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This Thatcher connection goes beyond the circumstantial parallel. Liam Fox is, in fact, the only recognisably Thatcherite Conservative in the Cabinet. He places a Scottish libertarian imprint on her philosophy, but despite all pressure to do so, he has never wavered in his belief that her years in government provide a model to restore Britain’s fortunes. Moreover, Fox is not a Right Wing dullard. He is clever, articulate, funny, presentable and popular, at least outside Westminster, and if he, rather than David Davis, had squeezed into the final round of the leadership contest with David Cameron he could well have won.
And the modernising faction, who controls the party today, cannot forget this. Fox is dangerous to them. If Cameron were to fall, Fox, not Osborne or some other malleably plastic figure, could take over.
Hence the cat and mouse game played by No. 10. Whether it would be better to keep him, weakened and humiliated, and so biddable (like poor William Hague), or whether it would be better to discard Fox altogether, must be the primary question in the leadership’s mind.
But the leadership should be careful. Randolph Churchill coined the phrase “the Eden Terror” to describe the fear that Anthony Eden’s irascible whims imposed on the party and the Tory press. Terror is unstable and Eden’s rule proved fragile. The recognisably acrid smell of fear is perceptible now. No one, it seems, will speak out for Fox, because no one wants to displease what are assumed to be the unexpressed wishes of No 10.
So Tory MPs face a choice. This afternoon and in succeeding days those in the parliamentary party who do not wish it to be turned into a social liberal party without roots, traditions or a sense of national destiny ought to speak out. And even the party managers might be advised to have second thoughts. If conservatism — on Europe, immigration, tax, marriage, law and order and much else — is finally seen to have no place at the top of the party, many with conservative views and instincts may go elsewhere. History shows that it is remarkably easy to lose elections.
Robin Harris is a former member of the Conservative Research Department and Margaret Thatcher’s policy unit.
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