Tributes to Mrs Thatcher
Wednesday, April 17, 2013 at 0:16 Like many people I shall be in London today paying my respects to Margaret Thatcher.
To mark her death, and in the spirit of Monty Python's Life of Brian ("What did the Romans ever do for us?"), I invited a few friends and acquaintances to comment on her achievements.
Among those who responded were Dr Madsen Pirie, president of the Adam Smith Institute, and Dr Julian Lewis, Conservative MP for New Forest East.
Julian, who played a major role in the defeat of CND in the Eighties, wrote:
She saved the Labour Party by forcing it to expel extremists and return to moderation – if it wanted ever to win another election.
She gave the unions back to their members, by making postal ballots for trade union elections compulsory.
She freed the Falklands and, indirectly, caused the downfall of dictatorship in Argentina – something that President Kirchner would do well to remember.
She secured the future of Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent.
She insisted on the deployment of NATO cruise missiles, without which the hardliners’ grip on the Kremlin would undoubtedly have lasted longer.
She worked with Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev to secure the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987, which eliminated cruise missiles, the Pershing missiles and the Soviet SS-20s – paving the way for what happened two years later.
No-one did more than Margaret Thatcher to bury the Far Left at home and defeat totalitarian Communism abroad.
The history of freedom is in her debt, as are we all.
Madsen, who advocated the privatization of nationalised industries well before Mrs Thatcher, wrote:
What did Margaret Thatcher ever do for us?
She tamed the unions who'd brought Britain to its knees and made them democratic and accountable.
She privatized the industries and utilities that were costly, outdated, and uneconomic.
She restored Britain's standing in the world by facing up to Argentine aggression.
She stood up to Communist dictatorship and helped win the Cold War.
She allowed ordinary people a stake in their country through council house sales and popular share issues.
She cut taxes and made enterprise worthwhile.
She turned a ruined country into an economic powerhouse and restored her people's faith in themselves and their future.
... Apart from that, nothing.
Others who sent a short tribute included David Nuttall MP; Jonathan Isaby, political director of the Taxpayers' Alliance; Todd Buchholz, former White House economic advisor; and former Telegraph leader writer Alex Singleton.
You can read their contributions - and one or two others - on The Free Society website. See What did Margaret Thatcher ever do for us?.
Forest's sister campaign also has this article: If there had been no Thatcher we would have had to invent one:
Mrs Thatcher wasn’t perfect, or even a libertarian, but at home and abroad she was a major force for freedom, argues Brian Monteith.
For a slightly different viewpoint, I also recommend The 80s, winter, Thatcher and me by Pat Nurse.
Reader Comments (1)
Today Baroness Thatcher deserves a peaceful and respectful funeral, she was after all one of our greatest leaders, especially in my lifetime born 1967. I know she wasn't perfect, but who is. Tony Blair did more damage to this country than what Mrs Thatcher did, I no some people would disagree with me, but she protected this country's sovereignty. Remarkable lady.