Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Remarks arriving in Lusaka

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Lusaka International Airport, Zambia
Source:
Journalist: John Simpson, BBC, reporting
Editorial comments: Around 2225 local time. In his memoir Strange Places, Questionable People (1998), John Simpson records a brief exchange at the foot of the aircraft steps, surrounded by a large and perhaps unfriendly crowd. He asked: "Prime Minister, there have been many attacks on you in the press here. Do you think you’re going to have a difficult time at the Commonwealth Conference?" MT replied: "No, I don’t. I’m just going to put our point as well as I can, and no amount of pressure can stop that. My goodness, it will take more than that to stop us". Simpson comments: "It was a magnificent performance"; MT’s willingness to speak to cameras off the cuff marked out her out from predecessors. "She regarded the cameras as her allies, and used them to her own advantage; even at a difficult time like that" (p243). John Simpson misdates the incident. (A second extract from an interview with MT on the following page (p244) cannot even be remotely dated and is th
Importance ranking: Minor
Word count: nil
Themes: Commonwealth (Rhodesia-Zimbabwe)