Friday 18th May 2018
Members of the Rutland Biz Club welcomed Margaret Thatcher’s former private secretary Sir Mark Worthington OBE, as speaker at their monthly luncheon at the Falcon Hotel in Uppingham.
Sir Mark, who worked for the former Prime Minister for 20 years, told attendees that Lady Thatcher’s political convictions were defined by her upbringing as a grocer’s daughter in Grantham. It made her who she was – a radical.
Sir Mark said: “Her life was one of frugality and hard work, with the values of the chapel and a non-conformist approach of responsible individualism. She grew up in an atmosphere of self-reliance and obligation. Her family’s philosophy of making ends meet and living within your means translated into her later life.”
Attendees heard that Margaret Thatcher was an outsider from the start of her political career at the centre of government, when Britain was economically on its knees in the 1970s as ‘the sick man of Europe’.
“Sir Mark said: “Margaret was a radical. She took on the unions, the national industries and obsolete labour laws and by the sheer force of her personality she always prevailed. She believed these should to be challenged and a new direction needed to be found.”
Biz Club President, Geoffrey Pointon, thanked Sir Mark for his fascinating stories during his career as Lady Thatcher’s private secretary and the years he supported her in the latter years of her life. Geoffrey said: Sir Mark’s speech really brought history to life. It was fascinating to get a sense of Margaret’s clear strength of purpose and vision which was forged not so far from Rutland, over the border in Lincolnshire.”
The Biz Club meets on the third Friday of each month for a lunch at The Falcon Hotel in Uppingham, with a visiting speaker to encourage enterprise and stimulate dialogue between politicians and business people. For more information visit www.thebizclub.co.uk
