Kiss of death

["Michael Keaney" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

Thatcher backs Duncan Smith

Nicholas Watt, political correspondent
Tuesday August 21, 2001
The Guardian

Margaret Thatcher finally joins the fray in the Tory leadership contest
today when she throws her weight behind Iain Duncan
Smith with a warning that his rival Kenneth Clarke would lead the party
to "disaster".

In a carefully timed intervention, as ballot papers were posted to
300,000 Tory members, the former prime minister declares in
today's Daily Telegraph that Mr Duncan Smith is the only candidate who
can unite the party be cause of Mr Clarke's fiercely
pro-European views.

In a letter to the newspaper Lady Thatcher says: "I simply cannot
understand how Ken Clarke could lead today's Conservative
party to anything other than disaster. He is at odds with the majority
of its members on too many issues.

"He appears to be an even keener enthusiast for the euro than is the
prime minister, let alone the chancellor. He seems to view
with blithe unconcern the erosion of Britain's sovereignty in Europe.
And in the strategic decision over whether Britain aligns
herself with an emerging European superstate or whether our relationship
with America should remain paramount, Ken Clarke
would be on the side of Brussels."

In her letter Lady Thatcher quotes Oscar Wilde who said that people
should own up to their mistakes. "It would have been
reassuring to hear from Ken Clarke about some of the mistakes which in
1997 led the Conservative party to the greatest defeat in
its history. After all, he - not Iain Duncan Smith - was one of those
who made them."

Lady Thatcher's intervention on behalf of Mr Duncan Smith, which was
widely anticipated, will provide a major boost to the
rightwinger who has a low profile among the Tory grassroots.

Party activists will listen carefully to the views of the woman who led
them to three successive election victories.

In every leadership election since her downfall Lady Thatcher has backed
the winner - John Major in 1990 and William Hague in
1997. However, those elections were decided by MPs who voted for Mr
Clarke as their first choice in the parliamentary round of
this contest. Mr Clarke, who predicted on Sunday that Lady Thatcher
would back Mr Duncan Smith, will dismiss her intervention.

His supporters will say that Lady Thatcher bears a grudge against Mr
Clarke, who told her in blunt terms that she should stand
down as prime minister after she failed to secure a decisive victory in
the first ballot of the 1990 leadership contest.

Clarke supporters will argue that Lady Thatcher's high profile
interventions during the general election were an important factor in
alienating voters. However, they know she is hugely popular with the
party membership who will decide the Tory leadership.

Lady Thatcher's intervention follows William Hague's decision to endorse
Mr Duncan Smith. John Major is expected to offer his
support to Mr Clarke later this week.

Full article at:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/conservatives/story/0,9061,540139,00.html

Michael Keaney
Mercuria Business School
Martinlaaksontie 36
01620 Vantaa
Finland

michael.keaney@xxxxxx