Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography

by Charles Moore

  * In her memoirs, Lady Thatcher misremembers this event, stating that the dinner was after the meeting.

  † It is not clear whether Alfred Roberts accompanied his daughter to the drinks. There is no evidence that he met Denis on this occasion.

  * Willie Cullen was part of a colony of Scottish farmers who had come down to Essex together before and during the war to escape the poor state of agriculture in Scotland; they retained a strong collective identity.

  † Margaret appears to have forgotten she mentioned Denis to Muriel a few weeks before.

  * William Cullen was most commonly called Bill by Margaret at this time. He came generally to be known as Willie.

  * Muriel and Willie’s younger son, Andrew Cullen, made a comparable analysis of the situation, when interviewed in 2004: ‘Margaret probably realised my Dad wasn’t going to up sticks from here [Foulton]’ and so she did not want to marry him.

  * She did not, but returned to Scotland where she never married and maintained a consistently unfriendly relationship with Muriel for the rest of her life, while remaining very fond of her brother. When Miss Cullen was asked what Willie most liked to discuss in their weekly telephone conversations over the years, she said, ‘Ooh, his shares!’ (interview with Miss Agnes Cullen).

  * This was the name for nations such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand, which came later to be referred to as ‘the white Commonwealth’ and, later still, as ‘the old Commonwealth’.

  * Lady Thatcher told the present author that, for this reason, she had never been into a pub alone in her entire life.

  * David Renton (1908–2007), educated Oundle and University College, Oxford; Conservative MP for Huntingdonshire, 1945–79; QC, 1954; Minister of State, Home Office, 1961–2; created Lord Renton, 1979.

  * Margaret had clearly forgotten this earlier impression when house-hunting while prime minister. In 1985, she and Denis bought disastrously in Dulwich a house which proved completely unsuitable for her retirement.

  * This may have been the first appearance of the cancer which was to kill Mrs Roberts nine years later, or it may be a reference to a gynaecological problem.

  † Actually she was Lady Hickman.

  * ‘Denis was never a great reader,’ says John Campbell in his biography of Mrs Thatcher (Margaret Thatcher, 2 vols, Jonathan Cape, 2000, 2003, vol. i: The Grocer’s Daughter, p. 86), but this is not the case. Denis Thatcher has often been misrepresented as unintelligent. As well as being shrewd, he was a serious amateur student of history, particularly military history.

  † It is doubtful whether Denis ever knew much about Margaret’s relationship with Robert Henderson. He told the present author, though he might just have been being discreet, ‘I never heard of a serious boyfriend.’

  * It was also feared that there might be suggestions, by a few, that Margaret’s marriage to a ‘rich’, older man was evidence of social climbing (interview with Patricia Greenough).

  * Clive Bossom (1918–), educated Eton; Conservative MP for Leominster, 1959–74; succeeded father as baronet, 1965.

  † William Deedes (1913–2007), educated Harrow; Conservative MP for Ashford, 1950–74; Minister without Portfolio, 1962–4; editor, Daily Telegraph, 1974–86; created Lord Deedes, 1986.

  ‡ Airey Neave MC, DSO, (1916–79), educated Eton and Merton College, Oxford; prisoner of war, 1940–42; first British officer to escape from Colditz and make a successful ‘home run’; Conservative MP for Abingdon, 1953–79; head of Mrs Thatcher’s private office and Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland; assassinated by Irish National Liberation Army, March 1979.

  § David Maxwell Fyfe (1900–1967), educated George Watson’s College, Edinburgh and Balliol College, Oxford; Home Secretary, 1951–4; created 1st Earl of Kilmuir, 1954; Lord Chancellor, 1954–62.

  * Harold Wilson (1916–95), educated Wirral Grammar School, Bebington, Cheshire and Jesus College, Oxford; Prime Minister 1964–70, 1974–6; created Lord Wilson of Rievaulx, 1983.

  * In Below the Parapet: The Biography of Denis Thatcher (HarperCollins, 1996), p. 58, Carol Thatcher records that Denis’s candidacy had been ‘a few years before’. This seems to be erroneous.

  † It took some time to agree on Carol’s name. When she came out of hospital more than a month later because of her low weight and an infection, Margaret still wrote of her to Muriel as ‘the little girl twin’.

  ‡ In Margaret Thatcher (2 vols, Jonathan Cape, 2000, 2003, vol. i: The Grocer’s Daughter), John Campbell questions whether it could really be true that the birth took place without Denis knowing, and suspects the story of being ‘romantic embroidery’, but this ignores the fact that telephoning the hospital was not then the easy matter that it later became, and that, as Mrs Thatcher explained in her letter to John Hare (see p. 119), she did not know she was bearing twins until the day – Saturday – that they were born. At a time when fathers were completely excluded from the process of birth, it seems perfectly possible that the operation went ahead without anyone hunting for Denis.

  * Mrs Thatcher was always kind to children, however. When she was secretary of state for education, civil servants noted that she was much better than her predecessor at paying enthusiastic attention to pupils during school visits. But, perhaps because of the seriousness and literal-mindedness which she recognized in herself, she never seemed quite to get the hang of children’s behaviour. At one lunch party in the country in the 1990s, two young sons of one of the guests ran outside to play and came and tapped on the window of the dining room. They then stuck out their tongues and shoved their thumbs into their ears and wiggled their fingers derisively. Lady Thatcher very sportingly wiggled back, but then turned to the present author and said, ‘What a funny gesture. I wonder what it means.’ It seemed strange that she could have been a mother without ever finding out.

  * In childhood, as later, the Thatcher twins competed against one another. Mark remembered Carol being annoyed that there was a Sussex village called Mark Cross, but no village bearing her name. For his part, Mark was annoyed that people sang carols, but not ‘marks’. (Interview with Sir Mark Thatcher.)

  * Denis Thatcher was also, in later life, afflicted by a sense of guilt about the way the twins were brought up. He told the present author that he should have spent more time with them when they were young. Business frequently took him abroad for almost the whole of the summer. He delegated a good deal of the twins’ upbringing to their nanny, Abbey. ‘Teach the children some manners,’ he instructed her (interview with Carol Thatcher).

  * This is a very typical Mrs Thatcher judgment of another woman. In fact, Clarissa Eden was well known for her beauty, intelligence and strong character.

  * Frederick Lawton (1911–2001), educated Battersea Grammar School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; criminal advocate; QC, 1957; High Court judge, 1961; Lord Justice of Appeal, 1972; knighted, 1961.

  † Robin Day (1920–2000), educated Bembridge School and St Edmund Hall, Oxford; President of Oxford Union, 1950; barrister; joined BBC, 1955; newsreader, ITN, 1955; presenter of BBC Panorama, World at One etc.; chairman, BBC Question Time, 1979–89; knighted 1981.

  * Mrs Thatcher liked even the most trivial cases. ‘I had to go to Cambridge Assizes last Friday,’ she wrote to Muriel in May 1955, ‘and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a case about onion seeds!’

  * John Brightman (1911–2006), educated Marlborough and St John’s College, Cambridge; tax lawyer; judge of Chancery Division, 1970; judge of Industrial Relations Court, 1971; Lord of Appeal, 1982.

  * Patrick Jenkin (1926–), educated Clifton and Jesus College, Cambridge; Conservative MP for Wanstead and Woodford, 1964–87; Minister for Energy, 1974; Secretary of State for Social Services, 1979–81; for Industry, 1981–3; for the Environment, 1983–5; created Lord Jenkin of Roding, 1987.

  † Anthony Barber (1920–2005), educated Retford Grammar School and Oriel College, Oxford; Conservative MP for Doncaster, 1951–64; for Altrincham and Sale, 1965–74; Chancellor of
the Exchequer, 1970–74; created Lord Barber, 1974; chairman, Standard Chartered Bank, 1974–87.

  ‡ Geoffrey Howe (1926–), educated Winchester and Trinity Hall, Cambridge; Conservative MP for Bebington, 1964–6; for Reigate, 1970–74; for Surrey East, February 1974–92; QC, 1956; Solicitor-General, 1970–72; Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1979–83; Foreign Secretary, 1983–9; Lord President of the Council and Deputy Prime Minister, 1989–90; created Lord Howe of Aberavon, 1992.

  * Mrs Thatcher admired Eden much more than most post-Suez commentators. She saw him, because of his record in the 1930s, as ‘the man who wanted to stand up against the foreign dictators’; she was also deeply impressed by the fact that Eden, who had fought in the First World War, would make a point of filling up his car from petrol stations run by ex-servicemen from his regiment. (Correspondence with Professor David Dilks.)

  * The paper possesses a photograph of Roberts removing the robes. It has been asserted that cameras were not permitted to witness the occasion. If so, it is interesting that Roberts was willing to restage it for their benefit.

  * Mrs Thatcher consistently avoided making any commitment to having to live in any constituency which might select her. There was a limit to what could be imposed on Denis and the twins.

  † In fact, it turned out to be a shortlist of four. One candidate, the war hero C. M. Woodhouse, had dropped out between rounds because he had been selected for Oxford, and so the executive committee, rather than allowing the contest to be between only two, inserted the next two candidates down. If anything, this made Mrs Thatcher’s task easier, since two of the four were known to be slightly below par.

  * See Dennis Walters, Not Always with the Pack, Constable, 1989, pp. 102–3. But note that in fact the ‘bloody Jew’ mentioned, Peter Goldman, was not shortlisted for Finchley. He was to be the unlucky victim of the Liberal by-election triumph in Orpington in 1962.

  * Keith Joseph (1918–94), 2nd baronet; educated Harrow and Magdalen College, Oxford; Conservative MP for Leeds North East, 1956–87; Secretary of State for Social Services, 1970–74; for Industry, 1979–81; for Education and Science, 1981–6; founder and chairman, Centre for Policy Studies, 1974–9 (director, 1991–4); created Lord Joseph, 1987.

  * Peter Thorneycroft (1909–94), educated Eton and Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; MP for Stafford, 1938–45; for Monmouth, 1945–66; created Lord Thorneycroft, 1967; Chairman of the Conservative Party, 1975–81.

  * William Whitelaw (1918–99), educated Winchester and Trinity College, Cambridge; served in Scots Guards, 1939–46, awarded the Military Cross; Conservative MP for Penrith and the Border, 1955–83; Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 1972–3; Secretary of State for Employment, 1973–4; Deputy Leader of Conservative Party, 1975–9; Home Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, 1979–83; created Viscount Whitelaw, 1983; Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council, 1983–8.

  † Betty Boothroyd, who was to become the first woman Speaker of the Commons, worked in the same office at that time, as secretary to a Labour MP, Geoffrey de Freitas.

  * In an article called ‘Local Government’ in Conservative Oxford in October 1949, writing as the new Dartford parliamentary candidate, Margaret Roberts had argued that Labour was damaging local government by grabbing powers from it, leading to a ‘loss of local responsibility’ and making it less attractive to good people. It seems likely that the expulsion of Alderman Roberts would have confirmed this view, rather than turning her against local government per se.

  * ‘Pairing’ is the device by which members of opposing parties arrange, for mutual convenience, to be absent from the same divisions, cancelling out each other’s vote. It is approved by the whips. A standing committee considers public Bills rather than policy subjects in general, and is part of the legislative process. Bills go ‘into committee’ after second reading, which is the chief occasion for debate of legislation by the whole House.

  † For a discussion of all this, see New Outlook, August 1963.

  * Henry Brooke’s son, Peter, was to serve in Mrs Thatcher’s Cabinet from 1988.

  * Fiennes was even more anguished by the idea that the author of the Bill should have a serious say in its drafting. He argued unsuccessfully that she should not attend the relevant drafting meeting with Commons officials: ‘I am not sure that it would be a good thing for Mrs Thatcher to do so. She probably has very little idea of the point at issue … and if she treats them as she treated us, she may well put their backs up. This is not a thing you can say to her.’

  * At this time, Deedes led a double life, also writing (pseudonymously) for the Peterborough column of the Daily Telegraph. There, the following day, he described the speech as being ‘of frontbench quality’.

  † Barbara Castle (1910–2002), educated Bradford Girls’ Grammar School and St Hugh’s College, Oxford; Labour MP for Blackburn, 1945–79; Minister of Transport, 1965–8; Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity, 1968–70; for Social Services, 1974–6; created Baroness Castle of Blackburn, 1990.

  * There is probably a sexist joke (or gallant compliment) hiding in the phrase, with the words ‘rather beautiful’ governing the word ‘maiden’ rather than the word ‘speech’.

  † She was always, even when Carol was grown up, inclined to worry about her daughter’s appearance, manners and deportment.

  * In the event, this did not happen. Denis had been to Mill Hill; Mark went to Harrow.

  † At the time of writing, Carol was not married.

  * One invalid who did receive a surprise visit from Margaret was her former boyfriend Willie Cullen, now Muriel’s husband, who was in hospital in London with lung problems (‘I have finished The Cruel Sea, the first book I’ve read since I left school’). ‘What a surprise!’ he wrote. ‘I had your Margaret come in with a bunch of crysants – they cheer up the room … Margaret looked well, and I told her I don’t know how she gets through all the work.’ (Cullen to Muriel Cullen, 9 November 1960.)

  * Margaret’s familiar address of her father varied. In later life, she would always refer to him as ‘Father’, but when he was alive he was very occasionally ‘Pop’, quite often ‘Father’, but mostly ‘Daddy’. He was never ‘Dad’.

  † The spelling of Abbey’s abbreviated nickname was not consistent within the family.

  * John Boyd-Carpenter (1908–98), educated Stowe and Balliol College, Oxford; Conservative MP for Kingston-upon-Thames, 1945–72; Minister of Transport, 1954–5; of Pensions and National Insurance, 1955–62; Chief Secretary to the Treasury, 1962–4; created Baron Boyd-Carpenter, 1972.

  * Michael Foot (1913–2010), educated Leighton Park School, Reading and Wadham College, Oxford; Labour MP for Plymouth Devonport, 1945–55; for Ebbw Vale, 1960–83; for Blaenau Gwent, 1983–92; Secretary of State for Employment, 1974–6; Leader of the House of Commons, 1976–9; Leader of the Opposition, 1980–83.

  † Richard Crossman (1907–74), educated Winchester and New College, Oxford; MP for Coventry East, 1945–74; Minister for Housing and Local Government, 1964–6; Leader of the House of Commons, 1966–8; Secretary of State for Health and Social Security, 1968–70. A leading Labour intellectual and (later) editor of the New Statesman, Crossman caused great public controversy by the posthumous publication of his Diaries of a Cabinet Minister. The government of the day unsuccessfully opposed their publication.

  * Although conservative in moral questions, Mrs Thatcher maintained throughout her career a dislike of laying down the law about marital and sexual behaviour, and using the tax and benefit system punitively in this context. This was apparent during her time at MPNI. Opening a home for unmarried mothers and babies in her constituency, she declared that ‘It is our job to help and not to sit in judgment’ (Finchley Press, 24 May 1963).

  † She told the House of Commons on 31 October 1969 that Boyd-Carpenter had ‘taught me most of what I know about politics’.

  * The parliamentary private secretary is an MP who is bag-carrier for a minister. H
is is not a ministerial job, and is unpaid, but is often the first rung on the ministerial ladder. Bossom was the son of Margaret’s patron, Alfred.

  * This reform was the result of a campaign by Anthony Wedgwood Benn, later famous as Tony Benn, a Labour MP who was determined to avoid succeeding his father, Viscount Stansgate, in the Lords, and thus sacrificing his political career.

  * Home was tolerant even of her faults. After she became leader in 1975, he would say, ‘Undeniably, she is a bossy woman. It’s sometimes necessary to stand up for yourself.’ (Correspondence with Professor David Dilks.)