Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography

by Charles Moore

  † This was the view of the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret (conversation with Lady Penn).

  ‡ When she attended the first meeting of the new Privy Council at Buckingham Palace after her victory in 1979, Mrs Thatcher arrived without her own officials – as is customary for Privy Council gatherings – and was so worried by lateness that she was forty-five minutes early. A junior official had to make small talk to the nervous Prime Minister until the Queen was ready. (Interview with John Dauth.)

  * Gow’s active participation in Lusaka was hampered by the fact that he took his sleeping pills, with alcohol, at lunchtime, thinking they were malaria pills. He passed out. (Private information.)

  * Patrick Minford (1943–), educated Winchester, Balliol College, Oxford and LSE; adviser to HM Treasury, 1971–3; Professor of Economics, Cardiff Business School, from 1997; published books and articles on monetary and international economics.

  * In early July, Howe suggested, using language unlikely to endear itself to the anti-Sixties Mrs Thatcher, that the forum might be ‘more of a “happening” than an institution in a formal sense’, which might achieve ‘broad agreement’ on future economic policy. Mrs Thatcher wrote ‘No’ on his note. The ‘happening’ never happened.

  * Bill Rodgers (1928–), educated Quarry Bank High School, Liverpool and Magdalen College, Oxford; Labour MP for Stockton-on-Tees, 1962–74; for Teesside, Stockton, 1974–81; founder member of SDP, 1981; SDP MP for Teesside, Stockton, 1981–3; created Lord Rodgers of Quarry Bank, 1992.

  * Tim Congdon (1951–), educated Oxford University; economist. On economics staff, The Times, 1973–6; economist, L. Messel and Co., 1976–86; founder, managing director, Lombard Street Research, 1989–2001, chief economist, 2001–5.

  * Cash limits, though not invented by Thatcherites, were a key concept for their budgetary control. Rather than planning spending by volume, as had happened in the past – two aircraft carriers, for example, or a hundred new schools – they would work out how much cash should be allocated for projects. If that cash limit was exceeded, the agreed projects could not go forward.

  * It was typical of her political caution, however, that, when asked by the Liberal leader, David Steel, in the House of Commons the previous month why she would not rule out a comprehensive pay policy, Mrs Thatcher replied: ‘Natural caution and good financial instinct’ (Prime Minister’s Questions, Hansard, HC Deb 24 May 1979).

  * Formally designated ‘new towns’ had a special planning and ownership status.

  * The figure turned out to be 2.8 million by the end of 1980, so she was wildly over-optimistic.

  * David Hancock (1934–), educated Whitgift School and Balliol College, Oxford; private secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1968–70; Deputy Secretary, Cabinet Office, 1982–3; Permanent Secretary, Department of Education and Science, 1983–9; knighted, 1985.

  * Paul Volcker (1927–), president, New York Federal Reserve Bank, 1975–9; chairman, American Federal Reserve Board, 1979–87; chairman, President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, from 2008.

  * The phrase first gained currency in the course of 1978. It was sometimes shortened to the acronym TINA, and became a nickname for Mrs Thatcher.

  * Peter Middleton (1934–), private secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1969–72; Permanent Secretary, Treasury, 1983–91; knighted, 1984.

  * Mrs Thatcher had first struck up a friendship with Oldfield during her days in opposition. With Callaghan’s approval Oldfield had met her on several occasions to offer seminars about the intelligence world and help ‘preserve a politician from falling into pitholes’ (Richard Deacon, ‘C’: A Biography of Sir Maurice Oldfield, Macdonald, 1985, p. 187).

  * For a full discussion of Northern Ireland, see Chapter 21.

  * In his official history of MI5, Professor Christopher Andrew records that the Queen had been informed in ‘general terms’ in 1963, and in greater detail by the Heath government in 1973, when Blunt seemed likely to die of cancer thus leaving the press free to expose him without fear of libel (Christopher Andrew, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5, Allen Lane, 2009, p. 706).

  † Michael Havers (1923–92), educated Westminster and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; lieutenant RNVR, 1941–6; called to Bar, 1948; Conservative MP for Wimbledon, 1970–87; Attorney-General, 1979–87; created Lord Havers, 1987; Lord Chancellor for three months in 1987 before having to retire because of ill health.

  * John Major (1943–), educated Rutlish; Conservative MP for Huntingdonshire, 1979–83; for Huntingdon, 1983–97; Foreign Secretary, 1989; Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1989–90; Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party, 1990–97; Knight of the Garter, 2005.

  * Michael Butler (1927–), educated Winchester and Trinity College, Oxford; Ambassador and UK Permanent Representative to EEC, 1979–85; Under-Secretary, FCO, 1976–79; knighted, 1980.

  † David Hannay (1935–), educated Winchester and New College, Oxford; chef de cabinet to Sir Christopher Soames, European Commissioner, 1973–7; Ambassador and UK Permanent Representative to EC, 1985–90; UK Permanent Representative to UN, 1990–95; knighted, 1986; created Lord Hannay, 2001.

  * Michael Palliser (1922–2012), educated Wellington and Merton College, Oxford; joined FCO, 1947; private secretary to the Prime Minister (Harold Wilson), 1966–9; Ambassador and Head of UK Delegation to European Communities, 1973–5; Permanent Under-Secretary and head of Diplomatic Service, 1975–82; knighted, 1973. Married to the daughter of the EEC founding father Paul-Henri Spaak, Palliser was a lifelong Europhile.

  † It is interesting that the French believed the same thing, in reverse. ‘It was dangerous for us. The British are more clever than we are, and what they wanted was not legitimate,’ Giscard d’Estaing told the present author, speaking of the EEC budget negotiations.

  * Though the ever-ingenious Michael Butler found an EEC policy document of 1978 which referred to the ‘net contribution’. He brought this up against his counterparts in the negotiations. (Interview with Sir Michael Butler.)

  † Michael Alexander (1936–2002), educated St Paul’s and King’s College, Cambridge; diplomatic private secretary to Mrs Thatcher, 1979–82; Ambassador to Austria, 1982–6; to NATO, 1986–90; knighted, 1988. Although she greatly respected his abilities, Mrs Thatcher sensed that the strongly pro-European Alexander was not of similar mind to her: ‘His father is Irish, and his wife is German,’ she once warned Hugh Thomas (interview with Lord Thomas of Swynnerton).

  * She was fond of quoting Kipling’s line about ‘the female of the species’ being ‘deadlier than the male’.

  * An internal Foreign Office memo from late June warned of growing disagreement with Washington in the aftermath of Mrs Thatcher’s election victory. There are ‘more bones of contention now than, say, a year ago between the Americans and ourselves’, commented one official; ‘… the general tone of our relations at present is perhaps less good than it was’ (John Leahy’s note on Ramsay Melhuish’s memo, ‘Anglo-US Relations’, 26 June 1979, TNA: PRO FCO 82/980).

  * Nicholas Henderson (1919–2009), educated Stowe and Hertford College, Oxford; Ambassador to Poland, 1969–72; to West Germany, 1972–5; to France, 1975–9; to the United States, 1979–82; knighted, 1991.

  † This warm, humanizing reference to ‘friendship’ had been written into the speech by Mrs Thatcher personally, replacing the cooler and rather wooden language provided by the Foreign Office (‘Speech of [sic] the White House Lawn – 17 December 1979’, TNA: PRO PREM 19/127).

  * Alexander Haig (1924–2010), Assistant to the President and White House Chief of Staff, 1973–4; Supreme Allied Commander Europe, NATO, 1974–9; US Secretary of State, 1981–2.

  * Karl Brunner (1916–89), Gowen Professor of Economics, University of Rochester, New York, 1979–89.

  † Terry Burns (1944–), educated Houghton-le-Spring Grammar School and Manchester University; Professor of Economics, London Business School, 1979; chief economic advis
er to the Treasury and head of Government Economics Service, 1980–91; Permanent Secretary, Treasury, 1991–8; created Lord Burns, 1998.

  ‡ Douglas Wass (1923–), educated Nottingham High School and St John’s College, Cambridge; Permanent Secretary, Treasury, 1974–83, and joint head of the Home Civil Service, 1981–3; knighted, 1975.

  * Alexander Patrick Greysteil Hore-Ruthven, 2nd Earl of Gowrie (1939–), educated Eton and Balliol College, Oxford; Opposition spokesman on Economic Affairs, 1974–9; Minister of State, Department of Employment, 1979–1981, Northern Ireland Office, 1981–3; Minister for the Arts, 1983–5; Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, 1984–5.

  * What Hoskyns’s note did not mention was that Brian Walden, the former Labour MP, was part of the conversation he reported. Despite his theoretical impartiality as a television interviewer, Walden was passionately concerned that union power should be broken, and feared that the government, as in 1974, would paralyse itself on the issue. At this time, he met Mrs Thatcher to tell her that ‘the trade unions have become an estate of the realm’, above the law. ‘She said, “Tell me something I don’t know.” ’ (Interview with Brian Walden.) The next week, Walden’s programme concentrated on the need for laws against secondary action, with hostile reaction from Arthur Scargill and others.

  * Ian Macgregor (1912–98), educated George Watson’s College, Edinburgh, Hillhead High School, Glasgow and Glasgow University; chairman and chief executive, British Steel Corporation, 1980–83; chairman, National Coal Board, 1983–6; knighted, 1986.

  * Michael Edwardes (1930–), educated St Andrew’s College, Grahamstown, South Africa and Rhodes University, Grahamstown; chairman, BL (formerly British Leyland), 1977–82, 1984–5; knighted, 1979.

  † Robin Ibbs (1926–), educated Gresham’s School, University of Toronto and Trinity College, Cambridge; on secondment from ICI as head, Central Policy Review Staff, 1980–82; adviser (part-time) to Prime Minister on efficiency and effectiveness in government, 1983–8; knighted, 1982.

  * The Security Service, MI5, had conducted an operation against Robinson, leaking to Edwardes and others the minutes of a secret meeting Robinson held with the Midland District Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain in September 1979 to plan the subversion of the BL Recovery Plan (see Andrew, The Defence of the Realm, p. 672).

  * In her memoirs, Mrs Thatcher erroneously attributes this call to the day before, perhaps forgetting that the Monday was a Bank Holiday.

  † It later turned out that the body was of a hostage (the press attaché Abbas Lavasani) killed earlier, but at the time it looked as if it was the first of many, designed to ratchet up the crisis.

  ‡ John Chilcot (1939–), educated Brighton College and Pembroke College, Cambridge; principal private secretary to the Home Secretary, 1978–80; Deputy Under-Secretary, Home Office, 1987–90; Permanent Under-Secretary, 1990–97; chairman, Iraq War Inquiry, 2009–13; knighted, 1994.

  * Frank Cooper (1922–2002), educated Manchester Grammar School and Pembroke College, Oxford; Permanent Under-Secretary, Northern Ireland Office, 1973–76; MOD, 1976–82; knighted, 1974.

  * The figure hit two million at the end of August 1980, and reached Prior’s prediction for 1982 in June 1981. It hit three million in January 1982.

  † Nicholas Edwards (1934–), educated Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge; Conservative MP for Pembrokeshire, 1970–87; Opposition spokesman on Welsh affairs, 1975–9; Secretary of State for Wales, 1979–87; created Lord Crickhowell, 1987.

  * Macmillan liked comparisons between Mrs Thatcher and driving. Once a visitor to his country house, Birch Grove, said, ‘I’ve got a new kind of car. It says things to me like “Now fasten your seatbelt” in a Japanese voice.’ ‘Ah yes,’ said Macmillan, ‘a Mrs Thatcher type of car.’ (Correspondence with Professor David Dilks.)

  * Eddie George (1938–2009), educated Dulwich College and Emmanuel College, Cambridge; Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, 1990–93; Governor, 1993–2003; knighted, 2000; created Lord George, 2004.

  * She was as good as her word: McMahon never was Governor.

  * At the meeting of the backbench Conservative Finance Committee on 11 November, seven of the eighteen speakers pooh-poohed the idea that unemployment was as serious as the figures suggested, whereas only two explicitly took the opposite view. Alan Clark went so far as to say that ‘the level of unemployment was what was holding the Party activists steadfastly together in many constituencies. For better or for worse it was seen as giving the Trade Unions their deserts.’ (Minutes of Finance Committee, 11 Nov. 1980, noted by Peter Cropper, THCR 2/6/2/48.)

  * William J. Casey (1913–87), served in Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during the Second World War; chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission, 1971–3; campaign manager, Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign, 1980; Director, CIA, 1981–87.

  † Richard V. Allen (1931–), advised Ronald Reagan on foreign policy and worked on his presidential campaigns, 1976, 1980; National Security Advisor, 1981–2; president, Richard V. Allen Co., 1982–90; senior fellow, Hoover Institution, from 1983.

  ‡ Via Hugh Thomas, Allen supplied her with lists of all Reagan’s policy groups and who his advisers were. Michael Alexander asked her if these could be sent on to the Foreign Office. ‘No,’ Mrs Thatcher replied sharply, ‘– they will go round the F.O. Keep the names here. Strictly private means what it says.’ (Thomas to Alexander, 9 June 1980, Prime Minister’s Papers, USA: Call on the PM by Mr Richard Allen and Mr Casey; document consulted in the Cabinet Office.)

  § Edward Luttwak (1942–), principal, Edward N. Luttwak Inc. International Consultants, from 1981; consultant to Policy Planning Council, State Department, 1981; National Security Council, 1987; Department of Defense, 1987.

  * James A. Baker III (1930–), White House Chief of Staff, 1981–5; US Secretary of the Treasury, 1985–8; US Secretary of State, 1989–92; White House Chief of Staff and senior counsellor, 1992–3.

  † Donald Regan (1918–2003), chairman and CEO, Merrill Lynch, 1971–80; US Secretary of the Treasury, 1981–5; White House Chief of Staff, 1985–7.

  * When Helmut Schmidt visited Washington later that year he lectured Reagan on economic policy and the dangers of ‘political destabilization’. ‘You don’t read much about stability in Thatcher’s government,’ the West German Chancellor asserted, ‘but I can assure you that it is not all that stable.’ Reagan made no comment. (Memorandum of Conversation: Reagan and Schmidt, 21 May 1981, Exec Sec, NSC: Subject File, MemCons, President Reagan (May 1981), Box 48, Reagan Library.)

  * Mrs Thatcher’s nervousness before the ceremony is indicated by the row she began at Blair House, the official guest house where she and her party were staying. She fiercely attacked Lord Carrington for what she called ‘your policy in the Middle East’, which she considered dangerous in its attempt at a rapprochement with the Palestine Liberation Organization, adding, ‘I’ll lose my seat at Finchley.’ By his own account, her Foreign Secretary said, ‘And I’ll lose my temper,’ and went out, slamming the door (interview with Lord Carrington). Clive Whitmore hurriedly scribbled a note to Mrs Thatcher which said, ‘This place is bugged.’ She then drew a circle in the air with her finger to indicate bugging. (Interview with Sir Clive Whitmore.)

  † Mrs Thatcher sometimes gave her height as 5 foot 4 inches, and sometimes as 5 foot 5 inches.

  * ‘A new verb has entered the Washington lexicon,’ declared the New York Times. ‘It is said to be possible to “Thatcherize” an economy. The verb is not precisely defined, but many see it as a bad thing to do. Since “Thatcherization” bears a conservative label, some people fear that our new conservative President will lead us down the same disagreeable path.’ (New York Times, 1 Mar. 1981.)

  * Although Henderson’s manoeuvring annoyed the sticklers for protocol, Allen and others realized that the President’s attendance at this return dinner (and others) could have its advantages. This would be one way, suggested an NSC memo, to ‘undersco
re the substantive importance’ Reagan placed on US relations with key allies, and signal a break with the discord in the transatlantic alliance seen in the recent past. (Rentschler to Tyson, ‘Thatcher Visit and Related Thoughts’, 26 Jan. 1981, 5. Official Working Visit of Prime Minister Thatcher of United Kingdom 02/26/1981 (1 of 8), Box 4, Charles Tyson Files, Reagan Library.)

  * In the same month, Labour produced a policy document entitled ‘The People and the Media’, calling for legal controls on what newspapers could publish. Such threats, combined with the damage done to newspapers by trade union practices, made the press far more hostile to Labour than it would otherwise have been, and more keen to lead the charge for Mrs Thatcher. In February 1981, Rupert Murdoch, who already owned the Sun and the News of the World, bid to buy The Times and the Sunday Times, a takeover which John Biffen, the minister responsible, eventually approved. Until that time, The Times and the Sunday Times had become increasingly disenchanted with Mrs Thatcher. But once Murdoch gained full control, until almost the end of her time in office, she was supported by his papers, as well as by Rothermere’s Associated Newspapers, the Telegraph group and Express Newspapers. This assisted her enormously. Comment in later years has suggested that it was controversial or underhand of Biffen not to refer the purchase to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. This is not the case, because The Times was loss-making, and the vendors and senior editorial staff welcomed the sale to Murdoch. What is true, however, is that Mrs Thatcher entertained Murdoch to lunch at Chequers on 4 January 1981 to discuss the bid. The official record (B. Ingham, Note for the Record, 4 Jan. 1981, Margaret Thatcher Foundation) does not indicate that she formally agreed to support him, but it is fair to assume that, informally, she did. As Murdoch put it, ‘Probably because of the political stance of the Sun, she knew where I stood. I’m sure Biffen must have got instructions or just read the tea-leaves’ (interview with Rupert Murdoch).