🗣️ 'There is nothing moral or right about leaving a people defenceless in the path of a determined dictator aggressor'. 🗓️ Margaret Thatcher followed-up her TV interviews by intervening on a statement in the Lords on Bosnia on this day, 14 April, in 1993.

🗣️ 'We have been a little like an accomplice to massacre.' 🗓️ So said Margaret Thatcher on this day, 13 April, in 1993, as she took to the airwaves to attack Western and British policy on Bosnia. 🚨 Malcolm Rifkind responded that she was talking 'emotional nonsense'.

🏏 'How I would have loved to have stayed and watched the cricket with him.' 🗓️ So said Theresa May of Prince Philip, when recalling her last day at Balmoral, during parliamentary tributes to him, on this day, 12 April, in 2021. www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-p...

🗣️ 'In history, so much damage has been done by dogma, and doctrine has been responsible for so much human misery, that it is high time for tolerance.' 🗓️ So said Lord Home of the Hirsel on this day, 11 April, in 1984 when speaking on the Prayer Book Protection Bill.

🗓️ On this day, 10 April, in 2013, the Prime Minister, David Cameron, led tributes to Margaret Thatcher in the House of Commons. 🧵 1/ hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2013...

🇮🇹 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' has arrived in Italy. 🚆 A two hour stop-over in Turin before we head to that eternal place to which all roads lead. ⭐️ Which is fitting as Margaret Thatcher's premiership has itself become eternal.

✍🏻 'She was in ebullient and discursive form, scarcely leaving herself time to eat her lunch. The President's interventions therefore were relatively few.' 🇫🇷 So wrote the British Ambassador about Margaret Thatcher at her lunch with President Mitterrand in June 1992.

😢 'Mi dispiace tantissimo...Margaret Thatcher non è più con noi.' 🇮🇹 When Margaret Thatcher died on this day, 8 April, in 2013, I was living and working in Rome. 🔗 'Ciao Maggie' is the blog post that I wrote about it: romandespatches.blogspot.com/2013/04/ciao...

🚨 Single European Act research update. 🤔 ‘I wonder what happened to the other two? I suppose they must have died from an occupational disease?’ 🇮🇹 Giulio Andreotti's reply to Margaret Thatcher saying she'd once worked in a firm that employed just 3 people. 📘As revealed in Geoffrey Howe's memoirs.

🗣️ 'I am looking forward to a honeymoon of about 10 days at the most, and then I rather fancy that there will be the well-known cries of "Bring back Harold" from the Opposition Benches.' 🗓️ So said Jim Callaghan on this day, 6 April, in 1976 at his first Prime Minister's Questions.

🚨 NEW PODCAST: Which post-war PMs were most influenced by Christianity? In a special Easter episode, Richard and I discuss two of the most religiously observant and theologically curious post-war PMs: Macmillan and Blair. What did faith mean to them? And how did it influence their politics? 1/2

✍🏻'I have not copied this note elsewhere and would prefer it had only a limited circulation. I hope it is useful.' 📁 In the same file as Margaret Thatcher's letter to Tony Blair was a letter to him from John Major, dated 18 March 2002, reporting on his visit to Singapore.

📨 'I was very touched to receive your kind and thoughtful letter'. 🗓️ So wrote Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair on this day, 4 April, in 2002. ✍🏻 She signed herself 'Margaret T.' and sent her warm regards to all his family.

📰 It being Good Friday, a reminder that early in April 1938 the press reported that Stanley Baldwin was soon to leave London for his country home - Astley Hall - where he would be joined there by Lady Baldwin for Easter.

🗣️ 'It was clearly a very remarkable achievement.' 🗓️ So said Lord (Alec) Home of the Hirsel on this day, 2 April, in 1987 of Margaret Thatcher's visit to the Soviet Union.

🚨 March 2026 update on ex-PMs' parliamentary activity. 1⃣ David Cameron's one intervention (on Ukraine) takes him above Churchill. 1⃣ Theresa May intervenes on China and security. 2⃣ Rishi Sunak intervenes on SEND in his constituency, and on AI and the UK and India.

🙏🏻 Delighted to see this review of @bitebackpublishing.bsky.social's 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' by the late Simon Richards in the Thatcher Centre's new academic journal, 'Thatcherism Today'. 🧵 1/

🗣️ 'Her Royal Highness was an extremely good friend to me and to my wife over many years.' 🗓️ So said Clement Attlee on this day, 30 March, in 1965 about The Princess Royal, Princess Mary. 🚨 Obituarist is one of the roles that falls to ex-PMs, sometimes about other ex-PMs.

🙏🏻 Thanks to @lordnortonlouth.bsky.social & Dr Dan Pitt I'm researching Stanley Baldwin's life as an ex-PM. 📘A copy of his son's book arrived which: 1⃣ seems to have belonged to Edward Heath; 2⃣ includes a message from Viscount and Viscountess Davidson. 😍 The joy of second hand books.

🗣️ 'The advantage of being a former Prime Minister is that one is treated with the same respect as one had when one was Prime Minister but that one does not have the red boxes.' 🗓️ To mark what would have been Jim Callaghan's 114th birthday, this great quote from 1989.

🗣️ 'It’s amazing they ever put that letter in.’ 🗓️ So Margaret Thatcher said 'witheringly' as she put her finger over the letter 'p' in the word 'spin' in the title of Bernard Ingham's book, 'The Wages of Spin'. 📰 A story reported on this day, 26 March, in 2003.

🗣️ 'My Lords, is it not clear that if the Government are pursuing stupid policies like this, it is high time they gave way to another one?' 📅 So asked Clement Attlee on this day, 24 March, in 1964 on a question on the British Rail Board. 🗣️ The minister replied 'No, my Lords.'

🗣️ I was honoured to give a keynote address at The Margaret Thatcher Centre Freedom Festival on 'How Margaret Thatcher made herself uncancellable after 1990'. 🚨 It focussed on 'The Thatcherism Triptych' as identified by Margaret Thatcher herself after 1990: 1⃣ principles 2⃣ policies 3⃣ practice 🧵 1/

🗣️ Nicholas Winterton: 'This is longer than the Leader of the Opposition.' 🗣️ A Hon Member: 'This is the leader of the opposition.' 🗓️ Just some of the interventions during Edward Heath's question to Margaret Thatcher on the European Community on this day, 21 March, in 1984.

🚆 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' is on its way to the Margaret Thatcher Centre's Freedom Festival. 🚨 If you're attending, you can hear me speak on Sunday morning at 10am. 🗣 I'll be talking about 'How Margaret Thatcher made herself uncancellable after 1990'.

🗣️ 'I shall vote against the Bill tonight.' 🗓️ So said Ted Heath about the War Crimes Bill on this day, 19 March, in 1990. 🚨 Two other former prime ministers were also opposed to the legislation: Lord (Alec) Home of the Hirsel and Lord (Jim) Callaghan of Cardiff.

🗣️ 'Is it not further the case that, despite what the right hon. Lady said in her election speeches, neither she nor I have any influence at all on those statistics?' 🗓️ So Jim Callaghan asked Margaret Thatcher about crime statistics during PMQs on this day, 18 March, in 1982.

🗣️ 'I am struck by both similarities and differences between the situation I inherited in 1979 and that of your country fifteen years later.' 🗓️ So said Margaret Thatcher on this day, 16 March, in 1994 during a speech in Brazil: www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108...

🗣️ 'With all friendliness to our American friends, I sometimes feel that they are apt rather to stand on the sideline and leave us to carry on the fight.' 💬 So said Clement Attlee 70 years ago today, 15 March 1956, in his Lords' maiden speech, the first by a post-war ex-PM.

🗓️ 70 days ago, on 15 March 1956, Clement Attlee made his maiden speech in the House of Lords. 🚨 The first there by an ex-PM since Stanley Baldwin's in 1938, it was on his own motion on the Middle East and Cyprus. 🗣️ He went on to make 204 interventions in the Lords.

🗓️ On this day, 14 March, in 1992, the press reported on Margaret Thatcher's election campaigning: 📰 'Crowds mob ex-PM', The Guardian 📰 'Maggie Mania', The Sun 📰 'Maggie-mania leaves 4 hurt', Daily Star 📰 The Sun ran a leader comparing her to Princess Diana and Madonna.

🗣️ 'We need to separate fact from fiction, substance from soundbite, information from innuendo. The public...deserve more than to be spoon-fed a cocktail of headline-grabbing feel-good stories.' 🗓️ So said John Major on this day, 12 March, in 2001 in his last speech as an MP.

🗣️ 'I know that many Conservative Members may find some of those statements challenging or difficult, but they are exactly the statements that Lady Thatcher set out in her seminal Bruges speech in the late 1980s.' 🗓️ So said Gordon Brown on this day, 10 March, in 2015.

🗣️ ‘I have every confidence in the resources and the values of the Western civilisation we are defending.’ 🗓️ So said Margaret Thatcher on this day, 9 March, in 1996 when delivering a speech marking the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech. 🧵 1/

✍🏻 'You have ensured that Britain is known as a staunch defender of liberty, and as a loyal ally of America. That is the very best reputation our country can have.’ 🚨 With Tony Blair's views in the news, a reminder of Margaret Thatcher's views on Blair and the UK/United States.

🗓️ On this day, 7 March, in 1996, Julian Seymour sent the Government a copy of Margaret Thatcher's forthcoming speech marking the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech. ⭐️ It was one of the most important she made after Downing Street.

🗓️ On this day, 6 March, in 2013, @GordonBrown spoke in the Commons about radiation in Dalgety Bay in his constituency. 1⃣ Of his 37 interventions as an ex-PM, 21 were on Dalgety Bay, making it the number one issue he pursued in Parliament after 2010.

📘 What better day than World Book Day to give another plug to 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street'? 🔗 It's available from your local bookshop or online: www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar... 🚨 There's a 32% discount on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178590920...

🗣️ 'Several times, I invited the Opposition leaders to come and discuss defence, and we did so, but later on they preferred not to, because a little knowledge of the facts sometimes cramped their style.' 🗓️ So said Clement Attlee on this day, 5 March, in 1958.

🗣️ 'Margaret Thatcher’s legacy is now claimed by almost every strand of British politics.' 💡 Matthew Jeffery's opening sentence brilliantly captures British history since 1990. 📰 His ConservativeHome article also provides a corrective to the commentary on her. conservativehome.com/2026/03/03/m...

🗣️ 'The life blood of nations and so often the progenitor of peace.' 🗓️ So said Margaret Thatcher of trade on this day, 3 March, in 1994 in a speech to the World Trade After GATT Conference. 🔗 The Thatcher Foundation has the speech in full: www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108...

🚨 #ThatcherAfterDowningStreetOnTour update! 😍 Delighted to be sent this by a colleague: 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' in great company in Covent Garden! 📘 If you don't have a copy yet, you can get it at your local bookshop or online: www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...

📰'Iran embraces Thatcher's ideas on economic reform'. 🧐 Yes, you read it correctly. ✅ Useful piece of evidence for the address I'm working on today. 🚨 '"They tell me I’ve become an 'ism’": how Margaret Thatcher made herself uncancellable after 1990'.

🚨 February 2026 update on ex-PMs' parliamentary activity. 🔼 Rishi Sunak has now overtaken John Major to become the 8th most active ex-PM since 1955. 🔼 Theresa May increases her interventions by 1. 💥 And an exciting discovery - more on that once we've done further research.

🗣️ 'I should also like to pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Finchley'. 🗓️ So said John Major on this day, 28 February, in 1991 on a statement on the Gulf, during which Margaret Thatcher spoke in Parliament for the first time as an ex-prime minister.

🗣️ 'I congratulate [Rishi Sunak], and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and the Foreign Secretary and all their teams'. 🗓️ So said Theresa May on this day, 27 February, in 2023 about the Windsor Framework which ex-PMs Boris Johnson and Liz Truss opposed.

🗣️ 'We admire him and are fond of him.' 🗓️ So said John Major about Edward Heath on this day, 25 February, in 1997 after Heath was criticised by some Conservative MPs for an interview he had given at the weekend in which he had been critical of the party.

🚨 On this day, 24 February, in 1744, Robert Walpole (the 1st Earl of Orford) made history by giving the first speech in Parliament by an ex-Prime Minister. 🗣️ With 'emotion and spirit', he spoke about the House of Lords' response to a message from King George II on The Young Pretender and France.

📰 'Blair admits Thatcher "not all wrong" on EU'. 🗓️ So ran the headline of an article in The Times on this day, 23 February, in 2000 on a speech Blair was making in which he spoke about Margaret Thatcher's Bruges speech.

📰 'Et tu, Maggie?' 🗓️ So ran the headline of a story in The Times on this day, 22 February, in 1991 about Margaret Thatcher complaining to environment minister, Robert Key, that Government support to her local council was too low, meaning her local poll tax was too high.