Mrs T’s iron discipline

LORD TEBBIT, one of Mrs Thatcher’s most loyal and effective ministers, recalling the 40th anniversary of her first general election victory in May 1979, said: ‘I always think back to a particularly contentious Cabinet discussion. She looked round the table and said: “Gentlemen — they all were [men] then — shall we have the facts first and the discussion afterwards?” ’ ARISE, Lord Baldrick? Former Blackadder star Sir Tony Robinson, who quit Labour last week after 45 years — he despairs of Comrade Corbyn’s leadership — isn’t short of suitors. ‘Join us @Tony_ Robinson. A warm welcome awaits!’ tweeted the Liberal Democrat group in the Lords. QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Sir Ed Davey, a former Lib Dem Cabinet minister, says of Labour’s position on the Brexit referendum — ‘Misleading the many, not the few.’ HOUSING minister Kit Malthouse will never live down the Malthouse Compromise, the briefly fashionable Brexit breakthrough he devised but which was ignored by Theresa May. ‘What a wonderful thing to have on your gravestone,’ BBC presenter Adrian Chiles caustically told the MP. ‘It might be a GCSE Question one day,’ countered Malthouse, optimistically.