Britannist

Lord Harris of High Cross, the eurosceptic and supporter of Mrs. (now Lady), who sadly died in mid-October 2006, warned of the dangers of the EU in letters to newspapers and in contributions to newspaper comment sections.

An obituary in the Daily Telegraph edition of 20.10.2006 said “Harris also devoted much of his energy to warning of the dangers of an EU Superstate and served as chairman (from 1989 to 1991) of the Bruges Group – which had been named after Mrs. Thatcher’s sceptical speech about the EU. In 1995, the darkest days of the Major Government, he wrote “for the past five years we have suffered under a nominally Conservative Government which has lacked an consistent sense of direction on central issues of policy. At home, its worst failure has been in not sticking to its pledges to contain public expenditure and reduce taxation. In europe (EU), its only consistency has been in putting short-term party expediency before principle, seen most vividly facing both ways on the single (european currency).”

Lord Harris was appointed leader writer on the Glasgow Herald in 1956 and became a director of Times newspaper holdings in 1988 (until 2001). He was a reader of the Telegraph and backed rights for smokers. He fought Kirkcaldy (as a Liberal Unionist) in the 1951 General Election and in 1955 contested Edinburgh Central for the Conservative Party.