People Like Us: Margaret Thatcher and Me

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It will be the former chancellor’s first performance at the dispatch box since he quit in a row with Johnson and Dominic Cummings in February 2020.

First, she absolutely captures her tunnel-like focus: a woman who always completed her boxes, working late into the night, and who had such a grip on events. I once saw her fall asleep over a glass of whisky and wake a minute or two later and finish her sentence. When she left No 10 and was asked what she would do next, she said “Work. That’s all we have ever known.” It's hugely interesting on feminism and women in power and the impossible standards men (and other women) hold women to. Definitely worth a read! Stella Duffy, co-founder Women's Equality Party

I was at her side as she travelled around Britain, I saw her dress down her ministers in private and I was the only other woman in the Cabinet room when she broke down in tears, as she resigned. I wrote an account two years ago of our relationship and the person I saw up close, in People Like Us: Margaret Thatcher and Me, because I wanted to put the record straight on her as a woman. Mrs Thatcher wasn’t good at networking, she says, “and I don’t think Theresa May is either. Certainly Margaret Thatcher became a bit bunkered at the end; and I think they like to keep things to themselves – some people might call it the ‘control freak’ element – which, in the particular circumstances we face, it’s not a good set of qualities. The end is coming... Margaret Thatcher opens the European Information Centre in East Anglia in May, 1990. Picture: ARCHANT (Image: Archant)

It’s also true to say that even if she didn’t devote her career to helping other women, she did do something. She introduced independent taxation for women who were married. And I know, because I wrote with her a speech to The 300 Group (which campaigned for more females in Parliament, the European parliament, local government and public life) that she very sincerely did want to see more women in powerful positions, and thought that would be important. She also makes the mistake of making her too old. The real Mrs Thatcher on her first visit to Balmoral is, like Anderson, in her 50s, but Anderson seems more like the Mrs Thatcher of a decade later. Worse still, in her last days as Prime Minister, Anderson makes her look 75 or even older. This is certainly not the youthful, colourful looking 65-year-old I knew. Like everyone else, I was waiting for this latest series of The Crown with anticipation. I had started watching the drama when it first came out, but I hadn’t been entirely convinced by its merit. People come to our network for a variety of reasons: to gain and share ideas, to pause and reflect, to make new connections and meet people from different sectors, and to work with others to build momentum for wider change.So there are plenty of things you can say to show she wasn’t a feminist, but I think if you look at her as an example of female power, it’s hard to deny her achievement. Democracy in Danger The newspaper’s extensive reporting and analysis of the various threats to democracy from populism, oligarchy, dark money and online disinformation. Caroline was the first ever woman Private Secretary in No 10, serving both Margaret Thatcher and John Major and working closely with them in their inner office. She was the only other woman in the room when Margaret Thatcher resigned. One said the video monitoring was “utterly unacceptable” while a second said malicious people had bugged the health secretary’s office and were snooping on him.

Nevertheless, when names were put forward in 1989 for the private secretary job, she found herself among them – and then going to meet the Prime Minister as the likely successful candidate.She speaks on many different platforms on civil society matters, including abroad, and is a regular commentator in the media.

The Crown, of course, is full of dramatic licence. It was before my time, but I very much doubt, for example, that she did not have the right clothes for Balmoral, as we always took pains to find out what clothes were needed for every trip, and I included the details in every brief. She hated it when I told her she must wear “sensible shoes”, but wore them none the less. But it’s true that trips to the bothy at Balmoral were never her idea of fun. I believe the Queen struggled with her strong personality, and Mrs Thatcher in turn did not really know how to behave towards the Queen. John was born in Bedford. “We were sort of nouveau poor. My father’s family had owned Nightingale’s fertilisers but the only trace left in Bedford when I was born was a large car park where the main factory had once stood. I remember seeing him just before he died. He was very thin and in a dressing gown, but that didn’t stop him drinking champagne and moaning about the Government. People who believe in prevention need to attend not just to the child (and the adult the child later becomes) but also to ‘the villages’ in which we all live.He might have qualified as a bus conductor and then rejected the chance of selling soft toys to instead join the civil service, but it was nailed-on that John would become a writer. Eventually. Look at the rich seam of his childhood: Thirdly, it’s important to think holistically. Attending to one element without thinking of the others can be counterproductive. For example, strong communities are harder to create without physical places to meet. Good health benefits from recreational facilities and ready access to good food.