A REMARKABLE LADY
Sunday, November 29, 2009 at 01:01PM 
Interesting to read that Margaret Thatcher stayed up all night in her Downing Street flat throughout the three months of the Falklands War and never changed into her bedclothes, it has been revealed.
Yes, I am a fan of Margaret Thatcher and rate her second only to Sir Winston Churchill in terms of Great British Prime Minister's of the past 100 years.
She sat fully dressed, huddled round a two-bar electric fire, nervously listening to the radio for news of the conflict, nursing a glass of whisky while husband Denis slept in the spare room. Baroness Thatcher survived by taking 20-minute catnaps - a 'zizz', she called it - in the day and catching up on sleep at weekends at Chequers. The extraordinary account was disclosed when she returned to No10 last week to unveil a portrait of her commissioned by Gordon Brown. Her ability to survive on four hours' sleep has long been the stuff of Tory legend. But she took it to a new extreme in the war with Argentina in 1982, said her former personal assistant Cynthia 'Crawfie' Crawford.
Thatcher was a leader. She took risks, she defied convention. The Falklands War was one of the highlights of her time in power - the time when Britain confronted bullies rather than appease them. That she did not sleep until the war was won is remarkable but then again she was a remarkable lady.
Falkland Islands, Lady Thatcher 
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Reader Comments (3)
A true leader in a time of history when the west was in the hands of leaders
"That she did not sleep until the war was won is remarkable but then again she was a remarkable lady. "
She could have ended the war with minimal casualties but decided against it so she could reap the political advantage so it probably is a point of redemption that she had trouble sleeping.
Also, if I was rating them subjectively (I don't like Thatcher and if I was rating them based on how much I like them then she would probably come last) I would put Thatcher 5th of 20th Century Prime Ministers behind Churchill's first term (his second was pathetic and one of the worst ministries of the 20th Century), Attlee, Lloyd George and Asquith.
Lloyd George was also a great war leader, as Churchill acknowledged.