Norman Tebbit has died

[Crimson Dynamo]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GvUVoiLW8AAssC7?format=jpg&name=small

[Kate!]

RIP Norman

[arista]

Get on your Bike
his top saying

[bots]

He was never the same after the Brighton bombing. Very controversial in his time, but a true politician of conviction

[Livia]

Turned down the chance of being PM to care for his wife who was horrifically injured by IRA terrorists at the Brighton bombing. RIP

[arista]

Turned down the chance of being PM to care for his wife who was horrifically injured by IRA terrorists at the Brighton bombing. RIP



Yes Evil IRA Bomb
left her in a wheelchair

[thesheriff443]

A good man , rip

[Glenn.]

A grim person. the world is a least a little kinder without him in it.

[Crimson Dynamo]

A grim person. the world is a least a little kinder without him in it.

What a vile and hateful comment

:umm2:

[Glenn.]

What a vile and hateful comment

:umm2:

He was a vile and hateful man

[Glenn.]

The man was a walking hate speech generator.

He called gay adoption “child abuse.”
Mocked same-sex marriage like it was a Monty Python sketch:

“What if a lesbian Queen had a baby? What if a gay King needed a sperm donor?”
Actual quote. He said that. In Parliament. Like it was clever.

He opposed equal age of consent because he didn’t think queer people deserved to be treated like everyone else. He didn’t want us to have rights — he wanted us quiet, ashamed, invisible.

And don’t think he just had it out for LGBTQ+ people — his views on women were just as grim.
He spent decades sneering at feminism, mocking gender equality, and clinging to the idea that a woman’s place was either in the kitchen or as his tragic, silent wife in a wheelchair — who, let’s be honest, got wheeled out more for sympathy than anything else. Meanwhile, he voted for policies that gutted working-class families and pushed countless women into poverty.

This wasn’t a kind old grandad with “different views.” This was a man who used power to make life worse for anyone who didn’t meet his standards.

So no, I’m not pretending to be sad. He chose cruelty. Over and over. And now he’s gone.

Good.

[joeysteele]

Recalling what my own family have said about him and learning of things he supported and spoke publicly on.
He would never have been a politician I'd have admired or supported myself.

The Brighton bombing was horrific, it was really commendable of him to pull back his political career to care for his wife after that atrocity.
He had a long political career, a very long life.
R.I.P.

[Mystic Mock]

RIP

[Mystic Mock]

The man was a walking hate speech generator.

He called gay adoption “child abuse.”
Mocked same-sex marriage like it was a Monty Python sketch:

“What if a lesbian Queen had a baby? What if a gay King needed a sperm donor?”
Actual quote. He said that. In Parliament. Like it was clever.

He opposed equal age of consent because he didn’t think queer people deserved to be treated like everyone else. He didn’t want us to have rights — he wanted us quiet, ashamed, invisible.

And don’t think he just had it out for LGBTQ+ people — his views on women were just as grim.
He spent decades sneering at feminism, mocking gender equality, and clinging to the idea that a woman’s place was either in the kitchen or as his tragic, silent wife in a wheelchair — who, let’s be honest, got wheeled out more for sympathy than anything else. Meanwhile, he voted for policies that gutted working-class families and pushed countless women into poverty.

This wasn’t a kind old grandad with “different views.” This was a man who used power to make life worse for anyone who didn’t meet his standards.

So no, I’m not pretending to be sad. He chose cruelty. Over and over. And now he’s gone.

Good.

A lot of that does admittedly sound really bad tbf.

[Glenn.]

Awful man

[bots]

People are complex, nothing is ever really black and white. I was actively looking for a job when he came out with his "get on your bike" slogan so i wasn't a fan to say the least. However, he and his wife went through a terrible time at Brighton and that really changed him as a person

[Glenn.]

His wife ending up in a wheelchair didn’t give him some deep sense of compassion.

He didn’t get softer. He got worse. He took personal tragedy and used it as a soapbox while still treating gay people, immigrants, and anyone slightly outside his 1950s bubble like garbage.

He saw what real suffering looked like and still had zero empathy for anyone else going through it. No growth, no humility , just the same bitter old man, shouting at the world for changing.

[Crimson Dynamo]

https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fprod uction%2F8b3daee0-854e-4f3d-b646-3e48f2524791.jpg?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1


SIR – As a grammar school boy, born and brought up in east London, I was inspired by Norman Tebbit (Obituary, July 8) to join the Conservatives in 1981, when Margaret Thatcher’s government was at its lowest ebb. A few years later, as a branch chairman in the then highly marginal seat of Ilford South, I was overjoyed to meet my hero, who addressed a meeting to much applause and laughter.

Thatcher’s decision to appoint him as employment secretary in 1981 proved decisive in the industrial battles of the mid-1980s, in particular the emphatic defeat of Arthur Scargill’s year-long miners’ strike.

Higher productivity – resulting from ending restrictive practices, and huge inward investment derived from improved industrial relations – would not have been achieved without Tebbit’s trade union reforms. Today’s Conservatives could learn much from his courage, wisdom and radicalism.

Philip Duly
Haslemere, Surrey

SIR – The death of Norman Tebbit reminds us of the time when our country was run by political giants who, regardless of popularity, stuck to their task of making Britain great again. Margaret Thatcher, with Tebbit’s unwavering support, thought she had seen off socialism for good. Sadly it is back with us. Patriotism is now considered far-Right.

However, the memory of the great man gives us hope that, as in the 1980s, Britain can recover from a ruinous Labour government.

Tim Coles
Carlton, Bedfordshire

SIR – I stood against Norman Tebbit as an independent candidate in Chingford in the general election of 1983. I received 34 votes, while he won with a majority of more than 12,000. Still, at the count he came up and spoke to me for several minutes.

Over a year later I stayed at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, and as a consequence was interviewed by the police after the bombing. The image of Tebbit being carried out of the ruins is still etched in my memory.

I will remember him as I found him: relaxed, courteous and thoroughly charming.

Stephen Barklem
Woking, Surrey

SIR – I had one brief conversation with Norman Tebbit, after Margaret Thatcher’s funeral at St Paul’s. I was with members of the public on the other side of the road from the departing mourners.

He was the only one who came over to us. I thanked him for all his support for Mrs Thatcher. He simply replied: “Would that I could have done more.”

It captured his authentic “man of the people” approach, his intrinsic loyalty – which, of course, we saw in his care for his wife after the Brighton bomb – and his ability to say so much in just a few words.

Paul Rudd
Woldingham, Surrey

[Glenn.]

“He spoke to me for several minutes” :joker:

[Glenn.]

“He didn’t just oppose our rights. He opposed our existence. Every time we tried to move forward, Tebbit was there trying to drag us back.”
— Robbie de Santos, LGBTQ+ advocate

“Norman Tebbit made it his mission to make queer people feel like outcasts. He called our families abuse. No apology. No shame.”
— Katy Montgomerie, trans activist and writer

“The ‘cricket test’ was a slap in the face to every second-generation Brit. It told us we could never be truly British, no matter how long we’d lived here or how much we contributed.”
— Dr. Kehinde Andrews, academic and racial justice writer

“He dressed racism up in tweed and called it patriotism. But we all knew exactly what he meant.”
— Sarfraz Manzoor, journalist

“Tebbit’s legacy is one of smashed communities, lost jobs, and people left behind. He had no interest in helping workers, only breaking them.”
— Dave Ward, CWU General Secretary

“He told people to ‘get on their bike’ while his government ripped the wheels off entire industries. We didn’t forget.”
— Former coal miner, South Yorkshire

“He fought every step of women’s progress, mocked feminism, and treated social policy like it was a threat to his masculinity. He wasn’t just old-fashioned, he was hostile.”
— Caroline Criado Perez, feminist writer

“Tebbit saw equality as weakness. He wanted women quiet, dependent, and grateful. We wanted rights, and that made us dangerous to him.”
— Trade union activist, 1980s

[thesheriff443]

What ever his views were they have died with him
Slagging someone off that you never knew personally after they have died and going on and on about trying to point score is sad

Go enjoy that wonderful life you keep bleating on about

[BBXX]

What ever his views were they have died with him
Slagging someone off that you never knew personally after they have died and going on and on about trying to point score is sad

Go enjoy that wonderful life you keep bleating on about

Perhaps you are right, but he was in a position of influence and power, so those views often will have converted into decisions which will have had an impact on peoples actual lives, long-term.

I think it's okay to call a spade a spade even after leaving the beach.

[Cherie]

Whatever their stripes you knew where you stood with politicians like Tebbitt, you might not have agreed or liked their policies but they didn't flip flop around which is sadly lacking in todays crop

[bots]

Were Glen and BBXX born when when Tebbit was employment secretary? I very much doubt it. If not, their views are shaped by what others have told them. It's not dissimilar to criticising Thatcher

[Mystic Mock]

Whatever their stripes you knew where you stood with politicians like Tebbitt, you might not have agreed or liked their policies but they didn't flip flop around which is sadly lacking in todays crop

That's true tbf.

[BBXX]

Were Glen and BBXX born when when Tebbit was employment secretary? I very much doubt it. If not, their views are shaped by what others have told them. It's not dissimilar to criticising Thatcher

Please explain why you have an issue with me, a gay man, criticising someone's homophobic views.

Thanks.

[bots]

Please explain why you have an issue with me, a gay man, criticising someone's homophobic views.

Thanks.

Well, if you weren't alive at the time, you have no idea of the context of the time. Being gay at that time, was still illegal in Scotland. The laws and views at the time were very much different to what they are now. You can't judge a historical figure out of the time period that they had influence. Homophobia didnt exist at that time as a concept

[Glenn.]

Were Glen and BBXX born when when Tebbit was employment secretary? I very much doubt it. If not, their views are shaped by what others have told them. It's not dissimilar to criticising Thatcher

I was alive when he was pushing the idea that gays were an abomination. Next question.

[BBXX]

Well, if you weren't alive at the time, you have no idea of the context of the time. Being gay at that time, was still illegal in Scotland. The laws and views at the time were very much different to what they are now. You can't judge a historical figure out of the time period that they had influence. Homophobia didnt exist at that time as a concept

I spoke of nothing to do with his time way back when.

He was speaking homophobic bile as recently as 2018. He was in the House of Lords until 2022.

Next.

[Glenn.]

Being gay as a concept has only been acceptable for a relatively short time period. Homophobia didn't exist as a concept nor was criticising it wrong. You are judging him on todays laws, which is just plain stupid and ignorant and unecessarily hateful

No, what’s stupid and ignorant is pretending bigotry wasn’t bigotry just because it was popular at the time.

“Being gay wasn’t acceptable”, yeah, we know. That’s the problem. It’s not some neutral historical fact, it was oppression. And people like Tebbit didn’t just go along with it, they actively fuelled it. He didn’t just reflect the times, he helped shape them into something hostile, cruel, and dehumanising.

Homophobia did exist, gay people just weren’t allowed to speak about it without risking violence, arrest, or losing everything. The fact that people got away with it doesn’t make it less wrong.

So no, I’m not judging him by “today’s laws.” I’m judging him by the damage he did to real lives. If that makes you uncomfortable, maybe look at why you’re so desperate to defend it.

[BBXX]

Being gay as a concept has only been acceptable for a relatively short time period. Homophobia didn't exist as a concept nor was criticising it wrong. You are judging him on todays laws, which is just plain stupid and ignorant and unecessarily hateful

So his views, rooted in archaic attitudes, are not allowed to be scrutinised, but judgment of them, rooted in modern viewpoints, are ignorant and hateful?

Sorry but age doesn't give you carte blanch to be homophobic. Plenty of older generation views have moved on as societies views have shifted. He hasn't been frozen in time during that period, he's lived to see if shift, more than most, and if he didn't move with it, it's because he didn't want to. Sucks to be him if people take issue with his views.

[Crimson Dynamo]

Forget left and right: Norman Tebbit was a working-class hero. Politicians now could learn much from him

The iconic Tory had strong clear beliefs and was a fighter when his party needed
fighters. We could do with more like that now

No, what made Tebbit an icon was that he believed in that change and he fought for it.
He was a fighter, at a point when the party needed fighters

Courage, energy, authenticity – these Tebbit had in spades, and they are the things of
which political icons are made.

He certainly held many views with which readers of this newspaper would profoundly
disagree, then and now, and his views on social issues were wildly out of step with
modern society.

But an icon is not a hero, except perhaps in the Greek sense; recognising one does not
require agreeing with all or even any of what they stand for. Every movement will have
its own icons, and one of democracy’s great strengths – or indeed, basic requirements
– is recognising that there is space in public life for more than one.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/08/norman-tebbit-working-class-tory-fighter

Even the Guardian understood

[Benjamin]

Awful man. Sad for his family though, as a loved one passing is always heartbreaking.

[Niamh.]

Deleted most of the posts in this thread, any further posts that are personal/insulting towards another forum member will result in that member being banned from this thread