Terry Dicks
| Terry Dicks | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament for Hayes and Harlington |
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In office 9 June 1983 – 1 May 1997 |
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| Preceded by | Neville Sandelson |
| Succeeded by | John McDonnell |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 17 March 1937 |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
Terence Patrick Dicks (born 17 March 1937), commonly known as Terry Dicks, is a former British Conservative Party politician. He was MP for Hayes and Harlington from 1983 to his retirement in 1997, having unsuccessfully contested the seat of Bristol South in 1979, when he was defeated by Labour's Michael Cocks. He was educated at the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford (DipEcon).
Dicks was known for his hardline right-wing views and caused controversy over a number of public statements he made. His opposition to state funding for the arts inspired Labour MP Tony Banks to claim that Dicks' presence in the House of Commons was "living proof that a pig's bladder on a stick can get elected to Parliament". On Derrick Gregory, a mentally subnormal man who had been sentenced to death in Malaysia for drug smuggling, Dicks said he would be writing to the Malaysian government congratulating it on its approach. On Farzad Bazoft, an Observer journalist hanged by Saddam Hussein in 1990, Dicks said he "deserved to be hanged" on the eve of his execution.
In 1990, when Nelson Mandela declined to meet the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on a trip to London, Dicks asked: "How much longer will the Prime Minister allow herself to be kicked in the face by this black terrorist?" Dicks unfaltered in this belief, saying that the African National Congress "were just terrorists", adding "a terrorist is a terrorist. I don't accept this view of freedom fighters one day – terrorists one day, freedom fighters the next. No. No. And if they had wanted to they could have executed him. Seriously. Then you wouldn't have had all this fuss of 'I can live 27 years in prison'."
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