Politics saved me from being a hoodie, says Lord Tebbit

The well-known politician, forever closely linked with Margaret Thatcher's governments, said national service provided him with an outlet for his teenage energy.

Without such a period in the armed forces, young people presently lacked a positive role into which they could put their efforts. This led some into anti-social behaviour characterised by those who wore hooded tops over their heads.

He said: "Growing up in inner London somewhere today, I would possibly have been a hoodie.

"You just have to get out and do something at that age. You have to lead people.

"One of the tragedies of today is the kids who ought to be leaders are being left to do destructive things instead.

"They feel they have to lead somewhere. So they lead the gangs. It's the only leadership they can get."

He expanded his theme by saying the education system was failing those at the very top and the very bottom.

The most academically-gifted young people were not being stretched enough by state schools.

Those without many talents were just being cast adrift from society.

"We are failing them in the most dreadful way," he said. "We are creating terrible problems for society."

Lord Tebbit, formally Baron Tebbit of Chingford, made his typically forthright comments during a two-hour talk at Bognor's RAFA Club in Waterloo Square.

Last Wednesday's appearance by one of the most famous British political characters of the 1970s and 80s attracted a full house of 80 people.

Some would have gone along based on their liking of Lord Tebbit's politics. Others were attracted by his flying career.

None could have been left disappointed by what they heard.

He laced his comments with humour but also showed he had lost none of his ability for plain speaking when necessary.

Lord Tebbit (77) covered his childhood in Enfield as the Battle of Britain was raging. The sight of the aerial fighting inspired him to join the RAF.

He left school at 16 and worked in journalism before he was called up for his national service two years later.

He spoke of his good fortune in being trained as a pilot as the era of jet fighters, such as the Meteor, was beginning.

He spent four years in the RAF which he looked back on wistfully as a golden period in his life '“ but not without a sharp criticism of modern-day attitudes to the death of servicemen and women.

He compared the publicity which surrounds battle casualties of British forces today with the total acceptance of death among those in uniform 50 years ago.

"We all knew that instinctively, as I was told by a senior officer, fighter aircraft and, by extension, their pilots, are expendable," he recalled.

"Take that too far and it's grossly wrong and immoral.

"On the other hand, it's a much better way of looking at the situation than what we have got now which I think distorts the judgment of the men serving in the field."

He took a swipe at modern health and safety laws as well along the way before he turned his attention to his civilian career flying Argonauts, DC-7s and then 707s around the world for the former BOAC airline.

His political interests grew stronger and he took the leap into the world of parliament when he was chosen as the Conservative candidate for Epping. He won, to his surprise, in 1970.

Nine years later, and representing Chingford, he became an important member of the government as the Tories swept to power with Mrs Thatcher as prime minister.

Norman Tebbit, as he was then, was seldom out of the headlines with his trenchant right-wing views.

He served as the secretary of state for employment (1981-83), trade and industry (83-85) and party chairman and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (85-87).

He was seen as a potential prime minister at one time but left the House of Commons in 1992 and joined the Lords, where he still continues to make news.

TEBBIT ON GORDON BROWN AND TONY BLAIR. NEXT PAGE.

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MAPTebbit on Gordon Brown and Tony Blair: "I think Brown is wrong in almost every policy but that's not to say I don't respect him as a man.

"I think he's basically a decent man and an honest man and intent on doing absolutely what he thinks is the right thing for the country.

"Brown is not cheap, he is not tacky, he is not greedy and he is not trying to sell houses and buy bigger houses and all the rest of it for himself like his predecessor.

"Talking to Brown's wife is an entirely different experience to talking to Cherie Blair.

"If I had to be stuck on a desert island, I would choose Brown rather than Blair to be with me.

"Blair's great failing in the run-up to the war in Iraq is that he didn't understand himself and did not try to make the American understand that part of the world.

"He listened to Cherie that women couldn't paint their toenails there.

"That was wrong because Iraq was one of the few places in the Muslim world where women could hold driving licences and work and where there were churches."

He attacked the thinking which assumed the Iraqis would rise to greet the Americans after Saddam Hussein was toppled like the French greeted them after Paris was liberated in the second world war.

"It makes me angry that this country, with all the experience we have accumulated and all the people who knew about this type of thing, no consideration was given to what would happen after the fighting.

"It's a tragedy."

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