What it was like under Thatcher’s regime (2)

The worse thing about the Thatcher era was my car radio. The other worse thing was pretty much everything else. Especially her certainty; I think she did perhaps believe her infamous words: 'there is no alternative'.

Living in our wonderfully complex and bewildering universe, I find absolute certainty and simplistic solutions very unsettling. But these were her stock in trade. I know that politicians must sometimes sound more confident than they really are about their position but she pushed it to the limit. And the strident voice in which she explained everything to us lesser mortals was awful; patronising doesn't even start to describe her tone!

And that car radio; it would only receive long-wave so driving home I had a choice between Radio Four, some French stations or silence. I should have chosen the latter but I used to listen to PM instead. Only recently had sound broadcasting from Parliament been permitted; it wasn't yet on TV. So nearly every evening there were extracts from the day's business.

Prime Minister's Questions was on twice a week then (let no one tell you that Tony Blair has contempt for Parliament because he only does it once a week. His half-hour slot is far more effective than her two fifteen minute ones were. No one else could get a word in as she hardly needed to draw breath in those!). So at least twice a week I had to listen as she explained in that ghastly simpering voice how incredibly simple everything was and how wonderfully well her government was coping. And people believed her! How ever did I keep the car on the road in my fury?

In the next episode: what happened to compassion......