PEREGRINE WORSTHORNE'S DIARY THATCHER'S ROYAL AIRS
Several MPs have recently told me that the complaint they hear from constituents most often at the moment is that Mrs Thatcher now gives herself royal airs. Apparently it was this aspect of her recent Asian tour, far more than anything she said about seeing off the miners, that gave most offence. I think this may be a real problem, because there can be little doubt that, at any rate to foreigners, Mrs Thatcher is beginning to look much more like the herself. of Britannia than does the Queen fterself. One can be absolutely sure that Mrs Thatcher does not want to give this impression and certainly nobody could have fewer delusions of grandeur than she does. Indeed, she is probably the least royalty-conscious prime minister that there has ever been. Nevertheless, through no fault of her own, the fact that she is a Woman prime minister means that she gets Photographed in roles and postures which are exactly the same as those normally associated with the Queen — receiving bouquets, walking a few paces ahead of her consort etc. Initially these similarities were scarcely noticed by the public, and even if they were, nobody would have thought of Thatcher the little known Margaret thatcher from Grantham with the Queen of England. But as her stature and fame grew, and her ceremonial assurance in- creased, the comparison was bound to become more invidious, and is likely to 3 ecome even more so the longer she stays In office. The truth is that it is somehow however easier for male prime ministers, nowever illustrious, to avoid upstaging their monarchs (of either sex) than for temale prime ministers. Winston Chur- chill, for example, at the height of his glory, used to make a point of being regularly photographed bowing low in obeisance before King George VI and even went so far as to pay homage to the young Queen on his knees. Perhaps Mrs Thatcher Should be photographed in a deep.curtsey.
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