conservatives, general, in parliament, news, personal notes

Margaret Thatcher in Parliament today

28 Comments

For the first time ever in the known history of Portcullis House


..there came before us, unsuspecting Westminster villagers, something of a mirage: the figure of the Rt Hon Baroness Thatcher looking heavenly in a sharp-cut royal (Tory) blue suit.

She sat under the glazed roof of the central courtyard of Portcullis House – the building completed about five years ago and housing 210 Members of Parliament and their staff at a cost of about £1 million per MP. Her guests were held in thrall and she was lost in concentrated discussion. To her observers, however, she beamed something altogether different: her filigree hairstyle and immaculate chic suit looked more wonderful than anything most of us had ever seen. As a distraction to those in the coffee area, she would occasionally emphasise a point by tapping on her ivory knees peeping out from her outfit and stretch out her slender calves as an afterthought.

Most of us were sitting in her shadow at a discreet distance along the row of fig trees (installed at a cost of £150,000 as an energy-efficient device for keeping the building cool in the summer). We were mesmerised by this moment of living history in Parliament.

A waiter, also hovering around an invisible ring around her gasped: “What a great lady. I have a book two inches thick about her at home, she hasn’t changed a bit”.

Panning over to the neighbouring cafe table – none other than
Clare Short…..plucky with the prospect of Question Time this evening.

(Access to Margaret Thatcher Foundation *here*)

By MCW

28 thoughts on “Margaret Thatcher in Parliament today”

  1. Thatcher kicks ass.
    I don’t know how else to put it.
    I do know that if the locals find out I regard her so highly, I’ll be lynched, because she ain’t too popular here!

  3. The silly old bag is nothing but another divisive extremist. I have a book two inches thick about her as well. It is full of expletives, none of them repeated.

  4. Margaret Thatcher – an undeniable controversial female icon of the 1980s. A bit like Madonna. Perhaps the other Madge should make a comeback appealing to a nostalgic electorate. Surely anything’s better than Howard (except IDS).

    I wonder if the BBC invited Boris to Liverpool’s Question Time? That would have made for much more interesting viewing.

  6. As a committed Blairite and Labour Party supporter, I was on the receiving end of some of the good ladies policies, particularly the death of the Mining Industry in Britain, spending an entire year on strike between 1984 and 1985.
    The funny thing is, I admired this woman then and still do, she had a character and persona that is sadly missing in the current Tory party, the result being far too easy a ride for Tony and his gang.
    She represented a Churchillian standpoint, that she was right and what she was doing was right, convictions needed by anyone purporting to be a statesperson. She controlled unrulyness in her party and made them the dominant force in British politics for almost 20 years, only to see her efforts dismantled by her former lapdogs, the same are now unable to mount any serious challenge to the dominant force in British politics today.

    Good on yer, you old bugger.

  7. It’s been a quiet time up at NSW Parliament (Australia) after I left the bear pit back in 2000, which gave the legendary Johno Johnson, MLC, time to pen these lines (smile):

    Where are they now, those figures of fun
    Who solemnly told us it couldn’t be done?
    Couldn’t be organised,
    Couldn’t be planned,
    Couldn’t be funded,
    Couldn’t be manned.
    Are they still vocal and what do they say
    Reviewing the record of the results today?
    Whoever they were,
    they’re of little concern,
    Wherever they are,
    they have plenty to learn.

  8. Does no-one else find it strange that in a post complimenting her Royal Thatcherness (Never did like her much, I missed my school milk) there’s a compliment fired off at Clare Short?

  9. “Panning over to the neighbouring cafe table – none other than
    Clare Short…..plucky with the prospect of Question Time this evening.”

    Hardly a compliment Barry, more likely Boris cheekily trying to portray the woman as a wannabe Thatcherite model, we all remember Ms.Shorts attempt at high fashion, the Marks and Spencers scarf wearily draped over a hunched pair of shoulders, heavy with the prospect of having to tell the world that dear old Tony was a possible war criminal, I often wonder what he whispered into her ear to keep her in the cabinet when she so desperately wanted to be freed from the confines of an unworthy cabinet to make piles of money from writing a book about how nasty her boss was, amongst other things. The Title “An Honourable Deception” struck me more as a Jeffery Archer novel than a serious attempt to upset the apple cart, maybe the motive was the same.

  11. As my dear old mam used to say, “If you can’t say something nice about someone, then say nothing at all.”

    So my opinion on The Mother of a Thousand Dead is this: “….”

    Read into that what you will.

  14. “I don’t read anything into the comment on Clare Short. She was there, so he mentioned her. That is all; that is all.”

    I was more than baffled about that, too? Surely only a passing comment that she was around at the time?

  15. She was the best post-war prime minister we ever had. She made all those around her look like pygmies. They did for her innthe end and ther Conservative party is still paying the price.

  16. Spot on

    Couldn’t agree more, Gwalef (g-go, w-with, a, l-little, e-extra f-fortitude) – or what else could gwalef stand for?

  17. My mum and I were creasing ourselves as I read your post aloud.

    I was going to say that I wished you had had a digital camera on you, but you paint such a wonderful picture with words;a photo would spoil it (nevermind probably incur the wrath of the Iron Lady).

    I hope you’re keeping a diary – you can be the next Alan Clark.

  18. Melissa, with his/her analysis of Thatch, I would suggest that Gwalef stands for “Gets wasted and loses every faculty”.
    Amy, really, the next Alan Clark. I think that Bozza’s philandering days are behind him.

  20. OTOH – ‘On the other hand’, is the boring answer. Culd be ‘Oh thatcher, our hero’ or even ‘oh tony, our hero’.
    Best answers should get a prize i think.

  21. Good ideas Wifey – I can see how you got so many good reviews on your “Nice cup of tea and sit down” recent book.. look forward to reading it myself

Comments are closed.