On the day of the mid-term elections in the States, it seems fitting to profile one of the world's recent great leaders: Margaret Thatcher. The then president of France, President François Mitterand once said of her: "She has the eyes of Caligula, and the lips of Marilyn Monroe."
Photo courtesy of Google Images
TIME: She's called the iron lady, but to me there has never seemed anything iron about Margaret Thatcher, a remarkable woman and one of the greatest politicians of the modern age. I've had the pleasure to meet her many times over the past 17 years, since the fall of communism. She has always been kind and a good listener. Margaret Thatcher: Her political philosophy provided a model for postcommunist countries by VÁCLAV KLAUSMark Alexander
14 comments:
Winesy:
Welcome to this forum!
I agree with you. 100%! There's nobody around like Thatcher today - unfortunately. What we have today are wimps! I mean, what is Tony Blair compared with Margaret Thatcher! Tony Blair just panders to the Muslim vote. Disgusting!
Mark.
Haven't you noticed a HUGE shift in the thinking of the world's population!?
Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and even François Mitterand are light years away from our current philosophy, which is to give away our heritage to the Islamic death cult!
I was unfortunate enough to live through the 'Thatcher years' and they were characterised by greed and selfishness.
This is the same 'great leader' that famously said "There is no such thing as society" and rewarded the vile and corrupt.
Ronald Reagan was an actor first and foremost, and I believe that the alzheimers he suffered with was also apparent during his presidency.
As an era to live through I hold no fond memories, the only tribute to Thatcher that I can muster is that she had 'Balls',...even though I would wish to kick her in them!
We do need a strong no nonsense leader, but we deserve one of a greater calibre than those mentioned, if we hark to the past then we should be recalling a certain Enoch Powell.
Now THERE was a true Statesman!
USIP:
No wonder the free world is in free fall!
Yes, that it is; and that, after last night's election results in the States, is pretty clear to us all here.
I wonder how many people voted against Bush because of all those Iftaar dinners he's been holding, and all that fraternizing he's been doing with the enemy! Fighting Islam on the one side and playing footsie with Muslims on the other.
Trouble is, the Democrats won't do anything different. The West is in for a rough ride, I'm afraid.
As I have said so many times before, Bush tackled the problem with Islam wrongly from the start.
Heather:
Haven't you noticed a HUGE shift in the thinking of the world's population!?
Yes, I certainly have.
Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and even François Mitterand are light years away from our current philosophy, which is to give away our heritage to the Islamic death cult!
Margaret Thatcher used to say, I'm batting for Britain! And one could perceive that she was, too. Politicians today bat for themselves, and for the other side, too!
Welcome back, Old Nail! You've been away for a hell of a long time! We've all missed you and your insightful comments.
I was unfortunate enough to live through the 'Thatcher years' and they were characterised by greed and selfishness.
There is a lot of truth in what you say. But we mustn't forget that the country had been in the grip of socialism for so many years before she came to power. But I agree, many people did take the greed concept to new levels. It was the "loadsamoney" culture. And sometimes it got a bit ugly. But wasn't a lot of this because of man's inherent greed rather than Thatcher's bad policies? I mean, she freed up the people, and some misused their new sense of freedom. But she fostered an enterprise culture; and she made making money acceptable again. Further, she didn't pass all these stupid laws to restrict people's freedom a là Blair.
This is the same 'great leader' that famously said "There is no such thing as society" and rewarded the vile and corrupt.
I think you have a rather jaundiced view of her time in power, if I might say, Old Nail. To put her quotation in context, here is the whole quote:
"I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it. 'I have a problem, I'll get a grant.' 'I'm homeless, the government must house me.' They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation." - Prime minister Margaret Thatcher, talking to Women's Own magazine, October 31 1987 [Source: Brian Deer]
When taken in context, it doesn't sound half as bad, does it?
Ronald Reagan was an actor first and foremost, and I believe that the alzheimers he suffered with was also apparent during his presidency.
As an era to live through I hold no fond memories, the only tribute to Thatcher that I can muster is that she had 'Balls',...even though I would wish to kick her in them!
Ooh! Tut, tut! Margaret and Ronnie worked very well together. After all they brought down the Berlin Wall between them, put the final nail in the coffin of communism, and they brought us all prosperity. I wish we had their likes ruling over us today. We'd be far better off with a Maggie and Ronnie than with these idiots we've got in power now.
We do need a strong no nonsense leader, but we deserve one of a greater calibre than those mentioned, if we hark to the past then we should be recalling a certain Enoch Powell. Now THERE was a true Statesman!
I agree with your positive assessment of Enoch Powell. Unfortunately, when he made his "Rivers of Blood" speech, all took fright and dumped him. Much to their shame, of course.
The West is in sad need of a leader such as Margaret Thatcher. She certainly would have recognized the dire threat of Islam! The leaders we have today are cowards for not speaking out to save Western civilization.
Mark
My new post re Crime/Islam is up at last. It has been a lot of work, but very productive. Be grateful for publicity.
Thanks.
http://gandalf-reconquista.blogspot.com/
sir henry morgan, GREAT WORK, Sir!
I shall study these crime figures with interest. Recommended reading.
Actually when Mag was in power, I got the worst of it economically. I despised the City yuppies snorting their coke and strutting their Porches. (Porsches, even!)
That she liberalised the market place is certain, but what about all that squandered North Sea oil?
We could have left a lot of it in the sea bed as insurance, and now we would be laughing.
What about the "dash for gas?"
Another money making scheme for the few. Where is the N> sea gas now? Gone up in smoke of course.
We cannot blame Maggie for all the people's greed, but it led to the uncertainty of the Major era, which opened the flood gates for the NU Labour Socialist/Liberalist conspiracy of interfaithing Marxist apologists who have sold us down the river without a paddle.
Who can forget "Black Monday" when our houses plummeted in value and mortgages spiralled upwards?
That nearly destroyed the heartland of the Conservatives,.. the working class conservatives, not the toffs.
Maggie's lot let the Home Office keep down immigraton through tardiness and foot-dragging, and now NU Laba luvvies kiss and cuddle up to welcome every would be hatefilled jihadi into the Country along with those in genuine need.
Like Churchill, she was the leader we needed in a tight spot, like the Falklands Islands war. Like Churchill, you could admire her courage and the bravery of the young men that fought to preserve a little part of Britain in the South Atlantic.
That did set the scene for many years and, though I was not enamoured by the Min. of Defense, shutting down News coverage of the reality, it did dispell the notions of many foreign enemies , I'm sure.
Overall, Thatcher deserves much credit for some of the important changes, but many of her supporters of the old school, did much to screw things up.
As Tony Blair sheds his tears when we shall see him, leaving Downing Street for the last time, I for one will not join him in lacrimation. But I did shed a tear as Maggie left, that front door.
She was done in by her own closest "friends" (et tu Brutus)and so too will Tony be.
She was a woman in a man's world, and what a fighter for womens rights her career proved her to be, at least by her example.
All in all, we would be in the economic doldrums with France et al, and deeply in the same ruts as Europe but for Mag's resistance to the Euro-mire.
Give credit where credit's due, but look to History for lessons of what went wrong.
Finally, I would dearly love to see Maggie give that David Cameron twit, a goodly thump with her handbag. It could knock some of the crap out of his thinking, but I doubt it would knock any sense IN!!
Always, we certainly do need another Thatcher RIGHT NOW. She wasn't perfect, but then who is? But she was a damn good leader. She knew how to take tough decisions; and that is something our leaders today DO NOT understand. Not at all!
Mirrorman:
... I would dearly love to see Maggie give that David Cameron twit, a goodly thump with her handbag. It could knock some of the crap out of his thinking, but I doubt it would knock any sense IN!!
Ditto!
I admit that it wasn't Thatcher herself that made people greedy.
I believe that Thomas Hobbes (1588- 1679) was right regarding human nature in it's raw state, but her policies and period in power represent the era of socially acceptable greed, and 'in your face' ostentatious wealth that became the indicator of national disparity.
We are all posessed of baser human insticts, the mark of our progress as a civilised society is in how well we can supress those base instincts for the greater good of our fellow countrymen.
Thatchers rule was typified by the satisfaction and celebration of personal greed and avarice, cloaked as 'acheivement'- which in the end can only ever benefit the individual concerned.
Hence societal breakdown.
We need a leader to inspire national unity, to call upon each of us to play our part in building a future Britain in which ALL benefit and prosper.
Furthermore we need someone who is unafraid to run the gauntlet of challenges and obstacles placed in his way by either domestic or foreign 'liberals'.
We are now seeing the results of the 'liberalisation' of the west, and we must now reverse this trend if the west is to survive at all.
Hard choices, harsh measures, and an absolute resolve to endure are what are now needed... show me the man or woman with those qualities, and I show you the saviour of our nation.
old nail,
yes indeed!
Old Nail:
We need a leader to inspire national unity, to call upon each of us to play our part in building a future Britain in which ALL benefit and prosper.
I agree.
Furthermore we need someone who is unafraid to run the gauntlet of challenges and obstacles placed in his way by either domestic or foreign 'liberals'.
I agree with that, too.
We are now seeing the results of the 'liberalisation' of the west, and we must now reverse this trend if the west is to survive at all.
And I agree with this statement.
Hard choices, harsh measures, and an absolute resolve to endure are what are now needed... show me the man or woman with those qualities, and I show you the saviour of our nation.
Perfectly stated!
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