Peter Just
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
- 🗣️ 'We always know when the Government are in trouble. They are lucky to have...Lord Whitelaw, to present a reasonable case on their behalf when they do not always seem totally capable of it themselves.' 🗓️ So said Jim Callaghan on this day, 6 February, in 1996.
- 🗓️ On this day, 5 February, in 1992, Chris Patten, then Conservative Chairman, wrote to one of John Major's advisers about Margaret Thatcher's role in that year's General Election. 📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' covers that in depth: www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/margar...
- 🗓️ On this day, 4 February, in 1975, Edward Heath resigned as Conservative leader. 🚨 Like Margaret Thatcher's, his life after Downing Street has been shrouded in myth too, misrepresented, and misunderstood. ✅ Like his successor, he also continued serving his country, at home and abroad.
- 🥳 On this day, 3 February, in 1994, Margaret Thatcher spoke at an event for Ronald Reagan's 83rd birthday. 👏🏻 The speech was interrupted by applause 20 times. 😂 By laughter 5 times. 🔗 The Margaret Thatcher Foundation has the speech in full: www.margaretthatcher.org/document/108... 🧵 1/
- 🗓️ On this day, 2 February, in 1983, John Vincent said Edward Heath risked ‘injury to the valuable convention that ex-premiers are national figures above the storm.’ 🤔 There is not (and never was) such a convention so it was wrong about Heath, as is much of the commentary about him as an ex-PM.
- 🚨 January 2026 update on ex-PMs' parliamentary activity. 💥 History made! 👑 Rishi Sunak takes Jim Callaghan's crown and now averages the most interventions per session since 1955: 27 to Callaghan's 26. 👀 Helped by this long session, but still impressive!
- 🚨 January has been a historic month in relation to 'The Office of Former Prime Minister'. 👀 Check back tomorrow for why. 💥 Exciting!
- 🗣️ 'He's getting awfully bossy.' 📰 So Margaret Thatcher said about Tony Blair (🤭 yes, really), in a report published on this day, 31 January, in 1999. 💎 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' is stuffed full of such gems of Lady Thatcher being entirely herself.
- 🚨 Perhaps Margaret Thatcher's greatest legacy of all: still able to wind people up (to dizzying heights), 35 years after she left office and 13 years after she died. ✍🏻 A brilliant illustration from @iaindale.bsky.social of how even now she's still the one we can and do debate most of all.
- 🗣️ 'I quite agree you get independent-minded Members in all Parties; they are generally regarded as a nuisance by the Whips but they do enliven the Parties'. 🗓️ So said Clement Attlee on this day, 30 January, in 1958 in a debate on life peerages.
- 🎉 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' was published 6 months old today. 🙏🏻 A massive thank you to everyone who's bought it. 🔗 If you don't have a copy yet, or wanted to gift one, it currently has a 36% discount on Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/178590920...
- 🗣️ 'Increasingly over the past 18 years the Government have behaved in an arrogant manner to most people who are concerned with public affairs, whether it be the Civil Service or either House.' 🗓️ So said Jim Callaghan on this day, 28 January, in 1997, when speaking on the Police Bill.
- ✍🏻 'The Iron Lady is back in style with fashion gurus' was the headline of a Daily Telegraph article on this day, 27 January, in 2000. 👚 Margaret Thatcher's wardrobe was a key part of her life after Downing Street. 📰More from Hilary Armstrong below. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic...
- 🥳 This is me with my grandmother, Ivy Mary Just, who would have been 120 today. 📘 'Margaret Thatcher: Life After Downing Street' is dedicated to her, one reason being that is thanks to Grandma that I first learnt of Margaret Thatcher's unrivalled ability to irritate men.
- 🗓️ On this day in 1956, 25 January, Clement Attlee took his seat in the House of Lords as the first Earl Attlee. 🚨 One of his supporters was Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, Stanley Baldwin's son. 🗣️ The new Earl became one of the most parliamentary active ex-PMs.
- Reposted by Peter JustIt's #PMQs at Westminster. But is being Prime Minister now an impossible job? Historian @robertsaunders.bsky.social of the @mileendinstitute.bsky.social explores why PMs burn out so fast, broken leadership pipelines, and why leaders should trust voters more. 🎧 Listen: buff.ly/bhvHQf6
- 💥 'SURELY HE WAS THE GREATEST OF THEM ALL.' ✍🏻 So wrote Margaret Thatcher in the Finchley Press following the death of Sir Winston Churchill on this day, 24 January, in 1965. 🔗 You can read her article on the Margaret Thatcher Foundation website: www.margaretthatcher.org/document/101...
- 🗓️ On this day in 2024, Theresa May asked Rishi Sunak about diabetes during Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs). 4⃣ She is one of only four ex-PMs since 1955 to take part in PMQs. 🥇 Only Jim Callaghan exceeds her in the number of PMQs asked. hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2024...
- 📺 On this day, 23 January, in 1985, the House of Lords was broadcast for the first time. 🎭 Performing as Earl of Stockton, Harold Macmillan spoke. 📸 There are also glimpses of his two immediate successors as PM: Alec Douglas-Home and Harold Wilson. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CzE...
- 🚨 Margaret Thatcher was many things, after 1990 perhaps even more than before: person, persona, practising politician, political deity. 💡 After Downing Street she was something else too: prophet. 🌎 The Manila speech is an example of her prophesying the world we now live in.
- 📢 'It is in all our interests to keep [the United States] committed to upholding international order, which means remaining a Pacific and indeed a European power.' 🗓️ So said Margaret Thatcher 30 years ago today, 22 January 1996, in Manila: margaretthatcher.org/document/108... 🧵 1/
- 📢 'It is in all our interests to keep [the United States] committed to upholding international order, which means remaining a Pacific and indeed a European power.' 🗓️ So said Margaret Thatcher 30 years ago today, 22 January 1996, in Manila: margaretthatcher.org/document/108... 🧵 1/
- 🗣️ 'We are making another move in the gradual secularisation of our people and in abandoning the old principles'. 🗓️ So said Harold Macmillan on this day, 21 January, in 1986 about the Shops Bill. 🧵1/
- 📰 The Downing Street dinner featured on the front cover of @privateeyenews.bsky.social's 1985 Christmas issue. 📰 Richard's story in the podcast about Harold Wilson during the 1983 election also featured on a Private Eye cover, along with Jim Callaghan's intervention on defence.
- 🚨 Interested in the role of former Prime Ministers? 🎙️ Then check out this great recent 'Since Attlee and Churchill' podcast of an event in Downing Street in 1985 which brought together Her Majesty The Queen and six of her Prime Ministers. 🧵 1/ www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNEp...
- 🚨 Interested in the role of former Prime Ministers? 🎙️ Then check out this great recent 'Since Attlee and Churchill' podcast of an event in Downing Street in 1985 which brought together Her Majesty The Queen and six of her Prime Ministers. 🧵 1/ www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNEp...
- 🗣️ 'If we are to maintain the genuine belief of this House in the unity of the United Kingdom, a way must be found, otherwise the Union will not only be in danger it will be broken.' 🗓️ So said Ted Heath 50 years ago today, 19 January 1976. 🧵 1/
- 🗣️ 'like Tony Blair aping Alec Douglas Home' ☺️ A refreshing change from how British political history has largely been since 1990: 'Every Prime Minister attempting [and failing successfully] to ape Margaret Thatcher'.
- 🗣️ 'His complete conviction that the sanctity of international treaties freely entered into is the sole foundation for world peace. That is a principle which our disorderly world finds is daily underlined.' 📅 So said Alec Douglas-Home of Anthony Eden on 18 January 1977. 🧵1/
- 🗡 'Treachery with a smile on its face' at The National Archives. 📄 And its consequence for Margaret Thatcher. 📅 The diary erased almost to blank.
- 🗓️ On this day, 17 January, in 1977, Commons' tributes were paid to Anthony Eden. 🗣️ They included a speech by Ted Heath (sadly, for many reasons, Harold Macmillan was not in Parliament). 🙏🏻 Margaret Thatcher thanked Jim Callaghan for flying Eden home. 🧵 1/
