Confidential government files have been released from one of the most challenging years of Thatcher’s leadership
That year was 1981, a year with some contemporary themes.
A royal wedding, a recession and riots sparked by rising unemployment and racial tensions.
The previously secret documents show that during the unrest in Brixton and Toxteth, Mrs Thatcher considered arming the police.
They also show that her Chancellor argued they'd spent enough money on Liverpool and should abandon the city to 'managed decline'. “We must not,” he writes, “expend all our resources in making water flow uphill.”
The files are equally revealing about Foreign Policy.
A year before Falklands war, ministers received warnings that naval defence cuts could prompt an Argentinian invasion of the islands
But it is spending at home that tells a more personal tale
Nearly three decades before MPs expenses became a scandal, handwritten notes show Margaret Thatcher was so concerned about how an extravagant refurbishment at Number 10 might look, that she insisted on using her own household items,
‘The Iron Lady’ it would appear had no problem providing her own ironing board; or her own crockery.
This is good news for the makers of a new film about her life. The documents have been made public just five days before the premiere starring Meryl Streep who is already tipped for an oscar.
The Iron Lady may be 86 but interest in her is showing no sign of turning.
ITV