Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Radio Interview for London Broadcasting (LBC)

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Unknown
Source: Thatcher Archive: Conservative Central Office transcript
Journalist: Peter Murphy, LBC
Editorial comments: Time and place of interview unknown; broadcast - probably live - at 0900.
Importance ranking: Minor
Word count: 703
Themes: Autobiographical comments, General Elections, Foreign policy (Middle East), Leadership, Women

Newcaster

Well, with the General Election less than six days away the polls have shown the Tory lead diminishing. The fact that the Leader of the Conservative Party is a woman will undoubtedly have an effect on the Election. Peter Murphy in an exclusive interview with Mrs Thatcher asked her whether she thought her sex would be a plus or a minus?

Mrs Thatcher

I don't know. I find it very difficult to make up my mind. I think it will be a plus with a lot of women, particularly housewives who know I know from experience the sort of thing which they encounter daily, who know I know what it is like to be a working wife as well as running a home. Now, there is no substitute for experience in that—either you know it, you've had 25 to 30 years of it or else you haven't, and I think that will bring a tremendous number of women over to our side. Of course, to counter-balance that there will be some prejudice. Obviously you wouldn't expect me to understand prejudice. After all, when you think there have been women at the top, in politics for a long time, only they were Monarchs in those days. Queen Elizabeth I, was one of our most successful rulers we have ever had. Britain expanded under her rule—we beat the Armada. And then of course if you look at other countries, well, my goodness me, Golda Meir saw Israel through one of the most difficult periods in her history. She didn't falter, she was marvellous. And I think it will be all right, it will be perfectly all right, I think it will just be that we'll have to merge the person with the job and then they'll get used to it and wonder why they were ever, had the prejudices in the first place.

Peter Murphy

It'll be all right on the night, as they say?

Mrs Thatcher

Oh, and a lot more years afterwards.

Peter Murphy

Now, you've been reported as saying in the past that you would only get one chance at becoming Prime Minister. Is that something [end p1] that really worries you as you campaign? Do you campaign that much harder?

Mrs Thatcher

No, I campaign in any event as hard as I can go. Yes, I think one will have just one chance, that's the law of life and I don't like to fly in the face of the law of life and that is my summing up of what it would be like. I am already going flat out—it doesn't make me campaign much harder. What makes me campaign as hard as I can possibly go is because I have a certain belief in the way and the direction in which Britain should go. And I think we have retreated so far in the last few years. All the talent, all the ability which took this country into the industrial revolution first, which gave us a tremendous Empire, then we relinquished it, not because we had to but by choice because those were the things we believed in, all of those tremendous things, tremendous qualities are not being used in Britain and we sit and watch other nations pass us, not because their people are better—they're not—but because all of our talents and abilities are not being used here in Britain and I want to see that they are. And it is that passion that makes me fight as hard as I can.

Peter Murphy

Do you ever consider the possibility of defeat or is that just not on as far as you are concerned?

Mrs Thatcher

I don't seriously consider it, which is very strange because I am not the sort of person who counts chickens before they are hatched in any way and you will never hear me either in a by-election or a general election say I am confident of victory. I am very cautious in my judgements but there's two sides to one's nature, particularly if you are a woman. There's all the logical side—I've had years and years of logical training, as first a science degree, then working as a research chemist, then working as a lawyer, years of logical training but that in fact doesn't wholly overcome the deep sixth sense and the deep instinct and it is that deep instinct which somehow makes me believe in my heart of hearts that we are going to win and that predominates.

Newcaster

Tory Party leader talking there in an exclusive interview with Peter Murphy.