Thenford: The Creation of an English Garden

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Heseltine, by now a junior minister in the Heath government, was now forced to apply for a new candidacy, often in competition with other sitting Conservative MPs whose seats were also due for abolition. He applied for Mid Sussex in competition with Ian Gilmour, but they lost to Tim Renton. He also applied for Mid-Oxfordshire but lost to Douglas Hurd. [96] Press Association (24 March 2017). "Michael Heseltine: Germany will 'win the peace' because of Brexit". The Guardian . Retrieved 26 March 2017. John Campbell (30 April 2011). Margaret Thatcher Volume Two: The Iron Lady. Random House. p.489. ISBN 978-1-4464-2008-9. In May 2019, he had the Conservative Party whip suspended after saying he would vote for the Liberal Democrats, rather than the Conservatives, at the 2019 European Parliament election. [264] On the current high tax environment, Heseltine says he feels the pain of the nation's entrepreneurs. Unlike most politicians he has first-hand experience.

Heseltine stood down from his Henley constituency at the 2001 election, being succeeded by Spectator editor and future prime minister Boris Johnson, but he remained outspoken on British politics. He was created a life peer on 12 July 2001 taking the title Baron Heseltine, of Thenford in the County of Northamptonshire. [244] There before us is a magnificent tree bursting with a late pale yellow blossom but the squire cannot quite remember the Latin name. ‘It’s a privet,’ he murmurs tapping his phone. ‘Ah yes. One of Heseltine's main jobs was to campaign against the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), which had grown in size from 3,000 to 10,000 in three years amid public disquiet about the deployment of Trident and Cruise missiles, and the hawkish rhetoric often employed by Thatcher and US President Ronald Reagan. Nott had had little interest in campaigning and had left the matter to the Minister of State, Peter Blaker, Heseltine's contemporary from Oxford. Heseltine put together a small group of seven civil servants called Defence Section 19 (DS19) to brief MPs and other opinion formers, and argue the case for Britain to have nuclear weapons. Some, both in the civil service and out of it, had qualms about using civil servants for what amounted to a political campaigning role. Opinion polls showed the public to be opposed to Trident and Cruise missiles, but also opposed to unilateral ("one-sided" as Heseltine insisted on calling it) disarmament, so Heseltine steered the debate away from the former and towards the latter. [151]Department of the Official Report (Hansard), House of Commons, Westminster. "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 13 November 1990". Publications.parliament.uk . Retrieved 29 April 2010. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list ( link) a b c d Michael Heseltine, Life in the Jungle, Hodder & Stoughton, 2000, ISBN 0-340-73915-0, pp. 25–39. Heseltine was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet in June 1974 as Industry spokesman. If the Conservatives had won either of the general elections in 1974 (February or October) he would almost certainly have joined the Cabinet. He was shadowing Tony Benn, who planned a major expansion of public ownership through the National Enterprise Board. In the summer of 1974, Heseltine put together a team of over 20 Conservative MPs, each a specialist in a particular industry, to campaign against Benn's plans. [114] 1975 leadership election [ edit ] There are many tributes to the people who have played a key part in the Thenford story, including the garden designer Lanning Roper and two great plant experts, Sir Harold Hillier and Roy Lancaster. Cancer's grim chokehold on Britain: Sobering charts show how disease is robbing sufferers of up to 25 YEARS - with cases of melanoma, breast and prostate having soared since the 90s

In the late Seventies, I was a shadow cabinet minister,’ explains Michael. ‘It seemed increasingly likely, when the Tories won the election, that I would be in the cabinet. This would preclude me devoting a lot of time to the garden. I knew nothing about trees and shrubs – indeed, I thought a hornbeam was a dance they did in the navy in Georgian times. We approached Harold Hillier, one of the great plantsmen of the last century and asked him to advise us.

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Heseltine was created a life peer in 2001 and has remained a vocal advocate for modernisation within the party. He has continued to make political interventions, criticising Brexit and Boris Johnson following the 2016 Brexit referendum result. In 2019, Heseltine had the whip suspended after saying he would vote for the Liberal Democrats, rather than the Conservatives, at the 2019 European Parliament election. The next snowdrop open days at Thenford Gardens & Arboretum in Northamptonshire will be on February 9, 19 and 22. Advance booking is required; visit thenfordarboretum.com . Israeli girls 'were raped over their friends' bodies' by Hamas terrorists who carried out 'a second Holocaust', British relatives reveal as they condemn those who celebrated the atrocities in Gaza, Iran and London Israel Palestine news LIVE: Children of British-Israeli hostages say relatives were 'gassed, burned, butchered, slaughtered' as at least 100 people travel from the UK to fight Hamas Loss-making celebrity clinic The Priory is still burning cash and facing 'unaffordable' rent bill, according to research firm