Margaret thatcher

Wednesday

Sebastian Payne

Introducing our first ebook: Margaret Thatcher in The Spectator 1975-1990

No publication understood the Thatcher project better than The Spectator. We backed her for the leadership in 1975 when no other national publication would. We understood her opportunities, foibles and genius when many of our rivals were baffled by this coarse-sounding lady and her popular appeal. We have put together 21 essays from the period into our first-ever ebook: Margaret Thatcher in The Spectator 1975 – 1990. It’s available today on the Kindle, for just 99p. It begins with Patrick Cosgrave advocating Thatcher as Tory leader, then gives a six-month and one-year progress report. Ferdinand Mount describes the uneasiness that followed the 1979 triumph. Then, as now, The Spectator was

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

MPs line up to pay respects to – and criticise – Margaret Thatcher

This afternoon’s tribute debate in the House of Commons will continue until 10pm, with many MPs wanting to pay their respects to Margaret Thatcher. There will be many speeches about how the former Prime Minister inspired and shaped the politics of those speaking. But there will also inevitably be those who want to talk about the negative aspects of her legacy. Ed Miliband, who gave a measured tribute on Monday, faces the challenge of giving a speech that isn’t insincere but that remains respectful too. Some of his MPs, such as John Healey, who has written a forceful piece for PoliticsHome, are boycotting the event. Others, such as David Winnick,

Tuesday

The Spectator

Andrew Neil on The People’s Margaret Thatcher

This morning, Andrew Neil presented a Radio 4 special recalling how voters felt about Margaret Thatcher. Including opinions from her supporters and detractors, it’s a fascinating look into how she was perceived by the electorate throughout key moments in her premiership. Here is what people had to say: On her public perception: ‘She doesn’t convince me for a start she doesn’t understand the problems of working class people. She talks down to people’ Debating the cost of the Falklands War: ‘Our village school is going to be closed. The cost of keeping it open would be about a hundredth part of £1 million. Wouldn’t our school be a better use

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

‘No such thing as society’: what it means for today’s welfare debate

Any Tories who might be asking ‘What Would Thatcher Do?’ about some of the political rows bubbling away today would surely wonder what her response to the current benefits debate might be. She kept well away from welfare reform, but she did have strong views on the role of government in helping people get on. Her notorious Woman’s Own interview provided us with the greatest insight, and in much greater detail than the ‘there’s no such thing as society’ line that everyone can quote. Here’s a longer extract from the transcript (which you can read in full on the Margaret Thatcher Foundation website): ‘I think we have gone through a

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Maggie Won’t Jump

  A remarkable clip from an interview with Swedish television. No-one asks Margaret Thatcher to “jump” and gets away with it. One does rather think that some of her successors would have been happy to make fools of themselves in this fashion.    

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Conviction politics: ‘What Would Thatcher Do?’ grips the Tory party

Conor Burns, a close friend of Margaret Thatcher, gave a fascinating interview with Radio 4’s The World at One today about his memories of the Iron Lady. Like so many accounts, it focused on Thatcher’s disregard for opinion polls and focus groups. Burns said: ‘I think it’s a failure of politics that looks too much at focus groups and too much at public opinion polls. Again, I remember last November showing her a poll in one of the Sunday papers and it showed that we were nine points behind, and she asked when the next election was, and I said it wasn’t for another two and a half years and

Steerpike Steerpike

Lady Thatcher on the ‘The Iron Lady’

Conor Burns, a close confident of the late Baroness Thatcher, has lifted the lid on the former Prime Minister’s reaction to the biographical Meryl Streep film I mentioned yesterday. The Tory backbencher recounts: “I went from Leicester Square to watch the Iron Lady to Chester Square to have a gin and tonic with Lady T, and I told her ‘I’ve just been to see a film about you.’ She said ‘what do you mean a film about me?’. “I said: ‘Well they’ve made a film about your life and career as Prime Minister, and it’s an hour and half long’ and straight away, she said: ‘I couldn’t imagine anything worse’.”

Sebastian Payne

An alternative reaction to Margaret Thatcher’s death

On my way home last night, I dropped by Windrush Square in Brixton to observe an alternative reaction to Baroness Thatcher’s death. It was easy to find the party simply by following the cacophony. Around 200 people turned out to engage in a cold evening of drinking, dancing and heckling. Three competing sound systems blasted music against occasional shouts of ‘Maggie Maggie Maggie, dead dead dead’. Was the crowd attempting to make a serious point or was it just an excuse for a drunken party? These pictures should give you an impression of the impromptu event: Ironically from what I could see, many in the crowd appeared rather too young to remember Thatcher: some

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tory Thatcher tributes will mark the next stage in battle for party’s soul

MPs will pay tribute to Margaret Thatcher in the Commons tomorrow. One set of speeches worth listening to with some care will be those from the 2010 intake of Conservative MPs, raised during the Thatcher years, and often considered the group most enthusiastic about keeping her flame alive in the party. It is also likely that from this group will emerge the next Conservative leader. They are a confident bunch, bursting with ideas, books and essays about how to reinvigorate Conservatism. Paying tribute to the former Prime Minister will also be an opportunity for some of them to pay tribute to her policies, and perhaps her conviction in driving through

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

David Cameron places himself in Margaret Thatcher’s tradition

‘For many of us, she was, and is, an inspiration’, David Cameron said of Margaret Thatcher in his tribute to her. It was him, firmly — and proudly — placing himself in her tradition. Cameron has moved in Thatcher’s political direction as leader. He has become —partly, through circumstance and necessity — less interested in being a unifying figure, and more interested in getting things done. There has, in recent years, been an end to any attempts to distance the party from her legacy. Thatcher’s life-story is a truly remarkable one. Cameron rightly dwelled on the sexism she had to take on to become Tory leader. But she also had

The Spectator

David Cameron’s tribute to Margaret Thatcher: full text

Today we lost a great leader, a great Prime Minister and a great Briton. Margaret Thatcher didn’t just lead our country – she saved our country. And we should never forget that the odds were stacked against her. She was the shopkeeper’s daughter from Grantham who made it to the highest office in the land. There were people who said she couldn’t make it; who stood in her way; who said a woman couldn’t lead. She defied them all. She fought her way to a seat in Parliament…to the leadership of her Party…and then to lead our country…winning the backing of the British people three times in a row. She will be remembered for

Steerpike Steerpike

Spineless Spice Girl deletes Thatcher tribute after Twitter abuse

The political tributes and barbs cast after the news of Margaret Thatcher’s death have been covered on Coffee House today, but what of the world’s other great egos: those in showbiz? Steerpike was impressed by Meryl Streep, who having played Thatcher in the controversial 2011 biographical film ‘The Iron Lady’, is slightly better placed than her Hollywood comrades to pass comment. Streep told the Washington Post: ‘to me she was a figure of awe for her personal strength and grit,’ and while she acknowledged Thatcher’s detractors, the actress has some rather sound opinions: ‘Her steadfast, almost emotional loyalty to the pound sterling has helped the UK weather the storms of European

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Margaret Thatcher and Scotland: A Story of Mutual Incomprehension

There is a poignant passage in Margaret Thatcher’s memoirs during which she contemplates her failure in Scotland. She seemed puzzled by this, noting that, in her view, many of her ideas and principles had at least some Caledonian ancestry. And yet, despite her admiration for David Hume and, especially, Adam Smith, there was no Tartan Thatcherite revolution. Sure, there were some true believers – Teddy Taylor, Michael Forsyth – but Scotland never warmed to the Iron Lady. And she never quite knew or understood why. Two issues, above all, led to her downfall. Europe and the Poll Tax. The former was a Westminster affair and a matter of internal internecine

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Margaret Thatcher: How the Left responded to her death

In 1983, a Spectator piece argued that ‘the most faithful followers of the Thatcher cult are to be found within the Labour Party’. Baroness Thatcher’s passing was always going to be as much of a test for the Left as it would be a sad day for the Right. The Labour leadership knew this, and took care to craft statements and tweets which, while acknowledging the glaringly obvious political differences, praised Thatcher the woman. The party has suspended its political campaigning ahead of the local elections as a mark of respect. Ed Miliband’s tribute in particular made clear that he had no sympathy with those in his party tempted to

Charles Moore Charles Moore

‘An -ism has been named after her’: Charles Moore on Baroness Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher was always the candidate from the outside, both because of her background and because of her sex, and so it was an extraordinary event in the middle of the 1970s that what was considered the stuffiest of the political parties chose her and once that had happened, of course it was transformative. It was transformative, not only for the Conservative party but much more importantly for the country. Her approach to industrial relations was very controversial. The model that the Tories tended to have at that time was that you had to have some sort of compact with the union leaders in order to hold wages down and

The Spectator

Margaret Thatcher in quotes

“I don’t think there will be a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime.” – 1975 ‘To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say. You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning.’ ‘I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.’ ‘If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.’ ‘I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.’ ‘To cure the British disease

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How Margaret Thatcher transformed politics and this country

Margaret Thatcher is the most significant British political figure of the past 50 years. In her time in office, she transformed the British economy, promoted the vigorous virtues and offered strength and support to the dissidents of Eastern Europe and. On top of all this, she was — of course — Britain’s first female Prime Minister. In future, people will find it hard to believe just how nationalised Britain’s economy was before the Thatcher revolution. As she said in her 1982 conference speech, ‘How absurd it will seem in a few years’ time that the State ran Pickford’s removals and Gleneagles Hotel.’ With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy

Patrick Cosgrave

Archive: Margaret Thatcher: clear choice for the Tories

The Spectator was the only national publication to fully support Margaret Thatcher in the first ballot of the Tory leadership contest. Patrick Cosgrave explain why in this political column from 23 January 1975: If I start with a reference to the sorry condition of the Tory Party, I hope readers will not immediately turn to another page, on the grounds that this record has been played too often. For I want to add that, if only the Tories can take a fairly cool look at themselves, it will quickly be apparent that the condition is not as serious as all that; and that it is certainly capable of repair. Housman’s ancient

The Spectator

Tributes pour in for Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher died this morning following a stroke.  Downing Street said this afternoon that the former Conservative Prime Minister’s funeral will have the same status as the Queen Mother and Princess Diana, with full military honours, a service at St Paul’s Cathedral, followed by a private cremation. She will not lie in state, in accordance with her wishes. The flag over No.10 is flying at half mast and  the tributes are flowing in. David Cameron’s tribute is posted below. Here are some others:- Barack Obama: ‘With the passing of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true