Peter Just
LightNews LightNews
banner
expremiers.bsky.social
Peter Just
@expremiers.bsky.social
110 followers 190 following 440 posts
Peter Just posting about UK former prime ministers.

Author of 'Margaret Thatcher: Life after Downing Street' - coming via @bitebackpublishing.bsky.social in July 2025.

#ThatcherAfterDowningStreet #ExPremiers #AfterDowningStreet
Posts Replies Media Videos
expremiers.bsky.social
🗣️ 'I must say on the whole my method of tackling with aggression was quite a good one when I was in office.'

🗓️ So said Margaret Thatcher #OTD in 1994:
www.margaretthatcher.org/document/110...

📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' has more on the story.
Extract from an interview by John Simpson with Margaret Thatcher on 30 November 1994. SIMPSON: [Question paraphrased] Your view of how Foreign Office & Douglas Hurd have acted? THATCHER: The Foreign Office will not be surprised to know that I disagree with them. SIMPSON: And Douglas Hurd? THATCHER: Douglas, I like Douglas very much, he and I disagree on how to tackle these problems and I must say on the whole my method of tackling with aggression was quite a good one when I was in office.
November 30, 2025 at 2:09 PM
expremiers.bsky.social
💥 Margaret Thatcher: special announcement.

🗓️ Tomorrow, we're launching the 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' Advent Calendar.

🎄 24 reasons over 24 days to buy the book this Christmas.

🥳 And the usual daily tweets.

😻 Yes, really!

#Thatcher100 #Thatcher #MargaretThatcher
A book cover featuring an image of Margaret Thatcher. It reads, 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street', Peter Just. There is a quote from Andrew Roberts, 'A joy to read'.
November 30, 2025 at 8:07 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
🗓️ On this day in 1990, Margaret Thatcher started her first full day as a former Prime Minister.

❌ Almost everything we've thought about her life as an ex-PM has been wrong.

📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' explodes the myths about it:
www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...
Cover of 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street'.
November 29, 2025 at 7:18 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
📘 Fitting that on the 35th anniversary of her resignation as prime minister, the @lordnortonlouth.bsky.social & Matt Beech edited Elgar Companion to Margaret Thatcher is heading off on tour.

🤔 Where's the first stop?

♥️🧡 Clue: where my chapter was written.
The Elgar Companion to Margaret Thatcher on the Heathrow Express.
November 28, 2025 at 10:27 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
🗓️ On this day in 1990, Margaret Thatcher resigned.

🌟 In leaving Downing Street, she entered immortality.

💥 The myths and misunderstandings about her life as a former PM need exploding.

📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' does that:
www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...
November 28, 2025 at 7:27 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
🤩 Thrilled to find myself amongst this group of scholars and practitioners in the Elgar Companion to Margaret Thatcher.

📘 We all cover a different aspect of Margaret Thatcher's life, work, and legacy.
Contents page of the Elgar Companion to Margaret Thatcher. Contents page of the Elgar Companion to Margaret Thatcher.
November 27, 2025 at 7:38 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
📢 It being Budget Day, some words of Margaret Thatcher's about Gordon Brown's 2005 Budget.

🗣️ ‘I’m not going to start talking about the Budget, or I’ll be here all day.’

#Thatcher #Thatcher100 #MargaretThatcher #Budget #Budget25 #Budget2025 #ThatcherAfterDowningStreet
Margaret Thatcher on Gordon Brown’s 2005 Budget ‘I’m not going to start talking about the Budget, or I’ll be here all day.’ Margaret Thatcher March 2005
November 26, 2025 at 6:11 PM
expremiers.bsky.social
🗣️ 'There has never been a former prime minister like this one.'

🗓️ So said Norman Tebbit on this day in 1990:
www.margaretthatcher.org/document/107...

📘 His prediction proved correct, as you can read in 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street':
www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...
Norman Tebbit on Margaret Thatcher “There has never been a former prime minister like this one.” Norman Tebbit 26 November 1990
November 26, 2025 at 6:49 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
🗣️ 'These I believe are the five purposes of education at university.'

🗓️ On this day in 1991, Margaret Thatcher gave a speech in Kuwait:
www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108...

📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' has more on the visit:
www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...
Extract from a speech by Margaret Thatcher in Kuwait on 25 November 1991.
November 25, 2025 at 7:23 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
📰 'The Iron Lady who made Tony Blair' was the headline of a Simon Jenkins' article published in @thetimes.com #OTD in 2000.

😂 As for Margaret Thatcher, when once asked what she thought of Blair, she replied, 'My dear, I do not think of him.'

#Thatcher #Thatcher100 #MargaretThatcher #TonyBlair

1/
Extract from The Times Diary on 1 August 2025 featuring a story from Peter Just's 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street'. Once asked by Lady Palumbo what she thought of Tony Blair, Lady Thatcher replied, 'My dear, I do not think of him.'
November 24, 2025 at 7:16 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
📘 The Elgar Companion's arrived!

🙏🏻 Thanks Matt Beech for this brilliant summary of my chapter.

✍🏻 '[Just] argues that Thatcher's emeritus years were a signal political performance of influence and captivation that eclipses all other modern British prime ministers.'

#Thatcher #MargaretThatcher
The cover of the Elgar Companion to Margaret Thatcher edited by Philip Norton and Matt Beech. Peter Just's chapter in the Philip Norton and Matt Beech edited collection entitled 'Elgar Companion to Margaret Thatcher'.
November 23, 2025 at 7:57 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
⭐️ Given Margaret Thatcher's mythical and legendary status, and in line with the actressy and showbusiness aspects of her personality, it seemed somehow fitting that 22 November was also the 27th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy - and Thanksgiving.

2/
November 22, 2025 at 7:55 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
🗓️ 35 years ago today - 22 November 1990 - Margaret Thatcher announced she would resign.

😢 It was a day of tears and of triumph.

📘 It was also, as 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' shows, the day on which her transformation into a political deity began.

1/
November 22, 2025 at 7:54 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
🗣️ 'Oh!'

🗓️ #OTD in 1991, Margaret Thatcher was discussed in Cabinet and uttered her final words in the Commons, intervening in Edward Heath's speech.

📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' has more on one of the great parliamentary occasions:
bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...
Mrs. Margaret Thatcher (Finchley) I know that I inherited that position from my right hon. Friend, and I loyally upheld it. Now, it looks to me as if three parties will be for a single currency and for sacrificing a great deal of the work that it has previously been the right of Parliament to do. How are the people to make their views known in Toggle showing location ofColumn 465this absence of choice? That was the particular point. My right hon. Friend will remember that our right hon. Friend the noble Lord Hailsham, made an interesting speech on elective dictatorship. Hon. Members Oh! Madam Deputy Speaker Order. Mrs. Thatcher Therefore, as he has been in the House longer than I have, will my right hon. Friend tell us how people can make their views known when all parties take the same view but each is divided? Mr. Heath This is an occasion which constantly occurs in parliamentary history.
November 21, 2025 at 7:19 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
📋 Li Peng 'looked tired and worried’, was 'clearly nettled’, and ‘looked rattled’.

🇨🇳 With China in the news, a reminder of Margaret Thatcher's impact on Chinese leaders during her 1991 visit.

📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' has more:
www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...
A screenshot of a press statement about Margaret Thatcher's meeting with Li Peng in 1991.
November 19, 2025 at 6:28 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
⭐️ Margaret Thatcher's travels abroad as an ex-PM could be like state visits.

🗓️ #OTD in 1991, the Kuwaiti Embassy told the Foreign Office the Emir was laying on a plane for her trip to Kuwait.

📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' has more:
www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...
Screenshot of a letter to the UK Foreign Office from the Kuwaiti Embassy about Margaret Thatcher's 1991 visit.
November 18, 2025 at 7:20 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
🦁 'I am...pleased that a lioness is to be admitted to this highly select pride!'

🗣️ So said Margaret Thatcher #OTD in 1999 when receiving the Czech Republic's 'Order of the White Lion'.

📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' has more details:
www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...
The Czech Republic's Order of the White Lion.
November 17, 2025 at 7:33 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
🗣️ 'I know I'm always attacking them [but they] should be on the national broadcaster'.

📺 So said Margaret Thatcher about the BBC broadcasting her memoirs in 1993.

📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' is full of such nuance:
www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...

#Thatcher #BBC
The cover of the boxset 'Thatcher The Downing Street Years'.
November 16, 2025 at 9:25 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
🗣️ 'She wanted to be a hero of a woman's story; and Streep has made her one.'

🗓️ So said Matthew Parris of 'The Iron Lady' #OTD in 2011.

🎭 But which actress played Margaret Thatcher best?

📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' reveals all:
www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...
The DVD cover of the film 'The Iron Lady'.
November 15, 2025 at 8:19 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
🚨 Charles Moore's magisterial official biography was an invaluable resource when I was writing 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street'.

😍 So I was delighted to see this on Amazon recently.

📘 If you don't have it, you can get my book here:
www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...
Screenshot of an Amazon webpage highlighting that 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' and Charles Moore's single volume biography of Margaret Thatcher are frequently bought together.
November 14, 2025 at 7:23 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
🗓️ #OTD in 1997, Margaret Thatcher spoke at Sir James Goldsmith's memorial service:
www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108...

📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' has more on her attendance at such services:
www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...

#Thatcher #Thatcher100
Extract from Margaret Thatcher's speech at Sir James Goldsmith's memorial service on 13 November 1997.
November 13, 2025 at 7:27 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
🗓️ 'Margaret envisages herself as Laurence Olivier playing the part of Henry V before the Battle of Agincourt,' so said Lord Cockfield #OTD in 1992.

📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' has more on this actressy side of her character:
www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...
Lord (Arthur) Cockfield on Margaret Thatcher in 1992: 'I have always said that Margaret envisages herself as Laurence Olivier playing the part of Henry V before the Battle of Agincourt.'
November 12, 2025 at 6:01 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
🚨 On Remembrance Day, some words of Ed Miliband's about Margaret Thatcher from 2013.

🗣️ 'I will always remember seeing her at the Cenotaph in frail health but determined to pay her respect to our troops and do her duty by the country.'

#Thatcher #Thatcher100 #MargaretThatcher #RemembranceDay
An extract from Ed Miliband's tribute to Margaret Thatcher in the House of Commons on 10 April 2013.
November 11, 2025 at 6:58 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
💥 Publication alert!

😊 Delighted to have a chapter in this @lordnortonlouth.bsky.social and Matt Beech edited volume.

📘 'The Elgar Companion to Margaret Thatcher' inspired 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street'.

🛒 Order a copy here:
www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/elg...

#Thatcher #Thatcher100
Cover of 'Elgar Companion to Margaret Thatcher' edited by Philip Norton and Matt Beech.
November 10, 2025 at 7:03 AM
expremiers.bsky.social
🗣️ 'I had a budget deficit. I was very tough on expenditure. I knew the art of saying “no.”'

🗓️ Margaret Thatcher #OTD in 1993:
www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108...

📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' covers her speeches:
www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...
Extract from a speech by Margaret Thatcher to the Fraser Institute on 8 November 1993. Finally, one little postscript. (They say a woman's postscript is always the most important thing.) I have to tell you that if your task is to get your expenditure down, because you've got too big a budget deficit, it is quite possible, provided you have politicians with conviction at the head. I had a budget deficit. I was very tough on expenditure. I knew the art of saying “no.” And whatever the demands for increased expenditure, I said if you want to do this, then someone else must yield up some other expenditure because I'm sure some of you in your departments have got quite a bit that we don't need to have. The result was that in my last four years, we had a budget surplus in each year, and therefore, redeemed some of the debt that our forebears had built up. I commend this course of action to you.
November 8, 2025 at 7:27 AM