Sorry, wrong man
Sir: What tricks the memory can play. Paul Foot, in his review of Thatcher's Gold (Books, 24 June) says that in early 1981 he telephoned Downing Street and spoke to `the press officer, John Hoskyns', about Mrs Thatcher's presence at a promotion of Lotus cars at the Albert Hall at a time when Mark Thatcher was associated with Ldtus. And I thought I was meant to be working on policy at the time! If he is right, and I was No 10 press officer, this would go some way to explaining the presentational difficulties experienced by No 10 during those critical months.
My clear recollection is that I was head of the Policy Unit. Lady Thatcher says as much in her memoirs, which is good enough for me. I don't think I ever heard about the Albert Hall jamboree, the cause of Foot's indignation. We had barely time for our policy work, never mind press calls.
At the time all the signs were that the first Thatcher administration would also be the last. The No 10 policy advisers were fully engaged, with the Prime Minister and her closest colleagues, in the desperate attempt to stabilise the economy before the deteriorating situation consigned the Gov- ernment, as many commentators were pre- dicting, to the footnotes of history; another administration destroyed by the British sickness.
The Policy Unit's main concerns at the time were: analysing the causes of an exces- sive and accidental monetary squeeze (repeated, Bourbon style, ten years later via the ERM, by which time I was back in the business world and well and truly on the receiving end); the consequent rethinking of the 1981 Budget (a resigning issue for some of us); the threat of a coal strike designed to end the Thatcher experiment by force; public service pay; the Green Paper on trade union reform; and a num- ber of tactical matters, including the Civil Service strike, Aslef disruption of British Rail, and that perennial time-waster for governments which found themselves mak- ing motor cars, British Leyland. I have no recollection of anything to do with Lotus or the Albert Hall.
It is still conceivable, nevertheless, that Foot and I did speak and that it has slipped my mind. But the likelihood of his call being accidentally put through to the Policy Unit, and of my not transferring it at once to Bernard Ingham or Charles Anson, is remote. I am virtually certain that I have never spoken to Paul Foot. He must be confusing me with someone else.
John Hoskyns
10 Great Castle Street, London W1
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