Speeches, etc.

Margaret Thatcher

Remarks visiting Finchley

Document type: Speeches, interviews, etc.
Venue: Finchley
Source: Finchley Times, 12 April 1990
Editorial comments: 1515-1545 MT visited the Hindu Cultural Centre in Colney Hatch Lane where she helped launch a local radio station for Asian and other ethnic community listeners; 1600-1635 she called at the North London Hospice and (1650-1755) at the St John’s Ambulance Brigade in Barnet; 2010-2120 she inspected the headquarters of the 11th Finchley Scout Group off Woodside Grange Road. The Finchley Press, 12 April 1990, has more material from the radio station launch. MT said: "There is a large ethnic community in Barnet and Finchley and the radio station will cater for all tastes, bringing several nations together to answer common problems. Private enterprise only succeeds where it pleases the market and I’m sure this station will be doing just that".
Importance ranking: Trivial
Word count: 599
Themes: Race, immigration, nationality

PM's spectrum of visits

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dropped in on Finchley on Friday to welcome four new initiatives for Barnet.

First visit of the afternoon was to the Hindu Cultural Centre, in Colney Hatch Lane, Friern Barnet, where Mrs Thatcher helped launch Spectrum Radio.

Programme controller Keith Belcher explained that the station, which will be based in Brent Cross and begins transmission in May, will feature a nightly two-hour Asian programme.

“It's a very exciting project,” said Mrs Thatcher, admitting too that she enjoys listening to the radio before she goes to sleep at night.

She went on to say how important she believed Spectrum, which aims to cater for many languages and cultures, will be.

“The hope is that as we know more about one another and other people's problems we can solve them peacefully. Discussion is the very best way to solve problems,” she said.

The next appointment of the afternoon was at the offices of the North London Hospice Appeal in Ballards Lane, Finchley, of which Mrs Thatcher is patron.

She was met by Hospice Council chairman Dr. Louis Freedman who showed her drawings of the unit, which will be built in Woodside Avenue, North Finchley, and a scaled-down model of the finished building.

Together with nursing director Harriet Copperman and the hospice administrator, Penni Montgomery, they discussed the problems of finding much-needed funds not only to build the unit but to equip and maintain it and also money to finance the home care-team.

The second half of the hospice visit was spent talking to nurses on the home care team.

During her chat, Mrs. Thatcher stressed that she hoped the hospice would not be used soley for cancer sufferers but room would be provided for the sufferers of other terminal illnesses like motor-neurone disease.

At the opening of the borough's new St John Ambulance headquarters in Priory Grove, Barnet. Mrs Thatcher was welcomed by Barnet's mayor Councillor Dot Benson and joined by president of St John in London, the Duke of Westminster.

Among the guests were Chipping Barnet MP, Sydney Champman, Hendon South MP, John Marshall, and Councillor Barbara Langstone, who begun the fund to build the £240,000 headquarters while mayor of Barnet in 1985.

After unveiling a commemorative plaque, Mrs Thatcher was taken on a tour of the building by Mrs Langstone.

They looked at the ambulances and watched a first aid demonstration before Mrs Thatcher unveiled a second plaque, this time to reveal that the main hall had been named the Barbara Langstone Hall in tribute to her efforts

In the evening, Mrs Thatcher was invited to the opening of the new scout hut of the 11th Finchley Scouts and the 7th North Finchley Brownies in Woodgrange Road, North Finchley.

She arrived, wearing a scarf sporting the scout emblem, to watch the scouts and brownies performing scouting activities in the hall's grounds. She is pictured above chatting to the shivering youngsters before ushering them into the warmth of the new building.

The hall was officially named New Woodgrange Hall, but Mrs Thatcher dedicated it to Bill Hart, the group's founder, whose widow Daphne was among the guests and helped Mrs Thatcher cut the commemorative cake.

The speeches over, Mrs Thatcher was invited to take part in a millionaires' banquet as part of the Go for a Million scouting project for 1990. The feast included food from all nations prepared by the parents and guides.