Margaret Thatcher did not "entirely grasp" why mocking the Liberal Democrats' logo using Monty Python's dead parrot sketch was funny, the Culture Secretary has said.
John Whittingdale, former political secretary to Mrs Thatcher, recalled how in 1990 he worked on the then Conservative prime minister's conference speech and persuaded her to joke about the Lib Dems' bird of liberty symbol.
But the Tory frontbencher said he has never been convinced Mrs Thatcher understood the joke, although he added the comparison of his party's former coalition partners seems "even more fitting" now following their general election wipeout in May.
Speaking in 1990, Mrs Thatcher told Tory delegates: "I gather that during the last few days there have been some ill-natured jokes about their new symbol, a bird of some kind, adopted by the Liberal Democrats at Blackpool.
"Politics is a serious business and one should not lower the tone unduly.
"So I will say only this of the Liberal Democrat symbol and of the party it symbolises - this is an ex-parrot.
"It is not merely stunned, it has ceased to be, expired and gone to meet its maker.
"It is a parrot no more. It has run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is a late parrot. And now for something completely different."
Mr Whittingdale, speaking in Manchester during his first conference speech since gaining his ministerial role, said of events in 1990: "I was trying to persuade Margaret Thatcher to include a passage comparing the symbol of the Liberal Democrats to Monty Python's dead parrot.
"As many of you know, I succeeded, although I was never sure that she entirely grasped why it was funny.
"But it seems an even more fitting comparison today."
Mr Whittingdale, before speaking about broadband, also joked about his previous work on mobile phones.
He said: "The pace of technological change is growing ever faster.
"In 1983, when I accompanied Margaret Thatcher on her election tour, I was put in charge of the mobile phone.
"There was nothing very mobile about it. It was the size of a brick with a handle - and we soon discovered that journalists in a car behind the battle bus could tune their radio to listen in."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel