Wednesday's Quote of the Day
09:36 UK time, Wednesday, 30 December 2009
"If other leaders, for example are each being assigned 20 karate gentlemen, the Prime Minister would have no objection to this but she does not wish to be singled out" - Margaret Thatcher rejects Japanese offer of 20 karate ladies as bodyguards.
The newly released Downing Street memos from 1979 show how officials worked behind the scenes to prevent her being embarrassed by her security detail at an economic meeting in Tokyo. "She would not want these ladies; press reaction in particular would be unacceptable," said cabinet secretary Sir John Hunt, according to minutes of a phone call.
The 
