Last week the UK papers reported that O.G. Tough Conservative Lady Margaret Thatcher had zero interest in hanging out with creepy-media obsession Sarah Palin during Palin's upcoming visit to London. Now a former Thatcher aide says those news stories were bloody LIES.

"There was never any snub of Sarah Palin by Lady Thatcher's office," blogs foreign affairs analyst/political commentator Nile Gardiner. "However, there has been a great deal of mischief-making and unpleasantness in a vain and futile attempt to use Margaret Thatcher's name to smear a major US politician." (Major!)

How does he know? Well, Gardiner's been loyal to Thatcher and her crew for many years now: he not only used to advise her on international policy issues but also helped her write a book, and today directs the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. They're buds. So when he read those "hugely misleading reports" stating that Thatcher would be "washing her hair" the day Palin swung through Londontown, he set about investigating further:

I have spoken to Lady Thatcher's Private Office regarding the story, and they confirm that the attack on Sarah Palin definitely did not come from her office, and in no way reflects her views. As a former aide to Margaret Thatcher myself, I can attest that this kind of thinking is entirely alien to her, and that such remarks would never be made by her office. She has always warmly welcomed like-minded figures in the United States, and has in the past met with numerous US presidential candidates and political dignitaries when they have visited London. But at the age of 85 she is now able to receive very few visitors at all.

Well, it's not a direct quote from Thatcher—but neither were the reports that set off this transatlantic gossip story, so who really knows what the hell is going on. (You can read the American-English version of Gardiner's post here.)

If Palin and Thatcher did get to meet up, how do you think the conversation might go? Would Thatcher tell Palin some juicy Ronald Reagan stories? Would Palin tell Thatcher some inaccurate Paul Revere stories? Or would they just sit in awkward silence, so similar yet unfamiliar to each other? Perhaps we will never know.

[Telegraph. Images via AP]