Oliver Letwin

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Oliver Letwin

OliverLetwin profile.jpg

Name Oliver Letwin (born 19 May 1956)
Nicknames Oli (his friends, presumably)
Politics
Party Conservative
Constituency West Dorset (1997 - present)
Positions • Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
• Minister of State for Government Policy
• Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
• Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Shadow Home Secretary
• Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Likes Philosophy, the Poll Tax
Dislikes Scotland
Friends David Cameron, Margaret Thatcher
Enemies Thieves, photographers, The Mirror
Relationships
Partners Isabel Davidson (1984–present)
Children 2
Personal Attributes
Nationality ?
Religion Atheist
Sexuality Straight
Height In feet and inches
Eye Colour ?
Handedness ?
Accent ?
Languages You can delete this line if they only know English

...the Gandalf of the (Conservative Party general election policy) process. ~ The Times

Oliver is best known for that time that he put private letters from a constituent of his in a public bin in St James' Park. He's also known for having one of those completely out of touch expenses claims during the Expenses Scandal.

Life and Career[edit | edit source]

Early Life[edit | edit source]

Oliver is the son of William a former Professor at the London School of Economics, and Conservative academic Shirley, Jewish-American intellectuals from Chicago whose parents had fled persecution from Kiev. Oliver was educated at Hall School in Hampstead and Eton College.

He then went on to study at Trinity College, Cambridge. While at university he was a member of both the Fabians and the Liberal Club but never formally joined either party.

Pre-political Career[edit | edit source]

From 1980 to 1981, Letwin was a Visiting Fellow of Princeton University, then a Research Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge where he earned a PhD.

Early Political Career[edit | edit source]

Oliver as he was when he worked for Thatcher

From 1983 to 1986, Oliver was a member of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Policy Unit. In documents released in 2014 it was revealed that Oliver had suggested in 1985 that the poll tax first be tried in Scotland. In 1985, according to papers released in 2015, Oliver wrote a memo claiming that the Broadwater Farm riot in north London was due to "bad moral attitudes" and he also dismissed plans to encourage black entrepreneurs, saying they would set up in the "disco and drug trade".

When the papers were released, Oliver said parts of it were "badly worded and wrong". Later, a government source told the BBC it was a "historical" document "written by a policy team whose main task was to challenge orthodox views" which is one of the most ridiculous understatements ever[1].

He stood unsuccessfully in safe Labour seats in 1987 and 1992 before he was finally elected to the safe Conservative seat of West Dorset in 1997.

Parliamentary Career[edit | edit source]

Oliver was soon on his way to political stardom, serving in junior shadow ministerial posts, including the shadow Treasury team under both Michael Portillo and Michael Howard. During the 2001 campaign he suggested that if the Conservatives won the general election (lol) they should make drastic cut-backs. Needless to say, this policy suggestion came under attack in the media and none of his fellow Conservatives came out to defending. He then went into "hiding" for the rest of the campaign in case he accidentally said anything else unpopular. The media loved it.

Despite the gaff, he was made Shadow Home Secretary by IDS where he proposed what later turned out to be David Cameron's "Big Society". Oliver was then moved to Shadow Chancellor where he got into lots of arguments with Gordon Brown about government waste. Oliver was then moved to shadow DEFRA. This left him with much more time to pursue his second job in the City, working for the merchant bank NM Rothschild Corporate Finance Ltd. He stood down from his second job in 2009 to help form Conservative Party election policy in the lead up to the 2010 general election.

During the coalition government, a special job was made for him in the Cabinet Office which basically meant that he was to make sure coalition policies were Tory enough for the Conservative Party. After 2015 the role was abolished and instead Oliver became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, giving him total control of the Cabinet Office.

Full List of Appointments
• Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury (26 September 2000 – 18 September 2001)
• Shadow Home Secretary (18 September 2001 – 6 November 2003)
• Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (6 November 2003 – 10 May 2005)
• Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (10 May 2005 – 6 December 2005)
• Minister of State for Government Policy (12 May 2010 – 11 May 2015)
• Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (14 July 2014 - present)

Personal Life[edit | edit source]

Oliver married Isabel Davidson in 1984, and they have two children together.

Controversies[edit | edit source]

During the Expenses Scandal, it was revealed that Oliver claimed over £2,000 to have the plumbing under his tennis court at his constituency home fixed. He got into a fight with The Daily Mail about whether or not he was Jewish, with Oliver telling them that he was an atheist and The Daily Mail not believing him. in 2003 The Independent reported that Oliver would "go out on the streets and beg" rather than send his children to a comprehensive school.

After two strangers had asked if they could use his toilet in 2002, and he agreed to let them do so, they stole his credit cards and other belongings. He chased them down the street in his dressing gown and pyjamas.

But the biggest controversy of all was that time The Mirror caught him disposing of what was thought to be private government documents in a bin in St. James's Park and not really giving a fuck if anyone else could see them.

It later turned out that he wasn't chucking government documents in a public bin, he was actually just chucking private letters from his constituents in a public bin. No big deal.

Portrayal[edit | edit source]

In the Media[edit | edit source]

Since he works in a department which most of the media consider to be really, really boring, he doesn't get talked about that often except to point out that he's in a really, really boring department and that he's probably secretly controlling everyone in the government, but that might just be The Daily Mail's antisemitism.

In Fanon[edit | edit source]

Most of fandom doesn't really care about him enough for him to have a real character.

Meme[edit | edit source]

Oliver has appeared in two fics, one crack!fic involving cats and one slashfic with Andrew Adonis.

Shipping[edit | edit source]

Oliver had been shipped exclusively with Andrew Adonis thus far.

References[edit | edit source]