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India.com
21-07-2025
- India.com
India's ASTRA, China's PL-15 missile, USA' AMRAAM: List of world's top 7 air-to-air missiles, 4th will surprise you
AIM-120 AMRAAM (USA) Top 7 Missiles: The recent conflicts across the world including the Russia-Ukraine war, Iran-Israel war and the Pakistan-India conflict have taught us the important of air superiority. As a significant part of air superiority, Air-to-air missiles are a crucial part of modern air combat. As part of the air combat, allowing fighter jets to destroy enemy aircraft before they even appear on radar has been the level at which countries fight in air. However, do you know about the missiles which are known across the world for their high-speed, high-precision weapons. Here is an article listing the top 7 air-to-air missiles in the world and highlights India's position among them. Which are the Top 7 Missiles of the world: AIM-120 AMRAAM (USA): The AIM-120 AMRAAM of USA is America's second most powerful Beyond Visual Range missile with much longer range, equipped with a better guidance system. Meteor (Europe): The Meteor missile of Europe is a radar-guided beyond visual range air-to-air missile. Developed by MBDA for European nations, the missile is known for its beyond-visual-range capability and 'no escape' zone, used by Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon. Notably, the The Indian Air Force also uses the Meteor missile. R-37M missile (Russia): The R-37M missile of Russia is a long-range, fast and potentially lethal missile. However, its combat effectiveness is still uncertain. PL-15 (China): Also called the Thunderbolt 15 missile, the PL-15 is a powerful missile equipped with AESA radar and reportedly outranges many Western counterparts. The missile considered to have the longest range among the currently operated air-to-air missiles and is currently used on China's J-20 stealth fighter. IRIS-T (Germany): The IRIS-T missile of Germany is a short-range missile new generation air-to-air missile manufactured with high agility and precision. It complements the Meteor in European forces. Python-5 (Israel): The Python-5 missile of Israel is an advanced short-range missile with with an advanced electro-optical seeker. Notably, India has integrated it with its aircraft. Astra (India): Developed by India's Defence Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the Astra missile is India's indigenous beyond-visual-range missile, competing with some of the best in the world and is now part of the IAF's arsenal.
Leader Live
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Leader Live
Tebbit the Tory hard man who took on the trade unions
To political opponents, the comment – a paraphrase of his exhortation to the unemployed to go out and look for work – encapsulated what they saw as the callous indifference of the Conservatives to the rising joblessness of the 1980s. Once memorably described by Labour's Michael Foot as a 'semi-house-trained polecat', Mr Tebbit revelled in his reputation as a political bruiser as the government drove through its controversial programme of free market reforms. As employment secretary, he piloted key legislation which diluted the power of the trade union 'closed shop' and weakened the unions' immunity from civil damages. He suffered grave injuries in the 1984 Brighton bombing, which left his wife, Margaret, paralysed from the neck down and tore a hole in his side which needed regular treatment for years afterwards. Few who saw them would forget the grim TV pictures of the badly wounded Mr Tebbit being eased gingerly out of the rubble of the Grand Hotel after it was ripped apart in a massive IRA blast. However his ordeal did nothing to diminish his appetite for political combat and the man dubbed the 'Chingford skinhead' – a reference to his Essex constituency – returned to Westminster as abrasive and vitriolic as ever. But for all his reputation for thuggishness, he was privately a kindly man who could mix amiably with those whom he bitterly scorned in public. After masterminding Mrs Thatcher's third general election victory in 1987, Mr Tebbit stepped down from the government so that he could spend more time caring for his wife. He nevertheless remained politically active, proving to be a thorn in the side of her successor, John Major, as wrangling over Europe tore the Tories apart in the 1990s. He sparked controversy with his advocacy of the so-called 'cricket test' – suggesting which side British Asians supported in internationals should be seen as an indicator of their true loyalties – leading to accusations of racism. Born on March 29 1931 in Ponders End, Middlesex, Norman Beresford Tebbit was the son of Leonard Tebbit, a pawnbroker, and his wife, Edith. After attending Edmonton County Grammar, he took a job aged 16 as a trainee journalist at The Financial Times, where the requirement for him to join a trade union in order to be employed sowed a determination to break the power of the closed shop. Following national service with the RAF – when he flew Meteor and Vampire jets, narrowly surviving one terrifying crash – he joined the airline BOAC as a long-haul pilot and navigator. His previous unhappy encounter with the unions did not stop him becoming a highly effective official for the pilots' union, Balpa. He entered Parliament in 1970 as Conservative MP for Epping, joining the right-wing Monday Club. When Mrs Thatcher became party leader in 1975, he strongly backed her agenda of free market reforms and curbing the power of the unions which had brought down Edward Heath's Tory government. She in turn encouraged him to harass Labour ministers from the backbenches – he made headlines after accusing Michael Foot of 'pure undiluted fascism' during a heated exchange over closed shops. Following the Tories' general election victory of 1979, she made him a junior trade minister, promoting him to the cabinet as employment secretary two years later. Certainly he was cut from a very different cloth than a previous generation of Conservative ministers – the patrician Harold Macmillan once sniffily remarked: 'Heard a chap on the radio this morning talking with a cockney accent. They tell me he is one of Her Majesty's ministers.' He was, however, tailor-made for Mrs Thatcher, spearheading the government's legislative assault on the power of the unions – who had brought down the last Tory administration of Edward Heath – with his Employment Act. It was following inner city riots in Handsworth and Brixton in 1981 that he made the infamous remark which led to him being dubbed 'Onyerbike'. Rejecting suggestions the violence was a natural response to rising unemployment, he retorted: 'I grew up in the Thirties with an unemployed father. He didn't riot. He got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it.' Such comments fuelled his hardline 'Nasty Norm' reputation – the satirical puppet show Spitting Image memorably portrayed him as a leather-jacketed thug brutally beating up political opponents and fellow ministers alike. For all their political affinity, his relations with Mrs Thatcher did not always run smoothly and he later recalled there were occasions when he left No 10 unsure whether he would still have a job by the time he had returned to his department. 'But I was never frightened of her,' he remembered. 'The most she could do was sack me. I didn't see any point in not standing up to her.' Following the Tories' 1983 general election victory, there was a move to trade and industry but his life was turned upside down the following year when an IRA bomb tore through Brighton's Grand Hotel during the Conservative Party conference. Mrs Thatcher, the main intended target of the attack, escaped unscathed but it took four hours for fire crews to extricate Mr Tebbit and his wife from the wreckage. While Mrs Tebbit was left needing round-the-clock care for the rest of her life, he recovered to return to the political fray with his appetite for confrontation very much intact. The prime minister believed his populist instincts – he was described as the personification of 'Essex man' – made him the ideal candidate to plot her bid for a third term in No 10 and in 1985 she made him Tory Party chairman. She was however reportedly not amused when he urged her to take more of a back seat in campaigning after polling showed her leadership – the so-called 'that bloody woman' factor – was turning off voters. The 1987 general election campaign was marked by rows and tensions within the Tory camp amid suspicions among Mrs Thatcher and some of her allies that Mr Tebbit was more interested in advancing his own leadership ambitions. It culminated on so-called 'wobbly Thursday' with Lord Young – who Mrs Thatcher had installed in No 10 to keep an eye on her chairman – allegedly grabbing Mr Tebbit by the lapels and yelling: 'Norman, listen to me, we are about to lose this f****** election'. Nevertheless, come polling day, the Conservatives were again returned with a three-figure majority and Mr Tebbit appeared at the window of Central Office alongside the prime minister to enjoy the acclaim of the party faithful. It was to be the apogee of his frontline political career, and in the aftermath of victory he announced he was leaving government so he could devote more time to looking after his wife. For all the difficulties of the preceding months, Mrs Thatcher said she 'bitterly regretted' losing a kindred spirit from the cabinet. Having once been seen as her natural successor, it meant giving up any hope of taking the top job, a lost opportunity which, he later acknowledged, was a source of regret for him also. He remained politically active however – particularly on Europe – and, after stepping down as an MP in 1992, he was made a life peer. In the House of Lords, he formed a new alliance with Baroness Thatcher (who had also been ennobled) to oppose the Maastricht Treaty, signed by John Major, which created the modern European Union. That year he brought the Tory party conference to its feet with a rabble-rousing speech condemning the agreement, much to the fury of Mr Major who accused him of hypocrisy and disloyalty. In later years, Lord Tebbit continued to attract controversy with outspoken remarks on a range of issues from immigration to homosexuality. He refused to attend services conducted by the dean of St Edmundsbury Cathedral after he entered into a civil partnership and warned that legislation to allow same-sex marriage passed under David Cameron was alienating the Tory faithful. He was the author of a number of books including The Game Cookbook – featuring his favourite recipes for partridge, grouse, pheasant and the like – which proved to be a surprise hit in 2009. In 2020, his wife, Lady Tebbit, died aged 86. He never forgave the IRA terrorist responsible for her terrible injuries. Lord Tebbit is survived by two sons and a daughter.
South Wales Guardian
08-07-2025
- Politics
- South Wales Guardian
Tebbit the Tory hard man who took on the trade unions
To political opponents, the comment – a paraphrase of his exhortation to the unemployed to go out and look for work – encapsulated what they saw as the callous indifference of the Conservatives to the rising joblessness of the 1980s. Once memorably described by Labour's Michael Foot as a 'semi-house-trained polecat', Mr Tebbit revelled in his reputation as a political bruiser as the government drove through its controversial programme of free market reforms. As employment secretary, he piloted key legislation which diluted the power of the trade union 'closed shop' and weakened the unions' immunity from civil damages. He suffered grave injuries in the 1984 Brighton bombing, which left his wife, Margaret, paralysed from the neck down and tore a hole in his side which needed regular treatment for years afterwards. Few who saw them would forget the grim TV pictures of the badly wounded Mr Tebbit being eased gingerly out of the rubble of the Grand Hotel after it was ripped apart in a massive IRA blast. However his ordeal did nothing to diminish his appetite for political combat and the man dubbed the 'Chingford skinhead' – a reference to his Essex constituency – returned to Westminster as abrasive and vitriolic as ever. But for all his reputation for thuggishness, he was privately a kindly man who could mix amiably with those whom he bitterly scorned in public. After masterminding Mrs Thatcher's third general election victory in 1987, Mr Tebbit stepped down from the government so that he could spend more time caring for his wife. He nevertheless remained politically active, proving to be a thorn in the side of her successor, John Major, as wrangling over Europe tore the Tories apart in the 1990s. He sparked controversy with his advocacy of the so-called 'cricket test' – suggesting which side British Asians supported in internationals should be seen as an indicator of their true loyalties – leading to accusations of racism. Born on March 29 1931 in Ponders End, Middlesex, Norman Beresford Tebbit was the son of Leonard Tebbit, a pawnbroker, and his wife, Edith. After attending Edmonton County Grammar, he took a job aged 16 as a trainee journalist at The Financial Times, where the requirement for him to join a trade union in order to be employed sowed a determination to break the power of the closed shop. Following national service with the RAF – when he flew Meteor and Vampire jets, narrowly surviving one terrifying crash – he joined the airline BOAC as a long-haul pilot and navigator. His previous unhappy encounter with the unions did not stop him becoming a highly effective official for the pilots' union, Balpa. He entered Parliament in 1970 as Conservative MP for Epping, joining the right-wing Monday Club. When Mrs Thatcher became party leader in 1975, he strongly backed her agenda of free market reforms and curbing the power of the unions which had brought down Edward Heath's Tory government. She in turn encouraged him to harass Labour ministers from the backbenches – he made headlines after accusing Michael Foot of 'pure undiluted fascism' during a heated exchange over closed shops. Following the Tories' general election victory of 1979, she made him a junior trade minister, promoting him to the cabinet as employment secretary two years later. Certainly he was cut from a very different cloth than a previous generation of Conservative ministers – the patrician Harold Macmillan once sniffily remarked: 'Heard a chap on the radio this morning talking with a cockney accent. They tell me he is one of Her Majesty's ministers.' He was, however, tailor-made for Mrs Thatcher, spearheading the government's legislative assault on the power of the unions – who had brought down the last Tory administration of Edward Heath – with his Employment Act. It was following inner city riots in Handsworth and Brixton in 1981 that he made the infamous remark which led to him being dubbed 'Onyerbike'. Rejecting suggestions the violence was a natural response to rising unemployment, he retorted: 'I grew up in the Thirties with an unemployed father. He didn't riot. He got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it.' Such comments fuelled his hardline 'Nasty Norm' reputation – the satirical puppet show Spitting Image memorably portrayed him as a leather-jacketed thug brutally beating up political opponents and fellow ministers alike. For all their political affinity, his relations with Mrs Thatcher did not always run smoothly and he later recalled there were occasions when he left No 10 unsure whether he would still have a job by the time he had returned to his department. 'But I was never frightened of her,' he remembered. 'The most she could do was sack me. I didn't see any point in not standing up to her.' Following the Tories' 1983 general election victory, there was a move to trade and industry but his life was turned upside down the following year when an IRA bomb tore through Brighton's Grand Hotel during the Conservative Party conference. Mrs Thatcher, the main intended target of the attack, escaped unscathed but it took four hours for fire crews to extricate Mr Tebbit and his wife from the wreckage. While Mrs Tebbit was left needing round-the-clock care for the rest of her life, he recovered to return to the political fray with his appetite for confrontation very much intact. The prime minister believed his populist instincts – he was described as the personification of 'Essex man' – made him the ideal candidate to plot her bid for a third term in No 10 and in 1985 she made him Tory Party chairman. She was however reportedly not amused when he urged her to take more of a back seat in campaigning after polling showed her leadership – the so-called 'that bloody woman' factor – was turning off voters. The 1987 general election campaign was marked by rows and tensions within the Tory camp amid suspicions among Mrs Thatcher and some of her allies that Mr Tebbit was more interested in advancing his own leadership ambitions. It culminated on so-called 'wobbly Thursday' with Lord Young – who Mrs Thatcher had installed in No 10 to keep an eye on her chairman – allegedly grabbing Mr Tebbit by the lapels and yelling: 'Norman, listen to me, we are about to lose this f****** election'. Nevertheless, come polling day, the Conservatives were again returned with a three-figure majority and Mr Tebbit appeared at the window of Central Office alongside the prime minister to enjoy the acclaim of the party faithful. It was to be the apogee of his frontline political career, and in the aftermath of victory he announced he was leaving government so he could devote more time to looking after his wife. For all the difficulties of the preceding months, Mrs Thatcher said she 'bitterly regretted' losing a kindred spirit from the cabinet. Having once been seen as her natural successor, it meant giving up any hope of taking the top job, a lost opportunity which, he later acknowledged, was a source of regret for him also. He remained politically active however – particularly on Europe – and, after stepping down as an MP in 1992, he was made a life peer. In the House of Lords, he formed a new alliance with Baroness Thatcher (who had also been ennobled) to oppose the Maastricht Treaty, signed by John Major, which created the modern European Union. That year he brought the Tory party conference to its feet with a rabble-rousing speech condemning the agreement, much to the fury of Mr Major who accused him of hypocrisy and disloyalty. In later years, Lord Tebbit continued to attract controversy with outspoken remarks on a range of issues from immigration to homosexuality. He refused to attend services conducted by the dean of St Edmundsbury Cathedral after he entered into a civil partnership and warned that legislation to allow same-sex marriage passed under David Cameron was alienating the Tory faithful. He was the author of a number of books including The Game Cookbook – featuring his favourite recipes for partridge, grouse, pheasant and the like – which proved to be a surprise hit in 2009. In 2020, his wife, Lady Tebbit, died aged 86. He never forgave the IRA terrorist responsible for her terrible injuries. Lord Tebbit is survived by two sons and a daughter.
Daily Mirror
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Norman Tebbit the working class Thatcher supporter hell-bent on breaking unions
The late Employment Secretary's burning childhood wish was to be a journalist and never forgave the unions for thwarting his ambitions – even if it took a lifetime to wreak revenge NORMAN Tebbit, who has died aged 94, waited 35 years to get his revenge on the unions. As a 16-year-old boy, he wanted to be a Fleet Street journalist, and blamed the 'closed shop' for thwarting his ambition. His time came when Margaret Thatcher determined to break the power of the unions, and handed the job to 'bovver boy' Norman. As the last Employment Secretary with real clout, he brought in legislation to open union funds to legal action, abolished the closed shop and made it harder to go on strike. It was an early version of 'take back control.' Tebbit was the architect of the legal straitjacket that has held union power in check ever since. This was the high point in a long career that took a poor, working-class lad from Ponder's End, north London, to the heights of the Cabinet and the Conservative Party. He even fancied his chances of succeeding her, and becoming Prime Minister, only to back off at the first fence. It was a contentious progress. He survived an assassination attempt by the Provisional IRA on the government in the Grand Hotel, Brighton in October 1986, but suffered serious injuries and his wife Margaret was so badly hurt that she spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair, dying in 2020. While still, by his own admission, 'a shy and awkward schoolboy' aged 15, Tebbit joined the the Young Conservatives, driven by a fierce dislike of the Attlee post-war government, fearing that it would lead to Socialism and the authoritarianism spreading over Eastern Europe. His attitude never changed, indeed it hardened when he encountered unionism at the Financial Times, where he began work as a Prices Clerk, aged 16, with high hopes of becoming a journalist. But he wasn't qualified, and because the FT operated a closed shop, he became 'a hostile conscript' in the print union Natsopa. He hated that. 'Natsopa paid dearly for bullying a 16-year-old boy into its ranks,' he wrote in his autobiography, Upwardly Mobile. 'I swore then that I would break the power of the closed shop, an ambition I finally achieved 35 years later.' Immediately, however, he had to do National Service, entering the RAF in the rank of pilot officer, reaching the rank of flying officer in 1954. He flew Meteor and Vampire jets, and returning to civvy street joined BOAC as a navigator and pilot, flying Boeing 707's. While working for the state airline, Tebbit was a lay official of Balpa, the pilots' union, where, in his own words, he gained a reputation as an ruthless chairman and abrasive committee member. He took part in a work-to-rule and once went on strike 'unpleasant at the time but invaluable.' Encouraged by party grandees Cecil Parkinson and Peter Walker, he entered Parliament in the 1970 election, when Ted Heath won a surprise victory. In the Commons, he gave free rein to his disputatious nature, accusing Employment Secretary Michael Foot I 1975 of 'fascism' over a closed shop dispute at Ferrybridge power station that cost six men their jobs. He aligned himself with hard-line boss George Ward in the Grunwick dispute, accusing strikers seeking union recognition of 'red fascism.' The stage was set for his rapid rise under Margaret Thatcher. After ousting Labour in 1979, she appointed him as Trade Minister, and two years later sent him to Employment to take a tougher line with the unions than his moderate predecessor, Jim Prior. The outcome was the 1982 Employment Act, the first in a long line of such legislation It undermined – but did not ban – the closed shop and more importantly opened the unions' funds to claims for damages. What became known as 'Tebbit's Law' began the inexorable decline of trade union power, as he wished. He regards it as 'my greatest achievement in government.' During his time, he later divulged, Special Branch officers spied on trade union leaders. Job done, he moved to Trade and Industry in 1983, and after his survival from the Brighton bomb to chairman of the Tory Party and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, remaining a loyal and trusted lieutenant of Thatcher. He was touted – not least by himself - as a likely successor to her, but backed off when the opportunity presented itself in 1990 after the Iron Lady quit the premiership. On the back-benches, he was a vociferous opponent of UK membership of the European Union, and an early supporter of withdrawal. He was made a Companion of Honour and created Lord Tebbit of Chingford in 1992. He voted against civil partnerships and same-sex marriage, opposed abolition of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and aid for Africa. But his burning childhood wish to be a journalist was finally granted in 1995, when he became a newspaper columnist, first for The Sun and then the Mail on Sunday and finally after 2010 for the Daily Telegraph. His comments were characteristically pungent, Right-wing and took no prisoners. He also appeared in TV documentaries about the Thatcher years, and wrote his autobiography – plus a game cook book. In later life, he and Margaret moved to Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, where he refused to attend services at the cathedral because the Dean was in a civil partnership with another clergyman. In his nineties, he was little heard of, but there is no doubt that his views remained unchanged. The world had moved on, but not him with it. He was so proud was Michael Foot's put-down of him as 'a semi-trained-polecat' that he put one on his coat of arms. His Latin motto was Qui Tacet Consentit – silence means consent, hardly a democratic slogan. He died at 'peacefully at home', and is survived by two sons and a daughter.
North Wales Chronicle
08-07-2025
- Politics
- North Wales Chronicle
Tebbit the Tory hard man who took on the trade unions
To political opponents, the comment – a paraphrase of his exhortation to the unemployed to go out and look for work – encapsulated what they saw as the callous indifference of the Conservatives to the rising joblessness of the 1980s. Once memorably described by Labour's Michael Foot as a 'semi-house-trained polecat', Mr Tebbit revelled in his reputation as a political bruiser as the government drove through its controversial programme of free market reforms. As employment secretary, he piloted key legislation which diluted the power of the trade union 'closed shop' and weakened the unions' immunity from civil damages. He suffered grave injuries in the 1984 Brighton bombing, which left his wife, Margaret, paralysed from the neck down and tore a hole in his side which needed regular treatment for years afterwards. Few who saw them would forget the grim TV pictures of the badly wounded Mr Tebbit being eased gingerly out of the rubble of the Grand Hotel after it was ripped apart in a massive IRA blast. However his ordeal did nothing to diminish his appetite for political combat and the man dubbed the 'Chingford skinhead' – a reference to his Essex constituency – returned to Westminster as abrasive and vitriolic as ever. But for all his reputation for thuggishness, he was privately a kindly man who could mix amiably with those whom he bitterly scorned in public. After masterminding Mrs Thatcher's third general election victory in 1987, Mr Tebbit stepped down from the government so that he could spend more time caring for his wife. He nevertheless remained politically active, proving to be a thorn in the side of her successor, John Major, as wrangling over Europe tore the Tories apart in the 1990s. He sparked controversy with his advocacy of the so-called 'cricket test' – suggesting which side British Asians supported in internationals should be seen as an indicator of their true loyalties – leading to accusations of racism. Born on March 29 1931 in Ponders End, Middlesex, Norman Beresford Tebbit was the son of Leonard Tebbit, a pawnbroker, and his wife, Edith. After attending Edmonton County Grammar, he took a job aged 16 as a trainee journalist at The Financial Times, where the requirement for him to join a trade union in order to be employed sowed a determination to break the power of the closed shop. Following national service with the RAF – when he flew Meteor and Vampire jets, narrowly surviving one terrifying crash – he joined the airline BOAC as a long-haul pilot and navigator. His previous unhappy encounter with the unions did not stop him becoming a highly effective official for the pilots' union, Balpa. He entered Parliament in 1970 as Conservative MP for Epping, joining the right-wing Monday Club. When Mrs Thatcher became party leader in 1975, he strongly backed her agenda of free market reforms and curbing the power of the unions which had brought down Edward Heath's Tory government. She in turn encouraged him to harass Labour ministers from the backbenches – he made headlines after accusing Michael Foot of 'pure undiluted fascism' during a heated exchange over closed shops. Following the Tories' general election victory of 1979, she made him a junior trade minister, promoting him to the cabinet as employment secretary two years later. Certainly he was cut from a very different cloth than a previous generation of Conservative ministers – the patrician Harold Macmillan once sniffily remarked: 'Heard a chap on the radio this morning talking with a cockney accent. They tell me he is one of Her Majesty's ministers.' He was, however, tailor-made for Mrs Thatcher, spearheading the government's legislative assault on the power of the unions – who had brought down the last Tory administration of Edward Heath – with his Employment Act. It was following inner city riots in Handsworth and Brixton in 1981 that he made the infamous remark which led to him being dubbed 'Onyerbike'. Rejecting suggestions the violence was a natural response to rising unemployment, he retorted: 'I grew up in the Thirties with an unemployed father. He didn't riot. He got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it.' Such comments fuelled his hardline 'Nasty Norm' reputation – the satirical puppet show Spitting Image memorably portrayed him as a leather-jacketed thug brutally beating up political opponents and fellow ministers alike. For all their political affinity, his relations with Mrs Thatcher did not always run smoothly and he later recalled there were occasions when he left No 10 unsure whether he would still have a job by the time he had returned to his department. 'But I was never frightened of her,' he remembered. 'The most she could do was sack me. I didn't see any point in not standing up to her.' Following the Tories' 1983 general election victory, there was a move to trade and industry but his life was turned upside down the following year when an IRA bomb tore through Brighton's Grand Hotel during the Conservative Party conference. Mrs Thatcher, the main intended target of the attack, escaped unscathed but it took four hours for fire crews to extricate Mr Tebbit and his wife from the wreckage. While Mrs Tebbit was left needing round-the-clock care for the rest of her life, he recovered to return to the political fray with his appetite for confrontation very much intact. The prime minister believed his populist instincts – he was described as the personification of 'Essex man' – made him the ideal candidate to plot her bid for a third term in No 10 and in 1985 she made him Tory Party chairman. She was however reportedly not amused when he urged her to take more of a back seat in campaigning after polling showed her leadership – the so-called 'that bloody woman' factor – was turning off voters. The 1987 general election campaign was marked by rows and tensions within the Tory camp amid suspicions among Mrs Thatcher and some of her allies that Mr Tebbit was more interested in advancing his own leadership ambitions. It culminated on so-called 'wobbly Thursday' with Lord Young – who Mrs Thatcher had installed in No 10 to keep an eye on her chairman – allegedly grabbing Mr Tebbit by the lapels and yelling: 'Norman, listen to me, we are about to lose this f****** election'. Nevertheless, come polling day, the Conservatives were again returned with a three-figure majority and Mr Tebbit appeared at the window of Central Office alongside the prime minister to enjoy the acclaim of the party faithful. It was to be the apogee of his frontline political career, and in the aftermath of victory he announced he was leaving government so he could devote more time to looking after his wife. For all the difficulties of the preceding months, Mrs Thatcher said she 'bitterly regretted' losing a kindred spirit from the cabinet. Having once been seen as her natural successor, it meant giving up any hope of taking the top job, a lost opportunity which, he later acknowledged, was a source of regret for him also. He remained politically active however – particularly on Europe – and, after stepping down as an MP in 1992, he was made a life peer. In the House of Lords, he formed a new alliance with Baroness Thatcher (who had also been ennobled) to oppose the Maastricht Treaty, signed by John Major, which created the modern European Union. That year he brought the Tory party conference to its feet with a rabble-rousing speech condemning the agreement, much to the fury of Mr Major who accused him of hypocrisy and disloyalty. In later years, Lord Tebbit continued to attract controversy with outspoken remarks on a range of issues from immigration to homosexuality. He refused to attend services conducted by the dean of St Edmundsbury Cathedral after he entered into a civil partnership and warned that legislation to allow same-sex marriage passed under David Cameron was alienating the Tory faithful. He was the author of a number of books including The Game Cookbook – featuring his favourite recipes for partridge, grouse, pheasant and the like – which proved to be a surprise hit in 2009. In 2020, his wife, Lady Tebbit, died aged 86. He never forgave the IRA terrorist responsible for her terrible injuries. Lord Tebbit is survived by two sons and a daughter.
