliament.uk
- Bluntly skeptical article about Nigel Lawson. In: The World Week of February 21, 2007.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lawson, Nigel |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lawson, Nigel, Baron Lawson of Blaby |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 11, 1932 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |