Anthony Johnson recalls meeting Margaret Thatcher Margaret Thatcher meets Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke at 10 Downing Street, London, in 1986. Picture: GETTY IMAGES Source: adelaidenow MY meeting with the Iron Lady was as unlikely as it was pleasant. It came at a time when I was embroiled in my own cold war with the British diplomatic establishment. It was sparked by a rather undiplomatic newspaper column I'd written in the late '80s about the manner in which representatives of Her Majesty's government were conducting themselves in South Africa. The article had made unflattering comparisons between spin doctors in the British embassy and P.W. Botha's apartheid propaganda machine. It had concluded with a throwaway line that if the embassy wanted to clean up its act, staff could start by ending the practice of hosting whites-only cocktail parties. My scribblings were dispatched to Whitehall and, unsurprisingly, I became persona non grata. A thaw was engineered by the British Ambassador to South Africa, Sir Robin Renwick, who invited me to his official residence to meet Margaret Thatcher. Mindful of what she had done to the Argentinians, I was on my guard. But she turned out to be charming, engaging and lively conversationalist. The grocer's daughter even volunteered a nugget of wisdom that no doubt served as a touchstone for much of her decision-making while Britain's prime minister: "Anthony, there are really only three things that matter in life - merit, merit and merit." Perhaps it's little wonder such a staunch champion of meritocracy was on a war footing with the union movement while bunkered down in Downing St.