I went to the Carlton Club this evening for a drinks party hosted by Liam Fox. I was delighted to see Lady Thatcher arrive and looking absolutely fantastic. For a woman of 83 and supposedly in frail health, she looked absolutely stunning.
I had a couple of minutes talking to her and told her it was 26 years to the day that I first met her at a reception for Conservative students at 10 Downing Street. "I think I remember that," she said. "It was so nice to see so many young people in the building. That didn't happen very often." We talked a little about newspapers and she said: "I never read them. I had Bernard to do it for me." Everyone needs a Bernard...
As I left the Carlton Club, a thought struck me. If Lady T were in her heyday and had to take over as Prime Minister now, what would she do? If I had asked her, I know exactly what her reply would have been. "Restore sound money, dear," she would have said. And you know what? She'd have been dead right.
