Nigel Lawson - Memoirs of a Tory Radical

This book is a half-length abridgement of The View from No.11, originally published in 1992, to which has been added a new concluding chapter. It is not an autobiography, but a ministerial, and in particular a Chancellorial, memoir. In other words, it excludes all that is most important in life. But politics and political office do matter, particularly when they are about more than office for its own sake. That was certainly the case with the Thatcher era, and with my part in it.

If this book is not an autobiography, neither is it an essay in the higher economic scholasticism. Although I have been heavily involved in economic policy and have sought to come to terms with rival economic ideas, I have done so as a politician rather than as an economist. But no account either of the Conservative Government of the 1980s or of the work of a modern Chancellor of the Exchequer can make sense without an explanation of the economic thinking that lay behind so many of the key decisions that were taken.

When I started this book I drafted it in strict chronological order, describing the events of 197989 as they happened. This certainly conveyed the reality of a Ministers, and in particular a Chancellors life, with so many different problems and issues jostling to be addressed at one and the same time. But it soon became clear that this real-life treatment would make the story all but incomprehensible. I have therefore compromised between the chronological approach and dealing with one subject at a time. As a result, some of the key conclusions emerge early on in the book. I have, however, liberally sprinkled dates to enable the reader to follow what was happening when.

Although the book is an account of the period, and of my part in it, as I saw it and see it, and in that sense is inevitably subjective, I have sought to be both accurate and fair. Should any inaccuracies have none the less inadvertently crept in for I did not keep a diary I apologise; but I would be surprised if they alter the account in any material way.

The original edition of this book was virtually completed before the turmoil in the foreign exchange markets of mid-September 1992, which led to the departure of sterling from the European exchange rate mechanism. While nothing that has happened since has caused me to resile from the view I took of the ERM as Chancellor, it has of course been overtaken by events with the coming of the Euro. That and other topics are covered in the new concluding chapter, which was written in August 2010.

Many readers may be particularly interested in the dramatic events leading up to my resignation as Chancellor in October 1989, recounted in part five of the book. But I would direct the readers attention to the first four parts, which are intended to shed some light on the working of British government. Most books about how decisions are taken in government tend to be written by academics or journalists: indeed, as a journalist many years ago, I co-wrote one myself. This, book gives the view from the inside. A further reason for directing readers to the first three parts is that many of the central policies of the Thatcher era were formulated at a very early stage, and remained in place thereafter. Thus some of the main discussion of the issues, and even of personalities, occurs in these parts.

This edition of the book has been produced with the invaluable assistance of Christopher Collins of the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, to whom I am very grateful.