Margaret Thatcher Feisty Interview 1995

Hey I think of how to move those two pictures a little bit closer mark it's not that one that there is the other on it yes no no no further with that one the other I'm a little bit that's right now I know you've gone to it to move this this one further yeah that's right no dethatcher the Swedish people know you're very well as a former Prime Minister Great Britain who they don't know is the little girl Margaret Robertson grew up in Grantham and they don't know the reflecting woman behind the face of power now you have described her in your book past power when I speak to men they very rarely like to admit that they have power and even less that they enjoy it what about you but be Prime Minister is to exercise power you must be conscious of that responsibility conscious are there people who don't necessarily agree with what you want to do and therefore the way in which you exercise power must come from strongly held principles translated into practical policy and then acted upon principles are no use unless you make them as policy and then act upon and I think it is that and then communicating what you're trying to do all of that makes up the power which in fact you exercise who don't try to say it's not what it is but did you actually enjoy having power I had I'm a child a fascination with history and politics that was not the only person Asian I was also fascinated and cried go to music quite good at an elocution reciting poetry and also of course because they were interesting times fascinated by science and I took my degree in science so it was not only politics you go to politics you must bring something else to it I watch science love of arts so really so when you grew up in Grantham on top of the grocery store that your parents sold you had an elder sister you were very strong believing method it's okay tell me what kind of life did you lead we lived a very wholesome life in a small town where I if your father's a grocer he's well known my father's also a local councillor chairman of our Finance Committee and eventually math so he was well known for that it was also on the governing board of Toba schools and a very strong Methodist and a local preacher now can you imagine we believed certain things and strong Christian backing and we were well known and took an active part locally it's so different from life in a very big city and I think it's just the perfect background I and we lived above the shop so they're always people coming and going and I got used to people in our shop use you stayed open late on Friday and Saturday nights not only for people to come and buy their groceries but they'd stop and talk about the politics of our time this was the mid thirties then the beginning of war then Dunkirk what was going to happen I knew all of this and the thing that I remember most of all however great the difficulties were in Britain however great when we had to stand alone and after Dunkirk we never doubted but the me would winds through because we were in the right I didn't know you knew all the time that you were right you were true blue conservative do you remember what kind of dreams did you have a little good I think the dreams that everyone has the dreams of a peaceful world for personal I mean personal dream personally and my great ambition was to go to university one of my cousin's had gone to university here on economics I wanted to go to university on science and that came about to go to Oxford Oxford University was a fantastic privilege for me but there wasn't deep deep inside of you a little voice saying that someday I'm going to Rule Britannia oh no in the days of my youth it would not have been possible members of parliament were not paid very much and if I could not just contemplated that sort of career nor indeed was I socialist where the unions would have backed you and it wasn't until in the post-war period when members of parliament were paid a reasonable salary to became possible all of a sudden new vistas opened up your dream became true we went to Oxford you studied chemistry successfully you became very much more involved in politics and after while you also met your future husband mr. Denis Thatcher when he proposed to you to remember how you reacted well I don't believe in discussing these things in that kind of detail I met him in the constituency for which I was the Conservative candidate he was active he had fought in the war he gone back to the family business which was chemicals and paints so we had a lot in common but passionately interested in politics and economics I was a scientist he was in a scientific business and so we had came together as friends he loved music and I loved music and he was helpful locally and so it grew and I think in a way that perhaps is better than than a sudden thing certainly it suited us and I thought very carefully and and so did he because I wasn't interested in politics but of course it was an ideal match then you applied for jobs and you weren't successful immediately I know that one of the managers that you applied for a job wrote a note saying this young woman has too strong a personality to fit in yes I do I saw that when I was being interviewed by him I just read upside down what and also the way the conversation went yes I did have a strong personality I suppose I also happened if you believe in things so you tend to put them forcefully I think he probably thought that having strong beliefs in politics my mind might be taken off for scientific research that I should be doing I think it was probably right what a most proud of or the things you achieve we were the first country to attempt and to succeed in rolling back the frontiers of socialism which is the first cousin to communism no one else tried it we were the first to do it I remember some politician saying well what are your very carefully mrs. Thatcher to see if you succeed we did but I had the toughest time I'd learned something from my father it's not how you begin a job it's will you stick to it and see it through it's the perseverance that counts oh I knew I had to persevere and I did for the first two and a half years I had a terrible time then I applied to oversee his affairs - the first aggression against Britain in the Falklands the same rules that I had applied the economic responsibility personal responsibility we were not going to stand aggression and war the first country to say no but you also had to go through very very rough times both as a prime minister and even before that I mean in the press you were called Thatcher the Snatcher you were voted the most unpopular woman in Britain and sorry they were all the time criticizing you in a very very personal way how did you take that I took it hard but it was very unfair and it was a calculated attack what did I do I would say I was secretary of state of education my job there was to see the children got a good education vital unless you make take advantage of that opportunity you're not doing your best for a child nevertheless every child had free milk in the morning free milk 1/3 of a pint and then there are heavily subsidized school meals and I thought if I got to cut expenditure and you do have to cut expenditure taxation does not get to great and you know about that you do have to cut expenditure I'm not going to cut the education you need I want to spend more on building better schools and so what did I do I said well my parents could afford to pay for me in really much worse times have a little milk every morning there's much more profitable and successful times they can afford to pay for their own children to have milk so indeed I wasn't snatching milk I was saying to people you can afford to pay for your child have a third of a pint of milk in the morning this of course milk snatch also she's came up socialist don't like people to do things for themselves socialists like to get people dependent on the state you never build a Great Society that way but you have said yourself that you think that women are more vulnerable to personal criticism than men what many women are I wasn't you weren't I had a mission in life I had a job to do and believe you me when a woman has a job to do she's tough and she sticks to it you have been the most powerful woman in the world in the eighties do you think that you've been a very important role model for feminists and women I don't know mrs. Gandhi I knew it's very interesting the women who got on in politics to the top often went to some of our College Oxford or to Oxford University mrs. Gandhi did I myself did benazir bhutto did it's very it's just something to note did I think I was a real manu frankly the phrase role model hadn't been invented then so you said that if you want something done no if you want something said you should ask a man you want something done you ask that's quite right we're women's I think spend less time talking and more time doing would you say that in your life as a political leader that you have been able to use your femininity to get what you want no I don't think so it never occurred to me that way I use my arguments and maybe a certain passion because he feels things strongly then they do come out strongly but it never occurred to me to to attempt to do it to use feminine wiles at all do you like being a woman I mean do you like to enjoy in a woman I've never tried the alternative and I don't want to the former press to admit that all he said is that you have the lips of Marilyn Monroe the I saw Caligula which was a Roman fighter and the will of an English woman when you had to resign that must have been your most difficult personal crises of life is that run in diadem it was and it wasn't we were only two votes short of the requisite I think 15 percent majority earlier but there was two of under mental votes and I couldn't carry on and anything less than full support so right I went but how did you deal with this personal cries that you must ambition well frankly there was so much to do if I might put it that way personal crisis came towards the end of November I had already made all my plans for Christmas we had a big Christmas that promises house at Chequers everything all the invitations were out as usual the parties have been done we had of course all the political changes we had big debates and a big central motion coming up in the two or three days which I took so within five days I had to cancel all the plans we made in the future do the central debate which turned out to be a triumph and move out of number 10 and into my small home all of that had to be done and I well we just moved everything out and then I it took me a long time to sort it out and a completely different Christmas reality is a very powerful medium you know this was reality I chose to go but being this I mean this passionate political human being that you are I mean you can't be all the time this first Christmas that you experienced after you had to design him how is that Christmas oh it was a what I simply had to do take away all the invitations and we had Christmas Day we booked a very lovely suite in one of the hotels and had it with all our friends there so we got the Christmas Day friends came but it was in a hotel and it was quite a shock but they were that's life had my hands over eleven and a half years and seven became someone else's chance you just accept what you have to accept and get on with life I have been all over the world since so when people criticize you and you say would it led to the period when you were prime minister was that the rich became richer and the poor became poorer that is not correct the poor also became less poor because the benefits of the bottom for those who are genuinely poor do go up - spent on education goes up and on the Health Service goes up so that is not true what happens you might get a bigger gap but you might start here creates a small gap to think of your paying top tax today - three percent on earned and become a 98 percent on savings you get your gap goes up it does go up but the whole thing moves up the gap make up you must give people said I don't understand why in Sweden you have so little confidence in the individual so little confidence it is earning capacity that you say we must take the lion's share of what he earns to be spent other state and was six to eight percent you got up to oh well now it's down to fifty masses shouldn't be never got up to 68 you know the two richest countries in the world America and Japan 30% and we are done I always I got ours down to 30 I say something when you walk the streets in Sweden you never stumble over poor people lying in the streets and here in London you know you see beggars everywhere yes and yet they have that they have better serger and we should really sometimes I say just clear the streets and get people into the hostels which are there for them you know that our right-wing leader called Biff is not a negotiator in the hopeful yes peace process but yes I'm afraid he's only been in there recently don't forget this terrible things started but in 1991 that I was saying what should be done would you like to be negotiate yourself no I would not I would not like to be in a ghost yet I heard far too firm views for that not a car built hotels also firm views my views are clear Duprey children nation has the right to defend themselves the right of self-defence is far out in the United Nations United Nations has no right to take that right away and therefore it is wrong to deprive the Bosnians of the weapons which they did for a long time and still are doing a fishing surprise of the weapons to defend themselves and we have done that as I said right at the beginning you should have had then an ultimatum to the Serbs or the aggressors you get out or give an ultimatum stop this aggression you have five or six days to do it or in fact we will then put every single air attack that we possibly can on every Serb target and targets also because I look back in 1992 I know but women are supposed to be more peaceful than men you don't think what good is the Peace of Nazi as a more communism you answer me do you think that's peace do you have no rights do you have no no you know what I was thinking what good is a piece of Nazi war Congress I was thinking about the Falkland Island and I couldn't quite the you know think about you're saying this at any price I went down to port aliza they may have peace with liberty precisely my point that they may have peace with liberty it was a piece of Stalin you know how many people Stalin murdered don't you think the people in the Soviet Russia since mr. Gorbachev gave them that fundamental human rights freedom of worship freedom of speech I know I agree with you in this but the question is do you believe that women are more peaceful than men as there have been many women who fought loyally that peace with freedom and justice should prevail that is worth fighting for would you say your children go under totalitarian regime would you like them to been brought up under Stalin or brezner without being allowed to read a Bible and being an offense to have it without any rule of all there's still no rule of law only the dictate of the ex Communist Party is up what you're called peace it's not what I call peace when I call force you are very good at getting me away from my question Joe I am good at making you formulate your questions openly here peace is not peace under Stalin Hitler dictatorship communism or that it was merely the edge was it presence of a war of dictatorship over the people we asked the taxi driver all the way here about you and he said well I only had one question and that is why doesn't she come back into politics isn't that nice of him because I don't think you can come back I think it's the chance of the young people as I was given my chance in my time and I can tell you that there are people around me everybody is passionate about what I believe especially disease oh yes oh yes I doubt it oh yes now well when I read your book I always get the impression that you think that Great Britain has been standing for something more than other countries yes we have what what a thousand years we have not been occupied we stood up for liberty and justice we've had it why do we the British Parliament sovereignty started in the 13th century here by a few group of pure people they were barons who said to the king we are not going to supply with the money necessary to carry on the kingdom unless you look at some of our grievances now there was personality the personality of the English in those days and graduate went more and more so we started the parliamentary sovereignty the sovereign probably I know but real one of them is oldest laws because we had the most great judges we have something called equity and fairness you would understand that in Sweden when I'm lecturing it in a university in Moscow or in some Petersburg I say equity fairness they say what's that you see they never had any concept of fairness I said we will understand was everyone does decency burn honor between people but other British better than other people but we haven't been defeated so you're better we've stood up for what we believed in but what I hate more than anything else in the world is what Hitler stands for but you didn't did you fight against him well I wasn't bright did you really write against a I would like I would like to I would like to have said that my people that so you admit that as a matter of fact it was America Canada Britain that land on the Normandy beaches yes I also been defeated but I'd love as Spain was on the fascism Italy have been under fascism so you admit all of this here and then you say what you don't like it if we say well but I say we were better at standing up against tyranny and that is fact and that is a lesson of history yes but that wasn't the question from the beginning I was just going to say that to me what Hitler stood for is the worst that I mean it's the worst in history but to me it is a person or people saying that our people is better than any other people but what you're saying by better what I am saying is as a matter of fact it was the anglo-american alliance that stood up and fought the tyranny which you hate so did Norway so did Denmark so the Scandinavians as well who stood up and fought what do you think of Sweden Sweden was neutral what do you think of Sweden I think if people had been neutral against Hitler Hitler would've won if people have been neutral against Stalin Stalin would own one so you think that Sweden no I am NOT going to go and say anymore oh you're very different as a private person no not at all I do quite a bit of things around the house my mother was a very good needlewoman and also very good in the shop so I am good with those things I cook I enjoy cooking I only have help in the house five morning's a week but I'm serve our us passionate the less dominant as you are in this I like things done methodically the way you want them to be done well I like it done melodically house gave me is very much better if you do things methodically if you have a budget if you know how to uh spread the budget you do quite a lot of things yourself and we keep friends of course we have friends and you like entertaining them and entertaining you we love music and out I wish I saw more her grandchildren and we have a passion for the future this is what it was all about that the lessons of the past should be learned and its mistakes never repeated before this interview I was told that you did not want to answer questions about the French nuclear program I don't think it's an I I will answer a question if you wish well I wonder why you didn't want to answer the question well I didn't think it relevant to my years ha but um okay so that's why but would you like to answer it I will answer your question if you wish okay so I just want to know what you think about what the French just recently did we all of us rely on the nuclear deterrent a deterrent to stop anyone who might get hold of nuclear weapons and want to use so we say if you do that we can come in much small strong lick you cannot say that unless you know that your nuclear weapon would continue to be effective do we know good someone getting out of nuclear material is saying with our nuclear weapon work if you don't know and that must be the thinking behind to present Jurek he wants to know his nuclear deterrent will be effective when America are using different methods but someone is testing to see whether it is effective and I think for the strength of the deterrent he was right so I just have one last request all the people that are interview I asked them to do something for me it's kind of gimmick on my show and it's to make a jump just to stand up and make a jump up in the air I shouldn't dream of doing that why should I well I see no significance whatsoever of making a jump up in the air I made great leaps forward not little jumps in studios you know I just want a bet because where I work everybody betted whether you should make a jump or not and certainly not and I was almost the only one who said that you wouldn't have a different read I think it's a silly thing to ask yeah I secure I'll thing to ask yes and go but just did it you amaze me yes one of what he thought the politics of a free society if that's what they asked you to do well a lot of people find it you know just amusing it's just it's just a way of showing another side of people you know because the people that interview are so used to talking and talking but when I was near to talking I was used to doing more than little jumps okay but it's hard for you to show what you do in an interview but you can stand up and you can make a look at jump it just you know it just is so so nervous it just shows another side of human being you know because everybody jumps in there to know what it shows it shows that you want to be thought to be normal or popular I don't have to say that I'll prove it this has been my whole life now it's just a curricular I mean people right no no no no to coin a phrase I do not wish to lose the respect of people whom I've kept with respect I've kept the years by doing something so absurd right you

Channel: thatcheritescot

Views: 353,975

Keywords: margaret thatcher, neil kinnock, ted heath, norman tebbit, tony blair, john major, gordon brown, david cameron, nigel farage, ronald reagan, tory, labour, pmqs, commons, mr speaker, peter mandelson, alistair campbell, iron lady, politics, falklands

Id: rgBPybvoKqA

Length: 27min 49sec (1669 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 06 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/VioletVenable]

Hah! Reminds me of photographer Phillipe Halsman, who would end his sessions by asking his subjects (including the Duke and Duchess of Windsor — see slideshow) to jump!

[u/Huge-Ad4492]

I bet she actually bet that she could get Maggie to actually jump, hence her keep pushing it till the very end.

But that's just hilarious

[u/Blace-Goldenhark]

The weirdest thing to me is not so much that she refused to jump, but she seemed so not willing to understand why anyone would jump. Such classic Thatcher, no sense of fun, or empathy for why normal people might be different from her.

[u/joygirl007]

Man that is some r/murderedbywords retort work from Thatcher.

[u/sealeaves]

I shall be using the word 'puerile' more often.

[u/[deleted]]

Doing a jump is designed to show people who you are and reveal something about your character. Thatcher ironically revealed far more in her explanation on why she wouldn’t do it lol. She’s incapable of understanding why some people might find it interesting or entertaining because she lacks empathy.

[u/branstarktreewizard]

they should had added that "The lady's not for turning" speech in the first episode

[u/Carborundorumite]

This is great! I haven’t looked at a lot of source material on Thatcher while watching this season but I’m extra impressed now by both the writing and Anderson’s performance after seeing this.

[u/accountantdooku]

That was hilarious 😂