LOSEUP

allowed Roy Jenkins' much- vaunted 'civilised society' to Norman Tebbit mutate into the violent socie- ty of today, the logical and indeed predictable outcome Pressed in a Spectator inter- quickly from Parliamentary of a society in which tradi- view on his recent disagree- Under-Secretary of State (at tional standards in education ments with colleagues, Nor- Trade), via Minister of State and personal behaviour - and man Tebbit assured John (at Industry) to become restraints in public express- Mortimer that 'I'm in favour Secretary of State for Em- ion - were derided and of everything which our gov- ployment, from which posi- scorned. ernment has concluded it's in tion he advocated privatisa- Larding his rhetoric with favour of. The remark is tell- tion, argued against wage apocalyptic phraseology ing: it reflects Tebbit's posi- and price controls, and intro- ('poisoned legacies', 'winds tion as the very emblem of duced legislation to under- reaping whirlwinds'), Tebbit the Thatcher revolution, not mine the closed shop. has returned to this theme least within the Conservative During this period, too, he again and again, citing both Party; but it also contains developed some notoriety 'tolerance of sexual devian- more than a hint of the dis- for his political style, being cy' and the rise in illegiti- tance that has opened up be- dubbed 'a semi-house- mate births as further har- tween him and his leader in trained polecat' (by Michael bingers of doom, and alleg- the post-revolutionary era. Foot), and (by the world) as ing that 'drug peddling and Norman Tebbit was born in 'the Chingford skinhead'. addiction did not start in the 1931, and must therefore There is no evidence that inner cities. It started in the have been very small indeed these soubriquets gave him sloppy Hampstead suburbs when his father mounted his anything but pleasure (or, in- and spread down there'. famous bike, to peddle off deed, that the response to his Not surprisingly, Tebbit's round the building sites of notorious injunction to the anti-libertarianism has pro- north London seeking work. unemployed to emulate his voked a response from that The experience of seeing a father caused him any par- dwindling band of 'pure' free former shop manager re- ticular pain). When asked ab- marketeers - now mostly duced to casual labour clear- out his hobbies in a Guardian gathered in the Adam Smith as the thinking of 'the man in ly taught young Tebbit the interview, indeed, Tebbit Institute and the Federation the pub, or on the top of the virtues of determination in was heartily amused when a of Conservative Students - bus', the sort of 'average adversity: it must also, sure- civil servant answered for who believe that the free bloke' who, like himself, sees ly, account for the older Teb- him: 'What do you think? He market in things implies a no conflict between his eco- bit's obsession with the vir- bites the heads off chickens'. parallel free market in forms nomic beliefs and his social tues of social mobility in the It was thus as a representa- of behaviour, expression and prejudices. That the latter opposite direction. tive of the driest of economic ideas. Following his Disraeli embrace both dislike of City Following national service, liberals that Tebbit made his speech, he was taken to task financiers and distrust of the he went into advertising for a reputation, and began to be on Channel Four's Diverse Americans helps to explain short period, before begin- talked of (along with Michael Reports for departing from Tebbit's hostility to the sell- ning a 17-year stint as an Heseltine) as a possible lead- the true Conservative faith: ing off of Jaguar, his suspi- airline pilot (and, indeed, un- ership candidate. But if, dur- but despite his assertion that cion of the Sikorski- ion militant, though always a ing the first term, Tebbit was he saw himself as a social as Westland deal, and his hardly Tory one). In 1970, Tebbit the most consistent advocate well as an economic liberta- even lukewarm support for won Epping, and served for a of pure Thatcherite econo- rian, Tebbit himself clearly the US bombing of Libya. short period as a parliamen- mics (and example of its de- detects no particular contra- Indeed, his fall from the tary private secretary in the classed, pugnaciously en- diction between his support position of heir apparent Heath government. In trepreneurial manner), then for a loosening of restric- may have less to do with his opposition after 1974, it must he was among the first to tions on capitalist expropria- sardonically aggressive have given him particular signal the shift towards the tion, while social and sexual (and, some now claim, embit- pleasure to take on the job of social concerns that have restraints are tightened. tered) style, than with the information director for the dominated the public face of In the famous reports of class from which he springs. National Federation of Build- Thatcherism Mark II. the cabinet's 'Family Policy For if Thatcherism Mark I ing Employers. Well before his appoint- Group' (leaked to The Guar- had pretensions to back the Following Heath's eclipse, ment as Tory chairman in dian in February 1983), in- small businessmen, to keep Tebbit's political stock be- September last year (and, in- deed, Tebbit advocated both small shopkeepers behind gan to rise. He became deed, before the Brighton the removal of regulatory their counters and off their associated with the newly- hotel bomb which severely burden on small firms, and bikes, then Thatcherism emergent free market wing injured him and disabled his government action to en- Mark II has been all about of the Conservative Party, wife), Tebbit had been point- courage mothers to stay at encouraging international fi- and was one of the 'Gang of ing to 'a general lack of disci- home; in the same month he nance capitalism to seek Four' of Tory Turks who pline in society'. By the time was admitting to the same where it may devour, what- briefed Margaret Thatcher of his Disraeli lecture last newspaper (despite what he ever the consequences may for her assaults on the November, he had developed told Diverse) that 'on social be for the class whose atti- craven collectivism of the his critique of permissive- issues, I suppose I am to tudes and interests Norman Callaghan government at ness into a fully-fledged his- some extent a paternalist'. Tebbit has so sedulously Commons question time. And torical theorem, which held The truth is of course that represented and sought to after the Tory election vic- that an establishment sof- Tebbit still represents and protect. • tory in 1979, Tebbit rose tened by 'postwar funk' had articulates what he regards David Edgar

64 MARXISM TODAY OCTOBER 1986