favorov's Journal

RIP: Eric Forth
...In the 1980s his Commons office was adorned with a
full-frontal poster of the buxom model Samantha Fox (a present from his teenage
daughter); and in 1988 he spearheaded opposition to Clare Short's bill to ban
"page three" nudity, insisting that topless models had chosen "to display for
profit whatever assets they possess… and exploit the male population"...

...He was, naturally, a thorn in the side of the new Tory leader,
asking him pointedly at a private meeting earlier this year: "I believe in lower
taxes, grammar schools and big business, Mr Cameron. Am I still a
Conservative?"...

Eric Forth
(Filed: 19/05/2006)

Eric Forth, the MP for Bromley and Chislehurst who died of cancer
on Wednesday aged 61, was a flamboyant and combative Right-wing libertarian
renowned as the most effective tormentor of Labour ministers on the Tory
benches.

Tall, dark, and lean - and famous for his garish ties and
waistcoats, extravagant sideburns and chunky jewellery - Forth conveyed the
slightly menacing air of a reformed teddy boy. One sketch writer observed that
if he did not have L-O-V-E tattooed on one set of knuckles and H-A-T-E on the
other it must be because he was "saving the space for something ruder". Another
likened his appearance to that of a "Victorian undertaker out for a day at the
races".

Forth served in junior posts as consumer protection minister and
small firms minister under Mrs Thatcher, then was responsible for, successively,
schools and higher education under John Major. In opposition he served as Shadow
Leader of the House when Iain Duncan Smith was Conservative leader, during which
period he enjoyed weekly jousts with Robin Cook. But Forth's true talents lay in
his knowledge of Commons procedure and his mastery of the arts of political
knockabout.

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