There were sporadic resurrections. She denounced Nelson Mandela and his ANC as "terrorists", something even David Cameron ultimately admitted was wrong. Her death must be sad for the handful of people she was nice to and the rich people who got richer under her stewardship. The 1978 meeting was their last in person until Mrs Thatcher became Reagan's first state visitor, 26-28 February 1981. This reverie only occurred when the car was out of view. with concern about global warming, having done more than any other politician We are all on our own. Britain's relative decline came to an end, although that was more due to slowdowns in countries such as France and Germany than an acceleration in UK productivity growth. After being carried through the streets of London in a flag-draped coffin aboard a gun carriage, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was laid to rest this . Thatcher's opposition to a positive role for the state in industrial policy caused her grief even during her time in office, but a cross-party consensus newly shaped by Michael Heseltine's report has given him the last word. Thanks to the comparison with Cameron, we are reminded that the Thatcher reign was more circumspect and well-managed than it seemed at the time. The government's job was to keep inflation low, not to boost growth through demand management. The gender remained, its artefacts deployed with calculation. November). And the miners. She was immensely brisk. Interestingly, one mate of mine, a proper leftie, in his heyday all Red Wedge and right-on punch-ups, was melancholy. Any such objections would have been invalid. In 2009, Boris Johnson lamented that Thatcher had become "a boo-word in British politics, a shorthand for selfishness and me-first-ism, and devil-take-the-hindmost and grinding the faces of the poor.". The papers date from Margaret Thatcher's childhood to the end of her life, and include tens of thousands of photographs, as well as a vast collection of press cuttings, and many audio and video tapes of public and private events. Cabinet rank in 1970 without appearing on television more than a handful This is accomplished by this baseless moral precept that it is gauche or worse to balance the gushing praise for them upon death with valid criticisms. They're happy to share big windfall bonuses with their cronies, they'll stick up for deposed dictator chums when they're down on their luck, they'll find opportunities in business for people they care about. Only today are we facing the cost. The last time the UK ran a trade surplus was the year of the Falklands war. Her centralism, unequalled in Europe, descended under Blair into a morass of targetry, inefficiency and endless reorganisation. This is one small sign of how the left seems paralysed by a lack of intellectual curiosity and confidence. Margaret Thatcher had planned to attack Labour's unwillingness to condemn picket-line violence in her 1984 conference speech but changed her mind when an IRA bomb hit The Grand Hotel in Brighton. MT won election as Conservative leader on 11 February 1975 and gave a euphoric So look around this kingdom of ours, at a devolved Scotland contemplating independence a state of affairs that owes much to Thatcher's antagonistic relationship with that country. And nor could Thatcher, much to her relief as she allegedly abhorred the word, as doubtless Chanel did, too. She hated what she called "that French phrase laissez faire". Not for Turning: The Life of Margaret Thatcher - Amazon "She's jolly nice," one of them said, "much better to work for than [James] Callaghan." It still does. She failed to replace those jobs with well-paid equivalents. In fact, several countries have adopted these ideas with startlingly successful results; just changing the wording on some forms raised an extra 200m income tax in Britain, while personalised text messages drastically reduced the use of bailiffs to recover court fines. In a world where most media talking heads come from the top few percent of income earners, unions are not only important in wage bargaining, they also provide some of the few well-informed voices whose job it is to speak on behalf of the less well-paid. She was a radical conservative, known for dismantling nationalized industries and social services, weakening union power.She was also the first incumbent prime minister in the UK removed on a vote of their own party. Women aren't always good for other women because the gender of a person matters a lot less than that person's actual beliefs. Its strategies included the shallow and ineffectual 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement which was about creating a political alliance involving the Dublin establishment, the SDLP and the British to defeat Irish republicanism. She was the first prime minister to be more accountable to the international market than to the British economy. Charles Powell was a senior foreign policy . Margaret Thatcher 'the Lady's not for turning' - YouTube The former reporter, who was 90, died with his family around him yesterday lunchtime, a statement said. Everything has its season. That, plus (inevitable) de-industrialisation, coupled to her perceived overbearing and patronising manner. Margaret Thatcher was Britain's most significant leader since Churchill. be a nation in retreat". Prime Minister Thatcher delivered the fourth speech to Congress by a British prime minister. she The three of us watched as the gentle horticultural ritual was feebly enacted, then regarded the Iron Lady being helped into the back of a car and trundling off. The young men were those whose childhood was blighted by the effects of relative poverty and inequality on family life. From the valleys of Wales to the far reaches of Scotland, miners were, by and large, socialists by nature but this was tempered by strong Christian beliefs. Texts for listed statements are available on the site in almost 70 per Margaret Thatcher - HISTORY She would, say some who knew her, have a found a way to finesse a change of direction by now. One Sunday recently while staying in London, I took a stroll in the gardens of Temple, the insular clod of quads and offices between the Strand and the Embankment. ROBIN HARRIS worked for the Conservative Party from 1978, and increasingly closely with Margaret Thatcher herself from 1985, writing her speeches and advising on policy. North sea oil was squandered when it should have seeded new industries. When a political leader dies, it is irresponsible in the extreme to demand that only praise be permitted but not criticisms. Quotation being the warmest form of praise, Larkin was naturally touched. The day before she died I passed through Greenock on the train. She would not have been half the . The Messed Up Truth About Margaret Thatcher - Grunge.com While she spoke of his example as a beacon, she knew very well that she was an important component of what is often attributed solely to him, and in the first instance "winning" the cold war. Reversing Britain's long-term economic decline. Far from "smashing the glass ceiling", she was the aberration, the one who got through and then pulled the ladder up right after her. From a peak of 13 million in 1979, trade union membership had declined by 30% by 1990, and is now not much more than half what it was. We might speculate that an adviser had offered Thatcher a selection of good lines, or that she had asked to see some. Hire a Writer. Second, it's now easier to see the scale of the setback she inflicted on Britain's idea of its own future. The Crown Season 4 brings with it a whole lot of change for Queen Elizabeth II's family and, more importantly, the United Kingdom. If love is something you cherish, it is hard to glean much joy from death, even in one's enemies. But there were also cuts for basic-rate taxpayers: the 1988 budget, for example, cut the top rate of tax from 60% to 40% and the standard rate from 27% to 25%. The welfare state set out to ensure that no one, in the UK at least, would starve or freeze to death, or suffer or die for lack of medical or other care. Handbag. As Danny Dorling says in his 2004 study of the rise in violence: "Those who perpetrated the social violence that was done to the lives of young men starting some 20 years ago [the mid-80s] are the prime suspects for most of the murders in Britain." The 70s was Britain's most equal decade. It is full of insights into a neglected aspect of how Thatcher came to dominate British politics." (Andrew Gamble, University of Sheffield, UK) "A fascinating insight into the world of speech writing. One leading Tory thinker said current academic concepts such as evolutionary psychology and behavioural economics were fundamentally rightwing; another said disruptive digital technology liberated individuals against powerful behemoths which may be true, but some of the most striking online advances harness the collective spirit. June 5, 1992 - Is named a life peer on the Queen's honor list. Many hated her. Well, everything really, even her name. The events of that awful summer of '81 polarised Irish society, north and south. Instead state assets and a huge income stream from North sea oil were used to fund a populist programme of tax cuts, privatisation and council housesales. Lady Thatcher, you honor us by coming to the site of Sir Winston's pivotal speech, an event Westminster College has immortalized with the beautiful Winston Churchill Memorial. Indeed a person with achemistry that repelled almost all thesignificant males in Edward Heath's cabinet who could never become theparty leader. Had Jim Callaghan won the 1979 election, he too would have faced the challenge of how to modernise an economy beset by high inflation, weak management and poor industrial relations. In 1990 Thatcher authorised the then British secretary of state Peter Brooke to reopen back-channel negotiations with republicans. If the Falklands war was the making of Thatcher, then the poll tax was her achilles heel not least in Scotland. Simon Heffer, journalist, historian and friend of Margaret Thatcher, recommends the best books to read to gain an understanding of the United Kingdom's first female prime ministerand explains why she was the most influential British leader of the modern era. for the disk. studying Thatcher's speeches . For the most part, there's no material there. More than once the view was advanced that it was a pity the IRA had not succeeded in their ultimate objective when they bombed the Grand Hotel in Brighton. M argaret Thatcher does an awful lot of crying in The Crown. For those miners and their families to be referred to as the "enemy within" by Thatcher was something they would never forgive and, if there is rejoicing at her death in those communities she set out to destroy, it can only be understood against this background. Government will respond to clear leadership if it knows what a leader wants. She pointed out that she was only 10 years old when she ceased to be prime minister. The battle with the miners and leftwing councils lay ahead, as did the trauma of an IRA assassination bid. The south of England and the City of London were the future; the revenues from North Sea oil would pay for the unemployed in the old zones of manufacturing industry. Your local electricity "board" could be a very unfriendly place. Those strikes were confusing to me as a child. Less noted . Margaret Thatcher, Signed Speech on Hayek, 2003, Estimate 1,500-2,000 . Hayek was appointed a Companion of Honour in the 1984 Birthday honours for "services to the study of Economics". What Margaret Thatcher's Voice Really Sounded Like, Since All - Yahoo! Arthur Scargill and the miners represented the only opposition to the prime minister and her destructive and divisive values and, after the strike, the way was open for the most aggressive neoliberal policies. Following in the footsteps of Santa Claus, Steve Hynd quickly compiled a list of all the naughty boys and girls "on the left" who dared to express criticisms of the dearly departed Prime Minister, warning that he "will continue to add to this list throughout the day". Margaret Thatcher's environmental record: She was a climate hawk. It's kind of a luxury rent-controlled ghetto for lawyers and barristers, and there is a beautiful tailors, a fine chapel, established by the Knights Templar (from which the compound takes its name), a twee cottage designed by Sir Christopher Wren and a rose garden; which I never promised you. cent of cases. The seismic shift from industry to financial-based capitalism that Thatcherism ushered in rattled the establishment. Jan Leeming, Sue Lawley, Moira Stuart delivering doctrine with sterile sexiness, like a butterscotch-scented beige vapour. Rhetorical Analysis Of Margaret Thatcher's Speech Norman and Margaret hold, and will always hold, a unique place in our esteem and affection. The real comic nemeses of Thatcher were the puppets of Spitting Image. Yet I wrote columns of pretty unremitting hostility to most of what she did. an interviewer "there is no such thing as society" and is Tributes paid as Sir Bernard Ingham dies, aged 90 - PressReader It always struck me as peculiar, too, when the Spice Girls briefly championed Thatcher as an early example of girl power. Thatcher and Reagan went on to facilitate a colossal transfer of wealth from poor to rich, leading to the world economic crash we now witness. Meanwhile, you struggle to identify deep thinkers in party ranks beyond a couple of veteran stalwarts; even the left's thinktanks appear moribund or merely harking back to an idealised past. As working families in poverty now account for more than half of those below the poverty line, a government committed to "making work pay" should surely encourage this trend and raise the minimum wage. "Respecting the grief" of Thatcher's family members is appropriate if one is friends with them or attends a wake they organize, but the protocols are fundamentally different when it comes to public discourse about the person's life and political acts. Born: 21 June 1932 in Halifax. Perhaps, though, Thatcher "the monster" didn't die yesterday from a stroke, perhaps that Thatcher died as she sobbed self-pitying tears as she was driven, defeated, from Downing Street, ousted by her own party. By the 1983 election she had sold off only Britoil and some council houses. BBC ON THIS DAY | 28 | 1990: Tearful farewell from Iron Lady There are pangs of nostalgia, yes, because for me she's all tied up with Hi-De-Hi and Speak and Spell and Blockbusters and "follow the bear". It was sad that she had to learn it in war, a grim example to her British and US successors. It was not interested in a resolution. This demand for respectful silence in the wake of a public figure's death is not just misguided but dangerous. There's something distinctively creepy - in a Roman sort of way - about this mandated ritual that our political leaders must be heralded and consecrated as saints upon death. Meryl Streep's depiction of a shuffling figure, stricken and isolated by the death of her husband, Denis, may have softened memories, or formed them in the minds of a younger generation. From the invention of the term "sado-monetarism" through to the way her powerful ministers seemed to swoon before her, and the constant negative reiteration by her critics of her femininity, or lack of it, she exerted a glacial hold over the (male) nation's masochistic imagination. Margaret Thatcher - Quotes, Death & Life - Biography We can't blame (or credit) her for all of this, of course. Thatcher came to power when the economy was approaching a moment of truth after three decades of poor performance relative to other western countries. She was a prime minister who happened to be a woman. Perhaps it is more simple for all the iniquities of capitalism, the tide of history favours the right. Margaret Thatcher's government defended structured political and religious discrimination and political vetting in the north, legislated for political censorship and institutionalised, to a greater extent than ever before, collusion between British state forces and unionist death squads. She mesmerised us. To use a less bizarre analogy: if Thatcher was the headmistress, they were junior teachers, authoritative but warm enough that you could call them "mum" by accident. Scotland was her mission impossible. BBC Radio 4 - Green Originals, Margaret Thatcher to his resignation letter on 1 November, defended herself against rough Margaret Thatcher has 43 books on Goodreads with 14026 ratings. In January 1976 she gave the But she also provided great material. Typifying these highly dubious claims about Thatcher was this (appropriately diplomatic) statement from President Obama: "The world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend." Above all, they lack her competence at running the machinery of government. While "one nation" Conservatives condone some forms of redistribution, their libertarian . Texts for listed statements are available on the site in almost 70 per cent of cases. But for others, the change in landscape is all too real. Government policy during the 1980s was little more than a war policy, aimed at defeating or isolating republicanism. Without it, she would have been nothing. Thatcher's most baleful influence on government was not on industries and services she privatised but those she did not. Few would argue that they have not endured. Here, for instance, was what the Guardian reported upon the death last month of Hugo Chavez: "To the millions who detested him as a thug and charlatan, it will be occasion to bid, vocally or discreetly, good riddance.". Speech to Conservative Party Conference - Margaret Thatcher The widening of income differences between rich and poor that took place during the 80s (particularly from 1985) is the most rapid ever recorded. Those abandoned places are also landmarks in Thatcher's Britain. LONDON Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister and uncompromisingly conservative "Iron Lady" of the 1980s, has died. They are acolytes of a raw Thatcher cult they have rough-hewn and exaggerated in their own image. In a twitter of panic, Labour shadow ministers sent out pleas yesterday: "Hoping all Labour supporters will respond with dignity and respect to news of Baroness Thatcher's death." What was it about Thatcher that inspired a generation of comics to rage at her? Reagan was especially interested in Mrs Thatcher's domestic policy initiatives, and it was quickly established that the foreign policy views ran along parallel lines. It destroyed the public's power to determine via parliament the services and prices of gas, electricity, telephone. While Labour was now "intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich", ambitious feminism wanted to be let in to the boardroom and every corridor of power that and little else is what they mean by changing the world. A couple of days later on the 11th, Margaret Thatcher the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, wrote an eulogy for Ronald Reagan. Miners were a hardy race of people who faced constant danger in the cause of mining coal but underneath that they were caring, sensitive individuals with a commitment to the communities in which they lived. And on the 11th June, we even won some nine seats we failed to gain in 1983. When I started knocking on Highland doors in May 1983, two things struck me more than any other. Secondly, the balance of power in industrial relations was shifted decisively in favour of employers. one True, Labour, James Callaghan and the unions played their part by blocking Barbara Castle's In Place of Strife attempt to create German or Nordic co-operation between unions and industry that might have rescued unions from Thatcher's crushing. Perhaps Labour would benefit from another defeat, given the danger of taking power unprepared and turning into a zombie government, like the tragedy unfurling in France. This is a political style, an aesthetic even, that has disappeared from view. How then do I feel on the day of this matriarchal mourning? But we reckoned we got Thatcher only too well and didn't like what we saw, far less what we heard. But Thatcher was a naturally, perhaps incurably, divisive figure. It is no coincidence the three most influential centre-right thinktanks were all conceived over the following months. Rishi Sunak 20 July 2022 9:30pm. Would we like her back? The word "free" is used to help the audience Opponents and supporters of Margaret Thatcher will never agree about the value of her legacy, but as for her importance, her hypnotic hold on us, they are bound to find common ground. Margaret Thatcher climbs over a house : r/funny We had an all-out blistering row that delighted the organisers. And, of course, Nelson provided the intelligence. wrong with politics? As she cut local housing budgets, she sent housing benefit soaring in compensation. At her first conference speech, she chastised the Labour Party on economic . The "crime" he was accused of was to reclaim the oil revenue from local and foreign thieves, and use it to tackle poverty. The economy had become more productive, more competitive and more profitable. Books by Margaret Thatcher (Author of The Downing Street Years) - Goodreads Yet by the autumn of 1981 they had made her so unpopular that bets were being taken at the October party conference that she would be "gone by Christmas". This legacy remains intact with a party that places a premium on radical thinking and, for all its flaws, sets the political agenda. Tellingly, few people have trouble understanding the need for balanced commentary when the political leaders disliked by the west pass away. When I awoke today on LA time my phone was full of impertinent digital eulogies. The lady was too shrewd to try that, and barely succeeded in reducing the share of the national income taken by the public sector. She may have got it slightly wrong. Look at the trains on the track, the phone in your house, the trio of 1980s teenagers who lead the three main parties. Mrs Thatcher told the assembly: "It is mankind and his activities which are changing the environment of our planet in damaging and dangerous ways.". It's true that whenever there's a major news story, millions of people immediately begin strip-mining it for puns and bon mots, making it harder for professional comics to develop focused, funny material that nobody's heard before. Margaret Thatcher was a hugely divisive figure in British politics. It chose her ina fit of desperation, hats and all though it quite liked the hats. I think on balance Thatcher did for Britain what was needed at the time. Margaret Thatcher Fast Facts | CNN Ed Miliband, a policy wonk himself, claims to be a conviction politician like Thatcher. She describes Reagan as her friend and continues to narrate his good acts in America during his presidency. Maybe it was the sound of the estuary pronunciation robbing her of her aspirational airs, a prototype of the Bouquet/Bucket joke. The organised working class, almost alone, had put Britain on the skids.
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