@expremiers.bsky.social
Peter Just posting about UK former prime ministers. Author of 'Margaret Thatcher: Life after Downing Street' - coming via @bitebackpublishing.bsky.social in July 2025. #ThatcherAfterDowningStreet #ExPremiers #AfterDowningStreet
Alec Douglas-Home.
π£οΈ 'On the whole, I prefer solid experience to an uncertain future.'
ποΈSo 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'.
π£οΈ She 'would be making a βmajor European speech"' in a couple of months' time.
ποΈ So Margaret Thatcher's office advised the British Embassy in Holland on this day, 18 February, in 1992.
π 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' covers the Hague speech in depth.
James Callaghan
π£οΈ 'It is not that we object to the Government making changes. The trouble is that they always make the wrong changes.'
ποΈ 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.
π£οΈ 'The salvation of the individual which is, in some ways, the central part of Christian teaching'.
ποΈ So said Alec Douglas-Home on this day, 16 February, in 1977, during an oral question on religious education.
Nikki Haley.
π£οΈ 'Oh, I adore her. Iβve written about her in books and speeches. She was the ultimate Iron Lady.'
π° 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.
π There was a fourth post-war former prime minister to reach the age of 90: James Callaghan in 2002.
π₯³ 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.
π 'A warm letter of thanks'.
π₯³ There was a third former prime minister whose 90th birthday was mentioned in Cabinet.
π 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.
π There was a fourth post-war former prime minister to reach the age of 90: James Callaghan in 2002.
π₯³ 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.
βπ» 'A message of greeting and congratulation'.
π₯³ Harold Macmillan was not the first former prime minister to have their 90th birthday raised in Cabinet.
ποΈ On 26 November 1964, Winston Churchill's 90th birthday was the second item of business in that day's Cabinet.
Extract of the Cabinet meeting dated 9 February 1984 about Harold Macmillan's 90th birthday.
π 'Recalled with pride, with gratitude and with affection his lifetime of outstanding service to his country.'
π£οΈ So opened the Cabinet meeting on 9 February 1984 when the first item of business was Harold Macmillan's 90th birthday.
π€ Indeed, alas space prevented the most important point!
11.02.2026 06:43 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' on a bookshelf in Hatchards at St Pancras.
π₯° 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' in Hatchards at St Pancras.
π€© Great to see the company it's in, especially the Tennyson biography as Lady Thatcher quoted him in opening her tribute to Nicholas Ridley:
π£οΈ 'A man who never sold the truth to serve the hour.β
James Callaghan.
ποΈ During Prime Minister's Questions on this day, 9 February, in 1982, Jim Callaghan said that withdrawing HMS Endurance from the South Atlantic was 'an error that could have serious consequences'.
π£οΈ He told Margaret Thatcher he had 'turned [the idea] down flat' when he was PM.
Robert Walpole and Stanley Baldwin.
ποΈ In 1975, Harold Macmillan wrote that Stanley Baldwin was 'in many ways comparable to [Robert] Walpole'.
π‘One thing Walpole and Baldwin had in common was that as ex-Prime Ministers, they intervened in Parliament just once.
π¨ They are the only two to intervene on only one occasion.
π¨ Today's question for students of the Office of Former Prime Minister: where does Gordon Brown's intervention on the Peter Mandelson case, including on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning, rank in post-prime ministerial interventions?
www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...
James Callaghan.
π£οΈ 'We always know when the Government are in trouble. They are lucky to have...Lord Whitelaw, to present a reasonable case on their behalf when they do not always seem totally capable of it themselves.'
ποΈ So said Jim Callaghan on this day, 6 February, in 1996.
Letter from Chris Patten to Judith Chaplin dated 5 February 1992 about Margaret Thatcher's role in that year's General Election.
ποΈ On this day, 5 February, in 1992, Chris Patten, then Conservative Chairman, wrote to one of John Major's advisers about Margaret Thatcher's role in that year's General Election.
π 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' covers that in depth:
www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...
Edward Heath.
ποΈ On this day, 4 February, in 1975, Edward Heath resigned as Conservative leader.
π¨ Like Margaret Thatcher's, his life after Downing Street has been shrouded in myth too, misrepresented, and misunderstood.
β
Like his successor, he also continued serving his country, at home and abroad.
The cover of the book by Richard Aldous, 'Reagan & Thatcher: The Difficult Relationship'.
π As ever with Margaret Thatcher, nuance is needed, even in her relationship with Ronald Reagan, some of which is captured in the book 'Reagan & Thatcher: The Difficult Relationship' by Richard Aldous.
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Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
π₯³ On this day, 3 February, in 1994, Margaret Thatcher spoke at an event for Ronald Reagan's 83rd birthday.
ππ» The speech was interrupted by applause 20 times.
π By laughter 5 times.
π The Margaret Thatcher Foundation has the speech in full: www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108...
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Edward Heath.
ποΈ On this day, 2 February, in 1983, John Vincent said Edward Heath risked βinjury to the valuable convention that ex-premiers are national figures above the storm.β
π€ There is not (and never was) such a convention so it was wrong about Heath, as is much of the commentary about him as an ex-PM.
π¨ January 2026 update on ex-PMs' parliamentary activity.
π₯ History made!
π Rishi Sunak takes Jim Callaghan's crown and now averages the most interventions per session since 1955: 27 to Callaghan's 26.
π Helped by this long session, but still impressive!
π¨ January has been a historic month in relation to 'The Office of Former Prime Minister'.
π Check back tomorrow for why.
π₯ Exciting!
Margaret Thatcher stood behind Tony Blair at a Remembrance Service at the Cenotaph in London.
π£οΈ 'He's getting awfully bossy.'
π° So Margaret Thatcher said about Tony Blair (π€ yes, really), in a report published on this day, 31 January, in 1999.
π 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' is stuffed full of such gems of Lady Thatcher being entirely herself.
π¨ Perhaps Margaret Thatcher's greatest legacy of all: still able to wind people up (to dizzying heights), 35 years after she left office and 13 years after she died.
βπ» A brilliant illustration from @iaindale.bsky.social of how even now she's still the one we can and do debate most of all.
Clement Attlee.
π£οΈ 'I quite agree you get independent-minded Members in all Parties; they are generally regarded as a nuisance by the Whips but they do enliven the Parties'.
ποΈ So said Clement Attlee on this day, 30 January, in 1958 in a debate on life peerages.
π 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' was published 6 months old today.
ππ» A massive thank you to everyone who's bought it.
π If you don't have a copy yet, or wanted to gift one, it currently has a 36% discount on Amazon:
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178590920...
James Callaghan.
π£οΈ 'Increasingly over the past 18 years the Government have behaved in an arrogant manner to most people who are concerned with public affairs, whether it be the Civil Service or either House.'
ποΈ So said Jim Callaghan on this day, 28 January, in 1997, when speaking on the Police Bill.
βπ» 'The Iron Lady is back in style with fashion gurus' was the headline of a Daily Telegraph article on this day, 27 January, in 2000.
π Margaret Thatcher's wardrobe was a key part of her life after Downing Street.
π°More from Hilary Armstrong below.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic...
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'.
π Some (men) probably felt that after 1990 Lady Thatcher became the most irritating person in British political history, if she was not already.
π«£ Not least because as she no doubt would have argued, events generally turned out to prove her right β and the men wrong.
