Baron Ridley of Liddesdale

Baron Ridley of Liddesdale

"Secretary of State for Transport. In that role he played a major part in making preparations for a possible coal strike, which proved an important factor in deciding the outcome of the UK miners' strike (1984-1985). Ridley had long been acutely aware of the threat the trade unions could pose to the execution of Conservative policies and, in the wake of the Heath government's union difficulties, had authored the Ridley Plan, which set out means of dealing with the trade unions and was a prototype for later developments.

Never far from controversy, he had to apologise, following the sinking of the Channel ferry, the Herald of Free Enterprise in 1987, for remarking that he would not be pursuing a particular policy "with the Bow Doors Open" (The ship had capsized, with loss of 193 lives, as a result of sailing with its Bow Doors open).

On 14 July 1990 he was forced to resign as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry after an interview published in The Spectator. He had described the proposed Economic and Monetary Union as "a German racket designed to take over the whole of Europe" and said that giving up sovereignty to Europe was as bad as giving it up to Adolf Hitler. The interview was illustrated with a cartoon depicting Ridley adding a Hitler moustache to a poster of the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl."