The personal experience of Edward Heath

Heath was born on July 9, 1916 in Broadstairs, Kent. His father was a carpenter and his mother was a maid. He attended Chatham House Grammar School in Ramsgate in his early years. In 1935, Heath entered Balliol College, Oxford University, where he studied philosophy, politics and economics. Before entering college, he applied for scholarships twice but was rejected, so his tuition was mainly funded by loans from his parents and the Kent County Board of Education. Heath is a musical genius and received a music scholarship from the college in his first semester. In 1939, Heath graduated second in class. In addition, Heath was already very enthusiastic in participating in Conservative political activities at university, but he strongly opposed the appeasement policies promoted by Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain. In the 1938 Oxford parliamentary by-election, Heath opposed the official candidate of the Conservative Party, Quintin Hogg, and shifted his support to Dr. Lindsay of the Independent Progressive Party. ). In November of the same year, with the sponsorship of Balliol College, Heath was elected president of the Oxford Union Society on the platform of resisting appeasement.

It is understood that Hiss opposed the appeasement policy because he attended the Nuremberg Congress of the Nazi Party in 1937 and met Hermann Goering at an SS cocktail party. , Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler and other Nazi party leaders. Among them, Hiss later recalled: "Himmler is the most evil man I have ever met."

During World War II, Hiss served in the Royal Artillery. After the artillery was demobilized , he joined the Honorable Artillery Battery in August 1946 and was promoted to commander. In addition, Heath was once again employed by the Civil Aviation Department as a civil servant, but he resigned in November 1947 because he intended to run for Congress. After resigning, Heath became the editor of the Church Age and worked as a banker at Brown, Shipley & Co before officially running for office. In 1950, Heath defeated his opponent Ashley Bramall by 133 votes and became a member of the House of Commons, representing the Bexley constituency (Heath and Bramall were at the university) Already rivals in the debate team era). In February 1951, Heath was appointed by Churchill as the opposition whip. Subsequently, the Conservative Party returned to power after the 1951 general election. Although Heath remained in the whip's office, he still received several promotions, and in December 1955 Appointed Chief Whip by Anthony Eden that month. Since the whip was not required to speak in Parliament, Heath was not implicated when the Suez Crisis broke out. After Anthony Eden announced his resignation as Prime Minister, Heath submitted a report to collect the opinions of Conservative MPs on Eden's successor. This report was appreciated by MacMillan and helped him become Prime Minister. Therefore, MacMillan Mellen immediately appointed Hiss as Labor Secretary after the 1959 election.

His has always strongly supported Britain's political and economic participation in the international market. In 1960, he was appointed Lord Privy Seal by Macmillan, responsible for negotiating Britain's entry into the European Union, but the negotiations ultimately failed. After Sir Alec Douglas-Home became Prime Minister, Heath was appointed Chairman of the Trade Committee and Secretary of State for Industry, Trade, and Regional Development. During his tenure, Heath witnessed the retail industry's decline. Abolition of price controls.

After the Conservative Party lost the 1964 general election, Douglas-Home decided to resign as party leader, and before resigning, he changed the party leader election rules so that only members of Congress had the right to vote. The party leadership election was held the following year, and Heath was unexpectedly elected with 150 votes. His popular opponent Reginald Maudling only received 133 votes, and his other opponent Enoch Powell only received 133 votes. 15 votes.

After being elected, Heath became the youngest leader of the Conservative Party in history. Although the Conservative Party later lost again in the 1966 election, Heath did not announce his resignation. In 1970, when the general election was approaching, the Conservative Party accidentally leaked a policy document at the Selsden Park Hotel. The content roughly stated that the Conservative Party would appoint radical monetarists to promote policies based on the free market. Solve domestic inflation and unemployment problems. After the news broke, the left-wing Labor Prime Minister Harold Wilson immediately pointed out the Conservative Party's policy errors and made fun of the Conservative Party's reactionary and conservative policies as "Selsdon Man". Although public opinion at the time unanimously believed that Wilson of the Labor Party would win re-election in the general election, the Conservative Party led by Heath unexpectedly defeated Wilson in the 1970 election, and Heath became prime minister. Like other British Prime Ministers in the 1970s, Heath experienced very difficult times. Shortly after he took office, Finance Minister Iain Macleod passed away on July 20, 1970. Macleod's death forced the postponement of many originally planned economic policies (including changing the tax system from direct to indirect taxes), and the "Sellsden Document" was also shelved in 1972. In addition, reforming trade unions became a major problem at the time. In the past, neither the Conservative Party nor the Labor government had successfully reformed trade unions. During the period when Heath became prime minister, trade unions became increasingly militant and aggressive. As a result, Hiss's reform of the unions became a long political struggle, but inflation and unemployment became increasingly severe. By 1973, the world was in an energy crisis again, and Heath had no choice but to implement a three-day work week in factories to reduce energy consumption. Taken together, these events have significantly reduced the reputation of the Hiss government.

The Heath government also cut spending on social welfare. His education secretary, Margaret Thatcher, not only canceled the free supply of milk to school children, but also cut funding for the Open University. But if you compare Mrs. Thatcher's government in the future, Heath has appeared to be more benevolent in this regard.

The Northern Ireland problem worsened sharply during Heath's tenure as Prime Minister, and erupted in the famous Bloody Sunday in 1972. On that day, an illegal march was held in Londonderry, and British troops opened fire on the crowd. As a result, 14 unarmed people were shot dead. However, Heath stated at a hearing in 2003 that he did not promote or agree to use it in Northern Ireland. Any unlawful force. Later, in July 1972, Heath appointed his Northern Ireland Secretary William Whitelaw to hold informal talks with representatives of the Irish Armed Forces in London, but the talks did not reach a consensus. The Hiss government had no choice but to contact some of the more moderate Northern Ireland parties and successfully issued the "Sunningdale Agreement" on December 9, 1973. However, the "Sunningdale Agreement" has been boycotted by the Irish Communist Party, and many unionists are also dissatisfied with the agreement, which caused the Northern Ireland Unionist Party (Ulster Unionist Party) to no longer support the Conservative government. , which further damaged the reputation of the Hiss government and became a foreshadowing of his resignation.

The biggest achievement during Heath's term was the successful entry of the United Kingdom into the European Union in 1973. On February 28, 1974, in order to consolidate national support for the Conservative Party, Heath decided to hold a general election, but the result of the election was inconclusive. Although the Conservatives gained a relative majority in terms of the number of votes cast, Labor gained a relative majority in terms of seats due to the loss of the support of Northern Ireland Unionist MPs. Heath attempted to form a coalition government with the Liberal Party, but was rejected. As a result, on March 4, 1974, Heath announced his resignation as prime minister, and Wilson of the Labor Party formed a minority government and resumed his role as prime minister. In the general election held again in October of the same year, he achieved a slight majority. As for the "Sunningdale Agreement", it was abolished on May 28, 1974, after Heath resigned as Prime Minister.

Sir Keith Joseph and Margaret Thatcher established the Center for Policy Studies in 1974, inheriting Heath’s “Seldesden Papers”. Advocates radical free market policies.

Under the leadership of Heath for many years, the Conservative Party lost many general elections and its seats in Parliament were gradually reduced. This situation made many Conservative MPs and newspaper editors begin to regard Heath himself as a negative factor for the Conservative Party. But Heath still enjoys widespread sympathy among voters because he often expresses his hope to form a government that unites the country.

After losing the election as prime minister, Heath continued to serve as party leader with the support of front-seat members. However, at that time, according to party rules, the party leader election would only be held when the position of party leader became vacant, and party rules did not allow the party leader to appoint a successor or accept challenges from other party members. Therefore, Heath was still under pressure at the time, forcing him to announce a review of party rules at the end of 1974 in order to hold a leadership election and allow party members to challenge him. Initially, Heath believed he would not be successfully challenged because his former rival Enoch Powell had already quit the party, and another popular candidate, Sir Keith Joseph, had been criticized on the issue of birth control. However, what was unexpected was that Conservative backbenchers had been dissatisfied with Hiss, and their representative Airey Neave was determined to find a powerful candidate to challenge Hiss, and finally he found him Margaret Thatcher, who co-founded the Center for Policy Research, kicked off the party leadership election.

In addition to allowing party members to challenge the party leader, the new party rules also stipulate that if the winning candidate fails to obtain a majority of the designated votes, he must enter the second round of elections. Thatcher was initially viewed as a stalking horse, but her campaign manager Ari Neave later concluded that Thatcher was capable of defeating Heath. Finally, the election results were announced on February 4, 1975, with Mrs Thatcher defeating Heath's 119 votes with 130 votes. After Heath lost the first round of the election, he decided to withdraw from the election and ran as his intended successor, William Whitelaw. But Mrs Thatcher still won a week later with 146 votes to Whitelaw's 79. At this point, Mrs. Thatcher officially succeeded Heath and became the first female leader of the Conservative Party. After Heath was defeated, he has been criticizing the new direction and new ideas of the Conservative Party. Subsequently, after the 1979 general election, when the Conservative Party returned to power, Heath was appointed British Ambassador to the United States, but he declined. Until the 1981 Conservative Party Conference, Heath was still regarded as a symbolic leader by some left-wingers within the party.

Heath remained active on the international stage in his later years and participated in the Brandt Commission. In addition, he continued to express a hatred for his old colleague Enoch Powell, and after Powell's death in 1998, Heath refused to express sympathy for his family.

During the second general election in 1974, Heath expressed his hope to form a "coalition government" involving all parties. Many commentators believe that Heath's idea is to hope that when the country's political situation is in crisis, he can, as a "more experienced politician", preside over a similar "coalition government." However, this opportunity never came.

After Heath stepped down as Prime Minister and party leader, he continued to serve in the House of Commons as a backbencher and represented the London constituency of Old Bexley and Sidcup. Heath retired from the House of Commons in 2001, having been awarded the Order of the Garter in 1992. In addition, Heath is the longest-serving member of the House of Commons and holds the title of "Father of the House of Commons". He has witnessed the appointment and dismissal of many Speakers of the House of Commons.

In August 2003, Heath suffered a pulmonary embolism while traveling in Salzburg, Austria. He stayed in Salisbury to recuperate, and finally died on July 17, 2005. He died of pneumonia at the age of 89, and his body was later buried in Salisbury Cathedral.

In January 2006, it was reported that according to the will, Heath left 5 million pounds during his lifetime. However, because he never married and had no heirs, most of the inheritance was Donate to a charitable foundation named after himself, which is mainly for the conservation of his 18th-century house (called Arundells, located next to Salisbury Cathedral). In addition, Heath bequeathed ￡20,000 to his brother's widow, while Heath's housekeeper received ￡2,500.