Department of the Environment had got the Rate Support Grant policy all wrong, but she would not be saying so today, there would be a statement in the autumn. She then changed the subject, and asked to be briefed, in detail, on the concerns of fruit farmers, whom she would be meeting that afternoon. Their problem, in particular affecting apples and blackcurrants, was the effect on their profits of cheap fruit imports from France and Poland.
She was in very good form over lunch with the District Council Leaders, light-hearted gossip about a recent visit to Egypt, but mostly I remember her flirting with Eddie Coke (Viscount Coke, at that time the Leader of the Kingâs Lynn and West Norfolk Council), with long discussions about his family history, which she either knew or had been briefed on.
After lunch she did a brief photo call with the County Council chairman and then a photo opportunity on the steps of County Hall, instructing me to turn left, while she turned right, to give the press and people watching from the windows a good picture.
I had a very nice letter of thanks from her, and in the autumn I had a call from her office to say that Michael Heseltine would be making a statement in Parliament that afternoon about adjustments in the Rate Support Grant. Someone somewhere ran a very efficient office. She had
said that if I ever had any other difficulties I should be directly in touch with her office.
Some considerable time later, the County Council was having problems in getting a Bill through Parliament to set up the Broads Authority. We were opposed by the Port and Haven Commissioners, the MPs, who were either against or sat on the fence, and other special interest groups of various kinds. The Bill was declared hybrid. That had the advantage of being able to survive the dissolution of Parliament, but equally, it had to be in the party manifesto at the forthcoming election. I did not trust Conservative Central Office to deal with this, so Hartley Booth arranged a meeting in her private apartments in No. 10. She came in, brightly, and just as I remembered, proffered a large whisky, listened carefully, asked a few questions, and left. It did appear in the party manifesto of 1987, and became law in 1988.
Nothing could be more characteristic of Margaret Thatcherâs approach than this account by John Alston. If she was convinced by the detail of a case, she would act â and action followed. The Broads Authority Bill was a case in point; not that important politically, but it needed to be correct, well-supported and, above all, workable. Because of her personal attention to it, it was all of those things.
Incidentally, the Norfolk visit provided an illustration of the Prime Ministerâs technique with political demonstrations. A number of demonstrators had gathered outside County Hall, and a couple of obviously official cars swept in, taking all the tomatoes, eggs and shouted abuse preparedby the waiting protesters. Her car then followed at speed, before the protesters had time to re-equip. This method never failed, and I recommended it to French colleagues, notably Martine Aubry, and my agriculture counterpart Jean Puech, who were obsessed by the potential embarrassment of enduring a demo with a British colleague sitting alongside them in the official car. History does not relate if they ever adopted the practice.
Margaret Thatcherâs attention to detail, and in particular her prodigious memory, were perfectly suited to the role of a constituency MP. Even now, when I meet people who were her constituents in Finchley, they will recall her work for them, the fact that she knew their names, and the names of their children, and called the rabbis by their first names. She continued to hold regular surgeries throughout the whole time she was Prime Minister, despite the obvious implications for her security, and I have been told many times of the occasion when she walked a mile in the snow to the inaugural
She was in very good form over lunch with the District Council Leaders, light-hearted gossip about a recent visit to Egypt, but mostly I remember her flirting with Eddie Coke (Viscount Coke, at that time the Leader of the Kingâs Lynn and West Norfolk Council), with long discussions about his family history, which she either knew or had been briefed on.
After lunch she did a brief photo call with the County Council chairman and then a photo opportunity on the steps of County Hall, instructing me to turn left, while she turned right, to give the press and people watching from the windows a good picture.
I had a very nice letter of thanks from her, and in the autumn I had a call from her office to say that Michael Heseltine would be making a statement in Parliament that afternoon about adjustments in the Rate Support Grant. Someone somewhere ran a very efficient office. She had
said that if I ever had any other difficulties I should be directly in touch with her office.
Some considerable time later, the County Council was having problems in getting a Bill through Parliament to set up the Broads Authority. We were opposed by the Port and Haven Commissioners, the MPs, who were either against or sat on the fence, and other special interest groups of various kinds. The Bill was declared hybrid. That had the advantage of being able to survive the dissolution of Parliament, but equally, it had to be in the party manifesto at the forthcoming election. I did not trust Conservative Central Office to deal with this, so Hartley Booth arranged a meeting in her private apartments in No. 10. She came in, brightly, and just as I remembered, proffered a large whisky, listened carefully, asked a few questions, and left. It did appear in the party manifesto of 1987, and became law in 1988.
Nothing could be more characteristic of Margaret Thatcherâs approach than this account by John Alston. If she was convinced by the detail of a case, she would act â and action followed. The Broads Authority Bill was a case in point; not that important politically, but it needed to be correct, well-supported and, above all, workable. Because of her personal attention to it, it was all of those things.
Incidentally, the Norfolk visit provided an illustration of the Prime Ministerâs technique with political demonstrations. A number of demonstrators had gathered outside County Hall, and a couple of obviously official cars swept in, taking all the tomatoes, eggs and shouted abuse preparedby the waiting protesters. Her car then followed at speed, before the protesters had time to re-equip. This method never failed, and I recommended it to French colleagues, notably Martine Aubry, and my agriculture counterpart Jean Puech, who were obsessed by the potential embarrassment of enduring a demo with a British colleague sitting alongside them in the official car. History does not relate if they ever adopted the practice.
Margaret Thatcherâs attention to detail, and in particular her prodigious memory, were perfectly suited to the role of a constituency MP. Even now, when I meet people who were her constituents in Finchley, they will recall her work for them, the fact that she knew their names, and the names of their children, and called the rabbis by their first names. She continued to hold regular surgeries throughout the whole time she was Prime Minister, despite the obvious implications for her security, and I have been told many times of the occasion when she walked a mile in the snow to the inaugural
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