Accessibility links Geoffrey Howe Lord Howe of Aberavon was the former Deputy Prime Minister whose resignation precipitated Thatcher’s downfall “Even after my resignation in
1990, we have remained civilised with each other. Until then, we had both managed to put our differences on the European question into the larger perspective. You must remember we worked together for 15 years, longer than many modern marriages, so instead of concentrating on the drama of our ‘divorce’, it is better to emphasise the achievements of the ‘marriage’. “I was always more discursive, while she was more determined to come quickly to a decision. But our differing approaches bore the fruit of creative tension, and we worked well together. “I remember when Baroness Thatcher travelled to Tokyo for her first summit meeting, she was very much the new kid on the block. Yet almost everyone was in awe of her. No doubt it had a lot to do with her femininity. But they knew almost immediately that she was a real star.” Jonathan Aitken
“Margaret Thatcher’s greatness lay in the strength of her political willpower. She was unusually right, occasionally unreasonable, always formidable. I am fonder of her now she is vulnerable than I was when she was powerful. After Churchill, she was the most effective and influential prime minister of the 20th century.