Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Remarks shopping in Warsaw

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Hala Mirowska, plac Mirowski, Warsaw
Source: BBC Sound Archive: OUP transcript
Editorial comments: 1050-1120. The report also covers MT’s visit to the Church of St. Stanislaw Kostka (1420-1440).
Importance ranking: Trivial
Word count: 340

Reporter

Mrs Thatcher's second day had as its broad themes the best way to run an economy and political freedom in Poland. Her talks with the Prime Minister, Mr. Rakowski, yielded no immediate help for the Poles over their huge foreign debt. She encouraged further reform. She then went to a market where, watched and applauded by several hundred people, she did a bit of home economics herself.

British Diplomat

I can warmly recommend the mushrooms, Prime Minister.

MT

You recommend the mushrooms. And the strawberry jam?

British Diplomat

[indistinct] Well, I brought you here. Strawberry jam.

MT

Two-thirty, two-two-five. Now, you're looking at the prices because I want some mushrooms.

Reporter

During the afternoon, the atmosphere changed during a visit to a churchyard where Father Jerzy Popieluszko is buried. He became a martyr for the Solidarity cause when he was murdered by the security police in 1984. Several thousand people went to the church today and they chanted, “Vivat Thatcher” .

[Crowd chants “Vivat Thatcher!” .]

Reporter

Mrs Thatcher, at this potent symbol of Solidarity, is now laying a wreath against a large granite cross lying on the grave of the murdered priest who was a curate of this church. Applause comes from the many dozens of people here. Father Popieluszko 's elderly parents are present, and the whole scene is being watched by dozens of grey-coated militia men. On the railings of the churchyard are hung dozens of wreaths and Solidarity banners. The largest banner reads “Solidarity was, is, and will be” .

Crowd chants “Solidarnosc!” .

Reporter

The church has become a place of pilgrimage for many foreign politicians. The Pope went there as well, but the feeling of the people there were no less genuine as they sang their patriotic hymn.