Annie

And we're here in the white drawing room of number 10, Downing Street, for a very special Christmas Hot Seat, where our guest is Britain's first ever woman Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Margaret Thatcher. And of course today Mrs. Thatcher is one of the most important people in Britain, but she started life as a shopkeeper's daugh—daughter from Lincolnshire. Welcome to CBTV, Prime Minister.

P.M

Thank you. And welcome to number 10.

Annie

Lovely to be here at number 10. Now, we've got lots of reporters here who want to ask questions, so, Tom, you start off.

Tom

What newspapers do you like best and why?

P.M

Well, I have to see them, pretty nearly all, to know just what's going on and what other people know. So every morning I get a digest of what each of the papers have said, but every morning I run through them very very quickly indeed. [end p1] it's an important part of my day, especially on the days when I'm answering questions in the House. So I just have to look at them all, from the Times to the Morning Star.

Annie

Right.

Boy

Prime Minister, do you mind when people impersonate you on television?

P.M

Not at all, there's some rather nice people who do it. I knew Janet Brown before I was Prime Minister; I think I'm rather lucky that she impersonates me. She's younger than I am, she's slimmer than I am, she's a delightful person, and I know, because I've met her several times, that she watches, you know, how one changes dress, and apparently one changes all sorts of things, which I never knew about. But it's great fun.

Annie

Right, next question.

Child

Prime Minister, what's the three things you admire in Michael Foot? [end p2]

P.M

Oh my goodness me. Can I just give you one? Michael Foothe's a very effective journalist and I've always wished that I could write articles more quickly. I think journalists can write much much more quickly than the rest of us, although I know they spend a long time preparing their things, and some of the things they write aren't new or original thought, they're just reporting what someone else has said or done. But he writes very easily and he's a very very good journalist and I've always envied that facility.

Annie

Next question.

Child

Prime Minister, who organises your wardrobe? [end p3]

P.M

Well, I do really. But do you mean organise it, decide what one buys? It's not easy. Er, we had to do a lot of thought when I first came here because, you see, there are a lot of overseas things as well, overseas conferences, and when I go there I just must represent Britain and also present a woman Prime Minister because it matters to other people who might follow. But we have very plain things which last a long time. But I do it. But, fortunately, someone does come in to really have a good go through about once a month. Apart from that you might find me hurriedly sewing up a hem. I've always got a needle and thread on me in case I put my heel through it at the last moment.

Annie

When was the last time you actually went into a dress shop yourself, though?

P.M

Oh quite a long time ago, because they very kindly send things round to me to have a look at.

Annie

Yes, it's easier that way, isn't it? [end p4]

P.M

Yes, it is easier. Well, I don't know. I'm not sure it is because you don't see the variety, you know, you send round for certain classic things and perhaps you might miss something that you'd really rather like to see. The other evening, coming back from a constituency I just said to my very nice driver, ‘have you seen Regent Street lit up?’ He said, ‘no’. I said, ‘come on, let's drive down’. Do you know I—it was the first time I had seen it for many years and I was quite excited and all the shop windows were lit up and I saw lots of beautiful things in the shop windows just from the car and …

Annie

You wished you could get out then and there.

P.M

… and I wished that I could just wander down, spend a whole day wandering down and looking for things. But I haven't that amount of time, it has to be done much more quickly than that.

Boy

Prime Minister, what do you think about Women's Lib? [end p5]

P.M

I'm not very keen on it.

Boy

You're not?

P.M

No, because I think most of us got to our own position in life without Women's Lib and we got here, not by saying ‘you've got to have more women doing so and so’ but saying ‘look, we've got the qualifications, why shouldn't we have just as much a chance as a man?’ And you'll find that so many male bastions were conquered that way, whereas Women's Lib, I think, has been rather strident, concentrated on things which don't really matter and, dare I say it, being rather unfeminine. Don't you think that? What do the girls think, don't you think Women's Lib is sometimes like that?

Girls

Yes.

P.M

Do you like it?

Girl

Not really. [end p6]

P.M

No, neither do I. Because, you see, you don't need to cease to be feminine in order to do the job well, and anyway women have been in positions of authority in the past throughout history.

Boy

How does your husband feel about you being a woman prime minister?

P.M

Well, I—I think Denis Thatcherhe must think it's all right, because, you know, he supports me marvellously, don't you think so? And he's never lost his own personallity or his own characteristics, never ever ever, and I think that's terrific. He urges me to go on.

Girl

Do you think the standard of education has improved now that we have comprehensive schools? [end p7]

P.M

I think it's very patchy and I think it depends not so much on the type of school but on the on the particular school itself, especially, you know, on the kind of head teacher you have and on the kind of teachers and how much interest the parents take in the school, some—some I think are better, some are not so good, but your's is a very good one, isn't it?

Girl

Yes.

P.M

Good.

Annie

Next question.

Boy

who is your favourite politician in history?

P.M

Oh, my goodness, that's a very difficult one, isn't it? Naturally we would all say Winston Churchill because he was a giant among men and a giant among politicians and everyone in the world would know him, not only because he was Prime Minister of Britain but because without the stand which he took on freedom and justice, without that, well, we shouldn't be here asking these questions and answering them. [end p8]

Boy

What would you like to take on to a desert island? Would you want to escape or would prefer just to stay there?

P.M

Oh, no, I'd want to get back. I mean, now, you know, so many people say ‘don't you—wouldn't you like to get away from it all?’—no, I wouldn't. I like it all. And I would want to escape. You know when they asked me that once before, I said I think that I would take—with just that very thing in mind—a sort of Readers' Digest Do It Yourself Manual, so that I could really sit down and say, well, now, what can I do? Can you try to get a piece of metal, if there was any, or a flint, or a sharp flint and then start to carve something out. Mind you, whether there would be any trees on a desert island one doesn't know. But do you like doing things with your hands?

TALKING TOGETHER

P.M

Well, I am. I like—I like doing things. I like—I like cooking, I like interior decoration, er, and I would love to do, I'd love to have a potter's wheel and do something myself and decorate it. [end p9]

Boy

Prime Minister, who is the dominant person in your family?

P.M

Well, I don't think we have a dominant. We have a father, and we have a mother, and we have two young people and we, we're just all together, we're a family. To some extent I think—don't you think a mother is a very dominant person in the sense that she runs the home. It's quite a management job, you know. I think we girls do a lot more management in a way than some of the men do, because running the home—I get very upset when I hear people say, ‘I'm only a housewife’, I say, ‘only a housewife? My goodness me, you're manager of a home, you make all the decisions. You know, you don't [end p10] just go out and do—do a job in which you're part of a great big factory, you're actually in charge of running a home. So I think possibly the whole sort of atmosphere of the home is very much a thing which mother can influence. Otherwise we're just we're a family, we're not any dominant personality.

Annie

Any more questions?

Boy

Do ever get bored in the House of Commons?

P.M

No, it's not a boring place. It's not. Now and then, you know, we have perhaps a debate when there are very very few people there, but sometimes those are the most interesting because there's not a lot of background noise then, they're not all shouting and you can actually hear—what is said. No, it's never never a boring place, and it does act rather—rather like a magnet, you know, you—you can't (NOT CLEAR) you can't get away from it.

Annie

Do you doodle? [end p11]

P.M

Yes, I do doodle quite a lot, yes. Do you doodle?

Annie

Yes, I doodle, I'm sure everyone doodles …

TALKING TOGETHER

P.M

I tend to do geometrical doodles, I suppose because they're much easier than drawing curves, aren't they?

Annie

Yes.

P.M.

Curves are very much difficult.

Boy

Are you good at art—I mean in school?

P.M

Not particularly, no. I never was. I could do design. I could do things that were very geometrical, you know, that you could measure, so if you could draw a street which you get in perspective then I can do that. But if it came to drawing I could do a drawing of a flower deadly accurately, but if it came to drawing a person I wasn't at all good at that. [end p12]

Girl

Do you ever watch the Kenny Everett Show, and do you mind him taking off you.

P.M

Do you know I haven't watched the Kenny Everett Show. I know all about it. It comes at a time when I can't watch. I don't mind people taking me off, I think it's rather funny. Don't you?

Children

Yes.

P.M

I somehow take—some of the you know the comedy they have with it, some of the lines are very very good, they're very apt. They're very sharp, comedians, so are cartoonists in the press. I often think the cartoonists have a very difficult job because, you know, by about one o'clock they've had to look at the news and think, now what am I going to make of the news today? And they put a whole message into a cartoon, and I just think they are very very bright, and very able and very talented. But Kenny—I must watch the Kenny Everett Show. [end p13]

Child

Prime Minister, what's your personal opinion about children—seeing as how you've two of your own?

P.M

My opinion about them—well I wouldn't have been without a family … it's marvellous …   . I think it's a thing you don't quite realise when you are your age. It's a thing that alters your life more than anything else in the world—is having a family …   . yes because for the first time in your life you live wholly for someone else—you're …   . what happens to someone else—your own children matters far more to you than what happens to yourself. And I think it is I think the most wonderful experience in life,

Child

Don't you believe that we've got enough nuclear weapons already, so we shouldn't really be buying anymore, and we could spend the money on something more useful?

P.M

What I would love to do is have everyone whose got nuclear weapons to agree together, so that we don't need to have anymore, that we gradually come down together. But you've seen life in a school playground, a bully will go for a weak person. A bully will go for the weakest, a bully will never attack anyone who can beat him harder than he can beat that guy, so if you want to keep yourself secure, you've got to be strong as the other strongest person, together. Now I hate nuclear weapons, but the thing is, knowing that a strong person will attack a weak, you've got to keep your strength, but I hate them, and I therefore say—we're constantly saying to the Soviet Union—we're around the table at Geneva ‘Let's agree to take them down’, so we can still both be secure, because we're balanced. [end p14]

Child

Do you believe there'll ever be a third world war?

P.M

No, no I don't mind her asking questions, because … you only learn, and I used to ask just as many—… (NOT CLEAR) …   . provided we stay strong, so that any nation that wants to attack us knows that the damage that would be inflicted on them would mean that there could be no victor, then I think we'll stop a third world war.

Annie

Well, I wonder, Prime Minister, if you've influenced any of our reporters here today to be budding politicians for the future. That's all we've got time for, unfortunately. Thank you very much indeed. Have a very happy Christmas; I'm sure everyone would like to say that to you …

Children

Happy Christmas.

P.M

It's marvellous to have you here. Had you come a day or two later we'd have had the Christmas trees up. Next year. Next year.

Annie

Thank you very much indeed.

P.M

All right.