The Blessed Margaret cast an awfully long shadow over Carol
IN ALL the tributes to and vilifications of Margaret Thatcher this week to me the most interesting insights have concerned her role as a mother and I found myself thinking more and more about her daughter Carol.
I don't know Carol well. I met her a few times and found her friendly, funny, bright and perhaps a touch eccentric. She may have had a privileged life in some respects but I also think she's had a raw deal in the long shadow cast by The Blessed Margaret as the late Lord Fawsley always referred to Lady Thatcher.
Now as she comes to terms with her mother's death my heart goes out to her.
Last summer I spent some time with a very good friend of Carol's. She told me of Carol's pain about Meryl Streep's film The Iron Lady.
She was very upset at the depiction of Lady T as a frail old woman in the grip of dementia, not because it wasn't true but because to her the film was premature and disrespectful.
It must be pretty horrible to watch a film about your own mother's decline while she is still alive. It hurt Carol badly.
It's been hard for Carol to live in her mother's controversial shadow, especially as she makes her living in the media.
There has always been a lot of hostility towards her simply because her mother inspired such venom. She inspired much admiration too of course but to the politically correct class, which dominates the media, her name was anathema.
Carol had her revenge against these chattering classes when she won I'm A Celebrity. That wasn't decided by TV executives in suits but by the public. They loved her and crowned her Queen of the Jungle. Like her mother she was voted to the top by ordinary people. I hope Carol realises that's what counts.