is margaret thatcher still alive , is margaret thatcher dead 2013

is margaret thatcher dead 2013is margaret thatcher still alive , is margaret thatcher dead 2013 is margaret thatcher still alive , is margaret thatcher dead 2013
is margaret thatcher dead 2013
is margaret thatcher dead 2013

When a massive bomb tore through the fabric of the Grand Hotel in Brighton in October 1984, Margaret Thatcher came within inches of death.

She had wound up a late-night session in her suite and was about to go into the bathroom when she was called back to sign a last letter, just before 3am.

The bathroom was destroyed by the bomb; the letter saved her life.

To many, her defiant reaction - continuing the Tory conference the fatal bomb targeted - was her finest hour.

To others, the disaster was part of a war she had escalated against the first and fiercest of her "enemies within".

Five died, including Tory MP Sir Anthony Berry. The long-delay blast should have been a huge coup for the Provisional IRA, who had been waging war against Britain for 10 years before Thatcher came to power.

But it was dramatically turned into a victory for the government.

Rising to the crisis, Thatcher had the presence of mind to take a suit with her when led out of the hotel by police.

She changed from her ballgown and gave a bullish interview to the BBC. She refused to be driven back to Downing Street or cancel the rest of the event.

She spent the night at Lewes Police College, and woke with the nation to television pictures of her President of the Board of Trade Norman Tebbit being rescued from the rubble in agony.