Editing The Spectator (section)

===Nigel Lawson, George Gale, and Harry Creighton===
The "Tory Leadership" article prompted a furious response from many ''Spectator'' readers and caused Macleod, for a time, to be shunned by political colleagues. He eventually regained his party's favour, however, and rejoined the shadow cabinet in the same year. On his appointment as Shadow Chancellor in 1965, he stepped down as editor on the last day of the year, to be replaced by [[Nigel Lawson]]. Sometimes called "The Great Procrastinator" because of his tendency to leave writing leaders until the last minute,<ref name="Blake" /> Lawson had been City editor for ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'' and Alec Douglas-Home's personal assistant during the [[1964 United Kingdom general election]]. In 1966, largely due to Lawson, ''The Spectator'' opposed America's increasing military commitment in [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]]. In a signed article he estimated "the risks involved in an American withdrawal from Vietnam are less than the risks in escalating a bloody and brutal war".<ref name="Courtauld" />

In 1967, Ian Gilmour, who by then had joined parliament and was already finding the proprietorship a hindrance in political life, sold ''The Spectator'' to [[Harold Creighton|Harry Creighton]] for £75,000 ({{Inflation|UK|75000|1967|r=0|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}).<ref>{{Cite news |date=14 July 2003 |title=Howard Creighton Obituary |work=[[The Times]] |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1151035.ece |url-status=dead |access-date=17 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417232335/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/ |archive-date=17 April 2022}}</ref> In 1970, Creighton replaced Lawson as editor with [[George Gale (journalist)|George Gale]]; there had been growing resentment between the two men.<ref name="Courtauld" /> Gale shared Creighton's political outlook,<ref name="Blake" /> in particular his strong opposition to the EEC, and much of the next five years was spent attacking the pro-EEC prime minister [[Edward Heath]], treating his eventual defeat by [[Margaret Thatcher]] with undisguised delight. Gale's almost obsessive opposition to the EEC and antagonistic attitude towards Heath began to lose the magazine readers. In 1973 Creighton took over the editorship himself, but was, if possible, even less successful in stemming the losses. Circulation fell from 36,000 in 1966 to below 13,000. As one journalist who joined ''The Spectator'' at that time said: "It gave the impression, an entirely accurate one, of a publication surviving on a shoestring".<ref name="Courtauld" /> George Gale later remarked that Creighton had only wanted the job to get into ''[[Who's Who (UK)|Who's Who]]''.<ref name="Courtauld" />