Princess Margaret and Margaret Thatcher’s Letters Revealed: What were they Talking About?

Princess Margaret. Image: Wikimedia Commons

It seems that two of the most famous Margarets of the 20th century have taken a liking for each other. Correspondence between Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher saw them exchange ideas from the prime minister’s anguish regarding striking steel workers and Princess Margaret’s clamor for more Trotskyists “to argue with.” The letters between the two Margarets were made available by the National Archives in Kew to the public last Friday after more than 30 years, showing how the two took pity after Russia invaded Afghanistan and strikes in the steel industry.

“I suppose if one is an ordinary working man and one’s union tells one not to vote for new machinery or technology because otherwise you will lose your job or your card – you just don’t dare," wrote Princess Margaret in a letter, early 1980. Princess Margaret called the strike rather “depressing.”

Prime Minister Thatcher, meanwhile, wrote Princess Margaret after the latter was hospitalized in 1980, telling her how “very distressed” she was of her condition.

She also praised the Princess for her “wonderfully successful” tour of the United States, sharing with Her Royal Highness her own pre-Christmas trip to the country. She said: “I cannot help feeling that Washington is much more isolated from America than London is from Britain.”