At the time that Nigel Lawson, Lord Lawson of Blaby, who has died aged 91, resigned as chancellor in October 1989, his departure was immediately interpreted by the more perceptive political analysts as the beginning of the end of the Thatcher years.
And so it proved. The man whom Margaret Thatcher once called “my golden boy”, the politician who was credited as the main architect of her government’s economic success, had lit a touchpaper that would smoulder across the months and lead to her ignominious departure a little more than a year later.
