If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Equality of opportunity is the key to Conservative politics and to a Conservative election victory. Tony Blair stole this idea from the Tories and the time has come to seize it back, but this will never happen as long as David Cameron remains Conservative leader.
Thatcher's Britain was one that lauded individualism, conspicuous consumption, and the fetishizing of creature comforts. It unitised the world around us, and made a virtue of economic hubris, cleverly rebranded as "freedom', no doubt with the help of an advertising agency.
During Thatcher's reign, few would have uttered the now-commonplace anti-political statement: "They're all the same as each other, so why should I vote for anyone". She gave people a reason to vote, one way or the other.
These are dangerous times for all politicians, especially those in the Big Three because We The People aren't buying it anymore. This must be confusing the Westminster Village because there are loads of politics in the air on all sides. We just don't like politicians at the moment.
Being encouraged by Cameron et al, to celebrate the life of Mrs Thatcher an apparent champion of freedom, while the current PM and his expensively educated brethren seek to implement their equivalent of Thatcher's poll tax is just adding insult to insult.
Is there anything left to say about Margaret Thatcher? In a week when one woman, and one face, dominated not only the headlines, but the streets and parliament, too, it seemed everyone had an opinion on the Iron Lady even those who weren't entirely sure who she was. I was born the same year Margaret Thatcher became prime minister, which perhaps doesn't put me in the best place to judge the before and after effect of her time in office.
I am deeply disturbed by the volume of misogynistic vitriol being spouted by certain members of the British public in the wake of Margaret Thatcher's death. What disturbs me the most is not that people are aggressively disagreeing with her politics, but that people are genuinely rejoicing at the death of another person - a mother and a grandmother.
Meeting Margaret Thatcher was one of the most bizarre and most memorable experiences of my life. That is because the Thatcher I met was not the Thatcher I had expected to meet.
Reflecting on Margaret Thatcher's achievements is a timely exercise because she tackled many of the problems we face today. The years before she came to power were dominated by economic anxiety, terrorism and saber-rattling.
Baroness Thatcher was loathed and despised just as much as she was loved and adored. If one side of the argument can respect the other, then that at least is half the battle. I might find the parties celebrating her death to be in poor and sickening taste, though people in this country are afforded the freedom to carry out such acts.
Much has been made of people downloading the Wizard of Oz song Ding Dong the Witch is Dead and turning it into a hit. This created a surreal difficulty for the BBC.
The ability to discuss and debate freely, without the threat of illiberal libel action hanging over us, is a fundamental freedom that we must defend - should the Defamation Bill be amended as proposed, progress towards that freedom will suffer a substantial blow.
The people throwing street parties shouldn't be condemned, they should be listened to. Is it any wonder, at a time when we are being told we need to tighten our belts that during Thatcher's funeral which will be funded by the state, many people are planning to turn up and protest? The dismantling of the welfare state and the NHS at present is the Conservative party's continuation of Thatcher's ideology of yesterday.
A common rhetorical trick for politicians is to talk about 'looking after the tax payer'. However the reality is that they are often only really concerned with particular tax payers - the electoral groups that determine the outcomes of elections - often people on middle-incomes.
Lady Thatcher famously observed that women had to "show [men] that we're better than they are". This was not the feminism which promotes diversity in a world of women's frequently unrealised talent, where women at work juggle the competing, sometimes almost irresolvable, demands of work, parenthood and caring. She was, for sure, a great woman in a man's world, but she did it by beating them at their own game. She was no feminist icon, nor any role model for the many young women who, we must hope, will believe strongly enough in the decent power of politics to bring about change...
This is not a story that can be understood from headlines alone, partly because in Britain the headlines have so often wildly distorted the truth. Despite what you may have read, there is no threat by British politicians to interfere with press freedom. There is, however, a powerful consensus for change.
