Word: hurd
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...charge against Thatcher and was considered the top contender for her job after he won 152 votes in the first round of a party-leadership contest two weeks ago. Warned that she would lose the second ballot against Heseltine, Thatcher resigned to allow Major and Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd to enter the race...
...logic of putting both men on the ballot was based on the assumption that Hurd, a Tory moderate, and Major, a loyal Thatcherite, could together siphon off more votes from Heseltine than either man alone. By early last week the momentum began to swing to Major, who appealed to younger M.P.s, hard-core Thatcherites, many moderates and right-wingers who considered Heseltine a traitor for precipitating the worst party crisis in 15 years. Also working against Heseltine was the fact that some M.P.s considered the millionaire publisher too flamboyant to be Prime Minister...
When Tuesday's vote closed at 6 p.m., the M.P.s gathered in the House of Commons' lobby and awaited the result: Major got 185 votes, Heseltine 131, Hurd 56. As it became clear that Major had missed a majority by only two votes, a large groan of frustration rose up. The prospect of a third ballot was too much to bear after the tension-filled days of the previous three weeks...
Shortly after the results were tallied, however, Heseltine announced that he was conceding victory to Major. Minutes later, Hurd appeared on the steps of the Foreign Office and vowed to support Major. With no one left to challenge the front runner, the party's chieftains concluded that a third round was unnecessary, and Major was declared the winner...
...rhymed quatrains about Salman Rushdie. Boys put on plays by Ken Kesey and Lope de Vega, flock to a newly formed Green Society, gather to discuss the biological causes of altruism. They also enjoy unusual access to the world: in the midst of Conservative Party turmoil, Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, a devoted Old Etonian remembered for his play along the Wall, was scheduled to come down to the school to address its political society. In some ways, in fact, there is almost an embarrassment of extracurricular riches. "The school needs to be more sympathetic to the personal psychology of adolescent...