The article was originally published at : - ItsnotYellow.com
"I love argument. I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me - that's not their job." - Margaret Thatcher
In her lifetime, Margaret Thatcher essayed roles which very few can boast of - a potent leader, a revolutionary, first women to be a British PM, labor antagonist, free market evangelist. She was a rare politician who not just transformed Britain’s foreign policy in the Cold war era but also transformed political philosophies and ideologies in Britain in the 15 years of her leadership of the Conservative Party between 1975 and 1990.Her enthusiasm for privatization launched a global revolution and her willingness to stand up to tyranny helped to bring an end to the Soviet Union. Winston Churchill won a war, but he never had an “ism” credited to his name.
The essence of Thatcherism was to oppose the status quo and bet on freedom—quite a paradox, as she was a stern conservative in many aspects of her governance. She thought nations could become great only if individuals were set free. Her struggles had a theme: the rights of individuals to run their own lives, as free as possible from the micromanagement of the state, but paradoxes were an integral part of her Life.
In Britain her battles with the left—especially the miners—gave her a reputation as a blue-rinse Boadicea. She was hailed as the Iron Lady of Britain much because of the iron fist with which she dealt with the Left and the miners of Britain. Many of her pithiest putdowns were directed towards her own side: “U turn if you want to”, she told the Conservatives as unemployment passed 2m, “The lady’s not for turning.”
The Tories ceased to be a national party, retreating to the south and the suburbs and all but dying off in Scotland, Wales and the northern cities primarily where the bulk of the population was that of the working class. Tony Blair profited more from the Thatcher revolution than John Major, her successor as with the trade unions emasculated and the left discredited, he was able to remodel his party. This led to his triumph in Middle England. His huge majority in 1997 ushered in 13 years of New Labor rule.
Yet her achievements cannot be gainsaid. She reversed what her mentor, Keith Joseph, liked to call “the ratchet effect”, whereby the state was rewarded for its failures with yet more power. With the brief exception of the emergency measures taken in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-08, there have been no moves to re-nationalize industries or to resume a policy of picking winners. Thanks to her, the center of gravity of British politics moved dramatically to the right. The New Laborites of the 1990s concluded that they could rescue the Labor Party from ruin only by adopting the central tenets of Thatcherism. “The presumption should be that economic activity is best left to the private sector,” declared Mr. Blair. Neither he nor his successors would dream of reverting to the days of nationalization and unfettered union power.
Overseas, Thatcher became a true power broker on the international scene, seeing Russia's President Mikhail Gorbachev as a man with whom she could "do business" and re-charging her ideological batteries in exchanges with U.S. President Ronald Reagan. It was her insistence which led to the peacefule end of the Cold War era . Her combination of ideological certainty and global prominence ensured that Britain played a role in the collapse of the Soviet Union that was disproportionate to its weight in the world. Mrs. Thatcher was the first British politician since Winston Churchill to be taken seriously by the leaders of all the major powers. She was a heroine to opposition politicians in Eastern Europe. President Ronald Reagan was Margaret Thatcher’s closest foreign ally. Their relationship was called “the most enduring personal alliance in the Western world throughout the 1980s.” But she engendered respect rather than love, especially when she fought the rest of the Commonwealth by opposing economic sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa. She vehemently opposed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the joining of the East and West Germany due to which she was extremely unpopular among Germans.
The authority she gained did not mean there were not mistakes along the way. Some economists blame her governments for wrecking British manufacturing. They say it was under Thatcher's financial ministers that chronic under spending on Britain's public services created problems that are still being rectified today. Critics contend that hers was not a tolerant society and she ensured that Britain's role in Europe become that of permanent irritant rather than profitable partner.
Her philosophy of free open market found recognition not just in England but also in Russia and India who embraced a more capitalistic and free market philosophy much detached from the Socialist model. Russia privatized some 18,000 industrial enterprises while India dismantled License Raj.
Aided and abetted by sections of the media, it seemed Thatcher came to believe in the myth of her own invincibility. It was this that led her into mistakes including the poll tax -- a charge that saw dukes and domestic cleaners paying the same local dues -- and increasingly shrill anti-Europeanism, which alarmed even her own party and eventually led them to discard a leader who had won them three consecutive elections. The irony though is that while her election results show the pull she exerted through her strong leadership, her populist streak and her raising of the British profile, many Britons never really identified with the underlying values of the woman who became, both in her time as prime minister and in the years to come, a national icon.
She suffered a stroke on Monday, her spokeswoman said. A British government source said she died at the Ritz Hotel in London. Thatcher’s funeral will be at St. Paul's Cathedral, with full military honors, followed by a private cremation, the British prime minister's office announced.
She retired from public life after a stroke in 2002 and suffered several strokes after that. She made few public appearances in her final months, missing a reception marking her 85th birthday hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron in October 2010. She also skipped the July 2011 unveiling of a statue honoring her old friend Ronald Reagan in London. Her last years may not be as glorifying as she wished as she was ousted as the leader and also as a PM by her own party and she had to exit politics on an emotional note, but she was still and will always be revered as the 'Iron Lady' who though had her own set of good and bad facets, altered Global politics and even paved the way for future women leaders as they were taken more seriously in politics.
Written By :-
Shashank Saurav
"I love argument. I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me - that's not their job." - Margaret Thatcher
In her lifetime, Margaret Thatcher essayed roles which very few can boast of - a potent leader, a revolutionary, first women to be a British PM, labor antagonist, free market evangelist. She was a rare politician who not just transformed Britain’s foreign policy in the Cold war era but also transformed political philosophies and ideologies in Britain in the 15 years of her leadership of the Conservative Party between 1975 and 1990.Her enthusiasm for privatization launched a global revolution and her willingness to stand up to tyranny helped to bring an end to the Soviet Union. Winston Churchill won a war, but he never had an “ism” credited to his name.
The essence of Thatcherism was to oppose the status quo and bet on freedom—quite a paradox, as she was a stern conservative in many aspects of her governance. She thought nations could become great only if individuals were set free. Her struggles had a theme: the rights of individuals to run their own lives, as free as possible from the micromanagement of the state, but paradoxes were an integral part of her Life.
In Britain her battles with the left—especially the miners—gave her a reputation as a blue-rinse Boadicea. She was hailed as the Iron Lady of Britain much because of the iron fist with which she dealt with the Left and the miners of Britain. Many of her pithiest putdowns were directed towards her own side: “U turn if you want to”, she told the Conservatives as unemployment passed 2m, “The lady’s not for turning.”
The Tories ceased to be a national party, retreating to the south and the suburbs and all but dying off in Scotland, Wales and the northern cities primarily where the bulk of the population was that of the working class. Tony Blair profited more from the Thatcher revolution than John Major, her successor as with the trade unions emasculated and the left discredited, he was able to remodel his party. This led to his triumph in Middle England. His huge majority in 1997 ushered in 13 years of New Labor rule.
Yet her achievements cannot be gainsaid. She reversed what her mentor, Keith Joseph, liked to call “the ratchet effect”, whereby the state was rewarded for its failures with yet more power. With the brief exception of the emergency measures taken in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-08, there have been no moves to re-nationalize industries or to resume a policy of picking winners. Thanks to her, the center of gravity of British politics moved dramatically to the right. The New Laborites of the 1990s concluded that they could rescue the Labor Party from ruin only by adopting the central tenets of Thatcherism. “The presumption should be that economic activity is best left to the private sector,” declared Mr. Blair. Neither he nor his successors would dream of reverting to the days of nationalization and unfettered union power.
Overseas, Thatcher became a true power broker on the international scene, seeing Russia's President Mikhail Gorbachev as a man with whom she could "do business" and re-charging her ideological batteries in exchanges with U.S. President Ronald Reagan. It was her insistence which led to the peacefule end of the Cold War era . Her combination of ideological certainty and global prominence ensured that Britain played a role in the collapse of the Soviet Union that was disproportionate to its weight in the world. Mrs. Thatcher was the first British politician since Winston Churchill to be taken seriously by the leaders of all the major powers. She was a heroine to opposition politicians in Eastern Europe. President Ronald Reagan was Margaret Thatcher’s closest foreign ally. Their relationship was called “the most enduring personal alliance in the Western world throughout the 1980s.” But she engendered respect rather than love, especially when she fought the rest of the Commonwealth by opposing economic sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa. She vehemently opposed the fall of the Berlin Wall and the joining of the East and West Germany due to which she was extremely unpopular among Germans.
The authority she gained did not mean there were not mistakes along the way. Some economists blame her governments for wrecking British manufacturing. They say it was under Thatcher's financial ministers that chronic under spending on Britain's public services created problems that are still being rectified today. Critics contend that hers was not a tolerant society and she ensured that Britain's role in Europe become that of permanent irritant rather than profitable partner.
Her philosophy of free open market found recognition not just in England but also in Russia and India who embraced a more capitalistic and free market philosophy much detached from the Socialist model. Russia privatized some 18,000 industrial enterprises while India dismantled License Raj.
Aided and abetted by sections of the media, it seemed Thatcher came to believe in the myth of her own invincibility. It was this that led her into mistakes including the poll tax -- a charge that saw dukes and domestic cleaners paying the same local dues -- and increasingly shrill anti-Europeanism, which alarmed even her own party and eventually led them to discard a leader who had won them three consecutive elections. The irony though is that while her election results show the pull she exerted through her strong leadership, her populist streak and her raising of the British profile, many Britons never really identified with the underlying values of the woman who became, both in her time as prime minister and in the years to come, a national icon.
She suffered a stroke on Monday, her spokeswoman said. A British government source said she died at the Ritz Hotel in London. Thatcher’s funeral will be at St. Paul's Cathedral, with full military honors, followed by a private cremation, the British prime minister's office announced.
She retired from public life after a stroke in 2002 and suffered several strokes after that. She made few public appearances in her final months, missing a reception marking her 85th birthday hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron in October 2010. She also skipped the July 2011 unveiling of a statue honoring her old friend Ronald Reagan in London. Her last years may not be as glorifying as she wished as she was ousted as the leader and also as a PM by her own party and she had to exit politics on an emotional note, but she was still and will always be revered as the 'Iron Lady' who though had her own set of good and bad facets, altered Global politics and even paved the way for future women leaders as they were taken more seriously in politics.
Written By :-
Shashank Saurav
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