It depends how much drink they would need, but prices could go sky-high.”Philip Morris’s chief executive, Geoffrey Bible, will chair the dinner. A spokesman for the company said: “Philip Morris is writing the Thatcher Foundation a cheque to cover the cost of the party. That leaves all the money made, like ticket sales, as profit to the foundation.”The foundation, described by its trustees as an educational organisation, has bases in Warsaw, Washington and London, and is non-profit-making. Its US administrative director, Katherine Carraway, describes it as “a charity and grant-giving organisation which aims to promote free-market values in Eastern Europe, Russia and the Far East”.

Because of its political motives, it is not a registered charity in Britain.Lady Thatcher herself is believed to be paying for the 13 October party in Claridge’s. The hotel charges about pounds 35 a head for the least expensive food, plus pounds 50 for champagne and flowers for a table for two, and pounds 35 for wine. Limousines for selected guests will be around pounds 130 each for the evening. A conservative estimate would put the total bill at no less than pounds 50,000.The guestlist for the London parties is thought to consist largely of Lady Thatcher’s Cabinet colleagues during her time as prime minister, such as Lord Tebbit and Lord Parkinson, as well as close friends such as Lord McAlpine.Sir Charles Powell, her former policy adviser on foreign affairs and defence, says he is greatly looking forward to the Claridge’s event “The Number 10 bash was quite a social reunion It was like a class of the Eighties. I expect Claridge’s to be considerably bigger and perhaps even better.”Unlike Sir Charles, Lord Archer will be at all three parties. “I was there at her 65th birthday party, where there were only 12 people, and I shall be at her 70th that she’s hosting in Claridge’s. I also went to an early party for Denis’s 80th and it was great fun.

But I think Claridge’s will be a tiny bit bigger.”The event at Downing Street was tightly monitored so that the menu and guestlist were not widely publicised. A spokeswoman said: “It was a private party and the money didn’t come from public funds. That’s all I’m saying.” However, John Major is thought to have paid for the event for 60 people.An executive of one catering company, McKay-Marsh, said: “I would have thought pounds 30 a head for the food minimum with at least pounds 15 each for the alcohol, and then there are flowers, champagne, and staff. We pay our staff pounds 6 an hour, and you’re looking at a staff of five for five hours. I doubt they’d have to pay for silver service, but some companies would charge twice as much as us.”Depending on the menu, the cost for the evening would be at least pounds 1,500.Security for the parties is likely to be tight.

Paul Fletcher, head of a north London security firm, Personal Security Services, said: “If you have got high-profile people at your party, that means extra security. For the party at Claridge’s, you could be looking at 11 guards for about eight hours, which would come to pounds 1,500 or pounds 1,600, but for the Washington dinner it would be about four times that.”. “HE’S dead,” said Peter-Paul Hartnett, who has spent the last 20 years taking photographs of nightclub culture. Scrawled under the Polaroid of Mark Lawrence, former DJ at the Taboo club in London, were the words: ”I exist. Love Mark.”

From safety-pinned early punks through the DIY glamour of the New Romantics to today’s Ecstasy-fuelled ravers, P-P Hartnett has documented them all. Anonymous clubbers with outlandish styles have been captured by his camera alongside stars like Boy George and the dancer Michael Clark.
Now this unique record of British street life and the subculture of clubland is to be put on display, with an exhibition at the Levi’s Store Gallery in Regent Street, London next month. The centrepiece will be a massive collage of 110 snapshots recording the flamboyant regulars at Taboo, the club in Leicester Square where Hartnett took photographs every week for a year in the mid-Eighties.The club was a nurturing ground for talent such as the designer John Galliano But the collage also holds sad memories for its creator.

Alongside the DJ are at least half a dozen others who died too young, because of drugs or Aids, or accident: Jill who had an asthma attack; a gifted young designer called John; the doorman, Nicky; a regular by the name of Mark whose decline was documented in the collage. And Taboo’s two leading lights: the performance artist Leigh Bowery and his lover, known only as Trojan.”The message of my show is very much anti-drugs,” Hartnett said. “I hope that by looking at these images, people will realise that all that glitters is not good.”One of the key images in the exhibition will be a portrait of Trojan, wearing metallic make-up that turned his face into a Picasso painting He was killed by heroin at the age of 21. “At Taboo we would watch people changing, but we just enjoyed the freak show,” Hartnett said. “I regret that I never said to Trojan, ‘Stop taking that junk’.