Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Remarks visiting Sunderland (terrorism)

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Swan Hunter, North Sands Shipyard, Sunderland
Source: ITN Archive: OUP transcript
Editorial comments: MT visited the yard between 1420 and 1500 to launch the diving support vessel Stenna Seawell. BBC indexes have MT saying "ship is advert for extra orders; certainly must try to get extra orders".
Importance ranking: Trivial
Word count: 216
Themes: Autobiography (marriage & children), Terrorism

Reporter

For security reasons, the timing of the ceremony was kept a close secret, and Mrs Thatcher wasted no time naming the £70 million diving support vessel, watched by the men who built her.

MT

I name this ship Stenna Seawell [cheers and applause].

Reporter

But new orders are needed urgently. Otherwise 3,000 jobs could be lost here by early next year, a worrying prospect for Mrs Thatcher, whose son, Mark, has been asked to leave his apartment in Dallas, Texas, because the owners fear that he's a target for terrorists.

Journalists

Prime Minister! Prime Minister!

MT

Gentlemen of the press! Yes [break in tape].

MT

Well, terrorism affects us all, and it affects us just as much as anyone else. And I am as worried as anyone else would be, and as many other people are, and I know that many people have already been affected by terrorism. We just have to fight it.

Reporter

Later, Mrs Thatcher drove to a Scottish hotel for an annual secret meeting of the West's leading diplomats and financiers. The security was more intense than ever. Even the famous Gleneagles golf course was deserted.