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Unquestionably, a major component of what Reagan achieved was mirrored in what Baroness Thatcher herself achieved. 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. Their target was "the enemy within" working-class power and the so-called culture of entitlement. It chose her ina fit of desperation, hats and all though it quite liked the hats. Lady Thatcher, you honor us by coming to the site of Sir Winston's pivotal speech, an event Westminster College has immortalized with the beautiful Winston Churchill Memorial. The south of England and the City of London were the future; the revenues from North Sea oil would pay for the unemployed in the old zones of manufacturing industry. Thatcher was born as Margaret Hilda Roberts on October 13, 1925, in Grantham, England. "I thought I'd be overjoyed, but really it's just another one bites the dust " This demonstrates, I suppose, that if you opposed Thatcher's ideas it was likely because of their lack of compassion, which is really just a word for love. She wrecked her own party, while promoting, via many a tortuous turn, Labour's resurrection. 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. But she regarded rightwing causes as an intellectual hobby. Thatcher is often credited with showing that you could get to the top whatever your background. The late Benazir Bhutto later gave me much the same account. He'd been a bully, she said, whereas Mrs T was warm and understanding. wrong with politics? You could never call Margaret Mother by mistake. The resignation was announced She is an icon of individualism, not of feminism. But every prime minister since has bowed to her legacy, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown eager to be snapped with her on their doorstep. 2016 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. And in 1983, for the first time, children born in Britain to non-British parents were denied automatic citizenship, fostering further racism and discrimination in immigration policy. 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. Nobody, at least that I know of, objected to that observation on the ground that it was disrespectful to the ability of the Chavez family to mourn in peace. The London mayor regretted that usage, but he surely understood its origins. Thatcher was never insensitive to the impact of her policies on the poor. declared that she wanted our money back, invited the The price we all continue to pay for Thatcherite policies is to live in a less cohesive and more antisocial society, in which community life is weaker, people feel less able to trust each other and fewer of those in government have the experience and compassion to represent or understand the vast majority. M argaret Thatcher does an awful lot of crying in The Crown. 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. Although the "right to buy" and the privatisation of utilities by selling shares to new small investors was often justified as giving rights to "the little people", the reality is that the less well-off fell ever further behind the rich. That gives them the nerve to set about cutting benefits and the public realm with a glee they don't bother to hide. She needed followers, as long as they went in her frequently unpopular directions. The Collected Speeches of Margaret Thatcher by. Well, everything really, even her name. drew an important moral from the Falklands war: "We have ceased to . 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. She would not have been half the . steps of Downing Street on 4 May 1979. 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. As coal, steel and shipbuilding fell under her wrecking ball, whole communities were destroyed. This is one small sign of how the left seems paralysed by a lack of intellectual curiosity and confidence. Promises. Reagan, who had recently left office as governor of California, was in London to deliver a speech to the Pilgrim Society. From the valleys of Wales to the far reaches of Scotland, miners were, by and large, socialists by nature but this was tempered by strong Christian beliefs. Where she privatised state-owned industries, they go much further, seeking to dismantle the state itself. In a eulogy by the former prime minister of Great Britain, Margret Thatcher honors the legacy of Ronald Reagan, the late president. In a break with tradition and protocol, Reagan decided he'd also attend the "return dinner" at the British Embassy the next evening. This reverie only occurred when the car was out of view. She had just finished the first volume of her memoirs, which she insisted was all her own work. Farewelling Baroness Margaret Thatcher in a proper fashion is a difficult task: she left such a deep imprint upon the world that assessing its importance demands volumes analyzing her beliefs and paying proper tribute. All Rights Reserved. What you see is a nation ruled for 11 turbulent years by a remarkable woman and which still lives in her image. But now the history was what mattered. 4.44 avg rating 39 ratings 2 editions. At her first conference speech, she chastised the Labour Party on economic . I just now watched the British Gas one again. Gaze at the telephone. Those strikes were confusing to me as a child. 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 lost seven cabinet ministers on the Europe question, a record that permeated the party for years afterwards. 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. Thatcher's social instincts were always nostalgic conservative. Rows with Lawson and Geoffrey Howe over a European currency (where she was right) presaged the final shambles of the poll tax. 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. Only today are we facing the cost. There are more than 8,000. This speech was delivered soon after her taking office in 1979. It was sad that she had to learn it in war, a grim example to her British and US successors. Was it cruelty? Margaret Thatcher's most important long-term legacy is likely to be the huge rise in inequality that she caused. She was catapulted into the Conservative leadership by a small group of ideologues centred around a thinktank, determined to roll back the statist ideas that dominated Britain after the postwar Attlee government. (They also reveal how she loved to surround herself with yes men who were always men.) of her best Parliamentary speeches in a debate on the strikes. Hire writer now Order. Sir Bernard died after a short illness, his family said. 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. This is what we mean by the Thatcher revolution, imposing on Britain, for better or for worse, some of the liberalisation that the major continental economies know,20 years later, they still need. Farewell, indeed, Baroness Thatcher. People should pay her the respect of doing the same after her death. can do business together". Action. 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. Cabinet rank in 1970 without appearing on television more than a handful Chvez is gone, but the voters are likely to re-elect Chavismo on 14 April. As I see it, and as one who had the pleasure of knowing both, they would recognize the huge opportunity created by the presence of each in the respective national and international policy-making role. 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. 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. But, as the prince in Lampedusa's The Leopard says: "For things to remain the same, everything must change.". Sent Bobby Sands to an Irish hero's grave without a blink. 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. And that made it easy to mock her. 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. ", 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. Her heirs have not learned that lesson, with no sign of their promised "rebalancing". While "one nation" Conservatives condone some forms of redistribution, their libertarian . Ed Miliband, a policy wonk himself, claims to be a conviction politician like Thatcher. Firstly, control of inflation rather than the pursuit of full employment was the centrepiece of macro economic strategy. . A strong pound crippled exports and emptied factories. Margaret Thatcher's most popular book is The Downing Street Years. Margaret Thatcher's Speech to Congress. 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. The word "free" is used to help the audience A meeting in Downing Street had left the Pakistan leader besotted with the older woman's wisdom and generosity: '"I tell you, she's such a kind person.". Why don't you get a proper job, she once sneered at me. 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? 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. Today we have four coalmines and around 2,000 miners. . Somesay she revolutionised British politics certainly never again could people say nobody would vote for a woman but it served a reactionary end. We can't blame (or credit) her for all of this, of course. But it was the killing of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane in February 1989 that reveals the depth of the Thatcher government's state collusion policy. She was among the first Western leaders to Not all writers were against her. That, plus (inevitable) de-industrialisation, coupled to her perceived overbearing and patronising manner. But look at this typical difference between her and her imitators: where Cameron has charged into Europe, taking his party out of the influential European People's party of natural allies, making enemies and building no useful coalitions, it was she who signed the Single European Act, understanding its importance for British trade, careful to make allies as well as swinging her handbag. It's true that whenever there's a major news story, millions of people immediately begin strip-mining it for puns and bon mots, making it harder for professional comics to develop focused, funny material that nobody's heard before. Hayek was appointed a Companion of Honour in the 1984 Birthday honours for "services to the study of Economics". History, Sample Essay. On her return to London, she sent me a warm and complimentary letter, a prize in my personal archives. But the key point is this: those who admire the deceased public figure (and their politics) aren't silent at all. All of the Tory edicts that bludgeoned our nation, as my generation squirmed through ghoulish puberty, were confusing. 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. Speech: 07:39-28:33 Q & A: 28:34-48:08 (Recording ends abruptly during Q&A) Topics of .