British politics has lost its hinterland

British politics has lost its hinterland

Denis Healey, known to many as the possessor of Westminster’s most splendid eyebrows, introduced the notion of politicians having what he called a “hinterland”. In his autobiography, The Time of My Life, he criticises Margaret Thatcher for having a complete lack of one, chiding “in particular she has no sense of history”. Of himself, he wryly observes: “I possess the opposite shortcoming from Mrs. Thatcher — I have far too much hinterland.” Heale