Nigel Lawson

Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, PC ( born March 11, 1932 in London ) is a British politician of the Conservative Party, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1989 under Margaret Thatcher from June 1983 to October. His tenure was longer than that of any predecessor in this office since David Lloyd George ( 1908-1915 ).

Career

The Early Years

After studying at Westminster School and Christ Church College, Oxford, Lawson started his career as a financial journalist and reached in 1961 the position of city editor of the Sunday Telegraph. Between 1966 and 1970 he was editor of the Spectator before 1974 delegates of the constituency of Blaby in Leicestershire. Lawson retained the seat until his retirement at the general election in 1992. During the opposition period of conservatives, he coordinated with the backbenchers of the opposite side Jeff Rooker and Audrey Wise to negotiate the legislation on the limits of automatic control indexing to prevent a growing tax burden on inflation ( average of 10% annually during that legislative session ).

After the election of Margaret Thatcher, Lawson was appointed Financial Secretary to the Treasury. Although in the third-rate political position of the British Treasury covered Lawson with his energy measures such as ending the unofficial state control over mortgages, the abolition of exchange controls ( October 1979) and the publication of the medium-term financial planning. This document set the course for monetary and fiscal price of the new economic policy of the government, although the degree of the following policy change and its effects are still the subject of debate.

Secretary of Energy (1981-1983)

In the cabinet reshuffle in September 1981 Lawson was promoted to the post of Minister of Energy. In this role, his most significant action was to prepare for what he saw as inevitable, a nationwide strike in the coal mining (since the nationalization by the post-war cabinet of Clement Attlee in state ownership ) in the closure of loss-making mines, whose losses requiring state compensation.

Lawson was a major proponent of privatization policy of the Cabinet Thatcher. During his tenure as Energy Secretary, he pushed through the course for the future privatization of the gas and electricity suppliers and after his return to the Treasury, he worked closely with the Ministry of Trade and Industry in the privatization of British Airways and British Telecom.

Chancellor of the Exchequer (1983-1989)

After the re-election of the government in 1983, Lawson was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer Geoffrey Howe to succeed. The first years of Lawson treasure chancellorship were associated with a tax reform. The budget in 1984 reformed the reform of company taxation by a combination of reduced tax rates and reduced exemptions. The budget of 1985, the trend of the change from direct to indirect taxation through the reduction of social security contributions for low-income earners by extending the VAT base.

During these two years Lawson's public image remained low, but the 1986 budget ( in which he reduced the standard rate of income tax of 30 %, was reduced to the Geoffrey Howe him in connection with the 1979 budget ), his reputation increased with the decrease of the unemployment from mid-1986 ( for three years, unemployment was risen again ).

The change that the British economy went through from that point on, was characteristically referred to as the " Lawson boom" in allusion to the " Barber Boom", the earlier period of rapid growth in the tenure of Anthony Barber during the Conservative cabinet of Edward Heath describes. Lawson's critics point to the combination of task of monetarism, the acquisition of a de facto exchange rate target DM: £ 3: 1 with emphasis on rising interest rates and a free-spending fiscal laxity (especially in the 1988 budget ) were the inflationary spiral the reins.

Lawson himself explained the boom mainly with the effects of various measures of fiscal deregulation. As far as Lawson admitted political mistakes, he led her back to the failure of rising interest rates in 1986 and considered that if Thatcher had appealed against the United Kingdom's accession to the European exchange rate mechanism in November 1985 no veto, it would have been possible to get the advantageous exchange rates without the macroeconomic turbulence microeconomic better be able to adapt. Lawson described the difficulty of an effective monetary policy by resorting to Goodhart's law, a socio-economic rule of thumb that says that everyone relied on to control of monetary policy, socio-economic indicator, at the same moment is ineffective.

Lawson was an opponent of the poll tax, Margaret Thatcher was determined to succeed as a replacement for previous municipal tax revenue. His dissenting opinion of deregulation was a limited number of cabinet members known where he found few allies and was overruled by the Prime Minister and the Minister responsible team with the Ministry of Environment at the top.

The problem of membership of the exchange rate mechanism ERM began to fester between Lawson and Thatcher and was complicated by the re-employment of Alan Walters as Thatcher's personal economic adviser. Lawson's political style was controversial, as in August 1988 the foreign trade deficit, the rate of increase in domestic demand could be significantly and credibility should be strengthened. As orthodox monetarists Lawson and Thatcher agreed in a steady increase in interest rates, which should limit the demand. After another year in office under these circumstances was Lawson that the public articulation of differences between Wechselkursmonetaristen like him and the views of Walters ( who continue to a floating exchange rate preferred ) would make his administration impossible, and resigned on 26 October 1989. He was succeeded by John Major. It comes in temporary price declines on the London Stock Exchange, leading to the resignation of Walters.

Retreat

After his retirement from the first political row he followed the advice of his doctor and fought his weight problem. He took a few months off 30 kg, which changed his appearance dramatically, and gave out a diet book that became a bestseller. 1996 Lawson appeared in a BBC quiz show "Have I got news for you" on what thanks to the fact that he held one of the four most important cabinet posts, as a coup was seen. He enjoyed it, to be drawn from the mere mortals because of the diet book.

Today Nigel Lawson is also known as climate critics. So he said in part: " The new religion of global warming ... is a huge story and a phenomenal bestseller contains a grain of truth and a mountain of nonsense.. "

Family

Lawson was married twice: Between 1955 and 1980 he was married to Vanessa Salmon. From this marriage a son and three daughters were born. Since 1980, he is married to Thérèse Maclear, by whom he had a son and a daughter. He is the father of journalist and cookbook author Nigella Lawson and Dominic Lawson of, the former editor of the Sunday Telegraph.

Swell

• Data about Nigel Lawson on parliament.uk
• Outspoken skeptic article about Nigel Lawson. In: The World Week of February 21, 2007.

• Man
• Briton
• Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Born in 1932
• Conservative Party Member
• Life peer
• Member of the House of Lords
• Politicians ( 20th century)