The PM is pleased

There is no doubt Mrs Thatcher is pleased with Finchley. To her evident delight she found her recent constituency tour a vindication of her government's policy on education, health and the family.

First stop was the £1.5m Technology Centre at Finchley Catholic High School in Woodside Lane, Woodside Park.

Meeting the prime minister gave quite a few of the boys the butterflies, but not 12-year-old John Sheehan: “I wasn't nervous at all, she's just another person really.”

Headmaster Stephen Szemerenyi, chaplain Father Haines and Barnet Council's advisor on the centre, Paul King, then led Mrs Thatcher to a reception, where she praised the school for building the centre.

“You have a purposeful background here, dedicated staff and you have another very great thing—work between governors, parents and the school.

“It is marvellous to come and know that the things one wants to happen are happening so in one's own constituency,” she said.

Next it was on to the Kenwood Nursing Home in Alexandra Grove, North Finchley, which was celebrating its first birthday after a major refurbishment work.

Owned by Frank and Joan Withers, the home charges from £265 to £350 a week, houses 20 patients with a total staff of 40.

Mrs Thatcher talked to every patient including the oldest, 98-year-old Adelaide Allen.

Following her monthly surgery for constituents, Mrs Thatcher went on to a reception held by Barnet Anglo-Asian Conservative Association, of which she is vice-president, at Friern Barnet County School.

In one of her most powerful local speeches of recent years, she praised the Asian community as hard-working, family-oriented and prosperous.

“Children take their values from the family around them long before they go to school.

“Our whole country is based on the family unit.

“The values on which this country stands come not from politicans but from a deeper purpose to life.

“We need these values if we are going to stamp out the violence in our society,” she said.