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1. 

   Bob B

   August 3, 2007

   I’m amazed at Iain Dale’s claim that the “only example of a successful Tory deputy leader in modern times is Reginald Maudling,” on two further counts.
   The first is the claim to “only” when Willie Whitelaw was widely credited with being able to soothe many feathers ruffled by Mrs Thatcher’s abrasive, if ultimately celebrated, premiership.
   “‘Every prime minister needs a Willie,’ Margaret Thatcher famously remarked. The country’s first female premier was referring to her deputy, William Whitelaw, a man as crucial to her long-term success as John Prescott was (until recently) to Tony Blair’s.”
   http://politics.guardian.co.uk/women/story/0,,1890933,00.html
   The second is the example he selected of Reginald Maudling, who was regarded at the time as rather laid back in the way he administered the ministerial offices he held. Also, the context of the notorious Poulson Affair in which he eventually resigned office hardly boosted the reputation of the Conservatives and arguably contributed to their narrow defeat at the next general election in February 1974.
   This report from Time magazine provides a suitably detached perspective on the circumstances of Maudling’s resignation:
   http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,877933,00.html
   However, the fact is that public memories of politics are notoriously short on detail – as Alastair Campbell recognised and exploited – so what has persisted is an uneasy and enduring sentiment about pervasive sleaze in high places. The downstream consequences of the Poulson affair have been deep and long lasting. The many who were enveloped or touched by it emerged tainted, even when not personally convicted of any criminal engagement:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Poulson

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