Posted on 07/17/2005 6:36:37 PM PDT by buccaneer81
Former British PM Sir Edward Heath Dies By MATT MOORE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON (AP) -
Sir Edward Heath, the prime minister who led England into what is now the European Union but lost the Conservative Party leadership to Margaret Thatcher, died Sunday. He was 89.
Heath, who governed England from 1970-1974, died at his home in the southern cathedral city of Salisbury.
A carpenter's son who broke the tradition of blue bloods leading the British Conservative Party, he was a born politician whose major achievement was to negotiate Britain's 1973 entry into the European Community. The entry into what became the European Union overturned years of resistance domestically and by France, which had vetoed Britain's entry in 1967.
In 1992, he became Sir Edward, a member of the country's most prestigious order of chivalry, the knights of the Garter.
Thatcher, who successfully challenged him for the party leadership in 1975, offered warm words for her former rival, saying he was a "political giant" and "in every sense the first modern Conservative leader."
"We are all in his debt," Thatcher said in a statement.
Heath came to power in 1970 pledging to end Britain's long cycle of post-World War II decline, but he was thwarted and, in the end, brought down by militant unions seeking higher pay.
"He was a man of great integrity and beliefs he held firmly from which he never wavered, and he will be remembered by all who knew him as a political leader of great stature and importance," Prime Minister Tony Blair said Sunday.
In 1974, with Britain reduced to a three-day week by striking coal miners, Heath called an election demanding "who governs?" in a challenge to the unions. He lost to Harold Wilson's Labour Party and lost again when Wilson called an election in October that year.
In all, Heath had taken the party to defeat by Labour three times since becoming leader of the party in 1965.
The Tories rebelled and Thatcher, another outsider, took over.
Heath remained in the House of Commons as a rank-and file legislator, a bulky, unforgiving figure sniping ineffectively at his right-wing successor.
"This rather shy, rather withdrawn man, felt deeply affronted," said the late William Whitelaw, who served as Thatcher's loyal deputy. Whitelaw died in 1999.
During Thatcher's 15 years as party leader, Heath's name disappeared from the Conservatives' official folklore. The 1987 election manifesto, for example, described the history of Conservative policy toward Europe without mentioning Heath.
Edward Richard George Heath was born in Broadstairs, a harbor town in the southeast England county of Kent, on July 9, 1916, the elder of two sons.
Encouraged by his mother, Heath began piano lessons as a small boy. It became a lifetime interest.
From his state school, Heath won a scholarship to Oxford University. Like Mrs. Thatcher, he emerged from Oxford with an upper-class accent. After World War II service as an artillery officer, Heath worked briefly as a civil servant, then as an editor of the Anglican Church Times.
Heath, who never married, was elected to the House of Commons for Bexley and Sidcup in 1950, and represented the solidly Conservative south England district through his long political career. To the end, Heath remained an unusual politician in that he never tried to be liked.
Awkward silences would fall during interviews with journalists. In the Thatcher era, he would often sit staring glumly ahead during party conventions.
Both as prime minister and leader of the opposition he conducted symphony orchestras. He had two Steinway pianos in his house, Arundells, in Salisbury, and another in his apartment in London's Belgravia district.
His 1976 book, "Music, a Joy for Life," was a best seller. So was one he wrote on yachting after taking his yacht Morning Cloud to victory in Australia in the Sydney to Hobart race.
Stripped of power, he was sensitive to suggestions that his life was lonely or empty.
"I enjoy my own company," he said, looking back in a 1989 newspaper interview. "I don't think I ever regret not getting married. A lot of politicians seem to regret they've got wives."
Heath's funeral was scheduled for July 25 at the Salisbury Cathedral.
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"A political giant," indeed. Lady Thatcher is far too kind. Yes, he had to operate in lousy times. But he should have done more to stand against them.
I agree. It's not for nothing that the Beatles sang about him in "Taxman" along with Harold Wilson.
Glad you remember the "Taxman" line too, buc. Heath was the British version of a RINO, and, as you might expect, Lady Thatcher was far more gracious to him than he ever was to her.
Here you go!
Let me tell you how it will be;
There's one for you, nineteen for me.
'Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don't take it all.
'Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
(if you drive a car, car;) - I’ll tax the street;
(if you try to sit, sit;) - I’ll tax your seat;
(if you get too cold, cold;) - I’ll tax the heat;
(if you take a walk, walk;) - I'll tax your feet.
Taxman!
'Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
Don't ask me what I want it for, (ah-ah, mister Wilson)
If you don't want to pay some more. (ah-ah, mister heath)
'Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
Now my advice for those who die, (taxman)
Declare the pennies on your eyes. (taxman)
'Cause I’m the taxman,
Yeah, I’m the taxman.
And you're working for no one but me.
Taxman!
It's a very, VERY rare honour, for whatever reason and in whatever context, to be personally mentioned by the Beatles in a song!
Too bad that the song's mention didn't make the obituary too. :)
It isn't true that Heath "broke the tradition of bluebloods leading the conservative party". Disraeli was hardly a blueblood, and earlier in this century Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin (to name 2) weren't. The so-called "tradition" was broken long before Heath. The writer of the AP article shows his ignorance of the Tory Party.
The depths of erudition among Freepers never cease to amaze me. That we have among us someone who has actually heard of Bonar Law, one of the most obscure British Prime Ministers, let alone knows something about him, is deeply impressive.
Heath was never my favourite person; my mother once met his biographer, and he told her that unlike any other person he'd written about, he disliked him more at the end of writing the book than he did before. His colleagues described him as being rude and moody. The epitaph he's received from the news has said that he engaged in "the longest sulk in British political history".
Thus it's difficult to know what to think about his passing. I don't even like his "achievement" of getting us into the muck and mire of the EU. He may, however, have been well intended, and for that possibility, I cautiously respect him and his passing.
Regards, Ivan
If Heath genuinely believed that Britain would be better off as a member of a supranational collection of states rather than as a sovereign state then that alone is not dishonourable.
However, Heath obtained consent from the British public to Britain's entry to the EEC on the strict understanding that this was a trading community and that there was no intention to dilute Britain's sovereignty.
In the event, Heath had lied and later boasted that he would never have obtained popular agreement if he had been honest from the outset.
Therefore, Heath was a liar and a traitor.
You are far too generous, Ivan. I am rejoicing his passing.
I understand your point, but for me Heath falls into that strange grey area where he's not evil enough to throw a party regarding his passing, and where he's not good enough to genuinely mourn.
Regards, Ivan
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