Question (Brendan Karga, Year 1, Orange Creek)
If you are the boss of England, what does your husband do?
Prime Minister
Denis ThatcherMy husband does what most other husbands do; he works in industry, which he has done all his life and he still continues to do it. He was in the oil and … . industry, but he also knows about quite a lot of other things, so he is a very busy person as well as me.
Something else: he loves rugby football and he loves golf, so he is quite busy and he is here with me.
Question (Joanne Morris, Year 3)
What is your favourite place in England? [end p1]
Have you got a favourite place in England that you like.
Prime Minister
Not just one, Joanne, because there are so many very beautiful places in England, Wales and Scotland and some in Northern Ireland, but I think one always just feels a special bond towards the place where you were born, which in my case was Grantham, Lincolnshire, and then, really, most of my life has been lived in London and I love it. It is a city which has so much, and one day, I hope you will visit it. We would love to see you.
Question (Clinton Smith, Year 7, New Crown)
Do you find it difficult to make important decisions?
Prime Minister
Thank you very much, Clinton. We can actually hear you quite clearly, which is marvellous.
No, I don't find it difficult to make important decisions, because in a way, we are having to do that pretty nearly all the time. [end p2]
I do not make them alone. We have a Cabinet and we have a meeting every Thursday and we have all done a lot of preparation for it and then there are other meetings of Ministers which I have and some of the decisions we have to make are ones that have to be made fairly quickly because they matter this week or next week, and other we have to make are in the long-term future, because we know that people like you will be around for fifty, sixty, seventy may be eighty years, so at the same time as making the immediate decisions, we are thinking: “What kind of country will it be for you to live in?” but we never take them alone and when we have done those decisions, we have to go to our Parliament and get Parliament to confirm them, and I am in Parliament, speaking, two days every week when I have to answer questions just as I am answering them now.
Question (Kate Taylor, Year 7)
Why did you enter politics?
Prime Minister
Why did I enter? Really, because I was very interested in politics, but when I was very young and at school, I could not possibly have wanted to go into politics because in those days politicians were not paid very much and I would not have been able to afford to do it, but as I became older they became paid more and so I was able to think about it. [end p3]
At school and at university, I took a scientific degree and it has been very useful to me all my time in politics, but you know, Alfred Robertsmy father and I, Beatrice Robertsmy mother and I, used to talk about politics a lot when I was at school. There were lots of interesting things going on. I used to read the papers a lot and read books, and I found everything about politics very interesting—not only the things that were going on in my own country, but also all the news which came in from other countries, and so I learned more and more and then I joined debating societies at school. My father was quite a good speaker and I was able to speak and gradually there came a chance that I could stand as a candidate and I took that chance.
I first stood as a candidate when I was twenty-three years old. I did not win that particular constituency, but I went on and tried again and again and eventually I got into Parliament and I have absolutely loved it and it is a job I would like to do more than anything else.
So if you feel interested in it, you just carry on the same way and you one day might have exactly the same chance.
Question (Rebecca McAndrew, Year 2, Sink)
Do you go to the Queen's place for dinner? What is your favourite dinner? [end p4]
Prime Minister
Yes, I do go to see the Queen for dinner sometimes, usually when there is a very big dinner on and there are lots of people, and now and then privately.
I do not know that I have a favourite dinner. I like plain food very nicely cooked. I am very fond of fish. I like good beef—I prefer it minced to in great big steaks. I do like a hot dinner and I like chicken. I think I like most things.
Question (Bronte Holt, Year 2, Delney Station)
What part of your education do you feel … . in your role as Prime Minister of England?
Prime Minister
Well first, you want a very good general education, in the language, in mathematics, I think quite a bit of history and quite a lot of geography, and I was very lucky. I had a good scientific education. That is important these days, because so many things involve science and new discoveries, but I think if you learn hard a basic education at school, you will be able to have all that you want for going into politics.
The reason you go into politics is because your extremely interested in it, you are extremely interested in people and because you think that somehow you might, together, be able to create a better future. [end p5]
So you try hard in all your basic lessons, learn as much as you can. As I said before, read the newspapers, read books and discuss things. It is very important in politics to be able to discuss things with people and to be able to put what you want to say into words. That is not always very easy, is it? You have the thoughts and cannot necessarily find the words.
I think you are very special people, because you have got a kind of experience that not many others have got, so you have got something special to bring to politics.
You see, in politics you want all sorts of people from all sorts of jobs so that between you, when you come to Parliament, someone will know something about almost anything that comes up in Parliament.
So if that is what you want to do, good luck to you!
Same Questioner
Thank you, Mrs. Thatcher. I hope you like it in Australia.
Prime Minister
Thank you. I am loving my visit to Australia. [end p6]
Question (Carlie Bridge, Transition, King's Canyon)
Have you got any pets?
Prime Minister
We have not got any pets at the moment, at least not at No. 10 Downing Street because, you know, if you have pets you must look after them properly and I really have not very much time.
We are very lucky that we have a country house that we can sometimes go to at week-ends and we have there one cat named Tabby. Tabby is only about two. Tabby was a stray cat. Somehow, she had got lost and she had been out in the wild for quite a time and then she turned up one day at our door, really rather scruffy-looking, rather hungry, and we fed her, but she did not come in for quite a time. Then, the weather got bad and she came in and she has now got a lovely coat and she is a very nice, friendly cat, but it took her a long time to get used to people. She somehow seemed a little bit afraid of them and we like Tabby very much, but she stays there and there are people down there to look after her.
I would love a dog, but you know, they need to be taken out for a walk regularly because we do not have very much of a garden at No. 10. It is a nice garden, but not big enough just to leave a dog in there without going for a walk. [end p7]
Question (Katherine Morford, Year 1)
How do you get to school when it is snowing?
Prime Minister
It does not really snow very much in England unless we have a very bad winter, but if it does, then somehow the roads are cleared fairly quickly or gravel is put on them so that cars do not slide about and so you go to school, really, in the ordinary way. If you go by car, you would go by car; if the bus comes round to pick you up, it will come to pick you up; and if you are near enough to school, you would walk. So it is not really different. You wrap up very well.
It is quite fun going to school in the snow. You snowball one another and have a real high old time, but it does not really happen very often.
Question (Douane Burrell, Year 1)
Would you like to do School of the Air?
Prime Minister
As a teacher or as a pupil, do you think?
Same Questioner
As a student. [end p8]
Prime Minister
Well, do you know, I have never thought about it because I always went to school with a lot of other children and enjoyed that very much, but I think this is very exciting, the School of the Air, because you can get just as good a schooling over the air with the videos you get and the written work you get almost as we can get by going to school together.
I am very pleased to hear that you come in about four times a year, because I think you learn a lot from one another. Don't you find that? That when you come and you talk to other children and you say: “How did you do with that difficult lesson?” that you learn quite a lot from one another? Do you find that Douane?
Douane
Yes.
Prime Minister
Yes, I am sure you do, and can you sometimes see other children where you are? Is there anyone fairly near that you can get together?
Douane
Yes, sometimes.
Prime Minister
Yes, also. I think, then, that everything is done very well, don't you? [end p9]
Douane
Yes.
Prime Minister
Good! I think I would quite like to be a student at the School of the Air and I also think that I would quite like to be a teacher, because I think your teachers are wonderful people and I think we have all a lot to thank them for, don't you?
Douane (Inaudible)
Prime Minister
Yes. Thank you very much.
School Principal
Luke James is in pre-school and he is at Carlton Down.
Prime Minister
Pre-school! That means he is, what, four?
School Principal
Four-and-a-half.
Prime Minister
Four-and-a-half. Luke, we are looking forward to your question! [end p10]
Question (Luke James)
How do you get to work?
Prime Minister
How do I get to work? Well, I will let you into a secret!
I live in a flat that is on top of No. 10 Downing Street and I … . (work at) No. 10 Downing Street, so most days I only just have to walk down the stairs to get to my office.
If I go to our own personal house for the evening or for a day or if I go to the country, then I mostly get to work by car because it is much quicker that way.
But really, you could say that in 10 Downing Street I live over my work and that is as well, because it goes on for about eighteen or nineteen hours a day. That is a long time, isn't it?
Question (Jane Taylor, Year 4)
Do you get sick and tired of travelling and have you been to Australia before?
Prime Minister
No, I don't get sick and tired of travelling. I love travelling, whether it be about my own country or to see other countries, and politicians do far more travelling now than ever we did before because we can do it more quickly and that is very good, [end p11] because prime ministers can talk to one another the world over and then, sometimes, we can get on the telephone if there is anything that is worrying us and just have a word that way. But I never get sick of it. I like it and, you know, the more you know in a way, the more you want to travel and see how other people live.
Yes, I have been to Australia before. One of my jobs in politics was to be the Minister for Education and Science and I came to Australia when I was Minister of Education to see how you were doing things here and that is the last time I appeared—if that is the word—on the School of the Air. I went to Broken Hill and I heard children there on School of the Air and I have been three other times since, so this is the fifth time I have been to Australia, but I have never been to Alice Springs until today. Thank you, Jane!
Question (Taran McKill, 6)
Why did you become Prime Minister? What did you hope to change by becoming Prime Minister?
Prime Minister
Why did I become Prime Minister?
When the last Edward HeathLeader of our Party resigned, it was suggested that I put my name in and I was elected by my Party to be Leader. We were then in Opposition and I looked forward very much to [end p12] winning an election and becoming Prime Minister.
This is a long time before you were born, because I became Leader of my Party in 1975 and I did not become Prime Minister until four years later, and all that time we spent deciding precisely what we would do when we got into power.
I became Prime Minister because I felt that my country could be very much more successful than it was if governments did the right things and people themselves, they worked very hard, and all did everything they could to get the country successful once again and we managed to achieve that.
And then, we planned great big policies for the future and this year we have been looking very closely at education, because we think that it is not quite as good as it should be, and so we are changing certain things there.
And then, you have to look very closely at all the changes that are taking place and there are many changes. You know, as we discover new things, so we have to decide what we can do with them best and whether they will make life better for us.
The other thing is that we always have to keep contact with other countries, because now we can travel around so quickly, you find that the world is getting a smaller place and we really wanted to build a world which is peaceful, with more freedom and more fairness. All of those things, I wanted very much to do and I [end p13] think I have found it the best job in the world, being Prime Minister, and seeing some of the things happen; seeing my country become very successful and hard-working and successful because it is hard-working and seeing it being able to talk more and more to other countries, so we can do things together to help poorer countries and do things together to build for you young people a world that is peaceful and where you are secure and where you can build your own lives with the things which you want to do for your yourselves and your families.
Thank you very much! It was a lovely question!
School Principal
Thank you very much, Mrs. Thatcher, and thank you to Taran for that.
Mrs. Thatcher, we would like to thank you very much for coming to School of the Air and I, as Principal, am going to ask you if you would please sign our special Visitors' Book.
Prime Minister
Yes, of course I will. Can I just say thank you too?
Can I say thank you to you all, first for putting in the questions and then for listening, and say that I am very interested in everything educational because it is one way we can build the [end p14] future and you know, we are all going to see far more of one another because you are going to travel round far more than your parents did and there are going to be all sorts of things to help you which we never knew.
I think you are building a great Australia. This great nation has a tremendous future and you are the children who are going to build it, so if you learn as much as you can and listen to your teachers and work as hard as you can, you will find that you get most out of life.
Can I just tell you a little story! It is a story of a vicar and his son and, of course, they went to church every Sunday morning and as they went in the back of the church there was a collecting box to help vicars who were old and not very rich and, of course, the vicar put his little contribution into that box in one coin. And at the end, they went to the back of the church and emptied the box and one coin rolled out and the son said to his father: “Dad, if you had put more in, you would have got more out!”
Now, work is like that: the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it and life is like that: the more you put in, the more you will get out. And that is how you build a great country and yours is a great country.
Thank you very much! [end p15]
School Principal
Thank you very much, Mrs. Thatcher. You are not going to get out of it quite that easy, because one of the traditions, if you look around the studio before you, is that we ask important people—visitors that come to our school—to sign our wall and just before you leave, I would like you to sign our wall and I would like to take with you just a memento. These are our famous School of the Air hats. We would like you to take this School of the Air hat.
Prime Minister
I have come in the right colour, haven't I? That is splendid, isn't it?
School Principal
In there, you will find a little booklet on School of the Air and a booklet on the Northern Territory as well. That is just a memento of your visit to us.
Prime Minister
I have become a graduate?
School Principal
You have become a graduate. [end p16]
Prime Minister
I have become a graduate. That is absolutely lovely. Have I passed my exam?
School Principal
I think you have passed your exam very very well.
Prime Minister
You think I have passed. Would you give me reasonably good marks for the broadcast?
School Principal
Very good marks for the broadcast.
Prime Minister
Well, I would give them very good marks for the questions. (ALL BOYS AND GIRLS TOGETHER SAY “GOOD AFTERNOON, MRS. THATCHER!” )
Prime Minister
Good afternoon! Goodbye and good luck to you all! Goodbye!
Kate (On behalf of all students)
(Inaudible) [end p17]
Prime Minister
Thank you. That is lovely and thank you for that little speech.
I think the School of the Air teaches you all to speak very well. I think you will make very good politicians! Thank you very much.
School Principal
Thank you, Mrs. Thatcher, and good afternoon everybody.
Prime Minister
Good afternoon!