Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Memorial Address to Nicholas Ridley

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: St Margaret’s, Westminster
Source: Thatcher Archive: speaking text
Editorial comments: The service began at noon.
Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 1650
Themes: Autobiographical comments, Executive (appointments), Conservatism, Conservative Party (history), Privatized & state industries, Environment, European Union (general), Community charge (“poll tax”), Leadership, Transport

‘A man who never sold the truth to serve the hour.’

These words of Tennyson might have been penned for Nick RidleyNick. They were echoed in the wonderful tributes written about him.

“He couldn't dissemble.”

“He disliked cant, he thought it his duty to tell difficult truths.”

“An independence which refused to bow to fashion's expediency.”

And “a political giant who fought for his beliefs.”

It is almost impossible to do justice to Nick, so many and varied were his talents.

He might have been a Renaissance man — or perhaps an eighteenth century man.

He combined a penetratingly clear and logical mind — a Ridley characteristic — with artistic and architectural talent of a very high order — inherited from Lutyens, his maternal grandfather. A remarkable combination.

He had the ability and determination to achieve whatever he set out to do. He was decisive, and confident in his own judgment whether it was a colour of paint (Rex Whistler had been his tutor) or an economic policy.

He could be intolerant. He suffered neither fools nor bores gladly or at all. But he had great moral courage and he never hesitated to do or say what he thought was right.

He had style, panache and elan. Whatever he did, he did with elegance and originality. He cast a salmon line with the beauty and precision that he brought to the architectural plans he drew for houses, or the water colours he painted in the early morning light.

His love for the countryside was intense. In his book, written after his resignation, he described a countryman as “someone who like me was brought up in the countryside, experiencing the cycle of the seasons and the activities of the farming community. He is someone who has seen a stoat kill a rabbit and a sparrow hawk kill a song thrush. He knows how to catch the trout in the brook and flight a wild duck in the evening. He knows the wild flowers and the butterflies.”

Blagdon, Northumberland, where he spent his childhood, was a boy's paradise. His father the 3rd Viscount Ridley was an engineer; and there was an engineering workshop on the estate. Nick was made to spend each school holiday learning the various crafts — engineering, carpentry, stone masonry. Indeed only two days before he died he was carving obelisks for the garden at Kilnholm the house he loved which he and Judy RidleyJudy restored and extended; it has a circular domed hall decorated inside with carvings of fish and game, each stone lovingly carved by him after it had been transported from the Cotswolds in the boot of his car.

At Eton he succeeded effortlessly. Afterwards Nick's Lutyens genes pulled him towards architecture; his father insisted on engineering. He wanted Nick to be an industrialist in the North East. So, Nick read Maths and Civil Engineering at Oxford. Afterwards he went straight into a Tyneside Civil Engineering firm, Brims & Co, driving piles into the muddy banks of the Tyne for shipyards. This gave him the practical bent which was rare in modern Cabinets.

He fought Blythe, once the family seat but a Labour stronghold in 1955: and in 1959, when just 30, he was elected for Cirencester and Tewkesbury which he represented for the rest of his Commons career. Politics was in his blood; he was the ninth Ridley to sit in the House. But what pushed him towards Parliament was frustration and irritation at the nationalisation, planning and interference he had encountered in business in the North East.

I also entered the House in 1959, where I met Nick for the first time.

There were 104 new Tory MPs elected that year. By the end of 1990 there were only three of us left representing the same seats, of whom Nick and I were two.

In 1959, the Middle Way was the fashionable Tory road especially for new ambitious MPs. Not for Nick. He nailed his colours to the mast of the free market, limited government, and the central importance of liberty.

In the early 1970's, after a brief period as a Junior Minister in the Department of Technology, he resigned believing that policy had then taken the wrong turn. He and another outstanding colleague with the same approach, the late Jock Bruce Gardyne, fought from the backbenches to establish their view of things.

In 1974, with the Conservatives again in Opposition, several of us, in particular Keith Joseph and Nick, set about re-thinking our whole philosophy and policy. The world is not just some political puzzle to be solved. We saw it as a constant endeavour to make room for the human spirit, the infinite variety of human talent, respect for one another as unique individuals, all within a framework of law, security and financial stability.

Nick was seeking not only a new style of government — but something much more important — a new political character and culture.

He was one of those far and clear-sighted Tory MPs who challenged the prevailing consensus, fought vigorously against the faint-hearted, and did so much to plan the programme for what became a truly reforming government.

In government again from 1979, Nick served as a Minister both in the Foreign Office and then the Treasury where he was a strong advocate of the great privatisation programme which at that time was revolutionary but which, because Britain did it successfully, has since swept the world.

As Cabinet Minister for Transport, he embarked on the privatisation of British Airways, on extending Stansted airport which had been the subject of fruitless argument for years. He began deregulation of the buses. To my great delight, he found a way to commence the building of the Channel Tunnel, now nearly complete, all with private finance.

He felt that in time this would have a more fundamental effect on good relations between Britain and mainland Europe than any Treaty.

I hesitated to send Nick to Environment; the building in which that Ministry is housed is hardly an architectural gem. But the work required Nick's experience and handling. He was not the father of the Community Charge, but he loyally steered it through the House and when it became unpopular, was one of the few Cabinet Ministers who did not deny paternity. He also completely reformed local authority accounting and finance, preventing the rate income from subsidising council house rents. And he exposed the lunacies of left-wing Councils and the damage which they did to people's lives.

On environmental issues, his scientific background and knowledge of the countryside ensured that action was taken not in response to fashionable fads but on clear scientific evidence. He never shied away from difficult planning decisions. While he was at the department, he also designed the new gates at the entrance to Downing Street, which had become necessary for security reasons. They are but a short distance from the cenotaph designed by his grandfather.

His career at Trade and Industry, where he again dealt with a load of problems, was cut short by an interview he would never have given had it not been specially requested by a friend. But he put his finger on the real problems of economic and monetary union and over-regulation.

He spoke the awkward truth, but truth is tough. His departure from Cabinet was a tragedy for us, all but particularly to those who had been part of the elite shock troops politically and ideologically of what became known by my name but which could just as well have been called Ridleyism. His intellect was the flail which would never let us forget the principles and policies on which we had been returned to power.

Nick's contribution as a Cabinet Minister inspired admiration and loyalty from all who worked with him.

From senior civil servants — I quote from a letter from the Cabinet Office:

“Civilised, calm, whatever the crises. Time and again it was his contribution that I turned to when I was writing the minutes, because he exercised such a clear-minded influence on the thinking which lay behind the decision.”

And from a department:

“He was a wonderful Minister, clear in what he wanted to do, successful in many things against the odds. He was also immensely kind and courteous to me and other members of his staff: knew there was more to life than work: and made sure work was fun.”

And his Junior Ministers all knew that when there was good news, Nick gave it to them to announce; bad news — and he made the statement himself.

Arrogant? Aloof? The reverse was the truth.

After his resignation, he immediately embarked on a new career — that of author and journalist. Nick couldn't let his talents ‘rust unburnished’ — they had “to shine in use” .

His book My style of Government is the most lucid and readable exposition of the policies of the 1980's that has been written. He has made it so easy to understand — but as with most clear explanations, it was not easy to think of.

It was sometimes said that Nick was short on presentational skills, but he was never short on policies worth presenting — a much more difficult and creative side of politics.

Throughout his illness, when he was watched over devotedly by Judy each anxious day, he continued to put his case about Europe and the economy through the columns of the press. In the House of Lords, following his maiden speech he was determined to speak again in the debate on Maastricht although by this time his strength was failing fast. Short of breath and by sheer will power he got to his feet and spoke for a few minutes. Those present will never forget his supreme effort.

He returned to his Cumbrian house — so newly completed — and wrote one more article for the Times. Then he cleared up his desk and papers and said to Judy “I can do no more” .

But how much he had done.

And how proud Judy and the Ridley family must be.

His courage was spectacular, that ultimate and most lonely virtue.

His love of country surpassed all thought of personal advantage.

As the light of the stars reaches earth long after they have died, so the wisdom and treasure of Nick's life and work will illumine the path to the future.

Truly he was a Right Honourable, and Noble Friend and Gentleman.