ABSTRACT
Mrs Margaret Thatcher’s personality initially impressed the public more by its unusualness, than by its unprecedentedness. Even the anniversary of her unprecedented ten years as Tory Prime Minister was celebrated by the media more in the style of an entry in the Guinness Book of Records than in that of a reconsideration. Energy or the force of life ought to come first. The force of life of a politician requires physical and moral health and luck. Conversely, in the field of politics, a weakness in physical or mental health can have public consequences of disastrous magnitude. Mrs Thatcher’s father’s name, Roberts, may indicate Welsh origin, and her mother’s name, Stephenson, may be Scottish. But the one was born in Nottinghamshire and the other in Lincolnshire and they themselves lived there all their lives. Mrs Thatcher was also deeply, indelibly, imbued with the other side of Englishness: English patriotism.
