A comforting hug from the Iron Lady

Margaret Thatcher always knew how to treat her staff.

To her enemies, Lady Thatcher was a cruel, divisive figure, but even they had to concede that she was never other than kind to those who worked for her. She could be brutal to her ministers, but was always compassionate to staff drivers, secretaries, doorkeepers, policemen, waitresses. She had a heater installed over the door into Number Ten, for example, so that attendants could stay warm during the depths of winter.

At one grand Chequers dinner, Tom Utley reminded us in the Daily Mail, a nervous waitress dropped a bowl full of scalding soup into the lap of one of the guests. As the diner "whimpered in agony, a horrified Mrs T leapt from her chair, rushed round the table and gave a huge, comforting hug to the waitress". She immediately understood who was suffering most in the room, and it wasn't the dignitary with the scalded crotch.

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