Lady Thatcher's Eggs-traordinary Secret Diet

Saturday, January 30 02:30 pm
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With Popeye it was spinach while Samson relied on his long hair. Now Lady Thatcher's secret ingredient for power has been revealed - 28 eggs a week.


The Iron Lady went on a crash diet ahead of her 1979 election win packed with protein, according to thousands of newly released personal papers.

The programme promised to help the future Prime Minister shed 20lb in two weeks but included a caveat allowing whisky - but only with meat.

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Thatcher's History with Food - from the archives - YouWriteOn digs deeper

The truth about Thatcher milk snatcher - source BBC

Milk bottles

Gotta lotta bottle - unless you were under seven-years-old
The one political decision that cemented the left's view of Margaret Thatcher nine years before she entered Number 10 as prime minister was the one that left her dubbed "Thatcher, Thatcher Milk Snatcher". But documents published today reveal that she was considering cuts elsewhere at the same time...

As Sir Edward Heath's Conservatives took power from Harold Wilson in June 1970, the economic outlook was looking bleak.

Wilson's government appeared to have postponed some key economic decisions because of the General Election - and the Conservatives were looking for cuts to meet election pledges on tax.

The most infamous cut of all was the Department of Education's decision to end universal free school milk- taken by Secretary of State Margaret Thatcher.

But documents released under the 30-Year-Rule paint a more complicated picture of what the future prime minister was prepared to sign up to.

Shortly after election, Prime Minister Heath wrote to his cabinet, telling them: "We shall need determination and a willingness among spending ministers to accept reductions in programmes which, from a departmental stand point, they would be reluctant to make."

And in August 1970, the new Secretary of State for Education responded to a Treasury demand for education cuts in four areas:

# Further Education fees
# Library book borrowing charges
# School meal charges
# Free school milk

In principle, the minister who became known for her public-spending cutting zeal once she took power in 1979, appeared concerned at what the public perception of the cuts would be.

Responding to the demands to end free school milk, Mrs Thatcher said: "I think that the complete withdrawal of free milk for our school children would be too drastic a step and would arouse more widespread public antagonism than the saving justifies."

She proposed the compromise, later accepted, that milk would only be available to pupils in nursery and primary schools.

She told the Treasury that this would reduce the proposed cuts by £20m over the four-year life of the government and would free up cash for a new primary school building programme.

Museum charges

On library book charges, Mrs Thatcher's response appeared to be set harder against their introduction.

margaret Thatcher in the 1970s
Margaret Thatcher: Baulked at library charges
"I foresee real difficulties here," she wrote tot he Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Maurice Macmillan.

"It would be a serious step to abandon the time-honoured principle of free borrowing from p View Complete Article