There’s no shame in the V&A changing their mind about Thatcher’s wardrobe

The news that the V&A had rejected an offer of Margaret Thatcher’s wardrobe was met with dismay yesterday. ‘Shame the V&A has turned down Thatcher’s personal collection. I for one would have loved to see it!’ said the business secretary, Sajid Javid, on Twitter. Conor Burns MP suggested that the collection’s breakup would be a ‘tragedy’. Even Vivienne Westwood, hardly a dyed-in-the-wool Tory, said on Radio 2 that while she was no ‘fan’ of Thatcher, the Iron Lady was ‘certainly in her lifetime the best-dressed woman. She had terrific taste.’ She also admitted that ‘it would be lovely if the V&A showed her clothes.’ As I wrote yesterday, Margaret Thatcher and Vivienne Westwood were not all that different – both greengrocers’ daughters, both interested in fashion, both important female figures during the 1980s – despite seeing the world very differently. Westwood even impersonated Thatcher on the cover of Tatler in 1989 – and the resemblance is quite striking. But while