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A fascinating look back to a day when, at the time, I breathed a sigh of relief as I thought (with the idealism of youth) that we were ridding ourselves of a dangerous woman who was leading us down the path to totalitarianism, if not outright fascism.
As I posted in the comments on this YouTube video, whilst I was not and still am not assured of the rightness of the policies she enacted in those awful times in the late 70's and early '80's, I miss the dynamism and commitment of the politicians of those days.
I also think that I was wrong in some of my views of her back then, particularly her stand against the federalisation of Europe. A European super-state was something I favoured when I was younger, as I thought it was our best defence against declining international influence and, no small thing, a stronger bulwark against the Soviet Union. Now I see the concept of a Federal Europe as something to be resisted, just as Mrs Thatcher did, for it undermines the very concept of a democratically elected government charting the course of it's own country.
Presently we are in an era of spin-doctors and appearance triumphing over substance. No matter how much I disagreed with her politics (and I still dislike her intensely because of her attacks on the ability of the working man to organise in his own defence) I would never dispute her integrity. I do feel that, on the whole, she made decisions based upon what she thought was right for the country rather than what would be popular. I would love to see her, rejuvenated to the height of her powers, facing the mealy-mouthed snake-oil-salesman that populate the House of Commons in our present era.
A fascinating look back to a day when, at the time, I breathed a sigh of relief as I thought (with the idealism of youth) that we were ridding ourselves of a dangerous woman who was leading us down the path to totalitarianism, if not outright fascism.
As I posted in the comments on this YouTube video, whilst I was not and still am not assured of the rightness of the policies she enacted in those awful times in the late 70's and early '80's, I miss the dynamism and commitment of the politicians of those days.
I also think that I was wrong in some of my views of her back then, particularly her stand against the federalisation of Europe. A European super-state was something I favoured when I was younger, as I thought it was our best defence against declining international influence and, no small thing, a stronger bulwark against the Soviet Union. Now I see the concept of a Federal Europe as something to be resisted, just as Mrs Thatcher did, for it undermines the very concept of a democratically elected government charting the course of it's own country.
Presently we are in an era of spin-doctors and appearance triumphing over substance. No matter how much I disagreed with her politics (and I still dislike her intensely because of her attacks on the ability of the working man to organise in his own defence) I would never dispute her integrity. I do feel that, on the whole, she made decisions based upon what she thought was right for the country rather than what would be popular. I would love to see her, rejuvenated to the height of her powers, facing the mealy-mouthed snake-oil-salesman that populate the House of Commons in our present era.
