Stephen Locke, Lawson’s former private secretary, on how rewarding it was to work for him, and Margaret Beckett on his divisive legacy. Plus letters from Mark Hebert, Valerie Gidlow and Greg Quiery
Thank you, Martin Kettle, for your thoughtful and incisive piece on Nigel Lawson’s legacy (A committed unbeliever: Nigel Lawson left the Tory party a complex, divisive legacy, 5 April). I was his private secretary in the early days of the Thatcher government, when he was financial secretary to the Treasury.
Although I disagree with many of the positions that Lawson subsequently espoused – especially on Europe and climate change scepticism – he was an immensely rewarding person to work for. He was a real slave driver and could be infuriating at times (not least to senior ministerial colleagues). But this was always for good reason. He worked very hard and was full of ideas, good at cultivating the best and brightest of officials, and expert at spotting dubious groupthink. He was also kind and often very funny.
