Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby, PC (born March 11, 1932), was a British politician, Chancellor of the Exchequer between June 1983 and October 1989. His tenure in that office was longer than that of any of his predecessors since David Lloyd George (1908 to 1915), though it was surpassed by Gordon Brown in September 2003. Lawson is the father of journalist and food writer Nigella Lawson, Dominic Lawson, the former editor of The Sunday Telegraph and Tom Lawson, housemaster of Chernocke House at Winchester College. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British cabinet minister responsible for all financial matters. ... June 11 is the 162nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (163rd in leap years), with 203 days remaining. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... October 26 is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 66 days remaining. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (born 13 October 1925), is the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in office from 1979 to 1990. ... Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon, CH, PC, QC (born 20 December 1926), known until 1992 as Sir Geoffrey Howe, is a senior British Conservative politician. ... Sir John Major, KG, CH, PC (born 29 March 1943) was the leader of the British Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1990 to 1997. ... March 11 is the 70th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (71st in Leap year). ... Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Her Majestys Most Honourable Privy Council is a body of advisors to the British Sovereign. ... March 11 is the 70th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (71st in Leap year). ... Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British cabinet minister responsible for all financial matters. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor, OM, PC (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was a British statesman who guided Britain and the Commonwealth of Nations through World War I and the postwar settlement as the Liberal Party Prime Minister, 1916-1922. ... 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom and a Labour Party politician. ... 2003 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December A timeline of events in the news for September, 2003. ... The Honourable Nigella Lucy Lawson (born 6 January 1960) is a British journalist, cookery writer and television presenter. ... Dominic Ralph Campden Lawson (born December 17, 1956) is a British journalist. ... This article deals with The Daily Telegraph in Britain, see The Daily Telegraph (Australia) for the Australian publication The Daily Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper founded in 1855. ... In British education, a housemaster (or, less commonly, a housemistress) is a member of staff in charge of a boarding house, normally at a boarding school (e. ... Winchester College is a well-known boys independent school, and an example of a British public school, in the city of Winchester in Hampshire, England. ...

Early career

After studying at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford, Lawson began his career as a financial journalist and progressed to the positions of city editor of The Sunday Telegraph in 1961 and editor of The Spectator (1966–1970) before becoming Member of Parliament for Blaby in Leicestershire in 1974 (a position he held until retiring at the 1992 General Election). While in opposition, he co-ordinated tactics with government backbenchers Jeff Rooker and Audrey Wise to secure legislation providing for the automatic indexation of tax thresholds to prevent the tax burden being increased by inflation (typically in excess of 10% per annum during that parliament). The Royal College of St. ... College name Christ Church Named after Jesus Christ Established 1546 Sister College Trinity College Dean The Very Revd Christopher Andrew Lewis JCR President William Dorsey Undergraduates 426 MCR or GCR President {{{MCR President}}} Graduates 154 Home page Boat Club Christ Church (Latin: Ædes Christi, the temple or house of Christ... This article deals with The Daily Telegraph in Britain, see The Daily Telegraph (Australia) for the Australian publication The Daily Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper founded in 1855. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... Editing is the process of preparing language, images, or sound for presentation through correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications. ... The Spectator is a conservative British political magazine, established 1828, published weekly. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters to a parliament. ... Blaby is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... Leicestershire (IPA: , abbreviated Leics) is a landlocked county in central England. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... The UK general election, 1992 was held on April 9, 1992, and was the fourth victory in a row for the Conservatives. ... Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. ... Jeffrey Rooker, Baron Rooker, PC (born on June 5, 1941), is a British politician. ... Audrey Wise (1935-2000) was a politician in the United Kingdom. ... Legislation (or statutory law) is law which has been promulgated (or enacted) by a legislature or other governing body. ...

On the election of Margaret Thatcher's government, Lawson was appointed to the position of Financial Secretary to the Treasury. Although this is the fourth-ranking political position in the British Treasury, Lawson's energy in office was reflected in such measures as the ending of unofficial state controls on mortgage lending, the abolition of exchange controls (October 1979) and the publication of the Medium Term Financial Strategy. This document set the course for both the monetary and fiscal sides of the new government's economic policy, though the extent to which the subsequent trajectory of policy and outcome matched that projected is still a matter for debate. Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (born 13 October 1925), is the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in office from 1979 to 1990. ... Financial Secretary to the Treasury is a junior Ministerial post in the UK Treasury. ... Moneys is an agreement within a community, to use something as a medium of exchange, which acts as an intermediary market good. ... Fiscal policy is the economic term that defines the set of principles and decisions of a government in setting the level of public expenditure and how that expenditure is funded. ...

In the cabinet reshuffle of September 1981, Lawson was promoted to the position of Secretary of State for Energy. In this role his most significant action was to prepare for what he saw as an inevitable full-scale strike in the coal industry (then state-owned since nationalization by the post-war government of Clement Attlee) over the closure of pits whose operation accounted for the coal industry's business losses and consequent requirement for state subsidy. The Secretary of State for Energy was a UK cabinet position from 1974 to 1992. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, FRS, PC (3 January 1883 – 8 October 1967) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1945 to 1951. ... Wall Street, Manhattan is the location of the New York Stock Exchange and is often used as a symbol for the world of business. ...

Lawson was a key proponent of the Thatcher Government's privatization policy. During his tenure at the Department of Energy he set the course for the later privatizations of the gas and electricity industries and on his return to the Treasury he worked closely with the Department of Trade and Industry in privatizing British Airways, British Telecom, and British Gas. Privatization (alternately denationalization or disinvestment) is the transfer of property or responsibility from the public sector (government) to the private sector (business). ... For the 1930s airline of similar name, see British Airways Ltd. ... BT Group plc (which trades as just BT, and is commonly known by its former name, British Telecom) is the privatised former British state telecommunications operator. ... This page is about the former gas monopoly in the United Kingdom for infromation about the successor companies please see Centrica, BG Group and Transco. ...

Chancellor of the Exchequer

After the government's re-election in 1983, Lawson was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in succession to Sir Geoffrey Howe. The early years of Lawson's chancellorship were associated with tax reform. The 1984 budget reformed corporate taxes by a combination of reduced rates and reduced allowances. The 1985 budget continued the trend of shifting from direct to indirect taxes by reducing National Insurance contributions for the lower-paid while extending the base of value-added tax. Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon, PC (born December 20, 1926), usually known before 1992 as Sir Geoffrey Howe, is a senior British Conservative politician. ... Corporate redirects here. ... Budget generally refers to a list of all planned expenses and revenues. ... UK Income Tax and National Insurance (2005–2006) UK Income Tax and National Insurance as a % of Salary (2005–2006) National Insurance is a system of taxes, and related social security benefits, that has operated in the United Kingdom since its introduction in 1911, and wider extension by the government... Value added tax (VAT) is a sales tax levied on the sale of goods and services. ...

During these two years Lawson's public image remained low-key, but from the 1986 budget (in which he resumed the reduction of the standard rate of personal Income Tax from the 30% rate to which it had been lowered in Sir Geoffrey Howe's 1979 budget), his stock rose as unemployment began to fall from the middle of 1986 (employment growth having resumed over three years earlier). An income tax is a tax levied on the financial income of persons, corporations, or other legal entities. ... Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon, PC (born December 20, 1926), usually known before 1992 as Sir Geoffrey Howe, is a senior British Conservative politician. ... An 1837 political cartoon about unemployment in the United States. ...

The trajectory taken by the UK economy from this point on is typically described as 'The Lawson Boom' by analogy with the phrase 'The Barber Boom' which describes an earlier period of rapid expansion under the tenure as chancellor of Anthony Barber in the Conservative government of Sir Edward Heath (1970 to 1974). Critics of Lawson assert that a combination of the abandonment of monetarism, the adoption of a de facto exchange-rate target of 3 deutschmarks to the pound (ruling out interest-rate rises), and excessive fiscal laxity (in particular the 1988 budget) unleashed an inflationary spiral. The Right Honourable Anthony Perrinott Lysberg Barber, Baron Barber, PC (4 July 1920 - 16 December 2005), was a Conservative member of the House of Lords. ... The Right Honourable Sir Edward Richard George Heath, KG, MBE (born July 9, 1916) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. ... Monetarism is a set of views concerning the determination of national income and monetary economics. ...

Lawson, in his own defence, attributes the boom largely to the effects of various measures of financial deregulation. In so far as Lawson acknowledges policy errors, he attributes them to a failure to raise interest rates during 1986 and considers that had Margaret Thatcher not vetoed the UK joining the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in November 1985 it might have been possible to adjust to these beneficial changes in the arena of microeconomics with less macroeconomic turbulence. Lawson also ascribes the difficulty of conducting monetary policy to Goodhart's Law. The European exchange rate mechanisms (or ERM) was a system introduced by the European Community in March 1979, as part of the European Monetary System (EMS), to reduce exchange-rate variability and achieve monetary stability in Europe, in preparation for Economic and Monetary Union and the introduction of a single... Microeconomics is a branch of economics that studies how individuals, households, and firms make decisions to allocate limited resources [1] , typically in markets where goods or services are being bought and sold. ... Macroeconomics is the study of the entire economy in terms of the total amount of goods and services produced, total income earned, the level of employment of productive resources, and the general behavior of prices. ... Goodharts law is the equivalent in the social sciences of the uncertainty principle in physics. ...

Lawson opposed the introduction of the poll tax or a Community Charge, as a replacement for the previous rating system for the local financing element of local government revenue. His dissent was confined to deliberations within the Cabinet, where he found few allies and where he was overruled by the Prime Minister and by the ministerial team of the responsible department (Department of the Environment). 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 issue of exchange-rate mechanism membership continued to fester between Lawson and Thatcher and was exacerbated by the re-employment by Thatcher of Alan Walters as personal economic adviser. Lawson's conduct of policy had become a struggle to maintain credibility once the August 1988 trade deficit revealed the strength of the expansion of domestic demand. As orthodox monetarists, Lawson and Thatcher agreed to a steady rise in interest rates to restrain demand, but this had the effect of inflating the headline inflation figure. After a further year in office in these circumstances Lawson felt that public articulation of differences between an exchange-rate monetarist, as he had become, and the views of Walters (who continued to favour a floating exchange rate) were making his job impossible and he resigned. Lawson coined the phrase that he did so "to spend more time with his family." He was succeeded in the office of Chancellor by Sir John Major. Professor Sir Alan Walters is the former personal economic advisor to Margaret Thatcher during her time as Prime Minister. ... The Right Honourable Sir John Major, KG, CH (born 29 March 1943) is a senior British politician who served in the cabinets of Margaret Thatcher as Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer before succeeding Thatcher as Conservative Party leader and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1990 to...

After politics

After retiring from front-bench politics, Lawson decided, on his doctor's advice, to tackle his weight problem. He lost five stone (70 pounds, 30 kg) in a matter of a few months, dramatically changing his appearance and went on to publish a best-selling diet book. On 1 July 1992 he was created a life peer as Baron Lawson of Blaby, of Newnham in the County of Northamptonshire. Northamptonshire (abbreviated Northants or Nhants) is a landlocked county in central England with a population of 629,676 (2001 census). ...

In 1996, Lawson appeared on the BBC topical quiz show Have I Got News For You and, as a former Chancellor (regarded as one of the "big four" Government positions) became something of a coup as the guest who had previously held the highest political office. He was, however, happy to go on the show and take a mild amount of ribbing from the regulars as he was plugging his diet book at the time. 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is one of the largest broadcasting corporations in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the UK alone and with a budget of more than £4 billion. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ...

Lawson has been married twice:

• Vanessa Salmon (whose family founded the Lyons Corner House chain) (1955 – 1980); (one son Dominic and three daughters Thomasina, Nigella and Horatia)
• Thérèse Maclear (1980 – to present); (one son Tom and one daughter)

J. Lyons and Co. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Dominic Ralph Campden Lawson (born December 17, 1956) is a British journalist. ... The Honourable Nigella Lucy Lawson (born 6 January 1960) is a British journalist, cookery writer and television presenter. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ...

Global warming debate

In 2005, along with six others, Lawson wrote a letter to The Times criticising the Kyoto Protocol and claiming that there were substantial scientific uncertainties surrounding climate change [1], he also wrote on the same subject in the November 2005 issue of Prospect magazine. Shortly afterwards, the House of Lords Economics Committee of which Lawson was a member, undertook an inquiry into the topic, which produced a report consistent with the arguments of Lawson's letter. The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom since 1785, and under its current name since 1788. ... Kyoto Protocol Opened for signature December 11, 1997 in Kyoto, Japan Entered into force February 16, 2005. ... It has been suggested that Global warming in popular culture be merged into this article or section. ... Prospect logo Prospect is a liberal monthly British essay and comment magazine covering a wide range of topics, but specialising in politics and current affairs. ... This article is about the British House of Lords. ...

In response, the British government established the Stern Review, an inquiry undertaken by the UK Treasury and headed by Sir Nicholas Stern. The Stern Review found that the potential costs of climate change far exceeded the costs of a program to stabilise the climate. Sir Nicholas Stern, author of the report. ... The new eastern entrance to HM Treasury HM Treasury, in full Her Majestys Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British governments public finance policy and economic policy. ... Nicholas Stern Sir Nicholas Stern, FBA (born 22 April 1946) is a British economist and academic. ...

Lawson's recent lecture to the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, published 1 November 2006 Lecture on the Economics and Politics of Climate Change - An Appeal to Reason criticises the Stern Review and proposes what it describes as a rational approach, advocating adaptation to changes in global climate, rather than attempting to mitigate or reverse it. The Centre for Policy Studies is a United Kingdom-based think tank. ... A think tank is an organization, institute, corporation, or group that conducts research, typically funded by governmental and commercial clients, in the areas of social or political strategy, technology, and armament. ... November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 60 days remaining. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...

References

• The Primrose League Gazette (Nov/Dec 1988) carried a front-page article by Nigel Lawson headlined The New Britain.

Primrose League badges The Primrose League was an organization for spreading Conservative principles amongst the British democracy, founded in 1883 and active until the mid 1990s, being finally wound up about 2003. ...

External links

• Blaby Conservative Association

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