Sorry about the silly title but I thought the lost art of placard slogans aimed at 'that woman' needed reviving. I was provoked to it by a fascinating little story in The Mail on Sunday written by Andy McSmith, a former political correspondent of The Daily Mirror, who admits his political dislike of her. Even so, whilst engaged in researching the history of the 1980s he kept coming across mentions of the lady interfering in the police hunt for the Yorkshire ripper and thus helping in his capture. However, he could not find any documentary evidence to support it.
'That woman' was never one to confine her interest to whatever papers the civil servants put in front of her and apparently she was so incensed after the death of the 13th woman she even threatened to go north and take charge of the investigation herself. Happily she was talked out of that but Willie Whitelaw, then Home Secretary, was summoned to Downing Street to explain why the police were getting nowhere. As McSmith reports:
Whitelaw was wise enough to know that you do not go into a meeting with Thatcher with nothing to say. The day before, he summoned the Chief Inspector-of Police, Sir James Crane, and warned him drastic action was required, immediately.
Sir James got straight on to one of his senior inspectors, Lawrence Byford, and told him to get to the headquarters of the West Yorkshire Police first thing in the morning and do whatever he thought necessary.
The next day, Byford reported to the Home Office that a team had been brought in from outside to take a fresh look at the evidence. In no time, the outside team concluded the letter and tape from the man with the Wearside accent were 'an elaborate hoax'. After further study, they advised the police that they should be looking for a man who lived in or near Bradford.
Well, the story is now well-known. The hoaxer who led the police in entirely the wrong direction was eventually caught and jailed but more importantly, the police now concentrated on the Bradford area and eventually Peter Sutcliffe was captured and sent to Broadmoor where, you will not be suprised to know, he lives in some comfort!
Andy McSmith, who found civil service papers lost in a file which provide the truth of this story, admits to his political detestation of Mrs. Thatcher (as she then was), nevertheless, he believes it was her direct and fearsome intevention which was directly responsible for Sutcliffe's killing campaign being brought to an end. He also comments, wryly, on the fact that she never made any attempt to claim credit for it:
Margaret Thatcher is a divisive figure and, in my view, she was a bad Prime Minister. Yet she is an extraordinary person, the like of whom we may not see again. One of the most remarkable aspects of her intervention in the Sutcliffe murders is that she did not feel the need to leak the story to a sympathetic newspaper. That is not an omission that Tony Blair or David Cameron would have made.
It is not generally in the nature of politicians to do good in secret, but Thatcher saw a problem, used her high office to force through a solution and, when it was done, forgot about it. That is greatly to her credit.
From an avowed political opponent that is as good a commendation as they come.
" He also comments, wryly, on the fact that she never made any attempt to claim credit for it..."
She had class. Something that, in modern politicians, has been replaced by a desire for power for it's own sake...
Posted by: JuliaM | Sunday, 03 October 2010 at 09:39
Yes, indeed, that indefinable thing called 'class' which, nevertheless, you recognise instantly when, rarely, you come across it and which has nothing to do with any particular strata of society into which you were born.
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 03 October 2010 at 09:49
She was a very necessary PM.
Posted by: dearieme | Sunday, 03 October 2010 at 12:27
"necessary"
Gosh, DM, you're getting the hang of English understatement! More like 'crucial', I would have said.
Posted by: David Duff | Sunday, 03 October 2010 at 14:29