Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography, Volume 2

by Charles Moore

  CHAPTER 20: THE LAST VICTORY

  1. Guardian, 9 January 1987. 2. Interview with Lord Mandelson. 3. Ibid. 4. Interview with Tony Blair. 5. See Peter Mandelson, The Third Man: Life at the Heart of New Labour, Harper Press, 2010, p. 90. 6. Interview with Lord Kinnock. 7. Ibid. 8. Interview with Lord Mandelson. 9. Mandelson, The Third Man, p. 93. 10. Interview with Charles Clarke. 11. See Thatcher’s handwritten comment on p. 12 of ‘CCO Election Campaign Plans’, December 1986, CAC: THCR 2/7/5/3; Peter Riddell, Financial Times, 31 December 1986. 12. ‘Report of strategy group on foreign affairs, Europe and defence’, 18 December 1986, CAC: THCR 2/7/5/10. 13. Interview with Lord Kinnock. 14. Interview with Edward Streator. 15. Ibid. 16. Interview with Robert McFarlane. 17. Interview with Lord Kinnock. 18. Interview with Roz Ridgway. 19. Interview with Raymond Seitz. 20. See 221627z Sep 86, ‘Preparing for the Next British Elections’, 22 September 1986, UK-1986-09/01/1986–09/24/1986, Box 90901, Sommer Files, Reagan Library. 21. Price to Reagan, 15 October 1986, CO167 4265485, WHORM File, Reagan Library. 22. Carlucci to President, ‘Meeting with Neil Kinnock’, 26 March 1987, CO167 464657, WHORM File, Reagan Library. 23. 201733z Mar 87, ‘Ambassador’s lunch with Neil Kinnock: Cruise could stay, loony Left must go’, 20 March 1987, UK-1987-Cables (2), Box 92082, Ledsky Files, Reagan Library. 24. Carlucci to President, ‘Meeting with Neil Kinnock’, 26 March 1987, CO167 464657, WHORM File, Reagan Library. 25. Interview with Marlin Fitzwater. 26. Ibid. 27. 302200z Mar 87, ‘Visit of Neil Kinnock to Washington: National Press Club News Conference March 27, 1987’, 30 March 1987, State Department, released under FOIA Case #200905655. 28. Interview with Marlin Fitzwater. 29. Press briefing by Marlin Fitzwater, 27 March 1987, Press Briefing Files, Reagan Library. 30. Observer, 29 March 1987. 31. Daily Mail, 28 March 1987. 32. Guardian, 30 March 1987. 33. Financial Times, 30 March 1987. 34. Interview with Lord Kinnock. 35. Correspondence with Sir Antony Acland. 36. Ronald Reagan, The Reagan Diaries, HarperCollins, 2007, 27 March 1987, p. 486. 37. Interview with Lord Powell of Bayswater. 38. Correspondence with Charles Price. 39. Hansard, HC Deb 17 March 1987, 112/818–48 (http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1987/mar/17/public-sector-borrowing). 40. Ibid. 41. Nigel Lawson, The View from No. 11, Bantam Press, 1992, p. 689. 42. Ibid. 43. Interview with Lord Lawson of Blaby. 44. Woodrow Wyatt, The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt, vol. i, Macmillan, 1998, 2 March 1987, p. 316. 45. Correspondence with Lord Powell of Bayswater. 46. Lawson, The View from No. 11, p. 692. 47. ‘Managing the Economy: Report of a Policy Group – Autumn 1986’, 19 December 1986, CAC: THCR 2/7/5/49. See also, ‘Minutes of the Strategy Group: Eleventh Meeting: Monday 19th January 1987’, 21 January 1987, CAC: THCR 2/7/5/7. 48. Griffiths to Thatcher, 16 January 1987, CAC: THCR 2/7/5/7. 49. ‘Report of policy group on foreign affairs, Europe and defence’, 18 December 1986, CAC: THCR 2/7/5/10. 50. Sherbourne to Thatcher, 25 November 1986, CAC: THCR 2/7/5/5. 51. Interview with Lord Bell. 52. Interview with Lord Sherbourne of Didsbury. 53. Thatcher Memoirs Materials, CAC: THCR 4/3. 54. Interview with Lord Parkinson. 55. Interview with Lord Bell. 56. Ibid. 57. Correspondence with Lord Parkinson. 58. Thatcher Memoirs Materials, CAC: THCR 4/3. 59. Interview with Lord Bell. 60. Interview with Lord Ryder of Wensum. 61. Ibid. 62. Lord Young of Graffham, introduction to unpublished Election Diary (kindly made available to the author by Lord Young of Graffham). 63. Ibid. 64. Ibid. 65. Norman Tebbit, Upwardly Mobile, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988, p. 262. 66. Interview with Lord Tebbit. 67. Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, HarperCollins, 1993, p. 578. 68. Young, introduction to unpublished Election Diary. 69. Ibid. 70. Ibid. 71. Ibid. 72. Ibid. 73. Interview with Lord Tebbit. 74. Young, introduction to unpublished Election Diary. 75. Young, unpublished Election Diary, 6 April 1987. 76. Ibid. 77. Interview with Lord Dobbs. 78. Sunday Times, 5 April 1987. 79. Thatcher Memoirs Materials, CAC: THCR 4/3. 80. Ibid. 81. Ibid. 82. Interview with John O’Sullivan. 83. Thatcher Memoirs Materials, CAC: THCR 4/3. 84. Wicks to Thatcher, 20 March 1987, CAC: THCR 2/7/5/42. 85. Sherbourne to Thatcher, 8 April 1987. Ibid. 86. Young, unpublished Election Diary, 16 April 1987. 87. Ibid., 20 April 1987. 88. Sherbourne to Thatcher, 14 April 1987, CAC: THCR 2/7/5/24. 89. Ibid. 90. Interview with Lord Young of Graffham. 91. Interview with Lord Lawson of Blaby. 92. Sherbourne to Thatcher, 15 April 1987, CAC: THCR 2/7/5/45. 93. Interview with Lord Young of Graffham. 94. Young, unpublished Election Diary, 9 May 1987. 95. Ibid., 10 May 1987. 96. Ibid. 97. TV Interview for BBC, 12 May 1987 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106615). 98. Thatcher Memoirs Materials, CAC: THCR 4/3. 99. Interview with Lord Wakeham. 100. Young, unpublished Election Diary, 15 May 1987. 101. Ibid., 18 May 1987. 102. Ibid. 103. Interview with Lord Wakeham. 104. Young, unpublished Election Diary, 18 May 1987. 105. Conservative Election Video, The Next Moves Forward, Adrian Rowbotham Films. 106. Thatcher Memoirs Materials, CAC: THCR 4/3. 107. The Next Moves Forward, Conservative Party Manifesto 1987, CAC: THCR 2/7/5/14. 108. ‘CCO Election Campaign Plans’, December 1986, CAC: THCR 2/7/5/3. 109. Wyatt, The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt, vol. i, 4 June 1987, p. 359. 110. Interview with Lord Kinnock. 111. Thatcher Memoirs Materials, CAC: THCR 4/3. 112. Interview with David Willetts. 113. Thatcher Memoir Materials, CAC: THCR 4/3. 114. Interview with David Willetts. 115. Michael Dobbs interview, 23 June 1987, David Butler Archive. 116. Young, unpublished Election Diary, 22 May 1987. 117. Interview with Lord Bell. 118. Ibid. 119. Young, unpublished Election Diary, 23 May 1987. 120. Ibid., 24 May 1987. 121. Interview with Lord Lawson of Blaby. 122. Interview with Lord Young of Graffham. 123. Interview with David Willetts. 124. Lord Young of Graffham interview, July 1987, David Butler Archive. 125. Interview with Lord Lawson of Blaby. 126. See Lawson, The View from No. 11, p. 703. 127. Thatcher Memoirs Materials, CAC: THCR 4/3. 128. See David Butler and Dennis Kavanagh, The British General Election of 1987, Macmillan, 1992, p. 103. 129. See Rodney Tyler, Campaign!: The Selling of the Prime Minister, Grafton Books, 1987, p. 186. 130. Thatcher Memoirs Materials, CAC: THCR 4/3. 131. Speech to Conservative rally in Newport, 26 May 1987 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106843). 132. Interview with Lord Lawson of Blaby. 133. Tyler, Campaign!, p. 204. 134. Young to Thatcher, 30 May 1987, CAC: THCR 2/7/5/64. 135. Speech to Conservative Rally in Edinburgh, 2 June 1987 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106861). 136. Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, p. 584. 137. Interview with Lord Sherbourne of Didsbury. 138. Young, unpublished Election Diary, 3 June 1987. 139. Ibid., 4 June 1987. 140. Thatcher Memoirs Materials, CAC: THCR 4/3. 141. ‘General Election Press Conference (Health and Social Security)’, 4 June 1987 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106866). 142. Interview with David Willetts. 143. Interview with Lord Sherbourne of Didsbury. 144. Interview with Robin Harris. 145. Interview with Lord Dobbs. 146. See Tyler, Campaign!, pp. 216–17. 147. Young, unpublished Election Diary, 4 June 1987. 148. Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, p. 585. 149. Interview with Lord Dobbs. 150. Interview with Lord Bell. 151. Interview with David Willetts. 152. Young, unpublished Election Diary, 4 June 1987. 153. Interview with Lord Tebbit. 154. Interview with Lord Sharkey. 155. Interview with Lord Bell. 156. Young, unpublished Election Diary, 4 June 1987. 157. Ibid. 158. Interview with Lord Young of Graffham. 159. Thatcher Memoirs Materials, CAC: THCR 4/3. 160. Young, unpublished Election Diary, 5 June 1987. 161. Interview with Lord Kinnock. 162. Interview with Lord Lawson of Blaby. 163. Interview with Lord Powell of Bayswater. 164. Private information. 165. Interview with Lord Sherbourne of Didsbury. 166. Thatcher Memoirs Materials, CAC: THCR 4/3. 167. Ibid. 168. NSC 147 21 May 1987, Exec Sec, NSC: Meeting File, Box 9, Reagan Library. 169. Interview with Lord Sherbourne of Didsbury. 170. TV interview for BBC, 10 June 1987 (http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106649). 171. Lord Young of Graffham interview, July 1987, David Butler Archive. 172. Ingham to Thatcher, 11 June 1987, CAC: THCR 2/7/5/63. 173. Thatcher Speaking Notes, 11 June 1987, CAC: THCR 2/7/5/64. 174. Powell to Thatcher, 13 June 1987, CAC: THCR 1/3/23.

  Chronology

  Acknowledgements

  As in Volume I, I must first thank the late Lady Thatcher for i
nviting me to write this book. She fulfilled her promise of complete access – including interviews, support in seeking interviews from others and the sight of all her papers. From her offer flowed the help of her family. I interviewed her late husband, Sir Denis Thatcher, at the end of the twentieth century. Her children, Sir Mark Thatcher and Carol Thatcher, have also been interviewed, more often and more recently, and have been most kind throughout.

  After Lady Thatcher died in 2013, most of her personal staff dispersed, but I have still been greatly helped in the preparation of this volume, and in the whole enterprise, by the former director of her private office, Sir Julian Seymour. He was the first person to tell me, back in 1997, of Lady Thatcher’s idea for the book, and he has been the book’s constant supporter – and occasional trenchant critic – ever since. I am also grateful to Sir Mark Worthington, Lady Thatcher’s long-standing private secretary after she left office, and Mrs Cynthia Crawford (‘Crawfie’), who served her both in and out of office.

  Once I had accepted Lady Thatcher’s invitation all those years ago, I had to find a publisher for the book. With the help of Gillon Aitken, my great literary agent, the proposal was accepted by Penguin. For most of the work’s long career, its editor there has been Stuart Proffitt, the most talented, helpful and conscientious editor in British publishing. He may, with good reason, have regretted the delay, but his kindness and his enthusiasm for the book itself have never failed. I am also grateful to Clare Alexander, Gillon Aitken’s partner in the agency, for her involvement in this current volume.

  The two main sources of Thatcher documentation are her own papers and those held by the government. The former are deposited in the Churchill College Archives Centre, Cambridge, which is Britain’s pre-eminent modern political archive. There they are beautifully kept, under the overall supervision of Dr Allen Packwood, by Andrew Riley, the Thatcher archivist, ably assisted by Sophie Bridges. Andrew is the constant wise counsellor to this project and often makes suggestions which open up new lines of inquiry, or produces papers which I should otherwise have missed.

  It is a question which I cannot solve whether Andrew Riley or Christopher Collins knows more about this book’s subject. Certainly, both know more than I do. Dr Collins is the founder and editor of www.margaretthatcher.org, the Margaret Thatcher Foundation website. This is the best online documentary archive of any public individual in the world, and is constantly expanding. By collecting all Margaret Thatcher’s public remarks – and much else – in one place, it has saved me literally years of searching. Dr Collins is the most inveterate discoverer of new material, and there are times in this book when his reading of a particular document has been decisive for me.

  The Churchill Archives Centre needed a whole new wing built to house the papers. The government papers are even more voluminous. Many of those covered in this volume have now been released to the National Archives at Kew, but I studied them chiefly, before they were released, in Whitehall. Every effort has been made to update the relevant endnote citations to include the PREM or CAB references used at the National Archives (supplemented by a web link to the Margaret Thatcher Foundation website when the document is available online). For documents that remain closed or retained by the department, it was necessary to keep the older file references provided when I consulted them in the Cabinet Office. I must thank Tessa Sterling, the head of the Cabinet Office Official Histories Team, and her deputy Sally Falk, for their constant helpfulness in obtaining the documents for me and in pushing the project forward if ever bureaucratic obstacles loomed. Roger Smethurst, the head of the Archives Team, was most helpful in this cause; and I must thank Sue Gray, also of the Cabinet Office, for helping to cut the Gordian knot when a last-minute delay threatened the book’s timetable. David Richardson, Ron Lawrence and Deborah Neal, stalwarts of the Archives Team, so often found the files in the bowels of the Treasury and brought them to me. I have frequently shared a room with official historians, and have been particularly grateful for conversations with them, especially Sir Stephen Wall, Ian Beesley and Gill Bennett. I have also been helped by Professor Patrick Salmon, the Chief Historian of the Foreign Office.

  Although an authorized rather than an ‘official’ historian, I was granted, in 1998, the official status required for clearance to see the necessary documents by the then Cabinet Secretary Sir Richard Wilson. This privilege has continued under his successors, Lord Turnbull, Lord O’Donnell and Sir Jeremy Heywood. The book’s progress has been followed with kindly interest by successive prime ministers since it began – Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron. I must also thank Mr Blair and Mr Cameron for agreeing to be interviewed for it. (The latter will appear in Volume III.)

  I should like to express my gratitude to Sir Christopher Geidt, the private secretary to HM the Queen, and other members of the Royal Household and Royal Archives, for their courteous assistance.

  The American material in this volume is even richer than in the last. This is due both to the importance of the relationship between Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in the period covered and also to the huge amount of scholarly research performed by Daniel Collings. Although, overall, I have done the bulk of the research for this book myself, in the case of the United States I soon realized that I would not be able to be there often enough to cover the necessary ground. I therefore made Dan my US Director of Research. His assiduity, good organization and interpretive intelligence, proved to me over ten years and more, are beyond praise. Indeed, his formal title does not do justice to the breadth and importance of his role as my trusted adviser on all aspects of the book. In self-aggrandizing moments, I think of Dan as my Charles Powell. With this task accomplished, he will also have proved himself a fully fledged historian in his own right. I want also to thank, and apologize to, Dan’s wife Sonja and their daughter Clara, who let me take up far too much of what should be their time.