Thatcher and Carey

As well as Runcie’s appointment, Thatcher is also supposed to have used her influence to secure Graham Leonard’s translation to London and Carey’s appointment to Canterbury. Just as she preferred Runcie to Montefiore, it is said she preferred Carey to John Habgood. Carey has recorded his surprise that she insisted on seeing him soon after his appointment and that he was instructed to wear a collar and tie and enter Downing Street by a warren of corridors to confuse the press. Before seeing the PM, the new Archbishop was careful to don a clerical collar but even with this symbol of his office he had difficulty stemming her flow of conversation that went on without a pause for eight minutes. Only when he barged into the conversation and labelled John Wesley a socialist did the daughter of a Methodist local preacher draw breath. Carey confessed that he felt drawn to Thatcher. ‘I could not agree with many of her social polices but her approach attracted me’, he wrote. He judged that her period in office restored a sense of pride to Britain and he continued to have contact with her after she retired. It is not hard to guess that he was her favourite Archbishop.