Remarks opening the new wing of Churchill Archives Centre, 30th October 2002.

http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=109441

I would just offer two friendly warnings. First, even the fullest record, in my experience, never conveys the essence of a crisis. Having read through much of the documentation of my premiership when I was working on my memoirs, I was often struck by the way in which the mood of the moment was lost. Tension and trouble – and in government there are plenty of both – are efficiently smoothed away by the note-takers.

Secondly, and more generally, I caution against politicians or historians imagining that a knowledge of the facts and access to past experience alone provide the answers to the most important questions. Convictions drawn from outside politics are also required in order to take the right political decisions. Our beliefs – and indeed our instincts – must anchor us firmly if we are not to capsize in the daily storms of politics. There is more to leadership than enlightened pragmatism.