From the Economy to Syria, Britain Lacks Real Leadership
The Autumn Statement and the build-up to voting on Syria makes me miss how Margaret Thatcher used to do things
I thought it a little odd that it the BBC should have decided to broadcast present a four-and-a-half-hour programme on the Parliament Channel to mark the fortieth anniversary of Margaret Thatcher becoming the first female leader of a major Western political party and the exact twenty-fifth of her leaving office. And I was even more surprised when I was asked a few weeks ago to present that programme, which was broadcast last Saturday evening.
The format was inspired. It comprised nothing but contemporary archive footage showing the events of those fifteen turbulent years as they were seen at the time, without any comments except my commentary putting them into context. Some things I had never seen before. Not least Margaret Thatcher’s conference speech the morning after the IRA’s attempt to murder her at Brighton. I was still unconscious at the time, following emergency surgery earlier that morning, and remained so for several days. Nor indeed did Margaret Thatcher ever see the final clip in the programme, which was of my own tribute to her in the House of Lords following her death in April 2013.
Read the article “From the Economy to Syria, Britain Lacks Real Leadership” on telegraph.co.uk.
