People Like Us: Margaret Thatcher and Me

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Many people still benefit from an earlier, golden age of investment in social infrastructure. Many schools, hospitals, sewers, libraries, public parks and sports facilities originate from that period and were effectively common goods, held in public ownership for the benefit of the public. The welfare state, which was also designed to reduce poverty and illness, provided another, national expression of the belief that collective investment in mutual health and wellbeing is to everyone’s benefit. ‘A loss of assets’ I love the wildness,” she says. “There aren’t many places within easy reach of London where you can walk for miles without having to go on a road.

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. However, series four was always going to hold a certain fascination for me personally. Covering the period from 1979 to 1990, it spans the time Margaret Thatcher entered No 10 to the tearful day she left.I used to like the inexorable logic that Sir Humphrey used to apply to situations and I’m sure there is some of that in my writing.”

But it’s true that her mission, as she saw it, was to modernise Britain. That meant taking on the establishment, the country and the opposition within her own Cabinet. The Queen, by contrast, seeks to preserve an institution which embodies the status quo. We welcome anyone who is attracted by our thinking, people at the frontline of practice as well as thought leaders from across public, private and voluntary spheres. This biographical article is written like a résumé. Please help improve it by revising it to be neutral and encyclopedic. ( July 2022)Margaret Thatcher and husband Denis on the steps of Ipswich Town Hall during campaigning for the 1979 election. Picture: archant (Image: Archant) To judge the temperature, we talked to people in civil society and beyond, from national leaders to grassroots campaigners. We heard serious concerns about specific threats, but the bigger picture emerged as the greatest concern. Those we spoke to believe the overall problem is serious and growing– one interviewee likened it to a boiled frog failing to notice the water heating until it is too late. I left about a year early to concentrate on writing – it was at the time of the financial crisis in 2008. I’d had my first book The Sky Blue Parcel – a financial thriller featuring a high-flying early-thirties Treasury civil servant, Jane Charles – published. That had gone quite well and people found the setting particularly authentic.” 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.

Caroline began when “you could see these rifts developing on Europe”. The Chancellor and the Foreign Secretary, Nigel Lawson and Geoffrey Howe, were key figures at odds with the PM. The poll tax hadn’t helped, and there was friction over the UK joining the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Something had to give. The contractual relationship between government and many charities for the delivery of services that started under Labour has contributed to a view that charities should not criticise the state. Of his primary school “I remember two things – one, that the headmaster shot himself (an early instance of the apparent arbitrariness of events); and two, that my writing career nearly came to an abrupt end.

We fell in love talking about civil service reform! (Truly)

The guidance to the PM was not to make an immediate decision, but she said “yes” to Caroline there and then… despite her gender. Identity, Empire and the Culture War Byline Times explores the weaponisation of Britain’s past as a key tool in a dark project of division and distraction The book is arranged under headings like “Margaret Thatcher’s Court”, “Margaret Thatcher and Gay Men” and “Girl Power or Twisted Sister?”. It gives almost as much weight to domestic detail as to political drama and in doing so conveys a real sense of what it was like to work in No 10.

I felt a tremendous empathy for her, actually, which I hadn’t expected, partly because I felt it was time for her to go. I thought I would be quite cold about it, but what I found was that she struggled to speak the words and broke down in tears. I started to cry too. It really touched my heart.” Mrs Thatcher’s class and her gender were both fundamental to what made her special. Even those who are not political supporters, like me, will no doubt admit to a sneaking admiration for her courage, conviction and determination. We see the Queen doing just that in this series, and if viewers feel the same, then The Crown has done its job well. It was the sheer vulnerability of this woman, surrounded by men and round this coffin-shaped table – telling them the end had come. And, basically, the reason she had to face this decision was they’d told her so.I’m going to make a kind of nuanced case for her (Lady Thatcher) in the debate. To not accept her achievements is wrong.” But this is being eroded. Over the last decade, there has been a quiet reduction in social infrastructure assets either from closure, sales or poor maintenance – playing fields and play areas, children centres and youth services, libraries and arts facilities have all been affected to name but a few. As well as a loss of assets, our collective sense of the value of commonly owned social infrastructure has reduced and public support for the welfare state has declined. As someone who worked closely with Mrs Thatcher in the last 18 months of her premiership, I was intrigued at how she would be portrayed. I was the first female private secretary at No 10 – one of five in her private office inner circle – and she let me slip through, despite her alleged ban on giving that role to a woman. But almost everywhere you go there are great shops and places to eat, and there are also some great bookshops: like WH Smith and Wells in Southwold – the latter also has a brilliant jazz/classical music section – and others in Halesworth, Beccles, Aldeburgh and elsewhere.