Truth to power

TRUTH TO POWER

What Thatcher was mostly interested in during the summer of 1983 was the Conservative vote and the winning of an election so as to enable her to remain in power for a second term. It may well have been a jolly old nuisance to have to partake in such a thing but that was the nature of the game she was engaged and the time to test the waters of her political popularity was fast approaching.

At the time of the 1979 general election, to assist them in their campaign the Conservative Party had utilised the services of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi who devised the iconic and brilliantly effective billboard poster depicting a long line of people beneath the slogan 'Labour isn't working'. Unemployment at that point stood at just over 1 million. Four years later the figure was 3 million. On entering 10 Downing Street for the first time, Thatcher had addressed the television cameras with a quote supposedly from St Francis of Assisi, positing a new era of harmony, truth and hope. Four years later the absolute polar opposite was well on the way to being achieved.

In any other circumstances this would all have been suitable grounds on which to pass a vote of no confidence and to kick the Conservatives out of office. The Falklands factor, however, though a year after the event was still in effect and on the back of it Thatcher's stock was still high; to such an extent that her own personal profile had eclipsed her Party's which meant that the 1983 general election was all about personalities rather than politics.

The Labour Party seemed totally out of step with the times, their election program even being dubbed 'the longest suicide note in history' by one of their own leading members. The Labour leader, Michael Foot, looking like some old professor with his straggly hair and donkey jacket just didn't stand a chance. Not that Thatcher was absolutely confident of an electoral victory - far from it, in fact - although she was fully aware of the significance of the election as revealed in a speech delivered at a Conservative rally: "This is a historic election," she told her supporters "For the choice facing the nation is between two different ways of life. And what a prize we have to fight for. No less than the chance to banish from our land the dark, divisive clouds of Marxist socialism!"

Fine. Except that Thatcher's political agenda as revealed in a leaked policy paper was almost cruel in its cold heartedness, citing future plans to end State funding of all higher education, the slashing of all welfare benefits and the replacement of the National Health Service with private health insurance.

Thatcher was on a roll, staring down and intimidating anyone who might dare question her 'rightness' in the same manner she had faced down the IRA hunger strikers and the Argentine junta. It took a certain kind of formidable confidence to successfully challenge her, something that very few of her opponents possessed but when people did appear with those qualities they came from very unexpected quarters, one such person being an ordinary middle-aged schoolteacher called Diana Gould.

During the course of the election campaign, Thatcher had deigned to sit in on a BBC television current affairs programme where she faced some questions from the general public. Mrs Gould came on and put a very simple question to Thatcher: "Why, when the Belgrano was outside the exclusion zone and actually sailing away from the Falklands, why did you give orders to sink it?"

Whilst not denying it was she who gave the order, Thatcher was disingenuous with the more important detail: "But it wasn't sailing away from the Falklands," she replied "It was in an area which was a danger to our ships."

Mrs Gould, however, was having none of it and after quoting sea bearings to Thatcher, asked her how could she possibly say it was not sailing away and could she correct her statement? Thatcher was visibly livid at being put on the spot and tried to talk her way around the subject.

"No, Mrs Thatcher," Mrs Gould persisted "That is not good enough."

For almost the first time ever, Thatcher had met her match. Mrs Gould struck directly at Thatcher’s Achilles heel and though it wasn't enough to cause lasting damage, it was a confrontation that Thatcher would never forget.

"Poofs and bloody pinkos!" fumed Thatcher's husband, Dennis, about the BBC, who they both blamed as being responsible for setting up the incident though in all likelihood actually had very little to do with it apart from providing the platform. The fact of the matter was that Mrs Gould was an absolute star that evening and a paragon of truth being spoken to power, whilst Thatcher was just a fucking liar.