LIKE her or loathe her – and it was usually the later – former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was one very dedicated worker.
It was widely reported she limited herself to only a few hours’ sleep and, as for holidays, she simply didn’t do them.
Infact, according to a source who had access to Thatcher’s private papers, she took just one day off in her entire career as PM.
But August 25 1982 was a lot more significant than the notes in her diary suggested – an 8am hairdressers’ appointment and 6pm at the dentist.
For on that day Mrs T, along with the Home Secretary and the Attorney General were given a special briefing by the Metropolitan Police Commissioner and the head of Mi5.
The main content of that meeting was a report into the lurid goings on at the Elm guest house, a paedophile brothel in Barnes, London, that had been raided and closed by police just a couple of months previously.
Evidence had been uncovered that regular guests at this establishment included former Liberal MP Sir Cyril Smith and Anthony Blunt, a cousin of The Queen. Both have subsequently been exposed as paedophiles.
Others included Conservative MPs Harvey Proctor and Peter Bottomley along with celebrities Sir Cliff Richard and Jess Conrad.
It was also brought to Mrs Thatcher’s attention that compromising photos had been obtained featuring Lord Leon Brittan, who ironically was to become Home Secretary barely a year later.
The former owner of the guest house Carole Kasir kept logbooks, names, times, dates, even pictures of visitors. She claimed that Sir Jimmy Savile used to pop round for ‘tea’ and she had an interesting photograph of Sir Edward Heath.
Co-incidentally she died of a reported insulin overdose in 1990 and all the evidence apparently went missing with her.
It’s unclear whether what she discovered on August 25 1982 was news to Mrs Thatcher but what is clear is that she did absolutely nothing about it.
Well, it was her day off……….