Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Radio Interview for IRN (10th anniversary as Prime Minister)

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: No.10 Downing Street
Source: Thatcher Archive: COI transcript
Journalist: Peter Murphy, IRN
Editorial comments: 1545 onwards kept free for interviews. MT left for the House of Commons at 1715.
Importance ranking: Major
Word count: 918
Themes: Autobiographical comments, Environment, Health policy, Leadership, Society, Social security & welfare, Voluntary sector & charity

Interviewer

Prime Minister, congratulations on ten years. Have you enjoyed those last ten years?

Prime Minister

Oh yes I have. Of course there have been many many worries, there are when you are in charge of a country, but it has always been a challenge and I really love being here and I love dealing, day after day, with the problems that each day presents and constantly planning for the long-term future. Yes I have really loved the work.

Interviewer

You still seem to enjoy Prime Minister's Question Time. You enjoy bashing away there. In fact you seem to have given a new meaning to granny-bashing in the Commons today. [end p1]

Prime Minister

They were attacking me so why should I not defend myself?

Interviewer

It is an arduous job though and fairly restricting. Do you feel that over the last ten years you have missed out on doing things?

Prime Minister

Yes, but look at the number of things that I have been able to do. It is the positive things that you are able to do. I think that if you start to regret things that you have not done, then you will never lead a very full life.

Interviewer

You cannot pop round the corner for a drink in the evening or anything like that any more, can you?

Prime Minister

No, but I do manage to get out for a walk at weekends, which I love.

Interviewer

The opinion polls recently, there have been a lot of them published to coincide with the 10th Anniversary, have suggested that people feel that you are uncaring. Do you think that they have misunderstood you? [end p2]

Prime Minister

I think they almost certainly have or they have tried to build up an image which is not a true one. It has been one of the great joys of the last ten years that there have been far more resources available for looking after people's health, for hospitals, for old people, and for children and for the disabled.

Far far more because people have earned more and therefore it has yielded more tax and we have been able to do more in the services.

And also for years and years I too have had personal interest in a number of things like, for example, the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, so I think the image is not quite right but it is an image which some people want to build in spite of the reality.

Interviewer

Would you like to be liked?

Prime Minister

I set out to do the task which I have to do. Everyone would like to be liked. But if you set out to have an objective of being liked you will not take the decisions which you have to take.

Interviewer

What about the next ten years, have you still got a lot of work left to do? [end p3]

Prime Minister

Oh, of course. As you climb one peak so you see others ahead. There will always be a lot left to do because life goes on, new opportunities arise, new wants arise. Yes look at the number of people now who regard television and a video as a necessity. They were not known of fifty years ago.

And you always want to do more for those people who are in difficulty and of course research goes on, it tells us how to tackle diseases and that too makes a whole new waiting list and a whole new requirement.

And people have greater ambitions, they want perhaps a better house, they want to travol, all kinds of opportunities arise.

Interviewer

What sort of Britain would you like your grandson to live in when he is old enough to vote?

Prime Minister

A Britain whose people are generous, where people care very much about the community in which they live. Yes it does mean that you care very much about your house, about your garden, about keeping the whole place really rather lovely, not only tidy but lovely, about looking after the woodlands and the whole environment in which we live, everyone is interested in conservation. [end p4]

But also adding your own efforts to it. It may be efforts through belonging to something voluntary, but concern and care for others, a generous society, which is what we are becoming.

Interviewer

What about your own future, have you got your eye on another ten years at No 10?

Prime Minister

I have always taken the view that I should do the very best I can with each day, and always try to plan ahead and foresee what can be foreseen. That is the way I arrived here. That is the way I have carried on since I have been here. That is the way we have enabled things to happen.

The atmosphere today and yesterday at the 1922 Committee Lunch is absolutely wonderful. We have achieved what we have by all pulling together, not only in Cabinet and as Members of Parliament, and not only in the Party, of which I am proud to be a member, also many other people outside who have been well-wishers and who have taken advantage of the opportunities. It really has been a lovely atmosphere and such a happy and enjoyable day. [end p5]

Interviewer

You say you have planned ahead. Have you planned ahead to find a successor to Mrs Thatcher?

Prime Minister

That is not for me ever to decide. It is for me to see that there are several people there from whom the Party, when the time comes, could choose.

Interviewer

You feel they are there?

Prime Minister

Oh yes.