OPEN LETTER TO AN IRON LADY
Paul Johnson argues that Margaret
Thatcher should not allow them to expel her from the Commons
Dear Margaret, You are under pressure from the more fanatically pro-European federalist ele- ments of the media, Government and Tory backbenches — and, I regret to say, from some of your old friends — to announce your retirement from the House of Com- mons. Allow me to put to you reasons why you should not merely reject this advice but announce publicly that you intend to remain an MP so long as your constituency party wants you, the electors vote for you and, most important, your country needs you.
First, the notion that you can serve `more effectively' in some other role ranging from the House of Lords to being Secretary General of the United Nations — is self-serving poppycock, put about by your enemies in order to persuade you to allow yourself to be stripped of all influ- ence and buried alive. Membership of the House of Commons is still the only legiti- mate qualification for real power in Britain and likely to remain so unless or until our national identity is totally submerged in Europe. If you are an MP, anything is possible. Once you renounce being an MP, nothing is possible. You are out of the game, finished, politically dead. You may have all the chips in the world in your hand, but you can no longer play at the tables. It is worth noting that even a thoroughly discredited failure like Ted Heath, whom most people despise or dislike, retains a certain significance — and a voice — solely because he sticks in the Commons. Without his seat, he would be a museum piece, a political mummy like Harold Wilson or Jim Callaghan.
Second, although you had 111/2 arduous years as Prime Minister, you are still superbly fit, brimming with energy and full of fierce enthusiasm for the ideals you uphold. You are 65 — say some, retire- ment age. That is nonsense. The world would be in a tragic state today if other outstanding leaders had taken this advice. Winston Churchill was almost exactly your age when a desperate country called on him to save it from Nazi conquest in 1940. He was 78 when he was summoned again to clear up the mess of Attlee's Britain in 1951. Konrad Adenauer was no less than 73 when he began his monumental task of creating the West German democratic state and bringing his country back into the ranks of the civilised nations. He didn't think himself too old, and indeed served for another 14 years. Yoshida Shigeru, founder of Japanese democracy and of his country's economic miracle, was two years older than you are when, in 1946, he became Prime Minister, a post he held for nine years. Charles de Gaulle likewise was 67 when he returned in 1958 to save France from civil war, solve the Algerian problem and get his country solidly on its feet again — a job which took him ten years. And don't forget your old friend Ronald Reagan was almost 70 when he first en- tered the White House to give the United States back its self-respect and pride.
The Tory party has been particularly well served by statesmen who refused to recognise anno domini. Harold Macmillan was almost exactly your age when, in 1959, he took the party to one of its greatest victories. And Disraeli was two months short of 70 when he won the decisive election of 1874 and formed the six-year administration which made him a political immortal. Nor is making the over-65s work hard just the prerogative of the Tories: Gladstone was 70 when he became Prime Minister for the second time, 76 for the third, 82 for the fourth. Many of the men I have mentioned had been pronounced politically moribund by their enemies and forced into retirement — just as they are trying to force you now — long before they came back triumphantly to perform the chief tasks of their lives. Yes: they call you Yesterday's Woman. And they dismissed Palmerston as 'an old painted maypole' shortly before he fought his way into Downing Street, where he remained for the best part of a decade.
Another argument, and one which no doubt appeals to your sense of loyalty, is that by remaining in the Commons you weaken John Major and embarrass your party. But if Mr Major is really as vulner- able as all that, he can scarcely be worth supporting anyway. The truth is, he re- mains unproven. You, I and countless other Conservatives — and non- Conservatives too — hope he is going to be a success and will do anything reasonable in our power to help him. But he may fail. He may lose the election. Then a number of people — you know very well who they are — at present vociferously demanding your subservience to him and loudest in clamouring for your retirement, will in- stantly fall on him like a wolf pack. If you are not still around as an alternative, that will mean handing over the party, body and soul, to Michael Heseltine and his crypto-socialist followers. As you probably know, they are already preparing for such a contingency. Are you going to leave the road to power wide open to them?
There is a final point, the most impor- tant of all. However anxious you may be not to undermine Mr Major, whatever loyalty you may still feel to the people running the Tory party — and I would not blame you if you felt none at all — you owe a higher allegiance to a much larger entity: the people of Great Britain. You fought their corner, and served them to the best of your considerable ability, for more than a decade, and it is nonsense to suppose you are no longer needed. In my view, they may need you more than ever before. The people are uneasily aware that they are being sucked into an alien entity by a process they do not understand and which they feel powerless to control. Before they slip finally over the brink, they may well come to their senses and, with a mighty shout, demand the leadership which alone can halt the slide. You know very well you are the only one who can supply it. If, or perhaps I should say when, that summons comes, are you going to be absent from your post, unavailable, Lady This or That, sitting in New York or God knows where, powerless to help, possibly even forbidden to speak out? No: you are, I hope, going to be where you belong, in the House of Commons, ready to perform your demo- cratic duty. So stick it out, Margaret, and pay no heed to the siren voices summoning you to the waters of oblivion.
Paul Johnson
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