Margaret Thatcher was a master of capturing and manipulating the news agenda to get her message over. Now heading to her 83rd birthday in the autumn the media interest remains undimmed. In March she fainted over dinner and spent a night in hospital. Sky and the BBC both broke from normal news to run lengthy bulletins from outside St Thomas' hospital. The media are all primed for the day of the 'last' story on Lady Thatcher.
Fortunately, however, they appear to be in for a considerable wait. Despite the persistent and exaggerated rumours of her frailty Margaret is in very good shape. The carefully edited footage of her (always arriving or leaving an event and invariably on stairs where she is looking down to secure her footing) is calculated to present a picture of a lady in poor health. The reality is quite different. Lady T keeps up a formidable schedule for someone in her ninth decade. She undertakes many engagements, is always out and about for lunches and dinners with friends, is highly active in causes she supports (she recently personally signed over 2000 letters for Conservative Way Forward) and is a champion of the Royal Hospital Chelsea fund-raising appeal. Only last week I spent time with her and was very amused that she had followed the Prime Minister's 'larder lecture' and had very forthright views on what he had to say. It is was vintage Thatcher and involved the famous finger point. So as she prepares to leave later this week for her annual summer break in the French Alps Lady Thatcher may be reflecting on her busy life but I suspect she is not reflecting on her funeral.
Others are however. Sparked by a reheated story by Simon Walters on the front page of the Mail on Sunday which first appeared two years ago (is July the new August?) the BBC have been inviting the old lefties on to share their views as to whether Margaret should be given a state funeral. On Monday's Daily Politics someone called Alan Simpson (a Nottingham MP apparently who was previously for 13 years 'a' (not 'the') research officer for Nottingham's Racial Equalities Council) popped up to wish Lady Thatcher dead on live TV and then declared that there would be street parties when she died. The the odious little twerp Billy Bragg with his perfectly polished 'man of the people' accent came whining out of Radio 4's PM Programme to share his inane views on Lady T's demise.
Lady T is nothing if not practical. She would have no problem with planning for an event that is inevitable. But she is also a human being. Her staff will will have ensured, as always, that Margaret will not have seen or heard any of this repellent coverage. But what of her family, her friends, her grandchildren? This sort of coverage will have been deeply hurtful to them.
It is quite proper that there can be a debate about the merits or otherwise of the ultimate honour being bestowed on Lady Thatcher when the time comes. But it should be conducted on a loftier tone than that adopted by the two individuals mentioned earlier and it should be considered and reasonable.
That said I can't help but think that Margaret would smile if she knew that simply by staying alive she was continuing to annoy the old lefties she so convincingly destroyed. She wasn't for turning and she isn't for dying anytime soon either.
