After Dinner Speakers: Cecil Parkinson, Tony Slattery, Gary Mason

Cecil Parkinson was Transport Secretary when the Thatcher government formally decided to privatise British Rail but is better known for his sensational resignation as Trade Secretary when his secretary Sarah Keays revealed their twelve year clandestine affair and birth of Flora, their daughter. When the news of Sara's pregnancy broke, Parkinson - then 52 - was at the peak of his political career. He had been credited with masterminding Margaret Thatcher's landslide election victory that June and, within hours of the Tory triumph, Parkinson received his reward: the railwayman's son and self-made multi-millionaire was appointed Trade and Industry Secretary and tipped as her successor. Cecil Parkinson was very close to the Margaret Thatcher and an integral part of her administration. He has unique recollections of those times and those personalities