Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Speech to Variety Clubs Dinner

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Guildhall, City of London
Source: Thatcher Archive: speaking text
Editorial comments: 1915 onwards.
Importance ranking: Minor
Word count: 1051
Themes: Arts & entertainment, General Elections, Foreign policy - theory and process, Family, Foreign policy (International organizations), Media, Religion & morality, Voluntary sector & charity

Chief Barker, Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen.

The 40th anniversary year of the Variety Club of Great Britain is a great occasion, the more so because of the Club's fantastic record of service to children's causes. The people who first rallied to this great cause and who subsequently set up the British branch would be proud of all that has been accomplished.

You may wonder what a politician is doing on this platform. But there is more in common between politics and the music hall than you may think. After all I do a matinée every Tuesday and Thursday, and it's televised around the world too. There's no script and no prompter, so I have to ad lib like the rest of you. [end p1]

Whenever I hear one of my political opponents claiming that the next election will be my positively last appearance, I think fondly of the variety stage—where, I understand, some of the longest and most successful careers consist in large measure of positively last appearances.

When I look for encouragement in difficult days, Chief Barker, my role models are not long-serving Prime Ministers like Lord Liverpool, William Pitt or Sir Robert Walpole, but escape artists like Houdini. After all if you can't win an election wrapped in chains, locked in a box and thrown into the river, you shouldn't be in politics.

One of the Press's problems is that they have [end p2] never sat through to the end of “The Perils of Pauline” . Every election, they think that the girl is going to get run over by the train. So far she never has—let's hope it stays that way.

Chief Barker, you have certainly been faithful to variety in inviting your guests today: a satirist, a politician and a matchmaker.

Cilla BlackCilla has arranged more alliances than Bismarck. But on this occasion her services are not required. I will confess that I have already been on a blind date with David Frost on breakfast television, though he quizzed me about politics the whole time. It's a funny world when those who ask the questions are paid so much more than those who provide the answers [end p3]

Chief Barker, the Variety Club's work for children's causes extends to twelve countries around the world. In this country it has raised £76 million since it was founded in 1949. Currently it is raising about £6 million a year on top of which is this year's special Childrens Hospitals Appeal of £5 million. This will be a magnificent achievement and I congratulate all who are working so hard to bring it about.

Almost all this money will go directly to benefit children and as little as possible on bureaucracy—indeed the Club's overheads are among the lowest of any charity in the country. The Variety Club has raised this money by numerous different events, lunches, dinners, [end p4] shows. Through its charity Pro-Am competitions, it has even managed to put golf to a socially useful purpose which, as a golfing widow myself, I must say is only fair, given the neglect of mothers and children to which it gives rise.

The beneficiaries of these events are handicapped, sick and disadvantaged children. In the middle of the last century, in response to the conditions which Dickens described so graphically, there was an enormous upsurge in activity to help children. We remember Lord Shaftesbury who campaigned for laws to protect children, Robert Raikes who started the Sunday School Movement, Prebendary Ruolf who founded the Church of England Children's Society, Dr. Stevenson who founded the first National [end p5] childrens Home and, of course, Dr. Barnardo.

These great reformers must have hoped that, with rising prosperity, the need for their work would diminish. But it is evident that their hopes have been disappointed. It remains the case that many thousands of children today are still suffering neglect and even cruelty and abuse. The very parents to whom they should be able to look for help are sometimes those at whose hands they suffer.

Many thousands of children are denied the stable loving family background which they need in order to prosper, to develop their confidence and self-respect. The most precious gifts one can make to one's children are one's time and affection. These are life's true [end p6] riches.

Fortunately medical science has done wonders for children with illness or handicap. So much is possible now that could not have been attempted even twenty years ago though these treatments are often long and expensive. In overcoming their afflictions such children show endurance and resolve to match that of the greatest sportsmen or the finest musicians. Through the Children's Hospital Appeal we can reward their courage.

Chief Barker, it is part of the character of Britain that as we have prospered, we have reinvested our money or, even more valuably, our time, for the benefit of others; that we do not have to be conscripts but are willing [end p7] volunteers. It was in this way that so many of our hospitals, libraries and art galleries were built, that so many of our great charities were created. Britain has always been a putting in society, rather than a taking out one. As the work of the Variety Club and the response to its appeals demonstrate, that is as true now as it has ever been.

There are some who will say that the natural desire to do better for oneself and one's family is materialistic. May I quote John Wesley:

“Do not impute to money the faults of human nature.”

What an empty life it would be if people did not choose to give, or were denied the [end p8] opportunity to do so. For voluntary effort is a vital thread in our society, giving purpose to our existence, not just as individuals, but as members of communities.

The ending of the tensions of the Cold War holds out the prospect of a world at peace, in which the United Nations can play the role envisaged by its founders. The greatest prize we can bequeath to our children is a world in which the rule of law not only protects the rights of individuals but also governs the conduct of nations. If that is lost the wonderful work which the Variety Club does for children around the world will have been betrayed. As my pledge, I will do all in my power to ensure that, in the closing years of the millenium, that prize is won.