It was rather ironic that TheEye said a few posts below that mainstream news stories are not the aim of this blog. This story falls strangely between the two stools. It’s going to become very mainstream but isn’t yet.

Iain Dale, a man with some of the best political contacts going, has broken the tragic news that Sir Alan Walters has passed away. Iain’s article must have been prewritten as not a single other site is yet carrying it – so with the need to pass this upsetting news out TheEye will duplicate Iain’s article until some original text can be written for here.

“I have just heard that Sir Alan Walters, Margaret Thatcher’s economic guru, has died.

“He was one of the first economists in Britain to advocate monetary solutions to the inflation of the 1970s. He was a professor at the LSE from 1967 to 1976, before joining the World Bank and becoming a Professor at John Hopkins University. He was appointed to be Margaret Thatcher’s economic adviser in 1981, a position he held formally for three years. He returned in July 1988 but almost immediately fell out with Thatcher’s chancellor, Nigel Lawson, over his policy of shadowing the Deutsche Mark as a precursor to joining the ERM. Lawson resigned over an interview Sir Alan had given to the FT prior to his taking up his Downing Street job. Sir Alan felt his position was untenable and he resigned too.

“Since then he has held various academic and business posts but in recent years has suffered from Parkinsons Disease. He was taken to hospital a week before Christmas but returned home on Boxing Day, where the next day he celebrated his 33rd wedding anniversary with his beloved wife. He was 82.

“Many of us will remember the huge contribution he made to the success of the Thatcher project. He was a truly great man.“

More from TheEye in a future tribute.