Peter Just

Gordon Brown.

🗣️ '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.

Margaret Thatcher The story of Margaret Thatcher’s post-premiership years is a tale of high drama and low farce, with, at its heart, one extraordinary woman. Margaret Thatcher enjoyed perhaps one of the most cons...

🚨 As detailed in 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street', it generated work for officials in John Major's Government.

📢 30 years on, the speech remains as relevant as ever.

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www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...

🔥 One of Margaret Thatcher's most important speeches after Downing Street, it highlighted the emergence of rogue states and the threat they posed, as well as what she thought needed to happen to counter them.

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www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108...

Margaret Thatcher delivering a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, on 9 March 1996.

🗣️ ‘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.

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Letter from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair dated 4 April 2002 in which she praises his relationship with the United States of America.

Letter from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair dated 4 April 2002 in which she praises his relationship with the United States of America.

✍🏻 '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.

Letter from Julian Seymour, the Director of Lady Thatcher's Private Office, to an official in 10 Downing Street dated 7 March 1996 about Margaret Thatcher's Fulton Lecture.

🗓️ 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.

Gordon Brown.

🗓️ 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.

A book cover featuring an image of Margaret Thatcher. It reads, 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street', Peter Just. There is a quote from Andrew Roberts, 'A joy to read'.

📘 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...

Clement Attlee.

🗣️ '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.

Matthew Jeffery: Margaret Thatcher would never have joined Reform UK | Conservative Home Thatcherism was never the politics of protest. It was the politics of government, grounded in ideas strong enough not only to win power, but to sustain it once won.

🗣️ '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...

Photograph of Margaret Thatcher by Helmut Newton.

🗣️ '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...

A copy of 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' on a bookshelf.

🚨 #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...

An article headlined 'Iran embraces Thatcher's ideas on economic reform' in The Times on 8 April 1992 by Christopher Walker.

📰'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'.

Number of parliamentary interventions by former UK prime ministers from 1955 to the end of February 2026.

🚨 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.

Margaret Thatcher and John Major.

🗣️ '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.

Theresa May.

🗣️ '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.

Private Eye cover from July 1996. It features a photograph from the party at Downing Street for Edward Heath's 80th birthday. There is John Major, Edward Heath, and Norma Major.

🗣️ '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.

Portrait of a man, Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford.

🚨 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.

Margaret Thatcher with her arm in Tony Blair's.

📰 '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.

Photograph of Margaret Thatcher by Helmut Newton.

📰 '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.

Margaret Thatcher at the unveiling of her statue in the House of Commons on 21 February 2007.

🗣️ 'I might have preferred iron. But bronze will do. It won't rust.'

🗓️ So said Margaret Thatcher on this day, 21 February, in 2007 as she unveiled her statue at the House of Commons.

📘 There's more in 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street':
www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...

Alec Douglas-Home.

🗣️ 'On the whole, I prefer solid experience to an uncertain future.'

🗓️So said Alec Douglas-Home on this day, 20 February, in 1984 in an intervention on the Telecommunications Bill, the Bill which, amongst other things, privatised British Telecom.

A book cover featuring an image of Margaret Thatcher. It reads, 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street', Peter Just. There is a quote from Andrew Roberts, 'A joy to read'.

🗣️ She 'would be making a “major European speech"' in a couple of months' time.

🗓️ So Margaret Thatcher's office advised the British Embassy in Holland on this day, 18 February, in 1992.

📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' covers the Hague speech in depth.

James Callaghan

🗣️ 'It is not that we object to the Government making changes. The trouble is that they always make the wrong changes.'

🗓️ So said Jim Callaghan on this day, 17 February, in 1994, in an intervention in a speech by Home Office minister, Earl Ferrers.

Alec Douglas-Home.

🗣️ 'The salvation of the individual which is, in some ways, the central part of Christian teaching'.

🗓️ So said Alec Douglas-Home on this day, 16 February, in 1977, during an oral question on religious education.

Nikki Haley.

🗣️ 'Oh, I adore her. I’ve written about her in books and speeches. She was the ultimate Iron Lady.'

📰 So the press reported on this day, 15 February, in 2023, Nikki Haley saying of Margaret Thatcher as she launched her campaign to be the Republican presidential nominee.

James Callaghan and Tony Blair.

😊 There was a fourth post-war former prime minister to reach the age of 90: James Callaghan in 2002.

🥳 Although we can't find any reference to his birthday in the Cabinet minutes, Tony Blair did host a party for him at 10 Downing Street in April 2002.

Extract from the Cabinet minutes dated 15th July 1993 about Alec Douglas-Home's 90th birthday.

💌 'A warm letter of thanks'.

🥳 There was a third former prime minister whose 90th birthday was mentioned in Cabinet.

🎁 Alec Douglas-Home's response to a gift presented to him was the second item of business at the Cabinet held on 15 July 1993.

James Callaghan and Tony Blair.

😊 There was a fourth post-war former prime minister to reach the age of 90: James Callaghan in 2002.

🥳 Although we can't find any reference to his birthday in the Cabinet minutes, Tony Blair did host a party for him at 10 Downing Street in April 2002.

Extract of the Cabinet meeting dated 26 November 1964 about Winston Churchill's 90th birthday.

✍🏻 'A message of greeting and congratulation'.

🥳 Harold Macmillan was not the first former prime minister to have their 90th birthday raised in Cabinet.

🗓️ On 26 November 1964, Winston Churchill's 90th birthday was the second item of business in that day's Cabinet.