No-nonsense, whisky-loving Thatcher exposed in secret files

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No-nonsense, whisky-loving Thatcher exposed in secret files

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Tue Dec 29, 7:27 PM

LONDON (AFP) - High standards, a short temper and a taste for whisky -- Margaret

Thatcher's personality is laid bare in secret files released in Britain

Wednesday which cover the first few months of her premiership.

They reveal that Thatcher refused a guard of 20 " karate ladies " when she visited

Japan soon after becoming prime minister in 1979 and personally handled pistols

to decide which model was best for police in Northern Ireland.

Her impatience for the failings of ministers and civil servants less formidable

than herself is also shown in a volley of curt, scrawled annotations on

documents.

Perhaps the most unusual story in the files relates to her attendance at the

Tokyo Economic Summit in June 1979, the month after she was elected Britain's

first female premier.

British officials heard of Japanese plans to lay on 20 " karate ladies " to

provide her security at the event, but Thatcher insisted she did not want them.

" The Prime Minister would like to be treated in exactly the same way as the

other visiting Heads of Delegation; it is not the degree of protection that is

in question but the particular means of carrying it out, " a confidential

official communique from the Foreign Office said.

" If other Delegation leaders, for example, are each being assigned 20 karate

gentlemen, the Prime Minister would have no objection to this; but she does not

wish to be singled out. "

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Another document records a conversation between Thatcher and the then US

President Jimmy at the White House in December 1979.

She was trying to persuade him to reverse the US policy of not selling arms to

Northern Ireland's police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).

Arguing her case, Thatcher said, according to the official record: " She herself

had handled both of the gun(s) which the RUC at present used and that which was

on order.

" There was no doubt that the American Ruger was much better. "

A file on her first visit to France in June to meet president Valery Giscard

d'Estaing revealed that embassy staff in Paris paid for her duty-free cigarettes

and alcohol. They later had to chase Downing Street for a refund.

An invoice in the file lists one bottle of Teacher's whisky, known to be her

drink of choice; one bottle of gin, a " snifter " of which was favoured by her

husband, Denis; and 200 Benson and Hedges cigarettes costing a total of 65.10

francs for Thatcher and a senior Downing Street figure.

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Elsewhere, Thatcher berates officials for not providing a " sufficiently

interesting " itinerary for the first day of her maiden tour to the US and

requests a " fuller programme " in New York.

She furiously annotates documents in blue fountain pen, adding notes,

underlining and even correcting officials' grammar.

In one document on preparations for a dinner with then German chancellor Helmut

Schmidt, she asks: " Has the Chancellor got a sense of humour? "

And on another paper on pay limits written by her finance minister, Geoffrey

Howe, she notes: " This is a very poor paper and we can only charitably assume

that the Treasury is 'otherwise occupied' at the moment. "

The documents were released by the National Archives in London under laws

allowing previously secret files to be made public after 30 years.

Related article: Files show panic over Iran shah's plan to move to Britain