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. They are a more energetic and impressive group than their predecessors, often with experience outside politics that makes them impatient and independent-minded. Her voice, a bellicose yawn, somehow both boring and boring I could ignore the content but the intent drilled its way in. The day before she died I passed through Greenock on the train. Arguably, it was not the sale of council houses that was the problem, but the failure to replace the stock and maintain a sufficient supply of affordable homes. When I started knocking on Highland doors in May 1983, two things struck me more than any other. At a party leaders' meeting in Washington, DC in 1985, Prime Minister Thatcher spent all day in the House of Commons, then boarded Concorde and flew to Washington to participate until late into the evening; she took such policy co-operation very seriously. The set text is still Thatcher's declaration quoted in The Audience that "There is no such thing as society". It is my view that Thatcher authorised the killings at Gibraltar. Then they discovered that they could make money, so they dropped all that. That 1983 general election contained the telltale seeds of eventual Scottish Tory self-destruction. Above all, they lack her competence at running the machinery of government. Until her final poll-tax hubris, she knew when swerving was the better part of valour and despite that famous one-liner, she was sometimes for turning. 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. For she changed the ethos of Britain as well as its landscape. If you have a . studying Thatcher's speeches . Large parts of society never recovered, while Germany and other countries managed the transition without such brutality. After leaving office, MT widened and deepened her criticism of the European Its impact on the streets of the north is evident in the statistics of death. The eulogy is a good illustration of Thatcher's feelings for . And on the 11th June, we even won some nine seats we failed to gain in 1983. 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. She was a gentle and peaceable woman my mother, that is and said few hard words about anyone, but in certain parts of the United Kingdom, and among certain social classes, Mrs T was detested, and not just for what people thought were her policies but for her persona for what she was. led Michael Heseltine to run against her for the party leadership. To her detractors, Thatcher is the prime minister who wiped out more than 15% of Britain's industrial base with her dogmatic monetarism, squandered the once-in-a-lifetime windfall of North Sea oil on unemployment pay and tax cuts, and made the UK the unbalanced, unequal country it is today. 'The Crown': Margaret Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth's Key Conflicts Each now seems banal. Fourthly, policy was aimed at those who, according to the prime minister, wanted to get on in life. 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". Flags were flying over Port Stanley on 14 June. There's still the rage, still the unfairness, so where is the comedy? steps of Downing Street on 4 May 1979, she "Margaret Thatcher was not a natural communicator. A Tory party desperate for women helped Thatcher through the political foothills to early success as an MP. Thatcher answered that question, re-energising the concept of democratic leadership. Another head of government died recently who, like Thatcher, was called divisive. Edited text: This speech was delivered to the Conservative party conference in Brighton on October 10 1980. A decade later they were wiped out in terms of Scotland-based Westminster constituency representation. 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. I can't articulate with the skill of either of "the Marks" Steel or Thomas why Thatcher and Thatcherism were so bad for Britain but I do recall that even to a child her demeanour and every discernible action seemed to be to the detriment of our national spirit and identity. Perhaps it is more simple for all the iniquities of capitalism, the tide of history favours the right. 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. 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. John asked a nearby chippy loading his white van. Margaret Thatcher. 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. The 1978 meeting was their last in person until Mrs Thatcher became Reagan's first state visitor, 26-28 February 1981. She wrecked her own party, while promoting, via many a tortuous turn, Labour's resurrection. 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". In her eulogy for the former president, Thatcher uses specific structure, tone and diction, and word choices throughout her writing to . Modern comedians complain that they don't have personalities, they don't really stand for anything. She was a prime minister who happened to be a woman. Given the global economic crisis, rampant corporate greed and growing inequality, this should be a time of great ferment, with endless policy proposals bubbling up to challenge the post-Thatcher consensus at a time of immense and unsettling change. She may have got it slightly wrong. More insidiously, it fathered amood of tolerated harshness. 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. Not for Turning: The Life of Margaret Thatcher - Amazon The centralised statism that dominated politics for much of the 20th century, given its last pathetic gasp under the profligate government of Gordon Brown, ultimately failed the poor while proving financially unsustainable and unsuited to modern times. 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. successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to 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. LONDON Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister and uncompromisingly conservative "Iron Lady" of the 1980s, has died. Keith Joseph was her guru. Two especially forceful and committed leaders on the world stage at the same time: this was critical and key to ending the cold war, permitting the reunification of Germany, the consolidation of the EU and drawing our two nations together in a historic cooperation. This was her last important public statement. speech to the House of Lords in June 1993. 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. They were puzzled by the Scots' antipathy, given the Falklands war and the strong militaristic history of the Highlands and elsewhere. This is a political style, an aesthetic even, that has disappeared from view. speech which caused the Soviets to dub her "the Iron Lady". press to rejoice at the capture of South Georgia on 25 April 1982, announced that White first television interview the following day. 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. deeply felt eulogy, filmed in advance and relayed by video link to screens in the National Cathedral in Washington. But Margaret Thatcher did not hesitate, and the long, substantive lunch seemed to energize both future world leaders. (They also reveal how she loved to surround herself with yes men who were always men.) Nelson travelled to South Africa where he helped negotiate a deal that saw the UDA, UVF and Ulster Resistance acquire AK-47 automatic rifles, pistols, grenades, and RPG rocket launchers in late 1987 or early 1988. she More subtly, Thatcher bequeathed a kind of instinctive rejection of once-valued forms of collective activity. Between 1945-90 every statement made by Margaret Thatcher is listed, as far as can be known. Many of the effects of inequality have long lag periods. My dad, I suspect, did. Many whom Reagan encountered in public life thought of him in this way, but most politicians would love to reach even "Grade B" status. Seeing as women aren't a minor Brit-flick grateful for even a bad review, that truism doesn't quite hold true here. These developments set a benchmark. When the late Christopher Hitchens was a political reporter for the New Statesman, he corrected the prime minister on a point of fact, and she was quick to correct Hitchens in turn. She became harder than hard. What was it about Thatcher that inspired a generation of comics to rage at her? BBC Radio 4 - Green Originals, Margaret Thatcher 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. We have his example. The remainder are listed without a text because . A splendid synergy was created, deliberately and with just that in mind on both sides of the Atlantic. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.". Books by Margaret Thatcher (Author of The Downing Street Years) - Goodreads Their reckless private finance of public investment and services went beyond anything she dared dream of. No one noticed, but she was Blair's first guest at Downing Street in 1997. Rhetorical Analysis Of Margaret Thatcher's Eulogy Speech | ipl.org The Crown Struggles With Portrayal of Margaret Thatcher | Time She had just finished the first volume of her memoirs, which she insisted was all her own work. 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. Charles Powell was a senior foreign policy . Hire a Writer. Lecturing me about the comprehensive schools, of which she created more than any minister before or since. 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. What, in retrospect, seems creative and what destructive? 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 . Sue Gray has shown the dangers of thinking officials are more ethical 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 impact that Hayek's writing had on Thatcher, her advisors, and her policies is undeniable. But she exploited her luck. Thatcher is remembered for her achievements, but more for a presence, which was wrapped up with being a woman. A Soviet . speech to the House of Lords in June 1993. which revealed a good deal as to her political The place was her office at the Department of Education, then in Curzon Street. Thatcher became a supremely self-confident leader. But on their catastrophic economic policy, it's full-speed ahead into the concrete wall. There was only one state-approved answering machine available. But the key point is this: those who admire the deceased public figure (and their politics) aren't silent at all. In 1968 she gave a lecture asking What's Of all the things to criticise Thatcher for, calling her out for being a woman seems like something of a wasted bullet. Thatcher swept away those state monopolies in the new coinage of "privatisation" and transformed daily life in a way we now take for granted. In the early 1980s, the Republican party joined with other moderate and conservative parties in the world to form the International Democrat Union. The US academic Cass Sunstein was in Britain at the end of last month. I wouldn't say I have got myself a Kennedy-type speech-writer yet . For a national matriarch she is oddly unmaternal. Those strikes were confusing to me as a child. Her bouffant and handbag and nasal voice were comedy gold, but she was also earnest, principled and said exactly what she meant. Margaret Thatcher Quotes (Author of The Downing Street Years) - Goodreads 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. 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. She was not a writer. If the Falklands war was the making of Thatcher, then the poll tax was her achilles heel not least in Scotland. As far as her supporters are concerned, this radical transformation worked. She will be for ever unforgiven by those who now see worse being done in her name to another generation. 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. or copyright prevents reproduction on the site. Under this heading, Thatcher left a dark legacy that, like her successes, has still not disappeared behind the historical horizon. Or maybe audiences just really, really hated her and wanted to blow off some steam. You may not be a fan of Edwina Currie but, really, was she any worse than John Gummer? A Labour veteran blamed another legacy of Thatcher: the need for iron discipline after the media onslaught that engulfed her opponents. In the prime Thatcher years they required a severity of will to carry through that would now, if called on, bewrapped in so many cycles of deluding spin as to persuade us it hadn't really happened. Those abandoned places are also landmarks in Thatcher's Britain. And by my own firsthand experience, it was genuine to the core. 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. The items stored in this section of the site are texts, but many of the most important statements are also available in audio or video form in the separate Multimedia section. The most important thing Tony Blair and Gordon Brown did for British politics was to understand the significance of Thatcherism and to decide not to reverse it, indeed to carry it forward. The Texan who stole the show at Margaret Thatcher's funeral For the most part, there's no material there. 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". So what caused this great divide, with one side a fountain of fresh ideas and the other struggling for new inspiration? If you want anything done, ask a woman.". 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. 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. Reagan's decision to bomb Libya, spoke "The original alternative comics just did it because they had to," he says. It always struck me as peculiar, too, when the Spice Girls briefly championed Thatcher as an early example of girl power. 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. "Fatcha" was an instant punchline back then: simply saying it was enough to get a laugh. They are acolytes of a raw Thatcher cult they have rough-hewn and exaggerated in their own image. ", 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. Union in a speech Demanding that no criticisms be voiced to counter that hagiography is to enable false history and a propagandistic whitewashing of bad acts, distortions that become quickly ossified and then endure by virtue of no opposition and the powerful emotions created by death.