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Authors: Charles Moore
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memoirs Mrs Thatcher records that she read
The Possessed
on the recommendation of her country neighbour, the journalist Malcolm Muggeridge, who told her that it would give her an understanding of the Communist frame of mind (see
The Path to Power
, HarperCollins, 1995, pp. 309–10).
* John O’Sullivan (1942–), educated St Mary’s College, Crosby and London University; special adviser to the Prime Minister, 1986–8. His journalistic positions have included: parliamentary sketch-writer,
Daily Telegraph
; associate editor,
The Times
; editor,
National Review
.
† T. E. (Peter) Utley (1921–88), educated privately and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; journalist; leader writer, 1964–80, and chief assistant editor, 1980–87,
Daily Telegraph
; obituaries editor and columnist,
The
Times
, 1987–8; contested (Unionist) North Antrim, February 1974.
* Early in Mrs Thatcher’s leadership, Jonathan Aitken got into trouble for his joke at a dinner in Beirut that Mrs Thatcher ‘probably thinks Sinai is the plural of sinus’. This got back to Airey Neave, who made Aitken apologize to her. (Interview with Jonathan Aitken.)
† Mrs Thatcher’s first visit to Communist China, in April 1977, was not politically eventful, but it made an impression. Because of extreme Chinese hostility to the Soviet Union at that time, she was welcomed with some pomp by the party leadership. She gave a reception for which the invitation read:
Margaret Thatcher
At Home
In the Great Hall of the People
But she did not feel at home at all. John Gerson, the official who accompanied her and briefed her, recalled that ‘To say she was open-minded would be an insult. She understood they
were
Communist, and she hated Communism’ (interview with John Gerson). In background conversation with journalists, she predicted that ‘the spark of human spirit’ would be the undoing of China and would eventually make India a more successful country (
Sunday Times
, 12 April 1977). In public, she described the Chinese approach as ‘wholly alien to us. They have a correct view, and they hand down that correct view … Fortunately, we don’t have a correct view’ (BBC Television interview, 14 April 1977). She was accompanied by Douglas Hurd, who had served as a diplomat in China before entering politics. After she had been up the Great Wall, she asked him, ‘Did I get to the top quicker than Ted?’ (George Gale,
Spectator
, 23 April 1977
.
)
* An interesting example of Mrs Thatcher’s personal attitude to immigrants was noted by the young Michael Portillo when, as a member of the Research Department, he attended part of a Shadow Cabinet meeting in the summer of 1976. In the middle of a discussion of immigration, the division bell rang. Mrs Thatcher asked what the vote was about and was told that it was about giving Sikhs special exemption from wearing crash helmets on their motorbikes, so that they could keep their turbans on. Carrington made some
sotto voce
remark about the piquancy of this vote at this precise moment. Mrs Thatcher said sharply, ‘What did you say?’ Carrington said, ‘It was a joke, Margaret,’ and explained. She replied, ‘Well, it’s not very funny. These people fought for us in the war.’
* Bernard Donoughue, head of Callaghan’s Policy Unit, noted Mrs Thatcher’s first broadcast Prime Minister’s Questions with satisfaction from a Labour point of view: ‘She looked very pale and tense and sounded harsh. This was in some ways a trial run for the election, and we came away feeling very confident.’ (Bernard Donoughue,
Downing Street Diary
, 2 vols, Jonathan Cape, 2005, 2008, vol. ii:
With James Callaghan in No. 10
, 4 April 1978, p. 305.)
* Mrs Thatcher always had to have double entendres explained, and she came to dread uttering them by mistake. She saw them as a specifically male thing which would always remain a mystery to her. Once she wanted to use the word ‘blackball’ in a speech, and her advisers tried to
The Possessed
on the recommendation of her country neighbour, the journalist Malcolm Muggeridge, who told her that it would give her an understanding of the Communist frame of mind (see
The Path to Power
, HarperCollins, 1995, pp. 309–10).
* John O’Sullivan (1942–), educated St Mary’s College, Crosby and London University; special adviser to the Prime Minister, 1986–8. His journalistic positions have included: parliamentary sketch-writer,
Daily Telegraph
; associate editor,
The Times
; editor,
National Review
.
† T. E. (Peter) Utley (1921–88), educated privately and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; journalist; leader writer, 1964–80, and chief assistant editor, 1980–87,
Daily Telegraph
; obituaries editor and columnist,
The
Times
, 1987–8; contested (Unionist) North Antrim, February 1974.
* Early in Mrs Thatcher’s leadership, Jonathan Aitken got into trouble for his joke at a dinner in Beirut that Mrs Thatcher ‘probably thinks Sinai is the plural of sinus’. This got back to Airey Neave, who made Aitken apologize to her. (Interview with Jonathan Aitken.)
† Mrs Thatcher’s first visit to Communist China, in April 1977, was not politically eventful, but it made an impression. Because of extreme Chinese hostility to the Soviet Union at that time, she was welcomed with some pomp by the party leadership. She gave a reception for which the invitation read:
Margaret Thatcher
At Home
In the Great Hall of the People
But she did not feel at home at all. John Gerson, the official who accompanied her and briefed her, recalled that ‘To say she was open-minded would be an insult. She understood they
were
Communist, and she hated Communism’ (interview with John Gerson). In background conversation with journalists, she predicted that ‘the spark of human spirit’ would be the undoing of China and would eventually make India a more successful country (
Sunday Times
, 12 April 1977). In public, she described the Chinese approach as ‘wholly alien to us. They have a correct view, and they hand down that correct view … Fortunately, we don’t have a correct view’ (BBC Television interview, 14 April 1977). She was accompanied by Douglas Hurd, who had served as a diplomat in China before entering politics. After she had been up the Great Wall, she asked him, ‘Did I get to the top quicker than Ted?’ (George Gale,
Spectator
, 23 April 1977
.
)
* An interesting example of Mrs Thatcher’s personal attitude to immigrants was noted by the young Michael Portillo when, as a member of the Research Department, he attended part of a Shadow Cabinet meeting in the summer of 1976. In the middle of a discussion of immigration, the division bell rang. Mrs Thatcher asked what the vote was about and was told that it was about giving Sikhs special exemption from wearing crash helmets on their motorbikes, so that they could keep their turbans on. Carrington made some
sotto voce
remark about the piquancy of this vote at this precise moment. Mrs Thatcher said sharply, ‘What did you say?’ Carrington said, ‘It was a joke, Margaret,’ and explained. She replied, ‘Well, it’s not very funny. These people fought for us in the war.’
* Bernard Donoughue, head of Callaghan’s Policy Unit, noted Mrs Thatcher’s first broadcast Prime Minister’s Questions with satisfaction from a Labour point of view: ‘She looked very pale and tense and sounded harsh. This was in some ways a trial run for the election, and we came away feeling very confident.’ (Bernard Donoughue,
Downing Street Diary
, 2 vols, Jonathan Cape, 2005, 2008, vol. ii:
With James Callaghan in No. 10
, 4 April 1978, p. 305.)
* Mrs Thatcher always had to have double entendres explained, and she came to dread uttering them by mistake. She saw them as a specifically male thing which would always remain a mystery to her. Once she wanted to use the word ‘blackball’ in a speech, and her advisers tried to
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