The current Prime Minister faces a different challenge, and pretending otherwise teaches us nothing.
A self-confessed “Freudian slip” on the Today programme this morning from John Humphrys on Radio 4. During an interview with the Health Secretary Matt Hancock about the planned confidence vote on Theresa May’s leadership, Humphrys asked: “Are you entirely confident that every member of the cabinet will vote for Mrs Thatcher?”
The two men laughed. “Oh, there’s a Freudian slip for you, there’s a Freudian slip!” laughed Humphrys.
You can see why he made the mistake. A little earlier in the programme, he had interviewed Charles Moore, the former Telegraph editor and Thatcher’s biographer, about the parallels between the challenge facing May and Thatcher’s downfall.
“You remember very well what happened in 1990,” Humphrys put to him, referring to the time Thatcher was brought down by a leadership challenge.
And yes, Moore was able to describe very thoroughly what happened then.
