3.44 p.m.
Mrs. Margaret Thatcher (Finchley)
May I support the motion so eloquently moved by James Callaghanthe Prime Minister. I support it briefly on behalf of my right hon. and hon. Friends, and in being brief I feel that that is a quality which would have appealed to the person whom we are honouring.
The Prime Minister obviously knew Earl Attlee a great deal better than some of us. I knew him only from afar. Above all, he was a great British patriot. He had an outstanding war record in the First World War and an outstanding record of a different quality in the Second World War. This quality of patriotism remained with him throughout his political service and to the end of his life.
Earl Attlee was at the centre of the political stage at a time when there were other powerful personalities upon it. Yet he brought to his own task qualities of a rare distinction which we should never underestimate. These qualities were those of an outstandingly clear mind—and in politics that is every bit as important as a highly intellectual mind and sometimes more so; a decisive mind which was necessary to judge between some of the views urged upon him; and a very courageous mind, because some of the decisions which he took towards the end of his Prime Ministership he had to take alone, and he did not flinch from doing so. Those are three qualities which we should all honour and acclaim and three qualities which will grow and not diminish with the passage of time.
To those people who always watched him from afar I should like to say that there was nothing bogus or artificial about Earl Attlee. He was a person of total integrity and for these reasons I should like to add my voice to that of the Prime Minister in saying why we [column 37]rejoice with him that he has brought this motion before the House today. We think it is right that we should have a memorial to the late Earl Attlee in this place which, after all, was the home of his great achievements.