High life
Power and glory
Taki
Now I've heard cheers directed at me once or twice in the distant past — on the playing-field — but basking in reflected glory was intoxicating. It took me about 30 seconds to make it up to the podium and seat her next to me, but it was enough to inspire me to the extent I gave the best speech I've ever given as an introduction. I am a lousy public speaker, but this time I was Demosthenes.
`She turned the sick man of Europe in 1978 into the world's fourth biggest indus- trial power ... her single biggest contribu- tion was to make the British feel proud of themselves ... when British territory was invaded, she did not read the polls, consult focus groups or hesitate. She uttered only three words: Get them off ... She embod- ies what I like in a statesman, guts, nobility and love of country ... And when she was stabbed in the back by those grotesque Judases, she left with her dignity intact and her head held high, and, as Charles Moore wrote at the time, we shall not see her likes again soon ... '
And the lady did not disappoint. She spoke off-the-cuff for 25 minutes and delighted everyone with peeks behind the scenes, and warnings about the future. Afterwards she took questions and went into an even higher gear. Everything went off perfectly, and we continued late into the night. Two nights later, on Tuesday, it was Andrew Roberts's turn to sparkle, and he also brought in a large crowd. Mind you, after the success of Lady T, it would take a low, cunning slob like Jack Straw to fail to attract an audience.
What amazed me was the turnout of local politicians, who gazed at Lady T from afar and almost genuflected when I took some of them up to her and introduced them. My only worry is that we may have exploited the Thatchers. I gave two lunches for them, my friend George Pereira a grand dinner, and Karolos Fix the goodbye lunch. All this, added to the two sympo- sium evenings, left them with very little time for themselves. The weather was per- fect, and the Palace staff performed mira- cles. The Gstaad Symposium is now on the map and Lady T helped put us there. My only worry is that there might be a let- down after such a successful meeting.
Personally, I have always listed Lady Thatcher as my favourite statesman. She propped up Ronald Reagan and forced the Soviets to go bust; she broke the unions that were strangling the country; she obliged Labour to embrace her politics. Only De Gaulle in 1958 and Ronald Rea- gan in 1980 equalled her in making a dif- ference. History will be very kind to her. Who in future will remember Wilson, Heath, Callaghan, Major or Blair? The lat- ter's lack of principle and petulant obses- sion with image will ensure he is Apparently they die a long, lingering death.' remembered as a negative, destructive force. People like Blair and Straw, driven by perceptions of what they think is popu- lar, never fool the people for long. They are liars and phoneys, but most of all they are cowards. Cowards never are remem- bered as anything else.
England is now a very depressing place to be in. The government is all Blair-speak; the BBC dumbed down; homos have het- eros on the run; illiteracy, public drunken- ness and violent crime are the norm and rising. Teenage pregnancy is at an all-time high. The press is yellower than ever, run by low-lifers not fit to wash my jockstrap. Mind you, I no longer live in England, so I shouldn't complain. From now on it's the Big Bagel in the autumn and spring, Greece and the South of France in sum- mer, and Rougemont in winter. England is reserved for June and for the occasional party I shall throw following any govern- ment disaster. I, of course, dare not dream that a large bus will run over certain mem- bers of the Cabinet, but if this most serendipitous of events takes place, I shall give a very large ball at Claridge's.
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