Economy: Alan Walters diary (budget) [Hoskyns “very worried about PM - bad way she talks behind men’s backs etc”. Must be told to “mend her ways”][released 2012]

Tuesday 28th July 1981

Excellent reaction to my £15/40 - FT ecstatic. First genuine radical and progressive measure.

JH [John Hoskyns] very worried about PM - bad way she talks behind men s backs etc. Thorneycroft also warned. We must tell her to mend her ways.

Prepared monetary seminar paper for PM - main problem is to give B/E [Bank of England] short term discretion but insist on item delivery on long run targets. Peter Middleton is with me all the way to MBC [Monetary Base Control] in a year or so.