Thatcher Aide Denies Guardian's Palin 'Snub' Report

"Would Lady Thatcher have ever described a prominent US conservative politician as ‘nuts’?"
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Well, well, well. The left-wing media has been caught making things up about Margaret Thatcher and Sarah Palin. Gov. Palin told a correspondent for The Times of London last week that she intended to visit Sudan in July and mentioned that the trip would possibly include a stopover in London, where the governor said she hoped to pay a call on Margaret Thatcher if the former PM would be feeling up to it.

The Guardian, arguably the most left wing of the UK's "mainstream" newspapers, saw the opportunity to take a gratuitous swipe at Gov. Palin and falsely reported that the governor should forget about paying Lady Thatcher a visit, and not simply because of the Iron Lady's failing health:

Her allies believe that Palin is a frivolous figure who is unworthy of an audience with the Iron Lady. This is what one ally tells me:

“Lady Thatcher will not be seeing Sarah Palin. That would be belittling for Margaret. Sarah Palin is nuts.”

Paliniste-across-the-Pond David Riddick did not believe that nonsense for even a second, and he lists his reasons here. Among them, The Guardian has always loathed Lady Thatcher, they loathe Sarah Palin and no professional on her staff would ever use the pejorative "nuts."

Another red flag (ahem) in the Guardian's little spot o' propaganda, at least in our humble opinion, was the alleged "ally" referred to her as "Margaret" in the quote. Your editor is hardly an Anglophile (although I was an Episcopalian for most of my life, but I digress...), I can't even imagine anyone on her staff or in her close company using her given name. That's too familiar for someone of her status, and anyone truly inside her inner circle would refer to her as "Lady Thatcher" instead.

The Guardian's account also seemed highly suspect to one of Jim Hoft's readers at Gateway Pundit, who decided to investigate. The reader sent an inquiry to The Thatcher Foundation, and here's an excerpt of the reply which came back:

I have no inside knowledge of this business to offer I am afraid and certainly am not in a position to make any kind of statement on Lady Thatcher’s behalf. I’m happy though to give you my personal view.

The Guardian, of course, is not a newspaper at all sympathetic to Lady Thatcher (or to Mrs. Palin), so reports on this topic, from that source, have minimal credibility. If nothing else, would Lady Thatcher have ever described a prominent US conservative politician as ‘nuts’, or approved an ‘ally’ who used the description? I would hope that question answers itself.

Of course, sadly, Lady Thatcher’s health is not good these days and such considerations naturally dominate her schedule. That much is true. Someone once said that if you plaster together the true and the false you thereby manufacture the plausible, but in this case I don’t think even that much has been achieved by the Guardian.

Notice the respectful use of "Lady Thatcher" in the reply.

The Guardian's credibility, which is always dubious at best, is totally destroyed by Christopher Collins, the Foundation's historian. So if Gov. Palin visits England and does not meet with Lady Thatcher, you can be reasonably assured that illness, not scorn, is what kept the two conservative women of different eras apart.

h/t: Brian Preston

- JP