Lord David Young, the former cabinet minister who died last week aged 90, was in his early 80s when I first met him; I was in my late 40s.
In all honesty, he had more energy and creativity than I had even 20 years before. That is doubtless why so many charities asked him to get involved, and why he seems to have been unable to say no.
He was the embodiment of the phrase, “If you want to get something done, ask someone busy.”
He was, most of all, a doer. While others stood on the sidelines and moaned, he acted.
That was why Margaret Thatcher ennobled him and put him in her Cabinet in 1984, when he had no background in politics.
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Lord Young with his wife Lita and daughters Karen and Judith
He first came to her attention after being chosen in 1981 by Norman Tebbit to be chair of the Manpower Services Commission, the agency which then looked after unemployment, training and recruitment.
He impressed with his ideas and ability to implement them.
As she was reported to have said of him: “Other ministers bring me problems but David brings me solutions.” (Although what she actually said was: “Other people come to me with their problems. David Young comes with his achievements.”)
David went to Christ’s College in Finchley and then on to University College London, where he read law, becoming a solicitor in 1955.
Almost immediately, however, he joined Great Universal Stores, soon becoming assistant to Sir Isaac Wolfson, the chairman. In the 1960s he set up his own companies specialising in industrial property, construction and plant hire.
He had a series of further business roles in the 1980s (and was chairman of the British ORT charity which promotes education and vocational training) before selling all his interests when appointed by Sir Keith Joseph as his special adviser on privatisation.
After leading the Manpower Services Commission, in 1984 he became Baron Young of Graffham and was appointed Minister without Portfolio in the Cabinet, becoming Employment Secretary in 1985 and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in 1987.
When Baroness Thatcher’s resigned he went back into business, notably as executive chairman of Cable & Wireless.
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Lord Young with his wife Lita
He was also appointed the first president of Jewish Care in 1990, which he held until 1997.
In 2010 he became an adviser to new prime minister David Cameron, but had to resign after an unfortunate comment about the recession; he returned as an adviser later.
Among his many Jewish charitable positions, he was president of Chai Cancer Care and chairman of Jewish Museum London as well as being a trustee of the Co-Existence Trust and a former Trustee of the Savile Club, of which he had been a member since 1984.
I relished an invitation from him to meet. Charming and friendly as he was, he was always prodding when we spoke –— why was I doing this, why wasn’t I doing that, had I considered the other? Always with that bow tie, always with a twinkle in his eye. May his memory be a blessing.
