#5
23 September 2015 at 18.30
Past event
Margaret Thatcher & No.10 Launch
No.11 Downing Street
Consisting of a series of interviews with prominent figures from the momentous Thatcher years and filmed in No.10, Margaret Thatcher and Number Ten is the most recent result of the burgeoning relationship between the Policy Institute at King’s and No 10 Downing Street.
The reception celebrated the project becoming fully available online, and was attended by figures from the worlds of politics, journalism, the civil service, business and academia, King’s College London staff and students, as well as those interviewed in the films. Attendees to the reception also had the opportunity to view the project’s films.
Following an introduction by Oliver Letwin MP, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and member of the No10 Policy Unit during Baroness Thatcher’s Prime Ministership, Dr Jon Davis of the Policy Institute at King’s thanked those involved in the project, drawing particular attention to the close partnership between academia, government and commerce, at the core of the project.
King’s Visiting Professor Sir Kevin Tebbit, formerly Director of GCHQ and Permanent Under Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence, then echoed these sentiments, noting how government engaging with business at an earlier stage could lead to more productive relationships in the future. Sir Kevin also highlighted the wisdom of government and academia working closely together, as demonstrated by this project, as: ‘No wise government can do this by itself’.
Prominent attendees included Sir Bernard Ingham, Lord Tebbit of Chingford, Lord Powell of Bayswater, Sue Cameron of Civil Service World, Iain Martin of the Telegraph, Baroness Jay of Paddington, William Keegan of the Observer and a range of business figures and senior civil servants past and present.
The six interviews consist of:
- Sir Bernard Ingham, Mrs Thatcher’s former Press Secretary, interviewed by authorized Thatcher biographer Charles Moore of the Telegraph
- Lord Lawson of Blaby, formerly Chancellor of the Exchequer, Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Secretary of State for Energy, interviewed by Dr Jon Davis of the Policy Institute at King’s
- Lord Tebbit, who served as Chairman of the Conservative Party under Mrs Thatcher, as well as Secretary of State for Employment and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, interviewed by Iain Martin of the Telegraph
- Lord Parkinson, former Party Chairman and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Secretary of State for Energy and Secretary of State for Transport under Thatcher, interviewed by Sue Cameron of Civil Service World
- Lord Powell of Bayswater, formely Thatcher’s Private Secretary and foreign policy adviser, interviewed by Sir Kevin Tebbit, Visiting Professor at King’s
- Janice Richards, one of the ‘Garden Room Girls’ at No.10 during the Thatcher era, interviewed by Naomi Grimley of the BBC
