'I was there': Margaret Thatcher 'not for turning', 1980
5 live Daily looks back at an historic moment through the eyes of those who were there.
"The lady's not for turning"
In 1980 Margaret Thatcher delivered her most defiant speech at the Conservative Party Conference in Brighton.
To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the "U" turn, I have only one thing to say. "You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning."Margaret Thatcher
She told delegates she would not be performing a u-turn on her controversial counter-inflationary policies, despite the rise of unemployment and the ecomonic recession.
5 live Daily looks back 35 years at Thatcher's most famous addresses and asks what makes a truly great speech.
The new Prime Minister was facing a 'very hostile crowd'
Julia Langdon, a political journalist and commentator covered the 1980 conference for the Guardian.
She really didn't have a friend in the Cabinet."Julia Langdon
She remembered the political situation Margaret Thatcher, who had only been in office for one year, was facing. "The economic situation was bad, there were two million unemployed... and she had a Cabinet full of dissenters, they were very hostile to her'
A year later Thatcher demoted some of the Cabinet Ministers who disagreed with her hard-line policies, who she called the 'wets'.
Harvey Thomas rehearsed the speech with Thatcher
Former Conservative Party advisor Harvey Thomas said the late Prime Minister "did not always understand some parts of the speech".
"She did not always get the point: sometime she did, sometimes didn’t. Once and a while she totally misunderstood the joke.”
He praised her as a 'conviction politician' and also compared her speech to Prime Minister David Cameron’s at this 2015 Tory part conference: "His speech was like blue rinse candyfloss, and when you look at the speech she gave, the content in it was incredible.”
Thatcher's 'not for turning' speech: 'She didn't get the point for a while'
Tory advisor on Thatcher's 'defiant' speech: 'She did not get the point for a while'.
Speechwriter Simon Lancaster was only 7 at the time...
He said he remembered a divided political time, where the unemployment figures were emblazoned on the side of County Hall in London.
We're left with this one single image of Margaret Thatcher like Boudicca bestride the tank."Simon Lancaster
Simon says: "the thing that really sticks in my mind is just the feeling of conflict in the air and now as a speech writer as I look back on it I can see that is was all of the metaphors and imagery that she was so deliberately creating".
Julia Langdon remembers Thatcher's sharp determination and her earliest nickname 'Tina' - standing for 'there is no alternative'.
Is Thatcher's 'not for turning' speech one of the greatest?
Speechwriter Simon Lancaster says his favourite speeches were made by William Churchill, Barak Obama, Malala and Tony Blair. He says that rhetorical device of repetition stresses the passion of the speaker.
They were arguing about the speech and Dennis said 'honestly love, we're not trying to write the Old Testament."Julia Langdon
Julia Langdon says engerdering trust is incredibly important in any speech: "The ones who really make it work are people who speak with credibility because they believe what they're saying."
Margaret Thatcher's 1980 speech was written by playwright Ronnie Miller, and Julia recalls that the night before delivering the speech she had a huge row with him about the content.
