Peter Walker
On Monday last Peter Walker came to speak to the Cardiff Business Club.
He spoke of his time as Secretary of State and the efforts to get inward investment into the valleys along with the Welsh Development Agency.He was also delighted at the progress of Cardiff Bay, the conception had not been Peter’s but that of Nick Edwards but he had played a key part in its evolution. An outspoken critic of the development of Cardiff Bay ,of course, had been one Rhodri Morgan.
He talked too of his pact with Margaret Thatcher; that he would only take the job on if he could do it his way and with the resources he needed. The pact held and he was able to say to the then Chief Secretary, John Major, in a difficult spending round when John Major had termed his bid for money for Wales excessive ” Pick up the phone and speak to Margaret”. He got the money.
In fact Peter Walker is very happy with the direction of the party at the moment as well he might be. Peter Walker is in many ways the prototype for David Cameron and when he was the youngest member of Ted Heath’s cabinet it was assumed that he would be his successor.Joe Gormley’s miners’ strike , the elections of 1974 and the emergence of Margaret Thatcher put paid to that. Once again in 1983-4 it looked like a strong possiibility that he may well emerge as Margaret Thatcher’s successor.He would have been a formidable P.M.
