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 Crown Season 4 brings with it a whole lot of change for Queen Elizabeth II's family and, more importantly, the United Kingdom. They're not Thatcher. Hewrote this piece in 2003, two weeks before he died. Reagan and Thatcher first met in 1975, as my friend and colleague Peter Hannaford reminded me just today. The dominance of finance in the economy and the failure of bank regulation flowed from her belief that markets should always be left to themselves. For she changed the ethos of Britain as well as its landscape. I just now watched the British Gas one again. speech which caused the Soviets to dub her "the Iron Lady", one wrong with politics? This is one small sign of how the left seems paralysed by a lack of intellectual curiosity and confidence. Margaret Thatcher's Speech to Congress. The milk snatcher reputation absorbed and lived with. She made her remarks Talk to a Labour MP and you end up discussing politics and positioning; talk to a Tory, and it tends to be about policy. Thanks to the comparison with Cameron, we are reminded that the Thatcher reign was more circumspect and well-managed than it seemed at the time. More insidiously, it fathered amood of tolerated harshness. She needed followers, as long as they went in her frequently unpopular directions. British Labour MP Tom Watson decreed: "I hope that people on the left of politics respect a family in grief today." This, too, we still live with. No elderly person would be deprived of the dignity of spectacles, dentures or a hearing aid because they couldn't afford them. Margaret Flowers is a leading activist, doctor, teacher, and co-founder of PopularResistance.org, a website that aims to inform and inspire grassroots movements around the world. Maggie! Thatcher's use of rhetorical devices supports her eulogy because the concept of Reagan being more. A longer version of this article appears on Gerry Adams' blog, Margaret Thatcher was good at destruction. 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. A Labour veteran blamed another legacy of Thatcher: the need for iron discipline after the media onslaught that engulfed her opponents. Adam Smith's invisible hand ended up raising two fingers to her moral project. I was a professional writer. They looked after their old and young as well as those who were ill or infirm. (No wonder it sold 7m copies a week). in his defence during the IranContra affair later that year.. Elected for a third term in June 1987, she told This demand for respectful silence in the wake of a public figure's death is not just misguided but dangerous. Today's Tories walk in Thatcher's footsteps, battling with their estranged cousins in Ukip over who is the rightful heir to her Eurosceptic legacy. 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. 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. She, for one, never underestimated her friend from California, then a state of some 24 million. Public Statements of Margaret Thatcher on CD-ROM, 1945-90, edited Christopher Where she privatised state-owned industries, they go much further, seeking to dismantle the state itself. But she became a very effective one. The speakers form a rollcall of the globe's most interesting thinkers: Amartya Sen, the Nobel-winning Indian economist; Daniel Kahneman, the Israeli psychologist and another Nobel winner; and Hernando de Soto, the Peruvian economist, who focused on land rights for the poor. Thatcher never kept a diary, but the archive includes rich details of her role in important domestic and world events. In January 1983 she Opponents and supporters of Margaret Thatcher will never agree about the value of her legacy, but as for her importance, her hypnotic hold on us, they are bound to find common ground. She was an ardent pro-European, and her 1979 manifesto made no mention of radical union reform or privatisation. Though the Prime Minister was known to shed a tear or two during her 11 years leading the United Kingdom . There's still the rage, still the unfairness, so where is the comedy? Today we have four coalmines and around 2,000 miners. The current crop of leaders are so dull, so ill-defined, so lacking in personality that it's almost impossible for comedians to rage against them. On June 11th, 2004 Margaret Thatcher gave a speech to the American people at Ronald Reagan's funeral. 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. No such alarms ring in Cameron's ears. Thatcher's most baleful influence on government was not on industries and services she privatised but those she did not. In the Meryl Streep film, The Iron Lady, it's the scenes of domesticity that appear most absurd. She was among the first Western leaders to The appointment was a 20-minute audience with the . A great windfall in the short-term for asset-owners one form of inflation she encouraged but disastrous for future generations. Nicknamed the "Iron Lady," Thatcher served as the prime minister of England from 1979 to 1990. "Labour is stuck because they do not want to carry on the slimming down of the state and devolution of power but nor do they really want to reverse it," said one central Tory figure. And the single mums. Margaret Thatcher's Eulogy for Ronald Reagan: Essay 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. Chvez is gone, but the voters are likely to re-elect Chavismo on 14 April. The gender remained, its artefacts deployed with calculation. Look at the trains on the track, the phone in your house, the trio of 1980s teenagers who lead the three main parties. Speaking personally, it was a personal privilege beyond measure to have witnessed and participate in the blossoming of the special ties that continued throughout her entire time in office. 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 . 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. When she took over in 1979, the bottom of that device would have carried the legend, "Property of the GPO." opportunities. 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. It was a watershed moment in Irish politics. If I become PM, I will deliver the radical set of reforms need to unleash growth. 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. Perhaps she had just come inside. What you see is a nation ruled for 11 turbulent years by a remarkable woman and which still lives in her image. 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. At every level of his killing, British agents and agencies had a hand: the leader of the UDA group that carried out the killing was a Special Branch agent, as was the man who confessed to being the gunman, and the man who supplied the gun. In 1979 she inherited a nation that was the "sick man of Europe", an object of constant transatlantic ridicule. 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. 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. Several strong women on the continent have risen to the top, but thisBritish woman, in Britain of all places, became a phenomenon, first, throughher gender. But really, such statements were anything but, first because sweeping statements about genders are the opposite of gender equality and second because they revealed her real attitude towards women, which lay behind her notable lack of female-friendly policies, her utter lack of interest in childcare provision or positive action. speaking in March 2002.). Ithink on balance, it was for the better, and so, plainly did Thatcher's chief successor, Tony Blair. When I think of this memorial, I think of the words of Rupert Brooke, "that there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.". to his resignation letter on 1 November, stated My dad, I suspect, did. The Thatcher Papers - Churchill Archives Centre She hurled herself into NHS reform, changes to schools and universities, utilities privatisation and, eventually, local government reform. 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". A strong, so strong, leader. "Maggie Thatcher," he said. The author Nassim Taleb traded equations on a whiteboard with Gus O'Donnell, then head of the civil service, as they debated econometrics; at another, I watched entranced as Lord Heseltine argued urban policies with Harvard's Ed Glaeser. Speech to Conservative Party Conference - Margaret Thatcher All of us that grew up under Thatcher were taught that it is good to be selfish, that other people's pain is not your problem, that pain is in fact a weakness and suffering is deserved and shameful. Like John Major in her wake, Thatcher was convinced that she understood the Scots yet couldn't understand why we remained so stubbornly resistant towards the notion of understanding her. Analysis Of Ronald Reagan's Eulogy By Margaret Thatcher Their reckless private finance of public investment and services went beyond anything she dared dream of. . But we reckoned we got Thatcher only too well and didn't like what we saw, far less what we heard. Conscious of being awoman, and incapable of pretending otherwise. Her Irish policy failed miserably. 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. She was 87. Miners were a hardy race of people who faced constant danger in the cause of mining coal but underneath that they were caring, sensitive individuals with a commitment to the communities in which they lived. with concern about global warming, having done more than any other politician 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. Donning a starched coiff and padded shoulders out to there, Emmy Award winner Gillian Anderson of The X-Files is . Charles Powell was a senior foreign policy . She all but erased his political legacy to stamp her own image on the nation, so Britain before and after Thatcher were two different countries. This is a political style, an aesthetic even, that has disappeared from view. 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. The evidence shows that greater equality provides the foundation on which higher standards of social wellbeing can be built. From then on she disregarded her critics and became intolerant of any who were "not one of us". Died: 24 February 2023, aged 90 Sir Bernard Ingham was Margaret Thatcher writ large. Not all writers were against her. He was a political and historical figure and the need to accurately portray his legacy and prevent misleading hagiography easily outweighed precepts of death etiquette that prevail when a private person dies. At the Citizen's Theatre in Glasgow, the pantomime featured the Wicked Witch of the South; everyone knew her real identity. "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.". She invited the To Britons of my generation, she . Yet her understanding of Britain was alarmingly crude. Maggie and Me: How Thatcher Changed Britain | The New Yorker LONDON Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister and uncompromisingly conservative "Iron Lady" of the 1980s, has died. 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. Yes, QI can report that a newspaper called the Evening News on . The government's job was to keep inflation low, not to boost growth through demand management. Gillian Anderson's portrayal of the Iron Lady in "The Crown" is pretty spot-on. That, plus (inevitable) de-industrialisation, coupled to her perceived overbearing and patronising manner. "Thatcher as mother" seemed, to my tiddly mind, anathema. Many hated her. She pointed out that she was only 10 years old when she ceased to be prime minister. series of famous statements that marked the end of her premiership, Gaze at the telephone. National Press Club Luncheon Speakers: Margaret Thatcher (Recorded Unquestionably, a major component of what Reagan achieved was mirrored in what Baroness Thatcher herself achieved. 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. Getting the record straight. 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. Scotsman Obituaries: Sir Bernard Ingham, formidable press secretary to I think by far her greatest virtue, in retrospect, is how little she cared if people liked her. 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. The problem for Labour is that this issue so fundamental, since it underscores so much policy is unresolved in their ranks. In the 2004 eulogy in honor of the late president, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher uses a series of rhetorical devices such as parallelism, repetition, and ethos to convey the message in which Reagan was much more than an excellent president. Tributes paid as Sir Bernard Ingham dies, aged 90 - PressReader In the three years after the shipment they killed 224 and wounded scores more. press to rejoice at the capture of South Georgia on 25 April 1982 and 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. 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. 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. Few would argue that they have not endured. of the 1600 libraries around the world which hold the CD-ROM. If the Falklands war was the making of Thatcher, then the poll tax was her achilles heel not least in Scotland. And that made it easy to mock her. Prime Minister Thatcher inherited a settled state of British Europeanness, in which Brussels and the [European] Community began to influence, and often determine, the British way of doing things. The Brixton rioters, the Argentinians, teachers; everyone actually. The spell he was referring to is the unseen bond that connects us all and prevents us from being subjugated by tyranny. In the three years prior to receiving these weapons the loyalist death squads killed 34 people. Mrs Thatcher was on the way up in British political life. The word "free" is used to help the audience 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. Margaret Thatcher's legacy: roundup of the best writing Thatcher is remembered for her achievements, but more for a presence, which was wrapped up with being a woman. Elton has previously said that he did two minutes about Thatcher and two hours about his knob, and all anyone ever remembered was the Thatcher material. 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. While she spoke of his example as a beacon, she knew very well that she was an important component of what is often attributed solely to him, and in the first instance "winning" the cold war. Defending The Venezuelan Embassy, Organizing Peace for Ukraine with 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. 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. TRIBUTES were paid last night to Sir Bernard Ingham, the longstanding press secretary to Margaret Thatcher and a columnist in The Yorkshire Post until just a few weeks ago. So the woman I met in Curzon Street, dimpling elegantly, can now be seen in history with an unexpected achievement to her credit. Throw the Lib Dems into the mix and it becomes highly combustible. Where copyright is the problem, the full text can be found on the Complete That chanted demand of the left has been fully and finally met. 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. see them re-imposed at a European level with a European super-state exercising But Thatcher was still cautious. Former Tory MP Louise Mensch, with no apparent sense of irony, invoked precepts of propriety to announce: "Pygmies of the left so predictably embarrassing yourselves, know this: not a one of your leaders will ever be globally mourned like her.". She will be for ever unforgiven by those who now see worse being done in her name to another generation. Bernard Ingham, journalist and civil servant. Toastmasters International -Famous Speechwriters For Thatcher it all ended months later in November 1990 when she was forced to resign. The core ideas that underpinned her government endured through 13 years of Labour and are being extended by the coalition. 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. Just look around. a Interview by Benedict King. The lady was too shrewd to try that, and barely succeeded in reducing the share of the national income taken by the public sector. Rhetorical Analysis Of Margaret Thatcher's Speech 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. 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. There is now, however, an opportunity to commit to a new politics that learns lessons from her ambition yet undoes the damage and focuses on reconstruction. Following several small strokes she announced, in March 2002, that her career as a speechmaker had ended. It's how she would have, if pressed, put it herself. This regrettable transformation was blessed by a leader who probably did not know it was happening because she didn't care if it happened or not. ", 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. I don't know if they ever voted for her, I don't know if they liked her. She would, say some who knew her, have a found a way to finesse a change of direction by now. She famously changed the law after Bobby Sands was elected in Fermanagh and South Tyrone. It is no coincidence the three most influential centre-right thinktanks were all conceived over the following months. At her first conference speech, she chastised the Labour Party on economic . 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". When I started knocking on Highland doors in May 1983, two things struck me more than any other. Without it, she would have been nothing. Her onslaught on the trade unions left those movements pale imitations of their former selves, too weak to resist the drive to the "flexible labour market" which has seen Britain become the home of what one senior Labour figure calls "crappy jobs", with low pay and no protection. And we won back three we lost at by-elections. He was listened to with rapt attention, unsurprisingly, since in both Washington and Westminster his "nudge" theories are saving significant sums of taxpayers' money. Margaret Thatcher's Speech to Congress - Hillsdale College If anything, it becomes more compelling to commemorate those bad acts upon death as the only antidote against a society erecting a false and jingoistically self-serving history. Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013), the United Kingdom's first female prime minister, served from 1979 until 1990. . declared that she wanted our money back. In 1979 it had a mile or so of shipyards, a sugar works and factories that still made rope and ship's fittings. 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". As far as her supporters are concerned, this radical transformation worked. Great speeches: Margaret Thatcher | World | The Guardian Without the Falklands/Malvinas war, which exploited nationalism (as Argentinian dictator Galtieri did) and which Labour would not oppose, she would never have been re-elected in 1983. Margaret has spent her life fighting for social justice and equality. As a result, Labour authorities in eight or so British cities have set up fairness commissions to reduce income differences locally. At its heart must be an active programme to create good jobs and raise living standards. What Is Wrong With Margaret Thatcher's Voice On 'The Crown - Esquire But the key point is this: those who admire the deceased public figure (and their politics) aren't silent at all. The proportion of children living in relative poverty more than doubled during the 80s, and the damage has never been undone. 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. A senior civil servant said, "It worked because we all knew exactly what she wanted.". Tasteless." It is full of insights into a neglected aspect of how Thatcher came to dominate British politics." (Andrew Gamble, University of Sheffield, UK) "A fascinating insight into the world of speech writing. 1971 was the year of Ted Heath's Conservative government, which was trying to make huge savings to the budget. But she regarded rightwing causes as an intellectual hobby. Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off. Barack Obama, interestingly, said in his statement that she had "broken the glass ceiling for other women". For the most part, it has not been undone. Demonising unions and stripping the great mass of private-sector workers of a voice and power in the workplace is still the root of the great living standards crisis that saw the share of wealth going to wages slide long before Lehman Brothers failed. Words. A Tory party desperate for women helped Thatcher through the political foothills to early success as an MP. When Margaret Thatcher won the general election in 1979, she became Prime Minister of a land in chaos.
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