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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Edward Heath
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(b. 1916, KG 1992) Conservative politican, MP for Bexley and Sidcup since 1950 and prime minister 1970–4. He entered the cabinet in 1960 as lord privy seal (with Foreign Office responsibility, since the foreign secretary, Lord Home, was in the Lords), and he was then briefly president of the Board of Trade (1963–4). In 1965 he followed Home as leader of the Conservative party (the first to be elected rather than mysteriously selected). A passionate European, he succeeded during his premiership in effecting Britain's entry to the *EC. In 1973 he coined a useful phrase which has become standard – 'the *unacceptable face of capitalism'.
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The domestic economy was thrown into chaos in his last months of office by the *oil crisis and by a *miners' strike, which provoked him into calling the election of February 1974. The party lost the election, and a year later Heath was challenged and defeated for the leadership by Margaret *Thatcher. As a pro-European and a consensus politician (the first of the *'wets'), he was an isolated figure during her years of power; but in the different atmosphere of the 1990s it was he who seemed more in tune with the times.
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