Respecting Thatcher
 |
| The Commentator |
She certainly had friends in high places. Who appeared to respect her uncompromising view of governance.
Her husband, Dennis Thatcher, who predeceased her, in his own way was as distinguished and unusual in his capacity as husband, mentor and supporter as she was in taking the initiative whenever opportunity presented itself, to launch herself into the maelstrom of British politics, breaking tradition and hoisting her opinions and determinations on a fairly unappreciative audience, some of whom do not now mourn her death.
All the plaudits launched her way at her death are commensurate with a human need to respect the dead and speak no ill of them. Was she as remarkable as is claimed? Another woman who ascended to the premiership of her country, Golda Meir, was named the "Iron Lady" long before Margaret Thatcher assumed her prime ministership. Golda Meir negotiated and maneuvered her country during the Yom Kippur War, and during the Munich Olympics massacres.
Margaret Thatcher launched a war. She did not defend her country from the combined violent military assaults of surrounding states determined to wipe Britain from the face of the Earth. When the Argentine junta attempted to reclaim the Malvinas, which represent Britain's imperialist past, the islands should have been returned to the territorial claimant where they belong.
But war and the excitement and loyalties it promotes represented a sly and clever campaign.
And it's a strange thing about the Malvinas/Falklands; logically they should be in the possession of Argentina; colonialism is long past its 'best before' date, yet Britain clings fiercely to them; it could do no such thing with its other Commonwealth possessions. Israel, on the other hand, was compelled to defend itself and did so, expeditiously and nobly.
The Palestinians refused the original UN offer of Partition, and has refused every offer for peace ever since. The West Bank settlements represent to Israel what the Falklands do to Britain, but there is the heritage aspect that Britain doesn't have, yet the world applauds Britain for its conquest of the islands and defiance of a legitimate request from Argentina.
Margaret Thatcher gave her attention to instructing Britons on the virtues of prudence and self-responsibility and for that she has credit. She took a country close to economic collapse and transformed it.
She met unreasonable union demands that were further beggaring the country and refused them, defusing the power of the unions and earning herself timeless enmity from them, now celebrating her demise. The labour practices that were indefensible but which previous governments were incapable of denying for fear of voter backlash did not faze her and she stared down the unions. Britain embraced free enterprise and national progress.
The Britain that prospered under Thatcher's governments became more self-assured, and prosperous.
Still self-assured now, but not quite as prosperous. Little wonder, with the stunning extent of public charity well advertised when rabid Islamist immigrants practising bigamy, claim public housing and generous allowances for themselves and their multiple wives and dependent children, and Britain finds itself helpless to halt the absurdity of it all.
She gathered other world leaders around her core beliefs and they emulated her new economics to garner advances for their own nations. Her close friendship and shared values with American President Ronald Regan was well enough known; her dismissal of Canada's Brian Mulroney rather less, but a tribute to her sense of discernment -- not, however, regarding her refusal to support Canada's sanctions against apartheid South Africa.
She was indomitable. Because she believed in herself, and she believed that her makeover of her country would succeed. She took the lessons learned as a young girl from her hard-working, Methodist, grocer-father about thrift and personal responsibility and translated those lessons to a much larger stage; what worked in micro-form worked equally well in macro-circumstances because some things are just universal.
She was stubbornly determined. Respected and reviled. Complacent in her regard for self. Comfortable with her personal life, and her love and respect for her supportive husband. Her housewifely homebody self, her lady-in-charge persona, and her political stamina marked her as a superior achiever.
Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir and women governing in the Central African Republic, Argentina, and Sri Lanka pre-dated her as a head of government, however.
Since then there have been quite a number of women who have ascended to their country's seat of ultimate political power. She was a singular woman and a powerful politician, but she was by no means all that well balanced in her political life. Her achievements, however, place her at the vanguard of modern female achievement in both the personal and the public sphere.
Gary Clement/National Post
Labels: Argentina, Britain, Conflict, Human Relations, In Memoriam, Political Realities
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, April 10, 2013
<< Home