Nigel Anthony: Difference between revisions

| monarch          = [[Richard IV]]

| predecessor3    = [[Leonard Mattis]]

| successor3      = [[William Osborne]]

| predecessor4    = [[John Wade]]

| successor4      = [[Benjamin Lyndwood]]{{Collapsed infobox section begin|Additional positions}}

| term_end7        = December 3, 2020<br>{{W|Life peer}}age

| successor8      = [[Edward Stanhope, 3rd Baron Stanhope of North Cape|The Baron Stanhope of North Cape]]{{Collapsed infobox section end}}

| birth_place      = {{flagicon|England}} {{W|Lode, Cambridgeshire|Lode}}, {{W|Cambridgeshire}}, England

| death_place      = {{flagicon|England}} {{W|London}}, England

| spouse          = {{marriage|Alice Varley|1962}}

| alma_mater      = {{W|Eton College}}<br>{{W|Royal Military Academy Sandhurst}}<br>{{W|London School of Economics}}

| battles          = {{Tree list}}

*[[Vietnam War]]

'''Nigel Denis Anthony''' (November 7, 1927 – December 3, 2020) was a British [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] statesman who served as the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] from 1983 until 1992. He was the {{W|Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament}} for {{W|Huntingdon (UK Parliament constituency)|Huntingdon}} from 1970 to 2001 and held cabinet positions in the [[MacIsaac ministry|government]] of [[John MacIsaac]] from 1979 to 1983 as the [[Defence Secretary]] and later as [[Foreign Secretary]]. After leaving the Parliament, he became a {{W|life peer}} in the [[House of Lords]] as Baron Anthony of Upton until his death in 2020. Anthony was also the last leader of the Conservative Party before it dissolved after massive internal divisions in 1994 following its historic defeat in the [[1992 United Kingdom general election]], at which point he joined its successor, [[United Britain]].

He was educated at {{W|Eton College}} and the {{W|Royal Military Academy Sandhurst}} before being commissioned into the {{W|Duke of Wellington's Regiment}} as a lieutenant. Serving in the [[British Army]] during the [[Cold War]] and deployed during the [[Vietnam War]] where he served as an advisory to the [[Army of the Republic of Vietnam]] of [[South Vietnam]]. During his tour in Vietnam, he came into contact in direct engagements against the [[Viet Cong]] and was awarded the {{W|Military Cross}} for gallantry for his service. He retired from the Army in 1965 and worked for the Conservative Party at its campaign headquarters, before running for a seat in Parliament in the Huntingdon constituency of {{W|Cambridgeshire}}. Anthony won his election and served as an MP during the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] government of [[Anna Rhodes]], becoming a critic of her conciliatory policies towards [[Spain]] and her agreeing to hold a referendum on the status of {{W|Gibraltar}} in 1975. Anthony called for a forceful British response to Spanish violations of British Gibraltar territorial waters and its claims over Gibraltar. He rose to prominence in the 1970s due to his background and expertise in foreign and defense policy, arguing for a non-compromising stance against the [[Eastern Bloc]] and supporting [[Transamericanism]]. When the Conservatives won the [[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979 election]], Anthony was chosen to join the John MacIsaac ministry, first serving as Defence Secretary before the resignation of [[Leonard Mattis]] led to him becoming Foreign Secretary in 1981.  

When MacIsaac stepped down ahead of the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 election]] due to health issues, Anthony was elected as Leader of the Conservatives and became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, maintaining the Conservative majority in Parliament. On the domestic front, [[Anthony ministry|his government]] favored {{W|neoliberalism|neoliberal economics}}, causing the privatization of several industries (including [[British Rail]]), reducing the power of unions, and cutting regulations. He also worked to reign in the high inflation of the 1970s, which led to an economic upturn in the early to mid-1980s, and attempted to roll back the post-Great War cuts to the [[British Armed Forces]] that had been done by the [[Rhodes ministry]]. In 1987 he approved British participation along with the [[Antilles]] in [[Operation Uphold Democracy]], an intervention in [[Jamaica]] against a military government that seized power in a [[1987 Jamaican coup d'état|coup]], and provided extensive support to [[Iraq]] during the [[War in the Levant]] against [[Syrian Arab Republic (1967–2004)|Ba'athist Syria]]. He also organized the creation of a permanent [[Royal Navy]] presence in the {{W|Persian Gulf}} and supported military aid to the anti-Chinese forces in the [[Sino-Tajik War]]. He was one of the mediators in negotiations that led to [[China]]'s withdrawal from [[Tajikistan]]. Along with Sierran prime minister [[Ted Brundy]], Superian president [[Alexander Ludendorff]], and German chancellor [[Olaf Gerhardt]], Anthony was seen as one of the hardline anti-communist leaders of the [[Western Bloc]] during the late [[Cold War]].  

The initial economic boom during his premiership subsided by 1989, with the resulting economic downturn and military interventionism making Anthony's government increasingly unpopular at the start of the 1990s, especially as Britain's Western allies began promoting peaceful coexistence. The Conservative Party was also split between a neoconservative faction that favored fighting the Cold War and participating in [[NTO]] and the [[European Community]], and a growing [[UK Independence Party]] that believed these foreign commitments brought too much of an economic and political cost to Britain, arguing for winding down the Cold War. Disagreements threatened to split the party by 1992, and Labour won their first major success in over a decade during that year's general election, leading to a historic Conservative defeat. Anthony attempted to hold the party together, but under immense pressure he resigned as party leader, and shortly afterwards the party dissolved because of the mass exodus of Conservatives to [[United Britain]]. His premiership has a mixed legacy, being seen as contributing to ending the Cold War and cementing Britain's sovereignty over its remaining overseas territories, but also causing the dissolution of the Conservative Party in 1994 and paving the way for two decades of neoliberal economic policies under his successors [[Marcus Hope]] and [[Douglas Walker]].

He remained an MP for Huntingdon until 2001, when he was made a life peer in the House of Lords. Anthony became the Chancellor of the {{W|Order of the Garter}} from 2004 until his death and was also the Leader of United Britain in the House of Lords from 2001 until 2015. As a life peer, he supported the [[2004 invasion of Syria|invasion of Syria]] and Britain's involvement in [[Anglo-America]]n [[War on Terror]] during Douglas Walker's premiership, and supported the candidacy of [[John McLeod]] for the [[2019 United Britain leadership election]] against [[Clive Spencer]]. He also described the premiership of Labour leader [[Paul Grove]], following the [[2010 United Kingdom general election|2010 "red wave" election]], as a "complete disaster." Towards the end of his life he changed his opinion on the Clive Spencer ministry, due to Spencer's efforts to increase the size of the British Armed Forces and reduce immigration.  

[[Category:British Army personnel of the Vietnam War]]  

[[Category:Life peers created by Richard IV]]

[[Category:Knights of the Garter]]