Margaret Thatcher This article is more than 8 years oldMargaret Thatcher told to show compassion for 'unfortunate' in society
This article is more than 8 years oldPress secretary Bernard Ingham suggested she tackle the perception she did not care about people, her private papers show
Margaret Thatcher was urged by her press secretary to tackle her “hectoring, strident and bossy” public image by showing some compassion for the “unfortunate” in society, according to a newly released batch of her private papers.
The documents show that Bernard Ingham made his biggest effort to persuade the then prime minister to adopt a more compassionate personal style in the runup to the 1985 Conservative party conference at the peak of her premiership.
The papers, held at the Churchill Archives in Cambridge, reveal that she tried to fix the perceived presentational problem, which had been dubbed the TBW (“that bloody woman”) factor, by promoting the Tories’ so-called good communicators in a major reshuffle.
That included promoting figures such as Ken Baker and Douglas Hurd, but the papers show it also caused an agonised debate over whether to bring back the disgraced Cecil Parkinson two years before his eventual return to the government.
The unexpected attempt by Ingham to repair her public image is contained in a diplomatically worded memo dated 24 September 1985, which balanced her assets, including being the “dominant person in British politics” and a“decisive, strong-minded person”, with her perceived weaknesses.
The most important of these was unemployment, which then stood at 3 million, the highest level since the second world war. Ingham said: “I firmly believe that there is nothing wrong with this government that a steady, however small, fall in unemployment would not cure.”
But he also identified two rather more personal flaws: “A more general insensitivity: a belief that you do not care for people – all of this linked with so-called ‘cuts’” and a “hectoring, strident, bossy, dictatorial personality (which does not survive an encounter with you).”
Ingham suggested that Thatcher needed “a recognition and understanding of the problems faced by the unfortunate in our society; this is not to say you should appear soft: rather the opposite, you should go out of your way in a deliberate but sympathetic manner to acknowledge their problems.”
“You should also have at the back of your mind the guilt complex among the ‘haves’ about the ‘have-nots’. It is vital that you signal your compassion – and don’t deride the word, because that is what many of your supporters think you lack – to the ‘haves’ who populate the south-east and the Conservative party conference.”
Her press secretary conceded she was unlikely to shake off the TBW factor: “I do not believe it is possible for a woman in a still-male dominated media to deal conclusively with the hectoring, strident, boss point. Just comfort yourself with the thought that wherever you go on tour it is the women, of all ages, who want to hail you as their equivalent of the female political four-minute mile, however they vote. In short, you are you. And stay you.”
There were few signs that Ingham’s advice had much impact. In her 1985 party conference speech, Thatcher did stress that she understood what it was to be unemployed but she refused to use the caring word and insisted that fighting inflation had to take priority over reducing unemployment.
Instead, she used a cabinet reshuffle to promote those with “good presentational skills” in the government. As the newly released papers show, the then prime minister even seriously considered bringing Parkinson back into government two years after he had been forced out after it was revealed that his former secretary Sara Keays was carrying his child.
She faced quite an internal pressure to “bring back Cecil” including from Norman Tebbit, who told her that “if he doesn’t come back now, he never will”.
One supporter, William Davis, the former editor of Punch, whose advice she appears to have paid close attention to, told her that the public had long forgiven Parkinson and “his decision to stay with his wife pleased every married woman in the country”. He described Parkinson as “handsome, likeable and able to communicate in plain English”. An early draft of her reshuffle list had Parkinson pencilled in as replacing Tebbit as the trade and industry secretary.
The issue was discussed over a Downing Street supper with William Whitelaw and her chief whip, John Wakeham, where it seems the advice of her political secretary, Stephen Sherbourne, proved decisive. He pointed out that a return for Parkinson might be popular among male Tories, but it would not be understood by many women. He also warned that the “real fear is that there would be further revelations from Sara Keays (who was known to have a book in the pipeline) and this time they would rebound on you and not just him”. It was enough to block Parkinson’s return for another two years.
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