If you behave like there's no such thing as society, in the end there isn't. Farewell, indeed, Baroness Thatcher. Hugo Young was a political columnist forthe Guardian from 1984 until 2003 and biographer of Margaret Thatcher. In 1976 it still did not help and in the same year they had to take a loan in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) [] . Gillian Anderson's portrayal of the Iron Lady in "The Crown" is pretty spot-on. To enrich the global 1% she so brilliantly represented, our "entitlement" had to go and she was just the one to do it. 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. "You would see MPs who came into any politics after Ihad and who were no better than me being promoted over my head," said Currie this week. After leaving office, MT widened and deepened her criticism of the European Hire a Writer. She continued for some reason to consider me worth talking to. Cameron's crew crudely imagine she intended it. Larkin's evoked the treacherous mind (of an adversary, of a cabinet colleague) helplessly exposed to her steely regard. But, as the prince in Lampedusa's The Leopard says: "For things to remain the same, everything must change.". The day before she died I passed through Greenock on the train. Alamat kami. Thatcher's title is Baroness. The last time the UK ran a trade surplus was the year of the Falklands war. June 5, 1992 - Is named a life peer on the Queen's honor list. Exactly the same is true of Thatcher. Oil helped Thatcher paper over the cracks, but Britain's age-old problem finding a way to pay its way in the world remains. In 1990 Thatcher authorised the then British secretary of state Peter Brooke to reopen back-channel negotiations with republicans. 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. The Thatcher government was across all the details of this shipment. Symbolically, the key moment was the defeat of the miners after the year-long pit strike in March 1985. 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 reign helped to inspire alternative comedy by creating a generation so bereft of hope that they started putting on gigs just for the sake of something to do. One also can't forget what happened to the agency that made Thatcher worldfamous: the Conservative party, of which she seemed such an improbable leader. Deep-seated and long overdue reforms of the 1980s paved the way for the long 16-year boom between 1992 and 2008. Weakening the power of trade unions was not only essential to her project, but several studies suggest that their continued weakness may be an important part of the reason why inequality has not declined in the intervening decades. 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. This is an especially pertinent problem given its heartfelt desire for redistribution of wealth. More insidiously, it fathered amood of tolerated harshness. The organised working class, almost alone, had put Britain on the skids. She preferred markets, and a strong but minimal central state that backed their rule. studying Thatcher's speeches . The state retained control of some nationalised industries the railways, for example but BT, British Airways, British Steel, British Gas and the British Airports Authority were among the big companies sold off. People would denounce them unequivocally, often in graphic terms. decision to resign. Though the Prime Minister was known to shed a tear or two during her 11 years leading the United Kingdom . 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. But these concrete achievements do not wholly explain why she still looms so large, large enough that not one but two current West End plays The Audience and Billy Elliot grant Thatcher a pivotal, if largely unsympathetic, role, whether seen or unseen. The woman dubbed as the Iron Lady during her premiership made her last tearful speech as the leader of the country from the doorstep of . Nobody, at least that I know of, objected to that observation on the ground that it was disrespectful to the ability of the Chavez family to mourn in peace. He'd been a bully, she said, whereas Mrs T was warm and understanding. She may have got it slightly wrong. Either way, I'm an adult now and none of those things are on telly any more so there's no excuse for apathy. But it was overlaid by the supposedly masculine virtues, sometimes more manly than the men could ever assemble. Capitalism flourishes on debt, but she insisted that economics were best understood as Mr Micawber's formula in which happiness and misery were separated by a shilling. Chavez was indeed a divisive and controversial figure, and it would have been reckless to conceal that fact out of some misplaced deference to the grief of his family and supporters. Thatcher's unwavering belief in the invisible hand of the market meant that she did not believe it was part of her job description to put anything in its place. The real comic nemeses of Thatcher were the puppets of Spitting Image. or copyright prevents reproduction on the site. Today we have four coalmines and around 2,000 miners. Strident, divisive, and in her own view infallible, and for these reasons hard to mourn. Sir Bernard died after a short illness, his family said. Second, it's now easier to see the scale of the setback she inflicted on Britain's idea of its own future. By the 1983 election she had sold off only Britoil and some council houses. 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. None present eyed her meanly or spoke with vitriol and it wasn't until an hour later that I dreamt up an Ealing comedy-style caper in which two inept crooks kidnap Thatcher from the garden but are unable to cope with the demands of dealing with her, and finally give her back. Is that what made her so formidable, her ability to ignore the suffering of others? It was only in the mid-80s that she became truly radical and remotely comparable to David Cameron in 2010. She remained in power till I was 15. British Labour MP Tom Watson decreed: "I hope that people on the left of politics respect a family in grief today." That 1983 general election contained the telltale seeds of eventual Scottish Tory self-destruction. Their target was "the enemy within" working-class power and the so-called culture of entitlement. She went to a fee-paying school and to Oxford at her father's expense, gliding easily into the upper echelons of student politics. bowling at the Lord Mayor's Banquet (12 November) and gave Although the "right to buy" and the privatisation of utilities by selling shares to new small investors was often justified as giving rights to "the little people", the reality is that the less well-off fell ever further behind the rich. We were wary of this. It'd be disingenuous to omit that there were a fair number of ding-dong-style celebratory messages amidst the pensive reflections on the end of an era. When I awoke today on LA time my phone was full of impertinent digital eulogies. Critical Commentary: Margaret Thatcher outlined the British policy in relation to various world issues. Maggie was a fully formed comedy character before comedians had even gotten to her. But keeping the show on the road is what all of them must first attend to, because there's nobody else to do it. Draining down those 11 years to their memorable essence, what does one light upon? Only in the sense that all the women beneath her were blinded by falling shards. Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off. A strong pound crippled exports and emptied factories. Margaret Thatcher (October 13, 1925 - April 8, 2013) was the first woman prime minister of the United Kingdom and the first European woman to serve as a prime minister. with concern about global warming, having done more than any other politician Mikhail Gorbachev, for one, learned the hard way. Charles Powell was a senior foreign policy . No single mother raising children was to be called "workless", skipping meals to feed them and forced to ditch them to submit to "workfare" or a starvation wage. Texts for listed statements are available on the site in almost 70 per cent of cases. In January 1983 she After all, the right began to refocus only after Tony Blair's second landslide, when people began to recognise they would not drift back into power. Margaret Thatcher Curriculum Vitae. How could anyone who was so resolutely Margaret Thatcher be anything else? This is not the Highland way. Buy the CD-ROM from this link or find one 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. She was propped up by police who were encouraged to brutality against not only strikers but communities of colour, already hardest hit by unemployment: police powers were enhanced and their racism given free rein, especially with stop and search; CS gas was used on the mainland for the first time. It was a Charles I moment in British history. In short, miners believed in society. It led to riots that nobody needed. But look at this typical difference between her and her imitators: where Cameron has charged into Europe, taking his party out of the influential European People's party of natural allies, making enemies and building no useful coalitions, it was she who signed the Single European Act, understanding its importance for British trade, careful to make allies as well as swinging her handbag. In the north of Ireland she had the army and the Diplock courts which reached their peak in the mid 1980s. Her policy decisions entrenched sectarian divisions, handed draconian military powers over to the securocrats, and subverted basic human rights. For she changed the ethos of Britain as well as its landscape. People should pay her the respect of doing the same after her death. Whether pushing each other off the road, barging past social rivals, beating up rival soccer fans, or idolising wealth as the only measure of virtue, Brits became more unpleasant to be with. ", As Matthew Parris evocatively put it in Monday's Times, "She rather liked men (preferring our company, perhaps, to that of women), [but] she thought us the weaker sex. In 11 years, Thatcher promoted only one woman to her cabinet, preferring instead to elevate men whom Spitting Image memorably and, in certain instances, accurately, described as "vegetables". That was the daunting task Margaret Thatcher set herself when she arrived in Downing Street in May 1979 at the end of a traumatic decade that had seen a three-day week, inflation topping 25%, a bailout from the International Monetary Fund and the winter of discontent. Britain ceased to be the sick man of Europe and entered the 1990s with its reputation enhanced. They looked after their old and young as well as those who were ill or infirm. At a banquet in Belgrade the press sat next to the so-called "Garden Girls", who were the secretaries at No 10. 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. I was a professional writer. Selling public housing to the tenants who occupied it was another, on top of the denationalisation of industries and utilities once thought to be ineluctably and for ever in the hands of the state. If a leader's record is to be measured by the willingness of the other side to decide itcannot turn back the clock, then Thatcher bulks big in history. performance at a Press Conference afterwards. To claim that any woman's success is a boon for feminism is like saying all publicity is good publicity. The great contradiction in her politics was that someone who yearned for the certainties of small-town shopkeeper economics helped create the amoral yuppiedom of 80s excess and an explosion of cultural resistance that is still an ironic positive legacy of her time in power. The impact that Hayek's writing had on Thatcher, her advisors, and her policies is undeniable. The Cameron generation wrongly see in the 1980s a revolution to emulate, starting with an economic crisis just like hers, as a chance to reshape everything. 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. She hurled herself into NHS reform, changes to schools and universities, utilities privatisation and, eventually, local government reform. delivered an outstanding defence of the Government in the Commons. 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. The former reporter, who was 90, died with his family around him yesterday lunchtime, a statement said. Back when we called her Maggie, when it seemed she would have her wish and "go on and on" in ruling the country, her opponents would lament some new step towards social ruin with the withering, two-word verdict: "Thatcher's Britain.". I'd unthinkingly imbibed enough doctrine to know that, troubled as I was, there was little point looking elsewhere for support. In rich societies such as the UK, what makes most difference to the real quality of our lives is the quality of community life and social interaction. If I become PM, I will deliver the radical set of reforms need to unleash growth. Meeting Gorbachev for the first time in December 1984 she declared: "We By 1987, anti-Tory tactical voting had taken hold. And on the 11th June, we even won some nine seats we failed to gain in 1983. Margaret has spent her life fighting for social justice and equality. Above all, they lack her competence at running the machinery of government. Even some leading figures on the left have jealously praised the right's creativity and ideological crusaders. In the 80s, she was the primary force behind what was known then as alternative comedy and is now simply called "comedy". Get over her! Reagan and Thatcher first met in 1975, as my friend and colleague Peter Hannaford reminded me just today. Her bouffant and handbag and nasal voice were comedy gold, but she was also earnest, principled and said exactly what she meant. This legacy remains intact with a party that places a premium on radical thinking and, for all its flaws, sets the political agenda. Research papers can be complex, so best to give our essay writing service a bit more time on this one. I'd become a delinquent, living on heroin and benefit fraud. The Cameron and Osborne circle are crude copies carried away with the dangerous idea that conviction is all it takes to run a country. Sir Bernard Ingham was Margaret Thatcher writ large. Handbag. As she cut local housing budgets, she sent housing benefit soaring in compensation. When I started knocking on Highland doors in May 1983, two things struck me more than any other. June 30, 1992 - Swearing . The core of this site is a massive database of MT's public statements of all kinds across the years (speeches, interviews, press conferences, etc), searchable by date, subject, importance, and keyword. By 1990 it was transformed. There was, for example, the time in the late 1970s when, as Opposition Leader, she almost succeeded in censoring the one half-decent joke in a key campaign speech. All rights reserved. A Tory party desperate for women helped Thatcher through the political foothills to early success as an MP. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.". "Maggie! Much of any leader's record is unremarkable dross, and Thatcher was no exception. Many are children of the Thatcher age. For the most part, there's no material there. three press interviews (15-17 November) when Howe's resignation speech 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. A longer version of this article appears on Gerry Adams' blog, Margaret Thatcher was good at destruction. in his defence during the IranContra affair, told Under this heading, Thatcher left a dark legacy that, like her successes, has still not disappeared behind the historical horizon. in his defence during the IranContra affair later that year.. Elected for a third term in June 1987, she told Large parts of society never recovered, while Germany and other countries managed the transition without such brutality. Quotation being the warmest form of praise, Larkin was naturally touched. On taking office she showered money on public sector unions, and her "cuts" were only to planned increases, mild compared with today's. Here is an excerpt from People [PMT]: "In politics," Margaret Thatcher once acidly observed, "if you want anything said, ask a man. At its heart must be an active programme to create good jobs and raise living standards. The US academic Cass Sunstein was in Britain at the end of last month. Such seminars are regular events in Downing Street under the coalition. It was all very well for me to write books. In her thoughtful and prescient remarks, the Prime Minister reached back into history to recall how far the English-Speaking Peoples had come since victory in . Plus there's the fact that comedy is now a big business, and there's less money in sharp satire than gentle observation. The spell he was referring to is the unseen bond that connects us all and prevents us from being subjugated by tyranny. By John Cassidy. It came very hard, getting the words and paragraphs in the right order, a task for which, she eventually admitted, she had hired some help. So it suggests the anachronistic and unaffordable return to a contributory welfare system, while opposing the further opening up of education and health provision; some even float the renationalisation of railways. speech in July 1945, delivered in a town close to Grantham while she Then they discovered that they could make money, so they dropped all that. A big decline in traditional industries took place across Europe and the US in the 80s and 90s. Original, independent voices such as BBC director general Alasdair Milne were brutally silenced. Copyright Margaret Thatcher Foundation 2023. A distinction is often made between two traditions of British Conservative thought: the paternalist "one nation/middle way" tradition, and the more libertarian one that is associated with Margaret Thatcher. Maybe my memory is fanciful. Thatcher answered that question, re-energising the concept of democratic leadership. There were sporadic resurrections. For some, the only consequence of that shift, still visible today, will be a changed brand name or higher bills. Tasteless." In the pantheon of this comedian's attacks on Thatcher, it was a retort that probably won't be treasured longer than the best lines from The Young Ones. she as far as can be known. And when I and several other Sinn Fin leaders were elected to the Assembly in 1982 we were barred from entry to Britain. Rhetorical Analysis Of Margaret Thatcher's Speech 722 Words | 3 Pages . We are all on our own. Thatcher's 11 years of dictating British policy in Ireland was a legacy of bitterness and entrenched division. But on the subject of Europe, Thatcher became a contradictory figure. She showed that modern prime ministers can still mark out room for individual manoeuvre. She was 87. She forced us to decide what was truly important. 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. The widening of income differences between rich and poor that took place during the 80s (particularly from 1985) is the most rapid ever recorded. Was it cruelty? Reagan would challenge Gerald Ford, the sitting president, the next year. 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. The evidence shows that greater equality provides the foundation on which higher standards of social wellbeing can be built. She made her maiden In October 1984 she survived an IRA bomb during the Conservative Conference When I was a kid, Thatcher was the headmistress of our country. LONDON Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister and uncompromisingly conservative "Iron Lady" of the 1980s, has died. By delivering a crisp, emphatic victory Thatcher showed the world, and more important herself, what a talent for solitary command could achieve. Any attempts at revisionism do no favours to her, women or feminism. Eventually, the Italian contingent, largely existential or postmodern, rose up against us. One turns with gratitude to Alan Clark's diaries for a fine description of being summoned to No 10 and being subjected to just such an examination. performance at a Press Conference afterwards, the This is a political style, an aesthetic even, that has disappeared from view. 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. As a child she unnerved me but we are not children now and we are free to choose our own ethical codes and leaders that reflect them. They had a point, but they had no idea how fascinating she was so powerful, successful, popular, omniscient, irritating and, in our view, wrong. 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. ", This was the great leader in her favourite pose as Samuel Smiles: human beings didn't need to be helped they needed to help themselves. successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to The family silver was squandered on bribing voters rather than modernising the economy. be a nation in retreat". "She had been offered the chance to get on and effectively she then refused to offer it to otherpeople. Instead, her Big Bang blew the roof off City profits and property booms filled the gap where productive industry should have sprouted. "Yes and that was one of the many weird things about her," smirked Alexei Sayle. The relative wealth of the UK 1% had been falling steadily for 50 years when Thatcher took power in 1979; since then it has climbed steeply and is almost back to 1918 levels. This site follow the same rules (and shares an editor). She would, say some who knew her, have a found a way to finesse a change of direction by now. Endeavouring to persuade the British into an attitude of hostility to the group with which she spent 11 years deepening their connection must take a high place in any catalogue of anti-statesmanship. Their reckless private finance of public investment and services went beyond anything she dared dream of. Sent Bobby Sands to an Irish hero's grave without a blink. Three aspects of it never completely leave my head. There were big tax cuts for those on the highest incomes, driven by the belief that this would encourage entrepreneurship. 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. drew an important moral from the Falklands war: "We have ceased to She was the first prime minister to be more accountable to the international market than to the British economy. Margaret Thatcher's speech writer will miss funeral but 'shed a tear' When the mourners gather for Baroness Thatcher's funeral tomorrow, one important figure from her political past will be . Debate continues on whether Margaret Thatcher saved or destroyed British industry, but there is one industry that she practically created. Reagan, for one, recognized the importance of Margaret Thatcher's presence as British prime minister, but would caution any discussionpartnerthat Pope John Paul played an equally important role. In towns and valleys poleaxed by the Iron Lady, there may be glasses raised at her passing. Police charges against picketing union printers in Wapping enabled the Murdoch empire to flourish, ensuring their power and hers.

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