Norman Tebbit

Cameron could even show his deputy the door

It is good news that the Prime Minister is now beginning to understand that the judicial adventurists and imperialists of the Strasbourg Court of Human Rights are interfering in matters which should be the concern of the British people and no one else. It is, however, no use going cap in hand hoping that in three or four years the Council of Europe might graciously agree to some limitation of its power to interfere in such matters as our immigration policy.

The right way to deal with this problem is to begin the procedures to denounce the Convention and to inform the Council that we will leave within twelve months unless the changes we require are agreed by then.

Of course, there would be squawks of horror from the Labour Party,… Read More

Meryl Streep's Thatcher would never have survived as PM

Last week I saw the film The Iron Lady. I regret to say it confirmed all my worst fears from having seen the trailer some time ago.

This is primarily a film about an old lady suffering from dementia. The actress, Ms Streep, is well made up to resemble Margaret Thatcher in both old age and her younger years and has acquired a number of her gestures and movements as well as some entirely new to me.

There are other people depicted in the film whom I did not recognise and some who were vitally important to her during her time as Prime Minister who did not appear at all.

If you have seen, or intend to see this film, remember that it uses the name and reputation of Margaret Thatcher to sell tickets, but… Read More

Marriage ties are crucial for elderly care

It is encouraging that over the last week or so there seems to be a developing agreement that the problem of providing for our increasing numbers of dependent elderly and disabled people must be resolved through a bi-partisan consensus.

The guiding principle of the NHS has from its birth been that health care would be available free of charge to all regardless of the ability to pay. Apart from minor nibbles at that principle, such as prescription charges, it has remained unchanged for 60 years. However, alongside the NHS there has been a growth in social services mostly delivered through local authorities. These, particularly the provision of care at home, or in care homes, for the elderly and disabled unable to care for themselves and needing more care than friends or relatives could, or are… Read More

Don't mention to euro! (Photo: PA)

As Holmes told Watson long ago, it is often the fact that the dog did not bark which tells us something important.

So it was with the Nick Clegg interview on the Today programme on Thursday. Naturally enough, the interviewer spent more time on what, when and who the Prime Minister told his deputy about the famous "veto" at the December meeting of the EU Council than anything else. That gave Mr Clegg plenty of time to drag out the familiar old chestnut about the three million British jobs put at risk should the United Kingdom become once again a self-governing nation. This time, however, Mr Clegg went further – asserting, without contradiction or question, that those jobs would be "at risk" unless Mr Cameron got back to the "top table". Mere membership of the… Read More

We lack the will to put it down (Photo: Alamy)

At the turn of the year we naturally look forward to what the next twelve months might hold for us, both as individuals and as a country. But it is not a bad idea to look back to what was happening, or rather not happening, twelve months ago.

What strikes me is that very few of the Guardianista or BBC establishment were then even prepared to discuss the possibility that the euro might be heading for partial, let alone complete, collapse.

Yet here we are. Today Programme interviewers can no longer laugh to scorn those who have long predicted a crisis of the kind now facing the eurozone. Senior bankers and Treasury Ministers now admit to contingency planning for the odds-on case of Greece leaving the euro – and for the… Read More

It takes a lot to bring me back from the Christmas break to my blogging desk, but having brooded on Mr Clegg's speech to the Left-wing propagandist group Demos, I felt that I had no option but to return.

Why does Nick Clegg need to sneer at 1950s families?

Whilst I would not want The Daily Telegraph and these blogs to become a festival site of back-scratching, I have to commend both Cristina Odone's column of today on Mr Clegg’s diatribe against marriage and the society of the 1950s and Charles Moore's Saturday article on Mr Cameron's attempt to “meddle with the Monarchy”. Not only are they each persuasive insights into their separate subjects but they both say a great deal about the Prime Minister, his deputy and the Government.

Without putting it into so many words, Charles Moore's description of the perfectly predictable – but apparently unforeseen by Mr Cameron – snags, traps and complications, spring from yet another of those less-than-half-thought-through wizard ideas that might have occurred to a sixth form student at a good school.

The question… Read More

After the euro crisis, what next? (Photo: Reuters)

The Prime Minister's statement to the Commons turned out to be a much less dramatic affair than some commentators had predicted. While the House was not exactly calm, the Speaker had little difficulty in keeping order and there were few shocks or laughs. It was not a runaway Parliamentary triumph for David Cameron, but there could not be much doubt that he had the best of the exchanges. Of course it was untidy that the Deputy Prime Minister, having performed a rather undignified U-turn over the weekend on the instructions of his fellow Lib Dems in Parliament, was absent. That, however, was less embarrassing than it would have been had he performed another one by turning up to cheer Mr Cameron and to be jeered by almost everyone in the House.

The Prime… Read More

Heseltine has an infinite belief in his own infallibility (Photo: Christine Boyd)

I have long known of Michael Heseltine's obsession with Europe, his lack of belief in his own country and his infinite belief in his own infallibility. It drove him to join the conspiracy to destroy Margaret Thatcher's government. But his interview on the Today Programme this morning plumbed new depths of irrationality.

The grand climax came with his reminder to us all that Winston Churchill had advocated "a United States of Europe". He didn't continue to remind us that Churchill had added that Britain should not be a part of that USE. I would hesitate to accuse Michael Heseltine of dishonesty. I think that it was a simple demonstration of his capacity for self-delusion. Sadly, the interviewer was either unaware of what Churchill said, or unwilling to break… Read More

Cameron speaks to the president of the European Commission (Photo: Bloomberg)

At last! When all other options had been exhausted, David Cameron has done the right thing. By refusing to sign up to changes in the Treaty of Rome (which is now, after amendments, really the Treaty of Lisbon) the Prime Minister has adopted the policy which, in a conversation with Giscard d'Estaing, I described as “getting the British dog out of the European federal manger”.

I have little doubt that it would have been against the British national interest to accept what was on the table in Brussels. It would have been damaging to us. Nor do I have any doubt that what is now proposed for the 17 eurozone members, and those going along with them, will be deeply damaging to them. The peoples of great nations, not… Read More