Word: carrington
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Considered by fellow politicos and close observers to be one of England's most popular statesmen despite an affiliation with the increasingly unpopular Tory party, Lord Carrington was once considered a strong candidate for the job of Prime Minister. Although Carrington denied interest in the position, he enjoyed more widespread respect than the present P. M. Many also saw him as one of the two or three people that could tell Margaret Thatcher when it was time for her to step down...
...Carrington's associates and followers all point to his successful conclusion of his negotiating effort to create a democratic Zimbabwe as his greatest accomplishment. The peer's effort came to fruition in late 1979, only after he convinced Thatcher to reverse her public position that the rebellion led by Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo was mere terrorism. The settlement--which even Carrington and many members of his negotiating team had believed was impossible, they later said--perhaps could have been achieved only by someone with the unflagging pragmatism and clearheadedness of Carrington, who has demonstrated time and again the willingness...
Ironically, it is this same cold-blooded rationality and distance from the political process that has been blamed for Carrington's gravest governmental missteps. The self-analytical Carrington once described himself as a product of privilege, and few would care to disagree with his assessment. Yet he once neglected the opportunity--available for half a year during the 1960s by virtue of an act of Parliament--to renounce his inherited peerage and run for the elected House of Commons. Nor, in all likelihood, would he seriously consider giving up his seat in the House of Lords for the sake...
Many inside and outside of the English government believe that a member of the House of Lords should not be a minister or member of the cabinet, let alone Prime Minister. Carrington often comes up as the prime counterexample to the demand of constituency for high-ranking ministers. In one famous episode, the Labour leader in the House of Lords (at a time when Carrington was Tory leader) was debating the abolishment of the House with a left-wing opponent at the Oxford Union, and one of the leftist's most effective arguments for the abolition of Lords was that...
...Carrington is content in the aristocrtic body, and some observers say his lack of ties to the voters is partially responsible for his lack of foresight regarding the Falklands crisis; he was away from London much of the time, and he was in Jerusalem just before the invasion. His greatest lapse, his friends and few detractors agree, came during his time as Conservative Party chairman. The coal miners were on strike, and Carrington played a key role in convincing Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath to call pivotal new elections. Heath called them a few weeks after Carrington wanted them...