Meeting Margaret – the many faces of Thatcher
Her sex did play a part in the 1979 election, but it wasn’t as a negative. The Tory commentators in recent days have been painting a picture of Britain in the late 70s that I simply don’t recognise. The Wilson/Callaghan parliament had spent much of their time putting right the mess made by the Heath government. Labour had achieved much but there was a desire for change. Who could be more different from a Labour male Prime Minister than a female Conservative? One paper caught the mood with the Election Day headline “Give the girl a chance.”
At my count in Solihull the horrible sexism towards Thatcher raised its head. A male Labour Party member turned up wearing a tie referring to Thatcher as a “bitch” complete with a picture of a dog peeing on the doorstep of Number 10 Downing Street. Fortunately other party members were as appalled as I and it was quickly removed.
A few hours after that incident Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female Prime Minister. Even if she had resigned a week later she had still made history.
Over the next few years I was aghast to see my beloved Labour Party descend into civil war. Early in the first Thatcher government unemployment rose steeply and the Tories were deeply unpopular. Many thought the outcome of the next general election a foregone conclusion and the party imploded as it squabbled over the spoils of future office. The Labour Party is a broad coalition. We’re at our best when we respect that. We are at our worse when we think we try to eliminate each other.
The Falklands War came and went, the miners’ strike ended in disaster, mainly because the Tories had prepared, as I had been told they would six or seven years before, and the NUM couldn’t even get the full support of its own members. The country descended into chaos and there was a real nastiness around that expressed itself most robustly in The Sun, but also elsewhere in popular culture.
Sometime in 1984, whilst the miners’ strike was at its most bitter I was asked to join the London office of the National Children’s Home (NCH), a Methodist based charity. The Chief Executive was also serving a one year term as President of the Methodist Conference. It was then that life took an unexpected turn. Up until then my main contribution to the miners’ strike had been to provide money and support for miners’ families and occasionally join picket lines at Cannock and Newcastle under Lyme.
