My meeting with Cecil Parkinson

I met Cecil Parkinson just once. It was in 1988 when I was a lowly police officer, guarding Mrs Thatcher on her return to the Grand Hotel, Brighton.
The job was both dull and routine, and also incredibly important and interesting. As a relatively newly promoted sergeant I was in charge of a small team responsible for security on the 6th floor of the hotel for the 12 hours nights (short straw drawn again!) while the PM was resident in her suite.
The conference that year coincided with Mrs Thatcher's birthday and we gave her a card. She thanked us very nicely, albeit in a slightly regal way.
Sir Peter Morrison (her very odd PPS)  popped into the lobby area outside the PM's suite on a regular basis, chain smoking and it has to be said 'well-refreshed.'
Lots of the Cabinet Ministers either ignored us coppers, or made a perfunctory grunt of acknowledgement. This was quite normal. Most senior Conservative and Labour politicans I encountered over the years of party political conference policing seemed to regard the Poilice as a bit of a pain.
The exception that sticks in my mind to this day was Cecil Parkinson. I may have this wrong but unless my memory is playing tricks with me I think that by 1988 Cecil had been restored to the Cabinet. Cecil stood out because he took the trouble to chat in the most normal, non-condescending way. I remember him telling me that he could not enjoy Conference until he had delivered his speech, and I - and others - really appeciated the effort he went to understand the necessity of our task, thank us for it and his willingness to pass the time of day with us.
It was Cecil, Bill Sirs (the Steel Union leader), Ken Maginnis (the very brave but also antediluvulian Ulster Unionist MP) and the wonderful Barbara Castle that were the politicians I recall interacting in any kind of normal way with the Police guarding political conferences in those days.