.ltMinister with enough time for family commitments
The Times,
11 October 1961
It was, according to Mr. Charles Pannell, a Labour M.P. who is not given to exaggeration or the flattery of Tories, "a rather beautiful maiden speech". Mr. Brooke, then Minister of Housing and Local Government, referred to its brilliance and thought the newcomer had achieved "the rare feat of making a parliamentary reputation on a Friday" - a day that usually finds the House of Commons half empty and the energy of members at a low ebb.
The maiden speaker so auspiciously welcomed to the ranks of the legislators was Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, a fair-haired mother of twins, who, at the age of 35, and after only two years in Parliament as the member for Finchley, gets promotion to the ministerial bench as the Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance.
Characteristically she had ignored the tradition which condemns new M.P.s who may be bursting with enthusiasm and new ideas to making pedestrian, non-controversial speeches on general topics when they first get up to address the House. From the start she fearlessly grasped the nettle of controversy (she thought her constituents in Finchley would not want it otherwise) by putting the case for her Bill, the Public Bodies (Admission of the Press to Meetings) Bill.
In this she sought to give the press new rights to report meetings of public bodies and to thwart the cunning of those councils who, by using the device of moving "that the council do go into committee", could avoid debating in public topics on which they were open to criticism. She was raising an issue which came into prominence during the printing dispute of 1959, when some socialist councils used some such device to secure the exclusion of newspaper reporters.
Opponents of the Bill soon showed their hand. There was a flare-up within a few minutes, because another sponsor of the Bill said that in committee a move would be made to alter the terms of the Bill (to give the public equal rights with the press) in a way which seemed outside the definition of the title. But eventually this was done, and the measure finished its passage as the Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Bill, after Mrs. Thatcher had steered it through all the obstacles with the air of an experienced Minister. Sir Keith Joseph complimented her on her "cogent, lucid, and composed manner" and thought this would not be her last venture into legislation.
FIRST RUNG
Now, with her trim feet on the first rung of the ministerial ladder, it is likely that his prophecy will be fulfilled; before long she will be piloting Government Bills through the Commons in a style which one M.P. has contrasted with the manner of some Ministers who come to the dispatch box with "dreary essays, read in a turgid monotone". The House will get none of this from Mrs. Thatcher. Her undoubted intellectual gifts, her charm, her youthful appearance, and her debating ability have impressed Ministers whenever she has spoken. Those who know her well detect a strong will, some might say almost a ruthlessness, behind her smiling appearance.
Not for Mrs. Thatcher the route to office that might be achieved by meek acquiescence with the Government's policies. She was one of the 69 Conservative backbenchers who defied the party whips when the Criminal Justice Bill was before the House and backed a clause to restore corporal punishment for young offenders on a second or subsequent conviction for crimes of violence. When the Bill was in standing committee she also tried to amend the Bill in the way proposed by Sir Thomas Moore so that the courts would have been empowered to sentence offenders under 21 to corporal punishment instead of, or in addition to, other punishment. She said on that occasion that some who came before the courts were so hardened, so amoral, that a much more effective method of treating them was necessary.
A woman Minister who has a young family to look after is something new to the Commons, and if Mrs. Thatcher felt a little hesitation about accepting the chores of office it must have been caused by the thought that she may have less time to be with her husband and her eight-year-old twins, Mark and Carol.
Her day begins with the children at her home in Farnborough, Kent; she breakfasts with them, gets them ready for school, and makes a point of driving them to the school gate before she sets out for Westminster.
"I shall always make sure that I have time with the children", she said, on hearing of her new appointment. While she is away they are looked after by a nanny. Mrs. Thatcher's leisure interests are listening to music, cooking, and gardening. With her flair for organization she will show that time is expandable.
GROCERY BUSINESS
Her father, Mr. Alfred Roberts, now retired, was in the grocery business in Grantham. She first went to a council school, then to Kesteven and Grantham Girls' High School, and won a bursary to Somerville College, Oxford. She read Natural Science (Chemistry) and is an M.A. and B.Sc. of that university, where she was president of the Conservative Association. On leaving Oxford she did chemical research for four years but since 1954 she has practised as a barrister, specializing in tax cases. She fought Dartford at the 1950 and 1951 general elections, substantially increasing the Conservative vote in that period. In 1951 she married Mr. Denis Thatcher, chairman and managing director of a preserving company in Erith.
One of her first comments on hearing that she had become a Minister was: "We have three out of 13 Conservative women M.P.s now holding Government jobs, which is not a bad proportion. But I would like to see more women M.P.s." Often it is said that, for women, family life and a political career are incompatible. Mrs. Thatcher's progress demonstrates that this is not so.
.lcThis article came soon after Mrs Thatcher had made her debut in parliament. The tone of the piece is one of mild amazement that she was managing to be an MP and run her household at the same time.
