2001 General Election: 'Bring Back Maggie'

The 2001 General Election was the last major electoral intervention Margaret Thatcher made in British politics. It is covered in our study of her life after Downing Street.

Something else that features in that study is this pin badge which was on sale at Politico's bookstore in Westminster, where I used to work.

In addition to the Lady Thatcher pin badge, there were also pin badges of Tony Blair, William Hague, and Charles Kennedy. None of those badges sold out. The ones featuring Lady Thatcher did. It was impossible to keep up with demand. I often wonder how the Margaret Thatcher badges would have done in subsequent General Elections in relation to those of other party leaders. Probably the same, no? Lady Thatcher sold out, the others not (with the possible exception, for good or ill, of Boris Johnson).

Anyway, Lady Thatcher did not just feature on pin badges during the election. Her hair also featured on posters. It seems to be featuring during this General Election too, if the commentary on Penny Mordaunt's hair during the latest election debate is anything to go by. This tweet by Caroline Slocock being an example.

But back in 2001, Lady Thatcher's hair featured on William Hague's head, as per these two Labour posters. One of which has been seen in a tweet by @labour_history on Twitter just recently.

Lady Thatcher's hair also featured in a Peter Brookes' cartoon in The Times on 31 May 2001. Brookes' drew Tony Blair in the guise of Lady Thatcher, the speech bubble reading, 'It takes one to know one.' 

As seemingly it still does given the ongoing contemporary commentary about Margaret Thatcher's continuing influence. For despite Tony Blair's comments in 2001 that 'It is time to draw a line under the era of Thatcher', it seems we haven't.  Nor do we seem to have taken Blair's advice then to 'move on'.