These values were the exact opposite of those Margaret Thatcher espoused. A senior civil servant said, "It worked because we all knew exactly what she wanted.". The Crown Struggles With Portrayal of Margaret Thatcher | Time Just look around. The truth is less significant than the alteration to it. Perhaps my early apathy and indifference are a result of what Thatcher deliberately engendered, the idea that "there is no such thing as society", that we are alone on our journey through life, solitary atoms of consciousness. Thatcher's social instincts were always nostalgic conservative. Debate continues on whether Margaret Thatcher saved or destroyed British industry, but there is one industry that she practically created. She was immensely brisk. You could never call Margaret Mother by mistake. She undoubtedly rescued the prestige of the country from its postwar nadir, but at a high cost to the generosity of its political and social culture. Climate, freedom and denial: What "Green Thatcherism" teaches us today Everything has its season. 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". Is that what made her so formidable, her ability to ignore the suffering of others? 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. No sign they learned from her that markets don't move in to fill the gaps when the state is rolled back not then, not now. But at its crudest, the Thatcher ethos translated into the get-rich-quick, greed-is-good spirit of the 1980s, satirised by Harry Enfield's Loadsamoney creation. Copyright Margaret Thatcher Foundation 2023. Oil helped Thatcher paper over the cracks, but Britain's age-old problem finding a way to pay its way in the world remains. The Crown: How Margaret Thatcher Was Removed from Power in 1990 - ELLE Maggie! As a physician, she has been a vocal advocate for a single-payer healthcare system that would . declared that she wanted our money back, invited the "Comes here every week to water them flowers." Her imitators swerve all over the place, with 37 U-turns at the Telegraph's latest count on matters from forests and pasties to buzzard nests and caravans. The preface to the As the coalition sets about shrinking the welfare state, it's still embarked on Thatcher's project of rolling back the frontiers of the state, dismantling the settlement that held from 1945 until it unravelled in the 1970s. All can agree that Margaret Thatcher changed the heart of British politics more than any politician since Clement Attlee. Margaret Thatcher's Speech to Congress - Hillsdale College She was a steadfast friend to brutal tyrants such as Augusto Pinochet, Saddam Hussein and Indonesian dictator General Suharto ("One of our very best and most valuable friends"). Faced down trade union leaders after her early years apprentice years, when Jim Callaghan's Britain was falling apart in which the commonest fear was that the little lady would not be able to deal with them across the table. Modern comedians complain that they don't have personalities, they don't really stand for anything. There turned out to be no such thing as society, at least in the sense we used to understand it. She was lucky in surviving the IRA's bomb. The latest pit to close, Maltby in Yorkshire, still has a death and general purpose fund to help fellow miners and their families in times of hardship. 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. speech which caused the Soviets to dub her "the Iron Lady". Symbolically, the key moment was the defeat of the miners after the year-long pit strike in March 1985. But the key point is this: those who admire the deceased public figure (and their politics) aren't silent at all. National Press Club Luncheon Speakers: Margaret Thatcher (Recorded Her defenders always insisted that sentence had been misunderstood, but it stuck because it seemed to capture something essential about the Thatcherite creed: its embrace of individualism and apparent disdain for the collective. It was mostly foreigners who could not understand why she fell. But the choice captures her perfectly. 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. Less noted . From 1987 to 1988, he was a senior policy writer and speechwriter in 10 Downing Street for Margaret Thatcher when she was British prime minister and remained close to her up to her death.. O'Sullivan served from 2008-2012 as vice-president and executive editor of Radio Free Europe/Radio . 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. Whathappened at the hands of this woman's indifference to sentiment andgood sense in the early 1980s brought unnecessary calamity to the lives of several million people who losttheir jobs. ", This attitude that men are fun but dumb, women are smart but strident, a view of the sexes that seems to come straight out of a Judd Apatow film led to various quotes of hers that some like to twist into proof that Thatcher was an unwitting feminist. June 30, 1992 - Swearing . What did Margaret Thatcher have to say about climate change? I just now watched the British Gas one again. "Maggie Thatcher" two fierce trochees set against the gentler iambic pulse of Britain's postwar welfare state. Respected, viewed with awe, a conviction politician, but if liking came into it, that was an accident. She gave Nigel Lawson at the Treasury his head and was genuinely alarmed when he cut income tax to 40%. The evidence shows that greater equality provides the foundation on which higher standards of social wellbeing can be built. The party she led three times to electoral triumph became unelectable for a generation. As far as her supporters are concerned, this radical transformation worked. She was catapulted into the Conservative leadership by a small group of ideologues centred around a thinktank, determined to roll back the statist ideas that dominated Britain after the postwar Attlee government. Nations need to know the big picture of where they belong and, coinciding with the Thatcher appearance at the top, clarity had apparently broken through the clouds of historic ambivalence. Lecturing me about the comprehensive schools, of which she created more than any minister before or since. The challenge for the left is to fashion new and genuinely progressive policies in an age of austerity, when more money is not the answer to any question. Underestimating Ronald Reagan was an error committed by many of his critics and opponents; Reagan never minded a bit, thinking that being underestimated yielded him a significant advantage. In towns and valleys poleaxed by the Iron Lady, there may be glasses raised at her passing. Died: 24 February 2023, aged 90 Sir Bernard Ingham was Margaret Thatcher writ large. She played a key role not only in bringing about the first Gulf War but also using her influence to publicly advocate for the 2003 attack on Iraq. In the three years prior to receiving these weapons the loyalist death squads killed 34 people. To demand that all of that be ignored in the face of one-sided requiems to her nobility and greatness is a bit bullying and tyrannical, not to mention warped. Rather, she was a classic example of a certain kind of conservative woman who believed that all women should pull themselves up just as she had done, conveniently overlooking that not all women are blessed with the privileges that had been available to her, such as a wealthy and supportive husband and domestic help. "The News" was the pompous conduit through which we suckled at the barren baroness through newscaster wet-nurses, naturally; not direct from the steel teat. She certainly was divisive, bisecting the country politically and geographically: hard-hit regions in the north of England, Wales and Scotland may be notably less civil in their farewells. It was part of her conspicuous virtue, her indifference to familiar political conventions. first television interview the following day. 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. Knocking up a flan for Denis or helping Carol with her algebra or Mark with his gun-running, are jarring distractions from the main narrative; woman as warrior queen. By the close of her premiership, he was probably the most trusted member of her political team at Downing Street, and he left Number Ten with her. The government's welfare bill has been swollen by tax credits and housing benefit caused by the labour market reforms and council house sales of the 1980s. MT gave her first The most widely used measure of income differences shows inequality increasing by more than a third during her period in office. Harold Macmillan, Margaret Thatcher and British Conservatism's Politics For she changed the ethos of Britain as well as its landscape. It is odd to reflect that in Thatcher's time, the British novel enjoyed a comparatively lively resurgence. Her political antennae refused to allow her to privatise the coal industry, British Rail or the post office. But on their catastrophic economic policy, it's full-speed ahead into the concrete wall. Take the larger view. they did not want her to go on (21 November) and that night she made the To project the ideas of strength and . Bob Slayer, one of the genuine alternative comedians on the scene, likes to note the irony of what's become of comedy. Margaret Thatcher Essay | Best Writing Service She fervently believed the market would soon repair their loss. A growing body of research now shows that the quality of social relations is among the most powerful influences on the happiness, health and wellbeing of populations in the rich countries. The pomp and circumstance that will crown her funeral was proffered by Brown, to some shudders from his own side. What, in retrospect, seems creative and what destructive? Fourthly, policy was aimed at those who, according to the prime minister, wanted to get on in life. She pointed out that she was only 10 years old when she ceased to be prime minister. Rhetorical Analysis Of Ronald Reagan's Speech | ipl.org "Being powerful is like being a lady.