And as my Guardian colleague Seumas Milne detailed last year, "across Britain Thatcher is still hated for the damage she inflicted and for her political legacy of rampant inequality and greed, privatisation and social breakdown.". I was just behind her at the civic museum in Dubrovnik when the local guide explained a model showing the elaborate system of ancient wells and tunnels that had provided the city with fresh water no matter how fierce the siege. But there are less obvious manifestations of the same habit. 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. While "one nation" Conservatives condone some forms of redistribution, their libertarian . Hire writer now Order. History, Sample Essay. Statistics now confirm what many people have always recognised: that inequality is divisive and socially corrosive. 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. To claim that any woman's success is a boon for feminism is like saying all publicity is good publicity. Bernard Ingham, journalist and civil servant. M argaret Thatcher does an awful lot of crying in The Crown. By 1987, anti-Tory tactical voting had taken hold. Yet, at that last encounter, her tone was different. But former speechwriter Trevor Reeves can no longer . 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. But she also provided great material. The former reporter, who was 90, died with his family around him yesterday lunchtime, a statement said. But it was overlaid by the supposedly masculine virtues, sometimes more manly than the men could ever assemble. This is an especially pertinent problem given its heartfelt desire for redistribution of wealth. The Texan who stole the show at Margaret Thatcher's funeral We have paid for that transformation with a world that is harder-edged, more competitive, and certainly more intently aware of the lure of cash. Government will respond to clear leadership if it knows what a leader wants. We liked disliking her. 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. I don't know if they ever voted for her, I don't know if they liked her. The financial crash of 2008 was a direct result of the policies Thatcher championed. Her centralism, unequalled in Europe, descended under Blair into a morass of targetry, inefficiency and endless reorganisation. This zest for ideas was boosted by the 2010 intake, which comprises just under half the parliamentary party. "What's going on there, mate?" All rights reserved. Dignity and decorum ruled the day - except in the poisoned anonymity of the internet. It is odd to reflect that in Thatcher's time, the British novel enjoyed a comparatively lively resurgence. Margaret Thatcher Essay It was perfectly justified to note that, particularly as the Guardian also explained that "to the millions who revered him a third of the country, according to some polls a messiah has fallen, and their grief will be visceral." In the three years after the shipment they killed 224 and wounded scores more. People should pay her the respect of doing the same after her death. So instead: "I put it to her that we would be saving money." Scottish and by extension UK politics has been skewed ever since. Ronald Reagan, the former 40th president of the United States died on June 5th of 2004. The first time I met Margaret Thatcher, I swear she was wearing gloves. The jobs that went during the 80s tended to be good, skilled jobs, delivering decent incomes and some security. 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. Not the loss of imperial markets, not lazy management, not the education system, not the decline of the industrial ethic: bitter men standing on platforms and asking for a show of hands to down tools were solely to blame. I met her just once, as a reporter in the press pack that followed her tour around Greece and Yugoslavia in 1980. It isn't sad for anyone else. 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. In her 1982 party conference speech, Margaret Thatcher offered a prediction for the future: "How absurd it will seem in a few years' time that the state ran Pickfords removals and Gleneagles Hotel." This was most evident in the shooting dead of three unarmed IRA activists in Gibraltar in March 1988. By the 1983 election she had sold off only Britoil and some council houses. And he would credit the contribution of Helmut Kohl, who rose to power in Germany in part because of the influence of Thatcher and Reagan. Original, independent voices such as BBC director general Alasdair Milne were brutally silenced. A big decline in traditional industries took place across Europe and the US in the 80s and 90s. decision to resign. But Labour is no less in thrall. The spell he was referring to is the unseen bond that connects us all and prevents us from being subjugated by tyranny. You knew exactly what Maggie stood for. Over the years, and through much re-telling, the story had it that Thatcher told Hitchens to bend over, and that she spanked him with her order papers. Given the nature of her legacy "survival of the fittest" a phrase that Darwin himself only used twice in On the Origin of Species, compared to hundreds of references to altruism, love and cooperation, it isn't surprising that there are parties tonight in Liverpool, Glasgow and Brixton from where are they to have learned compassion and forgiveness? of the 1600 libraries around the world which hold the CD-ROM. Many of today's more controversial benefits, such as disability, date back to the 80s. Above all, they lack her competence at running the machinery of government. Ingham's rough redraft of my speech with very little success. Or maybe audiences just really, really hated her and wanted to blow off some steam. Three separate pieces of legislation between 1980 and 1984 attacked the closed shop, toughened up the laws on picketing and imposed secret strike ballots. On the same edition of Channel 4 News, Louise Mensch named only three successful female politicians as part of her defence ofThatcher and only one of those was a Conservative. She pointed out that she was only 10 years old when she ceased to be prime minister. The party she led three times to electoral triumph became unelectable for a generation. But on the subject of Europe, Thatcher became a contradictory figure. I made this argument at length last year when Christopher Hitchens died and a speak-no-ill rule about him was instantly imposed (a rule he, more than anyone, viciously violated), and I won't repeat that argument today; those interested can read my reasoning here. 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. "The original alternative comics just did it because they had to," he says. A special licence was granted exclusively to the Radio Times. She led Britain further into Europe, while talking us further out. Neither shift of ownership and power would have happened without a leader prepared to take risks with her life. We must reduce the inequality that has seen a super-rich elite, openly contemptuous of the flag and family values Thatcher proclaimed, float free from the rest of us. It made her virtually unsackable as education secretary. We had an all-out blistering row that delighted the organisers. 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. . When Heath fell, her promoters ran her as a stalking horse because, as a woman, they thought she could not win. The economy had become more productive, more competitive and more profitable. 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 . One might even credit Thatcher with a willingness to jettison the old rules and conventions that used to prevent individuals deciding their own destiny. Of course, it's in politics that the shadow looms most clearly. Margaret Thatcher's legacy: roundup of the best writing Draining down those 11 years to their memorable essence, what does one light upon? Margaret Thatcher's Climate Change Of Heart | HuffPost Impact This was her last important public statement. Now she would more likely have been beaten to the Tory leadership by one of the Etonians in cabinet. Meeting Gorbachev for the first time in December 1984 she declared: "We 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. Sir Bernard died after a short illness, his family said. in a statement the following morning (22 November), hours before she Miners had always known that eventually any of the colleries would close and were always prepared to accept that as a fact of life and find employment somewhere else within the industry, but Thatcher's attack was wholesale. Strident, divisive, and in her own view infallible, and for these reasons hard to mourn. Those strikes were confusing to me as a child. 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. In my view, nothing said prior to her passing or since has been inaccurate in the description of this very special, warm relationship, the likes of which we may never see again. An Inconvenient Truth About Margaret Thatcher: She Was a Climate Hawk. Take the larger view. An unclubbable outsider, she allied herself to another outsider, Keith Joseph, and his free-market set. We can't blame (or credit) her for all of this, of course. making her big speech the following day as scheduled. Governments can rarely claim to have stimulated the arts but Thatcher, always rather impatient with the examined life, drew writers on to new ground. Larkin's evoked the treacherous mind (of an adversary, of a cabinet colleague) helplessly exposed to her steely regard. Secondly, the balance of power in industrial relations was shifted decisively in favour of employers. People would denounce them unequivocally, often in graphic terms. John asked a nearby chippy loading his white van. Such seminars are regular events in Downing Street under the coalition. But the key point is this: those who admire the deceased public figure (and their politics) aren't silent at all. The Man Whose Powerful Critique of Socialism Influenced Margaret Thatcher Scotsman Obituaries: Bernard Ingham, press secretary who ensured Ithink on balance, it was for the better, and so, plainly did Thatcher's chief successor, Tony Blair. Everything was justified as long as it made money andthis, too, isstill with us. The best books on Margaret Thatcher - Five Books It was only in the mid-80s that she became truly radical and remotely comparable to David Cameron in 2010. And, of course, Nelson provided the intelligence. But Margaret Thatcher did not hesitate, and the long, substantive lunch seemed to energize both future world leaders. Nicknamed the "Iron Lady," Thatcher served as the prime minister of England from 1979 to 1990. be a nation in retreat". The widening of income differences between rich and poor that took place during the 80s (particularly from 1985) is the most rapid ever recorded. The Bruges speech was given by British prime minister Margaret Thatcher to the College of Europe at the Belfry of Bruges, Belgium, on 20 September 1988.Thatcher was opposed to any moves to transition the European Economic Community (EEC) into a federal Europe that would take powers away from its members. If they have no bread, let them eat from food banks that's Thatcherism, the legacy we are still to bury before it buries us. Charles Powell was a senior foreign policy . The number of days lost through strikes tumbled. Getting the record straight. Out! In 1990, Margaret Thatcher emerged as one of the first world leaders to champion climate science, issuing a call to action to fight manmade global warming at the Second World Climate Conference hosted at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Indeed a person with achemistry that repelled almost all thesignificant males in Edward Heath's cabinet who could never become theparty leader. . This has been a terrible labour, she said. Perhaps we suspected that reality had created a character beyond our creative reach. She became harder than hard. This site follow the same rules (and shares an editor). She was able to reach 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. At its heart must be an active programme to create good jobs and raise living standards. Symbolically, the key moment was the defeat of the miners after the year-long pit strike in March 1985. She hurled herself into NHS reform, changes to schools and universities, utilities privatisation and, eventually, local government reform. Thatcher's reputation never recovered from the ruthless budgets of 1980 and 1981, or her insensitivity to colleagues. performance at a Press Conference afterwards, the In her 1982 party conference speech, Margaret Thatcher offered a prediction for the future: "How absurd it will seem in a few years' time that the state ran Pickfords removals and Gleneagles Hotel . Understandably, less cohesive societies with more drugs, more crime and lower mobility waste talent, and are not good places to do business. You would need to wait six weeks for an engineer. As she cut local housing budgets, she sent housing benefit soaring in compensation. MT prayed on the And then, perversely, would come the throwaway, sign-off remark to the effect of: "At least you know where you stand with Maggie she hates us and we hate her.". He was listened to with rapt attention, unsurprisingly, since in both Washington and Westminster his "nudge" theories are saving significant sums of taxpayers' money. To enrich the global 1% she so brilliantly represented, our "entitlement" had to go and she was just the one to do it. Not until well out of office, angry and lacking her old judgment, did she lead the rabidly Eurosceptic renegades. or copyright prevents reproduction on the site. Would we like her back? Keith Joseph was her guru. After the Dublin European Council in November 1979 she began a long battle Hayek was appointed a Companion of Honour in the 1984 Birthday honours for "services to the study of Economics". Where she privatised state-owned industries, they go much further, seeking to dismantle the state itself. It was not interested in a resolution. wrong with politics? Sir Bernard Ingham was Margaret Thatcher writ large. Margaret Thatcher. 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. Yet the Daily Mail has morefemale bylines than any other UK paper and is not exactly a totem of gender equality andfemale-friendliness. By delivering a crisp, emphatic victory Thatcher showed the world, and more important herself, what a talent for solitary command could achieve. Yet her understanding of Britain was alarmingly crude. Margaret Thatcher Quotes (Author of The Downing Street Years) - Goodreads The fact that the Thatcher question even gets asked confirms vividly just what an upas tree she remains for Scottish Toryism. It is my view that Thatcher authorised the killings at Gibraltar. BBC ON THIS DAY | 28 | 1990: Tearful farewell from Iron Lady The Lady forced the opposition party to accommodate itself to the new, Thatcherite settlement in which the market would rule unless stated otherwise. You can get the Turnitin report from the writer on request along with the final deliverable. But, as the prince in Lampedusa's The Leopard says: "For things to remain the same, everything must change.". 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. Harold Macmillan, Margaret Thatcher and British Conservatism's Politics Perhaps there is resentment because the clemency and respect that are being mawkishly displayed now by some and haughtily demanded of the rest of us at the impending, solemn ceremonial funeral, are values that her government and policies sought toannihilate. She forced us to decide what was truly important. Curiously, the phrase does not sound as dated as it should. If you want anything done, ask a woman.". Thatcher came to power when the economy was approaching a moment of truth after three decades of poor performance relative to other western countries. So what caused this great divide, with one side a fountain of fresh ideas and the other struggling for new inspiration? Howe's "broken cricket bats" speech in the Commons was the killer blow. When she walked into Downing Street promising harmony instead of discord, only one in seven children was poor and Britain was more equal than at any time in modern history. She was evicted from Downing Street with all the ruthlessness, treachery and warped humanity of what passes for high politics. We watched as her high heels went click-click-click across the stones of the Acropolis and the cement floors of Tito's steel mills. first television interview the following day. That gives them the nerve to set about cutting benefits and the public realm with a glee they don't bother to hide. Without it, she would have been nothing. We are all on our own. speech in July 1945, delivered in a town close to Grantham while she