Robert Wilson
Prime Minister, first of all, Christmas is very much a time when we look forward to being at home with the family. What do you have to say to staff and patients who have to spend Christmas in hospital this year?
Prime Minister
Well many of them, I think, will have their families coming to visit them in hospital, but even more than that, the hospital itself is a kind of family around the patient. I am always very impressed that when I go and visit people in hospital and I have been, for obvious reasons, rather a lot this year, they not only have their own family at home but they acquire a second family—all the people who do everything for them in hospital—and they are not just patients, they are people. And the way in which the staff and the patients get involved in the whole future of one another is marvellous to behold, so in a way, they have acquired a second extra family, also helping them on their way back to taking a full place in day-to-day life. [end p1]
Robert Wilson
Now, the Brighton bombing has cast something of a shadow over the latter part of this year and you have made a number of visits to Stoke Mandeville Hospital in particular to see Mr. and Mrs. Tebbit. Do you have a special message for the people there this Christmas?
Prime Minister
I have been many times. The staff there are absolutely marvellous and the surroundings beautiful and everything, but everything, is done for the patient; and they encourage you the whole time to do a little bit better, you know, to take you forward, to do a little bit more each day. It is a marvellous study in human nature and how to bring the very best out of people.
I know that everyone there thinks they are very very fortunate to be in Stoke Mandeville and I think they would like to say a very big thank you to the staff and I will hope some time over Christmas to be along at Stoke Mandeville to see some of my friends who are still there.
Robert Wilson
Of course, everyone in all our hospitals tries to make sure that Christmas is a happy occasion for staff and patients, especially the children, but how far are you, I wonder, as Prime Minister, able to enjoy a traditional family Christmas? [end p2]
Prime Minister
Much much more so than on any other holiday. One does make a point of trying to clear the day at Christmas. I think a little bit more of perhaps deeper things than the daily problems. There are some marvellous Christmas carols, you know, if you look at the words. There is one “It came upon a midnight clear” ; there are just two marvellous lines which are so apposite now. “Oh hush the noise ye men of strife and hear the angels sing,” and I think there are times in life, and Christmas is one of them, when you do just stop and think: “Now, look! What is it all for? What am I really here for? Why is it that we have things like a conscience? Isn't it because we do believe that there is a God and that Jesus Christ was his only Son?” And we do believe the Christmas Message. And it is as well for one to sit down and think a little bit sometimes, but you do it with the surroundings of carols, with most marvellous music and, of course, with the other things: the Christmas tree and with family around you. And so it is really a very very special time—not the gifts, but the significance of the time of the year.
Robert Wilson
Do you have a special kind of routine, a sort of Christmas routine, which you and your family like to follow every year? [end p3]
Prime Minister
Yes we do. We have had for years. I am afraid we are too old now to have stockings! My children, I hope, will both be home this Christmas. There is one coming in from America, one coming in from Australia. But they are over thirty and we do not have stockings any more, so we get up for breakfast. Usually, I turn on the radio and you might hear a carol. It might be “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” or it might be “Christians Awake, Salute The Happy Morn” sung by the marvellous BBC Singers, you know, wonderful singing. And then, just a very light breakf* then we go to church and the vicar usually asks me to read the lesson and I always take the one from St. Luke's Gospel “Shepherds abiding in the field” . And then we return and we have quite a number of people to Christmas Day lunch because, as you know, it is no more difficult to cook for quite a lot. That is one day in the year when you have got to cook a big turkey. It is no more difficult to cook for quite a lot than it is for a few, so we have several friends and we meet them after we have come back from church.
Then, after lunch, we try to finish in time for the Queen's Christmas Day broadcast. We gather round a television set for that; and then really it is, if we have time, just to have a quick walk, so long as it is, still light. You have got to, to shake that luncheon down! And then, really, you do not want very much to eat for the rest of the day, so you sit around the fire. We have an open fire, which is marvellous, and we just talk and think of other friends. [end p4]
Robert Wilson
Do you hope to see Mr. Tebbit and Mrs. Tebbit over Christmas?
Prime Minister
Well, I am hoping that Mr. Tebbit will be well enough to come out and see us over Christmas and then, of course, we will go and see Mrs. Tebbit because both are very very dear to us. But it will be marvellous if he is fit to come out for a little while; and he is so very much better. But, of course, his first thought and ours too will be to see Margaret. She is a wonderful person.
Robert Wilson
Well, Prime Minister, may I wish you a very happy Christmas. Thank you very much!
Prime Minister
And a Happy Christmas to everyone who is listening; a truly Happy Christmas and the New Year will be what we make it. A Happy Christmas!