Francis Urquhart

Francis Ewan Urquhart, Duke of Urquhart, (born 13 October 1936), was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1992 to 2001 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 2001. Urquhart is a member of the hard right of the Conservative Party, and he was known to be a machiavellian leader, who despite his soft spoken and dowdy mannerisms maintained a great deal of influence over the politics of Britain and the world in the 1990s. An urbane, Eton-educated classicist, Urquhart was the third and youngest son of the 6th Earl of Bruichcladdich.

As Prime Minister, Urquhart sought to revitalise the British economy, clamp down on vagrancy and to increase Britain’s presence on the world stage. The “Three Arrows” of Urquhartism were notorious in their effectiveness, although the images of pensioners thrown onto the streets, the privatisation of the BBC, the re-imposition of the death penalty for capital crimes and the successful reintroduction of National Service, continued to divide the United Kingdom and then England and Scotland.

The Urquhart years were not entirely secure for the Prime Minister. The death of numerous allies and friends, either through falling, car bombs, and a cocaine overdose all caused him immense personal trauma, although he was stoically able to show almost no emotion for the majority of them. He won three landslide elections.

A polarising figure in British politics, Urquhart is nonetheless viewed favourably in historical rankings and public opinion of British prime ministers. His tenure constituted a realignment towards neoliberal policies in Britain, with the complicated legacy attributed to Urquhartism debated into the 21st century. He is a second cousin, twice removed, of the incumbent American House Republican Whip, Frank Underwood of South Carolina.

Early life
Francis Urquhart was born in 1936, the youngest of the Earl of Bruichcladdich's three sons; his oldest brother, John, was killed during World War II, while his middle brother, Kenneth, sat in the House of Lords. He was educated at Eton College, and he served in the British Army in Cyprus for three years, taking part in the capture and interrogation of EOKA terrorists. He resigned his commission after a colleague was court-martialed for accidentally killing a suspect, and he went on to study at the University of Oxford, where he would go on to teach Renaissance Italian History. He married Elizabeth McCullough, the daughter of a whiskey magnate, and he later abandoned academia in favor of politics.

Political Career
After his father's suicide, Urquhart resolved to enter politics rather than maintain his father's estate, leading to his mother disowning him. He abandoned the academia and rose in the ranks of the Conservative Party, rising to the rank of chief whip.

Urquhart lived on an estate in Lyndhurst, Hampshire, and he was elected MP for New Forest. He is a hard-right member of the Tories, and he supported abolishing the Arts Council, outlawing vagrancy, reintroducing conscription, banning pensioners from the NHS unless they paid for age insurance, and opposed the welfare state.

After Conservative Party leader Cecil Parkinson resigned after it was revealed he had fathered a love child with his secretary, Urquhart successfully stood to replace him after all other candidates withdrew or were eliminated. He constantly bested the unpopular Shirley Williams at Prime Minister’s Questions and was elected in a landslide at the 1992 general election.

Urquhart could not have presented a clearer contrast with his predecessor. The “Three Arrows” of Urquhartism were notorious in their effectiveness, although the images of pensioners thrown onto the streets, the re-imposition of the death penalty for capital crimes, the privatisation of the BBC and the successful reintroduction of National Service, would divide the United Kingdom.

In foreign affairs, Urquhart would be one of a number of world leaders who signed the Stockholm Accords in order to bring an end to the Cold War. He gained similar acclaim for his calm and collected handling of the Hong Kong handover but was the center of scandal in 2000 for secretly providing arms to Apartheid South Africa during the South African civil war in exchange for Conservative Party funds. This caused the resignation of Foreign Secretary Francis Maude.

Domestically, he was heavily criticised for his partial privatisation of the NHS but gained international acclaim for his response to the Waterloo bombing in 1995 and the counter-terrorism measures enacted afterwards, which some felt overstretched constitutional rights. Urquhart also oversaw the 1998 FIFA World Cup, which was hosted and won by England, a notable moment from which was when Urquhart, up in his box at Wembley, smiled as the crowd chanted “Urquhart is the man!” to the sound of KC & the Sunshine Band’s ‘Baby Give It Up’.

Urquhart resigned in 2001 whilst his popularity was at it’s highest after his response to 9/11. He stood down from the Commons in 2004 and was elevated to the Lords in 2006 as the Duke of Urquhart. He retired from the Lords in 2016 but kept his title and currently resides in the Bahamas with his wife Elizabeth. Despite this he regularly makes speeches and writes newspaper articles on the state of English politics.