Coffee House Shots: Thatcher & Reagan's special relationship
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 17 October 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
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Summary
To mark the centenary of Thatcher’s birth, Michael Gove is joined by Charles Moore, her biographer, and Peggy Noonan, speechwriter to Ronald Reagan, to reflect on the chemistry that bound the two conservative leaders. Both outsiders turned reformers, they shared not only ideology but temperament – ‘They were partners in crime,’ says Peggy.
Yet it wasn’t all harmony. As Charles notes, the pair weathered serious rifts – over nuclear weapons, Grenada and the Falklands. Even in disagreement, they ‘wanted the same thing … to defeat the Soviet Union without fighting’. How did they navigate their differences? And what lessons can we learn from their special relationship?
Produced by Natasha Feroze and Oscar Edmondson.
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Transcript
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| 0:37.8 | Hello, I'm currently out of office. |
| 0:42.4 | An article I read recently said we're more relaxed and more productive after a good break. |
| 0:52.5 | So I've gone to Barbados for a month for science. |
| 1:00.5 | Yours, Toby. |
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| 1:21.9 | Welcome to Spectator Television. I'm Michael Gove, editor of The Spectator, and I'm joined by Charles Moore, |
| 1:27.2 | chairman of the Spectator, Daily Telegraph columnist, and of course Margaret Thatcher's biographer, and Charles is bringing |
| 1:29.2 | out to mark the centenary of Margaret Thatcher's birth, a new one-volume edition of his |
| 1:36.4 | authorised and landmark biography of Margaret Thatcher, and we're uniquely fortunate today to be |
| 1:41.6 | joined by Peggy Noonan. Peggy was there at the White House and her book detailing her experience as Ronald Reagan's speechwriter, |
| 1:50.9 | the person who was the author and inspiration for some of the most historic words that that president ever uttered, is here. |
| 1:57.3 | Peggy, absolute pleasure to see you, Charles. |
| 2:00.6 | Lovely to see you again. And we're here |
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