This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

This article is about a recently deceased person. Some information, such as the circumstances of the person's death and surrounding events, may change rapidly as more facts become known.

William John Biffen, Baron Biffen, PC (3 November 1930 - 14 August 2007), was a Conservative member of the House of Lords, who previously spent 36 years in the House of Commons. Image File history File links Current_event_marker. ... Image File history File links Current_event_marker. ... // The following is a list of notable deaths in 2007. ... Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council is a body of advisors to the British Sovereign. ... is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display 1930 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 226th day of the year (227th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ... The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative and Unionist Party) is the second largest political party in the United Kingdom in terms of sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), the largest in terms of public membership, and the oldest political party in the United Kingdom. ... The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as the Lords. The Sovereign, the House of Commons (which is the lower house of Parliament and referred to as the Commons), and the Lords together comprise the Parliament. ... Type Lower House Speaker of the House of Commons Leader of the House of Commons Michael Martin, (Non-affiliated) since October 23, 2000 Harriet Harman, QC, (Labour) since June 28, 2007 Shadow Leader of the House of Commons Theresa May, PC, (Conservative) since December 6, 2005 Members 646 Political groups...

He represented the constituency of Oswestry, later renamed Shropshire North, from the time of his election at a by-election in 1961 until his retirement immediately prior to the 1997 General Election. In the same year he was made a life peer, sitting as Baron Biffen, of Tanat in the County of Shropshire. Oswestry is a United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. ... Shropshire North is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... Year 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The UK general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997. ... In the United Kingdom, Life Peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles may not be inherited (those whose titles are inheritable are known as hereditary peers). ... Shropshire (pronounced /ˈʃrɒpʃɪər, -ʃər/), alternatively known as Salop or abbreviated Shrops, is a county in the West Midlands of England. ...

In his early political career he was a disciple of Enoch Powell, voting for him in the Conservative leadership election of 1965. Biffen was a Eurosceptic and voted against Britain's entry into the EEC in 1972. Biffen championed tight fiscal policy and opposed state intervention in economic management. This stance barred his way to advancement under Edward Heath, but contributed to his promotion under Margaret Thatcher. He served in Thatcher's government in the successive positions of Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Trade, and as Leader of the House of Commons. In the 1960s Biffen joined the Mont Pelerin Society. Simon Heffers biography of Enoch Powell, published in 1999 John Enoch Powell, MBE (June 16, 1912 – February 8, 1998) was a British politician, linguist, writer, academic, soldier and poet. ... The Conservative Party leadership election of July 1965 was held to find a successor to Sir Alec Douglas-Home. ... Euroscepticism (from European and scepticism) has become a general term for opposition to the process of European integration. ... The European Community (EC) was originally founded on March 25, 1957 by the signing of the Treaty of Rome under the name of European Economic Community. ... Sir Edward Richard George Heath, KG, OBE (9 July 1916 – 17 July 2005) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. ... Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC (born October 13, 1925), former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in office from 1979 to 1990. ... The Chief Secretary to the Treasury is a junior position in the British Cabinet. ... The President of the Board of Trade the title of a cabinet position in the United Kingdom government. ... The Leader of the House of Commons is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom who is responsible for arranging government business in the House of Commons. ... The Mont Pelerin Society (MPS) is an international organization composed of economists, intellectuals, business leaders, and others who favour economic liberalism. ...

In 1981 Biffen allowed Rupert Murdoch to buy The Times and The Sunday Times without reference to the Monopolies Commission.^[1] According to Woodrow Wyatt, who helped persuade Thatcher to ensure this, the Commission "almost certainly would have blocked it."^[2] Keith Rupert Murdoch AC, KCSG (born 11 March 1931) is an Australian born United States citizen who is a global media executive and is the controlling shareholder, chairman and managing director of News Corporation, based in New York. ... The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom since 1788. ... The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper distributed in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International which is in turn owned by News Corporation. ... The Competition Commission is an independent body responsible for investigating mergers, market shares and conditions and the regulation of firms under United Kingdom competition law. ... Woodrow Lyle Wyatt, Baron Wyatt of Weeford (July 4, 1918 – December 7, 1997), was a British Labour politician, published author, journalist and broadcaster. ...

As Leader of the House Biffen used the guillotine to cut short debate on the European Communities (Amendment) Act 1986. Edward Pearce has written that Biffen "was widely thought the best post-war floor leader".^[3] In parliamentary procedure, cloture (pr: KLO-cher) (also called closure, and sometimes a guillotine) is a motion or process aimed at bringing debate to a quick end. ...

Biffen's image as an economic dry mellowed during his time in government and he made blunt public calls for greater moderation in government policy. In 1980 he warned the country to prepare for "three years of unparalleled austerity". In 1981 Biffen gave a speech to a fringe meeting at that years Conservative Party Conference in which he claimed the party was "within touching distance of the débâcles of 1906 and 1945." He further claimed that far from cutting public spending, the government had increased it by two per cent since 1979 and that the government was part of an all-party consensus in favour of the welfare state and public spending: "We are all social democrats now", Biffen concluded in his speech.^[4] The UK general election of 1906 was from 12th January – 8th February 1906. ... Clement Attlee Winston Churchill The United Kingdom General Election of 1945 held on 5 July 1945 but not counted and declared until 26 July 1945 (due to the time it took to transport the votes of those serving overseas) was one of the most significant general elections of the 20th... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ...

On February 9 1986 he claimed that Toryism was "not a raucous political faction" and after the Conservative Party's losses in the local government elections and in two by-elections in 1986 Biffen was interviewed on Weekend World by Brian Walden on May 11 as the government's spokesman. He called the results "Black Thursday", said the Conservatives needed to fight the next general election on a "balanced ticket" and that "no one seriously supposes that the Prime Minister would be Prime Minister throughout the entire period of the next Parliament".^[5] This alienated him from Thatcher and resulted in his being dropped from the Cabinet after the 1987 General Election. His axing was no surprise, in that Thatcher's press secretary Bernard Ingham had already famously called him a "semi-detached" member of the Cabinet. Thatcher in her memoirs described Biffen's desire for a balanced ticket as "foolish" and "a recipe for paralysis."^[6] Weekend World was a British television political series, made by London Weekend Television (LWT) and broadcast from 1972 to 1988. ... Brian Walden (born July 8, 1932) was a Labour Member of Parliament and is now a journalist and broadcaster. ... Ticket balance is a political term used when a political candidate chooses a running mate with the goal of bringing more widespread appeal to the campaign. ... Margaret Thatcher David Steel Election 1987 Titles The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987 and was the third consecutive victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher. ... Sir Bernard Ingham (born June 21, 1932) is a journalist best known as Margaret Thatchers former press secretary. ...

In the month after his sacking Biffen criticised Thatcher's government as a "Stalinist regime".^[7] On the backbenches Biffen voted against the Local Government Finance Act 1988 which introduced the Community Charge. He voted against the Maastricht Treaty and was in favour of a referendum on the EU Constitution so he could vote 'No'.^[8] For architecture, see Stalinist architecture. ... A poll tax, head tax, or capitation is a tax of a uniform, fixed amount per individual (as opposed to a percentage of income). ... The Maastricht Treaty (formally, the Treaty of European Union, TEU) was signed on February 7, 1992 in Maastricht, Netherlands after final negotiations in December 1991 between the members of the European Community and entered into force on November 1, 1993 during the Delors Commission. ... On April 20, 2004, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced in the House of Commons that Britain would hold a referendum on its ratification of the proposed Treaty establishing a constitution for Europe when it was agreed by the European Council. ... The constitutional treaty as signed in Rome on 29 October 2004 by representatives of the EU member states The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (TECE), commonly referred to as the European Constitution, was an international treaty intended to create a new constitution for the European Union. ...

Despite his right-wing views on economic policy, he was very much to the left of Margaret Thatcher on social policy: he completely opposed capital punishment, and was very supportive of equal gay rights whilst, conversely, agreeing with Powell on immigration.

Brian Walden noted that Biffen was the "most honest" politician he had interviewed.^[9] Brian Walden (born July 8, 1932) was a Labour Member of Parliament and is now a journalist and broadcaster. ...

Biffen died on 14 August 2007, aged 76, having suffered from kidney failure for many years.[1] is the 226th day of the year (227th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era. ...

Notes

1. ^ John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady (Jonathan Cape, 2003), p. 572.
2. ^ Woodrow Wyatt, The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt: Volume 3 (Pan, 2001), p. 582.
3. ^ John Ramsden (ed.), The Oxford Companion to 20th-Century British Politics (OUP, 2002), p. 55.
4. ^ Hugo Young, One of Us (Pan, 1990), p. 240.
5. ^ John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady (Jonathan Cape, 2003), p. 448.
6. ^ Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 422.
7. ^ The Sunday Telegraph 5 July, 1987
8. ^ John Biffen, Vindication for De Gaulle, The Guardian, 15 June 2005.
9. ^ Sean Coughlan, 'Walden's secret ingredient for power' (7 March, 2005), BBC News Magazine

Hugo John Smelter Young (October 13, 1938 – September 22, 2003) was a British journalist and columnist and senior political commentator at The Guardian. ... John Campbell is the name of: John Campbell, 1st Earl of Loudoun (died 1933) John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll (1680–1743) John Campbell of Cawdor (1695–1777), minor British politician John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun (1705–1782), British general in North America John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll... This article concerns the British newspaper. ...

Bibliography

• John Biffen, Nation in Doubt (Conservative Political Centre, 1976).
• John Biffen, Political Office, or Political Power?: Six Speeches on National and International Affairs (Centre for Policy Studies, 1977).
• John Biffen, 'The Conservatism of Labour', in Maurice Cowling (ed.), Conservative Essays (Cassell, 1978), pp. 155-167.
• John Biffen, Inside Westminster (Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1996).