'Not happy omen!' Margaret Thatcher’s furious slap-down of taking panda on flight revealed
HOLDING a stuffed bear during her 1987 re-election campaign, Margaret Thatcher seems keen to show a softer side.
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But declassified papers from her premiership have revealed the Iron Lady’s unswerving rejection of “panda diplomacy”.
Files released by the National Archives show how Mrs Thatcher rubbished a request to take two of the bears on a flight to Washington.
The prime minister instructed an aide: “Pandas and politicians are not happy omens!”
The 1981 scheme was the brainchild of cash-strapped London Zoo.
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Its president Lord Zuckerman had hoped to boost publicity for the zoo by lending male Chia Chia to the Smithsonian Institution to in the US mate with its female panda.
Cabinet Secretary Sir Robert Armstrong wrote: “Lord Zuckerman sees this as a signal demonstration of the special relationship”.
He would be happy to time the loan “in any way the Prime Minister thought would be most likely to benefit Anglo-American relations”.
Mrs Thatcher’s private secretary Clive Whitmore replied formally, saying: “She has commented that she is not taking a panda with her. Pandas and politicians are not happy omens!”
