Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

The Right Honourable Sir Edward (Ted) Richard
George Heath, Order of the Garter|KG, Order of the
British Empire|MBE (9 July 1916 – 17 July
2005), soldier and politician, was Prime Minister
of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and leader
of the Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party
from 1965 to 1975. His spell in office represented
a transition between the traditional,
squirearchical leadership of the party rotating
among senior figures such as Harold Macmillan and
that of later, self consciously meritocratic
figures starting with Margaret Thatcher. 

==Youth and parliament==

Heath was the son of a carpenter and a maid from
Broadstairs in Kent. He went to Chatham House  
Grammar School in Ramsgate, and succeeded in the
exam to get to Balliol College, Oxford|Balliol
College, University of Oxford|Oxford. A talented
musician, he had won an Organ Scholarship to
support himself there. While at university he got
involved in Conservative politics but unlike many
Conservatives, was an active opponent of
appeasement. He was elected as President of the
Oxford Union Society|Oxford Union in 1939 as an
anti-appeasement candidate sponsored by Balliol.

He served in the Royal Regiment of Artillery|Royal
Artillery during World War II, and after
demobilization in 1946 joined the Honourable
Artillery Company where he rose to become the
Commanding_officer|CO. He became a civil servant
in the Ministry of Civil Aviation until he was
elected as MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup (UK
Parliament constituency)|Bexley in 1950 (defeating
an old colleague from the Oxford Union, Ashley
Bramall).

He was swiftly appointed as a Whip
(politics)|Government Whip when the Conservatives
won the 1951 election. In December 1955 he became
Government Chief Whip. Because of the convention
that Whips do not speak in Parliament, he managed
to keep out of the controversy over the Suez
Crisis. On the announcement of Anthony Eden's
resignation, Heath submitted a report on the
attitude of Conservative MPs to those choosing
Eden's successor which was extremely favourable to
Harold Macmillan and was instrumental in securing
Macmillan the job. Macmillan made him Minister of
Labour after the 1959 election.

Heath was a fervent pro-European, believing in
political as well as economic union. He was made
Lord Privy Seal in 1960 with responsibility for
the (ultimately unsuccessful) first round of
negotiations to secure the UK's accession to the
Common Market (as the European Community was then
called). Under Sir Alec Douglas-Home he was
President of the Board of Trade and oversaw the
abolition of price control|retail price
maintenance.

After the Conservative Party lost the 1964 general
election, Douglas-Home changed the rules to allow
a ballot for party leader, and then resigned.
Heath won the election in 1965, and became the
youngest leader in the party's history. He
retained the office despite defeat in the 1966
general election. The success of his party in the
United Kingdom general election, 1970|general
election of 1970 surprised almost all contemporary
commentators and was seen as a personal triumph.



==Government==
The nature of the mandate that Heath had received
was disputed, even at the time. Shortly before the
election was called, his shadow cabinet had issued
a policy document from a conference at the Selsdon
Park Hotel which appeared surprisingly rightwing.
Harold Wilson had regarded it as a vote loser and
had dubbed it Selsdon Man in the attempt to
portray it as paleolithically reactionary. Heath's
government suffered an early blow with the death
of Chancellor of the Exchequer Iain Macleod on
July 20 1970. The economic policy changes on which
Heath was resolved (including a significant shift
from direct to indirect taxation) were not fully
implemented until 1972, by which time he was
engaged in the attempt to strengthen legal
constraints on trade unions still more tightly
than had been proposed under the abortive reforms
of Wilson's government. The resulting polarised
climate of industrial relations led to the
downfall of his government.

Heath's government made only modest efforts to
curtail welfare spending, though the squeeze in
the education budget resulted in Margaret
Thatcher's choosing to complete the process of
phasing out free school milk rather than cutting
back spending on the Open University. The contrast
with the later actions of Thatcher's own
government resulted in Heath acquiring a strongly
humanitarian image.

Heath's premiership was the bloodiest in the
history of the Northern Ireland Troubles. He was
prime minister at the time of
Bloody_Sunday_(1972)|Bloody Sunday in 1972 when 13
civilians were killed by British soldiers during a
march in Derry. In 2003 he gave evidence to the
Saville Inquiry and claimed that he never promoted
or agreed to the use of unlawful lethal force in
Northern Ireland. In July 1972, he permitted his
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland William
Whitelaw to hold unofficial talks in London with a
Provisional IRA delgation by Seán Mac Stiofáin.
In the aftermath of these unsuccessful talks, the
Heath government pushed for a peaceful settlement
with the democratic political parties. In 1974,
the Sunningdale Agreement was produced but
fiercely repudiated by many Unionists and the
Ulster Unionist Party ceased to support the
Conservatives at Westminster. This was to
contribute to Heath's eventual fall from power.

Heath's major achievement as prime minister was to
take Britain into the European Community in 1973.
Meanwhile, on the domestic front, galloping
inflation led him into confrontation with some of
the most powerful trade unions, and energy
shortages resulted in much of the country's
industry working a three-day week to conserve
power. In an attempt to bolster his government,
Heath called an election for February 28 1974. The
result was inconclusive: the Conservative Party
received a plurality of votes cast, but the Labour
Party gained a plurality of seats due to the
Ulster Unionist Party|Ulster Unionist MPs refusing
to support the Conservatives. Heath began
negotiations with leaders of the Liberal Party to
form a coalition, but, when these failed, resigned
as Prime Minister and was replaced by Harold
Wilson who formed a minority government. Wilson
was confirmed in office, with a wafer thin
majority, in a second election in October of the
same year.

Between the two general elections a Conservative
Party discussion group, the Centre for Policy
Studies, began to formulate a right wing diagnosis
of the failures of Heath's government. Initially
this trend was spearheaded by Keith Joseph|Sir
Keith Joseph and, although Margaret Thatcher was
associated with the CPS she was seen as a
potential go between by Heath's lieutenant James
Prior.

==The end==
Having lost (at least in terms of parliamentary
seats) three out of four general elections into
which he had led his party, Heath came to be seen
as a liability by many Conservative MPs, party
activists and by editors of newspapers sympathetic
to the party. Among the wider electorate he
attracted more sympathy, partly because of public
statements he had made hinting at his willingness
to consider the idea of serving in a government of
national unity.

Heath resolved to remain as Conservative leader
and, initially, it appeared that, by calling on
the loyalty of his front bench colleagues, he
might prevail. At this point the Conservative
leadership rules merely allowed for an election to
fill a vacancy but contained no provision for a
sitting leader to either seek a fresh mandate or
be challenged. In late 1974 Heath came under
massive pressure to concede a review of the rules.
It was agreed to establish a commission to propose
necessary changes and that Heath would put himself
up for election under the new rules. Initially
Heath expected to be comfortably re-elected as
there was no clear challenger to him after Enoch
Powell had left the party and Keith Joseph had
ruled himself out following controversial
statements on birth control. However, the
determination of Airey Neave acting on behalf of
disgruntled back bench MPs to seek any potential
serious challenger to Heath, combined with the
resolution of Margaret Thatcher that someone
adhering to the CPS line should put their case to
the parliamentary party led to her declaring
herself a candidate in a leadership challenge.

As the rules of the leadership contest permitted
new candidates to enter the fray in a second round
of voting should the leader not be confirmed by a
large enough majority, Thatcher's challenge was
considered that of a stalking horse. Airey Neave
as Thatcher's campaign manager was later accused
of having deliberately understated her support in
order to attract waverers away from Heath who lost
the first ballot by 119 votes to 130 on February
4, 1975. Although Heath then withdrew from the
contest, it turned out to be too late for any of
his allies from his own wing of the party to
overhaul Thatcher's lead. His favoured candidate,
William Whitelaw, lost to Thatcher by 79 votes to
146 a week later.

==Retirement==

Heath, a lifelong bachelor, remained bitter over
his defeat and was persistent in his criticisms of
the party's new ideological direction for many
years. After the 1979 general election he was
offered, and declined, the job of List of British
Ambassadors to the United States|British
Ambassador to the United States. He continued to
be seen as a figurehead by some on the left of the
party up to the time of the 1981 Conservative
Party conference.

In the united Kingdom general election, 1974
(October)|second 1974 general election Heath had
called for an all party "UK National
Government|National Government". Some commentators
believe that after losing the leadership Heath's
aim was to await a major crisis in British
politics and be available as a potential "elder
statesman" who could head such a government.
However no such crisis came that led to a breaking
down of the conventional political processes that
would have called for such a government.

Heath continued to serve as a backbench MP for the
London constituency of Old Bexley and Sidcup (UK
Parliament constituency)|Old Bexley and Sidcup
until retiring from Parliament at the United
Kingdom general election, 2001|2001 general
election, by which time he had been created a
Knight of the Garter and was the longest-serving
MP and "Father of the House". In this capacity he
oversaw the election of two people as Speaker of
the Commons, namely Betty Boothroyd and Michael
Martin (politician)|Michael Martin.

In August 2003 Heath suffered a pulmonary
embolism, while on holiday in Salzburg, Austria.
He lived in Salisbury until his death from
pneumonia on 17 July, 2005.

==Sailing==
Heath was a keen yachtsman.  He bought his first
yacht 'Morning Cloud' in 1969 and won the Sydney
to Hobart race that year.  He captained  Britain's
winning team for the Admiral's Cup in 1971 (while
prime minister) and 1979.

==Titles from birth==

*Edward Heath, Esq (9 July 1916-1992)
*Lieutenant Colonel Edward Heath (1945)
*Lieutenant Colonel Edward Heath, MBE (1946)
*Edward Heath, Esq, MBE (?-23 February 1950)
*Edward Heath, Esq, MBE, MP (23 February
1950–1955)
*The Right Honourable Edward Heath, MBE, MP
(1955–24 April 1992)
*The Right Honourable Sir Edward Heath, KG, MBE,
MP (24 April 1992–7 June 2001)
*The Right Honourable Sir Edward Heath, KG, MBE (7
June 2001– 17 July 2005)

==Nicknames==

Heath was known to the public (even by those who
disliked him) as 'Ted Heath' or simply as 'Ted'.

He was persistently referred to as "The Grocer",
or "Grocer Heath" by magazine Private Eye after he
negotiated for Britain at a Common Market food
prices conference in November 1962. The nickname
was used periodically but became a permanent
fixture in the magazine after he fought the United
Kingdom general election, 1970|1970 General
Election on a promise to reduce the price of
groceries.

Heath's disgruntlement at his overthrow by
Margaret Thatcher, which endured throughout her
leadership of the party, led to him being
nicknamed "The Incredible Sulk".

==Edward Heath's Government June 1970–March
1974==
*Edward Heath — Prime Minister
*Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St
Marylebone|Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone —
Lord Chancellor
*William Whitelaw — Lord President of the
Council and Leader of the House of Commons
*George Patrick John Rushworth Jellicoe, 2nd Earl
Jellicoe|Lord Jellicoe — Lord Privy Seal and
Leader of the House of Lords
*Iain Macleod — Chancellor of the Exchequer
*Alec Douglas-Home — Secretary of State for
Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs|Foreign Secretary
*Reginald Maudling — Secretary of State for
the Home Department|Home Secretary
*James Prior — Minister of Agriculture,
Fisheries and Food
*Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron
Carrington|Lord Carrington — Secretary of
State for Defence
*Margaret Thatcher — Secretary of State for
Education and Science
*Leonard Robert Carr|Robert Carr — Secretary
of State for Employment
*Peter Walker — Minister of Housing and
Local Government
*Keith Joseph — Secretary of State for
Health and Social Security
*Anthony Barber — Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster
*Gordon Campbell (British politician)|Gordon
Campbell — Secretary of State for Scotland
*Geoffrey Rippon — Secretary of State for
Technology
*Michael Noble — President of the Board of
Trade
*Peter Thomas — Secretary of State for Wales

===Changes===
*July 1970 — Iain Macleod dies, and is
succeeded as Chancellor by Anthony Barber.
Geoffrey Rippon succeeds Barber as Chancellor of
the Duchy of Lancaster. John Davies
(politician)|John Davies succeeds Rippon as
Secretary for Technology.
*October 1970 — The Ministry of Technology
and the Board of Trade are merged to become the
Department of Trade and Industry. John Davies
becomes Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.
Michael Noble leaves the cabinet. The Ministry of
Housing and Local Government is succeeded by the
new department of the Environment which was headed
by Peter Walker.
*March 1972 — Robert Carr succeeds William
Whitelaw as Lord President and Leader of the House
of Commons. Maurice Macmillan succeeds Carr as
Secretary for Employment. Whitelaw becomes
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
*July 1972 — Robert Carr succeeds Reginald
Maudling as Home Secretary. James Prior succeeds
Robert Carr as Lord President and Leader of the
House of Commons. Joseph Godber succeeds Prior as
Secretary for Agriculture.
*November 1972 —  Geoffrey Rippon succeeds
Peter Walker as Secretary for the Environment.
John Davies succeeds Rippon as Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster. Peter Walker succeeds Davies
as Secretary for Trade and Industry. Geoffrey Howe
becomes Minister for Trade and Consumer Affairs
with a seat in the cabinet.
*June 1973 — David Hennessy, 3rd Baron
Windlesham|Lord Windlesham succeeds Lord Jellicoe
as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of
Lords.
*December 1973 — William Whitelaw succeeds
Maurice Macmillan as Secretary for Employment.
Francis Pym succeeds Whitelaw as Secretary for
Northern Ireland. Macmillan becomes
Paymaster-General.
*January 1974 — Ian Gilmour succeeds Lord
Carrington as Secretary for Defence; Lord
Carrington becomes Secretary of State for Energy. 

start box
succession box | title=Lord Privy Seal |
before=Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St
Marylebone|The Viscount Hailsham | after=Selwyn
Lloyd | years=1960–1963
succession box | title=Conservative Party
(UK)|Leader of the British Conservative Party |
before=Alec Douglas-Home|Sir Alec Douglas-Home |
after=Margaret Thatcher | years=1965–1975
succession box | title=Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom|Prime Minister | before=Harold
Wilson | after=Harold Wilson |
years=1970–1974
succession box | title=Father of the House |
before=Bernard Braine | after=Tam Dalyell |
years=1992–2001
end box

==External links==
* The Guardian
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/conservatives/story
/0,9061,1530831,00.html Obituary

	Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

The Right Honourable Sir Edward (Ted) Richard
George Heath, Order of the Garter|KG, Order of the
British Empire|MBE (9 July 1916 – 17 July
2005), soldier and politician, was Prime Minister
of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and leader
of the Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party
from 1965 to 1975. His spell in office represented
a transition between the traditional,
squirearchical leadership of the party rotating
among senior figures such as Harold Macmillan and
that of later, self consciously meritocratic
figures starting with Margaret Thatcher. 

==Youth and parliament==

Heath was the son of a carpenter and a maid from
Broadstairs in Kent. He went to Chatham House  
Grammar School in Ramsgate, and succeeded in the
exam to get to Balliol College, Oxford|Balliol
College, University of Oxford|Oxford. A talented
musician, he had won an Organ Scholarship to
support himself there. While at university he got
involved in Conservative politics but unlike many
Conservatives, was an active opponent of
appeasement. He was elected as President of the
Oxford Union Society|Oxford Union in 1939 as an
anti-appeasement candidate sponsored by Balliol.

He served in the Royal Regiment of Artillery|Royal
Artillery during World War II, and after
demobilization in 1946 joined the Honourable
Artillery Company where he rose to become the
Commanding_officer|CO. He became a civil servant
in the Ministry of Civil Aviation until he was
elected as MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup (UK
Parliament constituency)|Bexley in 1950 (defeating
an old colleague from the Oxford Union, Ashley
Bramall).

He was swiftly appointed as a Whip
(politics)|Government Whip when the Conservatives
won the 1951 election. In December 1955 he became
Government Chief Whip. Because of the convention
that Whips do not speak in Parliament, he managed
to keep out of the controversy over the Suez
Crisis. On the announcement of Anthony Eden's
resignation, Heath submitted a report on the
attitude of Conservative MPs to those choosing
Eden's successor which was extremely favourable to
Harold Macmillan and was instrumental in securing
Macmillan the job. Macmillan made him Minister of
Labour after the 1959 election.

Heath was a fervent pro-European, believing in
political as well as economic union. He was made
Lord Privy Seal in 1960 with responsibility for
the (ultimately unsuccessful) first round of
negotiations to secure the UK's accession to the
Common Market (as the European Community was then
called). Under Sir Alec Douglas-Home he was
President of the Board of Trade and oversaw the
abolition of price control|retail price
maintenance.

After the Conservative Party lost the 1964 general
election, Douglas-Home changed the rules to allow
a ballot for party leader, and then resigned.
Heath won the election in 1965, and became the
youngest leader in the party's history. He
retained the office despite defeat in the 1966
general election. The success of his party in the
United Kingdom general election, 1970|general
election of 1970 surprised almost all contemporary
commentators and was seen as a personal triumph.



==Government==
The nature of the mandate that Heath had received
was disputed, even at the time. Shortly before the
election was called, his shadow cabinet had issued
a policy document from a conference at the Selsdon
Park Hotel which appeared surprisingly rightwing.
Harold Wilson had regarded it as a vote loser and
had dubbed it Selsdon Man in the attempt to
portray it as paleolithically reactionary. Heath's
government suffered an early blow with the death
of Chancellor of the Exchequer Iain Macleod on
July 20 1970. The economic policy changes on which
Heath was resolved (including a significant shift
from direct to indirect taxation) were not fully
implemented until 1972, by which time he was
engaged in the attempt to strengthen legal
constraints on trade unions still more tightly
than had been proposed under the abortive reforms
of Wilson's government. The resulting polarised
climate of industrial relations led to the
downfall of his government.

Heath's government made only modest efforts to
curtail welfare spending, though the squeeze in
the education budget resulted in Margaret
Thatcher's choosing to complete the process of
phasing out free school milk rather than cutting
back spending on the Open University. The contrast
with the later actions of Thatcher's own
government resulted in Heath acquiring a strongly
humanitarian image.

Heath's premiership was the bloodiest in the
history of the Northern Ireland Troubles. He was
prime minister at the time of
Bloody_Sunday_(1972)|Bloody Sunday in 1972 when 13
civilians were killed by British soldiers during a
march in Derry. In 2003 he gave evidence to the
Saville Inquiry and claimed that he never promoted
or agreed to the use of unlawful lethal force in
Northern Ireland. In July 1972, he permitted his
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland William
Whitelaw to hold unofficial talks in London with a
Provisional IRA delgation by Seán Mac Stiofáin.
In the aftermath of these unsuccessful talks, the
Heath government pushed for a peaceful settlement
with the democratic political parties. In 1974,
the Sunningdale Agreement was produced but
fiercely repudiated by many Unionists and the
Ulster Unionist Party ceased to support the
Conservatives at Westminster. This was to
contribute to Heath's eventual fall from power.

Heath's major achievement as prime minister was to
take Britain into the European Community in 1973.
Meanwhile, on the domestic front, galloping
inflation led him into confrontation with some of
the most powerful trade unions, and energy
shortages resulted in much of the country's
industry working a three-day week to conserve
power. In an attempt to bolster his government,
Heath called an election for February 28 1974. The
result was inconclusive: the Conservative Party
received a plurality of votes cast, but the Labour
Party gained a plurality of seats due to the
Ulster Unionist Party|Ulster Unionist MPs refusing
to support the Conservatives. Heath began
negotiations with leaders of the Liberal Party to
form a coalition, but, when these failed, resigned
as Prime Minister and was replaced by Harold
Wilson who formed a minority government. Wilson
was confirmed in office, with a wafer thin
majority, in a second election in October of the
same year.

Between the two general elections a Conservative
Party discussion group, the Centre for Policy
Studies, began to formulate a right wing diagnosis
of the failures of Heath's government. Initially
this trend was spearheaded by Keith Joseph|Sir
Keith Joseph and, although Margaret Thatcher was
associated with the CPS she was seen as a
potential go between by Heath's lieutenant James
Prior.

==The end==
Having lost (at least in terms of parliamentary
seats) three out of four general elections into
which he had led his party, Heath came to be seen
as a liability by many Conservative MPs, party
activists and by editors of newspapers sympathetic
to the party. Among the wider electorate he
attracted more sympathy, partly because of public
statements he had made hinting at his willingness
to consider the idea of serving in a government of
national unity.

Heath resolved to remain as Conservative leader
and, initially, it appeared that, by calling on
the loyalty of his front bench colleagues, he
might prevail. At this point the Conservative
leadership rules merely allowed for an election to
fill a vacancy but contained no provision for a
sitting leader to either seek a fresh mandate or
be challenged. In late 1974 Heath came under
massive pressure to concede a review of the rules.
It was agreed to establish a commission to propose
necessary changes and that Heath would put himself
up for election under the new rules. Initially
Heath expected to be comfortably re-elected as
there was no clear challenger to him after Enoch
Powell had left the party and Keith Joseph had
ruled himself out following controversial
statements on birth control. However, the
determination of Airey Neave acting on behalf of
disgruntled back bench MPs to seek any potential
serious challenger to Heath, combined with the
resolution of Margaret Thatcher that someone
adhering to the CPS line should put their case to
the parliamentary party led to her declaring
herself a candidate in a leadership challenge.

As the rules of the leadership contest permitted
new candidates to enter the fray in a second round
of voting should the leader not be confirmed by a
large enough majority, Thatcher's challenge was
considered that of a stalking horse. Airey Neave
as Thatcher's campaign manager was later accused
of having deliberately understated her support in
order to attract waverers away from Heath who lost
the first ballot by 119 votes to 130 on February
4, 1975. Although Heath then withdrew from the
contest, it turned out to be too late for any of
his allies from his own wing of the party to
overhaul Thatcher's lead. His favoured candidate,
William Whitelaw, lost to Thatcher by 79 votes to
146 a week later.

==Retirement==

Heath, a lifelong bachelor, remained bitter over
his defeat and was persistent in his criticisms of
the party's new ideological direction for many
years. After the 1979 general election he was
offered, and declined, the job of List of British
Ambassadors to the United States|British
Ambassador to the United States. He continued to
be seen as a figurehead by some on the left of the
party up to the time of the 1981 Conservative
Party conference.

In the united Kingdom general election, 1974
(October)|second 1974 general election Heath had
called for an all party "UK National
Government|National Government". Some commentators
believe that after losing the leadership Heath's
aim was to await a major crisis in British
politics and be available as a potential "elder
statesman" who could head such a government.
However no such crisis came that led to a breaking
down of the conventional political processes that
would have called for such a government.

Heath continued to serve as a backbench MP for the
London constituency of Old Bexley and Sidcup (UK
Parliament constituency)|Old Bexley and Sidcup
until retiring from Parliament at the United
Kingdom general election, 2001|2001 general
election, by which time he had been created a
Knight of the Garter and was the longest-serving
MP and "Father of the House". In this capacity he
oversaw the election of two people as Speaker of
the Commons, namely Betty Boothroyd and Michael
Martin (politician)|Michael Martin.

In August 2003 Heath suffered a pulmonary
embolism, while on holiday in Salzburg, Austria.
He lived in Salisbury until his death from
pneumonia on 17 July, 2005.

==Sailing==
Heath was a keen yachtsman.  He bought his first
yacht 'Morning Cloud' in 1969 and won the Sydney
to Hobart race that year.  He captained  Britain's
winning team for the Admiral's Cup in 1971 (while
prime minister) and 1979.

==Titles from birth==

*Edward Heath, Esq (9 July 1916-1992)
*Lieutenant Colonel Edward Heath (1945)
*Lieutenant Colonel Edward Heath, MBE (1946)
*Edward Heath, Esq, MBE (?-23 February 1950)
*Edward Heath, Esq, MBE, MP (23 February
1950–1955)
*The Right Honourable Edward Heath, MBE, MP
(1955–24 April 1992)
*The Right Honourable Sir Edward Heath, KG, MBE,
MP (24 April 1992–7 June 2001)
*The Right Honourable Sir Edward Heath, KG, MBE (7
June 2001– 17 July 2005)

==Nicknames==

Heath was known to the public (even by those who
disliked him) as 'Ted Heath' or simply as 'Ted'.

He was persistently referred to as "The Grocer",
or "Grocer Heath" by magazine Private Eye after he
negotiated for Britain at a Common Market food
prices conference in November 1962. The nickname
was used periodically but became a permanent
fixture in the magazine after he fought the United
Kingdom general election, 1970|1970 General
Election on a promise to reduce the price of
groceries.

Heath's disgruntlement at his overthrow by
Margaret Thatcher, which endured throughout her
leadership of the party, led to him being
nicknamed "The Incredible Sulk".

==Edward Heath's Government June 1970–March
1974==
*Edward Heath — Prime Minister
*Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St
Marylebone|Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone —
Lord Chancellor
*William Whitelaw — Lord President of the
Council and Leader of the House of Commons
*George Patrick John Rushworth Jellicoe, 2nd Earl
Jellicoe|Lord Jellicoe — Lord Privy Seal and
Leader of the House of Lords
*Iain Macleod — Chancellor of the Exchequer
*Alec Douglas-Home — Secretary of State for
Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs|Foreign Secretary
*Reginald Maudling — Secretary of State for
the Home Department|Home Secretary
*James Prior — Minister of Agriculture,
Fisheries and Food
*Peter Alexander Rupert Carington, 6th Baron
Carrington|Lord Carrington — Secretary of
State for Defence
*Margaret Thatcher — Secretary of State for
Education and Science
*Leonard Robert Carr|Robert Carr — Secretary
of State for Employment
*Peter Walker — Minister of Housing and
Local Government
*Keith Joseph — Secretary of State for
Health and Social Security
*Anthony Barber — Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster
*Gordon Campbell (British politician)|Gordon
Campbell — Secretary of State for Scotland
*Geoffrey Rippon — Secretary of State for
Technology
*Michael Noble — President of the Board of
Trade
*Peter Thomas — Secretary of State for Wales

===Changes===
*July 1970 — Iain Macleod dies, and is
succeeded as Chancellor by Anthony Barber.
Geoffrey Rippon succeeds Barber as Chancellor of
the Duchy of Lancaster. John Davies
(politician)|John Davies succeeds Rippon as
Secretary for Technology.
*October 1970 — The Ministry of Technology
and the Board of Trade are merged to become the
Department of Trade and Industry. John Davies
becomes Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.
Michael Noble leaves the cabinet. The Ministry of
Housing and Local Government is succeeded by the
new department of the Environment which was headed
by Peter Walker.
*March 1972 — Robert Carr succeeds William
Whitelaw as Lord President and Leader of the House
of Commons. Maurice Macmillan succeeds Carr as
Secretary for Employment. Whitelaw becomes
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
*July 1972 — Robert Carr succeeds Reginald
Maudling as Home Secretary. James Prior succeeds
Robert Carr as Lord President and Leader of the
House of Commons. Joseph Godber succeeds Prior as
Secretary for Agriculture.
*November 1972 —  Geoffrey Rippon succeeds
Peter Walker as Secretary for the Environment.
John Davies succeeds Rippon as Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster. Peter Walker succeeds Davies
as Secretary for Trade and Industry. Geoffrey Howe
becomes Minister for Trade and Consumer Affairs
with a seat in the cabinet.
*June 1973 — David Hennessy, 3rd Baron
Windlesham|Lord Windlesham succeeds Lord Jellicoe
as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of
Lords.
*December 1973 — William Whitelaw succeeds
Maurice Macmillan as Secretary for Employment.
Francis Pym succeeds Whitelaw as Secretary for
Northern Ireland. Macmillan becomes
Paymaster-General.
*January 1974 — Ian Gilmour succeeds Lord
Carrington as Secretary for Defence; Lord
Carrington becomes Secretary of State for Energy. 

start box
succession box | title=Lord Privy Seal |
before=Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St
Marylebone|The Viscount Hailsham | after=Selwyn
Lloyd | years=1960–1963
succession box | title=Conservative Party
(UK)|Leader of the British Conservative Party |
before=Alec Douglas-Home|Sir Alec Douglas-Home |
after=Margaret Thatcher | years=1965–1975
succession box | title=Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom|Prime Minister | before=Harold
Wilson | after=Harold Wilson |
years=1970–1974
succession box | title=Father of the House |
before=Bernard Braine | after=Tam Dalyell |
years=1992–2001
end box

==External links==
* The Guardian
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/conservatives/story
/0,9061,1530831,00.html Obituary