If I can make 2 humble requests,
Israeli Barry Goldwater
and
American Salvador Allende.
Your request is here my friend
If I can make 2 humble requests,
Israeli Barry Goldwater
and
American Salvador Allende.
Anyone made an American Hitler or American Ernst Thälmann infobox yet?
Very good - I suspected he'd probably be in the Birch Society due to his close links to the Monday Club (then again even he found it too extreme and loony in his later years.)
Gerald Springer has often been portrayed as a cloak and dagger schemer ever since the 1990's. However, this image is very much false. Springer was an arch Thatcherite, and accounts from Norman Tebbit say that he was close behind Cecil Parkinson in terms of the Prime Minister's favourite cabinet minister. He was noted for his crude humour, with Spitting Image portraying him as an overenthusiastic American style comedian. While this style annoyed many of his fellow ministers, it was pretty popular with the media, who constantly touted him as Thatcher's successor. In 1989, he originally attacked Howe for 'betraying' the Prime Minister, but eventually, he switched sides and called for her resignation. Despite this, he was promoted to Home Secretary in Thatcher's final reshuffle. Fortunately for Springer's career, Heseltine kept him on after his early victory, though he would be an internal critic of the new Prime Minister, namely his decision to call a snap election in November 1991, which Springer called 'thick'. The main reason his career ended a bit early was due to Tom King, who he never forgave for his actions in the leadership election (supposedly, King's allies sent out ads to Conservative voters in more socially conservative areas implying that Springer was gay).
Springer stuck on in the name of unity, and hoped that King would delegate more power to him following their landslide victory. The opposite would happen, with the Home office being locked out and displaced by Foreign and Defence. When the Prime Minister sacked him in 1998, Springer went to the backbenches and sulked for a year, before resigning as an MP to focus on a book writing career.