Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography (137 page)

44. The notes for Mrs Thatcher’s St Francis of Assisi speech given on the steps of No. 10. The ‘HM’ referred to at the beginning is Her Majesty the Queen. The ‘AN’ at the bottom is Airey Neave.

45. ‘Where there is despair, may we bring hope’: Mrs Thatcher enters 10 Downing Street for the first time as prime minister, 4 May 1979. To the extreme left is the broadcaster Jon Snow.

46. The Prime Minister removes an offending piece of fluff from the collar of Norman St John-Stevas, leader of the House of Commons, before the State Opening of Parliament, May 1979. Early in 1981, she would remove him too.

47. On the front line: Mrs Thatcher in the uniform of the Ulster Defence Regiment, visits ‘bandit county’ in South Armagh, Northern Ireland, after the murders of Lord Mountbatten and of eighteen British soldiers at Warrenpoint, 19 August 1979. Her appearances in uniform had a great impact.

48. ‘You turn if you like – the lady’s not for turning’: Mrs Thatcher holds to her course of economic austerity at the party conference, October 1980.

49. In the Princes Gate siege in May 1980, the SAS successfully rescued hostages held by terrorists in the Iranian Embassy in London, killing their captors. This bold action became a favoured metaphor for the Thatcher style of government.

50. The Patterson family look a little nervous as Mrs Thatcher has tea in their council house, August 1980. The Pattersons were the 12,000th tenants of the Greater London Council to exercise their ‘right to buy’ – one of the most popular, though controversial, of all Mrs Thatcher’s measures.

51. The Brixton riots, April 1981. Mrs Thatcher’s critics said her policies caused them. She sympathised with the looted shopkeepers.

52. Mrs Thatcher listens with displeasure as Ted Heath furiously attacks government politics at the party conference of October 1981. The vehemence of his attack probably made ministerial rebellion against her more difficult.

53. In January 1982, Mark Thatcher was briefly lost in the North African desert. It was the only time when officials found Mrs Thatcher too upset to do her work properly. Leaving a meeting in the Imperial Hotel, London, she shed a tear.

54. Margaret and Denis at Chequers. ‘I am glad that Chequers played quite a part in the Falklands story,’ she wrote. ‘Winston had used it quite a lot during World War II.’

55. ‘Rejoice’ – Mrs Thatcher celebrates the recapture of South Georgia, the first victory of the Falklands War, with John Nott, Secretary of State for Defence, at her side, on 25 April 1982.