Margaret Thatcher: Cumnock visit recalled 42 years on

On September 4, 1981 the then Prime Minister made the bold – even by her standards – decision to visit the Falmers Jeans factory in the town.

The purpose was to demonstrate how enterprise in Scotland was flourishing after two years of Conservative rule.

But Mrs Thatcher had entered mining territory. And with 325,000 Scots on the dole, a protest was inevitable.

However, perhaps even she didn’t anticipate a reported crowd of 1,500 protestors gathering outside the Cumnock factory.

And that was before her popularity in East Ayrshire crumbled completely during the miners’ strike just a couple of years later.

Mrs Thatcher's visit was confirmed a few days in advance; she was originally considering visiting the Falmers factory in Patna, but company chairman Alan Landau was quite insistent that she go to Cumnock instead.

It was a big story for the Cumnock Chronicle team. I’d joined them as junior reporter just two months earlier - and at the tender age of 19, I was relishing the chance to cover the visit.

But as the office junior, I was assigned one of the most mundane tasks – to follow Mrs T around the factory as she chatted to the workers.

"Stick to her all the time, follow her around the factory and report what was said" - that was the job the editor gave me.

It proved a bit more difficult than expected.

I tailed the Prime Minister and her Scottish Secretary - Ayr MP George Younger – around the factory, notebook and pen in hand. But not one of the workers sitting at their machines would even glance in her direction, let alone answer such penetrating questions as "And what do you do?" or "Do you enjoy your work?".

Most turned their backs on her completely and carried on working.

So much for the penetrating insights into a Prime Ministerial visit.

Undeterred, I stuck to Thatcher like glue.

I continued to follow the PM and her retinue around the factory. Even when she and Mr Younger headed up a flight of wooden stairs and into an office, I tagged along.

And it was then that the Prime Minister turned round, looked me in the eye and asked: “Can I help you, young man?”

I managed to stumble out the most mundane question ever uttered by a junior reporter: “Have you anything to say to the readers of the Cumnock Chronicle, Mrs Thatcher?”

Surprisingly, she answered.

There were no penetrating insights into the mind of the woman who would soon lay waste to the mining industry in Cumnock, and across large parts of Scotland and the UK.

She gave me a couple of quick lines about the need for Scotland to encourage new industries, and of how the Falmers factory was an excellent demonstration of what could be achieved to bring new employment to the country.

But hey, I was happy. I’d blundered my way into an interview with the Prime Minister. I left the room before someone called the security team outside the door.

I maintained my watching brief, and was just behind the PM as she finally left the factory – to be confronted by a screaming crowd.

‘Maggie, Maggie, Maggie - out, out, out,’ was one of the more printable phrases used.

I recognised a few friends in the crowd. I heard one shout: “What the hell are you doing there?”

I was starting to wonder myself.

Then missiles flew in Thatcher’s general direction. Eggs, to be precise.

Two were pretty close on target. One was heading straight for the PM’s immaculately coiffured head until a member of his security team reached up and, somewhat impressively, caught the egg in mid-flight.

I caught a glimpse of a gun poking out of a shoulder holster as the bodyguard turned.

The cars quickly arrived to get the Iron Lady out of there sharpish.

In the post-visit trip to the Royal Hotel that evening, local worthies had very strong opinions on what they would have done if they’d been stuck in a room with the PM. If I had followed their advice, I’m pretty sure I’d still be in prison 42 years on.

I would later encounter Thatcher as she made another visit to Ayrshire while PM. By then I was working in more Conservative-friendly Largs as chief reporter.

Suffice to say, the reception there was just a tad more positive…