margaret kelly michaels today thirty years later

The following day, when word spread around Westminster that Sir Geoffrey was to make a personal statement in the Commons, there was little enthusiasm among political correspondents gathered in the Members' Lobby. And in case anyone doubted it, can I assure you there will be no ducking the bouncers.' In early November, the under-pressure prime minister had said in her Lord Mayor's Banquet speech: 'I am still at the crease, though the bowling has been pretty hostile of late. Once a close ally of Mrs Thatcher, the quiet and usually mild-mannered Sir Geoffrey turned out to be the whispering assassin. Sir Geoffrey quit after Mrs Thatcher humiliated him by demoting him. Her spectacular demise can be traced back to two high-profile resignations, by Sir Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson, prompted by a slump in support for her and the Conservative Party, partly due to the unpopularity of the poll tax, or community charge as she called it, and a split over Europe that still divides the Tories. Image: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev referred to Margaret Thatcher as the 'Iron Lady' Ronald Reagan said she was a 'political soulmate' and French President Francois Mitterrand said of her: 'She has the eyes of Caligula and the mouth of Marilyn Monroe.' It was Mikhail Gorbachev who called her the Iron Lady. It had been a tumultuous - and her admirers would say glorious - 11 years: three general election victories, a purge of the Tory 'wets', council house sales, taming the trade unions, privatisation, the Falklands war, the Brighton bomb, the miners' strike, the poll tax. She waved and got into the car with her ever-faithful husband Denis and a photographer captured the haunting, mournful image of her looking out of the car window that everyone remembers from that historic day. She went outside and, again tearfully, said: 'We're leaving Downing Street for the last time after 11-and-a-half wonderful years and we're happy to leave the UK in a very much better state than when we came here.' 'Crawfie wiped a trace of mascara off my cheek, evidence of a tear which I had been unable to check,' Lady Thatcher wrote.

'I tried to hold back mine, but they flowed freely as I walked down the hall past those applauding me on my way out of office…'īefore going outside she paused to collect her thoughts with her loyal aide and confidante Cynthia Crawford.

In her memoirs, The Downing Street Years, she described how the tears began just after 9am when she said goodbye to No 10 staff before her final audience with the Queen. Mrs Thatcher's last day in office was a Wednesday. Image: Jon Craig interviews then-chancellor John Major

Margaret kelly michaels today thirty years later