Posted on 11/29/2009 2:36:55 AM PST by naturalman1975
Margaret Thatcher stayed up all night in her Downing Street flat throughout the three months of the Falklands War and never changed into her bedclothes, it has been revealed.
She sat fully dressed, huddled round a two-bar electric fire, nervously listening to the radio for news of the conflict, nursing a glass of whisky while husband Denis slept in the spare room.
Baroness Thatcher survived by taking 20-minute catnaps - a 'zizz', she called it - in the day and catching up on sleep at weekends at Chequers.
The extraordinary account was disclosed when she returned to No10 last week to unveil a portrait of her commissioned by Gordon Brown.
Her ability to survive on four hours' sleep has long been the stuff of Tory legend. But she took it to a new extreme in the war with Argentina in 1982, said her former personal assistant Cynthia 'Crawfie' Crawford.
Mrs Crawford, who was at the unveiling, said she moved into the tiny No 10 flat to keep Lady Thatcher company in her all-night vigils.
'She did not once change into her nightclothes in the flat for the duration of the war,' said Mrs Crawford.
'We would sit in the flat listening to the BBC World Service for news of the task force. She couldn't sleep because she wanted to be ready in case anything happened.
'She wanted to be able to go to any briefings with the Naval commanders at any time without the fuss and bother of having to get dressed.
'She also wanted to know everything that was happening, every single detail, so she could keep on top of events. She had to know how the soldiers, sailors and airmen were getting on.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I wonder what Churchill did during the Second World War? :-)
Well, we know he slept in a boiler suit so he’d be ready to jump into action if needed.
I think he’d have approved of the whiskey too.
What a far cry from OUR current Commander-in-Chief, who can’t decide if he should give the troops the reinforcements they need to win the war. Ah, we need a Maggie...
Interesting that she considered the BBC to be a reliable source.... perhaps she was listening to see what misinformation was being broadcasted so that she could immediately counter it.
This lady comes from the same genes that built the British Empire and laid the foundations for the United States.
That was a very, very high risk undertaking and she quite understandably would have been on edge.
That means she wasn't directly involved in micromanaging things like Jimmy Carter was in Operation Eagle Claw (the Iran hostage rescue fiasco). Maybe that's why the UK won, and Eagle Claw was a disaster.
I doubt she considered it to be particularly reliable but as the main source of news to the homefront, she had to know what was being reported.
> I wonder what Churchill did during the Second World War? :-)
Whenever he was in Country (for he traveled extensively overseas between 1939 and 1945), Churchill used to have regular date nights with Clemantine, aerial sightseeing tours around Big Ben in RAF ONE, and spent every weekend at Brighton. He tried to take peoples’ minds off the war, choosing instead to focus on more important things like healthcare reform and finding ways for those pesky Irish to normalize their illegal immigration status: the border between Dublin and Liverpool was undefended and they were swimming across unopposed...
Some folk believe he was Britain’s first muslim Prime Minister, born in Turkey. Churchill spent a fortune keeping this under wraps, although there were rumors that persist to this day. Have you ever seen Churchill’s real Birth Certificate? (not the forged one that appeared on the Internet, but the real one). I didn’t think so — nobody has. It’s sealed in Istanbul.
Could we have the “clone” of the “Iron Lady” right here in our own Country,
I say this because I see shades of Mrs. Thacher in our own Mrs. Palin!
And I will not rest until businesses are investing again and businesses are hiring again and people have work again."
Who’s the old smarmy looking bag between the pissantOTUS and the wife?
And the Messiah would have had a disco party or rap show at the WH.
I believe its the mother of thunder thighs who is also mooching living quarters at the WH.
Churchill did a lot of business while soaking in a bath tub.
Interesting son-in-law/mother/daughter body language. Michelle said once that Mama tended to take Obama’s side in arguments. I can see it...
Maggie was a real leader. We need a leader now in the worst way. Sarah Palin might be the one or she might be like John the Baptist one who will pave the way for the new leader (General Patraeus?).
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