Margaret Thatcher, the longest serving British Prime Minister of the 20th Century, died today aged 87. Lady Thatcher had been in poor health for some time now, so her death was by no means unexpected, but still a sad event.
I confess that I wasn't too keen on her when she was Prime Minister, although I admired her leadership in the Falklands War and was heartily glad that she dealt a crushing blow to union militancy through her defeat of Arthur Scargill in the 1984-5 miners' strike. Even in those days, I realised that Marxism was bad news, but only when I was in my 40s did I really begin to understand politics, and the more I understood, the more I appreciated just how great her achievements were. Since 1951, the Conservatives had lacked the courage to reverse the damaging effects of socialism. Appeasement was the name of the game under Macmillan and Heath, trying to "manage socialism better than Labour" as one commentator put it. Mrs Thatcher saw the futility of this approach. She had read the works of Hayek with his damning critique of big government and realised that the state must be rolled back to secure our future prosperity. "THIS is what we believe!" she proclaimed as she slammed down a copy of The Constitution of Liberty on the table during a Conservative Party policy meeting.
She certainly can be credited with the renaissance of Britain after the grim years of the Wilson/Callaghan Labour administration. Her partnership with Ronald Reagan helped bring the Cold War to an end and liberty to the millions of Eastern Europe. She encouraged aspiration in place of the envy that dominates socialism, and it is to her credit that Labour were kept out of office for 18 years.
It is so sad that her own party didn't appreciate just what an exceptional person she was, particularly when her eyes were opened on the EU. Had she not been stabbed in the back by Heseltine and co, we would probably have left the EU before 1997. We would certainly never have signed the Maastricht treaty. it is a great pity that she did not live to see that day when Britain regains its independence. Nonetheless, her death is a reminder of her legacy, and all of us who have been similarly enlightened owe it to her to continue the fight towards those objectives for which she strove. Indeed, it could be said that the Thatcher years only scratched the surface. She began the dismantling of the socialist edifice, but over two decades after her premiership, we are still stuck with the Welfare state, the NHS and a bloated government. She didn't get it all right - the poll tax, which could have been a great success if it had been accompanied by a drastic downsizing of local government, was a fiasco, and she did nothing to bring back grammar schools. However, no Christian should expect perfection from another human being, especially a politician. The great thing is that she did many right things, unlike her successors who have dragged Britain lower and lower, hardly having done anything right at all. Compared to the pygmies who followed her into No. 10, she was a veritable giant. We should thank God for her life and for giving us such an inspirational leader, whose tremendous legacy will be remembered for many years.
I confess that I wasn't too keen on her when she was Prime Minister, although I admired her leadership in the Falklands War and was heartily glad that she dealt a crushing blow to union militancy through her defeat of Arthur Scargill in the 1984-5 miners' strike. Even in those days, I realised that Marxism was bad news, but only when I was in my 40s did I really begin to understand politics, and the more I understood, the more I appreciated just how great her achievements were. Since 1951, the Conservatives had lacked the courage to reverse the damaging effects of socialism. Appeasement was the name of the game under Macmillan and Heath, trying to "manage socialism better than Labour" as one commentator put it. Mrs Thatcher saw the futility of this approach. She had read the works of Hayek with his damning critique of big government and realised that the state must be rolled back to secure our future prosperity. "THIS is what we believe!" she proclaimed as she slammed down a copy of The Constitution of Liberty on the table during a Conservative Party policy meeting.
She certainly can be credited with the renaissance of Britain after the grim years of the Wilson/Callaghan Labour administration. Her partnership with Ronald Reagan helped bring the Cold War to an end and liberty to the millions of Eastern Europe. She encouraged aspiration in place of the envy that dominates socialism, and it is to her credit that Labour were kept out of office for 18 years.
It is so sad that her own party didn't appreciate just what an exceptional person she was, particularly when her eyes were opened on the EU. Had she not been stabbed in the back by Heseltine and co, we would probably have left the EU before 1997. We would certainly never have signed the Maastricht treaty. it is a great pity that she did not live to see that day when Britain regains its independence. Nonetheless, her death is a reminder of her legacy, and all of us who have been similarly enlightened owe it to her to continue the fight towards those objectives for which she strove. Indeed, it could be said that the Thatcher years only scratched the surface. She began the dismantling of the socialist edifice, but over two decades after her premiership, we are still stuck with the Welfare state, the NHS and a bloated government. She didn't get it all right - the poll tax, which could have been a great success if it had been accompanied by a drastic downsizing of local government, was a fiasco, and she did nothing to bring back grammar schools. However, no Christian should expect perfection from another human being, especially a politician. The great thing is that she did many right things, unlike her successors who have dragged Britain lower and lower, hardly having done anything right at all. Compared to the pygmies who followed her into No. 10, she was a veritable giant. We should thank God for her life and for giving us such an inspirational leader, whose tremendous legacy will be remembered for many years.