Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher has died.  I am going to write a short piece because I met Margaret Thatcher around about 1978/79. I was nobody, just someone in a corridor in a radio station, but she stopped (much to the obvious annoyance of her flunkies) and talked to me. "What do you do?", she asked. And I told her. But she was not satisfied with my answer and virtually grilled me on the spot. She exuded kindness and interest in other people. I was not important, I was not going to enhance her career, I was just someone she wanted to know about and her curiosity was genuine and kind.

Obviously, two minutes with someone cannot tell you the whole truth about someone, but as you well know, it usually does.

Thatcher changed this country for the better. I know. I had to deal with the print unions on a daily basis and I knew that they were corrupt and vicious. In those days it was like Russia, only it was Fleet Street. Thatcher had pride in our country. She was principled. She was occasionally wrong about things.

But she was right about Europe and for that we must thank her. Prime Ministers of her stature come along once every 50 years if we are lucky. And boy, do we need some more luck.

May she not only rest in peace, but may her legacy be a revival of principled politics and honest dialogue with the public. Cameron, take note.