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Conflict of Loyalty

Name: Conflict of Loyalty
Author: Geoffrey Howe
ISBN: 9780312125332

by Geoffrey Howe

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Overview

Conflict of Loyalty is the life story of one of the most important figures in British politics since the Second World War. Geoffrey Howe was successively Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary, and Deputy Prime Minister during all but the last three weeks of Margaret Thatcher's eleven years in power. In his long-awaited memoirs, he gives a revealing account of government at the highest level during what he calls the 'triumph and tragedy' of the Thatcher Premiership. Geoffrey Howe served in the Cabinets of both Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher. His front-bench career spanned twenty years, fifteen of them in government. In this book, he offers a unique appraisal of some of the most important events of this period, from the radical new economic policies of 1979 to Cabinet battles over Europe in the late 1980s. He gives his own accounts of the Westland crisis and British policy towards Hong Kong and South Africa. He explains how and why he lost confidence in Margaret Thatcher, writing candidly about his dismissal as Foreign Secretary in 1989 and resignation as Deputy Prime Minister the following year. Geoffrey Howe's crucial resignation speech on 13 November 1990 was the catalyst for Margaret Thatcher's downfall. In it he spoke of a 'tragic conflict of loyalty' and here reveals how and why he made the speech which changed British politics for ever.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This political autobiography affords a scathing look at Britain's ``Thatcher revolution'' by the man who well-nigh engineered it. Cambridge-educated Tory Sir Geoffrey Howe, born in 1921 in a Welsh town, was successively Treasury chancellor, foreign secretary and deputy prime minister during Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's 11-year reign. He and the ``Iron Lady,'' however, became estranged when Howe's support for a single European market clashed with Thatcher's narrow nationalism, leading to his dismissal as foreign secretary, followed by his bitter resignation as deputy P.M. in 1990, which triggered the collapse of Thatcher's government. Howe provides a detailed reappraisal of his uneasy partnership with Thatcher, whom he portrays as a bullying, self-destructive autocrat. He makes a cogent case that he was instrumental in many of her reforms, including deregulation of key industries. Photos. (May)

Library Journal

Lord Howe served in senior Cabinet positions under Margaret Thatcher and was her true-blue political servant for ten long years. In late 1990, he publicly broke with her government over the issue of Europe and her unreliable temperament. Shortly thereafter he delivered a devastating speech to the House of Commons, which effectively demolished her political career. In this informative but overlong autobiography, Howe hurries past his early years and concentrates (for over 500 pages) on the Thatcher years (1979-90). Many readers will want to read about why "her most loyal, most long suffering, most stable Cabinet Minister" finally renounced the Iron Lady. "Her tragedy," he writes, "is that she may be remembered less for the brilliance of her many achievements, than for the recklessness with which she later sought to impose her own increasingly uncompromising views." This is a good choice for anyone interested in the arcania of British politics. Recommended for larger libraries.-Kent Worcester, Social Science Research Council, New York

Booknews

Howe was successively Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary, and Deputy Prime Minister during all but the last three weeks of Margaret Thatcher's 11 years in power, when he resigned. His memoirs provide an account of his childhood and family, quickly moving to his political life, ultimately in the upper echelons of British government during what he calls the "triumph and tragedy" of the Thatcher years. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)