Julian Critchley
Encyclopedia
Sir Julian Michael Gordon Critchley (8 December 1930 – 9 September 2000) was a British
Conservative Party
politician
.
Born in Islington
, the son of a distinguished neurosurgeon, as a boy Critchley was brought up in Swiss Cottage
, north London
, and Shropshire
, where he attended preparatory school, and later Shrewsbury School
. He returned to London
to take his Higher Certificate, and was rejected from National Service
after contracting polio. After a year living and studying in Paris
, he went up to Pembroke College
, Oxford
in 1951, where he read PPE.
He served as a Conservative
Member of Parliament
, firstly for Rochester and Chatham
from 1959 to 1964, and then for Aldershot
from 1970 until his retirement at the 1997 election
. While out of parliament from 1964 to 1970, he worked as a journalist
, including as a TV critic for The Times
; he continued to be active as a journalist and author throughout the remainder of his career.
He was considered to be on the left wing of the Conservative Party (one of the 'wets' in Thatcherite terminology), and never attained ministerial rank. He became identified as a prominent Tory
critic of Mrs Thatcher
. In 1980 he sparked controversy by writing an anonymous article in The Observer
, signed 'by a Tory', in which he criticised Thatcher's 'A level economics' and called her 'didactic, tart and obstinate'. He was later forced to admit authorship. He also memorably referred to Mrs Thatcher
as 'the great she-elephant', and claims responsibility for the currency of the phrase 'one of us', which Mrs Thatcher
used privately to refer to colleagues whom she saw as loyal and supportive of her policies. This later became used by Hugo Young
as the title of his biography of Thatcher. Critchley was, however, supportive of Thatcher's stance at the time of the Falklands War
.
Critchley was a long-standing friend of Michael Heseltine
, having met him first at preparatory school. Both then went on to Shrewsbury
and Pembroke College
, Oxford
, and Critchley was best man at Heseltine's wedding. Their friendship waned in the 1960s, but Critchley supported Heseltine in the 1990 leadership election
.
From the early 1990s Critchley became severely restricted in mobility due to complications arising from the polio from which he had suffered as a young man. Despite this, he successfully re-contested his Aldershot
seat at the 1992 election
, but became an infrequent attender at the House of Commons until his retirement in 1997. He was knight
ed in 1995.
After his retirement he was expelled from the mainstream Conservative party for backing the Pro-Euro Conservative Party
in the 1999 European Parliament election. He died the next year in Hereford
from prostate cancer
aged 69. He was married twice, and had four children.
Critchley became highly regarded as a witty and acerbic political writer and journalist, increasingly so towards the end of his life. His 1994 volume of memoirs, A Bag of Boiled Sweets, was described by Jeremy Paxman
as 'The most entertaining set of political memoirs to have been published in years.' He also wrote two mystery novels set in Parliament, Hung Parliament and Floating Voter, which feature an MP-turned-sleuth who's clearly based on Critchley, and a mix of real and invented MPs (the latter providing the victims and suspects).
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
.
Born in Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
, the son of a distinguished neurosurgeon, as a boy Critchley was brought up in Swiss Cottage
Swiss Cottage
Swiss Cottage is a district of the London Borough of Camden in London, England. Thedistrict is located north-west of Charing Cross. It is centred on the junction of Avenue Road and Finchley Road and is the location of Swiss Cottage tube station.-Etymology:...
, north London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
, where he attended preparatory school, and later Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School
Shrewsbury School is a co-educational independent school for pupils aged 13 to 18, founded by Royal Charter in 1552. The present campus to which the school moved in 1882 is located on the banks of the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England...
. He returned to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to take his Higher Certificate, and was rejected from National Service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
after contracting polio. After a year living and studying in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, he went up to Pembroke College
Pembroke College, Oxford
Pembroke College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located in Pembroke Square. As of 2009, Pembroke had an estimated financial endowment of £44.9 million.-History:...
, Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
in 1951, where he read PPE.
He served as a Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, firstly for Rochester and Chatham
Rochester and Chatham (UK Parliament constituency)
Rochester and Chatham was a parliamentary constituency in Kent which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1950 until it was abolished for the 1983 general election....
from 1959 to 1964, and then for Aldershot
Aldershot (constituency)
Aldershot is a borough constituency in Hampshire, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
from 1970 until his retirement at the 1997 election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
. While out of parliament from 1964 to 1970, he worked as a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, including as a TV critic for The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
; he continued to be active as a journalist and author throughout the remainder of his career.
He was considered to be on the left wing of the Conservative Party (one of the 'wets' in Thatcherite terminology), and never attained ministerial rank. He became identified as a prominent Tory
Tory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
critic of Mrs Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
. In 1980 he sparked controversy by writing an anonymous article in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, signed 'by a Tory', in which he criticised Thatcher's 'A level economics' and called her 'didactic, tart and obstinate'. He was later forced to admit authorship. He also memorably referred to Mrs Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
as 'the great she-elephant', and claims responsibility for the currency of the phrase 'one of us', which Mrs Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
used privately to refer to colleagues whom she saw as loyal and supportive of her policies. This later became used by Hugo Young
Hugo Young
Hugo John Smelter Young was a British journalist and columnist and senior political commentator at The Guardian.-Early life and education:...
as the title of his biography of Thatcher. Critchley was, however, supportive of Thatcher's stance at the time of the Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
.
Critchley was a long-standing friend of Michael Heseltine
Michael Heseltine
Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC is a British businessman, Conservative politician and patron of the Tory Reform Group. He was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001 and was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major...
, having met him first at preparatory school. Both then went on to Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...
and Pembroke College
Pembroke College, Oxford
Pembroke College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located in Pembroke Square. As of 2009, Pembroke had an estimated financial endowment of £44.9 million.-History:...
, Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, and Critchley was best man at Heseltine's wedding. Their friendship waned in the 1960s, but Critchley supported Heseltine in the 1990 leadership election
Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 1990
The 1990 Conservative Party leadership election in the United Kingdom took place in November 1990 following the decision of former Defence and Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine to stand against the incumbent Conservative leader and Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.Thatcher failed to win...
.
From the early 1990s Critchley became severely restricted in mobility due to complications arising from the polio from which he had suffered as a young man. Despite this, he successfully re-contested his Aldershot
Aldershot (constituency)
Aldershot is a borough constituency in Hampshire, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
seat at the 1992 election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...
, but became an infrequent attender at the House of Commons until his retirement in 1997. He was knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
ed in 1995.
After his retirement he was expelled from the mainstream Conservative party for backing the Pro-Euro Conservative Party
Pro-Euro Conservative Party
The Pro-Euro Conservative Party was a British political party announced by John Stevens and Brendan Donnelly in February 1999, formed to contest the 1999 European Parliament Elections. The founders were Members of the European Parliament who had resigned from the UK Conservative Party in protest at...
in the 1999 European Parliament election. He died the next year in Hereford
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
from prostate cancer
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is a form of cancer that develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. Most prostate cancers are slow growing; however, there are cases of aggressive prostate cancers. The cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly...
aged 69. He was married twice, and had four children.
Critchley became highly regarded as a witty and acerbic political writer and journalist, increasingly so towards the end of his life. His 1994 volume of memoirs, A Bag of Boiled Sweets, was described by Jeremy Paxman
Jeremy Paxman
Jeremy Dickson Paxman is a British journalist, author and television presenter. He has worked for the BBC since 1977. He is noted for a forthright and abrasive interviewing style, particularly when interrogating politicians...
as 'The most entertaining set of political memoirs to have been published in years.' He also wrote two mystery novels set in Parliament, Hung Parliament and Floating Voter, which feature an MP-turned-sleuth who's clearly based on Critchley, and a mix of real and invented MPs (the latter providing the victims and suspects).
Publications
- Critchley, Julian, Westminster Blues, London, 1981
- Critchley, Julian, The Palace of Varieties, London, 1983
- Critchley, Julian, Heseltine - The Unauthorised Biography, André DeutschAndré DeutschAndré Deutsch was a British publisher.After having learned the business of publishing working for Francis Aldor with whom he was interned in the Isle of Man during the Second World War and who had introduced him to the industry, André Deutsch left Aldor's employment after a few months to continue...
, London, September 1987, ISBN 0-233-98001-6 - Critchley, Julian, A Bag of Boiled Sweets, Faber and FaberFaber and FaberFaber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
, London, 1994, ISBN 0-571-17496-5