Superlatives can be agreed: a remarkable first woman PM; the first winner of three elections in a row; brave; tough; relentless; clever; sleeplessly driven by a self-confident conviction that overawed her enemies. In short, miners believed in society. So instead: "I put it to her that we would be saving money." Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister at the time, gave a eulogy to the grieving American people in honor of the late Ronald Reagan on June 11th, 2004. Each now seems banal. But for others, the change in landscape is all too real. Typically, this distinction is mapped onto the ideas that Conservatives hold about equality. speech in the House of Commons, her It's like a whimsical live-action episode of Postman Pat where his cat is craftily carved up and sold back to him. Between 1945-90 every statement made by Margaret Thatcher is listed, as far as can be known. Conscious of being awoman, and incapable of pretending otherwise. No homeless or disabled people need beg on the streets. No gloves, or hats, except for royalty or at funerals, but feet on the table, whisky glass at hand, into the small hours of solitude, for want of male cronies in the masculine world she dominated for all her 11yearsin power. It always irks when rightwing folk demonstrate in a familial or exclusive setting the values that they deny in a broader social context. The pomp and circumstance that will crown her funeral was proffered by Brown, to some shudders from his own side. Seeing as women aren't a minor Brit-flick grateful for even a bad review, that truism doesn't quite hold true here. This demand for respectful silence in the wake of a public figure's death is not just misguided but dangerous. We had had a strange relationship. By John Cassidy. The spell of community. Speech: 07:39-28:33 Q & A: 28:34-48:08 (Recording ends abruptly during Q&A) Topics of . Nicknamed the "Iron Lady," Thatcher served as the prime minister of England from 1979 to 1990. Hewrote this piece in 2003, two weeks before he died. 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. Sir Bernard Ingham was Margaret Thatcher writ large. But she also provided great material. In 1979 she inherited a nation that was the "sick man of Europe", an object of constant transatlantic ridicule. My mate John and I were wandering there together, he expertly proselytising on the architecture and the history of the place, me pretending to be Rumpole of the Bailey (quietly in my mind), when we spied in the distant garden a hunched and frail figure, in a raincoat, scarf about her head, watering the roses under the breezy supervision of a masticating copper. 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. "She's jolly nice," one of them said, "much better to work for than [James] Callaghan." "Don't follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.". Since 1990 a selection of statements is listed. Privatisation did not feature in the Conservative election campaign, while the tougher approach to trade union reform had only really become evident since the winter of discontent, and even then was a gradual process. It was a visit warmly welcomed by President Reagan, with a resplendent state nner on the first evening. For some, the only consequence of that shift, still visible today, will be a changed brand name or higher bills. It destroyed the public's power to determine via parliament the services and prices of gas, electricity, telephone. Thatcher's threat to butcher the mining industry, destroy the fabric of mining communities and in particular the trade union to which miners had a bond of loyalty, was met with the fiercest resistance any government has met in peacetime. 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." (No wonder it sold 7m copies a week). At Bruges in September 1988 she outraged European orthodoxy by declaring: Though the Thatcher years could also be called the Saatchi years, reaching a new level of presentational sophistication in the annals of British politics, they weren't about getting the leader liked. A Soviet . But she exploited her luck. She, for one, never underestimated her friend from California, then a state of some 24 million. Another head of government died recently who, like Thatcher, was called divisive. I don't know if they ever voted for her, I don't know if they liked her. Narrowly judged, the Thatcher economic revolution was a success. And by my own firsthand experience, it was genuine to the core. In the 2011 biographical drama film "The Iron Lady," Meryl Streep plays the role of Margaret Thatcher, the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. So the woman I met in Curzon Street, dimpling elegantly, can now be seen in history with an unexpected achievement to her credit. Norman Tebbit, one of Thatcher's acolytes and fellow "Munsters evacuee", said when the National Union of Mineworkers eventually succumbed to the military onslaught and starvation over which she presided: "We didn't just break the strike, we broke the spell." . of her best Parliamentary speeches in a debate on the strikes. As far as her supporters are concerned, this radical transformation worked. The Tories triumphed, of course, and lost only two sitting MPs Hamish Gray and the social-security scrounger-bashing Iain Sproat, who vacated his marginal Aberdeen seat and headed for the Scottish Borders, only to suffer defeat there at the hands of the Alliance. Union in a speech She attacked the Treaty of Maastricht in a She had left a Britain marked by private affluence and public squalor. She was an ardent pro-European, and her 1979 manifesto made no mention of radical union reform or privatisation. On the other hand, growth has been depressed because weak trade unions can no longer ensure wage increases keep pace with inflation. When John Lennon was told of Elvis Presley's death, he famously responded: "Elvis died when he joined the army," meaning of course, that his combat clothing and clipped hair signalled the demise of the thrusting, Dionysian revolution of which he was the immaculate emblem. The fact that the Thatcher question even gets asked confirms vividly just what an upas tree she remains for Scottish Toryism. But if today's Guardian readers time-travelled to the late 70s they might be irritated to discover that tomorrow's TV listings were a state secret not shared with daily newspapers. Some places have become heritage parks, remembering an industry now vanished. We are all on our own. That one should not speak ill of the dead is arguably appropriate when a private person dies, but it is wildly inappropriate for the death of a controversial public figure, particularly one who wielded significant influence and political power. Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Heath: they seem, by comparison, evanescent figures. Secondly, the balance of power in industrial relations was shifted decisively in favour of employers. For her own part, she was a social conservative and yet today's right for, say, gay couples to marry if they want to fits with one aspect of the Thatcherite vision of personal choice. The poll tax showed the opposite, the weakness of Thatcher's strength. If it ended in disaster, the seeds were only partly hers. For Thatcher it all ended months later in November 1990 when she was forced to resign. An Inconvenient Truth About Margaret Thatcher: She Was a Climate Hawk. She showed that modern prime ministers can still mark out room for individual manoeuvre. It was all very well for me to write books. But now the history was what mattered. Thatcher did not believe in "picking winners"; instead she preferred to rely on market forces to ensure the survival of the fittest. This unit recruited agents who were then used to kill citizens. She led Britain further into Europe, while talking us further out. Margaret Thatcher, the "Iron Lady" of British politics who died Monday at the age of 87, is being lionized as the woman who tilted British domestic and economic policy to the right. On Saturday, 27 February, he wrote in his diary: "PM getting great press went up to the [Capitol] Hill some of the senators tried to give her a bad time, she put them down firmly and with typical British courtesy.". 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. We had an all-out blistering row that delighted the organisers. Where copyright is the problem, the full text can be found on the Complete 'It's a wonder nobody has taken a gun to that woman.' Margaret Thatcher Curriculum Vitae. There were rumours of a different philosophy, at least in personal relationships. "Maggie Thatcher," he said. Donning a starched coiff and padded shoulders out to there, Emmy Award winner Gillian Anderson of The X-Files is . at Brighton, insisting that the Conference go on and A big decline in traditional industries took place across Europe and the US in the 80s and 90s. 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. 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. And the single mums. If the Falklands war was the making of Thatcher, then the poll tax was her achilles heel not least in Scotland. Many are children of the Thatcher age. I'd unthinkingly imbibed enough doctrine to know that, troubled as I was, there was little point looking elsewhere for support. In former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's eulogy speech for President Ronald Reagan (2004), she elucidates what a kind and powerful man he was. 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. There are still some great comics doing political material, with Mark Steel and Mark Thomas flying the flag of alternative comedy, while people such as Josie Long and Chris Coltrane find the funny in activism. Its impact on the streets of the north is evident in the statistics of death. "Being powerful is like being a lady. "No, no, no". April 25, 2020. A decade later they were wiped out in terms of Scotland-based Westminster constituency representation. It is odd to reflect that in Thatcher's time, the British novel enjoyed a comparatively lively resurgence. Reagan's decision to bomb Libya in April 1986 and spoke Those abandoned places are also landmarks in Thatcher's Britain. Second, it's now easier to see the scale of the setback she inflicted on Britain's idea of its own future. If love is something you cherish, it is hard to glean much joy from death, even in one's enemies. Since 1990 a selection of statements is listed. The evidence shows that greater equality provides the foundation on which higher standards of social wellbeing can be built. Look at the trains on the track, the phone in your house, the trio of 1980s teenagers who lead the three main parties. International studies of OECD countries suggest a close relationship between the decline in trade union membership and the rise in inequality. Take the larger view. I will know that we have finally broken from the kind of capitalism that she championed and which died in 2008 when we see workers elected on to company boards. The main names associated with Fatcha-bashing Ben Elton and Alexei Sayle deny that they relied so heavily on her for material. There turned out to be no such thing as society, at least in the sense we used to understand it. 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. Thatcher's Spitting Image puppet was different from the others; while other characters, such as Ronald Reagan and the pope, were exaggerated into fantasy versions of themselves, the rubber Maggie was just like the one who appeared on the news a stern, cold, matronly figure who had a slightly oedipal relationship with her cabinet. one As David Wearing put it this morning in satirizing these speak-no-ill-of-the-deceased moralists: "People praising Thatcher's legacy should show some respect for her victims. or copyright prevents reproduction on the site. She was unashamed about this, loathing localism and rejecting calls to diminish the "strong state". It was only in the mid-80s that she became truly radical and remotely comparable to David Cameron in 2010. 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". It was meant as a term of condemnation, a concise way of arguing that riots in the street or the devastation of a pit village were the inevitable features of this new land that had arisen in the 1980s, a country reshaped by the woman at the top. Here is a selection of the best writing from commentators, politicians and journalists on the legacy of Margaret Thatcher's 11 years in power - and on her continuing impact in the time following her downfall, as figures from across the political spectrum examine the legacy of one of the most important political figures from the last half-century, this (appropriately diplomatic) statement from President Obama, key role not only in bringing about the first Gulf War, publicly advocate for the 2003 attack on Iraq, the Guardian reported upon the death last month of Hugo Chavez, the Daily Mail has morefemale bylines than any other UK paper, Alan Krueger, chair of Obama's council of economic advisers, nor does the balance of research evidence suggest that greater inequality acts as a spur to growth, decline in trade union membership and the rise in inequality, intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich, the primary force behind what was known then as alternative comedy, Rik Mayall's student rants in The Young Ones, wicked, incompetent mindset that was the spirit of the 80s, "very fashionable in the Guardian for a few months before the financial crisis". 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 . Luckily, a longer paper means you get a bigger discount! The novel may thrive in adversity and it was a general sense of dismay at the new world she was showing us that lured many writers into opposition. Yet despite the attempts of some columnists to claim otherwise, Thatcher can't really be seen as "a warrior in the sex war", let alone as "the ultimate women's libber". And for the people of Ireland, and especially the north, the Thatcher years were among some of the worst of the conflict. Three separate pieces of legislation between 1980 and 1984 attacked the closed shop, toughened up the laws on picketing and imposed secret strike ballots. The endemic worklessness of her era was never repaired now her successors blame the victims. I didn't know what to think of this fearsome woman. It was part of her conspicuous virtue, her indifference to familiar political conventions. 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. press to rejoice at the capture of South Georgia on 25 April 1982, announced that White Thatcher is often credited with showing that you could get to the top whatever your background. They do not have to charm, schmooze or play tag with the press. Many whom Reagan encountered in public life thought of him in this way, but most politicians would love to reach even "Grade B" status. She forced us to decide what was truly important. 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.". 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? to secure international action to repair the damaged ozone layer. Yet her long-term effect seems to have been to destroy it. She continued for some reason to consider me worth talking to. Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013), the United Kingdom's first female prime minister, served from 1979 until 1990. . But the choice captures her perfectly. Scotland was her mission impossible. Yet, as the heated benefits debate showed last week, Labour is trapped by history bereft of fresh ideas and, when tentatively offering proposals, strangled by the most stifling conservatism. Before the real Thatcher's election in 1979 she took lessons with a speech coach at the Royal National Theatre, hoping to make her voice more commanding and less "shrill" in broadcasts. (MT gave up public speaking in March 2002.) "She had been offered the chance to get on and effectively she then refused to offer it to otherpeople. She was lucky, in her enemies and friends notably Reagan in the Falklands conflict. No children excluded from school activities because mothers couldn't pay. Both were successful women who could play the flirt card when it suited them, but ultimately had little interest in being kind to their own sex; Thatcher especially resented being defined by her gender. make the case for intervention to protect Bosnia when Serb concentration In his usual slightly dishevelled style, he went to Downing Street to discuss his pioneering concepts of behavioural economics and attempts to implement them under Barack Obama. 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". Debate continues on whether Margaret Thatcher saved or destroyed British industry, but there is one industry that she practically created. They had a point, but they had no idea how fascinating she was so powerful, successful, popular, omniscient, irritating and, in our view, wrong. Thatcher came to power when the economy was approaching a moment of truth after three decades of poor performance relative to other western countries. 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. She would appear in public to drape a hankie over a model BA plane tailfin because she disliked the unpatriotic logo with which they'd replaced the union flag (maybe don't privatise BA then), or to shuffle about some country pile arm in arm with a doddery Pinochet and tell us all what a fine fellow he was. In January 1983 she 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. But she became a very effective one. Hats. 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 wrecked her own party, while promoting, via many a tortuous turn, Labour's resurrection. It was a Charles I moment in British history. The jobs that went during the 80s tended to be good, skilled jobs, delivering decent incomes and some security.