Dr Harshan Kumarasingham, the
Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Potsdam and a past
contributor to the Conservative History Journal, gives his views on Edward
Heath and Philip Ziegler’s biography.
Edward Heath did not emerge, but was elected as leader of the
Conservative Party in 1965. The new
leader was young, experienced, and progressive with strong contacts with the
Parliamentary Party after an effective tenure as Chief Whip. Heath the Grammar school scholarship boy
personified a professional image that was accurately and purposefully
non-patrician. This was the man the
party hoped could beat Harold Wilson at his own game sharing a greater
commonality and image with the electorate than any previous Conservative
leader. Heath could project a ‘modern’
image of someone who had risen through the ranks through ability not nobility. However, expectations of a new age under a
new style of leader were not unanimously idealistic. Heath carried significant pressures as the
new leader of a new era. The Economist reported at the time of
his ascendance as leader a sense of Conservative realism: ‘Mr Heath certainly
carries radical hopes in his baggage.
But in electing him, the Tories have primarily shown their instinct for
power. They picked, by a narrow
majority, the man they reckoned most likely to bullock their way back into
power. They will remain united behind
him just as long as his pursuit of power looks promising.’ The Shadow Cabinet under Heath’s clear
leadership had created a prepared and much publicised programme at Selsdon for
when it returned to power, which seemed to deliver the progressive hopes
envisioned by ‘Rab’ Butler Britain
The rest of the review is here.
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