GRAPEVINE

By DAVID ELLIS

Former Cabinet aides report Margaret Thatcher is suffering from depression brought on by withdrawal from power. While the ousted British Prime Minister seemed her old intrepid self on a visit to Washington two weeks ago, a number of close friends say she has decided to give up her seat in Parliament after holding it for 31 years. In the weeks after she lost the premiership, Thatcher took comfort in the fact that protege John Major succeeded her, and she hoped to exercise wide influence over post-gulf war policy. Major has largely backed away from Thatcherism, however, and has done nothing more than pay tribute to Thatcher "res-oluteness and staunchness" in committing Britain to the anti- Saddam coalition. Heeding the obvious signal that Major does not need her counsel, Thatcher will almost certainly leave politics. "It's all over. It must be terrible to go out that way," notes a sympathetic former associate.

With reporting by Sidney Urquhart