This man's not for turning

Mark Thatcher

Sir Mark Thatcher's plea of guilty to involvement in a coup plot against an African leader could well be the final act of a story where privilege has led ultimately to failure and shame.

It was said to be the dearest wish of his mother, Baroness Thatcher, that her son should inherit the baronetcy from his father, Sir Denis. Observers said that it would be compensation for the loneliness Mark felt as a child, growing up while his mother's political career took her to the highest office in the country.

He was delivered by caesarean section, with his twin sister, Carol. Growing up a Thatcher was never easy. His father was already a millionaire businessman, his mother was on course to be Britain's first woman Prime Minister - expectations were high from the start.

But Mark failed to thrive academically. At Harrow, he picked up the nickname "thickie", passing just three O-levels. Accountancy proved equally taxing - he failed his professional exams three times.

He flirted with the City, travelled to Hong Kong and even served a stint as a jewellery salesman. But Thatcher harboured an image of himself as an action man, even a playboy.

His first foray into motorsport with Mark Thatcher Racing ended in cash-flow problems. It was his obsession with fast cars and adventure that made him a laughing stock to the British public and reduced the Iron Lady to public tears.

Three years into his mother's premiership he took part in the 1982 Paris-Dakar rally. Unprepared, he was soon lost in the Sahara. His father flew to help with the search, which had to draw on the military support of friendly Governments.

When he eventually made contact, the young Thatcher refused to admit he had been at fault. He even declined to accept he had been lost, and would not shake hands for photographers with his by-now humiliated father. His reputation never recovered.

Warning bells over his conduct had rung before the desert fiasco. He had arrived in Oman at the same time as his mother, who was on official business. He was operating an "international consultancy firm", Monteagle Marketing, acting as a facilitator, introducing people he thought could do business together. He came to embody the type of businessman that his mother's critics said flourished during her years in power.

A devout believer in the free market, he thought he had the right to do business wherever and with whomever he chose.

His single biggest asset, however, continued to be his name, and his opponents say it was this he used to short-cut the usual route of expertise and experience through which conventional fortunes are built.

In 1984, it emerged that, while in Oman at the same time as his mother, he helped secure a multi-million pound deal for Cementation as part of a project to build a university. Two years later, by now married to the Texan millionairess Diane Burgdorf and living in the United States, he returned to the Middle East.

This time it was alleged he helped to broker a deal between British Aerospace and the Saudi Government, which earned him a commission of around £12 million ($32 million). The sale, part of the notorious al-Yamamah arms deal signed by Lady Thatcher, is said to have formed the basis of his £60 million ($160 million) fortune.

Luckily for his mother, it was not until she had made her final, tearful exit from Downing St that the story broke.

Her son was disliked not just by the media but by senior Government officials and even Tory ministers. When he asked Sir Bernard Ingham, Lady Thatcher's former press secretary, how he could help his mother win the 1987 general election. Ingham replied: "Leave the country."

- INDEPENDENT