The Garden Girls are the official secretaries in the prime minister’s office at No 10. The name, which goes back at least as far as Churchill, & maybe even to Lloyd George, comes from the room in which they work. Although Cherie sounds offended by the name at first, she goes on to use it as a matter of course, so perhaps it is one bit of tradition that she came to respect
It is hard now to remember how recently the wearing of trousers has become pretty much acceptable in all circumstances. During my career it is one of the very few battles in which I engaged as a really stroppy feminist – but that was back in the 1960s. In my innocence, I really thought it had been won, at least as far as the civil service was concerned, by the mid-70s
Although I can understand, in a way, why this rule might still have been in operation as far as the Garden Room itself was concerned, I wonder if it always applied in all circumstances
There is always at least one Garden Girl accompanying the prime minister on official trips abroad, & I imagine that common sense might have prevailed in more difficult climates or terrains. Especially during war time – I can not really imagine someone like Olive Margerison being barred from wearing trousers on a freezing plane trip for example
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