Cheering crowds greet Thatcher in Ipswich

Tight security for visit

The arrival of Mrs. Thatcher's election “battle bus” in Ipswich was greeted by cheering crowds—and a major security operation.

Her visit to the eye-catching black glass head-quarters of insurance broking giants Willis Fabe had been scheduled to last just half-an-hour, but she toured the building and chatted with staff for nearly 50 minutes.

As she left for the next phase of her day-long made-for-the-media tour through East Anglia, she told the EADT, “It's been a very happy and very successful visit. It has been lovely.”

At times the Prime Minister was almost submerged in a sea of reporters, cameramen and sound technicians, but she smiled her way through the visit.

Before her bus drew up outside the Willis Faber offices, two coach-loads, carrying some 90 members of the travelling Press corps, arrived in Ipswich.

Special Branch

Police officers threw a tight security cordon around the building in Friars Street, and the large waiting crowds—mostly Tory supporters and many wearing party rosettes—were kept back behind barriers.

For a short while roads were sealed off and armed Special Branch officers kept an anxious eye on the Willis Faber entrance foyer.

There had been reports that a demonstration was planned, but any protest chants were drowned by cries of “five more years” by Mrs. Thatcher's supporters.

Excited crowds of well-wishers began gathering an hour before the Prime Minister was due. Details of the tour had been kept under wraps until four hours before Mrs. Thatcher's helicopter touched down near Bury St. Edmunds.

The visit, carefully tailored to the needs of television, was one long extended photo-opportunity, used to emphasise the booming nature of East Anglia's economy.

After riding up the escalators to the Willis Faber roof garden, Mrs. Thatcher leaned over the parapet and pointed out the Greyfriars office block.

‘Lots of jobs’

“I'm often asked where new jobs have come from. When I last came here it wasn't there. Now it's occupied and there are lots of jobs.”

Mrs. Thatcher, accompanied by senior Willis Faber executives and Ipswich Tory candidate Mr. Michael Irvine, had earlier signed the visitor's book.

She wrote, “Margaret Thatcher, 10 Downing Street, hoping to stay.” On her last visit to the firm during the 1979 General Election, she had written simply, “Margaret Thatcher, in transit, hoping to move.”

The Prime Minister spent some time talking to a group of Willis Faber employees, who were taken on by the firm after completing Youth Training Schemes there.

‘Marvellous’

Susan Nears, 20, presented her with a posy, which Mrs. Thatcher said matched her true blue Tory blouse, and chatted about the advantages and drawbacks of YTS.

Bev Poll, 20, said, “I think it is marvellous she wanted to see what we felt and listened to try to improve the schemes.”

Staff in the futuristic office block lined the galleries around the main escalators and there was much spontaneous applause.

Mrs. Thatcher made a special detour to talk to canteen staff and she discussed the eating out boom in Britain with them.

She explained her interest in food by stressing her Grantham roots. “I am born and bred in the grocery trade,” she said.