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LOSE-UP Bernard Ingham LOSE-UP Bernard Ingham I always think of Bernard above his merits, after fumb- Ingham as 'the ruffian on the ling he was first demoted stair'. Partly because it fits then ruthlessly cut down and his heavy manner and a treated below those merits. facial expression modulat- Moore went in 18 months ing from scowl to snarl by from golden hero to dogfood. way of a derisive grin. But Yet the prime minister's also because WE Henley, Renaissance treachery, her when he created the phrase, capriciousness and essential was describing Death. falseness have never extended Bernard Ingham has been to her private office. Ber- Death to a number of Conser- nard Ingham could quote vative politicians. Patrick Lear to Cordelia: 'We'll wear Jenkin, his position weakened out...packs and sets of great by the Lords' rejection of ones that ebb and flow by the Mrs Thatcher's decision to moon'. Why such trust amid abolish the GLC, learned that capriciousness, such mons- he was at one with the angels trous durability? What are when Ingham told the press the affinities which hold this that it was all up with Jenkin. pair in a magnetic field? After John Biffen had com- Bernard Ingham is a pro- mitted the capital offence of duct of the Left and of the dissent it was Ingham, telling north of England (Hebden the lobby that he had become Bridge in Yorkshire's West 'semi-detached from the gov- Riding). As is well known, he ernment', who held out a has been a Labour council- signed death warrant. lor. Although as a civil ser- Consider, from the deletion vant he has no party alle- of Norman St John Stevas in giance, it is not clear if he February 1981 to the depar- would acknowledge a formal ture of the lachrymose Paul change of faith. But the ex- Channon this August, the Labour councillor is the prime minister has set a pat- closest, best-trusted asso- tern of unexampled intolerance ciate of a Conservative prime towards colleagues. Ministers minister considered by very many lifelong Conservatives Bernard Ingham: The ruffian on the stair 'The ex-Labour councillor is to be too rightwing. the closest, best-trusted asso- In part, Ingham surely is a proper Calvinist form, answ- not a helot in the slipstream ciate of a Conservative prime convert and we don't have to ering poor Wully in Hell, 'Ay of Imperial Hotel whiskey, be humbugged by civil ser- weel, ye ken the noo'.' but, as lieutenant to Peter minister considered by very vice niceties. There is, at For Bernard Ingham to Jenkins, a meticulous and many lifelong Conservatives that, an honourable and good have been disgusted by the strenuous fact-gatherer. When to be too right wing.* reason why he should be swaggering unions of 1968, Jenkins went to Washington, such a convert. Ingham illiberal guardians of their Ingham had an unanswer- have been strictly biodegrad- worked once for Barbara Castle own overreached privileges, able claim on the senior job. able, the sort of cups you may and was a devoted supporter would have been perfectly He was told by the then- drink from and throw away, of the moderate, reasoned reasonable. However, one editor: 'You have been without seriously polluting restraints of union power in suspects that, as with many, splendid, Bernard, but of the atmosphere. Actual failure the white paper In Place Of not all, who move from left to course as someone who left or willing retirement is a trivial Strife which, after full con- right, he was something of an school at 14, you couldn't ex- cause of departure compared sultation, she tried to enact. arrow quivering long on a pect to become the indus- to her antarctic disfavour. The unions have good reason bowstring and finally des- trial correspondent of The Even with those ideologically to lament the thick-headed patched a great distance. He Guardian'. close, there is a shelf-life as pectoral flourishing with which has empathy with Mrs Thatcher Ingham has become a mons- Norman Tebbit and David they rejected the modest and the way only a small minor- trous extension of govern- Young could relate. Someone necessary reforms of friends. ity of cradle Conservatives ment by domestic tyranny, begins as a favoured talent They are now, without con- actually ever have it. but the unions and the liberal (his merits commonly under- sultation, reduced by enemies Incidentally, Ingham owes elite should consider to what lined to the press by Mr to the pitiful condition of no debt to the liberal-minded degree they fashioned the Ingham), then the graph of muscular friendly societies middle classes. A journalist, iron and held it in the fire. usefulness slips down the subject to surveillance. If he was, for a number of Bernard Ingham, whatever sheet and deletion follows. they plead that they didn't years, widely respected as a he may be, is also a graduate The prime minister's em- know that such consequences superbly-conscientious trouble- of both the bigotry and the brace is a brutal friendship. would follow one can only taking deputy industrial cor- snobbery of the Left. Witness John Moore. Heralded quote the good Lord in his respondent on The Guardian, Edward Pearce 56 MARXISM TODAY OCTOBER 1989.
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