In the Observer Magazine of 7 February 1971 there was a profile of Margaret Thatcher, secretary of state for education in Ted Heath’s government (‘Margaret Thatcher wins her colours’). The front cover has her next to a stack of colourful hats holding a feather boa to her cheek.
The hat theme – and the sexism – continues. ‘Connoisseurs of the English rose praise her beauty, and at any gathering she is a focus for male attention. Her wide repertoire of hat styles gives her the appearance of someone perpetually about to open a village fête.’ Elsewhere it refers to ‘her appearance, which everyone agrees is impeccable’ and says that she was ‘written off as a dunce’.
‘Few people suspected that beneath her impeccable garden-party hats was a brain to be reckoned with.’ Presumably this patronising attitude aided her ascent.
The profile downplays the thing she ultimately regretted more than anything else – the withdrawal of free milk from schools. ‘Thatcher, Thatcher, milk snatcher’ was the playground taunt that followed her throughout her career. ‘Instead of a rumoured £100m reduction in the education budget, she managed to get away with an increase in the price of school meals and a cut in free milk.’ (Two decades later, as prime minister, she was horrified when Ken Clarke proposed ending free milk for nursery children, too.)
More presciently, the piece quotes Thatcher defending herself against charges by the National Union of Teachers that she hadn’t consulted them on major policy decisions. ‘I believe consultation is only meaningful if you enter it in a state of mind where you intend to be influenced by the representations,’ she says haughtily. It’s brutally honest and certainly a sign of things to come.
As for any hints at her ambition to be prime minister one day, well, she was keeping that under her hat.
