Planet Online - Nick Bourne Interview

People Don't Care if You're on the Left or the Right

Nick Bourne is the Leader of the Welsh Conservative group in the Assembly, and AM for Brecon and Radnor. This interview was conducted at the Senedd in April 2009.
Read the full interview as a pdf here

04.02.09.
At what age did your interest in politics develop?

I was interested in politics at school — I did British Constitution at O and A level — but I wasn’t committed to a political party. I went to Aberystwyth University and joined the Conservative Association at Aberystwyth, but wasn’t active. It was actually Neil Hamilton who chaired the Association, and the political slant wasn’t to my liking. But I remember hearing Harold Wilson speak — and I met him — and also Tony Benn. Interestingly I came up against him later when he fought the Chesterfield by-election, and I was the Conservative candidate. I rather respect Benn, in a personal way, but politically I didn’t agree with much of his analysis. After Aberystwyth I went to Cambridge for two years post-grad and became very active in the Conservative Association there. It was then the second largest society in Cambridge after the Cambridge Union. It had 1000 members, and I became its Treasurer. There was more happening at Cambridge, as it is much closer to London. We had a very good stream of people coming to talk to the Conservative Association, and also I was there during the time that Margaret Thatcher became leader, during the two 1974 General Elections and for the Referendum on Europe. I was active on the “Yes” side and involved in the Young European Democrats, which drew people from other political parties as well. So it was a time of great political activity.

Have you always been pro-European?

Yes. I have never wavered on that, though I wouldn’t call myself fanatically pro-Europe by any means. But it has always seemed to me to be the right thing for Britain to be in the European Union, or Common Market as it then was. I was always politically involved at Cambridge — it squeezed out other things really. But it was a great opportunity to go along to listen to speakers and to get involved in debates. There was the issue then of who would take over the Conservative Party after Edward Heath. So we had a lot of visiting speakers like Willie Whitelaw, Margaret Thatcher, Jim Prior and Geoffrey Howe.

Was there a battle going on then between the “One Nation” Conservatives and the “New Right”?

I don’t think it looked like that at the time. My feeling then was that Margaret Thatcher was seen as challenging the Establishment. The Establishment was Ted Heath and the default Establishment candidate was Willie Whitelaw. I think that she was perhaps seen as more right-wing than Willie Whitelaw, but it wasn’t perceived as a battle between Right and Left. It was more the Establishment candidate and a woman. I don’t think it seems quite as remarkable now as it did at the time, but this was the first woman leader of a major political party in the West. It was a massive breakthrough and for the Conservative Party to do this caused a certain excitement. Also, though  she’d held office as Education Secretary, all of the other candidates had held higher office, so it was seen as a gamble. I didn’t think that it was.

Was the perceived radicalism of Thatcher what attracted people? Was it the supposed “desire for change”?...

Alan Sandry