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This letter was written by Margaret Thatcher in 1980 in response to a nine-year-old boy, who had written to tell her that his Daddy had told him while he was saying his prayers that everyone did wrong things except for Jesus: to which the boy had replied that he didn't think Thatcher had done wrong things, as she was Prime Minister. Was he right, he wanted to know, or was his Daddy?
This letter was quoted by the Bishop of London in his address at Baroness Thatcher's funeral on 17 April 2013. It reads:
Dear David
What a difficult question you ask, but I will try to answer it.
However good we try to be, we can never be as kind, gentle and wise as Jesus. There will be times when we say or do something we wish we hadn't done and we shall be sorry and try not to do it again. We do our best, but our best is not as good as his daily life. If you and I were to paint a picture it wouldn't be as good as the pictures of great artists. So our lives can't be as good as the life of Jesus.
As Prime Minister, I try very hard to do things right and because Jesus gave us a perfect example I try even harder. But your father is right in saying that we can never be perfect as He was.
Yours sincerely
Margaret Thatcher