Maggie's magic Monday
Elizabeth Hammond trails the Prime Minister on two very close dates
Margaret Thatcher is sure to be a draw at any occasion—but Monday evening she broke all the records.
Finchley Synagogue in Kinloss Gardens was packed with members of the Finchley Friends of Israel to welcome their president and celebrate its 25th anniversary.
And just up the road a queue was snaking out of St Mary's Church hall in Hendon Lane, Finchley, where it was standing room only at the Finchley Conservatives annual meeting.
Mrs Thatcher, and husband Denis, were not the only ones rushing from one venue to the other. Former councillor Frank Gibson, due to be made a freeman of the borough in June, is chairman of the Friends and president of the Finchley Tories. “My only worry is not to muddle up my speeches,” he admitted.
“To think just over 25 years ago on a snowy winter night this group was formed,” he told the Finchley Friends of Israel.
“Here we are again with the same president, only now she is of course a third term prime minister of this great country and looked upon quite rightly as the most capable and experienced leader of the free world.”
He turned to Mrs Thatcher: “Prime minister, this is the stuff dreams are made of but tonight it's a reality.
“Your support and concern for Israel as president for 25 years and all that time during the wars and times of worry, as Israel is now going through, your support, constructive advice and above all your search for enduring peace in the Middle East is constant.
“There's no worthier friend of Israel,” he added.
Mrs Thatcher said the 25 years had been full of sorrows—and joys. “We had all hoped we should have come to a solution which would have enabled Israel and the other nations there to dwell in peace and safety with one another, as the old and new testaments ask and expect of us.
“We're still searching for that solution. It's important not to lose hope or stop trying. But it isn't for outsiders to try to find a solution. No-one can impose it. If we did, it wouldn't stick.”
Mrs Thatcher also told the audience one of her greatest-ever pleasures as prime minister was her part in making the Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits a life peer: “There is no greater admirer in this room than I.”
After a whirlwind tour of the room meeting members, Mrs Thatcher was on her way to another band of her faithful flock at the Conservatives annual meeting.
“This time last year I couldn't tell you there was going to be an election because I decided that later. People think it was easy, a foregone conclusion—it wasn't. We didn't leave anything to chance,” she said.
A lot of that success in Finchley was thanks to the local workers.
She had the chance to welcome Hendon South MP and London North Euro MP John Marshall on to the stage—and into the House of Commons. “He always asks me nice questions enabling me to criticise the opposition and make constructive comments in one breath,” she said.
But Mrs Thatcher could not help projecting how things might have been. “You saw the performance of the opponents but you've seen a great deal more since.
“You've seen them in their true light, totally and utterly fallen apart, divided down the middle. What sort of country would this be today if either had got in power? What sort of leadership would they have given Britain?”
The meeting re-elected president Mr Gibson and chairman Ron Thurlow uncontested and deputy chairman Godfrey Phillips fought off opponent Cynthia Lake to keep his seat. Bill Vokes and Stuart Martyn were elected vice-chairmen and treasurer Tam Hartley kept his position, although he had to face one question from the floor over the year's accounts.
The dispute, over former agent Andrew Thomson 's car which put the accounts into the red, was settled amicably with a promise of a clear explanation after the meeting. “I only wish I had such nice questions on Wednesday in the House that I could promise to answer over a glass of sherry afterwards,” Mrs Thatcher joked.