Posted on 12/13/2005 5:13:05 AM PST by Goldwater-Reagan Republican
LONDON (AFP) - Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was back out in public to reopen a top London hotel, only four days after a brief stay in hospital.
The baroness, 80, insisted she felt "fine" as she relaunched the plush Brown's Hotel. She had stayed overnight Wednesday in a London hospital after feeling faint.
Her private secretary said it was "back to normal" for Thatcher who had been taking things easy since leaving hospital.
Looking frail but determined in an electric blue coat, Thatcher, once dubbed the "Iron Lady", was helped from her car before cutting the ribbon.
She laughed and joked as a military band played "White Christmas" and was smiling and waving as the crowd cheered her. One onlooker shouted: "Happy Christmas, Maggie."
Asked how she felt, she replied: "I'm fine", asking a reporter how he was and joking: "That makes two of us" when he said he was also well.
Thatcher then unveiled a plaque and attended a private reception inside the hotel, originally opened in 1837.
Author Rudyard Kipling worked on "The Jungle Book" there and Queen Victoria occasionally popped in for afternoon tea.
Thatcher, who was prime minister from 1979 to 1990, has suffered a series of minor strokes.
Her journalist and broadcaster daughter Carol revealed Saturday that her mother's short-term memory has been affected to the extent that she cannot remember the start of a sentence by the end.
Admired by some,detested by others, Britain's only female prime minister radically changed the nation during her 11 years in power.
"Britain's only female prime minister" And the best one since Winny!
FMCDH(BITS)
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