1375718038.pdf

Margaret thatcher

a Portrait of the iron Lady

Margaret thatcher

a Portrait of the iron Lady

John Blundell

Algora PublishingNew York

2008 by Algora Publishing.All Rights Reservedwww.algora.com

No portion of this book (beyond what is permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the United States Copyright Act of 1976) may be reproduced by any process, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the express written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Blundell, John, 1952- Margaret Thatcher : A portrait of the iron lady/ John Blundell. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-87586-630-7 (trade paper: alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-87586-

631-4 (case laminate: alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-87586-632-1 (ebook) 1. Thatcher, Margaret. 2. Prime ministersGreat BritainBiography. 3. Women prime ministersGreat BritainBiography. 4. Great BritainPolitics and government1979-1997. 5. Conservative Party (Great Britain)Biography. I. Title.

DA591.T47B58 2008 941.0858092dc22 [B] 2008036677

Front Cover: 1983- London, England- The Rt. Honorable Margaret Thatcher is the Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Conservative Member of Parliament for Finchley. Bettmann/CORBIS

Printed in the United States

John Blundell has been one of the most effective champions of the free-enterprise economic model which has delivered progress and prosperity around the world. Therefore he is very well placed to explain to Americans the beliefs and principles which underpinned what became known as Thatcherism.

Lady Thatcher, Summer 2008

List of Acronyms

ARP Air Raid PrecautionASI Adam Smith Institute BA British AirwaysBAA British Airports Authority BBC British Broadcasting CorporationBIS Bank for International SettlementsBOAC British Overseas Airways CorporationBP British Petroleum BSE Bovine Spongiform EncephalopathyC. of E. Church of EnglandCAP Common Agricultural PolicyCBE Commander of the Order of the British EmpireCBI Confederation of British IndustryCCO ConservativeCentralOfficeCFSP Common Foreign and Security PolicyCIA Central Intelligence AgencyCPC Conservative Political CentreCPS Centre for Policy Studies CUNY City University of New YorkECB European Central BankEDA European Defense AgencyEEC European Economic Community ERM Exchange Rate MechanismESU English Speaking Union EU European Union FCS Federation of Conservative StudentsFSB Federation of Small BusinessGCSE GeneralCertificateofSecondaryEducationGDP Gross Domestic Product HM Her MajestyHMS Her Majestys ShipIEA Institute of Economic Affairs IMF International Monetary Fund IRA Irish Republican Army IVP International Visitor ProgramJFK John F. Kennedy Airport LSE London School of EconomicsLUCA London University Conservative AssociationMIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology MORI Market and Opinion Research InternationalMP Member of Parliament NATO North Atlantic Treaty OrganizationNCB National Coal BoardNFSE National Federation of Self-Employed (Later FSB)

NHS National Health Service NI National Insurance NUM National Union of Mineworkers OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and DevelopmentOM Order of Merit OUCA Oxford University Conservative Association OUGCA Oxford University Graduate Conservative AssociationPBS Public Broadcasting ServicePM Prime Minister POW Prisoner of War PPS Parliamentary Private SecretaryQC Queens CounselRAF Royal Air Force RPM Retail Price Maintenance SAS Special Air Service SAU Social Affairs UnitSBS Special Boat Service SDI Strategic Defense InitiativeSUNY State University of New YorkTHF The Heritage FoundationTUC Trades Union CongressUCS Upper Clyde ShipbuildersUSAF United States Air Force USE United States of EuropeUSSR Union of Soviet Socialist RepublicsVAT Value Added Tax

Acknowledgements

This is not a work of scholarship. Rather it is a very personal interpretation of a very special life.

The book was inspired by the enthusiastic reactions to speeches I have given about Lady Thatcher to The Heritage Foundation in Colorado Springs and in Washington DC as well as to the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Dallas. I thank Bridgett Wagner, Dr. Ed Feulner and Brooke Rollins for hosting me. The buzz I got from those events is still with me.

From the start this book has been all about explaining the Thatcher phenomenon to people overseas, especially in the USA where she is so admired.

The only piece of remotely original research appears in Chapter 5 where I give much more detail on, and far more weight to, Margaret Thatchers 1967 and 1969 visits to the United States than any previous biographer or in my case hagiographer. I thank Lord Hunt of the Wirral, Chairman of the English Speaking Union, and US Ambassador Robert Tuttle for their help in this regard.

For a range of typing, editing, fact-checking, research and other help I thank in alphabetical order: Clare Batty, Christine Blundell, William Culleton III, Anthony Haynes, Rebekah Nordeck, Lisa Schwartz, and Robin Sillars.

The usual disclaimer applies.

For all those who believed in free markets and private property rights under the rule of law before 1975. There were not many of us and we know who we are.

Protocol

Lady Thatcher has had many names, titles and honors. For the sake of simplicity I have adopted the following protocol:

As a young girl MargaretAs a college student and young professional Miss Margaret RobertsAs a young wife in the 1950s Mrs. Denis ThatcherAs an MP Mrs. Margaret Thatcher MPIn her many jobs the relevant titleIn retirement Lady Thatcher

Should you ever have the honor of meeting her, I suggest you simply address her as Prime Minister or Lady Thatcher.

Margaret Thatcher A Portrait of the Iron Lady

xvi

18. befriending aMerica 137

19. KicKing down the waLL 141

20. deaLing with brusseLs 147

21. resignation 155

22. retireMent 165

23. faMiLy 173Denis 173Carol 177Mark 178

24. Men 181Alf 181Keith 182Ronald 184Alfred 186Alan 187Ralph 189

25. her worLd 191

26. ten Lessons 197

PostscriPt: what reMains to be done 207

further reading 211

1Preface

I have met Lady Thatcher on many occasions; indeed I have met her

in every job she has held from Education Secretary (197074); Shadow

Environment Secretary (1974); deputy Chancellor of the Exchequer

(197475); Leader of Her Majestys Opposition (197579); Prime Minis-

ter (197990) to her post-Prime Ministerial life (1990 to date). On every

occasion she has impressed me with her insights and intellect.

Of themany leading figures I havemet around theworld she is

joint number one with Milton Friedman and F. A. Hayek, both Nobel

Laureates.

While faith, family and country have dominated her life, she re-

tains an interest in science (her early training), reads widely, enjoys

musical outings and as I write is even pictured in the Sports Section of

my newspaper watching tennis at Wimbledon. In her youth she was a

great singer, piano player, award winning poetry reciter,1 walker, ama-

teur actress and debater. Ballroom dancing was another passion as is

music, the opera and the arts. She is an immensely fascinating and en-

tertainingperson,reallyterrificcompany.

Her interest in politics is different from 99% of other politicians I

have met. Like President Reagan she honestly cared about her fellow

1 Rupert Brookes These I have loved was a lifelong favorite.


2

men and women and was deeply passionate about making the world

a better place.

As Prime Minister she was a problem solver bringing her determi-

nation, intelligence and training in science and law to bear.

And you have to be nimble when you are with her; or maybe alert

is a better word. She could hack through mumbo-jumbo with a sharp

scythe take you off at your knees rather than your ankles. She could

get right to the heart of any issue and shine light on it faster than any-

one I have ever met except maybe Milton Friedman (F. A. Hayek being

lesscombativeandmorereflective).

Her range of policy experience was huge by the time she became

Prime Minister: after a brief spell as anything but an ordinary back-

bench1 MP2 she had had a junior ministerial post; six shadow3 posts,

three in the Shadow Cabinet; nearly four years in Cabinet as Secretary

of Education; brief spells in two more senior Shadow Cabinet slots and

four years as Leader of the Opposition. She was twenty years in the

making.

Myfirstrecollectionofher isasSecretaryforEducationandSci-

ence. I was Chairman of the Conservative Association at the London

School of Economics (LSE) at the time followed by another year as

Chairman of the London University Conservative Association (LUCA)

which acted as London Region of the Federation of Conservative Stu-

dents (FCS). This meant I covered lots of polytechnics and other uni-

versities as well as London University. We used to go as delegates from

FCS to visit her and tell her what was on our minds and how things

were on campus. I think we used to prepare at the rate of one day for

every 15 minutes in her presence.

She was always master of her ground while being ruthlessly prob-

ing and terrifyingly insightful on anything new we might have to say.

And she was like that with everyone.

My predecessor as Director General of the Institute of Economic

Affairs (IEA) Ralph Harris (later Lord Harris of High Cross) often told

me about also going to see her as Education Secretary in the early 1970s

1 Backbench as opposed to frontbench, i.e., not part of the leadership.2 MP stands for Member of Parliament.3 In the British system every government minister is shadowed by a member of the

officialoppositionparty.

Preface

3

as he and colleagues were attempting to establish the University of

Buckingham,theUKsfirstprivatecollege.Notsurprisinglyitiscur-

rently rated number one on the National Student Satisfaction survey

and has been for some time.

They arrived and she was not there, having been called to an emer-

gency Cabinet meeting over the Leila Khalid matter whether or not

this captured terrorist should be returned.

Ralph and chums sat there while junior ministers prevaricated

ummed and ahd about this curious new idea. Oh, you cant expect

help fromus,theyfinallyblurtedoutas if thiswasboundtodisap-

point the Buckingham delegation.

Before they could respond, in walked Education Secretary Thatcher

direct from Cabinet. Without pause she perched on the corner of a set-

tee and launched into an exact analysis of the delegations thinking:

Now, you certainly do not want and do not expect any help from my Department, she opened. From the way she said help they knew she meant hindrance.

The best we can do for you is to keep out of your way.

Let me know if my Department throws up obstacles to your progress and I will deal with them, she concluded.

She knew exactly what they wanted to hear. Get the government

out of the way!

This was her great knack, her great ability to get right to the heart

of the matter.

MyyearasregionalchairmanoftheFCSfinishedwithawonder-

ful dinner in the House of Lords sponsored1 by the masterful historian

LordBlake. ItwasMarchof 1974so justdaysafterMr.Heathsfirst

defeat of that year.

I had invited her to address us as Education Secretary but she ap-

peared as Shadow Environment Secretary.

The evening stands out in my memory for three reasons.

Everything had been meticulously planned and at the appropri-

ate moment the head table of eight trooped in. Some 200 people were

standing out there and staring at me as I thought to myself, Weve

1 Sponsored in this case does not mean he paid for it but rather that he booked the room which was very generous indeed as he would have been severely limited to two or three events a year at most.


4

forgotten something here. Oops, something is wrong. Why is everyone

standing up? Why arent they sitting down?

Just as I was about to panic Mrs. Thatchers left foot kicked my

right ankle: Grace, you fool, she hissed.

Oh yes! Benedictus benedicat. We sat down. Phew!

Later that evening she commented on the supply of wine to the top

table. I explained that it was my job as retiring Chairman to handle

that.

Oh no, she said. I cant have a young man like you buying my

drinks. She stuck her hand in her purse and passed me some folded

money. It was just the right amount.

My speech a few minutes later was truly awful and totally inappro-

priate as I basically did nothing but crack a few jokes at her expense.

She was very gracious on the night but see below.

Later that year, with Mrs. Thatcher still as Shadow Environment

Secretary, I was involved in welcoming her to a north London constitu-

ency. This time however it was out in public as it was election time and

she was pushing the agenda discussed below. She was just superb. She

knocked us all dead. She took over. She was the queen, lower case q.

It was uncanny, unreal almost. Wherever we took her, she charmed

everybody; philosophically and photogenically perfect opportunities

dropped in our lap. That was the afternoon I glimpsed the political fu-

ture and what we might expect.

Onlymonthslaterwewerebothrunningforhighoffice.

IwasrunningtobethefirstConservativeelectedontotheBoard

of the LSE student union for something like 15 years since John Moore1

(later to serve Prime Minister Thatcher in Cabinet)2 had been president

in say 1960.

She was running (see below) to be leader of the Tory Party.

I got elected to my sordid little union job looking after the student

bar known as The Three Tuns just a week or two ahead of her.

1 Now Lord Moore of Lower Marsh.2 He served Prime Minister Thatcher in Cabinet as Transport Secretary and later

Health and Social Security Secretary. On gaining the latter he purchased 100 copies of the famous US analysis of welfare, Losing Ground, by Charles Murray,andorderedallhistopofficialstoreaditandwriteapaperonhowitsinsightsmightinfluenceUKpolicy.

Preface

5

This led the then Tory leader, Edward Heath, to send me a letter of

congratulation. The letter was intercepted by the left at the LSE and

leaked to the press. When eventually a full report appeared in The Daily

Telegraph it concluded with words to the effect that (unfortunately for

Mr. Heath) Mr. Blundell was already working hard for Mrs. Thatcher.

The day she became leader of the Conservative Party I introduced a

motion of congratulation in the LSE student union of course it was

defeated.

When she was Leader of Her Majestys Opposition I met her several

timesonvariousissues.Thefirsttimewaswhen,soonaftershebecame

Leader, she inherited from Ted Heath the task of addressing the LUCA

annual dinner for the second year running. She glanced to her right,

down the top table, spotted me and started her speech by saying she

hoped this was the London University Conservative Association and

not the London University Comedians Association! Ouch! Squashed!

We often went to see her prior to 1979. I report below on her re-

sponse to my idea that we give all public housing units away to sitting

tenants. At that same dinner one of my chums (lets call him Peter he

ended up in Cabinet) said that she was putting too much emphasis on

economic freedom and not enough on personal or social freedom.

Take cannabis, he said. Its freely available, so why not recognize

reality and legalize it? He added, My friend knows exactly where to

get it!

Peter, she said, my detective is sitting outside. I want you to call

him in now and give him details of your friend!

Well, he ducked and dived, wriggled and weaved, and she let him

off the hook.

We had other memorable moments.

Later, when Michael Forsyth was national Chairman of FCS, I was

his national Vice Chairman responsible for publicity. Mrs. Thatchers

approaching birthday seemed to me to be a wonderful opportunity for

us.

About a week before the big day we started brainstorming in a pub

called The Marquis of Granby, just off Smith Square and around the

cornerfromConservativeCentralOffice.Whatcouldweorshouldwe

do? Eventually we settled on the idea of turning up at her Flood Street,


6

Chelsea home with a very, very large bouquet of red roses at about 7:30

a.m. Michael would present it to her against a backdrop of enthusiastic

young London students that I would recruit. Everything was quickly

arrangedandthemediaalerted.OnthemorningofthebigdayIfirst

picked up Michael in Hugh Street in central Westminster and then

thishugedisplayofredrosesfromafamousfloristinBerkeleySquare.

Thearrangementcouldbarelyfitinthetaxiandwelostseveralheads

en route.

When we pulled up there was a massive bank of cameras and a soli-

tary policeman but not one student. Wait here, I sternly told Forsyth

as I was in a bit of a panic. I jumped out, scanned the street again and

finallywalkeduptothepoliceman.

I wonder if you have seen any students? I asked nervously.

Oh, yes, sir, he replied, Mrs. Thatcher saw them standing out

here twenty minutes ago and invited them all into her home for a cup

of tea!

ShouldIsayyouareready,sir?hefinished.

The students duly emerged and formed a backdrop. Mrs. Thatcher

appeared; Michael presented the roses and the pictures went out all

over the world. I believe he has given her roses for every birthday since

then.

On the day of the general election that propelled her into 10 Down-

ing Street the swing to the Conservative Party was such that a tour

of London seats was arranged, not safe or even Labour marginal seats

but that middle level of reasonably safe Labour constituencies. I was

helping (in a private capacity) the Conservative candidate in West

Norwood where I was at the time a councilman on Lambeth Borough

Council.

At some point that afternoon of May 3 she burst into our HQ at

495 Norwood Road, London SE27 with her entourage. She was radiant

and she clearly knew she was going to win but she did not win that

particular seat. It was a long reach.

I have three major personal memories of her as Prime Minister; only

three because I worked in California and Virginia from April 1982 to

January 1993.

Preface

7

ThefirstwasinJanuary1982.IwasatthetimePress,Parliamen-

taryandResearchOfficeroftheNationalFederationofSelf-Employed

(NFSE, which today goes by Federation of Small Business or FSB). Our

new Chairman was David Dexter, an accountant who hailed from the

Prime Ministers own county of Lincolnshire.

David persuaded her to come to lunch and to address his National

Council in a private 2ndfloorroomattheImperialHotel,RussellSquare,

a major Bloomsbury venue say one mile from Downing Street. Unfor-

tunately her only son, Mark, was missing in the Sahara at the time on a

car rally and he had been missing for several days.1 The stress had been

increased by reports that he had been found only for such news to

be later proved false.2

Mr. Dexters speech of welcome for the event had been press re-

leased some days earlier. The result was about 200 pressmen and dozens

of cameras outside the hotel. Her staff and security formed a protective

wedge and she had only a few feet to walk to me. As she did so voices

were calling out for news of Mark. Against instructions she broke step

and tried to answer saying something such as theres no news and Im

veryworried.IthinkthiswasthefifthdayofMarkssixdaysmissing.

At this point she was clearly breaking down and two large men, one on

each side, picked her up by the elbows and came directly toward me

very quickly. I led them to my left, their right, out of the lobby and into

an empty function room. We quickly sat her down at some random

table and her staff stood in a line blocking the view from a window to

the outside courtyard. What would you like, Prime Minister? I asked.

Black coffee, please, she replied. As The Daily Telegraph reported on its

front page the next day every paper had it on page one Next a

young man [me] burst from the room, collared a waiter and said Get

me a black coffee and make it quick.

Stories that she sobbed in public for 30 seconds or more are com-

plete and utter nonsense. She quickly composed herself and went on to

ace the meeting.

The hotel staff (mostly new immigrants) presented her with a huge

bouquet and David Dexter told her that to mark her visit the Federa-

1 He was found safe and sound after six days.2 The local army was totally chaotic.


8

tion was sending a substantial check to the charity recommended by

heroffice.

Living just outside Washington DC I had the opportunity in 1987

to hear her address The Heritage Foundation (THF). By this time she

was clearly getting a little antsy about people (all men) claiming credit

for Thatcherism. This was the cue for her famous line: But remem-

ber while the cocks may crow, its the hen that lays the egg. That was

the evening President Reagan sat down next to Joe Coors and said Oh

good, it must be Miller Time!

Three years later I was invited to a party at Londons Reform Club

for the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Social Affairs Unit (SAU).

I turned up on time. As I walked up the steps in a business suit I real-

ized that Sir Antony Jay, co-author of the famous British TV series Yes,

Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, was next to me in black tie. We fell into

conversation and entered the event. An hour later we joined up again as

the Prime Minister was working the room. She turned from the group

next to us and spotted Tony in his tuxedo the only one in the whole

room.

Ah, Tony, she said, you must be going to somewhere important

later?

No, Prime Minister, he replied contritely. I misread the

invitation!

So I heard the author of Yes, Prime Minister say, No, Prime Minister

to the then Prime Minister. In fact, a few weeks later she was no longer

Prime Minister.

When I became Director General of the IEA I found we had already

published a collection of speeches, by my predecessor Lord Harris, un-

der the title of No, Minister. So when he turned seventy and I published

the best of his articles, I had no hesitation in calling them No, Prime

Minister.

As I recount below, she has never retired and to this day in her

eighties keeps a very busy diary. I see her often and she keeps a keen

interest in all that is going on as we will read below.

Some years ago I was at a round-table of forty people with Lady

Thatcher. After dinner we enjoyed remarks from a distinguished guest.

Then came questions. Most present were fairly senior types from the

Preface

9

media, the civil service, industry and politics. At 45, I was pretty young,

but there was one man even younger, a 31-one-year-old representing his

boss. To tell the truth, this young man was actually the leading expert

in the room on our topic for the night.

Into the vacuum of space and time immediately following the

guests remarks the young man proffered an interesting question.

The problem was that nobody could hear what he was saying.

Speak up, young man, commanded Lady Thatcher.

He tried again but clearly did not measure up.

SPEAK UP, YOUNG MAN! she commanded again.

He started a third time. Still no good. She glared down the table.

Young man, she said, Stand up and throw your voice. We want

to hear what you have to say.

Turning bright red, he stood; he threw; they listened and at the end

they (the men) all applauded.

I was hosting a dinner once for a famous politician from overseas.

LadyThatchers office asked if she andSirDenis could attendand I

replied yes.

On the night, Sir Denis failed to show and I faced having an empty

chair at dinner.

I quickly recruited a Tory MP friend who is a generation younger

than Lady Thatcher; tall, straight and, my wife tells me, handsome in a

battered kind of way.

We sat down to dinner. I tapped on a glass to get attention and

made a few announcements. I concluded by saying that Sir Deniss

place had been taken for the night by Mr. X MP.

Really, said Lady Thatcher in a very arch voice. Nobody told

me!

The whole room erupted and just roared with laughter. She has a

great sense of comic timing she does not only tell jokes when they

are scripted by her speech writers; but then she does not need to.

A great personal joy for me over the past 15 years has been organiz-

ingsignificantbirthdaypartiesforthelateDr.ArthurSeldonCBEand

Lord (Ralph) Harris of High Cross, who were the IEAs editorial and

general directors. At Ralphs 80th in December 2005, I sat Lady Thatcher

to his right where else? Come the moment when gifts were present-


10

ed, my Executive Assistant Clare was in charge. One of the gifts was a

brand new laptop computer. Unfortunately the gift wrap was too tight

for Ralph. Before he knew what was happening, Lady Thatcher yanked

itoutofhishands,paperflewinalldirectionsandshehandeditback.

As the Financial Times diary column put it the next day, Fortunately the

computer survived!

On becoming Director General of the IEA, reportedly her favorite

think tank, on January 1, 1993, I found the following in the archive. The

then IEA Editorial Director Arthur Seldon CBE had written on October

24, 1969 to a rising Tory MP, Geoffrey Howe, as follows: May we hope

for better things from Margaret?

Geoffrey Howe replied: I am not at all sure about Margaret. Many

of her economic prejudices are certainly sound. But she is inclined to

be rather too dogmatic for my liking on sensitive issues like education

andmightactuallyretardthecasebyover-simplification.Weshould

certainly be able to hope for something better from her but I suspect

that she will need to be exposed to the humanizing side of your charac-

ter as much as to the pure welfare market-monger. There is much scope

forhertobeinfluencedbetweentriumphanddisaster.

Fortunately it was the former.

11

introduction

Now is the Winter of our Discontent.

Richard III, William Shakespeare

It was called the Winter of Discontent, the United Kingdoms

winter of 19781979. The Labour Government, under Prime Minister

James Callaghan, struggled desperately to hold onto power, helped by

opportunistic Liberals, Ulster Unionists, and Scottish Nationalists

depending on the issue of the moment.

Successive British governments, both left and right, had not only

failed to bring the labor unions under the rule of law but also given the

countrydirelevelsofcurrencyinflationleading(withoneexceptionof

8.3%) to annual double-digit price increases1.

Decades of abject policy failure culminated in three months of an-

archy. It started on January 3, 1979 and ended on March 28, 1979 when

HerMajestys Government lost a no-confidencemotion by just one

vote, thus precipitating a General Election.2

1 In the six years from 1974 through 1979, annual price increases were 16.0%, 24.2%, 16.5%, 15.8%, 8.3% and 13.4% so what you could buy for 100 in 1974 cost 240 in 1979.

2 Minority governments may lose many day-to-day votes and still press on govern-ingbutnotavoteof noconfidencewhichnecessitatesavisitby thePrimeMinister to Buckingham Palace to ask Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to dis-solve Parliament and call a General Election. This happened on only one other


12

The list of industrial atrocities committed during those three

monthsstillinfluencesBritishpoliticstodaynearlythreedecadeslater.

Such atrocities included the disruption of gas supplies and the closure

ofgasstations;thepicketingofmajorports,oilrefineriesandmanufac-

turers of essentials resulting in the laying off of over 1 million work-

ers; strikes by ambulance drivers including refusal to attend 911 calls;

strikes by hospital support staff; strikes by trash collectors and even an

unofficialstrikebygravediggers.Reportsoffoodshortagesaroundthe

country began to appear as distribution channels were disrupted.

The British polity was seared by a series of iconic images such as

closed gas stations; picket lines; hospital support staff not doctors

deciding which patients should be treated and which turned away

without treatment and if people died, so be it as one union man said.

AtonepointBritishRail issuedafive-wordpressnotice: There are

notrainstoday.Full(ratherthanempty!)coffinspiledupinspecially

hiredempty factoriesamidspeculationbyseniormedicalofficers for

health that they would soon have to be dumped out at sea; and the

ubiquitous giant mountains of waste piled to the sky on street corners

and in parks and squares that became nothing but a rat-fest.

It was grim! Very grim indeed! What had the country come to when

pregnant women were denied medicals, disabled peoples homes were

blockaded and trolleys carrying meals for old people were smashed to

pieces?

And at the General Election on May 3, exactly four months after it

had all started, the electorate took its revenge with a swing from La-

bour to Conservative of 5.2%, the biggest since 1945.

Early the very next day, May 4, as Labour bled red and the Conser-

vatives gained + 62 net seats, this swing propelled Conservative Party

Leader Mrs. Margaret Thatcher MP from her constituency of Finch-

ley in north London to her Party headquarters (Conservative Central

Office) at 32 Smith Square in the heart ofWestminster. Following

speeches, kisses (or rather just one kiss for her staunch ally Russell

Lewis) and toasts, she was that afternoon driven to Buckingham Palace

occasion in the 20th century,namely 1924,whenthefirstLabourgovernment(a minority one) had also fallen. On that occasion Ramsay MacDonald asked the King to dissolve Parliament. Conservative leader Stanley Baldwin won the ensuing General Election.

Introduction

13

where the head of state Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II graciously in-

vited her to form a new government.1 And from there she was driven to

No 10 Downing Street with a good workable majority of 43 to become

hernationsfirst(andstillonly)womanPrimeMinister2 and only the

fourth elected lady leader of a country in recent world history following

Sirimavo Bandaranaike (Sri Lanka) 19601965; 19701977; 19942000;

Indira Gandhi (India) 19661977; 19801984; and Golda Meir (Israel)

19691974.ShewasalsothefirstwomaninBritishpoliticallifetohold

any of the four top jobs, namely Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary,

Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister.

She was Prime Minister for 11 years from that spring day in 1979

until November 28, 1990 when John Major followed her for 6 years

until he went down to a record defeat on May Day 1997 to Tony Blair, a

Conservative majority of +21 becoming a New Labour majority of +177.

See Appendix II for British General Elections 19452005. Given no

clearlydefiningMajorphilosophyorgoal(hewasverymuchthequiet

middle-manager type), the Thatcher era can be fairly said to extend the

full 18 years from 1979 to 1997.

At the start of that period the French Ambassador had said that

Britain was suffering from degringolade or falling down sickness; the

West German Ambassador had said Britain had the economy of East

Germany; and of the 22 countries in the Organization for Economic

Co-operation and Development (OECD) Britain ranked 19th. Britain

was the sick man of Europe. She was in the last chance saloon. The

situation was so desperate that serious commentators opined that

Germany and Japan had been lucky to have had the American USAF

by day and the British RAF by night blow up its old factories, thus help-

1 Margaret Thatcher was Her Majesty the Queens 9th Prime Minister following Messrs. Attlee, Churchill, Eden, Macmillan, Douglas-Home, Wilson, Heath, and Callaghan.

2 As Prime Minister she was not head of state. In corporate terms Her Majesty the Queen is CEO and the Prime Minister is COO. In day-to-day terms Prime Minister Thatcher ran the country but she was never head of state. This only ever irked her when, say, ten years later (as a senior world leader of vast experi-ence and with a track record second to none) protocol at various international meetingsputherbehindmanyinsignificant,long-forgottenfigureswhowereorhad been heads of state. To be, with President Reagan, one of the two leaders of the free world, yet have to stand well down the receiving line must have been truly galling.


14

ing them to build new ones while Britain struggled with old capital.1

Inflationwas rampant, theunionswereoutofcontrol (running the

country even) and the nationalized industries were under performing,

unaccountable, and gobbling up billions in subsidies. Even the French

GDP was streets ahead of the British.

Radical policy solutions were pooh-poohed. The British (in par-

ticular the English majority) play cricket and it was simply assumed

just like baseball that you had your turn at bat and then the others had

their turn. So it was a waste of time to do anything radical as the other

side would only get back in next time and undo everything. What was

needed, it was believed, was stability not change. So the Brits were told

by all sides. And they believed it.

But 18 years later Britain had jumped from 19th to 2nd place on the

OECD ladder. It had become a nation of entrepreneurs with self-em-

ployment doubling from 7% to 14% of the workforce. As Chancellor of

the Exchequer Nigel Lawson (later Lord Lawson) was to remark, the

British venture capital industry hardly existed at all in 1979 but a mere

six years later was twice the size of its counterparts in the rest of the

European Community taken together.

The socio-economic group we call the middle class had leapt from

33% to 50% of the population. Home ownership (as opposed to private

renting or public housing) had also leapt from 53% to 71%2. Ownership

of shares by individuals had gone from 7% to 23% and astonishingly

among trade union members from 6% to 29% in other words from

below the national average to well above! Finally the percentage of the

work force belonging to a trade union had dropped from just over 50%

to 18% and days lost to strikes from 29.5m to 0.5m,3 and as we will see

tax rates were slashed.

1 In the late seventies Economics Nobel Laureate F.A. Hayek commented to the au-thor, I do not think the solution to Britains problems is to blow up all its capi-tal! He found the idea so preposterous as to be laughable.

2Suchahighpercentageofhomeownershiphasobviouspositivebenefits.However,it does detract from labor mobility. The UK surely does not have the vibrant private rental sector one sees in the United States.

3AllfiguresinthisparagrapharefromaspeechtotheInstituteofEconomicAffairs(IEA) by Sir Robert Worcester of Market and Opinion Research International (MORI) in 1998. Sir Robert, while born in Missouri, was raised in Kansas. To meet him is to understand why Missouri is known as the show me state.

Introduction

15

The transformation was stunning on many fronts. Pre-Thatcher a

scleroticuniondominatedeconomywastypifiedbysurlyservice,poor

products and a craven business class. Post-Thatcher even the institu-

tionally left leaning British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has had

to extend its coverage of the private business sector quite consider-

ably such is the interest in capitalism by employees, entrepreneurs

and shareholders. And both service and product quality have been im-

proved many times over. The choice and level of quality and service that

hadsostunnedmeonmyfirstvisittotheUSin1974wasbecoming

commonplace in the UK of 1997.

This book is my personal portrait of Margaret Thatcher, the woman

who was the pivotal point of the rescue of a country, the woman who

woke up her nation and made it once again a world leader and player.

It is not only the story of her life but also an examination of the

ideas, interests, and circumstances surrounding key events. After all

she did not operate in a vacuum.

17

1. chiLdhood

No woman in my time will be Prime Minister or Chancellor or Foreign Secretary not the top jobs. Anyway I wouldnt want to be Prime Minister. You have to give yourself 100%.

Margaret Hilda Roberts was born on October 13, 1925 under the

sign of Libra (the scale) and above her parents grocery store on North

Parade, Grantham, in the United Kingdoms east coast county of Lin-

colnshire. Her home had no bath and no running hot water.

Grantham was a moderately important regional market town

which owed a lot to being on the Great North Road, a major transport

artery. It was also connected by water canal and railroad. Prior to Marga-

ret its most famous former resident was the scientist Sir Isaac Newton.

In Margarets youth the population was circa 30,000 and while it had

wealthy prosperous areas it also had meaner, rougher neighborhoods, in-

cluding one right behind the shop where she was born and raised.

Like her predecessor Edward Heath and her next four successors as

Conservative Party leaders (John Major, William Hague, Iain Duncan

Smith, and Michael Howard but not the current leader David Cam-

eron) Margaret came from what is often patronizingly called humble1

stock but what was in effect the hard working, self-employed back-

bone of Britain who were pulling themselves and their families up the

1 Modest is perhaps a better word but humble is more in use.


18

economic and social ladders on their own initiative and had truly great

hopes for their children.

Self employment is written all over Margarets family tree. Her gro-

cery-store entrepreneur father, Alfred Roberts, had four generations

of nearby Northamptonshire shoemakers as his ancestors while her

mother, Beatrice Stephenson, had had her own small business.

Margaret and older sister Muriel (born 1921) grew up in the apart-

ment over the shop. Those eighteen years (until she left for Oxford Uni-

versity) of close exposure to and involvement in the daily routine and

the problem-solving and decision-making that come with running your

own business were to form a major building block of both her political

philosophy and her approach to life and work.

Her hometown of Grantham is often called provincial in a con-

descending way, implying a restricted outlook and a lack of big city

smarts,polishandrefinement.1 If such narrowness was indeed a dan-

gerthenitwassurelynullifiedtentimesoverbyMargaretsfather.Alf

RobertswasarguablythesinglegreatestinfluenceonMargaret,beat-

ing out her political mentor Keith Joseph, her husband Denis Thatcher,

and her great friend Ronald Reagan by a country mile. He towers over

her early life both physically (at over six feet tall) and intellectually, as

reportedly the best-read man in the area, Margaret bringing home lots

of books every week for him from the local public library.

Alf left school at twelve or thirteen (reports disagree) and gravi-

tated immediately to food distribution and retailing, starting as an as-

sistant in the tuck shop2 at a prominent public3 school. Margaret

1 The phrase provincial grammar school girl has four words of which three were put downs in her youth. In Margarets time every child in the nation took an exam at the end of 5th grade called the 11+. If you passed, you went to the local grammar school and probably stayed until you were 16 or 18; if you failed, you went to the local secondary modern and left at, say, 14. However, see the story ofheradviserSirAlanWaltersinChapter24.Therewasmorefluiditybetweenthe two systems than critics credit.

2 A tuck shop is found in nearly every UK boarding school. It is the place where students spend their allowance or pocket money on items to supplement their school diet. A carpenter at the same school was the father of Eric Heffer, a major leftist leader in Parliament. Margaret was much later to use this fact to devastat-ing effect in a parliamentary debate as a carpenter would have been socially and economically well above a tuck shop assistant.

3 British public schools are in fact private. They are called public because they are in a very real sense open to any member of the public to apply who can pay the fees, just as a public house or pub is open to anyone who can pay the price

1. Childhood

19

grew up in a home that was far from wealthy but Alf and her mother

do seem to have built a sound business mostly immune from economic

downturns.

It was of course a different era with none of the appliances we take

for granted, no television at all, and a wireless (radio) only when Mar-

garet was about to turn into her teens. Even then there were only three

stations. Reading and sustained adult conversation around the dinner

table were the order of the day.

The Roberts were serious, very serious Methodists. Alf was a lay

preacher of renown and Sundays meant no newspaper, church three

times and Margaret playing the piano in Sunday school. Even she

balked at the fourth service in the evening after doing morning service

and two Sunday schools!

Alf also found time to be a councilman, Alderman,1 Mayor (often

accompanied by Margaret), Magistrate, and prominent Rotarian. And

during World War II he was an Air Raid Precaution Warden (ARP) as

German bombers pounded Margarets hometown, aiming for its muni-

tions factory and killing scores of civilians. In his 2008 memoir From

House to House, former Conservative MP Sir David Mitchell tells the

story of a constituent who had been an air force pilot in World War II.

He had been shot down over the English Channel and rescued by the

AirSeaRescue.Badly injured,hewasfirstbeentreated in thesouth

of England and then sent to the north east for specialist treatment in

Newcastle. The train is very slow and makes many stops. It gets to

Grantham and the passengers are told that a heavy ongoing bombing

raid will prevent the train from advancing. The injured pilot beds down

ontheticketroomfloorbutissoonrousedbyARPWardenRoberts,

who insists on taking the man home and giving him a good bed for the

night. Next morning a young girl called Margaret makes him breakfast

before leaving for school.

Methodism was often a rich breeding ground for socialism and pac-

ifismbutnotforAlfandhislittleMargaret.Whilehewasnominallya

member of the Liberal Party, the traditional 19th century advocates of

of a pint. Private education would be understood to mean the hiring of private tutors.

1 Aldermen no longer exist in British politics. They were in effect senior greybeards elected by the directly elected councilmen.


20

free trade and free markets, he ran as an independent or rate-payers

(i.e. tax-payers) candidate and was through and through a conserva-

tive. The cornerstone of his philosophy was individual responsibility

and a favorite book was John Stuart Mills On Liberty.

Deeply patriotic he had on six occasions, possibly more, tried to vol-

unteer during World War I a war which took the life of his younger

brother only to be turned down for medical reasons.

So it was total immersion in public affairs from the day she was

born for this bright little girl Margaret. And apparently she lapped it

up, loved every minute of it and at an age when other little girls might

have been home with Mom, Margaret would be out with Dad attend-

ing a University outreach lecture or getting books from the library or

strugglingwithquitedifficultphilosophytexts.

And it was not all theory. With the entry of America into World

WarIIcametheUSAFtothegreatflatareasofMargaretssoutheast

Lincolnshire.Itwassoflatthatairfieldconstructionwasveryeasyand

it was near the east coast and therefore closer to Germany than most

other parts of the UK. This raised important dinner time discussion is-

sues in the Roberts household. Sundays were sacrosanct but the pilots

and crew deserved their R&R. A compromise solution was reached:

the movie theater could open but not the parks. Why this distinction?

Men in parks would disturb the peace of the Sabbath men watching

movies inside would not!

Margarets mother Beatrice was more practical. From her Margaret

learned how to run a household and above all how to organize her time.

If Alf gave her the foundations of her later philosophy, it was Beatrice

who gave her the personal time-management tools that made her so ef-

fective and so hard to keep up with. From both she learned to be careful

with every penny, to waste nothing, to live within your means, and to

save.

Beatrice was born and bred in Grantham. Her father was the cloak-

room attendant at the railroad station and her mother a farm girl turned

factory worker. Beatrice was a seamstress or dressmaker apparently

with her own micro-business when she married Alf at the age of 28 and

had Muriel and Margaret when she was 33 and 37.

1. Childhood

21

She was an ardent Methodist (just as well!) and a great saver. She

furnished the house with good quality dark mahogany items purchased

at sales.1 Beatrice made most of Muriel and Margarets clothes buying

top quality fabrics again at sales times; tacking cottons were re-used!

She was, according to Margaret, an excellent, well-organized cook. She

played the piano and sang contralto to Alfs alto.

Margaret too learned to play quite well but growing amounts of

schoolwork led her to stop in her mid-teens when she had to cram

years of Latin into a few months. Beatrice also took the girls on holiday

every summer. As shop keepers Mom and Pop Roberts could never va-

cation together. Beatrice lived just long enough to see Margaret enter

Parliament but died in 1960. Of her mother Margaret has written:

She had been a great rock of family stability. She managed the household, stepped in to run the shop when necessary, enter-tained, supported my father in his public life and as Mayoress, did a great deal of voluntary social work for the church, displayed a series of practical domestic talents such as dressmaking and was never heard to complain.

And:

Although in later years I would speak more readily of my fathers politicalinfluenceonme,itwasfrommymotherthatIinheritedthe ability to organize and combine so many different duties of an active life.

Margaret was something of a precocious child. She could read be-

fore starting grade school and was quickly bumped up a year, meaning

she would eventually be eligible to go up to university at age 17 and not

the more usual 18 or 19. She had learned to play piano and recite poetry

aloud to audiences (winning prizes since she was 10), which was surely

good grounding for later public speaking. When a teacher implied that

Margaret had been lucky to win the recital prize, the 10-year-old gave

her a lecture on the value of hard work and preparation.

And she claims that it was the twin combination of the works of

Rudyard Kipling and the products of Hollywood shown at her local

movie theater that opened her mind to the wider world. That great

classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, starring James Stewart, was a big hit

with young Margaret. It is easy to imagine her empathizing with the

1 Margaret inherited this passion for dark mahogany, which led her to build a small collection of silver as it looks so good in such a setting, she says.


22

youngpolitician(JeffersonSmithplayedbyStewart)chosentofulfill

the unexpired term of a deceased Senator. Once in DC, Smith butts

heads with the corrupt political machine, refuses to give up his prin-

ciples and is framed. Needless to say the movie has a happy ending, was

nominated for 10 Academy Awards and regularly appears in lists of Top

100 movies ever made. However it is doubtful that she ever saw Ronald

Reagan in a movie, at least during her youth.

After Kipling another great favorite (introduced to her by Alf of

course) was Walt Whitman whose views were broadly liberal in the

classical European sense. He was a staunch opponent of tariffs which

heregardedasmalevolentandflyinginthefaceofAmericanideals.

Tariffs make the rich richer and the poor poorer he observed. I hate it

root and branch. He wanted free trade to knock down barriers be-

tween peoples remarking that I want to see the countries all wide

open. And that it takes struggles in life to make strength. It takes

fight forprinciples tomake fortitude. It takescrises togivecourage.

And it takes singleness of purpose to reach an objective. Heady stuff

and just the sort of rhetoric she would later adopt and for which she

would become world famous.

And walking she seems to have walked everywhere, with or

without Pop Roberts. She would walk a mile to school, a mile back for

lunch (cheaper that way); a mile back to school and a mile back home.

Long walks in the countryside around Grantham were a big part of her

life and she has clear, strong memories of walking by the dole queues

of the depression years. As well as piano, poetry recitals, movies and

the company of her pal Margaret Goodrich she enjoyed board games

but reports on her athletic skills are mixed ranging from her own self-

deprecatingremarkstooneaccountofherfineplayasafieldhockey

center half.1 Whichever, sport was never really that big in her life, not

even with sport-aholic husband Denis later in life.

1 In late 2007 her grandson, Michael Thatcher, helped his high school in Dallas, TX win the state championship. This led to the following quote in the press from former Tory Sports Minister, Iain Sproat: At school Margaret was the young-estonthe(field)hockeyteam.Sheplayedatcentre-halfandrosetobecaptain.Her image of being anti-sport stems from her aversion to her husbands favorite game, golf. She did enjoy skiing it was the only time she wore trousers. To be more accurate she also wore trousers when visiting oil rigs or being taught how to drive a tank.

1. Childhood

23

Above all however the Roberts household was one where you all

worked hard and never wasted a second. And this was to pay off hand-

somely as Margaret approached university years.

Early on in grade school Miss Hardings history lessons probably

the closest the curriculum ever got to actual politics had inspired

Margaret but she eventually decided that Miss Kays chemistry classes

were showing her a vision of a future in which she could play a big part.

Alf and Margaret set their sights on Somerville College, Oxford.

Butthereweretwoproblemstoovercome.ThefirstwasMargarets

lack of Latin, a prerequisite even for chemistry and not taught at her

school. Alf raided his savings to pay for a tutor and eight weeks later

she was at what Brits call O level standard.1 This normally takes say

several hundred hours of classroom tuition and homework and even

though she was now maturing intellectually and had a private tutor it

was still quite a remarkable feat.

The other problem was more subtle. For decades grammar school

students aspiring to Oxbridge (Ox from Oxford and bridge from

Cambridge) faced a strategic dilemma: to apply in 12th Grade or to

return to school for what is effectively 13th Grade?2 Margaret opted for

the former while her teachers, including headmistress Dorothy Gilles,

typicallywantedhertodothelatter.Atfirstitlookedasiftheteachers

were right. The very young Margaret remember, she was already a

year ahead was rejected. She failed to win her scholarship and she

entered 13th Grade to try again.

She became Joint Head Girl of School but two weeks later a tele-

gram arrived somebody had dropped out of Somerville, and Marga-

ret was on her way.

1 O levels (now called GCSEs) are taken at about age 16. 2 In the British system the 12th Grade was called the Upper 6th and the 13th

Grade was called third year Sixth Form.

PrefaceIntroduction1. Childhood2. University3. Launching4. Elected5. Opposition I6. Education Secretary7. Reflections8. Leader9. Opposition II10. Power11. Liberating the Economy12. Privatizing the Commanding Heights13. Selling Off Public Housing14. Going to War15. Beating the Miners16. Reforming the Unions17. Battling the IRA18. Befriending America19. Kicking Down the Wall20. Dealing with Brussels21. Resignation22. Retirement23. FamilyDenisCarolMark

24. MenAlfKeithRonaldAlfredAlanRalph

25. Her World26. Ten LessonsPostscript: What Remains to be DoneFurther Reading

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