‘The good men do is oft interred with their bones’
These days it’s fashionable to be critical of Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first woman Prime Minister.
No doubt there is plenty to criticise, but we shouldn’t overlook the good things that she did as well.
She was first elected as MP for Finchley in October 1959.
At the beginning of each Parliamentary session, backbench MPs enter a ballot for the chance to introduce their own legislation in the form of a Private Member’s Bill.
By a stroke of good fortune, she was lucky to win on her first draw.
The bill she chose to present was to make it a legal requirement that local authorities admit members of the press and public to their meetings. Until that point, local councils had pleased themselves and too many were choosing to do all their business behind closed doors and away from public scrutiny.
Mrs Thatcher spent three months working on the wording of the bill, canvassing both sides of the House of Commons for support and negotiating with the Government.
She even broke from tradition and instead of using her maiden speech in the Commons to praise her constituency, as was customary, she used it to plug her bill, arguing that the public had a right to know what their elected representatives were up to, and saying that public scrutiny would be the strongest weapon against misfeasance.
The result was that the bill became law on October 17, 1960 and came into effect the following June. It is something upon which all local newspapers like the Kent Messenger now rely.
Another lesser known fact about Mrs Thatcher is that between 1965 and 1972, she had a family home in Lamberhurst. The Mount, a half-timbered mock Elizabethan house at Lamberhurst Down cost the family £8,000 - it is now estimated to be worth about £2.3m.
The eight-bedroom property was a second home for the family, to get away from London.
When they were not in residence it was looked after by a housekeeper, Dorothy Evans, who had earlier been nanny to the Thatchers’ twin children, Mark and Carol.
The Thatchers sold the property to an Arthur and Jean Howes in 1972, and moved to Flood Street in Chelsea. But they returned to Lamberhurst frequently between 1975 and 1987 after renting a flat from the National Trust within Scotney Castle.
Mrs Thatcher was first elected Prime Minister in 1979 and won three elections for the Conservatives. She died in 2013.