Quotes
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Margaret Thatcher : I think we have enough respect for one another personally to ask ourselves some of the bigger questions, woman to woman. We are the same age, after all.
Queen Elizabeth II : Really?
Margaret Thatcher : Just six months between us.
Queen Elizabeth II : Oh? And who is the senior?
Margaret Thatcher : I am, Ma'am.
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Margaret Thatcher : [on South African sanctions] I recognize that for your family, the transition of this nation from empire to comparative supplicancy on the world stage must have come as a greater shock than to the rest of us. But I would argue that the Commonwealth is not the way to fill that gap. There are ways of Britain being great again, and that is through a revitalized economy, NOT through association with unreliable tribal leaders in eccentric costumes!
Queen Elizabeth II : But isn't that all I am, Prime Minister? A tribal leader in eccentric costume?
Margaret Thatcher : Certainly not! You're head of an evolved, constitutional monarchy that stretches back to William the Conqueror, it's not comparing like with like...
Queen Elizabeth II : Ah. Now that's where we differ - you see, I consider myself to be exactly like them. To me Ghana, Zambia, Malawi, are all great, sovereign nations with great histories. I am aware you probably don't share that view. To you the Commonwealth is something of a distraction - a waste of time. But in many ways, I have given my life to it. It was the pledge I made 40 years ago...
Margaret Thatcher : On the wireless. 'To our great, imperial family.' I remember listening to it as a student at Oxford. But we cannot let the values of the past distract us from the realities of the present, particularly where Britain's economic interests are concerned.
Queen Elizabeth II : Forty-eight countries of the Commonwealth are now preparing a statement condemning the South African regime, and recommending tougher sanctions. What they... What I would like you to do, is sign that statement.
Margaret Thatcher : If I didn't know better, that sounded very much like a directive.
[tense pause]
Queen Elizabeth II : Think of it as a question.
