Undoubtedly Mrs Thatcher did have a low opinion of the Department of Education and Science (DES). On her appointment as Secretary of State by Edward Heath in June 1970 she had presented officials with a list of eighteen demands, of which the most urgent was the withdrawal of circulars issued by Labour to enforce the comprehensive system on local authorities. Although she was acting in accordance with the party manifesto, DES officials seemed reluctant to comply. Tempers rose, and Heath had to invite Mrs Thatcher and her Permanent Secretary to Chequers for a meeting which established an armed truce. Before the fall of the Heath government Mrs Thatcher had driven through significant improvements to nursery and primary education; the conference of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) had given her a warm ovation; the Guardian had applauded her progress towards “a respectably socialist education policy”; she had fought tenaciously in defence of her Departmental budget; and a record number of schools had turned comprehensive. But her respect for DES civil servants remained roughly on a par with her feelings towards student unions, several of which burned her in effigy in response to her suggestion that they were ripe for reforms.

By the time that Mrs Thatcher left the Department it had moved from “its splendid old quarters in Curzon Street”, to Elizabeth House, “a hideous new office block at Waterloo”. Ironically, the unappealing edifice had been designed by John Poulson; like the DHSS at the Elephant and Castle, it was too close to a railway line and double-glazing had been installed, turning the Secretary of State's room into an oven during the summer.