What was different in Britain was that she assumed no responsibility to minimise social disruption or to create new jobs and industries. The fact is that if both sides removed their ideological blinkers, as Thatcher, remarkably perhaps, managed to do, then her trilogy of speeches in the late 1980s still offer some of the best and . press to rejoice at the capture of South Georgia on 25 April 1982 and But there are less obvious manifestations of the same habit. 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. Great speeches: 'Orwellian nightmare' if Tories fail, claims Margaret Thatcher. can do business together". "We have not 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. "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. In her speech, Thatcher used rhetorical techniques to show the strength and principles of Reagan and project those values onto the American people. On the crucial morning in November 1990, her colleagues marched individually into her room and each told her to go. 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. 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. She, and Blair after her, brought an unprecedented dirigisme to the NHS, education, police and local government. For miners, greed was a destructive force, not a force for good. 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. On 30 October 1990 she made the first of the But unlike Thatcher, president Hugo Chvez of Venezuela, the "president of the poor", fought for a caring economy and against the rule of the market. John Major, the "detoxification" successor, was fated to implement many of her unattempted reforms. Sent Bobby Sands to an Irish hero's grave without a blink. She failed to replace those jobs with well-paid equivalents. Maggie! But what bound all opposition to Margaret Thatcher's programme was a suspicion that the grocer's daughter was intent on monetising human value, that she had no heart and, famously, cared little for the impulses that bind individuals into a society. She became leader of the Conservatives the year I was born and prime minister when I was four. 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. Her unforgettable presence, but also her policy achievements. That was before Thatcher modishly renamed the service British Telecom and sold it off. 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.". Unquestionably, a major component of what Reagan achieved was mirrored in what Baroness Thatcher herself achieved. One might even credit Thatcher with a willingness to jettison the old rules and conventions that used to prevent individuals deciding their own destiny. I grew up in Essex with a single mum and a go-getter Dagenham dad. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.". She was lucky, in her enemies and friends notably Reagan in the Falklands conflict. What was it about Thatcher that inspired a generation of comics to rage at her? But the choice captures her perfectly. Handbag. 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. For years, in fact, she despised writers, except those who did her speeches. 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. 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. No children excluded from school activities because mothers couldn't pay. Margaret Thatcher's landmark Bruges speech about the future of Europe was never intended to push the UK towards the exit, the man who wrote it says. Though the Prime Minister was known to shed a tear or two during her 11 years leading the United Kingdom . 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. For those of us who were dismayed by her brisk distaste for that cosy state-dominated world, it was never enough to dislike her. She abolished city-wide local government, capped spending and expected the poll tax to further undermine alternative voices. The left misleads us and maybe itself when it says that Thatcher's policies, extended by New Labour and then by the coalition, have failed. Dignity and decorum ruled the day - except in the poisoned anonymity of the internet. 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. Governments can rarely claim to have stimulated the arts but Thatcher, always rather impatient with the examined life, drew writers on to new ground. Please activate cookies in order to turn autoplay off. In the 80s, she was the primary force behind what was known then as alternative comedy and is now simply called "comedy". 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. True, Labour, James Callaghan and the unions played their part by blocking Barbara Castle's In Place of Strife attempt to create German or Nordic co-operation between unions and industry that might have rescued unions from Thatcher's crushing. "Being powerful is like being a lady. She became harder than hard. It was not interested in a resolution. She was immensely brisk. For the most part, there's no material there. Here shovels the earth during a tree-planting ceremony . This demand for respectful silence in the wake of a public figure's death is not just misguided but dangerous. People should pay her the respect of doing the same after her death. Author: Margaret Thatcher Year: 1979 Location: London, the UK Occasion: Address to the Parliament. Oil helped Thatcher paper over the cracks, but Britain's age-old problem finding a way to pay its way in the world remains. Public Statements of Margaret Thatcher on CD-ROM, 1945-90, edited Christopher One thinks now of the closing words of her splendid 2004 eulogy of Ronald Reagan, and how those words so perfectly speak a tribute to her life and works: "We here still move in twilight. I was on my own. If I become PM, I will deliver the radical set of reforms need to unleash growth. Sunstein worked for a Democratic president, but did not meet the Labour leader or key advisers. Even some leading figures on the left have jealously praised the right's creativity and ideological crusaders. 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. We had an all-out blistering row that delighted the organisers. "Don't follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.". Margaret Thatcher was not known for her sense of humour. After the Dublin European Council in November 1979 she began a long battle Thatcher was a divisive woman who created discord, not harmony. It became obvious that, while granting that I had "convictions", she never read a word of my stuff. 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. But within a few years, a third of children were poor, a sign of the yawning inequality from which the country never recovered. You can get the Turnitin report from the writer on request along with the final deliverable. She had left a Britain marked by private affluence and public squalor. . performance at a Press Conference afterwards, the Now she would more likely have been beaten to the Tory leadership by one of the Etonians in cabinet. press to rejoice at the capture of South Georgia on 25 April 1982, announced that White 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. 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. 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". 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. Queen Elizabeth is widely assumed . Peggy Noonan. She was 87. Hugo Young was a political columnist forthe Guardian from 1984 until 2003 and biographer of Margaret Thatcher. She will be for ever unforgiven by those who now see worse being done in her name to another generation. . If love is something you cherish, it is hard to glean much joy from death, even in one's enemies. Plus there's the fact that comedy is now a big business, and there's less money in sharp satire than gentle observation. Out! In the north of Ireland she had the army and the Diplock courts which reached their peak in the mid 1980s. It was all very well for me to write books. It got over a deep, instinctive hostility to women at the top of anything, and put her there. She was evicted from Downing Street with all the ruthlessness, treachery and warped humanity of what passes for high politics. "Margaret Thatcher was not a natural communicator. 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. Their target was "the enemy within" working-class power and the so-called culture of entitlement. Nissan's arrival in the north-east showed that Britain was no longer the west's industrial pariah. Reagan was received coolly, and the discussion was highly superficial, if only because the British side clearly did not care to engage on substance: meet for a serious discussion with a movie actor and a "Grade B" actor at that? Thatcher will be especially remembered for her shameful role during the epic hunger strikes of 1980 and 81. . Thatcher was the Prime Minister of Great Britain during Reagan's presidency, and was close with him which The spell he was referring to is the unseen bond that connects us all and prevents us from being subjugated by tyranny. The tragic upshot has been the steep erosion of wages for the powerless bottom half, as income, wealth and property is sucked up to the top. It was not yours, but belonged to the Post Office: in effect, the government. 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. They married the personality and belief to action. In a way, they are all Thatcher's children.". They do not have to charm, schmooze or play tag with the press. But she personified the change from meaning to meaninglessness in so many settlements and lives, and for this reason she is hard to forgive. Therein, 30 years ago, lay the great Thatcher asset and the electorally lethal Thatcher impact in Scotland. She made her maiden I don't see that. Statistics now confirm what many people have always recognised: that inequality is divisive and socially corrosive. The appointment was a 20-minute audience with the . When I awoke today on LA time my phone was full of impertinent digital eulogies. At an international conference in Lisbon in the late 80s, the British faction, among whom were Salman Rushdie, Martin Amis, Malcolm Bradbury and myself, referred back to Thatcher constantly in our presentations. It came to a head over her most egregious policy failure, Europe. For she changed the ethos of Britain as well as its landscape. speech in July 1945, delivered in a town close to Grantham while she That speech was a rare instance of a politician saying something tangible. Out! 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. Cameron's crew crudely imagine she intended it. Maggie was a fully formed comedy character before comedians had even gotten to her. She considered European Commission president Jacques Delors a campaigner for . M argaret Thatcher does an awful lot of crying in The Crown. The endemic worklessness of her era was never repaired now her successors blame the victims. At countless demonstrations throughout the 80s, it expressed a curious ambivalence a first name intimacy as well as a furious rejection of all she stood for. The credit boom both here and in the USA may have gone against her Grantham roots but was an equally inevitable result of deregulation and the temptation of easy loans for people hungry to improve living standards. No homeless or disabled people need beg on the streets. In her eulogy for the former president, Thatcher uses specific structure, tone and diction, and word choices throughout her writing to . Until then Thatcher had shown the strength of her weakness: a dislike of consensus and aversion to debate, leading to decisive action. 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. After being asked to deliver a eulogy for the late Ronald Reagan on June 11, 2004, Margaret Thatcher gave a speech about her dear friend, and highlighted his best qualities through her writing. Get over her! 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.". 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. verbatim and in context. Thatcher's 11 years of dictating British policy in Ireland was a legacy of bitterness and entrenched division. Original, independent voices such as BBC director general Alasdair Milne were brutally silenced. making her big speech the following day as scheduled. It was thoroughly "wet". 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. 4.44 avg rating 39 ratings 2 editions. That said, by the mid-1980s it was clear that the Conservative government's economic policy was based on a handful of core principles. She was, of course, the first and so far only female British prime minister, Jon Snow reiterated on Monday night, insinuating that this achievement should in general be celebrated, never mind the specifics of her leadership. 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. successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to That did the trick.). How could anyone who was so resolutely Margaret Thatcher be anything else? On the day Thatcher died, the Daily Mail ran a piece claiming that Coco Chanel "was a feminist before the word existed". "What's going on there, mate?" Their reckless private finance of public investment and services went beyond anything she dared dream of. Reagan had sought to meet with then Prime Minister James Callaghan, but the request was rejected, and bucked to then Foreign Minister David Owen. Being a woman is undoubtedly one of the features, possibly the most potent, that makes her ascent to power memorable, 25 years on, in a way that applied to no man. Government policy during the 1980s was little more than a war policy, aimed at defeating or isolating republicanism. Many whom Reagan encountered in public life thought of him in this way, but most politicians would love to reach even "Grade B" status. A big decline in traditional industries took place across Europe and the US in the 80s and 90s. April 17, 2013, 6:40 PM. Modern comedians complain that they don't have personalities, they don't really stand for anything. I met her just once, as a reporter in the press pack that followed her tour around Greece and Yugoslavia in 1980. The lady was too shrewd to try that, and barely succeeded in reducing the share of the national income taken by the public sector. The economy had become more productive, more competitive and more profitable. Her defenders always insisted that sentence had been misunderstood, but it stuck because it seemed to capture something essential about the Thatcherite creed: its embrace of individualism and apparent disdain for the collective. When she took over in 1979, the bottom of that device would have carried the legend, "Property of the GPO." On one visit, our campaign chairman, William J Casey, later director of the CIA, came along, and we had a fruitful meeting at 10 Downing Street. The US academic Cass Sunstein was in Britain at the end of last month. This reverie only occurred when the car was out of view. Thatcher is often credited with showing that you could get to the top whatever your background. 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. The welfare state, with its unemployment and housing benefits and free healthcare, actually protected wages: employers could not force workers to accept low pay or unpaid overtime because of the job's healthcare provision, as they do in the US. 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. This report of the Conservative party conference ran in the Guardian on Saturday October 11 1980, Edited and full versions of Margaret Thatcher's 'The lady's not for turning' speech, delivered at the Conservative party conference in Brighton on 10 October 1980, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every The last remnants of the postwar consensus were swept away in the ensuing decade a period that saw the crushing of the trade unions, the Big Bang in the City, council house sales, the privatisation of large chunks of industry, the encouragement of inward investment, tax cuts, attempts to roll back the state, a deep manufacturing recession, a boom in North Sea oil production, and support for the creation of a single market in Europe. The stance was often in broadest terms, more moral than political. At its heart must be an active programme to create good jobs and raise living standards. She was an ardent pro-European, and her 1979 manifesto made no mention of radical union reform or privatisation. The papers date from Margaret Thatcher's childhood to the end of her life, and include tens of thousands of photographs, as well as a vast collection of press cuttings, and many audio and video tapes of public and private events. In 1984 Britain had 186 working coalmines and approximately 170,000 coalminers. (No wonder it sold 7m copies a week). I think by far her greatest virtue, in retrospect, is how little she cared if people liked her. 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. She preferred markets, and a strong but minimal central state that backed their rule. The first time I met Margaret Thatcher, I swear she was wearing gloves. Instead state assets and a huge income stream from North sea oil were used to fund a populist programme of tax cuts, privatisation and council housesales. The Lady forced the opposition party to accommodate itself to the new, Thatcherite settlement in which the market would rule unless stated otherwise. No such alarms ring in Cameron's ears. To enrich the global 1% she so brilliantly represented, our "entitlement" had to go and she was just the one to do it. What saved Thatcher's bacon, and revolutionised her leadership, was Labour's unelectable Michael Foot and the Falklands war. How then do I feel on the day of this matriarchal mourning? It knew what Thatcher wanted. If it ended in disaster, the seeds were only partly hers. 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. three press interviews (15-17 November) when Howe's resignation speech The evidence shows that greater equality provides the foundation on which higher standards of social wellbeing can be built. Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Heath: they seem, by comparison, evanescent figures. They rallied around each other when times were hard. It is odd to reflect that in Thatcher's time, the British novel enjoyed a comparatively lively resurgence. Where she privatised state-owned industries, they go much further, seeking to dismantle the state itself. Everyone knows that. She and her successors John Major and Tony Blair presided over a quarter century of unprecedented prosperity. Of all the things to criticise Thatcher for, calling her out for being a woman seems like something of a wasted bullet. of her best Parliamentary speeches in a debate on the strikes, prayed on the They built and provided their own welfare facilities and, well before today's welfare state was built, miners created their own welfare systems to alleviate hardship. The core ideas that underpinned her government endured through 13 years of Labour and are being extended by the coalition. In the current wall-to-wall media welter, I caught the current leader of the Scottish Tories, Ruth Davison MSP, being asked if Thatcher was an electoral asset for her.
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