Margaret Thatcher: Power and Personality

BOOK: Margaret Thatcher: Power and Personality
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MARGARET THATCHER

To Elizabeth

Contents

List of illustrations

Acknowledgements

Prologue

  
1  The early years

The birthplace

Family tensions

Fun (or lack of it)

First school

Fatherly inspiration

Reflection

  
2  The war, grammar school and fighting her headmistress

Grantham at war

KGGS

Getting her own way

Reflection

  
3  Oxford, boyfriends and political ambition

Early unhappiness at Oxford

Stirrings of romance

Success in OUCA politics

Reflection

  
4  First steps in politics

Young Conservative

Mentored by Alfred Bossom MP

Young candidate

Three men on a string

The general election of 1950

Frustration, consolidation and engagement

Reflection

  
5  Marriage, motherhood and Finchley

Marriage

Motherhood

The bumpy road to Finchley

Elected

Reflection

  
6  First years in Parliament 1959–1964

The lucky legislator

Making her way in the House

Junior minister

In the constituency

Family life

Reflection

  
7  Front-bench opposition

Entering opposition

Iain Macleod’s no. 2

Joining the shadow cabinet

Wooed by the Americans, dismayed by the Soviets

Preparing for government

Reflection

  
8  Secretary of State for Education

First moves

Milk snatcher

Saved by the Prime Minister

Wider than education

Reflection

  
9  Heath on the ropes

The twilight of a Tory leader

The phoney war in the party

The rise and fall of Sir Keith Joseph

Reflection

10  Winning the leadership

Deciding to run

Toffs for Thatcher and other surprises

A deal with Edward du Cann

Enter Airey Neave

A stunning result on the first ballot

Reflection

11  Leader of the Opposition: a fragile beginning

Winning the final round

An uncertain start

Personal glimpses

Reflection

12  Three frustrating years

Party conferences and foreign visits

Outmanoeuvred by James Callaghan

New policies and philosophies

Reflection

13  Last lap to the election

The importance of the laughing boys

The winter of discontent

The vote of no confidence

Reflection

14  The final ascent to No. 10

Waiting before the off

Soft-centre campaigning

On the eve of power

Victory

Reflection

15  First moves as Prime Minister

Making a start

Handling her cabinet

Challenging the civil service

Reflection

16  The learning curve

Inside No. 10

Bridge builders and voices

Old Stripey and stubbornness

A favour for Rupert Murdoch

Personality traits on and off duty

Dog days on Islay

Reflection

17  First steps in foreign affairs

Learning from Lord Carrington

Rhodesia

Europe

A slow start to the Special Relationship

Reflection

18  Storm clouds on the economy and in the cabinet

The gathering storm

Outflanking Jim Prior

The courage of the 1981 Budget

The vulnerable Prime Minister

Blockbustered into reshuffling the cabinet

Reflection

19  The Falklands War I: the prelude

Sabotaging the leaseback option

Parliament’s war

Seeing off Haig

Reflection

20  The Falklands War II: into the fighting

Military and political preparations

South Georgia, the
Belgrano
and the
Sheffield

More diplomatic wobbles

Reflection

21  The Falklands War III: victory

The battle for the Falklands

Victory

Reflection

22  After the Falklands

The changing of the political landscape

The economy and the unions

The beginnings of privatisation

The suicide of the opposition

A landslide victory

Reflection

23  Stumbling into the second term

Cecil Parkinson and the Speaker

Other early glitches

Difficult problems

Her blue-eyed Chancellor

Reflection

24  Terrorism, Ireland and Hong Kong

Facing down terrorism

The Anglo-Irish Agreement

Accepting reality in Hong Kong

Reflection

25  Batting for Britain in Saudi Arabia

The deal of the century

Fighting the French

The Denis back channel

Difficult hurdles to overcome

The motivation of the Prime Minister

Reflection

26  Unions and miners

Stepping stones towards solving the problem

Arthur Scargill’s challenge

David Hart: her secret Blue Pimpernel

The NACODS crisis and the collapse of the strike

Losers but no victors

Reflection

27  Strengthening the Special Relationship with Ronald Reagan

The gold seam and the fault-line

The personal chemistry

Islands and tensions

The bombing of Libya

Reflection

28  Starting to win the Cold War

Why the Iron Lady was for turning

The Chequers overture to Mikhail Gorbachev

Bridge building between Moscow and Washington

Differences with Reagan over SDI and Reykjavik

Star performance in Moscow

Reflection

29  Rumblings of discontent

Tensions with ministers

Clashing with Heseltine

The Westland crisis explodes

That Bloody Woman

Reflection

30  Into the third term

Approaching the 1987 election

Winning for the third time

A bold but flawed beginning

Life without Whitelaw

Reflection

31  Trouble with Nigel Lawson

Flashpoints of personality

First clash over the ERM

Shadowing the Deutschmark

The boom or bust Budget

Howe stirs the ERM dispute

Reflection

32  Swinging towards Euroscepticism

Always a doubter

Diddled by the Single European Act (SEA)

Disillusionment with Geoffrey Howe

The Bruges speech

Reflection

33  Boiling over on Europe

The fall-out from Bruges

High noon in Madrid

The dismissal of Geoffrey Howe

Reflection

34  Exit the Chancellor, enter the stalking horse

Trying to stabilise the government

The problem of Alan Walters

Lawson snaps

The stalking horse

Greater events

Reflection

35  Countdown to the coup

The invasion of Kuwait

The poison of the poll tax

Her last row on Europe

Howe prepares to strike

Reflection

36  End game

Howe goes for the jugular

Heseltine enters the ring

Peter Morrison’s complacency

A hard day’s night in Paris

Reflection

37  Exit

First soundings

The cabinet defects

A bravura farewell performance

The election of a new leader

Reflection

38  The agony after the fall

Trauma and tantrums

Travelling, speech-making and writing

Last months as a Member of Parliament

Sabotaging her successor

Reflection

39  Snapshots of her retirement years

Strategic ideas and personal conversations

Still batting for Britain

A break in the Highlands

Seventieth birthday

Finding her spiritual home

Epilogue

Decline

Fading out with dignity

Farewell

Bibliography

Principal sources

Notes describing sources

Index

List of illustrations

Between
pages 204–205

The Roberts family (
Getty Images
)

All smiles at the Kent Conservative Dance (
Express Newspapers
)

Conservative Candidate for Dartford (
Getty Images
)

Margaret and Denis Thatcher on their wedding day (
Getty Images
)

Margaret watches her children Carol and Mark (
Press Association
)

New Member of Parliament for Finchley (
Getty Images
)

Victory in first ballot of Tory Leadership (
Getty Images
)

Leading the Conservative campaign for a Yes Vote in 1975 (
Getty Images
)

Margaret Thatcher waves to the crowd outside her home on Flood Street (
Getty Images
)

With Kenneth Kaunda (
Press Association
)

Political campaigning with Ian Gow (
Courtesy of Dame Jane Whiteley
)

Leaving Heathrow for European Summit meeting (
Press Association
)

With King Fahd of Saudi Arabia (
Getty Images
)

With François Mitterrand and Charles Powell (
Getty Images
)

Between
pages 540–541

Visiting ‘Our Boys’ at Port Stanley (
Getty Images
)

Welcoming Mikhail Gorbachev to Chequers (
Corbis Images
)

Test driving Britain’s new Challenger tank (
Press Association
)

Visiting Moscow (
Corbis Images
)

Facing questions from the media alongside Bernard Ingham (
Rex Features
)

Reagan and Thatcher on the patio of the White House (
Getty Images
)

Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet (
Getty Images
)

Speaking at No. 10 Downing Street Dinner for President Reagan (
White House official photograph/Thatcher papers/Churchill Archives Centre
)

Leaving Downing Street for the last time (
Getty Images
)

Arriving with the Queen at Claridge’s (
Getty Images
)

Windswept on Rannoch Moor (
Courtesy of Lord Pearson of Rannoch
)

In front of a statue of Lenin (
Courtesy of Bill Cash MP
)

Arriving early for opening of Parliament (
Getty Images
)

Surrounded by Chelsea Pensioners (
Getty Images
)

Back cover

Margaret Thatcher leaves Westminster Abbey with Jonathan Aitken after attending the memorial service for the former Speaker Selwyn Lloyd, 5 July 1978 (
Press Association
)

BOOK: Margaret Thatcher: Power and Personality
5.09Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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