Lord Mandelson remembers Lady Thatcher
The former Labour minister Lord Mandelson says Lady Thatcher told him the Irish were all liars the day he was appointed Northern Ireland secretary.
Speaking to the Today programme's Sarah Montague, he said: "She came up to me and she said I've got one thing to say to you my boy, she said: you can't trust the Irish they're all liars, she said, liars, and that's what you have to remember so just don't forget it."
Lady Thatcher reframed British politics, he said, and brought home the reality that the country could not afford rampant inflation, state monopolies needed commercialising and personal tax rates were too high.
Broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday 17 April 2013.
17 Apr 2013
- From the section UK Politics