Did the Tory party take a calculated gamble selecting Archer as London mayoral candidate?
Edward Heath: I don’t know whether they thought they were having a gamble. It’s very perplexing to me because they were well informed about Archer’s problems. They were first brought to notice as far back as 1969. Aside from his qualifications he had disqualifications which were known to people in authority in the party. Germaine Greer: If you’re as lacking in charisma someone like Archer might’ve seemed like a glamour boy. You can strip someone of a knighthood but you can’t strip them of a peerage. Ivan Massow: Everyone’s distancing themselves from Jeffrey now. I was policy adviser to the London Assembly. I do like Jeffrey, he knew everything about London policy. Without proof that he had done something wrong I can’t see we could have taken that away from him. The conservative party may have made a bad choice but it was democratic. The mayor has so little power and money that he has to be a showman to get anything done. Clare Short: The Tory party have lowered their standards over the
